The mysterious trip!

Well, we are back from our trip! It was great. After driving a couple hours still not know where we were going, we came upon Gatlinburg! I had mentioned this a couple times and was quickly told that was not where we were going. Every guess I made was a no, though. He did a good job at keeping me confused. 

So we arrived late Thursday night. Garyn had fallen asleep in the car and I gingerly got him out to take him to bed. However, he woke up while going through the hotel. Once we got to the room, he was wired and kept wanting to "go on our trip!" We had told him on the way, we were going on a trip. He wanted it to start right then! We let him run up and down the hotel halls (quietly) a few times and then had to force him to go to bed. He is just now at that age to understand and be excited about vacations. I was excited, too.

Our bright and colorful room.

                                     

Garyn jumping on the nice, pretty bed, minutes after arriving.

    The next morning, we ate some pancakes from Flapjacks, how can you go without eating pancakes in Gatlinburg. Then we rode the sky lift, knowing Garyn would love it! And he did.............

Don't worry we were holding on to him as he hung over the rail!

The views are just beautiful on the sky lift. Its always refreshing to see God's beautiful creation!

We walked down through the shops for a bit and we actually got Garyn to wear a hat long enough to buy it! Its a Cubs hat (which is daddy's fav baseball team) and it looks so cute on him! Not sure what he is pointing to....

We were there at a good time, it wasn't that busy.

Lunch was Apple Barn! Tyler couldn't remember the last time he was there and had forgotten how good it was. When the apple fritters came out, he lit up! They were all gone in a heartbeat. We got some apple butter at the store to bring home and treasure the taste!

They have a new Titanic Museum that we wanted to check out. It was really neat for us, Garyn kept wanting to know where the boat was.....Oops, guess we shouldn't have told him we were going to a boat. They did have a few kid friendly things for him to do along the tour. There was a lot of historical items and information about the Titanic. And one cool part is that they give you a boarding pass before going in that has an actual person that was on the Titanic. It has a little story-clip about them and ends without you knowing if they survived. They are gender specific, too. At the end, you look on the memorial wall to see if you survived. Tyler survived while Garyn and I perished. (sniff, sniff) They also had a ceiling to floor wall that was an iceberg to touch. Next to it was cold water to represent the 28 degree water they had to swim in. I really was impressed with the whole production of it!

Afterwards, we went to Cade's Cove which is a beautiful protected park that has a loop you can drive and see all kinds of wildlife. Well, we lucked up and saw 3 young black bears!  I couldn't believe it, nor could I believe everyone was so close to them! I mean, momma bear could be plotting who to attack! So I got my pictures from right beside the road and then we got back inside the car!

 

Unfortunately, Garyn was asleep when we saw the bears, but he woke up before we saw these deer...

They have a bathroom area and some old houses and mill to tour that has a stream next to it.

Tyler and Garyn enjoyed skipping some rocks in it.

After eating at Calhoun's, we were stuffed!!! I mean I am still pretty full off of the 3 large meals we ate! We headed back to the hotel which had a mini-golf course in front of it. Garyn had been dying to go play golf since we arrived. He was so funny playing. All 3 of our balls were his, we finally got him to not touch ours after we hit it. But then, he would pick up his ball and set it down right next to the hole to make sure he got it in. He would get so excited when we got it in the hole and once he got so excited that he hit Tyler right in the nose with his club. Ouch!

Lastly, we swam in the indoor pool at the hotel. Garyn hasn't swam since last summer so it was fun to see him enjoying it again. It was a good way to relax after all the walking we had done.

Tyler had to be at graduation by 10:45 the next day so we hit the sack in order to get up early and leave.

I really enjoyed the time we got to spend just the three of us. I love my boys!  I look forward to the summer when we get to spend more time like this together. Tyler did a great job taking me on a short but fun trip!