Family Vacation '13 (Part 2 - Great Smoky Mountains)

After we left Boone, we drove to the Smoky Mountains, where we had rented a cabin for 3 nights.  This one was back in the "sticks," at the top of a REALLY steep hill.  We liked it okay, but it was a little unnerving for us city people to feel so far from civilization.

The first day we drove through the Smokies to Cherokee, an Indian reservation on the North Carolina side of the park.  The drive was beautiful, and we stopped to hike on the Oconoluftee Trail, one of only two hiking trails in the park that allows dogs.

Cooper is sort of in an in-between stage, where he thinks he's too big to ride in a stroller (and this wouldn't have been a great place for a stroller anyway), but he's not really ready for long walks either.  That presented a little challenge, but Don and I took turns piggy-backing him when he got tired of walking.

 

 

There is an old farm there that people can tour, which we have done before but not this time, since we had Nash with us.

The next day we left Nash at the cabin and went to breakfast at a pancake house (a family tradition) and then into Gatlinburg and walked the strip and got a few souvenirs.  This time we made Cooper ride in the stroller, which made things more pleasant for all of us.  I have a special liking for handmade soaps, so I got a few different bars of it there and also some saltwater taffy, another favorite of mine.

Afternoons and evenings were spent relaxing in the cabin, which had a nice porch on the front with rocking chairs and a screened-in one in the back with a swing.  It also had a jacuzzi that was so big Cooper thought it was a swimming pool, and a hot tub.  There was a little TV, but no Internet, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

The last morning we checked out of our cabin and then drove through Cade's Cove, where we saw some beautiful scenery and lots of wildlife: turkeys, deer (including a tiny, speckled fawn with its mother) and a mother bear with two little cubs.

It began to rain while we were in Cade's Cove, and we drove through rain most of the way home, but for the most part we had really nice weather while we were there and in Boone, even a little cooler than usual for this time of year.

It was a fun trip, and I'm thankful things worked out so that we got to take it.