Ober Gatlinburg

The next day we slept in a bit after our long day/night of hiking, leisurly ate breakfast, and headed out the door to Ober Gatlinburg.  Ober is ski resort nestled up in the mountains overlooking the quaint  little town...and during the warm months it turns into an amusement park.

We rode the chairs to the top, and raced back down on the alpine slide....

They spent a lot of time going through the maze...

Bobby took his baby sis on the train ride...

And after about 4 hours of this outdoor fun, it rained, and shut everything down.

So, we headed inside and ate lunch...and as we were finishing up, the sun came back out.

So we headed over to the wildlife area of the park to look at the animals.  And it began to downpour again. 

And I finally accepted that the rain wasn't going to to stop long enough to open the outdoor rides back up again, and stopped asking the people that worked there :)  Apparantly they don't defer to their doplar radar as quickly as we do....they just "wait and see how it goes". 

So, we made the best of it, and enjoyed the indoors.

Tim and the big kids went ice skating...

And while they were skating, I enjoyed the carousel with the little gals...again and again.....and again :)

Smoky Mountains

Ok. I left off in a 2 bed hotel room in Cave City, KY.

While the sleeping arrangements were a bit dicey, and my blood pressure stayed in an elevated state for far too long...you can't beat free continental breakfast for 7!  And it was a good one too :)

After our tour at Mammoth, we ate a delightful picnic lunch on a beautiful rolling hillside and let the kids frolic about for a bit, before we packed up and drove the last leg to our destination, Gatlinburg TN.

Almost there!

And as it turns out, the crazy amount of people in KY seemed to follow us there.
Gatlinburg is one busy little tourist town.

We checked into our resort  (which turned out to be so much nicer than I imagined) and got settled in.  The resort was literally tucked into the mountains, and our condo just so happened to have a creek running just below the deck behind it.  The concierge alerted us of a black bear that was often sighted down there, and to be on the lookout.

And that was all my little pioneers needed to hear.
Best.Vacation.Ever.
Unfortunately, we never did see it.

The next morning, we decided to go exploring in Smoky Mt. National Park.
We drove to the visitor center, grabbed a map...and naturally Tim decided that our first hike should be to the top of Clingmans Dome.  The highest point in the Smokies, elevation 6,643'.

We made it!

  It was actually a nice steep 1/2 mile paved path to the top.

So high, we were in the clouds!

 And man oh man, did Tim and I get a workout carrying the little gals uphill all week (well, mostly Tim :)

Then we ventured off the path a bit, becasue that's what we do...

After that we did some more exploring, hiking, and view loving. I was a bit of a nervous nellie with the little gals, because everywhere we walked, it was steep cliff.

We drove to New Found Gap...

Naturally we found a creek to play in....

...many salamanders took cover in fear of these 2.

...the pink pole caught a fish every.single.time.

And after all that, we decided to take another hike...because for some reason, we don't stop until we drop on vacation:)

We decided to take the 2 mile hike to Mt. Chimney Tops.  It was labeled "strenuous", as the last 100 feet or so, you literally scale the rock up to the top.

Everything was so lush and beautiful. 

I pretended I was someplace tropical :)

Well, about one third of the way up, we realized Stella was never going to make it.  I turned back with her and Sydney and the boys made the trek to the top.

..So Ellery can boast she made it to the top of the mountain someday :)

more to come...

Spring Break Adventure- Part 1, Kentucky

We began our Spring Break adventures by steering Black Betty down  to Cave City, Kentucky, to visit Mammoth Cave National Park.
. 

We spent a day and a half hiking underground through the 54 degree caves, and up through the trails ...soaking up the rich history and beautiful 75 degree Kentucky sunshine.

We took a 2 mile guided tour into the cave. I was a bit nervous ...aka panicky... about being so far underground, and clausterphobia...and breathing,  as our tour guide told us parts of the tour involved ducking for periods of time and fitting through tight areas.

It truly was fascinating.  No panic attack set in, my breathing evened out...and I'm happy to say that Tim only carried a snoring Ellery over his shoulder :) 

The kids loved it.

 

Since we were enroute to our resort in Gatlinburg, we stayed over in a hotel in Mammoth.

A pretty fascinating experience to stuff 7 people into 2 beds, let me tell you :)