Smoky Mountain Escape

And here is why they call them the Great Smoky Mountains.  The colors on the trees were the best we've ever seen in all our fall journeys northward, so many vivid oranges, yellows and reds.  And there is plenty of green to go around as well, as you can see.  The weather was downright balmy in Gatlinburg and Cherokee, although it was the typical ten degrees or so cooler up on top of the mountain ridge.

This is what we go up to Gatlinburg for, and not really the destination - although there is fun in that.  It's really all about soaking in all the atmosphere of the drive.  Usually, there's brisk fall air, but not so much this time around.  The weather is threatening rain, but tonight things held out a bit - this was good news for us, as we went for a walk downtown Gatlinburg.

It was warm.  We were downright toasty walking up and down the streets of Gatlinburg.  It's October, so this makes no sense whatsoever.  Short-sleeve t-shirts in the mountains in October.  The forecast was bleak for this trip - lots of rain.  But we couldn't back out of the reservation, and we figured we might as well go anyway, as this month is so busy we don't know when we'll be heading up again.  So away we went, and believe it or not, the rain held back while we were walking the streets.  This was a great blessing.  Daddy carried an umbrella just in case, but we never needed it.  We stopped at that one little area we always do, the Village Shops.  There, we got our sweet taffy from the candy shop.  Madison and Mommy watched for a while as the machine pulled and twisted the taffy.  And then, they watched as the other device stretched it, cut it, and packaged it.

We found the Irish shop called Celtic Heritage, which really is a place that sells all kinds of items from Great Britain.  Mommy got a few things for Christmas for her mother, who of course is from Wales.  But we didn't buy much tonight, instead choosing to spend more time walking up and down the streets, taking in the atmosphere as always.  Again, it was hot.  This just doesn't work for Gatlinburg - hopefully they can fix that this time next year!

We rode the trolley back to the hotel, by the way.  This was a revelation, and a good one:  it only costs 50 cents per person, and of course it saved us quite a long, uphill walk back to the hotel.  We walked from one end of town to the other - and rode back.  Along the way, we stopped inside the lobby of Ripley's Believe it or Not, where Madison was fiddling with a few of the displays there, including World's Largest Tire, or the world's largest man body cast.  She put her head on top of the world's largest man, and just giggled a lot there.

We did stop at a few other shops, and Madison was quite into all the candles.  She always has to stop and smell each one!  But we were all getting tired, and ready to head back to the hotel, where this awaited us:

This is the pool.  This is essentially the reason that Mommy found this hotel.  It is an indoor pool, and quite heated.  We swam in this pool this weekend, under the waterfall there, walking across stepping stones you can't see, and walking up that secret stairway to the upper pool area, which is really heated.  It's deeper, but it also is right up against the waterfall, where Madison likes splashing water over the side.  The surprise hit of the pool was the jacuzzi to the right, actually attached to the pool itself, running over hot water into the main pool below.  Madison likes the warm water, and we sat together just soaking in the warmth.  It actually started raining outside, but it didn't matter to us, because we were right where we needed to be.

This is a short trip, but it's a nice one.  Again, it's all about the journey, seeing the colors of the leaves and taking a short walk up and down the streets.  We've pretty much accomplished all of that, so we'll see if there's anything else we want to do tomorrow before going home!