The Smoky Mountains-Our first family vacation

It all began as a side comment in a conversation. Mom and I were talking about what she was going to do on her vacation. I suggested a cabin in Tennessee. They fell in love with the first cabin we found!! We ended up booking the "Cubby Bear Cabin" in Pigeon Forge. I felt a little weird when we began to plan this vacation, we had paid for the cabin, but had no idea where it was. That was a weird feeling not being able to map the route completely- it irritated Chad, since he got a new boy toy, a GPS system. We got to the cabin just before it got dark and it was beautiful.

This house was going to be our house for the next 6 nights! We were so thankful that we had a cabin rather than a hotel room. Imagine 3 kids who needed to run!

We went to Cades Cove on the first day. It was pretty, but all we saw were deer. I can see those in Indiana! The next day it rained, so we took the kids to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg. They loved the tunnel and saw some amazing animals from angles they could not have even imagined. On Saturday we got up and drove over Newfound Gap Road all the way over to Cherokee North Carolina. The trees had really started to change over there. We missed seeing the Native American village, so the kids didn't get to experience any of the Native American culture.

We then traveled on a one lane dirt road to Cataloochee. It was our best chance of seeing the elk herd. We were indeed sucesseful we saw about 15 of them. They so large it was amazing. The kids got to feel elk fur, hold antlers and learn about them from a Park Ranger. That was really neat to see.

On Sunday we left Daddy at home to ride up Cherokee Orchard Road to the Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail. It is some beautiful scenery on this one way 11 mile road. It was a bit hard on the kids because they did have to stay in their car seats a lot. We finally put in a movie so the adults could enjoy the scenery and the kids would be happy too. I guess at four they are not always going to watch mountain scenery for 2-3 hours! Dad and I got to see a large male bear, but motorcycles scared it off before anyone else was able to see it. Dad had told the kids if they saw a bear that he would buy them a bear. They were determined to see a bear. Dad and I even went back later to drive the loop to see if we could see any later at night. We were not successful in our venture! We decided that on our last day there we would hit the visitor center and the sign into the park, because that is tradition. The best sign for pictures is the one on the Gatlinburg Bypass. As we drove up the hill past the sign, to look at the overlook Chad and I saw a black fur ball scamper across the road. We drove closer and parked the car. The bears were right outside the car on a hill eating berries and nuts. The kids got to see at least one of the 3 baby bears. We stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center and Dad bought everyone a bear to remember their first bear sighting on vacation. We knew then it was time to head home and on Tuesday we got up and packed the truck and headed home. It was a long drive but well worth it when you see the smiles on their faces!