Weekend Getaway

We've been planning this trip for a while (it was our Christmas/my birthday gift). We'd planned to go in January, but then my grandmother died and we went to PA again, and I was still feeling so lousy that we postponed it. This weekend we finally got away while the getting was good. At nearly 34 weeks I was running out of time. The predicted weather in the area was cooler than ideal and we finally decided on Gatlinburg, TN and made reservations the morning of the day we left. So it was a little crazy.

I don't sleep at night anymore. Reflux/heartburn pretty much makes that a fruitless endeavor until about 4 AM. By then, I've either attempted sleep and thrown up enough to sleep, or my dinner has completely digested. So Friday was a typical day, in that I was exhausted and unintentionally fell back to sleep for a couple of hours around lunch, which puts all the homeschooling behind... Brian was so sweet. He got home by 4PM and was just so happy to be going that he didn't mind that I'd finally gotten the kids packed and off to their Gran's and cheerfully helped me pack. So we left after six, much later than I'd planned.

But the whole drive there is lovely. We stopped about an hour away from our destination at a local seafood place and enjoyed our meal (even if mine did have an incredibly short life span), then wound through the last wooded leg in the dark behind a slow SUV, undoubtedly driven by a woman, as she was very hesitant and spent most of the time straddling the yellow line as she rounded mountain curves. It was only on the trip back that we partially forgave her after seeing the 200 foot drops on the sides of some of those curves that had no guardrails. :^)

We finally arrived at our perfect and lovely motel. We checked in, built a fire in the fireplace, and relaxed.

the buildings to the right are our motel,

our building is the one hidden in the trees

wish I'd gotten a real fire shot - we really enjoyed it -

except the night that it got wayyyy too hot, and we had

to turn on the air conditioner and open the balcony door and

wait an hour until I could stand to be in the room again. :^)

Each morning they delivered delicious homemade donuts to

our door. Breakfast in bed - heaven!


View from the aerial tram we rode up, then back down the mountain
Yep, we're suspended on those cables




balcony view

and view from the balcony

We spent the next day wandering the strip, napping (well, I napped, as my nights were unfortunately following their usual pattern), and generally enjoying each other's company. The weather, felt much warmer than it should have and was really quite perfect for this overheated mama. And we were both so happy to return to our nice crackling fire.

The ride home was beautiful! We followed this stream through

national park for the first leg.

When we left the stream behind, the mountain views were gorgeous.