The Smokies

This past weekend me, Eric, and Brendon went to Gatlinburg, TN. Eric had been talking about what a neat place it was, and I had never been there. We had a wonderful weekend, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.



On the way, we decided to take a little detour and head to Linville Caverns. I had not been there since I was a little girl. We got there at about 9am, so we had a small group for our tour. If you have never been there I would definately recommend going sometime. It is so interesting to see all of the different rock formations. In this particular cave, there was a little area where civil war men hid and had a fire going every night. There is also an imprint of a sandollar that is estimated to be 30 millions years old! Once you get into the back of the cave the guide cuts the lights off so you can see just how dark it is. You can't see in front of you at all. It is pretty creepy to have absolutely no light at all. This detour was definately worthwhile.

After we got to Gatlinburg, our hotel allowed us to check in several hours early. We took our stuff up and headed out to get some lunch at a local barbecue resteraunt. After lunch we decided to go out to the main street in Gatlinburg. It is really neat b/c you can just walk everywhere. The first place that we came upon was the Wax Museum. We got in there and took alot of pics. It was really alot of fun. It was unbelieveable how real the exhibits looked. We took the most pictures there. Take a look:

After going to the Wax Museum, we walked some more, and stumbled up a space needle. Not really knowing what it was, I agreed to go on it. We stepped into an elevator and started to go up. I then quickly realised that we were in a glass elevator going up about 20-30 floors in the air. I forgot to mention that I am terrified of heights. As we were going up, I started to panic and broke out into a sweat and my whole body was shaking. When we got to the top, I couldn't go anywhere near the edge, but I did get some good pictures of the two that were not afraid of heights.

After walking the streets for several hours, we went to eat dinner, and then went to our room to rest for awhile. After some rest, we headed out to Ripley's Aquarium. It was really neat.

Brendon got to hold a special type of crab

These jellyfish looked so cool

After a long day on Saturday, we slept well, and got up early on Sunday. We headed to breakfast, and then started to head home. We stopped at several of the lookouts on the mountain and took some really beutiful pictures.

The Smokey Mountains are beutiful this time of year. We had an incredible trip, and I hope to go again next fall. I am pretty exhausted so I am glad that I have today off to recoup.

Tonight is my one year anniversary with Eric, so we hope to enjoy a lovely dinner together. He makes me the happier than I have ever been in my life, and I am so lucky to have found him. Eric, I love you more than words could describe...