Smokey Mountain Vacation

We’re back and glad to be home.  Vacations are always nice to get away and in our case force ourselves to relax, but they always make us realize how much we love home.  We missed Orion terribly, and came home to find that he nearly doubled in size.  He still has his kitten head, but his body is starting to become quite adult.  The trip was fun, it was a long drive on Thursday, we left at 6am and didn’t get into the cabin until almost 6 that night….we got stuck in rush hour traffic.  I was warned about the tourist trap that area was, but I never imagined how it would be.  Fortunately, our cabin was about a twenty minute drive away from the hustle and bustle of the tourists.  We were almost at the top of Cove Mountain, and had a wonderful view.  We were actually fairly secluded, so that was nice as well.  I did do a little beading, but not too much.  I did some reading as well.  We spent a lot of time in the hot tub, on the deck, and inside watching scary movies and enjoying our fire place. 
The weekend had wonderful weather, the sun was out and it actually got pretty hot.  It had to be in the 80’s, and with the sun beating on us it was hot.  We actually got sunburned on Saturday.  Sunday was our anniversary and we got up early to watch the sunrise over the mountains.  Then we headed into the Smokey Mountain National Park to go for a hike.  We choose a two mile hike up a mountain to see the Chimney Tops.  And of course we chose a strenuous trail…and they weren’t kidding. The hike was two miles long to go up 1700ft.  They weren’t kidding when they said strenuous, both Chris and I were sore for two days after this hike.  It was well worth the huffing and puffing, we got to the top it was beautiful.  The trees were in full color in the upper elevations, and we could see them all.  The trail took us up to the rock formations at the tip top of the mountain, these rock formations are what give the trail the name Chimney Tops.  It is quite windy up there and once we get to the slick, slanted, slate the trail turns into a path that at times is less than a foot wide.  I’m not terribly frightened of heights, but I’m not gonna lie….I freaked out up there.  As beautiful as it was I was very very scared.  We climbed a bit around the rocks, took some pictures.  Chris wasn’t scared at all and even climbed up the slate and really got the full view.  While he played mountain goat, I clinged to some rock and took his picture.  =0)

The rest of the week it rained or looked like rain.  At times this was kinda dreary but it was still very pretty to watch the clouds in the mountains.  We got to see why they call them the Smokey Mountains because of the clouds.  Monday we braved the roads again to go check out a rock shop we saw on the drive in.  This was a cool store.  They had tables full of rocks and crystals, both polished and rough. They also had tables full of chunks of colored glass, apparently a glass blowing factory nearby that had been open for 100 plus years had closed down in August.  So this shop must have taken a hammer to the left over glass and was selling it in chunks.  They had all kinds of colors and shapes and sizes.  I got a couple chunks the size of my fist, and then Chris and I got a large 21lb chunk that we plan to put in the yard next spring.  I also got some crystals.  Tuesday we met up with Chris’s friend Brad and his wife Sarah.  They live in Nashville and we hadn’t seen them in a year, so they drove down to where we were and we spent the day catching up. 
On our last day, Wednesday, we woke up early and drove into the park again.  We were just getting over being sore from the first hike, so we weren’t looking for any big hikes.  Plus the weather was cold, cloudy, and wet from raining all night.  Despite the clouds we drove up to Clingman’s Dome which is the third highest mountain in the Appalachians, and the highest in the park.  The peak is at 6,643 feet and it as cold and raining up there.  The clouds were thick, but when they parted the view was spectacular.  I was able to get a decent panoramic set of pics while up there, its hard to believe all the gold and orange colors on the mountains were actually individual trees.  I think the wetness and the white of the cloud made the colors that much brighter and vivid.  To get to the top of Clingman’s Dome, its mostly a drive, but then you can walk an additional half mile up to the tip top where there’s a man made dome you can go and see a 360 degree view of the park.  The walk up was very movie like with clouds rolling in over the path, and wet damp trees with moss growing on the branches.  Ferns were growing on the ground, and water was streaming down the path from all the rain.  I half felt like we were in a movie, and half expected an animal to come strolling out of the woods.  It just seemed so natural, and it was early so the crowds hadn’t showed up yet.  After this trip we headed back to the cabin and relaxed the rest of the day.
We watched a ton of movies, unfortunately we couldn’t set up the dvd player, so we could only watch the vhs movies we brought.  but there was satellite cable so the sci fi channel was on a lot, we discovered the chiller channel which is devoted to sci fi and horror films.  AMC and TCM both had scary movie specials going on.  We actually were able to creep ourselves out a couple times during the trip, which was kinda fun!  The trip was fun, it was good to force ourselves to relax.  We’re talking about doing something similar again, but somewhere with less people.  We’ve decided people add to our stresses, so we need to find somewhere more secluded.  Life is going to start up again fairly quickly…I know work is going to be crazy this week..but I refuse to think about it now.  Chris’ brother Pat is coming to visit Friday, and I teach my first beaded flower class on Saturday afternoon.

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