Tennessee Trip

Yes, I know this is late but I just can't seem to find the time to keep up with this blog thing. Too much time on Facebook I guess, ha! Anyway, our trip to Tennessee was wonderful!! The trip down and back couldn't have gone more smoothly! We stopped on the way in Nashville and stayed the night at a campground just off the interstate. It was an interesting campground, more of a parking lot for RV's so we were a little out of place! It was an experience and good enough for a short overnight stop. That evening we got in early enough to enjoy the pool and get some dinner just down the street. Just as we finished up our dinner we heard a rumble of thunder. We had the camper wide open because it was 90+ degrees and no shade. We finished up our dinner and by the time we got to the restaurant door it was pouring down rain so hard that from the front door to the car we were sopping wet!! Luckily the rain was straight down and nothing was wet! We went to bed early listening to the hard rain that lasted most of the night. The next day we had about 4 hours of driving. Along our route down to Tennessee we had planned to check out some interesting roadside stops that weren't too far out of our way. The first one was Metropolis IL on the first part of our trip to check out the giant Superman and downtown. We have lunch there and treated the kids to malts at Sonic! Our second stop was right in Nashville which was a airplane wing sundial. Our 3rd stop between Nashville and Pigeon Forge was the Minister's Tree House which was the most unique. This massive tree house wrapped around a group of trees and was just about 4 stories high!! It was very cool and all built by hand sort of gave off a bit of a creepy feeling too.
We arrived at Bear Creek Crossing, home of the King Family Reunion by about 2pm that afternoon. We were just in time to greet everyone as they checked into the resort. Seemed like more than just 4 yrs. since we had seen everyone, it is so crazy how fast life goes by in just that short of time. Lots of new cousins to meet and lots of catching up to do. Bear Creek was amazing! All the cabins were built onto the hills driving up was quite the thrill! Everyone was divided into their own cabin and then we had the clubhouse as a main gathering area at the bottom by the entrance. This was also where we all gathered for our catered breakfast and dinners and had different activities planned for the week. Our house, Cinema 6 was shared with 4 other couples, Adam and Amy, with Lucas, Taryn and Lance; Casey and Amy with Noel and Kelli; Michael and Abby and Meredith and Mike. It was a full house but so big no one was ever in the way of one another! Everyone had their own bath and the whole place was 4 levels! The top floor was the master bedroom, 1st floor was the main level with kitchen/living room, below that was the game room and the lower level was the cinema! The cinema was a hit with the kids who watched a movie just about every night and had big slumber parties! We had two big wrap around porches with two hot tubs and rocking chairs! Our house and porch seemed to become the main battle grounds for the nightly water balloon fights! These water balloon fights seemed to become quite the serious event. A LOT of planning and preparation went into these battle every night. First starting out with water guns small coolers and garbage cans full of balloons graduating to pitchers and buckets of water and larger coolers to bathtubs full of balloons and the purchase of a hose and sprayer!! The grounds were littered with hundreds of balloon fragments and the kids were bribed with money to pick up the pieces! The kids had their fun with the water fights in the daytime launching two big attacks on Grandpa with the help of some fellow cousins!
We made the most of our time in the Pigeon Forge/Gaitliburg area. On Monday we headed our for a hike to Laurel Falls in the Smokey Mountain National Park. The rumor was heading up that there were bears to be seen up by the falls. Sure enough about half way we had a bear step out onto the trail just ahead of us! Almost a little too close for comfort being only about 15-20 feet away! He was a nice bear and kept to himself and wandered about the trail for a couple minutes before realizing there was no where for him to go but up to get out of our way! We saw another up the hill from us just a few more feet down the trail. It was quite the experience and the kids were amazed!! I still have to remind myself that they were wild bears, yikes!
On Tuesday I had set up a whitewater rafting trip for about 60 of us! It was a great hit and everyone had a great time!! Lucas and Grace went along with us and really enjoyed themselves. Taryn, Lance and Owen hung back with Grandpa for the day!

Wednesday we headed into town to take a look and ended up at MagQuest which was kind of an indoor magic adventure quest. It was a good time but not something I would do again. Kids seemed to enjoy it! Wednesday night was the talent show night which was a big hit again this year and with even more participants! Grace did her jazz competition dance as a solo and did fantastic. Owen decided last minute that he wanted to participate and showed off his moves with his dance to Ima Be by the Black Eyed Peas and it was a hit! I was tearing up I was laughing so hard!
Thursday was check out day and we headed to our next adventure with Adam, Amy and the kids! We drove over to the other side of the Smokey Mtns. to Cherokee NC where we camped till Sunday. It was a gorgeous area and I really fell in love with the Smokies. I think I even liked it more than the Rockies! The driving was a little less hairy than the rockies which made it much more enjoyable for me! The campground was beautiful situated in a valley between two streams. We did a lot of hiking in the national park and there were waterfalls everywhere! I hope to go back again another year and take the kids tubing down the streams! The kids got a chance to do a Ranger program and became Jr. Rangers! Cherokee was really a neat little town in the Indian Reservation. Aaron, I and the kids roamed around the town and took a moment to watch some indian dancing along the roadside. Not sure really how authentic the show was but the kids got a kick out of it!
The vacation really was a great one and somewhere I really could see going back to some day! So much more to take in and great nature time!
Make sure and check out the You Tube links on the side to see the videos of Grace and Owen dancing and the King Kids water balloon fight!!!