Gatlinburg, TN

On a whim, we decided to go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee this weekend. Bear had been wanting to go there for quite some time, so we figured we should go while we were still over in this part of the country. It's a little over a 5 hour drive (if all goes well), but of course, ours was longer. After leaving the house for the second time (we had to turn around and go back home to get Bear's meds) we were finally on our way there about 1730-ish. The trip seemed to be going very well...almost too well. Then, somewhere in Tennessee, Bear ran a red light trying to figure out where we were supposed to go, and of course, a cop was right there. He turned the corner to follow us, but never turned his lights on. He followed us for quite some time, but eventually had to pass us because we got behind a very slow driver, thank goodness. He never did pull us over! Then a little further down the road and around 10PM, I told Bear to turn and follow Hwy 441. He turned and it was this crazy twisting and hairpin winding road. Caitlyn, who had been sleeping for quite some time, woke up, and because of all the winding roads, proceeded to get sick all over herself. Poor kiddo! Only after we made it to some straighter roads did we realize that we had been following Hwy 411 instead of 441 (I hate it when I turn dyslexic!). So we had to go back through that nasty windy road to get back to where we should have been nearly an hour ago. We eventually made it to our hotel and got everyone in and ready for sleep. The first thing Caitlyn asked when we got to the hotel was "Do they have food here?". She was already feeling better. When we got up and around the next morning, it was time to go have some fun in Gatlinburg! The first thing we saw after breakfast was the Herbie car which Caitlyn loves, so she had to have her picture taken with him!



Next, we went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. Some of the things in there were a little gruesome, but overall we had a lot of fun! Love the pic of Bear and Allison in the goofy mirror!

This chair is so huge that Allison couldn't get out of it by herself even with the steps there.

Both girls tried to climb in this humongous tire!
Then we went to the Ripley's Mirror Maze. That was certainly one of the highlights of the weekend! Before you go in, they make everyone put on plastic gloves so that there aren't finger prints all over the mirrors. Once you walk through the curtains, good luck to ya! There are no lights except for the strips of red lights on the floor, and there are mirrors all around you. Caitlyn did so well getting through there, so we let Allison have a turn at leading us. That was the funniest thing ever! She would take off running, and smack into a mirror, fall down and do it all over again. She eventually learned to keep her hands in front of herself. Instead of finger prints all over, there are little Allison face prints on their mirrors! We laughed so hard, and Allison was laughing too!The Ripley's Aquarium was by far the best one we have been to! There is a moving sidewalk that takes you in tubes underneath the aquarium, so you get an awesome view. Plus, you don't have to worry about people pushing their way through the crowds since the sidewalk moves you! And of course, you can get off if you want to gawk at something for an extended period of time.

One part of the aquarium is barely lit, which proved to be a little spooky, but cool too.
Here's me and the girls inside one of the little tanks where the seahorses were (my favorite critter of course!)
Caitlyn and Allison got to experience what it is like to be inside a fish bowl.
Caitlyn is staring at their enormous tank asking which fish we are going to get.
Lauren even enjoyed herself! She loves to look at our little fish tank at home, so this was really fun for her with all the different colors all over.
Allison would put her hand in the water, but wouldn't actually pet the horseshoe crabs...too scary for her!
And it was only natural that after we spent most of the day looking at fish, we went out and had fish for dinner! I ate shark which was a little scary at first, but very good! Bear had scallops for the first time and really enjoyed them. What I am going to miss the most about this area is the bluegrass bands which pop out and play just about anywhere. One was playing right below us while we were eating dinner!I had everyone get dressed up for an old western photo since the last one we did was 3 years ago and our family has changed just a little bit since then. I love Allison's face in this pic!

It was a very long, but fun-filled weekend! Best of all...we didn't get lost on the way home and no one got sick!!!