Day 1-Gatlinburg, TN


When I woke up on the first day in Gatlinburg and looked outside and saw snow, I immediately knew that I had not properly packed for this weekend trip away. After work, I grabbed a bag pretty quickly so we could leave the house and head to the cabin. I had every intention of at least grabbing my jacket and forgot it. That is the way it goes sometimes. My husband planned the entire weekend away and I didn't even give thought to what we were in store for on this trip. He mentioned Day 1 we had tickets to go to Ober. Ober Mountain is where you take an Ariel tram to a mountaintop park and enjoy ski and mountain adventures.


We took our time making our way to Downtown Gatlinburg and as soon as we got there I was taken aback by how much more toursity the town had become. It isn't the Gatlinburg that I remember from my childhood. People everywhere. Trinket shops galore. We arrived at Ober around 1 pm and learned that to get on the sky tram it was a 2-hour wait roughly. I'm not a "stand in line for very long kind of gal," but this is where practicing patience came into play. I wanted to show my appreciation to my husband for planning this trip and wanted to keep an open mind so it was time to suck it up and enjoy the adventure! I focused my attention on how antsy the kids in front of me were. It was funny to observe these two small brothers having non-stop staredowns with one another while mouthing "stop staring at me" to one another. I have to hand it to them for their staredown game. That got me through the long wait.


We finally got up into the sky and the view was worth the wait. You could see all of the snow lying in the mountains. Keep in mind I forgot my jacket and by this point, I realized I was in a lot of trouble. I see women with their fancy ski suits on ready to hit the slopes and I know it is going to be a cold day. That is the price you pay when you don't properly review the weather and pack in advance. I accepted my fate that day. When you get to the top, you have to wait in another line. Everything was a line. We had 45 minutes until some of the exhibits closed so we rushed to the wild animal exhibit and moved on to the scenic chair lift. It was rather peaceful going all of the way to the top. I thought it was one of those activities where you get to the top and it circles back downhill all in one shot. When we got to the top, a guy was yelling to "jump off." Jason immediately jumped off but my brain was not registering why we had to jump off. He was still yelling "jump" even louder to me at this point and I jumped. I was like why the heck do we have to get off?? They simply wanted you to buy one of those photos and enjoy the view. Once you take a few photos of the view, it is back in line you go to wait for a chair back down.


Isn't the view beautiful?


After getting off the chair lift we went ice skating and that was fun. Jason was holding onto the rail for dear life. I realized his skates were not as tight as they should have been and in general, not the best skates to be on ice. Either way, we still had fun.


It was a long adventurous day. It took 2 hours to wait for a tram back down to the Downtown Gatlinburg street. I never was so happy to head back to the cabin to get into the hot tub and eat take-out Chinese food. I do not know how parents with small children can stand in all of those lines all day long. No way! Don't even attempt this adventure if you have kids under the age of 10.


Overall, it was an experience I would never have done if it wasn't planned for me to do and I was proud I kept an open mind. Ober views 10 out of 10. The Chinese food was a 10 out of 10, the hot tub was a 10, and taking some Nyquil and falling asleep while trying to catch up to Love is Blind Episodes was a 10 out of 10.

Day 2-Pigeon Forge, TN


On the second day, we went to Pigeon Forge, TN, and had breakfast at the Old Mill Cafe Restaurant. It was a cute area of mom-and-pop gift shops, restaurants, and a distillery. The table was worth the one-hour wait. When we got to the table, we were seated right in front of the fireplace. The perfect place to be when you forget your jacket. It was warmer out on Day 2. No snow. We later made our way to the busier part of Pigeon Forge and the best way to describe the town is one giant tourist trap. You could blow quite a bit of money by checking out all of the exhibits. We passed by a Titanic Exhibit, King Kong, you name it, this town had it. What we had planned for the next adventure was the Ferris Wheel. In all of the years I've been alive, this was my first ride on a Farris Wheel. We went on the wheel in the evening when it was all lit up!

Day 3-Llama Hike and Moonshine


For the third adventure, Jason had us scheduled to go on a llama hike. As the name implies it involves you hiking in the woods with a llama. All I'm going to share about this experience is that if you want a once-in-a-lifetime adventure to walk with a llama, this is it! I ended up sticking with an Alpaca because they are smaller. The llama's were close to 6ft plus and I wasn't going to risk it. My alpaca's name was Jelly.


After our hike, we went to Adventure Distillery where they had moonshine in every flavor and moonshine cocktails. We did a moonshine tasting and my two favorite flavors were the Pineapple Upside Down Cake and the Pecan Pie. The distillery allowed me to invent a drink. It is called "The Asheville Triple Threat." It consists of Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Pecan Pie, and Cherry Moonshine in a cocktail form.


We made our way back to the cabin a block away and sat in the hot tub, watched the sunset, laid in bed, and continued watching our mindless TV for the evening.

Day 4-Check Out Time/The Great Smoky Mountain Arts & Crafts Community/Place of a Thousand Drips



Gatlinburg is so riddled with tourism that the big guys pushed out the arts and crafts community from the Downtown Area. If you think you're going to go Downtown and find cute artisan craft stores, you have another thing coming. Gatlinburg has created its own arts and crafts community outside of the town. Those are the kinds of stores I look forward to checking out the most! Today is check-out day and I'm saying goodbye to the cabin and sadly, the hot tub. We enjoyed sitting in that hot tub and feeling the stresses melt away. We are motivated now to buy one for our own home. After we checked out, we made our way to the artisan shops for some coffee and browsing.


https://greatsmokyartsandcrafts.com/community-map/


My husband has the patience of a saint because he just knows how much I enjoy these shops. He goes along with it until I can read his face and I know that it is time to move along.


It was the BEST weather day outside. I had him look up some outdoor hikes to see if one appealed to him and he found one close by called The Place of A Thousand Drips. This is located not far from the artisan shops, so we went to check it out. You can only access The Place of a Thousand Drips by going into the Ely's Mill property. The road is closed and this cute privately owned area consists of a gift shop, short-term rentals, and events. They allowed us to park and walk up past the "Do Not Enter" sign to see it. It was such a beautiful and peaceful walk. Most people who navigate to it would be disappointed to see the road is closed and would turn around to leave. If you just ask to park, they will allow you and you can hike and see all of the beauty.


Once we got our hiking fix in for the day, we headed home. Until the next adventure!