April 26, 2011

The hills of Tennessee

Well, we made it to Tennessee. We left on Friday morning at about 8:00, and drove straight through to Pigeon Forge (stopping for lunch at a Waffle House in Kentucky). The kids were pretty good in the car, surprisingly.

Our cabin is AMAZING. It's absolutely huge, and it sits right on top of a mountain. I'll overload you with pictures...

One of the first things we saw when we got here... a snake!

The back view of our cabin.

Jerry's and my bedroom

A fun activity room

A home theater


Game room

The view of the mountains


This is the side of the house that faces the mountains

Our own private pool house--the kids have spent every moment here!

The upstairs kitchen area

My husband :)


I went outside to eat breakfast and this moth was on the house. It was HUGE.


Friday we arrived at about 5:30 pm, so we didn't do much. The kids swam, we played cards and drank some beer (wine for me). I slept horribly Friday night--I'm so used to my Tempurpedic mattress at home, and I kept hearing weird noises. Saturday, we spent much of the day just relaxing. I read a great book called The Diary of Mattie Spenser. I watched a show on OWN called Addicted to Food, and it really hit home for me.

Speaking of food, I've not been doing great here, but I could be doing much worse (as far as dieting, I mean). My mom loves to shower her kids with junk food, and I've avoided it for the most part, but I've indulged in some chips and salsa, and I ate a doughnut (a Krispy Kreme--I've never eaten one, and decided I wanted to try it). I went for two walks, and these hills are STEEP, so I got some good exercise. Saturday, I had toast with peanut butter and banana for breakfast, cereal for lunch, and nachos for dinner. Sunday I ate way too much. We stopped at a store and I bought a bunch of junk, and I totally regret it.   On Sunday, I found a high school track and went for a run--just 3 miles, but it was tough in the 85 degree weather when I'm used to 35 degree weather!

I was terrified while we were driving up the mountain. I was literally in a panic in the car, because of the sharp turns, the extremely narrow gravel road with no guardrails and the steepest drop imaginable just next to the road. 

Saturday we had quite an adventure with a bird that flew into the jacuzzi room and couldn't find it's way out again. We spent a good part of the afternoon trying to shoo it out the door, but it was terrified. We used a mop, towels, a king-sized sheet, a hose, and about five people to finally get it out. It was hilarious! My sister and I held up the sheet to corner it and then we started blasting it with the hose until it fell to the floor, and then we grabbed it and put it outside. It hopped onto a railing and then stood there, sopping wet, and probably exhausted. Eventually he flew away, thankfully. I was worried it was going to die of a heart attack.

Today I'm determined to eat very healthy. I'll have bran cereal with almond milk and blueberries for breakfast. Lunch will be peanut butter on sprouted grain bread with an apple. I think my mom is cooking ribs for dinner, so I'll just have a small portion.

Having breakfast outside

Jerry and I on our walk... these mirrors were along the road to see around corners. Scary!

A cool looking tree on our walk

We saw this broken up reddish rock stuff, and thought it was picture-worthy.

The bird that caused so much trouble!

My sister and Eli in the hot tub. This is where the bird was trapped.

The poor bird after we soaked him to save him.




Monday, we went zip-lining. I'm going to write that in a separate post, because I have lots of pictures. The internet here is really slow, so I've been working on this post a little each day.

5 comments:

  1. Lovely pictures Katie! I'll be heading to the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC soon after I finish my finals. I can't wait. The mountains will always be my favorite place to hide away from the realities of life. :)

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  2. Great pictures!! Sounds like you're having a great time! I'm so jealous!! You've done so awesome on your journey!

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  3. Great Pics!!!.....the snake wasn't too bad, but that moth...ugg....something about big flying bugs I just can't handle.....and driving in the steep terrain, I would have had a panic attack.....
    Can't wait to see the pics from the ziplining.....bet it was terrifying!!!....lol

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  4. And all I can think is "That poor bird..." LoL. Glad you are having a good time!

    Let's Walk, OD

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  5. My family and I love pigeon forge. This post makes me wanna go back. However, I do not ever want to stay in a cabin again, unless it's on the main strip. The last time we got lost for hours, ended up on what I was sure was the tippy top peak of the Smokie mountains! So steep my minivan would spin out on the gravels and I had to back down...in the dark! Never again. LOL Glad you had a great time. You will treasure those memories and your kids will too.

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