Smoky Mountain Trip 2014

Last week we spent 4 days and 3 nights in the Great Smoky Mountains in eastern Tennessee. It's a place we've visited before, with kids and without kids. We like it both ways.

Our first dinner was at the Dixie Stampede. While you enjoy a meal eaten only with your hands, stunt riders put on a North-South themed show. It was so entertaining, I had to remind the kids to eat! The Princess loves horses, so she was enthralled with it. Even though it's a bit on the pricy side, we felt the experience was worth it just to see how much the kids enjoyed it. After the show, we got to see some of the show horses up close in the adjacent stable. Totally made the Princess' day!

We knew we wanted to go to Dollywood since we'd never been. We decided to get a package deal by staying in a Dollywood cabin (not at the actual park but in the general area) and purchasing a one-day park ticket. By staying in a Dollywood property, our one-day tickets became valid for our entire stay. Even though we didn't take advantage of it because we had other things to do, we thought that was a great perk. We did get preferred parking at Dollywood, though. You'd better believe we took advantage of that!

Our cabin was named Sky High. And believe me, it lived up to its name. We were at the tippy top of a mountain. And then the cabin itself kind of jutted off the side. Yeah, we were up there.

Here's a view from the top balcony of our cabin - a place where I spent NO time.

I've never been fond of heights, but this literally took my breath away. We were above the tree tops! Charles just laughed at me and asked me what I expected with a cabin called Sky High. Well, I didn't expect to be THAT high! So while I didn't enjoy the location all that much, the views were spectacular and the cabin itself was gorgeous.

This is the top floor loft. There was an air hockey table and a pool table to enjoy. Out on the balcony was a hot tub where Charles relaxed quite often. I would not have found it relaxing at all, so I enjoyed the indoor jacuzzi tub instead.

We've been to several amusement parks over the years, and we all agreed that Dollywood was our second favorite, right after Disney. The park was so clean and well-maintained. Also, the atmosphere was very family friendly. We loved the theming as well.

This was the perfect time of year to go. We walked onto every ride, waiting at times for the ride to come back through so we could get on. There were plenty of attractions for every age group and thrill level.

One of our favorite memories at Dollywood was having an old-time photo made. We had never done that before, so it was cute and fun.

On our last day, we spent some time in Gatlinburg, exploring the shops and playing indoor mini-golf. Everywhere you looked, you saw gorgeous fall decorations.

It was a wonderful vacation, but like every time we go away, we were happy to come home. Now getting back into our normal routine might be a little harder.