A Day In The Smokies

Since we got to our cabin so late on Friday night and it was dark, I waited til morning to take pictures.  I didn't know just how awesome this cabin's view was til I woke up and saw this...

We had an awesome porch with rocking chairs on which to enjoy the spectacular view too.

Awesome right?

We stayed the Above and Beyond cabin at the Legacy Mountain Resort.

The cabin had tons of ammenities, including a full kitchen, so I actually brought a bunch of food for us including oatmeal.  The first morning we had oats, made with water, banana, peanut butter, agave, and a little crushed dark chocolate granola bar on top.

We then sat outside on the deck with mugs of cocoa and took in the view for a while longer.

Pardon my bed head...

Look how cute the boys were!

Here's a little tour of the inside of the cabin:

Dining area:

Kitchen:

Living room fire place.

Pool room, which actually went unused.

Bed Room.

Outside view of the cabin:

My husband found this place and did a great job.  I asked for a cabin with great views, that was definitely like a log cabin but nice and modern.  This fit the bill for sure!

We finally got going and left the cabin around noon on Saturday, and headed out to explore.  Our plan was to pick up some sandwiches and head to a hiking area.

I got this cool shot of our resort as we were leaving.  Don't the cabins look like bird houses?

We ended up driving through downtown Gatlinburg, so we got to see what was there.

It was very touristy, as I was warned it would be.

It reminded me a lot of a beach boardwalk.  Lots of "Old Time Photo" shops, candy stores, restuarants, and gift shops.

We accidently missed the turn for the area where we'd planned to hike, but it was fine, because it we took a nice scenic detour.  We found a lookout to eat our lunch with more amazing views of the mountains.

We enjoyed our Subway subs.

I had a six inch Italian BMT.

Clyde got some samples.

We walked Clyde around a little.

Then we hit the road again.

After a short while back on the road, some cars in front of us were stopped.  Can you see why?

Yup, there was a BEAR hanging out on the side of the road!

Greg and I drove right up along side it.  The bear seemed unphased by all the attention.  Pretty awesome!

We finally found the area where we had originally planned to hike, which was the Gatlinburg Trail off the Sugarland Visitor Center.  This is one of the few dog friendly trails in the Smokies, so we chose it so we could bring Clyde.

The trail is about 2 miles from the visitor center to Gatlinburg.  We had seen online that a lot of people complained about it being kind of a crappy trail, but it was pretty flat and still scenic, and Clyde seemed to like it.

After our hike we headed back to the cabin for dinner.  I brought vegetarian chili from home.  Perfect cabin dinner :)

Clyde amused us by looking out the window from time to time.

Chili was followed by wine in the rockers.

Pretty much a perfect day!