Vacation Trip 1: Gatlinburg, TN

Welcome back to the work week, folks!

As you know, I spent my weekend on my first little mini-vacation of the summer in Gatlinburg, TN. For those of you unfamiliar with TN, Gatlinburg is outside of Knoxville right next to the Smokey Mountains. It's not really a "must see" kind of place unless you live close enough to drive over for a weekend... then it's worth it.

Mom, my sister and I headed out Friday after work, stopping to grab Mellow Mushroom pizza before we got into town. We checked into our hotel in Pigeon Forge (it and Gatlinburg are two towns that are side-by-side and both touristy), and then walked down the strip to take in the sites (aka Go-Kart, Putt Putt, and other activity places) and have some ice cream.

Saturday we were up bright and early to drive into Gatlinburg and peruse the main strip. It's definitely become a tourist town, but it's still pretty neat to check out the little shops and haggle over purse prices. I found a terrific summer purse for only $22! I picked up a few other odds and ends, and then we enjoyed lunch at The Log Cabin. This is by far my favorite place to have pancakes out of the hundreds of pancake places in town. I tried the blackberry pancakes and think they may be a new favorite!

We drove up into the mountains to go on a walk and take some pictures. We also saw a rattlesnake! I'm not a fan of snakes and I didn't try to get close enough to get a good picture, but it was still kind of neat to see a snake out in nature... from a safe distance... that I could run away from it quickly if it moved my way.

We headed back to Pigeon Forge to hit the Scrapbook Superstore. They have a clearance center where I got a GOB of stuff for $12. Very awesome. We had dinner at the Applewood Farm (another delicious southern meal) before checking out the huge Christmas store. We grabbed some ice cream and crashed back at the hotel room.

Sunday we had breakfast and then hit up this little village of shops. We found The Cat House where they have - you guessed it - all cat stuff, including 6-7 live cats. We spent a good bit of time playing with the kitties. There was even a cat named Bob who is 22 years old! Incredible! If my cat lives that long, I'll be like 45!

We finished the trip out by spending some time at the huge outlet mall. I picked up a couple of shirts at Banana Republic before we loaded back up in the car and headed home.

All in all, it was a terrific weekend with mom and sister. I've added a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. :)

Delicious donut at The Donut Friar

Playing by the river in the Smokey Mountains

In front of Mt. LeConte, the tallest mountain in the Smokies


New purse!

Kitty cat items!

One of two great tops found at Banana Republic