Gatlinburg: Day One.

One of the craziest experiences in our lives took place near the end of July in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We decided to go on a mass-vacation to the Smoky Mountains with almost twenty people. We split a huge, beautiful (RUSTIC) cabin on the edge of a mountain.



View from our cabin, the afternoon we arrived.



Our first afternoon there, a Mama Bear and her two cubs came up on our porch for a little snack. Brian was pretty unhappy about his sunflower seeds getting stolen, but figured it was for a good cause. We made sure we never left food unattended out there again.


The morning view, our first full day.



The morning of our first day, we went for a little "hike" to Laurel Falls. I use that term loosely, as I was in flip flops the whole time, and it wasn't very difficult. The scenery was just gorgeous, and the waterfall at the end made all of the walking worth it. We splashed around in the calmer waters below before our long walk back.






















This day ends with a group photo (minus Peter) from right before we embarked on our epic tubing adventure. It was actually a very relaxing lazy river trip, but our second go-around left us stranded in the river with the skies opening up around us. There was a ton of lightning, and the wusses (i.e. ME) in our group forced everyone out of the water to take cover at a nice couple's house on the river. We ended up standing in the rain (shivering, in my case) waiting for a ride from a local back to the tubing place. We were told by said local that the very same tubing place had six deaths in the very same river last summer in a similar situation. GREAT.

Regardless, it was an awesome day.