It feels like forever since I last posted. I am still exhausted after our 5 day trip to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN but I enjoyed every minute of it! This was a large family vacation which included my parents, my sister and her 4 kids. We mainly went there to take the kids to Dollywood which we did a day and a half of but we also took a trip to Cades Cove. I just love the Blueridge Mountains, I love everything about it! Thankfully I don't live but a few hours away to enjoy it! So here are a few pictures from our trip and if you have never paid a visit to the beautiful Smoky Mountains I highly recommend a trip I promise you won't be sorry!
Uh, please excuse my fingers. You can see why they call it both the Blueridge and Smoky Mountains. Our first night there we stopped and had dinner at The Old Mill Restaurant, which I must thank Connie for over at Hartwood Roses for posting this restaurant on her blog. We all really enjoyed it and the food!....oh my the food! Yum!...hint...wear something with an elastic waistband...trust me!
My son and nephew gives this place a thumbs up!
| My son Tyler to the left and nephew Joshua on the right |
The following are pictures from Cades Cove. Let me just say how beautiful and peaceful this place is! This place is pretty much left untouched. Wildlife everywhere! We saw 2 adult black bears and then right in front of us before we left was a mama black bear and her 3 tiny little bear cubs crossing the road (cars drive through almost at a crawl so not really any worries of them getting hit). They were the cutest sweetest little things you ever did see! I have a video that I think I will post but please turn the sound down so you don't hear me in my high pitched voiced going awwwwwww, look how cute ooohhhh, they are so cute, oooohhhh, how tiny....ok you get the point, it's very embarrassing but so you can see the bears I will be brave and post it....don't forget, sound down. We also saw LOADS of deer which I am sure many of you fellow gardeners see more of than you would like and don't have many nice things to say about them. For that I understand, if I had to battle with them in my garden I am sure I would feel the same way but I don't so I really enjoy getting up close to them. My husband on the other hand wished he had his shotgun! A hunters dream.
| One of a million deer we saw that day |
| Ok so I posted a picture of me but this is extremely rare. |
| This was a little hike in the woods along a trail in Cades Cove. My father is the goofy one up front followed by some of the rest of my gang. No worry of startling bears with this gang! They could have heard us coming for miles! |
| This is the John Oliver Cabin built in 1822-23 by the coves first european settlers. |
| This Tom Turkey was calling out to us because we were all calling out to him. |
| Though not wildlife they are beautiful. I can never resist taking pictures of horses. These were horses from the riding stables at Cades Cove. The owners of this stable are decendants of the people who settled there. Next time we come I am going there to do Cades Cove on horseback. They were all right up along the fence so of course we all went over to pet them. |
| My daughter making friends. |
| One of the bears we saw taking a stroll in a field. |
| Ok since this is a blog about gardening I had to throw in a picture of a flower somewhere! This was on a tree but that's all I can tell you. The tree was covered in them and I thought it was a very interesting flower. No smell and the flower was pretty big. So if you know what this is please by all means leave a comment telling us! |
| This was the mama black bear I was talking about. Notice the idiot standing outside his car. This is a mama black bear with 3 cubs...hello! She stood there for a minute or two watching everyone before her cubs crossed. I'm sorry but you are crazy to be standing out of your car that close to a mother bear! Ok now here is the video I told you I would post. This was shot with my camera and so please excuse the poor quality. Remember now sound off! lol |
So that my friends was my a glimps of my vacation minus the Dollywood pictures (which I only took like 2 of as we were a little busy riding rides, which let me just say that the Mystery Mine is so AWSOME oh and Thunderhead LOVE IT! ok that's all...oh wait the new Barnstormer...did that like 5 times! Ok that's all). I miss getting into my garden, still have those 3 plum trees to plant and other plants to transplant around the garden and oh ya 4 roses that are still waiting to be planted. I will post some pictures of some plants I took pictures of in the garden before I left last week. So much to do and so little time as I am heading off to the Dominican Republic in 2 1/2 weeks for 12 days to see my dearest of dear friends who are there as missionaries to the Haitian living there. Thankfully the weather has still been beautiful here so maybe I can still get some good gardening time in before the humid summer weather kicks in! Thanks for stopping by hopefully I get some down time between schooling my kids and getting caught up on laundry to visit your blogs.