Romantic Mountain Getaway

After spending a few days doing fun things with the girls around home, Tim and I left them with grandparents and headed to the mountains to finish our Spring Break. Thanks Meme and Daddy Bill and Granny and Granddaddy. We had such a great time. The mountains are so beautiful. This is our third year in a row to go there. We love Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and all the neat things they have to offer, but our favorite reason for going is the explore the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Below is a pic of me on one of our geocaching stops in Georgia on our way to the Tennessee mountains.

We loved this beautiful mountain view in Georgia, which really got us excited about completing the drive to get to the Smokies.

On our second day in Gatlinburg, we made a short hike in the park and saw tons of abandoned cabins and homes that were taken over by the government to preserve the park. They were beautiful places -- so many of them perched right next to the water.

We stopped at this house that had tons of daffodils in full bloom all over the front yard. It was so pretty. I have never seen so many daffodils in one place.

Here's a view of the house with daffodils surrounding it.

In the middle of a row of cabins was this tiny cabin. We guess it was a play house for the kids of one of the cabins next door.

Here's a look inside the tiny cabin. It even had a fireplace.

The next day we went on a couple more short hikes. This one took us to an old school house. It was neat.

The school was sitting on the bank of a stream. It was so pretty that we stopped and took a pic.

Here's another pic of the stream at the school house from the other direction.

Then we took another hike to a corn mill perched right on the side of the stream. Of course, they used the water to run the mill. You can see the hollowed out log in the foreground that brought the water to the mill. It was such a pretty spot.

I could have stood there and listened to the sound of the water forever. I know we are going to have a ball this summer on our family vacation to the beach, but it is going to be hard to beat to spectacular views of the Smoky Mountains.

Here's a shot of the mill, which has stood the test of time.

The third day we took a scenic driving tour. It was beautiful, but I can just imagine how great it would be in the fall. Tim and I decided we would come back in the fall one year real soon.

Here's another stop we made on the that driving tour. It seemed every curve we went around we would find another beautiful spot. The pictures just don't do it justice.

At the end of that day, we went for a cache called "a view from heaven." That's exactly what it looked like up there. Here's a pic.

On the way home, we took another short hike to Look Rock. It was a great hike.

Here is a view from Look Rock at the Maryville/Friendsville area below.

The view from the other side gave us the mountains, including a view of Clingman's Dome where we went on a short hike last year with the girls. It is the tallest point in the Smokies.

On our last night of vacation, we dressed up and had a special night out. Before eating supper, we decided to go back on the driving tour to take some sunset pictures.

The mountain view at sunset was absolutely beautiful. I wished it had lasted longer.

Here's a silhouette of us as the sun was setting.