Vacation in the Smokies

For Spring break we went on a no-work vacation for the entire week. We went out to Tennessee, rented a cabin, and did a variety of shopping, hiking, driving, site seeing, and sitting. :) My parents and Ron and JoAnn came along also, and I think we all had a stupendous time. Here are some snippets of our trip.

Here's the view from the porch of our cabin:



The first day, Ron and JoAnn were still on their way in, so Tim, Maya, mom, dad, and I went out to petting zoo. We got a chance to feed goats, reindeer, camels, horses, zebras, and some other things I appear to have forgotten. They also had some kangaroos and wallabies. Maya loved feeding the reindeer.



The second day, Tim, dad, and Ron went on the Ramsey Cascades hike (4 miles in, 4 miles back, 2000 foot elevation change). I hear it was beautiful, but taxing:





The ladies went on a shopping trip and stopped for tea:



On Wednesday, we all went together to Asheville, NC to see the Biltmore. Our friend Jamie drove out from Charlotte to meet us:





Thursday we went to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg (which was suprisingly impressive), and then Tim and I went on a short hike along the Appalachian trail. In the evening, we all went to the Dixie Stampede.






Friday, dad and Ron played golf. Tim did an 11 mile historical walk through the park; mom, JoAnn, Maya, and I did the same thing in the car. :) Then the group of us did an "easy" hike (it was paved) up to a different waterfall.





Saturday, we all headed different directions. Tim, Maya, and I drove through the park to North Carolina and on to see our friends Jamie and Richard in Charlotte. On Sunday, they took us to the US National Whitewater Center (where the US olympians train). We had a great visit with them and then headed home Sunday afternoon.