Best. Vacation. EVER!!!

Got home yesterday from the Great Smoky Mountains, and let me tell you, it was AWESOME!! We had such a wonderful time, and I can't wait to go back.

We were such tourists while we were down there. We rode most of the rides, and shopped, and ate, and hung out in the hot tub. I'm glad to be home though.

We drove down to London Thursday night, and stayed with Donnie's parents. We made our way to Tennessee on Friday morning. We drove through Cades Cove, and saw probably 60 deer and a wild turkey. Once we got to Gatlinburg, we checked into our cabin. It was located about 14 miles from downtown, and it was soo cute! Located right next to a stream, so we had the sound of running water all weekend.

We went downtown, and started right in with the fun stuff. We rode Ripley's Moving Theater, took the ski lift up the mountain, went to the top of the Space Needle, and had a wonderful dinner at Lineberger's Seafood Company.

Saturday, I cooked breakfast at the cabin, all the good stuff, biscuits and gravy, sausage, and eggs. Then we went to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. WOW!! It's been a while since I've been to an aquarium. It was amazing! Stunning fish, lots of sharks, giant spider crabs, and stingrays.

After the aquarium, we went on the tramway to Ober Gatlinburg. That was pretty cool, too, although the ride up wasn't as good as the ride down. On the way up, we were two of the last people to get on the tramcar, and we couldn't see anything from the middle of the car. On the way down, we were among the first on, so we got to stand right at the front by the windows.

Once we were down, we had lunch, and then went back to the cabin for naps.

We went back downtown later that afternoon, and did some shopping, then it was back to the cabin. I forgot how tiring it was to sightsee! You do have to walk everywhere in Gatlinburg.

We spent Sunday making our way back home, stopping in Pigeon Forge and Seiverville for more shopping. We got home around 3:30, and I was worn out! Vacation can be exhausting!

I'm so glad that we went. We had perfect weather, and a perfect time, and I'm so grateful that Donnie took me for my first time to Gatlinburg. It was amazing!

Running to the mountains...

Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?! We were enjoying a beautiful day outside, playing cars and trucks.

I'm getting ready for our trip to Gatlinburg today. We are leaving this afternoon, heading to London to spend the night with Donnie's parents, and then we will head to Gatlinburg tomorrow morning. I'm really excited about it! I'm just amazed at how much stuff we're bringing. I've been obsessively checking weather.com to make sure that the weather will be nice. I've packed three knitting projects, and we're going to a yarn store, so I should be able to get through the weekend without running out of knitting.

Speaking of the knitting, I'm almost done with the first sock, and I'm hoping that I will have the second sock started this weekend. The lace scarf is now languishing in the knitting bag, so it's coming along, too. I'll take pictures of everything this weekend, hopefully out in the nature.

Professionally, things are looking up as well. I went to the Keeneland spring meet job fair this past Tuesday, and they want me to come in for Captains training next. Their captains are like dining room managers. The director of dining services, who I interviewed with, said that if they didn't have a captain's position that suited me, then I could go to the servers' training. So, more than likely, I will at least be serving at Keeneland this spring meet. I'm excited about it; it feels good knowing that I'm going back to work, especially after not working for so long.

Well, the dryer is done, so I've got laundry to fold. If I have Internet access in the Great Smoky Mountains, I will post updates this weekend. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait till next week!