Our Spring Break Adventure

I am finally getting around to blogging about our trip. I realize that our trip was like two weeks ago, but better late than never. I know that most of you could care less about seeing pictures of my family and what we did and didn’t do on vacation, but my mother would kill me if I didn’t post some. So the rest of you will have to suck it up and deal with it.lol

We headed out about 4 a.m. on Monday morning the 16^th. We were headed to Gatlinburg TN to test out their new indoor water park. Twelve hours later we arrived. I know, GASP Gatlinburg is only like a three to four hour drive, but Adam and I really wanted to check out a few places on the way up and our first stop was the Cheraholla Sky way, with its claim to fame being the mountain in the clouds. Which I might add was worth the extra time other than all the damn curves on the other side of it. I should have known when all the gift shops were not promoting the beautiful sky way but the piece of road that followed it. This road as they called it (which was really a pig trail carved into the side of a very large mountain) boasted 117 curves in 11 miles. I will stop now and tell you all that I get car sick, never did until I got pregnant with Noah and ever since I can turn green at the mention of flying down a curvy mountain. I don’t care who you are, you would have gotten car sick on this damn pig trail. These were not just curves, but kiss your ass curves (you know, you can kiss your own ass they are so sharp) Needless to say three miles in I was practicing lamas breathing with an old burger king bag between my knees. Only holding my head up long enough to count down the miles as they slowly passed. Slowly is not really the word….crawled by is much more fitting. When we finally got to the bottom I peeled myself off the floor board and got out to check on the boys who themselves looked a little green around the edges only to be told by my wonderful husband that we had missed a turn somewhere and really needed to go back. You do not value your life enough to look at a woman who still looks as if she is going to puke any second, knees wobbling, and is sweating like a buffalo in heat and tell her that we need to do that shit again, seriously leave me here, I’m good. After Adam convinced me to get back in the car and he found it in his best interest to find another way to Gatlinburg we were on our way. We did squeeze in a few more places we had wanted to see and finally made it to our hotel at about 4 p.m. Now I will have to give my kids their props, they were trapped in a car for like twelve hours and were so great about it. They had a lot of energy to run off inside the hotel room, but I felt so bad for them I let them act like a bunch of monkeys.

The next day we headed over to the water park (which I do not have pictures of right now, I took those with a waterproof disposal camera) I will have to say that the indoor water park was a lot better than I thought it would be. They had these really nice lounge chairs and bungalows that were close enough you could let your kids go play, keep them in your eye sight and still relax a little. They have a very nice lazy river that circles the entire place. Two different play areas based on age, two great water slides, three different pools of varying depths and three hot tubs two inside and one attached but outside. We stayed there until Noah and Joseph looked like prunes and Adam and I had had all the water fun we could stand. We did manage to do some walking around down town Gatlinburg, had a nice dinner, and then it was back to the hotel so that anal me could go ahead and pack up for the next leg of our journey.

We headed out the next morning for Boone, NC to go snow tubing. Just in case y’all didn’t know there is not much in Boone, it is a college town and that is about all it has going for it. Well that and a really great delivery pizza joint. Their food was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. and the guy who owns it is from England with the best accent and he even complemented me on mine and guessed I was from GA. Weird and something you probably didn’t need to know. Moving along, we all were really excited heading over to Sugar Mountain, we didn’t really know what to except. We got exactly what you think you would get going snow tubing. A large two lane snow slope and a bunch of slick ass tubes. This old Indian who ran this place gave us a few simple rules before we started, which I will now relay to you just for future reference: 1. Don’t stand up in the middle of the slope (ya think) 2. Don’t go past the black line at the bottom of the slope. Put your heels down to stop yourself and 3. Do not walk on the magic carpet, just ride it to the top and get off. Ok, sounds simple enough. What this little old Indian didn’t bother to mention is that it is hard as hell to stop a fast flying tube on any part of the slick ass slope. Standing was not an option even if you could do it. When you put your heels down cold, dirty wet snow will shoot up your pants leg and last it is practically impossible to stop a fat chick on a tube holding a screaming kid in the other tube on some imaginary black line he swore was at the bottom of that damn slope. As Adam was recovering Noah and I from the back side of the embankment that we were not supposed to go down, he asked “How did y’all go so fast, Joseph and I couldn’t get going like that” To which I reply “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, put a fat chick in a slick tub count on the Indian at the top to give your ass a good hard shove and there you go” Then came this magic carpet I had heard so much about and was really looking forward to, it meant that I didn’t have to haul not only my behind, but Noah’s and our tubs back up the slope. Once again that wonderful little Indian failed to mention that this thing was really an escalator with no handles and that the instant your feet touched it, they would be jerked out from under you which would result in the domino effect. Needles to say me, Adam, Noah and poor little Joseph looked like a bunch of flopping fish on an assembly line. Fun times, Oh fun times just let me tell ya! In all honesty it was fun. All of my boys enjoyed themselves and were tuckered out when we were done.

For me the highlight of this trip was the quaint little town of Blowing Rock. I loved this place. Every building there was made of brick or stone. Perfect little side walks with perfect little shops and a great little pub. There was not a spot in town that the out lying mountains were not in view. It was wonderfully beautiful. If I could pick a place to retire and live out my days, it would be there.

Well that pretty much sums up our trip. We all had a great time and it was good to get away as a family. Now, on to some pictures.