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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Weekend in the mountains....

For the first time since Reese was born...Kim and I spent the night (both of us) away from home! Wow!

Thursday, October 21st was our 15th anniversary so we ended up in the mountains of East Tennessee. I have to comment on the cheese factor in Pigeon Forge now but all in all the trip was a great time. More on the cheese later....check the pics.

First....this was our cabin. Probably one of the coolest places that we have stayed with it being site-unseen. It did not disappoint.









 Second....was Cade's Cove. It was beautiful. I could have posted about 400 pics from there but the camera doesn't do the foliage justice. Instead....I took a pic in a water trough for a cool effect.



Then...We went to the top of the park. Clingman's Dome.

I don't recall ever going here - Mom and Dad may correct me but if we went it didn't impress me at the time or we couldn't see anything. The day we were there was a brilliant day and you could see for MILES. What was really inspiring was that old folks with OXYGEN were climbing this 1/2 mile incline to see this. When they say this is a strenuous hike...it's strenuous. We climbed it pretty quickly but I was sucking wind the whole way. What was also very cool was the intense smell of...well...Christmas trees. I'm not so city-stupid that I don't call them evergreens or conifers or whatever in the hell the country boy term is but it smelled like a giant Christmas farm up there. Or a Yankee Candle....It made me think that I want Reese to understand her surroundings. To realize that these trees smell like what we think Christmas smells like....all the time. And that Christmas tree farms in the middle of a Walmart parking lot is NOT where your trees truly come from. But there's more....we walked on the "AT". Appalachian Trail for those not following along with my citified ways. Truthfully we only walked about 1/2 a mile on the A.T. but we turned off and went back to the parking lot. Didn't bring along the essentials for a long hike and I ended up getting sick Saturday and Sunday - carried into Monday and Tuesday - so I'd have been up the creek on a hike. The hot tub was calling me. 









 And this was our view from the cabin porch....Awesome view in the evenings.


4 comments:

Papa Hall said...

Great pics and I know Kim and yourself had a great time and I know you missed Reese the whole time! In Cades Cove did your trigger finger start twitching on that buck or did the camera shutter button suffice? And you are correct we never have made that hike to Clingman's Dome ! Happy 15th Anniversary and May you have many, many more Anniversary Weekends together! Love , MawMaw Em and Papa Hall

Anonymous said...

Adam, great pictures, its funny you say that about the christmas trees, thats exactly what cohen said the first time we were in the mountains here, in the middle of august he kept saying, i smell christmas everywhere,,, happy anniversary

Judith said...

Happy Anniversary! I remember that day very well!! Hope you have many, many more and I know Nana and Reese had a good time together too! Love you!

Anonymous said...

Looks like you had a great time away for your anniversary. I know you missed Reese, but she was safe with Nana. Cades Cove is so peaceful and the views are wonderful. How I wished we'd made that hike to Clingman's Dome years ago before my knee became an issue. Maybe in a couple more years we can do it. It does smell like Christmas the closer you get to the top. Happy Anniversary and many many more to both of you. Makes me want to go to the Smokies now! Love you so much, Mawmaw Em