After breakfast and showers, we headed out to spend another day in the Smoky Mountain National Park. But if yesterday taught
us anything, it was the importance of staying flextible. So after being stuck in traffic for 1:15 hrs and
only travelling 8.7 miles, we decided to stop there and spend the day in Gatlinburg
instead.
We found a place to park and walked to the an
air tram ride to the top of the mountain. After the 10 min ride, travelling appx 17 mph,
we arrived near the top of the mountain at Ober Gatlinburg.
First the kids wanted to take a ride on the swings.
Then we took a turn on the alpine sleds.
Next we headed in for lunch and then took a quick walk
through their animal preserve.
We headed back down the mountain and back to our motorcoach
for a quick rest time before heading out for our helicopter ride. This was a highlight for me! It was an 60-mile tour covering Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, the Smoky Mountiain National Park and then the return trip. There isn’t nearly enough room for all the pictures… but let’s just
summarize by saying it was beautiful! I’m
so glad we did it. Tyler sat shotgun beside the pilot and loved every minute of it!
After our ride, we headed home and fired up the grill for
some Ribeyes right from Sobies. We
watched the recording of the dinner show we went to the other night, highlighting
Sammy and Tyler’s cameo. After enjoying
a bowl of ice cream, our neighbor Mr Doolittle invited us over to watch the
fireworks from Dollywood (from afar). We
did and then it was a bedtime story and tuck in.
Today was another great day!
My favorite quotes from today:
- "I miss my cats..."(We all pause thinking how sweet that was) "But I want to stay here forever"
- (At the top of the alpine slide) Me: Sammy you remember how to drive these right. Sammy: yup. See, there's a sign (pointing to the directions between her legs in the cart)
- Scott: Sammy, keep the gun inside the window while we drive (pause). Wow, I thought she'd be older before I had to say that!
- Sammy: this is my best day ever (as the helicopter takes off)
- (We couldn't figure out why Tyler didn't stop talking the entire time we were in the helicopter.) When I asked him why afterwards... Tyler: "well, I didn't want it to be awkward... you know, the silence?!?". We explained that it's totally ok, if not preferred, to have long stretches of silence while using pilot headphones. To which he replied, "oh, sorry". Ahaha
