Road Trip 2011 {Gatlinburg}

Road Trip 2011 {Gatlinburg}

Post two of our Road Trip 2011 adventure. 
Go here to check out post one.

We chose to stay in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Smokies were spectacular and the highlight of our trip. I wish we could have spent more time in the park. Gatlinburg wasn't exactly my favorite place probably because I'm not interested in most of the things the town offered. I've heard there are more family-friendly things in Pigeon Forge, which is only a few miles away. As a kid I went to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge.  My grandpa is a huge Dolly fan!  I remember it rained the day we visited the park, but I loved it anyway.

We only stayed in Gatlinburg for two days and the majority of that time was spent in the national park. We choose Gatlinburg because of its nearness to the entrance of the park.

I LOVED the place we stayed. Mark found it on the internet. We couldn't decide if we should rent a cabin that was privately owned or if we should stay at the Smoky Mountain Resort. I'm so glad we chose the resort. It was very clean and had a great location.  Both of those were very important to me.  It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, dining area, full kitchen and a washer/dryer. It had all the amenities of a cabin plus the bonus of guest services, maintenance, full-time hotel staff and covered parking. The covered parking might sound silly until you are in the middle of a torrential downpour. One day there was a crazy rainstorm and it was great to have covered parking so we didn't get soaking wet unloading the kids and our gear from the car.

We only walked to the main strip in Gatlinburg one night and the funnel cake was the highlight of the evening.

The whole gang getting ready to walk down to Gatlinburg.  Ben, Mark, Jerry, Will and Carol.

I had to share this photo of Mark. The Dallas Mavericks were in the NBA finals and so many people kept stopping Mark to talk about the game because of his t-shirt. Everyone said they were going for the Mavs and hated the Heat. We agreed!

I really liked all of the vintage hotel signs in Gatlinburg.

As I mentioned before, the other highlight of Gatlinburg was where we stayed.

The next photos are of our room.

Here's the dining room and living room.  There was plenty of space for all six of us.

This is the master suite.  Mark and I shared it with the boys.

This is the balcony off the master suite, which also has an entrance from the living room.

Here are my two sleepy heads.

Mark's parents stayed in this room.  There was a bathroom just outside the door of this bedroom that they used.

This was the view from our balcony.  Beautiful! 
Now you can see why they call it the Smoky Mountains.

Tomorrow I'll share photos of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.