Surprise Anniversary Trip

Thought I'd share a little something different with y'all today.  I hope you enjoy.

Photos of Our Cabin

Our anniversary was in November and my dear, sweet hubby totally surprised me with a trip to beeeeautiful Gatlinburg, TN.  He had booked a 4 day stay in a log cabin way high up on a mountain just outside of Pigeon Forge.  I was beside myself with joy, how he kept it a secret for 3 months I will never know.  I've always wanted to go to Gatlinburg plus I love mountains of any kind so it couldn't have been anymore perfect.

Little man even got to go with us as the hubs ensured he rented a pet-friendly cabin.  Gizmo didn't care where we were going so long as he was with us, even sleeping between us in the car, it's all good to him.  Our little old man, bless his heart.

When the rental company, Hearthside Cabins, stated that this cabin was not for the faint of heart because of it's altitude and the way it's situated on the mountain...they aren't kidding.  Even my husband, who is by no stretch of the imagination easily rattled, had white knuckles and a frightened look on his face during our ascension.  I thought we were going to slide off the side of the mountain, crash and die...literally.  But we made it and I have to admit it was totally worth the terror.  The view was amazing.

Think I'm exaggerating?  In the photo above, look to the left...see that road going up...yeah...puts the fear of God into ya.  And it's like that the whole way up, about a minute and a half...at 5 miles per hour, with the most extreme (blind) hairpin turns you've ever seen.  Oh and did I mention it's one lane the entire way up?  I don't know what would happen of you met a car coming towards you...someone would have to back up and I shudder to even think of going backwards, forward was bad enough.

We didn't waste anytime getting to Gatlinburg the next day...I fell in love with that town, every where I looked there was beauty.  The architecture, the people, the sites, the views...etc.  The perfect town.

Look at that building, is that not beautiful?

We went during the first week of November so we got a little bit of everything, Autumn leaves, chilly weather and Christmas decor.  Oh my, those folks know how to do Christmas!  This was in The Village, I adored all of the shops, there was a Thomas Kincaid gallery in there and I wanted to buy every painting I saw.

Here's the hubs, posing at the fountain with Gizmo...yes we had to use a doggy stroller, Gizmo is just to old to do any serious walking. :(  But he was diggin' his stroller, such a pampered little man.

And here I am in Santa's sleigh.  It takes my husband a while to take a picture and I got tired of smiling, lol.  Of course he clicks as soon as my smile faded.

We made a point to be back at the cabin before it got dark because there was no way neither one of us wanted to attempt that drive in the dark.  Plus, after all the touring, by then we were tired, hungry and ready to get back and eat and relax in front of the fire.

The rental company provided all the wood, the cabin truly was pleasant, they thought of everything.

The next day we ventured out to Cade's Cove, a must see if you're ever near The Great Smoky Mountain's National Park.  We must have gone through 20 of these little tunnels through the mountains, they're everywhere.

Cade's Cove is home to all manner of mountain wildlife.  We were hoping to see a bunch of them too but every living thing seemed to be hiding, except for a few deer and through the car window I snapped the following photo, can you see it?

Cade's Cove also has numerous historic buildings, the one below was my favorite, it's called the Tifton Place.

I would have liked to venture out and tour a few of the cabins but we were burning daylight and it was raining on and off so we saved the grand tour for our next trip.

The 3rd day was the BIG mountain drive, up we went to Newfound Gap and Clingman's Dome.  I was in Heaven.

We went from this at the cabin:

To this:

Wow!  You can't beat that with a stick.  These mountains may be smaller than the Rockies but they are so much more beautiful.  The trees, oh mercy at the beautiful Christmas trees everywhere...and they were all real and still growing!

Here is where I first noticed the "snow line".  Wow!

Look at that!  I was like a kid in a candy store.  The hubs had no doubt that I was thrilled with the whole trip.

The road was slick but it was just wet, no ice.  I was still a little freaked out considering the drop off that was  ever present on one side of the car.

Here's another view of that road, yeah that little squiggly line you see is the road we were on way down there:

Holy moly right?  Yeah, we were definitely way up there now.

There's my two sweethearts.  Pictures do not do these mountains justice.  They are SO big.  Until you're in them you really don't realize just how big they really are.

Here we are at Clingman's Dome:

Gizmo was steady barking, it was windy, it was snowing and it was 29 degrees, I don't think he was happy but Daddy had him bundled up in his coat.

Back at the cabin that night we had an unexpected visitor, we were hoping to see bears as some folks have but all we saw was this little raccoon:

I've never stayed in a "real" log cabin and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.  The whole "cabin thing", I was digging it.  The beams were monstrously big and you could literally smell wood.  Loved it!

The views really couldn't be beat, I can't imagine another cabin topping it.  The photo below was taken early in the morning the (sad) day that we had to leave all that perfection behind.

And the sun showed up to say, "come back soon".

I mean can you imagine living in such a place?  Where you would be blessed with these views and this beauty everyday?  To me there's nothing on earth more beautiful than mountains, all the nature, all the wildlife, the seasons...there really are no words to adequately describe it.

I know I've thanked him many times, but I will thank him again now...thank you Terry for the most memorable trip of my life, you truly are one of a kind and I love you very much.

Thanks to all of my readers for sharing our trip, I hope you enjoyed the retelling and the photos.  I took about 200 but only shared a few of the highlights, wouldn't want to bore y'all. ;)

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Weekend Bloggy Reading - Amanda @ Serenity Now