Friday afternoon after Josh worked half a day and I frantically cleaned the house and finished packing, we set off on our whirlwind romantic long weekend miniature vacay holiday!! I was a tad excited. :)
We stopped at Subway for lunch (I'm loving the Turkey Bacon Avocado sandwich!!) and before we knew it we were seeing sights all too familiar:
Instead of going up the Blue Ridge Parkway and coming into Tennessee through Sevierville, we came up the other direction and went through the Foothills Parkway. Beautiful overlooks!!
And we can't take pictures without some silliness:
When we got to our cabin we were SO excited!! It was just as we had hoped, but with one little hitch. We overlooked the fact that the cabin isn't a one bedroom cabin but in fact a
one room cabin! For the two of us, though, that just made it even more perfect! Everything in one big open space made moving about and hanging out together easy. If Josh wanted to sit on the couch and watch TV but I wanted to lay in bed and relax we could do so and still be together! Haha! It was a beautiful cabin with complete privacy and an incredible view of the woods.
The following are 3 photos I took from the couch. They are horrible quality and don't do the details of the cabin any justice, but they do demonstrate how everything was in the same 'room' and easy to get at.
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| Eating nook and fireplace, door to the deck is just to the left. |
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| Kitchen nook, entrance is just to the right. |
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| Bed and bathtub behind the couch. The bathroom is to the left of the bed. |
After we put our things down and got settled, we went to check out the hot tub and rocking chairs on the deck!
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| Source. I'm sorry it's so small! |
To our disappointment, the hot tub was not working! The jets would not come on, but the water was still hot. So, we put in a call to get it looked at and then hopped in anyway! It was nice because it was still warm, but it cooled off and by the next evening it wasn't even as warm as bath water! Apparently it needs a new motor, so we weren't able to use it properly during our stay, but a very sweet phone call from the owner of the cabin promised us a free night or two for our trouble if we decide to come back!
By this time we had worked up quite an appetite! We decided to try a place that was new this year (at least in this location)- Big Daddy's Pizzeria. Guys- it was SO good! The pizza was about the same as what you could expect from Mellow Mushroom; fresh ingredients and fresh taste and delicious. What won me over was our appetizer. They are called Dough Daddies and are basically rolls doctored with garlic and spices and butter and served with their homemade mixture of alfredo and pasta sauce!! My mouth is watering for them again already! My prayer before I ate them was "Weight Watchers forgive me, for I have sinned!!!". Seriously, though. Super duper good.
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| nom |
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| It's shaped like South Carolina! Holla! Excuse my face -_- |
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| nom |
This was by far our most expensive meal, but it was worth it and so yummy!
The next few days were full of fun, sun, snuggling, and putt putt-
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| Instagram- morning coffee with a view. |
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| Breakfast! | |
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| He's making fun of this picture of me from our honeymoon last year: |
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| Goob. |
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| Awesome Barbecue |
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| Barbecue Slider. Delish |
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| Instagram. New Wax Museum. |
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| Snuggled up watching Ace Ventura's When Nature Calls |
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| Putt Putt!!! |
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| He's too tall or I'm too short |
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| Us laying out in the sun. J/k... they're pigs, silly people! |
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| Please excuse the white glow in the dark legs. |
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| He beat me 2/3 times. I got one on him! |
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| One of these things is not like the other... |
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| Breakfast- Red Rooster Pancake House. Cheap and yummy. |
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| Trying to hide my excitement- we're gonna go feed bears! |
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| Herrro!!!! |
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| He's a model |
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| Instagram- We were really hoping he'd fall in! |
We made sure to leave a lasting impression at the putt putt course:
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| Aww |
On our way out Josh told me he wanted to take me to Clingman's Dome. He said it was high up and there was a short walk to this big viewing station and you could see everything. Well I flipping love nature and pretty views so count me in! His short walk was actually a pretty steep climb. For about a mile. Super steep + one mile = me not in shape and about to die. It was beautiful though and we took lots of breaks and I drank lots of water and it was all good! So worth the sunburn (It's hard to remember sunscreen with a 60 degree breeze blowing against your skin. Whoops)-
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| An invasive species of insect is killing the beautiful trees! |
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| I can't wait to share this with my students the next time I teach Ecology! |
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| Amidst the deadly climb. |
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| Finally there. Wind whipping my hair back and forth! |
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| All the dead trees make me very sad. |
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| We got pretty fried. |
Thankfully, one of my fellow Pinterest friends recommended
this to me, and it helped A LOT! It wasn't a miracle cure for sunburn by any means, but it made it feel much better.
So that was our little getaway. Now we are back to reality. I'm eagerly anticipating and planning for projects around the house and events happening in the Fall. I'm looking forward to sharing details with you about those soon. :)
Until then,
