Dollywood Take 2!

Saturday we went to Dollywood for round 2 and found our sweet friend Sutten Grace!  Sutton is our friend from Louisiana who moved to Tennessee and in reality we had been in cahoots with her parents in planning this meet up!  The kids were so excited to see each other!  The night ended with swimming and turning the picnic table into a construction site.

Dollywood Take 1!

After checking out of the national park we checked into our "city" camping site in Pigeon Forge and got situated.  Once that was finished we headed out to Dollywood.  Dollywood does this awesome thing where you by a ticket after 3 pm and you get in the park for the rest of that night and all of the next day!  We had a great time learning the lay of the land.

Cades Cove Loop

We spent our last morning in the park doing Cades Cove Loop.  I wish we would have had more time!  It was so awesome to see all the old homesteads and to imagine what life was like back then.  We even saw a bear crossing the road 2 cars in front of us!  Who then climbed up a nearby tree and finished by running across the field!

White Water Rafting

While in the mountains we thought it would be the perfect time to take the kids on their first white water rafting trip!  I found a family float so we were set!  We were lucky enough to get a raft to ourselves and our guide was a true mountain man!  The kids loved every minute and were wishing for more rapids!  Yay, little adventure seekers!

Hike to Clingman's Dome

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Our second stop on our vacation was Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Our site was absolutely perfect!  It backed up to a little stream and felt very private.  The tent pad also made a great construction site!  Our first day there was pretty rainy so we headed to town, Gatlinburg, to look around and grab groceries.  We may have made a little pit stop and sampled some moonshine!

 

4th of July