Smoky Mountain National Park

We knew it wouldn't work to try to have all of us together, all the time.  So everyone came up with things they wanted to do during the day.  We each did a few things with some other family members, and some things on our own.  We enjoyed time together in the morning and again in the evening.

The first morning, Nikki came up and said there was a raccoon on our deck, next to the hot tub.  Sure enough - he was quite comfortable and we let him be.  He hung out there all day and finally left during the night.

Bob and I spent the first day driving through the Park.  We've been to the Smoky Mountains several times, but the beauty there never fails to astound me.

I always enjoy the tunnels in the mountains.

The streams running through the mountains are a never ending source of beauty!

There is moss covering tree trunks and stones.

Wild flowers can be seen all over.

I thought the shadows on the path were so cool!   

We stopped at this working gristmill.

We were surprised to peek inside and find this man playing banjo.  He was very friendly and chatted with us for a few minutes.

As we were leaving, we ran into Aaron, Laura and the girls who were also coming to see the mill.

We saw signs like this throughout the park, where "Bob"  had gotten into trouble.  I thought I should get a picture of one of them.

We stopped at another old settlement that had an old farm, house, blacksmith shop and several other buildings on it.  I find these old buildings so interesting!

Everything was so green there!

The Smoky Mountains

As we finished the day, I couldn't help but think of the song "How Great Thou Art".  We had seen so much beauty that day, that it was hard to take it all in, and I had to thank God for the beautiful creation he gave us.

Bob and I had supper at a restaurant called "The Local Goat".  I had read many reviews saying we needed to check it out.  We had a really good supper there.  I thought the goat murals they had on the wall were pretty fun.

When we came back, Alaina and Ruby were all set to play a game with us.  We've played it with them before - Beanboozled.  You choose a jelly bean and each color can be good or bad; like coconut or dirty dishwater.  As you can see, we had lots of bad ones!  We also had lots of laughs.

And that's enough for today!  More fun tomorrow.