weekend getaway

Ok, so here's the "rest of the story". I have a couple videos I would LOVE to upload for this post, however, I can't seem to get them to upload. :( Which is why it took me so long to write this post. So for now, I'll just stick with the pictures, which are still pretty cool in and of themselves. :)

To help celebrate Daniel's graduation, this past weekend my parents, brother, and I went up to Gatlinburg for the weekend. Mom and Dad had never stayed in a cabin up there in the 25 years we've lived here! How that happened, I'm not sure! So Daniel and I fixed that. Actually, it was a weekend of a lot of firsts for them!

Neither my parents nor my brother had ever eaten at the Hard Rock Cafe so that's where we went Friday night. I had this incredibly delicious non-alcoholic drink and got to keep the glass! Daniel got a glass just like it. I like Hard Rock...however it was definitely a, um, experience for my parents! Not exactly their kind/volume of music.... :}

Saturday morning we just hung out at the cabin for a while. Daniel tries his best not to be caught smiling when a camera is around...but I caught him! :} The cabin was beautiful and clean and decorated very well - not completely crowded with "Smoky Mountain" type stuff (for example - no plaid couches :-p but instead nice leather ones like the one in this pic!).

Then it was off to explore Gatlinburg. There was a fine arts festival going on out in front of the aquarium and we all enjoyed wandering around that for a while. It was pretty hot in the bright sun though so we cooled off with some refreshing drinks...and a sno cone later - yum! :)

Mom and Dad's next new experience was the Ripley's Aquarium. Mom even crawled in to view this fish tank from the inside! :) I had been to this aquarium before, but I still enjoyed going. The tunnel is probably my favorite part, although I think mom enjoyed the moving sidewalk more than the sharks and fish swimming above our head! Lol.

Next we headed up to the tram station that would take us up to Ober Gatlinburg. Michael met us there to hang out with us for the evening and he had never riden on the tram before. It's a fun ten minute ride up and we even got to see the, er, happy bears (sorry, inside joke...ask me in person if you want to hear the story...heehee) that they have in a large outdoor cage at the top. The two attractions we had come to see up at the top ended up being closed due to a storm moving in so we hung out and walked around the small little indoor mall and watched the skaters on the ice skating rink. We wandered in to one store where Michael discovered they sold all kinds of flags for almost every country! He uses these in his classroom since he teaches history and geography and was ecstatic to discover that the flags at this store were even cheaper than the ones he had found at a local store here that were 40% off! Soo, after loading up on several flags and even getting one for free from the very nice store owner, Michael was a very happy teacher. :)

After that we headed back to our cabin while Mom and Dad went grocery shopping for dinner and missed the most incredible, best part of our weekend! Daniel and I gave Michael the "grand tour" of the cabin and ended up on the upstairs balcony. Daniel went back inside while Michael and I sat on the rocking chairs just chatting for a couple minutes. I was in mid-sentence when I looked over, spotted something moving, gasped, and about scared Michael to death! This is what I saw:

BEARS!! There were three in all and we think one was the mama bear and two were cubs...although, more like "teenager" cubs by their size. It was sooo very cool! It's hard to explain the path they took without being able to use my hands to help describe it :) but they made a huuge circle around three cabins - ours being the middle one.

Pondering upon which way to go next.... :)

I love this pic! :) I know they are wild and not safe at all...but this one just looks so cute and furry - just like a teddy bear. :) This was the mama bear. The two cubs went down in the woods and behind our cabin...but the mama bear used the tree that you can juust see in the right corner of this pic as a scratching post (which would be one of the videos I can't figure out how to upload!!) and then...

...walked right behind our cabin...

...and over to the next cabin where by this time, the family staying there had caught sight of them.

Then the two other bears joined the one to watch the guys taking their picture for a minute before continuing on around the back of their cabin and around to the front. At that point we ran to the front porch to watch and I turned on the video part on my camera (the other video I want to upload!) and we watched as the mama bear stood up and completely tipped over the "bear-proof" trashcan in this cabin's driveway! It was amazing and kind of funny! The trashcans are actually placed in a metal "cage" that is locked, so the bear didn't actually get into any of the trash - but it took a lot of strength just to knock it over!

Anyways, it was a fun weekend and hopefully it won't be 25 more years before Mom and Dad stay in another cabin in Gatlinburg! :)