Living on Cloud Nine: Gatlinburg

What a fun time in Gatlinburg Tennessee over the holidays! This is the first time we’ve gone on an away vacation with Mr. Nine’s sister and family and we had a ball! It was so wonderful to spend some quality time with them and for the cousins to enjoy each other’s company!

Bro snd Sis look so much alike

We did want crisp air and snow but it was a balmy 65-70, so while nice, a big nada on the white stuff.

We have been to Gatlinburg before and some of you know it’s where we eloped to, but we had not been back in years, so this was a treat! Except for one thing! The switchbacks were the death of me and I thought for sure we would go over the mountain on several occasions! Here are some of my favorite things we did in order of their occurrence.

Hiking

Luckily, both of our families love to hike, and we have an obsession with finding water on our hikes so the trails to waterfalls were inevitable. One of them, Mr. Nine and I had done before but the other one was new to us and they were both beautiful. Funny thing was the one called Abrams Falls noted on the sign that it took 3 to 4 hours, but it was getting close to dark and we were able to do it in just two, we are speedy like that! I don’t know if the kids loved as many miles as we put in but we sure were proud of ourselves!

The "Girl's" before the hikes..we're outnumbered.

Lil Fun around town before our hikes

SkyBridge

OK, this is where I was scared blank less! The longest suspension bridge in the country opened in May 2019 in Gatlinburg. It is basically a swinging bridge with the glass bottom middle and metal across the mountain. Not only was I scared to death to go up the ski lift type thingy straight up but this bridge had me frightful. However, I was able to conquer my fear and it was actually so so cool. Talk about being proud of myself!

The other side! We DID IT!!

The glass portion..eek. it looks like the dirt is right under you in this pic but it's hundreds of feet down.

Beautiful pic my niece took

Ole Red

After our SkyBridge trek, we were starving, and we were excited to try Ole Red for lunch as it had been a two hour wait the night before. If you’re not familiar, Ole Red is an older song by Blake Shelton and he opened this restaurant in Gatlinburg along with one just like it in Nashville. It features scrumptious home cooking and awesome live entertainment. We just loved the band as they played all new and old-school country.
The homemade tater tots were to die for!

They were fantastic!

Playing Games & Being with family

Both of our families also love to play games. We played everything from Yahtzee to Quiplash which is a fun interactive phone game with the TV screen, to heads up to rummy and of course some trivia.

Yahtzee was a fav

And Mini Golf was a blast even though we lost. 2 of our team got a hole in one and Mr. Nine got 2!

Meeting Nadine

Talk about a bonus! You know I love to meet my favorite bloggers in real life when I can. When Nadine from Life By Nadine Lynn and I found out we were both going to be in Gatlinburg at the same time, we knew we had to make a meet up happen. This girl is just as genuine and sweet in person as she is on her blog. And bonus, I got to meet her beautiful daughter Zoe, who is born on one of our sons’ birthdays and her cool husband Chris who I’m sure you all know from some of her blog posts. Nadine found the perfect area to meet called the Village and the best hot chocolate and donuts from the Donut Friar. Such a blessing to meet my wonderful blog friends like Nadine, who I have known since the beginning of my blog journey. I just love this girl!

The Island

After I left Nadine, it was time for lunch with my crew. Mr. Nine's sister and family were attending mass and doing lunch on their own. Ironically, Nadine mentioned a great place to go in Pigeon Forge called the Island where there were all kinds of shops, water displays rides and games. How funny is it that out of all those places, our family ended up seated by us at the same restaurant! We had a ball at the Island. After doing the skybridge, I was actually excited yet still a little fearful to do the big Ferris wheel. We also went to Ole Smoky and did the moonshine tasting with the boys that are over 21 and it was a blast!

Found some big balls, lol!

The cornbread and sweet butter and my salad was so good!

View from the Ferris Wheel

JT...our moonshine taste master

Cheers with our mini moonshines

Just a pickin' and a grinin'!

Log Chapel

We knew long before we planned this trip that we wanted to show our boys where we eloped to. Luckily, our Log chapel was not destroyed by the Gatlinburg fires. It looked a little worn, but it had some new decking added on and we were able to get some pictures and walk around the property. So fun to reminisce on the lovely little chapel where we got married. We knew we wanted to spend some more time with family playing games, so it was another quiet night at home and wanting to get back to the cabin before dark because the switchbacks are even worse to drive on in the dark!

Another bonus, the road intersecting ours was called Daisy Lane with an additional homemade sign with daisies on it. It felt so comforting to think that Daisy was watching over us on the mountain.

Here is a picture of our cabin which was perfect for our families and a link if you’re interested in renting it. RENT CABIN HERE

One last morning view..

HAPPY WEEK FORWARD. MAY YOUR VIEW OF THE WEEK BE PEACEFUL!!

LINKING-UP with Creative Muster Party // Metamorphosis Monday// Tuesday Talk with Erika and Ashley // Love your Creativity // Hello Monday // Inspire Me Tuesday // Encouraging Hearts and Home

Whoo Hoo friends, Friday is here!!! When I saw Momfessionals was ding a Shoe and Tell Tuesday on favorite vacations I decided to link this up as it got me thinking about the favorite places I've been and where I want to go. I think part of the fun of vacation is the anticipation and the daydreaming of what it will be like and The saving up to make it happen. Here are five of my favorite destinations and four I would like to go to someday equaling NINE, of course.

1. Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman

I have been to a few Caribbean Islands and I must say, this was by far my favorite. Beautiful, safe and each meal more yummier that the last. A beach vacation is definitely my favorite of them all.

2. Florence, Italy

My sweet husband took me to Italy for a milestone birthday of mine. You know how you picture a place in your mind or in the movies and it turns out NOT to be that way? Well, let me tell ya, Italy was exactly as I pictured and MORE!! Cobble stoned streets, amazing architecture, fountains, food and wine to die for and charming, oh, so charming. Our favorite city was Florence. It was a tad more quaint and had an old earthy feel. Plus, the BEST Gelato!

3. Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Well, you see, this is where Mr. Nine and I were married...in a Little Log Cabin and we truly love the mountains, which we don't get much of in our neck of the woods. Good ole' Gatlinburg Tennessee. We've had some adventures here like a downpour hiking back from a waterfall but Beautiful scenery, lovely dinners and we stay in a.....yep, a LOG cabin!!

4. New York City, New York

Every five years, for her milestone birthday, I take my mom on a surprise trip somewhere special. A fave was New York City. Whew, we probably needed a vacation from our vacation, we did so much running around....& shopping. However, it was a blast and fantastic memory. Kelly Ripa, Today Show, Wicked, Times Square, the Subway, Sex in the City movie taping, Tons more celebs, Jacques Torres Chocolate, great eats, new friends....but best of all AMAZING shopping. It's not just high end folks, NYC had it all. We work for the same hospital and they even did a story on us because we met so many celebrities. Here's a pic from our photo shoot and one with Kelly (we are so giddy in that one that our smiles are ridiculously cheesy)

5. Lake Michigan~Small town on the Shore

So sorry but I cannot divulge the name of our quaint lake town just yet. We go there every summer and it is the most relaxing place on the planet. The sunsets are even better than the Caribbean. Sometime, we will be living there part of the year and our memories of this town are so special. At some point I will devote a whole post to this town and how we stumbled upon it. It's a gem!