I have eight minutes before I'm off to my last day of Master's classes! And I have plenty of news to share.

On July 3, we found out that Ella is going to be a sister in March . . . or since she was so early, it could even be the end of January/beginning of February.

Last Friday, I met with the superintendent at Bunker to discuss the possibility of an administrative position in their district. She offered me the position of special ed director/A+ coordinator/assistant principal. I accepted and received my contract on Tuesday.

As part of the job change, we're going to have to relocate. We put a sign in the front yard on Monday, and as of Wednesday afternoon, we've had three offers on the house. Unfortunately, I can't get the bank and their broker to value it at what the offers have been, so that's my biggest headache right now. However, the last people who made an offer have cash, so we may not need to worry about it!

Tomorrow on my way to Columbia, I'm meeting with a guy in St. Louis to discuss some land that he has in Annapolis. We've looked at the land, and we just have to pick out the piece that we want. We're meeting him at the land on Monday to make our final decision and hopefully make a deposit and sign a contract.

On Tuesday, we went to Gifford's to pick out a house. We have it ready to order as soon as we close on this house!!!

Gotta go!!!

Checkout was 11:00 am on Saturday, but we all agreed that it was too early to leave the mountains. After all, we still had a few things we wanted to do - like drive through the park, go to Clingman's Dome, and see waterfalls. Two years ago when we returned from our honeymoon, Jessica and I ate lunch at Joe's Crabshack in Asheville late in the afternoon. We left North Carolina at 4:00 PM and made it home around midnight. With that in mind, I suggested that we hang around the area until somewhere around three or four and try to be on the road as soon as possible after that.

We made our check-out time with about ten minutes to spare. After a phone call to the reservations office to tell them we were out and to report a few problems we had found (jacuzzi not working, dead phone, and staples in the carpet on the stairs), we no longer had a cabin to go home to, and we were officially homeward bound. We just didn't have any idea which way we'd go.

We stopped a few times to discuss which route to take (depending on what waterfall(s) we wanted to see) and where to eat (when we realized it was almost noon and we were about to leave civilization for at least four hours). We decided to have lunch at the Old Mill again - it was cheap and the portions were large enough to give us enough strength to make it to the top of Clingman's Dome. We were finally ready to leave Pigeon Forge around 1 PM. Not much time to make it through the whole park!

The whole drive had to be rushed because time was still ticking away. We avoided most of the pull-offs along Newfound Gap Road, and we couldn't stay long at Newfound Gap. Just past the Tennessee/North Carolina state line, the road to the right leads up the mountain to Clingman's Dome - the highest point in the Smoky Mountains. When we made it to the top, we couldn't find James and Jennifer anywhere. They had either missed the turn or done a great job losing us without telling us they wanted to separate! By the time we had Ella unloaded and our shoes changed, we saw them come around the corner. Yep - they had missed the turn!

The half-mile trek up the side of the mountain, though on a paved sidewalk, is treacherous when attempted alone. It's made even worse when you add strollers. Benches along the way provided chances to catch our breath. Once we reached the top of the mountain, a spiraling concrete ramp delivered us to the top of the lookout tower.

When we left the cabin, the temperature was starting to rise and the humidity was becoming unbearable. At over 6,600 feet above sea level, it was a chilly 59 degrees, and the mist of clouds pushed through, brushing our faces as we gazed at lakes and mountain peaks miles away. The experience made it worth the pain we were feeling in our legs.

We left the top of the mountain close to three, and we quickly realized we weren't going to be on the road by four. We finished the drive through the park, coming out in Cherokee, and went to Mingo Falls, just outside of town. I took the opportunity to take a lot of pictures of the large fall and the stream that trickled down the hill, beside the trail.

Before leaving Cherokee, we ate at Paul's Restaurant . . . a small hometown-type steak and burger joint. It was nice to see prices closer to $5.00 after growing accustomed to $20.00 meals. After a final stop for souvenirs on the edge of town, we left Cherokee at 7:40, headed up highway 19 toward Maggie Valley, then hit 276 to the interstate. An hour later, we were back in Tennessee.

A few showers along the way were expected - after all, it had rained seven of the eight days we were in the mountains. I love driving at night because there is less traffic and it is a lot cooler in the dark. I hate driving in rain at night, so I was glad that, the few times we did hit rain, it didn't last long. After over 500 miles, two tanks of gas, four stops, and nine hours, we pulled into the driveway at 4:20 AM on Sunday.

Final picture count: 1410

The Traditional Sign Picture

Clouds Rolling In - Atop Clingman's Dome

Highest Point in the Smokies

The Clingman's Dome Tower

A View from the Clingman's Dome Trail

Mingo Falls

The Trickling Stream

Sunset in Maggie Valley, NC

Ella & Mommy at Kids Country

Ella liked the swings.

Ella's riding "Mr. America" on the carousel.

Daddy & Ella on the train

After three years, I finally got to ride the go carts!

The sun shinging through the trees near Sugarlands

Cataract Falls

This has a name . . . but I don't know what it is.

Same here - a roadside waterfall.

The moon over the mountains . . . my view from the hot tub Friday night.

On Thursday, we decided to go our separate ways to do some of the things that were still on individual lists of things to do. Jessica, Ella and I headed toward the outlet malls and Jennifer's family drove into the mountains to look for waterfalls, and to the Ober Gatlinburg tram to ride up the side of the mountain. We met at the Apple Barn sometime after noon for fried pies and ice cream.

We hit the scrapbook store and clearance center in Governor's Crossing. For anyone who's interested in scrapbooking, no matter the skill level, you can find just about anything you need in one of the two stores. Old Navy and Dress Barn rounded out our spending spree, giving us a chance to expand our wardrobes for next year. The whole time we were at Five Oaks, it looked like a storm was brewing. Some of the ladies at Dress Barn were talking about hail being mixed in with the storm - wherever it was. But the threat of whatever it was wasn't going to keep us from shopping!

Apple Barn fried pies are always a great treat - complete with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream - for just $2.99. By the time we finished the pies, the wind had started picking up and the dark clouds were rolling in. All signs pointed to another monsoon, just like every other day. We ran to the cars and headed back to the cabin. Nothing. Finally - a day without rain!

I surpassed the 1000-picture mark! By the end of the night, I was up to 1006 total for the week.

. . . and on the deck back at the cabin.

This fish looks like an American flag!

Fishes . . . duh.

A shark swimming just above our heads!

Ella with Mommy

I held a horseshoe crab!

The fish that looked like a bush

Bubba Gump

The last baby standing (the one on the right!)

The morning started with hot Krispy Kremes . . . which is always a good way to start, end, or get through any day. After showers, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out toward Cades Cove, an abandoned settlement in a flat area surrounded by mountains.

There are many coves in the Smokies, and they were often chosen by settlers as locations for communities. They provided fields for farming, trees for logging, and streams for milling. At its peak, this particular cove had over 100 families. It was used in the 90's as the setting for the "Christy" TV series based on the novel by Catherine Marshall about her mother's experiences as a teacher in a setting similar to the Cades Cove area.

The winding road to the cove took us over 20 miles from Gatlinburg, so by the time we got there, we were ready to eat. We pulled in to the picnic area and unloaded the ice chest and Wal-Mart bags. Sandwiches and chips were made, and we had just started enjoying the meal when, suddenly, we heard a rustling noise in the trees, growing increasingly loud by the second. We all looked at each other and asked, "is that rain?" I grabbed my camera from the table and stood up, then felt the first drop of rain as I lifted my leg over the table's bench. By the time I made it to the van, the rain was pouring.


By the time we had everything packed away and were all sitting in the van, the rain started to lighten. It moved out more slowly than it moved in, but the rain didn't last over thirty minutes. We finished the picnic in the van and pulled out to start driving the 11-mile loop around the cove.


We've always heard that you can see bears in the cove, but when we were here on our honeymoon, we only saw deer. A few miles into our trip this time, we had seen a few deer and several turkeys, but we were thinking we still weren't going to see a bear. Jessica has been looking forward to seeing a bear since we started planning our vacation, so she was very disappointed.

A little over half-way around the loop, we stopped at the visitor center and farm area. I like this area best because there is a lot to see in one stop, rather than one or two buildings, which is a lot more convenient with three kids and a stroller. When we were in the visitor center, I overheard one of the park employees telling a visitor about a "bear jam," a traffic backup created by the spotting of a bear. He said that if the gentleman had to sit in traffic for a while, that would probably be why.



When we left the center to head down the path exploring the rest of the buildings, I told everyone in our group about the bear. I didn't really think it would be there longer than a few minutes, and I thought that even if we left then, we'd miss it. So I suggested we keep looking around, and if it was still there, we'd see it on our way out. About a half-hour later, we loaded up the van and headed back for the loop. Probably a mile up the road, we saw a long line of traffic barely creeping along. We knew exactly what we were about to see . . . a BEAR!!!


We could finally see the end of the line, and there was a park ranger standing beside the road telling everyone to roll up their windows and not stop. So we did just that . . . closed the van doors, rolled up the windows, and drove by the bear. I steered with my left hand, resting my camera on my arm and snapping pictures with my right hand.


We took a new way home - leaving the beaten path for a less-traveled route. There were originally three roads entering the cove. One of these roads is number 8 on the auto tour - a seven-mile gravel road that heads out toward Townsend, winding up and through the mountains, taking travelers to another cove on the other side. It provides a great look at Cades Cove from high above, and it lets travelers slow down to ponder what it would have been like for the settlers to build and travel the same roads - in much worse condition.


Here are some pictures from the day.

Ella sitting on a split-rail fence

Jessica, Ella & me with the cove and mountains in the background

Ella with the mountains

The bear!

A look at the cove from high above

Monday was a slow day - probably the slowest day of our whole vacation. We didn't leave the cabin until 5:00 in the evening. Most of the day was spent napping, hot tubbing, cleaning, and just relaxing around the cabin.

Dinner at Lineberger's was great . . . can't say the same for the service or speed. A Chinese family came in after we had ordered and sat at the table next to ours. They ended up getting our appetizer, they had their food before we finally got our mushrooms, and they had finished their meals and left (and their table had been cleaned off) before we got ours. It took about an hour and a half from the time we walked in until we had our food. We were going to complain, but the food was so good it caused us to not say anything.

After dinner, we did some street shopping in Gatlinburg. The shops sit right on the edge of the Parkway (with a sidewalk, of course) and they sell anything from ice cream to pot pipes . . . guns and knives to purses and t-shirts. And then there are the candy stores!!! The sidewalks are fairly large, compared to those in Fredericktown, but they're kinda small when they're filled with hundreds of people and tons of strollers. It sure doesn't leave much room for a double stroller.

We've lost track of how many times people have come up to us and asked if Ella and Amelia are twins. At Applewood the other day, the hostess asked if they're twins and James said no. She said, "yeah, she's bigger," and pointed to Ella (who's three months younger.) Last night, a man pointed at them and said, "she laughed," meaning Ella, "but he didn't like it," meaning Amelia. Hmm . . . .

We shopped until around 10:30, then headed back to the cabin. Sometime around midnight, we cut into the watermelon (I was VERY disappointed - it wasn't ripe.) Julianna and I had been looking forward to it since we bought it Saturday night. We ended the night relaxing in the hot tub, then headed for bed.

Ella napping in Mommy & Daddy's bed

Aunt Jen pushing the girls around
Amelia taking advantage of Ella being asleep
Julianna enjoying her Baskin-Robbins chocolate ice cream in a chocolate-dipped cone . . . yummy!

Sunday was a slow day – a day of rest. I tried sleeping in, but once everyone else was up, I had to get out of bed to see what was up. I couldn’t stay in bed while something was happening out in the rest of the cabin. We took it slow all morning – hot tub, pool, snacks, and TV. Sometime around 1:00 or 1:30, everyone was finally dressed and ready to go out into the world.

Lunch at Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant was awesome as usual. Their smoked pork loin with apple relish is awesome – and you get a ton of extras to go with your meal . . . apple julep, apple fritters, vegetable soup, salad, rolls, and dessert.

After lunch, we took one of the shorter scenic drives in the area – the Roaring Forks Auto Tour. It’s a winding one-way road up one side of a mountain and back down the other, exploring the area that was once home to some of the area’s earliest settlers. The folks had to abandon their farms and ways of life when the government took their land to create the national park. Some of the buildings we saw were original to their locations, while others had been moved from other neighboring farms and areas. One house we saw had been painted white with blue and yellow trim – the “only three colors Sears and Roebuck sold.” We stopped once along the auto tour to look at some of the buildings and wade in the stream. We also took some time for pictures. So far, I’ve taken 331 pictures since Thursday.

This is the third summer we’ve been here, and it seems like rain is both guaranteed and unpredictable. No sign of rain one minute, and a monsoon the next. That was the case yesterday. On the way back from Gatlinburg, it started raining – a lot. It poured practically the whole way back to the cabin, then let up just long enough for us to unload and get settled in for the evening; then it opened up and poured again – both vertically and horizontally. Sure, a charcoal grill probably works better when you’re not in the middle of a mountainside hurricane . . . but the experience was definitely a unique one!

Ella at Applewood

Old-fashioned ice cream maker

Welcome to the Apple Barn!

Ella at one of the buildings on the auto tour

Ella next to the split-rail fence

Us in the stream

View from the deck door

The kitchen

Wrap-around porch with swings, chairs & hot tub

Lean more about the cabin

Ella with Granny & Pa's dog, Suzie

Ella in the kitchen floor

Granny reading Ella her bedtime story, Noah and the Ark

Us at the Rainforest Cafe

The Five Girls