Gatlinburg with the Fam

Recently, we've been lucky enough to find time for a couple of trips to one of my new favorite vacation spots, Gatlinburg.  The cabin is amazing and all of the nearby activities make for one heck of a weekend getaway. 

Kate has been pretty slammed with her residency so I decided to offer my "regular English" skills for this one...

We arrived late Friday night and started the weekend by introducing Ellie to the newest member of the family, Annie Oakley.  Annie is a 9 year old min pin who resembles my old buddy, Wrex in more ways than one. 

Ellie and Annie didn't hit if off right away but by the end of the weekend they were bffs.


Saturday morning started with a hearty breakfast of biscuits, eggs and Dad's famous bacon before we headed out on our hike up Grotto Falls.  Just as we were about to begin our hike we were surprised to find a momma bear and her three cubs wandering around the trail head parking lot.  This was a great photo opportunity and being recently inspired by Matt, I took it upon myself to get way too close.  For some reason one of the cubs got spooked and took off prompting the mother to make a charge at the growing crowd of onlookers.  Again, great photo opportunity but that quickly fell way down on my priority list.  I was stuck in a squatting position while looking through the view finder.  In all honesty I don't think anybody was ever in any real danger but she definitely got within 10 feet of me and I was first in line to get mauled.

"You still want to go on this hike?"

the cub responsible for the freak out...good riddance

"Yeah, that just happened"

pretty falls along the trail

The hike turned out great, not too long or strenuous, and we even saw a deer and another bear.  The falls offered a nice picture spot and I think my parents really had fun.

bear we saw on the drive home

The rest of day was spent grilling and watching for bears at the cabin.  We got lucky again when a momma bear showed up with four cubs in tow!  I kept my distance this time and still managed to get some great pics.  

back at the cabin for dinner

never too many pictures

It was another super fun weekend in Gburg and we are looking forward to many more.