After a bit of a rocky start, we did eventually pull into Roanoke, VA where we made a stop for the night. In Pennsylvania, you have to head east to go west and north to go south. I'm not sure why this is, but that's the way the roads travel. We missed the poorly marked turnoff to head west on 78, and it put us back an entire hour. Luckily the kids slept during that time, and things went smoothly the rest of the way. When we arrived at the hotel, the kids were crazy - something about the excitement of staying in a hotel and starting vacation makes children go a little stir crazy. Somehow we survived the night - with the help of old reruns of Full House, the kids eventually got sleepy enough to settle down.
The moment we crossed the state line into Tennessee, we stopped at Subway for lunch. As soon as we ordered, it was obvious we were in the south, and we were northerners without that awesome southern drawl. Later that afternoon, we finally arrived at my Aunt Yvonne's house in Knoxville where we planned to stay the night until we met up with my parents the following day.
It was fun hanging out with my aunt and cousins. Both Eliza and Zabien thought my cousins Dylan and Levi were the best. There's nothing like attention from a teenager and near teen to make the day of a 3 and 5 year old. While in Knoxville, we enjoyed a lot of the Tennessee beauty. Honestly, I fell in love with Tennessee from the moment we drove in. It is so green and so beautiful, and I loved it, although I could do without all the humidity.
An afternoon in the cool reservoir was the perfect way to cool off in the midst of humidity.
We really wanted to canoe, but there wasn't a canoe big enough for all 5 of us. We didn't feel comfortable with 1 adult to 2 children ratio, especially with one as little and crazy as Hazel. We settled for merely taking a picture of the kids in the canoe, and hope that we get a chance to canoe later.
Before we knew it, my parents arrived in Knoxville. We were off, to the scenic and extremely touristy towns of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was a fun drive - there's so much to see and so much to do in Pigeon Forge, it is almost overwhelming. I happened to snap some pictures of these artifacts through the passenger's side window - the "titanic" and "Mt. Rushmore."(complete with country/Western stars).
Just the drive through was enough to fire up the excitement that we were actually there, in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. It really was the best vacation.
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