Smoky Mountains

We had a looong drive to get to Tennessee, but we made it there on Sunday evening. There was a paved trail that ran through the town we stayed in (Townsend) so we took a walk that evening to help the kids get some activity in. They really liked it when we crossed under the road through a tunnel.

Monday morning we headed out to North Carolina. Ryan wanted to get some mountain biking in at Tsali Recreation Area. We drove a crazy windy road there. Tons of motorcycles on it. It was pretty fun! I dropped Ryan off at the trails and the kids and I headed to Bryson City, NC. It was a nice little town. We walked around a bit and then found a park to have a picnic lunch at. Brooks befriended a little girl (she was 8). It was too cute, she was calling him "Bugs" because that's what she thought he said his name was.

We drove back to pickup Ryan, he had a great ride and thought it was one of the best places he's ever rode. We drove back through the National Park, took the drive up to Clingman's Dome, but decided not to hike up to it because there were so many tourists. We found a short nature trail to take a hike on. Ryan wore Hudson and Brooks hiked with us. He loved hiking!

To get out of the park and back to Townsend, we had to drive through Gaitlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Tourist trap central! Ick! It was so over the top, not our kind of vacation. Ok, I can't figure out why most of this post is underlined so this post is done.