Gatlinburg

This trip has been planned for a while now, but it sure felt like it came up quickly!  It seems like only yesterday we were planning and packing for Gulf Shores.  This trip was a reunion with some of my sorority sisters, their spouses and kids.  We loaded up the family roadster and headed south on I-65 once again.

We stayed at a resort within the Smokys and between Gatlinburg and the world's largest tourist trap, otherwise known as Pigeon Forge.

The views were spectacular, and according to the kids, the best part was the water park onsite.  We spent all day Saturday water-logging ourselves.  Saturday night we did what many people do in the area-- head out to one of the dinner shows.  There was a majority interest in seeing the "Hatfields & McCoys" and it did not disappoint!  The show was entertaining for everyone and the food was, perhaps surprisingly, a delicious southern meal of fried chicken, corn bread, mashed potatoes, beans, pulled pork, slaw and Oreo pudding.

We were outnumbered: 9 kids to 8 adults.

 Allison, Angie, Danielle, me and Rachel

I hadn't seen Allison, nor Danielle in more than eight years.  It was great to catch up again.

Sunday morning, Angie's family invited everyone (eek!) over for breakfast before some families headed out to go home.

Sunday, it was only us and Angie's family.  We headed into Gatlinburg to do some sightseeing.  The Ripley's Aquarium was the hit of the day.

The other hit of the day was the rain!  It poured, actually.  It was such a novel thing to see the rain we all really quite enjoyed it!