Gatlinburg, TN Trip {Day 1}

Forth July 4th Trip 2013::Gatlinburg, TN {Day 1}

Wednesday we got up pretty early so we could head up to Gatlinburg for the weekend. The trip there it monsooned for a good 2 hours, making the trip exhausting and stressful. Luckily the rain lightened up and we could relax a bit and make up some time.

When we got to Townsend, TN, we started looking for a place to eat lunch. We stopped at the Black Bear Cafe. We enjoyed a quick lunch (cheeseburger, grilled cheese, grilled chicken sandwich, and a club). We were a bit disappointed after checking over the menu the first time, as it appeared everything was a good price, not realizing none of the sandwiches came with fries or chips. However, the sandwiches were filling enough, we really didn’t need any sides.

With full tummies, we hopped back in the car for about 45 more minutes. We arrived at our chalet, where we did the usual checking it out, taking pictures, and unpacking. Rob and I got back in the car and made our way over to Food City to purchase food for the time we were there. I think everyone else in Gatlinburg had the same idea.

When we got back, I quickly rolled out the homemade dough, I’d made the day before we left home and popped in the bacon-wrapped chicken jalapeno poppers in the oven as well. So thankful, I did prep work at home!

With the bad weather, we were unsure of how that may effect all the plans we had made for the weekend. First on the list was the first independence day parade in the nation, which was to occur at midnight that night. We decided we would brave the weather, with ponchos in hand. We drove down to the trolley stop, rode the trolley down (just 50 cents per person, since it was after 10pm, otherwise it’s free), and walked around a bit to pass the time away before midnight.

No parade is complete without Santa following up the back end!

After the parade we quickly made our way back to where the trolley dropped us off. We only had to wait a few minutes. At this point in the evening we were glad for the rain, as there were a lot less people.

See pics of our chalet here.
All the pics from day 1 here.