Gatlinburg Weekend

Two dear friends of mine, Kelly and April, and I decided to get away for a weekend and Gatlinburg, TN got an anonymous vote. We left around lunchtime on Friday and checked into our room that evening. We stayed at the Bearskin Lodge which is right in the middle of everything and our room was right on the river. View from our room: We shopped the strip Friday night and ate at The Hard Rock, which is always a favorite place of mine to eat. We all have kids, but it was my and Kelly's first time to leave our little ones overnight. However, it didn't take long to relax and enjoy the quiet! Saturday morning we woke up early, headed to Pigeon Forge to tackle the outlets, ate lunch at the awesome Mountain Edge Grill, and then shopped some more. Saturday night, it was back to Gatlinburg to visit the shops in The Village that had been closed on Friday. We had dinner at Calhoun's and were graced with the presence of the flower lady. Apparently, she walks around the town and sells roses. She reminds me of the hat lady in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. Our waitress told us she special orders her rose perfume to drum up business. She smelled lovely!
It was the 75th anniversary of The Smoky Mountain National Park and there was also a Goldwing rally, so there were lots of people there and, more importantly, lots of motorcycles! We loved the paint and lights and sounds of all of them. Sunday morning, we slept in a little. Imagine sleeping in with no little ones yelling, "Mommy, I want a Poptart!" It was blissful. We packed up and headed to The Apple Barn which had the most scrumptious apple fritters. The atmosphere reminded me of the old farmhouse I grew up in. Needless to say, we all enjoyed ourselves. It was so fun to spend fun times with good company and we plan to have another trip next year. Although we had a great time, it was good to come home to our husbands and little ones who actually survived a weekend without us! (Barely, I'm sure.) Who knew? April, Me, Kelly