A Day Late... Make That TWO!

(Sorry! It's a long and wordy post, but there are PICTURES!!! Just scroll down to them if you're in a hurry. I'll understand...) =-)

So this past Wednesday was Boyfriend's birthday. I already told you that we went out that night to a very nice Brazilian steakhouse (Chima, in Charlotte) with family and friends.



Well, Boyfriend took off from work on Wed, Thursday AND Friday! That's B-I-G people! He doesn't take off from work very often, even though he gets FIVE weeks of vacation every year. He is way too bogged down with e-mail and voice-mail when he returns, so he dreads taking off from work because of how behind he is before he even gets BACK...



Anyway, he took off those three days, so we decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip! That's something else Boyfriend doesn't like to do; he likes to make a plan, have a plan, and execute the plan. He likes to have reservations at hotels, and everything mapped out. He likes to know where he's going, what he's going to do while he's there, when he's coming back, and every little thing in-between! However, we took off with only a tiny, sort-of, half-baked plan...


Seriously? He made reservations at a very nice cabin in the mountains in Pigeon Forge for Friday & Saturday nights, and we left town Thursday WITHOUT reservations nor a firm idea of where we'd stay... We knew we'd stay *somewhere* in Asheville, but that was all.



The trip was very nice. As soon as we started getting near Asheville, i could only think about Mary. (She's a VERY nice lady i met at a Guild meeting. She's a quilter, quilt & beading teacher, and quiltshow judge! I fell in love with her the moment i met her! We've been e-mailing a little...) I kept wishing i had enough nerve to call her. Boyfriend & i would have at least met her (& her husband, if he was so inclined) somewhere for a glass of wine...



Alas, i couldn't find my confidence anywhere. Plus, it was starting to get dark, and Boyfriend was getting antsy about where we'd spend the night, 'cause we had NO RESERVATIONS! (Yet, still, the world did not end. =-] )

We found a hotel with NO PROBLEM (despite the fact that it was almost Easter weekend), found a nice wine bar downtown (Sante', very nice. We sat outside, and it was a *delightful* time/place!), and we left Asheville the next morning.

We drove into Pigeon Forge, found our luxurious cabin, and proceeded to drive to Gatlinburg. We walked around downtown Gatlinburg only to find out it is Myrtle Beach in the mountains (i.e. no beach!)

That's okay. We spent the day there, perusing the souvenir shops, and even found that there was a craft show happening at the convention center. Better, it was Free! =-)

We got a pizza for supper and took it to our cabin. Here's a view from the 1st floor balcony:

I doubt you can tell, but that's Dollywood just below us. We could hear the train whistle and see the smoke from it as it wended its way around. We could also see the south end of the roller coaster, and hear the people scream as it dipped, looped and whirled. And if the wind was blowing in our direction, we could even hear some of the banjo music from one of the shows. The weather was gorgeous!!! The view was fantastic! And after the sun went down, we went up on the second-story balcony and skinny-dipped in the Hot tub! =-)

(Don't worry! Nobody saw us.)

(...I don't think...)

Here's our neighbor to the left:

Yep, the cabins were built on the side of a mountain!



And *this* is how close they were to each other...









But they were situated such that you didn't really notice you had neighbors.

The next night, we got steak dinners to go and ate in our cabin as we watched the sun set:




What a view, huh? =-)



On Saturday evening, there was more color in the sky:









The lights in a line in the distance are from the main drag in Pigeon Forge:


Here's Boyfriend in the KING SIZE BED the next morning: (i'm sure he'll *love* this picture being in here! =-) )

I-40 was "out" due to a bad rock-slide, so we drove north of it on the way there, and south of it through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the way back. It was absolutely stunning, as only Mother Nature can be. =-) This was a water fall that is deceptively small-looking in this picture:

So here's a picture of the same waterfall with Boyfriend in it for scale:

I thought i found the perfect waterfall, so here's one more picture for you:

And here's a picture of a river (sorry, i don't know which one)

(Can you see the fisherman? I think he was a "professional". He had lots of stickers that looked like they were from sponsors on his SUV. He had such patience!)

We got home Sunday evening. I had laundry and chores and all that fun stuff to do, PLUS i had to catch up on my blog reading, so i'm using all that as my excuse for not getting this post out on Monday...

Or Tuesday...

Hope your weekend was great too!

=-)