Not 24 hours of being done with school had passed before we started another new adventure with a trip to the mountains. On Saturday morning we got up and drove for a couple of hours and before I knew it we were on the Great Smokey Mountains Expressway headed toward our mountain adventure. We stayed in a real cabin up in the mountains (we almost fell into a ditch and had trouble getting up the road to the cabin). Once we got up to it though, there were beautiful views from the cabin. Cora and I got to sleep in the loft, which was really cool and I had fun running from one side of the house to the other soaking up the view from the big windows. I also thought it was fun to go up and down into the loft because the steps were different.
During our trip, we took a day to explore Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We drove around the park stopping at different overlooks, took a hike along a ridge with views of Clingman's Dome though the woods and then stopped at the historic mountain farm to walk around and learn about farm life a long time ago. It wasn't an actual farm and I was somewhat disappointed at the lack of farm animals (all we saw were pigs and chickens). After a while I got bored with it. But while we were there, we spotted elk walking through the stream which was pretty neat! We also saw a historic mill which was run using water diverted from a nearby stream. The water was COLD! Before heading back to the cabin (for what would be a couple of days due to Hurricane Irma) we took a scenic drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway and I loved going through all the tunnels! We were actually driving through the mountain!!!
Luckily we had our binoculars, activity books and games to keep us entertained. We could watch movies until the power went out! It was a crazy experience sleeping in the very dark cabin. Sometimes I got scared, especially by this picture in the bathroom of an old dump truck. Because the weather was bad, and there was a lot of rain, we decided to leave the cabin and head home halfway through the week. Dad let us walk down the very steep gravel driveway and explore the woods near our cabin. The best part of it was, we stopped along the way to see the old dump truck I had seen in the bathroom. Whoa! After a short drive, we made an interesting stop at a very large home!
I had so much fun at the Biltmore Estate! We walked though this huge house and got to look in the rooms - my favorite being spying the bathroom in a mirror showing the tub in one of the 40-some bathrooms! We toured the lush gardens nearby and enjoyed the beautiful weather before we needed to get in the car and drive home. I was glad that we got to eat at a restaurant on the way home - Cracker Barrell, my favorite! It was a great experience being in the mountains and I had lots of fun with the new adventures!
