Weekend Trip to Gatlinburg, TN

Well, Kevin and I spent a wonderful weekend in Gatlinburg. We left Friday evening after work, and we returned Sunday evening. We had a fabulous time! The weather was sunny, warm, and beautiful on Saturday with a high in the mid-60s. We started out our morning bright and early with a continental breakfast at our hotel that included waffles shaped like bears that you cooked yourself. They were so cute (and delicious, too)! We then headed downtown for a day of activities. We started off with the Sky Lift. I am not a big fan of chair lifts, but Kevin insisted that we do it. I reluctantly agreed, but I told him that the only reason I agreed to do it was because I loved him so much! We also went through Ripley's Haunted House. They put me at the back of the line since I was pregnant (they didn't want anyone pushing me down from behind). It really wasn't all that scary, to be honest, but they definitely got me at the end with the chainsaw guy (that gets me everytime). We enjoyed lunch at the Hard Rock cafe, where we waited almost 45 minutes for a table. That was a result of the 10,000+ young people that were also in Gatlinburg for the weekend for Winterfest '09. This is a convention held each year that brings youth groups together from churches all over the south for a weekend of praise and worship. I actually attended this convention with my own youth group more than 10 years ago (it makes me feel old just saying that). It has grown a good bit in size over the years, though, because there were only a few hundred of us when I went, in comparison to the thousands now! Downtown was extremely crowded as a result of the convention. After eating lunch, we walked for a little while longer in downtown before heading to our car and taking a ride to Pigeon Forge. We didn't do much while we there except stop at a Mom and Pop store to get some ice cream and a funnel cake (yum!). We ended up back at our hotel before 7 p.m. that evening because we were exhausted! We were going to go back out somewhere for dinner and a show (i.e. Dixie Stampede, Black Bear Jamboree, Comedy Barn, etc.), but we were too tired. We ended up ordering a pizza instead.
After the beautiful, warm weather we had on Saturday, it ended up snowing Saturday night into Sunday morning! The scenery outside was absolutely breathtaking when we woke up that morning. There were approximately 2 to 3 inches on the ground. We headed to the breakfast room again first thing to get more bear waffles. Thankfully, we were the only people in there besides one other gentleman, because we wore our pajamas down there that morning. Sometimes, it's nice to be able to be lazy. Plus, we probably will never see these people again, right? After getting dressed, packing up, and checking out, we headed back downtown. We spent the early part of the day admiring the snow while shopping in the outlets downtown. Kevin got his belated Valentine's day present--a new pair of shades. He tried several pairs of Oakley's on, but actually decided to go with a pair of Native's that are polarized. They came with a lifetime warranty and extra set of lenses which was nice (and the least the company could do, in my opinion, for the price of them). He was excited about them, though, so that made me happy. I bought a new Coach purse (okay, okay, it's not real--it's a knock-off like my other Coach purse, but it's still super-cute). We bought some delicious candy at the Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen (one of my favorite candy stores). After that, we reluctantly decided that it was time to head home. The road were clear, which was great. The scenery on the way home was beautiful. All in all, it was an awesome weekend and we can't wait to go back!!! (I will come back and edit this post later this week by adding pictures that were taken on our trip!)