A Curvy Road, Traffic, & A Cabin!

Melissa and I recently won 2 free nights from Hearthside Cabin Rentals through a Facebook giveaway and we chose this weekend to use it. We traveled down last night and made our way to our cabin that we chose. We woke up this morning and headed to get breakfast/lunch at Chick-fil-a and then headed to the Smoky Mountains. I put on my jeans that morning since it felt cold and after we went to Chick-fil-a I changed into my cargo shorts. The reason I say this will become apparent soon. We headed into the Smoky Mountains and Melissa wanted to head to Clingmans Dome to do some hiking with the girls in carriers on our chests. Now Melissa had to hang out in the back of the CRV since the girls were being less than cooperative passengers. Melissa forgot to tell me that this place we were going to was 1) in the middle of the park and 2) the highest point in the park. Due to 1 Melissa started getting car sick half way up to the Dome. I could hear her in the back seat going: "Uhhhh, I'm gonna be sick." After close to an hour of driving, we arrived at our destination of the Domes.


We pulled into the parking lot and started to look around and noticed winter coats, jackets, pants, gloves, etc. We looked at each other and looked at the temperature gauge in the car which read 44 degrees! Needless to say, I changed back into my jeans and we had to head to the gift shop to buy some fleeces since we were obviously not aware we were going to visit Siberia. A few dollars later we were on the way up to the look out tower. We decided against the hike due to the temperature and the girls temperament. However the view from the look out tower did not disappoint. See the video for a view from the tower. We took some video and pictures and then headed back down the mountain. Once at the bottom of the mountain we encountered the one thing I hate the world's worse traffic jam. We took approximately 2 hours to go about 4 miles. We were able to find a way out of the jam towards the end and found a back route to the restaurant we found for dinner that evening.

While at dinner we had the joy of seeing L and N's new skills. I call it "Monkey See, Monkey Do!" L would pound on the table and then laugh and then N would look at her and do the same. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or what but it was so hilarious that we could not stop laughing! Thus ended day 1 of our trip, more to come about day 2 soon.

A Year Later, Oh How Things Have Changed

As I sit here watching the WEBN Fireworks on TV I have to think how our lives have changed from a year ago.

2009  Melissa and I were vacationing in the Smokey Mountains of TN. We very rarely went a day without running. We had only 2 dependents (April and Penelope - our dogs). We hadn't ran a half-marathon. My days usually centered around finding a way to go run.	2010  We are in Cincinnati as we cannot go out of town since it will be very difficult with two babies and we have no vacation time. We very rarely run, yet at least. We have 3 dependents (Natalie, Leah, and April - Penelope returned to her owner). We ran a half-marathon last October. My days now center around the girls Natalie & Leah and keeping them on some sort of schedule.
It's even evident in the pictures we take.
2009	2010
We however wouldn't want it any other way!

Tenn. Trip Day 2 – Smoky Mountain Waterfall Hike!

Day 2 started with Melissa and I having a nice big breakfast and then we went to the outlet mall for a few since it was raining outside. Once it started to clear up we decided to head to the Smoky Mountains State Park and go to the Cascade Falls.

We knew it was going to be a 4 mile strenuous hike and knowing this thought we should take a flashlight with us since we were headed out at 4:30 PM. According to the park map we should be able to make it out to the falls and back by 8:30 PM. Well we hiked and hiked and hiked, took several pictures and finally made it to the beautiful Cascade Falls. Check out the pictures to see how beautiful it was! We then started back and got about half a mile in to the hike when it started to get dark. Around mile marker 2 it was pitch black dark and we had to use the flashlight. Melissa slipped and sprained her ankle at mile marker 3 but was a trooper and kept going all the way to then end. We were able to make it back and now we have an adventure store to tell :-). Leaving the cabin and already miss it.

Tennessee Trip Day 1 - Dinner @ Ye Old Steakhouse

For dinner I decided that we should go to a local place called Ye Olde Steakhouse. I had seen it on a "Taste of the Town" segment that ESPN does during its Thursday night college football games. If you call the number for the business you find out that they don't serve alcohol, just beer, so we had to bring our own wine which was something new for Melissa & me. The draw to this place was (obviously enough) steaks. The way they cook them is on the grill, then the cook them in vegetable oil and then back on the grill again. The steak was very, very tender & very, very good. For desert we had a nice warm piece of apple walnut pie with a scoop of ice cream, the perfect way to finish any dinner.

Tennessee Trip Day 1 – Ziplining

Well Melissa and I woke up on our first day of vacation and had some eggs, bacon, and a biscuit for breakfast. We took the dogs out for a little bit, watched some ESPN College Gameday and then we headed out to stop by Wal-Mart for some items prior to heading out for our day. On our way to Wal-Mart we saw a place that was advertising Ziplining.

Melissa & I have never done this before and Melissa said “That sounds like fun!” So we found a place that takes you up to the top of a mountain and you Zipline down. We signed up, finished our lunch, and headed on our way. Mental note: Krystals = White Castles. The Ziplining was a blast. We headed up with 2 guides who were cool and funny. Our group was great too! I was able to snap some pictures of Melissa using my Blackberry, check them out. I would suggest that anyone who has the option of doing it does it because we had a lot of fun.

Lost In Mountainous Tennessee!

This weekend Melissa and I are going to mountainous Tennessee for the weekend to relax and have fun.  We plan on hiking and taking the dogs for a walk and having a lot of fun.  We are going to be staying in a cabin that has no internet connection so we will be out of touch for the weekend.  The picture to the right shows the view from the back deck.  We will take plenty of pictures and I will post them after the weekend is over.