Gatlinburg, TN 4/14-4/19/13

As usual its April vacation break and we are off on another adventure. This time we were heading to Gatlinburg, Tn. This is our first time to Tennessee as a family. I (Sarah) have been to Nashville a few times with Caitlyn long before I was married to Jay. Jay has never been. In search for vacation using our time share points we kept coming across Gatlinburg. Unsure what was even in Gatlinburg, I asked a friend. Dollywood she said. I’m sure the Great Smokey Mountains felt a little shafted.

Jay drove down with the two older boys, while Callan and I stayed behind with Caitlyn. I had a Calculus test on Saturday. We flew out of Boston on Saturday, meeting up with the boys in Baltimore. Jay’s parents live in Gaithersburg, MD so this is often a stopover for our many road trips. It’s about 8 hours from Boston, hour from Baltimore and thirty minutes from DC. We left Sunday morning to head to Gatlinburg.

Arriving at our hotel was interesting. I shed a few tears as we drove down what the locals call Rattlesnake pass. A few times we didn’t think our minivan would fit the narrow road with steep drop-offs and no guardrails. We finally made it to Tree Top Resorts (part of the RCI exchange) in one piece.

We stayed in a two bedroom suite close to the pool and no one behind us. Our suite was so clean and everything was waiting for us as we requested (high chair and portacrib). We had a full, nicely stocked kitchen, living room/dining room combo. Table easily sat 8. Gas fireplace in the living room with a balcony that overlooked the pool and you could hear the river rushing by. The boy’s bedroom had twin beds, no TV, for our TV addicted children. The master suite had another private balcony, with Jacuzzi tub however, the bed was small, had to be a full, definitely not a king. Our room had an older TV, but if it still works then who cares. Like most time shares housekeeping came at additional cost if you wanted daily service, which we did not use. Since we are good at reusing and reducing we didn’t need to exchange linens for the 5 days we were there. There was an indoor and outdoor pool. Neither was busy, and sat empty most days. You have to bring your own towels but we usually do anyways. It was clean and had two pools 3’-5’ and then a smaller 1’ pool which was awesome for our little ones. There is also a hot tub. There is a lighted footpath behind the main resort. We decided to take it not realizing it’s EXTREMELY steep and narrow. HOLD ON TO YOUR LITTLE ONES. There are no rails again and very steep drops. One false step and you’re done.

Tree Top Resort Gatlinburg, TN

The resort is set back off the main strip, don’t worry you don’t have to go Rattlesnake pass (Sherman Calbo Rd.) It’s a quick drive to downtown Gatlinburg, you could probably walk it. There is no free parking in town, so plan on paying $8 or take the free trolley. There is a Hard Rock Café and several other restaurants in Downtown. However, downtown was bit dumpy and touristy for our liking. Seemed like every step someone was screaming at you to grab discount tickets with them. The stores weren’t cute or quaint, too many trashy t-shirt shops and arcades, nothing unique at all. More like the strip outside Disney World, they should take advice from North Conway, NH.

We visited Pigeon Forge often, the grocery stores and Wal-Mart are there; as well as several restaurants and more neon flashing touristy sites. We did our traditional mini golf game. Again, it wasn’t packed so we were able to take our time with the kids. However, it’s not accessible. So stroller was tough.

We wanted to hike but realized in the rush of the very busy week before we forgot the Kelty back carrier for the baby. We were able to find 4 accessible trails online, which none of the locals told us about.  The morning we planned on going it rained, of course. So we opted for the auto roads through the mountain. We started just outside of  Gatlinburg Main Street and followed the VERY narrow winding road called Cherokee Orchard road and drove over 5 miles throughout the Great Smokey Mountains. Again was a little nerve-wrecking for Declan and I. Shamus fell asleep as did Callan. We got to see some very pretty waterfalls, great views, and some fantastic old Mountain homes. I’ll attach pictures. When we came out the bottom by Ely's Mill we were surprised to realize it was right at our Resort.

On our last full day we decided to visit Dollywood. The lines were minimal, and park was typical local amusement park. (NO Disney size park). There are two parks but the Splash Country was closed. We were able to visit all the age/size appropriate rides in one day, but now I wished we could have done it in two. I was exhausted and got sunburn due to lack of shade. The food was terrible and prices steep but overall not waiting in line was fun. But I’d definitely recommend taking two days to do it. Especially if you go early enough in the season were lines were minimal you can ride twice.

There was also a car swap in town the weekend we left (we stayed Monday-Friday) so the main road in Pigeon Forge was lined with everything from Model T’s to a modified boat to drive on land. Everyone just sits on the strip with the hood of their cars up. They were riding golf carts, scooters and bikes up and down visiting all the cars. It was great to see.

What we liked about the Tree Tops Resort: Everything but the beds.

What we didn’t like about the Tree Tops Resort: The beds, too small and rolled to the middle.

What we like about Gatlinburg: The Mountains. Definitely a great hiking spot, wish we did more.  Dollywood was fun too.

What we didn’t like about Gatlinburg: the touristy feel, and the food. We didn’t find one good place to eat, so disappointing in the south.

Final thoughts: We probably wouldn’t go again, I wouldn’t mind stopping by but I doubt we’ll plan a trip down here again.  If we did come, it would be to buy that '47 Willy’s pickup for sale.

Lack of post does not mean lack of travel!

I know it’s been a while since we posted. But we’d like to get back into. For now we’ll start with today and move forwards, we’ll update past post as time permits. A lot has changed his we last posted. The kids are now 19, 7, 4, and our newest member Callan was born in September.

Caitlyn (19) still isn’t a fan of road tripping nor will she camp with us. Teens! Declan (7) would much rather fly and I think we are slowly realizing he’s not a hiking kind of boy. I wonder if the fear of heights has anything to do with it or maybe the lack of internet connection. Shamus is now 3 almost 4 is up for anything and everything.  Callan is only 8 months as I write this post. So far he is NOT a fan of the road trip. He took his first Flight last Friday from Boston to Baltimore, other than the 2 hour delay he did fairly well.