Gatlinburg Getaway Journal
Having kept a journal of the last 3 trips' worth of events, I thought it'd be a good idea to post this one considering the 11-man and 9-man days of happenings.Day One
July 17, 2011Normally I can't get a wink of sleep before vacations or first days of things like trips or school, but I managed to stay up long enough to exhaust myself into it. Awesome, not running on empty for the first day. :3
Me, mom, dad in car A. Two brothers and their combined four kids in car B. Grandpa and Grandma had already driven up and hit their room by the time of departure.
Respectively, to be called in the future of this topic: Me, Mom, Pop / Dad, Adam + Aaron & Melissa, Jeremy + Olivia and Amelia, Grandpa & Grandma.
Jeremy, being a bit impatient and too reliant in his little phone's GPS app, decided to drive ahead of us once we got off the interstate and onto smaller roads. This caused him to not see our car's turn signal, my father waving with both arms out the window, me waving with one, and my mother reaching through the sunroof. The result? He drove right by the exit we were gonna use to stop for breakfast, and taking the less-crowded back road in.
The only other real problem while driving was a single car with two ladies inside who were spending more time looking through a purse for something than actually keeping eyes on the road.
Normally, we stay at the Rockytop Village Inn in a single individual room. This time, due to the party's size, though, we had a mini-house, called the "Cabin" to stay in. Quite nice, though the furniture looks a bit dated. As expected with four childrens, it took less than an hour for the rooms, bathrooms, and kitchen to become a mess. Just like home. Clothes strewn about due to heat and a good chunk of playing around with what jigsaw puzzles had been brought along. By the time two were completed, the kids and my brothers were finally ready to cool off after the drive with a dip in the pool. (Fun fact, Adam can backflip but can't dive as well as Jeremy, who can't frontflip but dives better than me, who
can frontflip but can't dive for crap. So there's always a lot of splashing due to sibling rivalry.
) Me? I joined Dad and Grandpa for our daily round or two of putt-putt.
Fort Fun has always offered a couple courses that consistently test our memory for how to hole on one or just generally not fail, and with mountain weather it's always new enough. We played through a single one, the Old Town Square ("Trick Shots for All Ages", I think... Me and dad really take "Trick shots" to heart and play our shots off the green when possible. X3) with a good bit of success. Summer heat + mountain humidity = we were soaked in sweat, and got back right as everyone else came back from the pool. So there was a good period of chilling before we decided to hit up Blaine's for supper. Previously really good, the idea of an eleven-people party had them a little... flustered. As we got in, despite nobody in the waiting room, we were told of a 30-minute wait. Five minutes into this 30-minute wait, the hostess was told it would actually be 35. Pretty much everyone who could notice they were trying to run us off, noticed it. Whether our discussion about it was heard or not, we soon were told "A large party just left" and we were waiting on a small table to be grouped with it. (Another fun fact: the "large party" that left never left. I only ever saw a single teenage couple leave the building.) Still, once we actually got seated, the food was good. Note to Burks: Don't get their spaghetti. It's good if you're hungry, but sub-par otherwise.
On the way home, Adam or Jeremy one spotted the hammer-swinging "King of the Hammer" game in our Space Needle-arcade. Competition chance for strength, of course, so Jeremy spent out about $10 in tokens for me, him, Adam, and Dad to swing a few times. Jeremy's the tallest and not exactly skinny, so he naturally came out on top. Me, tall and skinny cashier, right behind him. Adam, construction worker who's been in the office too long, 'cause he came behind me. Dad, 50 year old tool & dye worker, didn't want to risk throwing his shoulders out. Adam never heard the end of it that he got beat out for hammer swinging.
Time spent asleep: However long it takes to get the arm numb while it holds a pillow over your ears. Too much snoring for pretty much
any sleep...
Day Two
July 18, 2011To my relief and surprise, we weren't waking up and getting out of the house immediately. That gave me time to doze around and try to catch up on a near-sleepless night while everyone talked about the plans for the day. Since it was the only full day we'd have Grandma and Grandpa around, it was decided:
Ripley's Aquarium. It was, of course, loud, slow, fun, and very colorful. I probably couldn't properly name off half of what I saw, but compared to my first visit nearly a decade ago, I'm finally able to say I appreciate a lot of what I saw. Between views of sawfish and sharks, rays and everything smaller, and watching the kids have fun, it was worth the price. (Though I will never be caught ordering their $7.99 hamburger...) Also, major "Hell yeah" moment, the last time I went I couldn't reach the stingrays in the petting pool. This time I got to touch (super squishy and a little slimy), and nearly lift one into my nephew's reach. Just short, though... me and Adam couldn't get it up to him.
Whether from heat or a water-y train of thought, me and Aaron wanted to take a dip in the pool. Despite it being my first time having one lone child to look after with no help, not nervous about it. There was a lot of splashing, a lot of answering jumping requests, a bit of showing off diving and how to swim this way or that way, and a few times tossing him in before he decided it was time to bail out. For future reference, I need to make sure he puts his shirt on to take back instead of just carrying it; his hands are prone to dropping stuff. He skipped a shower, but with hair long as mine, it was needed. Didn't get the chlorine all the way out, but at least you couldn't smell it anymore.
Grandpa was still napping from all the walking and standing, but everyone else wanted to putt-putt. Ten people... Scorecards have a rule of "Limit playing party to 4 persons". Boy, did we fail to read that one.
It took two score cards to track our progress, but once we snapped Melissa out of her eternally-pouting funk, ten people went surprisingly fast. And there was definitely a good time had from everyone else.
Supper was short and sweet, and being too late to go out again, the Wii gave a good bit of entertainment before the crash.
Side note: I don't know exactly when, but Adam, Aaron, and Melissa got to enjoy the
Sky Lift and everything up top it. I've never been, so I've no idea what that includes.
Day Three
July 19, 2011Probably the busiest day of our entire trip. Some time around 9:00, Adam + his kdis + Jeremy + Pop went out to fish. Dad and Jeremy got home together, but the other three had apparently gone out a lot further, because they got home pretty late in comparison. Meanwhile, it took a while to get over another night's near lack of sleep for me while little girls banged and cracked at plastic toys all morning. Once everyone got home, it was a near immediate preparation for Laurel Falls, 1.3 miles or so to one of the most commonly walked to waterfalls near the city. Yay for being prepared, I'd brought along four little water bottles (two per leg pocket) for the kids while everyone else didn't think we'd need it for such a short trip. We could've made it, sure, but that sure saved a lot of complaining.
The falls themselves were still great. A little lacking in the 'falls' due to no rain for a few days, but not enough to make it underwhelming. Between four kids having fun getting wet, climbing to the bottom & halfway up, and spotting of a few little creatures like salamanders, it was a better time than most of us thought the kids would have. The walk back was easier, being nearly all downhill, and left only the three little girls tired. Dry off, munch at Subway, and move out to
Cade's Cove, a scenic drive that can be... maybe 10 miles or so? Speed limit in the 20's, so it's at least an hour of viewing nature and a lot of potential for animals. The near official count...
Turkeys: 2
Tourist Turkeys: a few. (Had to make this joke... Mom and Dad had to stop one day because a few Northeastern [Vermont or so?] tourists saw crows and called them turkeys to take pictures. Ever since then, crows have been "Tourist Turkeys".)
Does: ~7
Bucks: ~6 (And at least four of them had HUGE racks of horns.)
Bears: 1 cub / juvenile male
Also, quite uncommon for Gatlinburg, we passed a couple patches of natural, wild orange lilies.
With the kid's call to see bears finally pacified, we had another deal to follow through with. It was Olivia's birthday. Mom, Dad, and I had to go to the store(s) on the way home to pick up a cake, a few gifts, and the like. Once we actually got home and all of it put away or wrapped up, the main course itself had to be dealt with. What did she want? "McDonald's". Easy enough, but for nine people / five adults, there was a lot to get. I wasn't in a burger mood, and usually aren't, so I paid for my own chicken stuff. Everyone else? Dad called out for "Fifteen McDoubles, thirteen with cheese and two without."
Head Cook / Screen Reader: "ARE YOU SERIOUS!? Fifteen McDoubles!?"
Dad, to me and Jeremy: "Yeah, we're serious."
Head Cook upon finishing the bag: "Enough food to feed a small army." *Places on counter*
Hehe. It was definitely unique, and stayed a joking point for the rest of the vacation. With food eaten, kids hyper, and a successful birthday, finally got everyone (me included) to sleep.
Day Four
July 20, 2011Another nice and lazy start, I got to fall asleep properly before any plans were officially made. Yay, naps!
Nothing got truly decided for the morning, so it ended up being me+parents playing putt-putt while the rest of the family swims. After a couple GREAT games over both courses, we were definitely hot enough to want to join the rest of the family in the pool. Despite its obvious green tint, it was definitely a nice feeling to soak in the pool for a while. With how many times my brothers and I flipped, flopped, or (messily) dove in, it's a surprise the water level wasn't a foot less. Not a complaint, though. As the kids got tired one by one, their float-rings soon became available to use for relaxation. If you've never had one tube under your chest and another under your legs to let you float half-submerged in the cool water, y'don't know what you're missing.
The water definitely had to get washed off this time. Took about a half hour or so, but once clean and dry, we decided to go for a good sunset trip. The meal was quick, the packing was quicker, and the drive was another seven miles of straight left and right over and over until we got to the walkway. Mom allowed me to hold the camera for a few amateur shots of the sunset, flower(s), and people. I didn't know her camera had a feature to adjust for sunsets, so most of mine lack the color hers got. I got the camera up until she got to the dome's top, about the time my fear of open-spaced heights kicked in (tower = potentially long drop x_x), and the sunset went from orange-and-blue skies to a near perfect cloud-laced fire, to a good wall of near pinks with the orange. Hope the pictures come soon, 'cause there was a LOT of potential on the tower.
To my dismay, one the trip up, our previously abundant field of
Bee Bom wasn't spotted. It had been taken over by junk and weeds. So any Hummingbird potential was scarce, if not long gone.
Dinner was a simple set of come-cooked burgers & Sloppy Joes, and the night was unusually quiet and mellow.
Day Five
July 21, 2011Kids wanted to putt-putt, so we went'a putt-putt. Nine people instead of ten, and for once, Melissa wasn't able to summon a pout or objection to our plans. Instead, objections seemed to find their way to me. Ten holes of missing the hole itself by an inch or less, skirting along the rim and it moving away, or similar near-makes finally got a "What?" of disbelief from me, which from then on was taken as "Jeffrey is pissed, everything he says is impatient and out of anger." That's my explanation as to why correcting the kids on who has the scorecard was berated, why trying to encourage Aaron to take his shot due to Amelia both interrupting him on his attempt AND taking ~3 minutes to complain was waved off, and why trying to keep Aaron from downing an entire bottle of water at once (stomach ache, anyone?) was undone in a second. Oh well, them's the breaks.
Another fishing trip was in the works, with Dad, Adam, and Jeremy doing the casting. Me and mom watched the kids splash, build sandy walls and puddles within them, slide down the little sand hill, and generally make a mess of themselves until dad came back and joined us. I thought there was a nickel or something in the water, but when I took it out, it was a rock laced with silvery streaks. Dad supposed it was actual silver potentially laced in the rock, since it was found where the water comes out of the creek and washes over the stones on the bottom. Nearly any handful got a stone with streaks or surfaces of copper, iron, pyrite, and rarely silver (or something like it), and a collection was soon formed. The best find was one stone that was something close to 90% copper, 10% leftover stone dotted on the surface. I think I could make a buck from it for the material itself.
Once done with that creek, there was a little tour around a looping walkway (Amelia wouldn't stop trying to walk through the dirt off the path, which was almost totally laced with poison ivy) before the family regrouped and had a round two at a stream closer to the city.
No luck, but we were back at the Cabin early enough that we had time to do a lot more. Dinner at Cracker Barrel was good service, sub-par food, but still an overall good experience before getting home. Dad wanted a round two of golf, so me+him+mom+Aaron went down the harder, less-trick-shot-y
Old Mountain Trail course. To everyone's surprise, Aaron was capable of numerous natural 2's and 3's on holes that have previously caused adults to reach the stroke limit. Definitely a fun game, followed up by a fun re-visit to the arcade. Me and dad wanted to compete at Air Hockey, especially on one specific machine that offers two handles per player and an enlarged goal. Made defense more fun and offense much more creative. If he has the puck, he's very capable of hitting it into whatever puck-sized opening I leave despite any defensive effort, but I still came out winning 5 to 7 while Aaron used up a few tokens driving.
Dad was finally willing to risk his shoulder getting a little sore and took a few proper swings at the hammer. Me and him went back and forth--Jeremy's previous record had been 918 on the meter, with me hitting ~905 after my dad's ~910. (Adam? Couldn't pass 880 to save his life.) Since each swing we made earned 25+ tickets, we had a good sized bundle from just $2.00 of swinging. I returned with the ticket bundle to find everyone still awake except little Amelia, who I accidentally woke up when turning on a bedroom light.
Thankfully she calmed pretty quickly with a little help. The teams finally were able to switch up for hammer swinging, since Jeremy had some tokens, Adam wanted to get out of his rut, and I had all the tickets. After maybe $20 of hammer smacking...
Jeremy: 928 high, 910 average despite his height causing lower back soreness with the machine's being so low.
Dad: 910 high, 880 average due to not wanting to overexert his shoulder.
Me: 908 high, 885 average dependent on if I stepped into the swing right.
Adam: 908 high, 870 average. He may have broken the cord that connected the hammer to the machine ("I'm fixin' t' break this damn thing!" *SNAP* *WHACK* And the wire was snapped) but it still took him until our last $5 or so to consistently get near or over 900.
Final ticket count: 3,062. For basically two nights of hammer smacking alone, that's not bad at all.
Day Six
July 22, 2011Having to wake everyone up earlier than usual naturally led to some cranky children and impatient adults, but we all got over it in a pretty short time. Two toys were missing--one horse and one plastic nut, part of a toy set--but the horse was found. I don't think anyone will miss the nut, since it was hammered on anyway. The tickets were finally spent just before we drove out.
One bow and arrow toy set, two tubes of Noisy Putty, many plastic vampire teeth, 7 green army guys, one Chinese finger-cuff, one plastic snake, two whistles, a super-bouncy ball, a few bracelets, some squishy goldfish, and five large, transparent dice later, and every point was spent off. We made it halway up the hill before the rain hit, but it was easy enough for the cars to be driven down the rest of the way for loading up and driving home.
And as I type this now, we're currently at home winding down. The bill for staying at the place hasn't been divided out yet, the kids are still loud, and my head's still fuzzy from lack of sleep. But hey, this trip was (as stated numerous times by dad and Adam) freakin' awesome.
Pictures later, if I can find where mom uploads them, golf scores later if anyone wants official counts, etc.
