The Chronicles of the Hawes Kids : Tennessee Part II-National Park

The second day of our trip we hiked down to the car and drove through the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest/Park. Our photos don't do any justice to the natual beauty you witness in person. It was absolutely amazing. After our difficult start at the vacation we were very excited to get things moving along, relax and destress. We ended up seeing 32 deer. Which, we have to tell you, is hilarious at the amount of ppl amazed by seeing deer from southern states. They would stop all traffic to jump out of their cars and snap a million photos. We joked about inviting them to drive up to Michigan and see them up close and personal on the side of the road haha!

Well, we had a little snafu at the park and ended up stranded for 2 hours. Again, this issue was weather related. If it were anywhere else (city traffic) it really would have bothered us, but it was actually pretty relaxing and the scenery was breathtaking. Traffic runs one way through the park and there were very steep grades in the shadows. Well, it was icy as can be and so steep that vehicles, even vehicles with 4-wheel drive, were unable to go down and get up the other side. Rangers had to hold traffic, bring in a salt/sand truck from the exit and push the vehichles up one by one. We were very lucky because it was Justin's nap time so as we sat there with the rest of traffic we shut our car off and we took a little snooze too! None the less it was a beautiful drive and very relaxing.

After our trip to the park we went to a little local log cabin restaurant in Townsend and enjoyed a delicious dinner by the fire place and from there we went back to our cabin and enjoyed a fire and some smores! And after Justin went to sleep mom and dad were able to snuggle up by the fireplace with some wine and spend some quality time together.