WARNING: Long post ahead!
After two weeks, we picked up the kids in Tennessee and turned the return trip into a family vacation. It was an excellent chance for us to fill in some more of our US picture map.
Oma and Papa drove the kids down and met us at a cabin in Sevierville, TN, just outside the Smokies. It was kind of hard to find, but we all made it! Unfortunately, it was not as cool in the "mountains" as I'd hoped, but it was a nice, leafy hideaway at the top of a hill. It was so good to be reunited with the kids!
The cabin was cozy and had some fun games, including an old school arcade that had dozens of games for 1-2 players! Perfect for the gamer in the house.
Our first meal was on the touristy Dolly Parton Parkway at a 50's diner where the waitstaff had to speak in slang from the time and wear poodle skirts. Of course, Owen ordered giant pancakes!
We watched some Olympics back at the cabin and then called it a night. The next morning we had to say good-bye to O&P, before they traveled on to NC to visit some friends.
We were sad to see them go, but we did have some things to do! Starting with zip lining! We took a zip lining tour about a five minutes' drive from the cabin. Our guides, Willy and Peter (is that really their names?), were funny and entertaining, while making us feel (mostly) safe.
I think there were 6 ziplines of varying length for a total of 2 miles of cable. There were short walks between them, and only one really had to hike up a hill to the platform. On this route, we were supposed to do bird-flapping wings before tucking for the landing. On other routes, we went upside down, took running leaps off the platform, or raced side-by-side. It was so fun and was the kids' favorite part of the trip, I think.
That night we ventured over to a nearby apple-themed restaurant, that was really more of a complex with related shops and trails. They brought out a basket of apple fritters, apple butter, and apple julips for the pre-meal appetizer and drinks (like chips and salsa, whether you want them or not). The fritters were delicious! After some good ol' Southern fare, we walked the grounds and enjoyed the porch rockers and swings for a bit.
The next day, we followed up zip lining with some white water rafting. We had some time to kill, so the kids tried out their water shoes in the nearby creek.
Then we geared up, loaded a school bus, and hopped in a raft on the Upper Pigeon River. The rapids were pretty gentle, but it was a fun experience, and we floated on the river for a couple of hours before reaching the load out point. We had to work on our paddle coordination and listening skills ("Right!"), but we stayed afloat. Hadley even got to ride on the front of the raft for some rapids while holding onto the metal loop like it was a rodeo bull ride!
Our white water rafting trip started at the North Carolina border, so just before that, we popped over into NC to do a quick hike to a waterfall.
It was gorgeous, and we had the place all to ourselves! The trees really were this green. We drove down a county road, passed a horse camp, and stopped at the dead end where we fueled up on some PBJs at the car before our 0.5 mile hike down Little Fall Branch trail.
After a short while, we could hear the sound of rushing water and got our first glimpse of the waterfall. It's hard to show the scale, but it was a lot bigger waterfall than we were expecting. So pretty! And muddy...
Then it was time to say goodbye to the Smoky Mountains...
The following day, we passed through Asheville, NC with a brewery stop for lunch. We'll have to go back when we have more time to do the Biltmore and sightsee. We pressed on and just cut the corner on South Carolina on our way to Atlanta.
In order to make it count, we have to get out of the car, so we chose to explore the Poinsett Bridge. What a great place to stop! We missed it the first drive by, because it's just off of a quiet country road in the forest with minimal (no?) signage. It's the state's oldest bridge, built in 1820 by the same guy who designed the Washington Monument. It's no longer in use, but its gothic arch straddles a picturesque creek that trickles across a sheet of rock.
We then came to an hour-long standstill on the interstate in Georgia, and the family was skeptical when I told them that we were staying in someone's basement apartment in Atlanta.
But everyone was delighted to discover that the basement had higher ceilings than our regular house, three bedrooms and two baths, no sounds of feet above, and the host even provided cereal and snacks for our use. (Kids briefly discussed moving there!) Plus, we were just a short walk from the Ponce City Market, an old Sears building turned into hip shops and restaurants, which was a Godsend after spending most of the day in the car.
Bonus: the walk was through a park and on the Beltline, a new-ish urban redevelopment project to link multi-use trails over a 22-mile loop of former railroads around Atlanta. It was great to see revitalization of these areas and the number of people walking, jogging, biking, and scooting down the path between apartment complexes, neighborhoods, parks, and restaurants, despite the muggy evening.
The only thing on our agenda for the next day was the Georgia Aquarium, one of the largest in the world, for our resident Aquarium-enthusiast (Owen). We braved the crowds (I thought they were limiting entrance...?) and took it all in, starting with the sharks, of course.
This octopus was highly entertaining. He was up in the corner hiding amongst the plants when he noticed a crowd gathering at his window. It was as if he checked his watch and saw that it was time to put on his hourly show again, so he marched over, front and center, and proceeded to stretch out a couple of tentacles as wide as they would go. He held that pose for a few minutes, then closed up, and sauntered back to his hiding place. We had just watched My Octopus Teacher, which is about a man's friendship with an octopus and their intelligence, and I have no doubt that he was posing for us.
We've had a fascination with these big crabs since 2014 in Oregon, and The Peterson Preserve was worthy of a picture. The belugas were also fun to watch. They were very curious about their observers and would come right up to the glass and then smear down it, like they were using it to scratch an itch. This one had some unusual belly blubber that made it look like a swimming cloud.
But the ultimate sight at this aquarium are the two whale sharks they rescued from an Asian fish market. They are in a huge tank with lots of other fish, rays, and sea turtles. They are the biggest fish on the planet, and it was pretty mesmerizing to watch all of the aquatic life go by the giant picture window.
Afterward, we were so close that we decided to switch gears and get some history in on the way back to our apartment with a stop at the MLK historical park. Unfortunately, it was a scorching hot afternoon (Hot-lanta strikes again!), and the museum buildings were closed for COVID reasons. But we did go by his boyhood home and final resting place.
We spent time in Mobile last March, so Alabama was just a drive-through state this time.
Soon after that came the Mississippi border...
We hung a left at Jackson to catch the Natchez Trace Parkway, which is part of the National Park System, all the way to its beginning in Natchez, MS. We had the quiet two-lane highway pretty much to ourselves. It was nice to get off of the interstate, drive 55, and take in the scenery.
There weren't too many must-see destinations on this part of the Trace, but we did stop to see Emerald Mound. It is one of the largest Native American ceremonial mounds in the country, and on a late summer afternoon in Southern Mississippi, it is sauna-like, so we didn't stay long.
A few miles later, we made it to our "hotel" for the night, a classic Southern home built in 1836 and repurposed as an inn with a handful of suites. The history of the place said it was one of the first "pre-fab" homes (3 others on the same street) in the country, made with pre-cut pieces floated down the Mississippi River from Cincinnati.
The house had a shared living room and grand piano, on which the kids tried to play their old recital pieces. Some remembered their music better than others...
Our room was the Clark Gable Suite, as he reputedly loved visiting Natchez and stayed there when he did. It worked out well for us, since it had a secondary bedroom for the kids. It was a little dated, and we had a rough stay what with wasps sneaking in under the window AC unit in the kids' room and water trickling down the wall (from the room upstairs, we think) as we were about to turn in. But it sufficed for a night.
Before we turned in for the night, the kids and I took a quick stroll around the block (or three) to admire some of the unique architecture of the town. It was extremely warm, humid, and still. Ugh. But we did see some beautiful houses, a cathedral, and a Confederate monument.
On to the next, Louisiana was also a drive-through state this trip. (We had previously stopped for a gumbo and etoufee lunch on our way to Destin last spring.) Though we did cross the mighty "Mississip," and took smaller highways through the middle of the state to avoid the I-10 swamp crossing.
We were glad to push through to get home. The kids hadn't been home in 24 days! Not too shabby... Our goal is to get to all of the states before the kids graduate!
