Surprise Spring Break Trip

This week was the much anticipated Spring Break. I decided last week to plan a surprise trip for the family and all I told my wife was that we were leaving on Monday morning and we would be back sometime Wednesday evening. I wouldn't tell her where we were going or anything. The only clues she had was that she would need some warmer type clothes and her bathing suit. Yeah, those clues didn't help either. So off we went on our journey and things were going smoothly until we got 45 minutes from our destination and found out the road was closed due to a landslide. Ok, we will take a slight detour and be there soon. Boy was I wrong; the slight detour took our 45 minute drive and turned it into 2 hours and 15 minutes. So, off we went again and we finally reached our destination of Gatlinburg, TN around 4:00. Both of us have been to Gatlinburg before, but neither has been in many years so this was going to be a fun and quick family trip for us. I quickly remembered that Gatlinburg is not somewhere to go if you are wanting to lost weight. We quickly made our way to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and upon leaving there made plans to go to Pancake Pantry for breakfast the next morning. Of course, we had to stop at the Funnel Cake shop on the way back to the hotel for a treat.

The next day we took Callie to Wild Bear Falls Indoor Water Park and boy did she have a great time. They have a couple smaller areas which were perfect for kids her age, a lazy river, water slides, and a deeper pool which she could "swim" in. This was by far one of the most enjoyable days of being a Dad as I saw my little girl's face light up as she kicked her little feet and "swam" back and forth to her mother and me until we finally told her it was time to go. That night we decided to go back downtown to have dinner at a Mexican restaurant which was right on the creek and Callie got to watch the ducks as we enjoyed our tacos. We also took a little time to do a little shopping (had to get some fudge) where Callie made a new friend (see below) and stopped by an arcade where Callie took a couple rides and then beat me at air hockey (sorry no pic of that).

Wednesday morning we got up and realized that we probably have spent more in food than travel and lodging so we ate breakfast, took a scenic drive, and visited Ober Gatlinburg before heading home.

 

 

So much of the time we are in such a hurry to get from one place to another and to take care of the "important" stuff that we forget to slow down and take time for what is most important. I am glad that we were able to do that a little bit this week.