**I’m going to try some major catch up on posts the next couple of days. I’m 8 behind haha!**

At the beginning of March, Nathan was sent to North Carolina to attend a week long class for the new role he took on at work. And I was able to tag along! The kids spent the week in Houston with their grandparents and I took myself sightseeing everyday and had datenight with Nathan each evening. It was a fantastic time! Aside from the air travel. Which, at this point, I’ve mostly blocked from my brain so its whatever.

We landed in Asheville on a Monday and hit a couple of breweries (of which there are more than 50 in a relatively small city) having some tasty beers and food before the 30 minute drive to Lake Junaluska where the hotel and Nathan’s class were.

Tuesday morning, Nathan started his class and I took the day to sightsee locally. Lake Junaluska is a small resort community built on a man made lake bordering Waynesville. The area had summer camp and retirement community vibes and the hotel we were staying in was one of 2 on the lake and was the older of the 2, but carried more charm. But in some ways it reminded me of the hotel from “The Shining” lol! I enjoyed strolling the 3.5mile paved trail around the lake and was back at the hotel for some rest before heading out to dinner with Nathan.

After going into Waynesville the night before for dinner and seeing its cute, walkable downtown; I spent Wednesday’s afternoon checking out shops and had a yummy lunch at local brewpub.

Thursday was my biggest adventure day yet! I got up and out early and drove about 40 minutes into the Smoky Mountain National Park and did some serious hiking! I entered the park via the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and drove the Newfound Gap Road up and over the ridge of the Appalachian Trail, into Tennessee to access the trailhead for Chimney Tops. The drive alone was an adventure with the narrow roads, sharp turns, tunnels and intense elevation change. Empty water bottles in the floor board were crushing in on themselves! The Chimney Tops Trail came up as one of many points of interest for the park when I was researching hiking, but I chose it along with Alum Caves due to their relatively short mileage and accessibility. All other park roads were still closed for the winter and other POI’s would be quite a hike in. Chimney Tops was under 4 miles round trip, but was a doozy due to the constant elevation gain. But I made it and thoroughly enjoyed my break at the top watching the “smoke” move through the mountains. The trek down was 10 times easier although just as daunting due to the angle, but I enjoyed the scenery a little more.

Making my way back to North Carolina, I drove to the next trailhead already pretty tired, but curiosity of the cave made me head out again. This trail would be 5 miles roundtrip but didn’t have much elevation change. Unfortunately I didn’t make that destination. The hike was beautiful meandering along Alum Cave Creek, but the fatigue won and I turned around under the 2 mile mark. I did get to see and walk through an awesome washout in the mountain side and that satisfied my cave craving just fine.

I got back to the hotel that evening just in time for dinner and rewarded my muscles with some cold beers.

Friday was my last solo day and it was entirely spent at Biltmore Estate in Asheville. I walked the gardens until my 11 am tour time and spent the next hour in awe of the grandeur and history of the manor. The audio guide was thorough and entertaining. I thought about dedicating an entire blog post to this one experience, but will instead leave it as a photo dump and the recommendation to add it to your list. 🙂 It came highly recommended to me by a few people and after experiencing it I’m glad to say, “been there, done that.” The entire experience is grand and most appreciatively structured for hot tourist destination.

It was finally Saturday and after Nathan aced his test that morning, we were free to sightsee TOGETHER for the rest of the day as we didn’t fly back until Sunday. I had spent the week coming up with all the outdoorsy things we could do…mostly in the Smoky Mountains and the day had finally come annnnnddddd we woke up to a blanket of snow with more falling. That, of course, lead to road closures and the National Park being closed. Whomp Whomp. Nathan was determined to put his Texan driving skills to test on snow covered roads and found an opened route to the north of the mountains that would get us into Tennessee. We got into Sevierville; had lunch at a cool little tap room/cafe, then we went into Smoky Mountain Knifeworks and after some gawking, came out with a pocket knife for each boy and a bracelet for Ashlyn that actually had her name on it.

From there, we drove through Pigeon Forge into Gatlinburg enjoying both the natural snowcapped scenery as well as the gaudy tourist attractions. Pigeon Forge seemed like it was trying to be the Las Vegas of Tennessee. We did some walking along the main drag of Gatlinburg, enjoyed a brewery there and impulsively ducked into a “museum” of famous cars. lol! We both got a kick out of it and enjoyed the photo ops. Google Maps led us back to the hotel via some cool but questionable back roads, then it was time to rest up for our travel day back home.

This area definitely made the “got to bring the kids back here” list. We would probably stay on the Tennessee side that trip. They would enjoy Gatlinburg and Momma needs to see that cave still! We’re so grateful for our support people holding down the fort and yay for work sending us Nathan awesome places 😉

-Lindsay