Gatlinburg Trip with 30 People

Hi, blog readers! It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted an update. First off, I would like to hear how your summer was. What were some of the highlights? We had a busy spring and a more relaxed summer. We were home most of the summer, which I really enjoyed, and we welcomed a few visitors, which was great. I generally prefer hosting family and friends over traveling to visit them.

In June, we met Mr. Handsome’s side of the family in Gatlinburg for four days. There were 15 adults and 15 children, and we all stayed in one huge lodge. It was well set up, with a large gathering area and a lot of small bedrooms.

We took all the kids on a three-mile hike, and it went surprisingly well. It was pretty flat, so the terrain was easy on the children’s feet. Those with babies brought a hiking carrier. We parked at the Metcalf Trailhead and hiked up to the Little Greenbrier School, a schoolhouse built in 1882 that is open to the public. The kids loved sitting at the original desks and looking at the writing on the chalkboard. They felt like Laura Ingalls Wilder, and honestly, all the adults did, too. We all thoroughly enjoyed this piece of living history.

From there, we hiked to the Walker Sisters’ Place, a cabin built in the 1840s that is also open to the public. There was a three-page document inside the house that detailed the interesting history of the family. The Walker family owned the house before the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established and were allowed to stay after the park opened, but their activities were limited by park regulations. For a while, the Walker sisters welcomed visitors to their property.

One of the evenings we were in Gatlinburg, after all the other kids had gone to bed, I took six-year-old Little Buddy on a special outing to a mountain coaster. It’s not a typical roller coaster. The car you sit in is self-propelled, so you can control the speed. I don’t love roller coasters, but this was incredibly fun. I enjoyed spending one-on-one time with my oldest child.

All 15 kids did great on the trip, and everyone slept well, which was my biggest prayer. One of the highlights of our time in Gatlinburg was seeing two black bears up close. While Mr. Handsome was on the back deck grilling burgers, they walked out of the woods to investigate the scrumptious smell. They were directly under the grill, just ten feet below the enclosed deck. When they saw Mr. Handsome, one of them walked slowly back into the woods, and the other sauntered out into the parking lot and passed several other lodges before we lost sight of him. There were plenty of people and cars around the complex, but the bear did not seem scared at all.