Road Trip!

Rob and I wanted to go on an epic summer vacation - a celebration of getting through the school year, dealing with covid and all the things...plus at the time covid was getting so much better!  We tossed around idea after idea and had a hard time making up our minds with covid related travel issues, rental car concerns, etc.  We even booked one trip and had to cancel it!  We finally landed on a road trip to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg TN!  I think it ended up being one of the kids' favorite vacations we had ever done!  Definitely some great memories!

Our first night in the condo in Pigeon Forge!  It was an amazing place to stay, so much room to spread out plus full kitchen.

Pigeon Forge is a funny place.  Someone compared it to Vegas but for kids.  All kinds of crazy things to see and everywhere you turn there's something different to do.  We were in walking distance to the Old Mill which was a great picture spot and had some cute shops (ice cream!)

Our first day plan was to drive to Gatlinburg to explore and go for a hike.  I enjoyed Gatlinburg more than Pigeon Forge.  It was really pretty and I especially loved the National Park.  We got a little lost, but found this great picture spot!

We went to the Sky park and got to walk across the Sky bridge.  It was very cool and even had a glass section mid-way across the bridge.

Then we drove to the Smoky Mountain National park to hike Grotto Falls.  It's a very popular trail with limited parking - we added quite a bit to our hike because of how far away we had to park!  It was fairly challenging - straight uphill one way, straight down on the way back!  But a beautiful waterfall that you can even walk under.

The park was gorgeous, I could have spent the whole week hiking!  On the way back, the kids and Rob tried out this mountain coaster!

After we returned to our condo to relax a little, we decided to go back to Gatlinburg at night to see the Sky bridge again (our tickets were valid all day.)  It was fun to see it at night!

Next day was Dollywood!!  It was a very nice park, clean and really nicely themed.  We all had fun and tried to pack in as much as possible!  I think we did every ride there except the one coaster that was closed.  It was a long day, but definitely fun!

Back to the Old Mill for more pictures and ice cream!!

Our next day we planned to be a little more relaxing after a full amusement park day!  We drove to Townsend to go river tubing.  There were 2 "outposts" and you could go as many times as you wanted.  They had buses that would pick you up and bring you back to the start.  The river was pretty low so it wasn't super fast plus you would get stuck on the rocks a lot!  There were gorgeous views - and we even got to see a black bear!!!  But no photos because we didn't bring a single thing with us!

I think we tubed 3 or 4 times.  The baby bear was definitely a highlight!!  I flipped over when I hit a small rapid in the water and lost my tube.  Claire was a little further down and grabbed it for me.  She stood there and waited for me to get to her and at that moment someone near by said there was a bear.  I looked up and saw him running through the woods and pointed him out to Claire.  That was so cool!!

We took a more scenic drive home with lots of awesome views.

That evening we made another quick stop at a candy store!  The kids and I loved going in a few homemade candy shops :-)  Also here's a picture of our pool at the condo which was really pretty nice.  

Our last day in Tennessee was Dollywood's Splash Country.  We checked out of the hotel and were there waiting in the front of the line for it to open.  We spent a good amount of time there, getting to do everything we wanted to do and then a huge storm hit!  We ran out in the pouring rain!  This was the nicest water park - everything kind of centrally located so we could split up to do different things but then find each other easily.

Since it was pouring rain and the changing rooms were packed, we decided to just get in the car and figure out where to change clothes (which we ended up going into a random hotel lobby bathroom....felt a little sneaky but worked out great!)  Our plan was to drive half way home, stay in a hotel and then finish the drive home the next day just to break up the driving.  It was a fantastic vacation with lots of good memories!

Pink Power 2021

4th in my age group!!

Summer Camp

 The kids spent most weeks this summer at camp!  Claire did a "Sleep away" camp in North Carolina again with her friend Lilly.  Just a couple favorite pictures!

Girls Weekend in Va beach

 Claire and I joined Mimi for a girls weekend in Virginia beach.  We stayed with Linda and had a great time visiting with her and doing some fun things at the beach.  I loved the time with my girl.  She has such a great attitude, sees the joy in small things, and is just fun to be around.

We went on the Rudee Rocket!  We'd never done that before.  We got to see lots of dolphin and the boat gets you soaked by the end.

We did the adventure course at the aquarium - SO FUN!  The ziplines were awesome.  It was very hot and by the end I was worried Claire was going to pass out so we called it a day and went to get lunch.  Somehow a little while later, she found the energy to go for a long walk on the boardwalk to get boba tea.

On our last day we took the trolley down Atlantic and walked back, then spent some time on the beach.  It was a beautiful day!  

4th of July

We were able to go to the river for the 4th of July and have all the Hulcher/Mason/Barnes group together for the first time since pre-pandemic!  We had a wonderful time.

Ollie got to come with us and meet the other dogs.  He loved Captain!!  The other 2 didn't want to put up with his puppy ways and put him in his place haha!!

Wade asked "Why are there 2 Captains?'

 

We won a trophy for our float!

It was really a fantastic weekend and we were all so happy to get to be together!  Ollie had the time of his life, although the fireworks were not so great to him!