gatlinburg

Gatlinburg : Travel

November 9, 2011 by Jensey 7 Comments

While cabin hunting with Lorie online a few months ago, we came across “The Castle in the Sky” and knew that it was the place for us! Let me say this again : We found a cabin-turned-cheesy-castle. In Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was perfect, and before you could say “Cinderella,” we booked it! Did I mention our trip was over Halloween? Perfection!

Despite a depressing start to our vacation (While driving in the rain, we got in a scary accident on the freeway about an hour away from our destination… Everyone’s fine, thank goodness, but I won’t be driving for a while!) Anyway, after a less than perfect start to the trip, we made it through the mountains and arrived at… *trumpets blowing*… Our castle!

If you’re planning a trip to Gatlinburg and are interested in staying in the castle, you can book it here. Despite the quirky appeal and affordable price, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone and we won’t ever be returning… I love the theme, but the place was disgusting and not kept up… I’m talking cobwebs in the stairwells, corners of the windows, along the walls… It was so gross. I was so thankful we came to stay in the fall when most of the TN bugs are dead- I can’t imagine this place crawling with insects in the summer! *shudders*

One of the bedrooms didn’t have power, in another, the king size mattress was balancing on a single support beam in the middle of the bed, which meant any slight movement and the whole mattress would rock about 4 inches up and down. The showers were so tiny with almost no water pressure, and the front door was so flimsy I felt like even little Huckleberry could have kicked it open…

… But the view was nice! :)

It’s such a shame the place was so poorly cared for, because it really is a cute thought, especially with kids. I should also mention that Lorie and I had near-tumbles down these stairs.

The decor was awful– Part castle, part American Indian, with random paintings of women throughout. Yes, those are three Indian heads hanging on the wall… There was an air vent below them that moved their hair in the breeze… Creepy!

A cabin must- Puzzles!

What do you do when the place you’re staying doesn’t have a wine key? Watch this video… Yes, it worked- On three bottles!

On the boys’ hike, they came across this abandoned cabin, complete with empty bunks and an outhouse.

For our friends and family that don’t “get” our move to Tennessee- See? :)

Beautiful as the scenery is, I could spend a weekend in an empty room with this guy and have just as good a time! :)

And because I know Huck hasn’t had as much face time on the blog as I like, here are some recent photos of him in leaves! I also have to say here that leaves have officially been added to Huck’s “hate list.” He growls at them when they fall, refuses to sit on them, and doesn’t seem to find the tiny crunching under his paws as endearing as the rest of us. :)

Holiday Recap Part 2

January 19, 2011 by Jensey 11 Comments

Continued from Holiday Recap Part 1!

I swear we have the cutest friends. :)

I think Nate would have been an amazing gymnast had he’d been given the chance! I don’t know anyone else that would not wipe out from this sledding mishap :

FAVORITE : Nate’s “sledding smile.”

We also saw my Dad for the first time in two years. I’ll never let it go that long again!

Went to the most intense cookie decorating event I’d ever seen and met my step mom’s family :

My masterpiece – It’s a Scottie dog wearing a plaid sweater, clearly!

Dad took us to an MD-11 Sim… My first one since I was 12, and Nate’s first one, ever.

For the first time, I almost landed! It wasn’t pretty, but Dad said we would have walked away from it. And as Dad always told me, “Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing!” :) Nate, however, took to it like a fish and water… I see potential flight lessons in his future. :)

Huck was not a fan of one of our Christmas gifts, “Racing Grannies.” Clearly, that means we’ll be taking video of it soon enough! ;)

One of our brides wrote me on Facebook and asked what sports jersey Huck was sporting all winter – He was wearing a reindeer costume! I’m a little sad the cute hood didn’t show up in 95% of our photos, though!

We went to Indiana to spend the couple days before Christmas with the rest of Nate’s family. December was officially Huck’s favorite, ever. I don’t think he’d been around so many different people in such a short amount of time before!

Me and my lovely sister-in-law waiting for present time…

Yes, we gave her Minnie Mouse ears. :)

Huck’s single favorite moment in December : I let him try peanut butter. :)

I hope YOU all had equally wonderful holidays! :)

Holiday Recap Part 1

January 18, 2011 by Jensey 10 Comments

I’m probably a little late in the game to tell you all about our holiday adventures, but it’s my blog, so I’m doing it anyway. :)

Our holiday season kicked off with our first trip to Hogsmeade. (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, for the rest of you Muggles!) I was beyond impressed.

There’s this moment when you walk through the entrance where your heart stops and for a second, you honestly think you’re there. Or, maybe that’s just me. :)

Many of our friends insisted we’d love the Forbidden Journey ride. Well, we went, and all I had to say afterwards was, “Do our friends know me? Have we met?” Because, seriously, Jenseys should never be allowed on such things. I pretty much thought I was going to die and was left feeling terrified and wanting to crawl into a hole and cry! (Nate loved it, but couldn’t shake the “fact” that some of the visuals were poorly focused.) I will give it another go at some point because it was an incredible attraction, but it’s gonna be a while. :) Flight of the Hippograph was much more my speed, sadly enough! I could have ridden it all day – It reminded me of Goofy’s Barnstormer. :)

We checked out Hog’s Head and tried our first Butterbeer, which we loved – For those of you that haven’t been yet, try the frozen kind, too! We didn’t think to and kinda regret it.

Nerds. :)

My favorite thing about Hogsmeade were all of the shops; I often feel like Disney World could be so much cooler if every building facade had an actual shop you could walk into, or at least doors that would open! (For example, I always hate the Streets of America at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and all the wasted space they have with the buildings there.) Anyway, Universal did a great job with this in Hogsmeade. We even almost missed a shop or two, not realizing the doors went to ‘real’ places. :)

Mythos, I love you!

Somehow we missed peeking into this restaurant on our last visit:

We made a quick trip to visit Nate’s wonderful family in South Florida –

Giving the little ladies their Christmas gifts early – I don’t think Gaby was thrilled at the fact that we gave her an American Girls’ Guide to Manners book as one of her gifts. I guess not all girls are into that kinda thing like I was when I was 11 – Whoops!

After almost 8 years of completely avoiding calling Nate’s dad by name (much harder than one would think!), I’ve finally settled on Dad. It just feels right. :)

I think someone shops for trees at the same place! The tree on the left is in Epcot, the one on the right was taken during our visit to Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It was our first time going there, and when we walked in, I thought meh? Pretty much just like Orlando’s Gaylord Palms… Then I realized we were only in one of the 6 wings. Crazy!

Our first Nashville guests came to stay for a bit – Surely you all remember Jessie & Nick!

Jessie is Huck’s BFF. Not that you can tell or anything… ;)

Sadly enough, I don’t have any photos of the most exciting / terrifying part of our whole entire year – The drive we took from Nashville to Gatlinburg. What should have taken 3.5 hours took close to 9. We drove our PT Cruiser on the iciest roads I’ve ever driven on… After however many hours of hydroplaning and honestly thinking we just weren’t gonna make it, we somehow did. I’ve never been so happy to reach a destination as I was when we finally pulled up to our cabin. It made the view that much more impressive after being so close to death!

The next day, we went s l e d d i n g! A first for both of us. :) Yes, that’s Nate sledding with a Flip Camera in his hat. ;)

Part Two is up next! :)