As I write, we have returned from our recent family vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains.  I sit in a living room littered with the unpacked cargo we brought in from the van. We arose early this morning and made the eight-hour trip in record time.  Glad to be home, we cheerily did our part to unload the van. Everyone then disappeared to their respective bedrooms to check on things and collapse for a brief time. I suppose the cargo will be put away later. And really, I’m just glad it’s all in the house; along with us.

We don’t take a lot of vacations. Our last one was to Disneyworld a few years before the baby was born. The older three were old enough to enjoy it all.  I think we are still recovering from the financial hit a Disney vacation can cause.

On a couple of trips to Florida and a few to visit friends in South Carolina, we always said we would one day visit the Smoky Mountains. This was the year.

Having no idea where to start, we chose a reasonably priced cabin near the Sevierville-Pigeon Forge area and figured we’d drive to all the places we wanted to visit. The cabin looked very quaint online and we were sure we’d be comfortable there. Plus, we could take the family pet, saving us the hassle of finding someone to watch over the emotionally attached mutt.

Everyone happily climbed into the van on Monday morning, including the ecstatic dachshund, who always likes a car ride. Michelle and I had abandoned our hopes of having everything in its place before taking off.  Yes, we would come home to an untidy house and some chores to do. We ran out of time in the days before the vacation and barely had time to get everything packed and the necessities taken care of.

The ride down and back was basically painless. We ran into a little traffic along the way, but our miraculous little lady in the GPS kept us on track. She even said things like “In five miles, traffic issues will add 32 minutes to your trip. Hit accept to find an alternate route.” We hit accept, and she routed us around Nashville and Knoxville on the way down and back. Amazing!  I’m a little late on the technology bandwagon, so if this stuff is old hat to you, please humor me. Don’t smirk.

Always ready to save a buck (she married a school teacher), Michelle had snacks and drinks packed, and these were much appreciated along the way. We managed to stop only once both ways for a short meal other than quick pit stops for humans and dog. It’s amazing how boring chips and water can be at first, until you get a hankering and haven’t seen any exits in a while.

Knowing we would stock the kitchen of the cabin, our first stop was the Sevierville Walmart, perhaps the busiest Walmart I have ever seen.  There were at least 20 checkouts open. Having worked there myself at one time (not at the Sevierville location), I was amazed and ready to get out of there quickly.

We got used to the little roads and the somewhat nerve-wracking maneuvering around the mountains. Happy to find our cabin nestled high on a ridge, we unloaded and began to acclimate ourselves.

My oldest son promptly read the directions for throwing away garbage, something he finds challenging at home. His attention to these directions, posted on the fridge, intrigued and surprised me. As I joined him at the list, I noticed he was pointing to the part of the directions that spoke of bears being in the area. And raccoons, foxes, and various mountain varmints. He wasn’t too worried about trash disposal protocol; he was more interested in scaring his brother and sisters.

The cabin was comfortable, and it seemed like “home” during our stay. It had a great hot tub. The only drawbacks were that it had no pool nearby and was at least 15 to 20 minutes away from everything.

Traveling with teenagers is always interesting (they seemed to be underwhelmed about everything), and after budgeting for a visit to Dollywood, we found out no one was overly enthused about going there, hearing from others that it is much like Silver Dollar City.  Nice place, but been there, done that.

We have an interesting dynamic, as you know, in our family, so our next step was to convince our 5-year-old that Dollywood wasn’t a place for little kids and we even Googled the place to see how many little kid attractions there were.

There was also a visit to a nearby pool and a little place called Kid Country planned. Throwing these ideas out there helped with negotiations and Dollywood was nixed.

As you may have guessed, foregoing the big attraction in the area afforded us several other choices; like eating. We found the restaurant meals superior to St. Louis area food.  Sorry, St. Louis.  I don’t know; the food was just good, fresh, and quality. Better.

Horseback riding, ATV riding, shopping, an aquarium visit and visits to attractions on “the strip” were costly but fun.

Perhaps our best day was spent exploring the Smoky Mountains, driving through the parks, picnic lunching near the river, and finally wading into the bone-chilling waters and climbing over the rocks.  All for free, excluding gas and packed lunch.

Probably two best-kept secrets we found were the above mentioned little carnival area and the Sevierville Family Aquatic Center.

The carnival is called “Kid Country” and resembles a mini-county fair, complete with rides for those of us who are under 6.  Heck, even the big kids enjoyed just hanging out there, watching their delighted little sister have a ball. Who needs Dolly?  Thrilling rides? Check!

The aquatic center is really just the public pool; and oh what a pool it is. The pool was huge, roomy and nice for the big kids, very well staffed, and had a “splash pad” for little ones next to the pool with fountains and fancy squirting cascades of water that came up out of the ground.  The whole little group of “water wonders” was surrounded by a shallow wading pool with a great little ledge for parents to sit and observe.  The admission prices were very low. Fun was had by all.  Waterpark? Check!

Did we spend too much money? Probably. Did we have a blast? Yes. But I mostly found out vacationing is really just about being together.  My teenagers (three of them now!) were content to hang out and relax, and most of our quest for things to do involved the little one.  We managed to find things to do that everyone enjoyed.

We returned happy, rested, and thankful. A great Father’s Day gift, if you ask me.