Back to Reality

So hi there! We had a great, great, great vacation. For not planning anything, we sure did keep busy. We are so glad we rented the minivan, Zach and I had lots of room to ourselves and we had plenty of space for all our stuff. Plus, the way Dad drives up the mountains, Mom was glad it wasn't HER car he was beating the snot out of.

Our first day, we drove halfway and stopped for the night. We were lucky there was an indoor bouncy house place with an arcade right by the hotel. Then we met up with one of Dad's old high school friends for dinner, he was silly!

We got to Pigeon Forge around 3 pm the next day, traffic into the area was horrible! The main strip is really, really touristy, we avoided it the entire rest of our trip. We checked in and began the adventure to find our cabin. 20 minutes later and a lot of windy roads, we found it no problem. It far exceeded our expectations and the view was amazing. We just relaxed that night and picked up some groceries.

On Tuesday, the weather was iffy, so we went to Ripley's Aquarium. It was very cool, very huge and very packed! We headed back to the cabin for lunch and decided what to do next. There was a space open on the 4:30 whitewater rafting trip about an hour away, so we did that. The guide assured us as we were floating down the easy segment of the river, that no one has EVER fallen off the raft on the "easy trip". Well, we soon came to a very, very small drop...like maybe 3 feet, and he asked if we wanted to "surf" the current. Meaning he turns the raft sideways and we kind of float in the drop area. We said sure, why not!? Well, 10 seconds into it, the current caught the raft, spun it around and yours truly flew out. Dad immediately jumped in after me. We got pretty far from the raft and were under it at one point. Dad's instincts kicked in and he found a rock to brace his feet on and kept me calm until Mom and the guide reached us. It was pretty scary. I'm glad I had a life jacket and helmet on. I only went under for a couple seconds. The currents were strong and there were lots of rocks. Zach was petrified. Mom pretty much sat on him to keep him safe while she helped paddle. Fortunately, I climbed back in and shook it off and proceeded to enjoy the rest of the trip. Mom was a little irritated that the guide didn't show much remorse, but oh well, we still would have done it again. We don't have any pics from the trip, but the rafting company is supposed to send us a CD of some photos soon.

Anyhow, after all the excitement the rest of the trip was calm....other than the time Mom forgot the keycode to the cabin and we were locked out for an hour...and oh yeah, Zach slipped out of his innertube in the pool and went under for far too long! We tried really hard to avoid the touristy stuff like Dollywood and the shops. We did some early morning hiking to Laurel Falls (missed a bear sighting by 10 minutes!). Took a cable car ride up the mountain and enjoyed swimming, cooking out and relaxing at the cabin. Mom and Dad really miss the pool table and hot tub. The drive back was long and sad. But they surprised us with a trip to Dinosaur World on the way home, so that really helped dry up our Tennessee tears.

So now I have only three short weeks of break left before I start school on the 17th, boo! We're going to pack in lots of fun and do some activities in the afternoon to get my brain ready for 2nd grade.

Here are some pics from the trip, there are a lot!
http://picasaweb.google.com/nursears/PigeonForge#

Later~
Katherine