Before leaving the Smoky Mountain area a few weeks ago, we parked the car for one last hike. Kim’s brother Chris and his girlfriend Kirbi joined us for our last night in our cabin and came along for the hike to Laurel Falls.

On The Hike

This is one of a few paved trails in the park, so we were able to push our stroller up the trail and we saw many others doing the same. Parts of the trail have a steep drop on one side, so you’ll want to be careful with your little ones.

At The Falls

It takes about an hour and a half to cover the 2.5 mile round-trip hike to see the cascading waterfalls. The falls are 80 feet tall and a bridge crosses over the water stream about half way down. You have a great view of the upper falls from the bridge and shallow pool on the other side. The bottom half of the falls are hard to see, though you can walk right up to this edge and peak your head over.

Laurel Falls

The parking lot at the trailhead was very crowded, so it’s best to get an early start if you want to beat the crowds, otherwise you may find yourself having to hike extra just to get to the trailhead. Better yet, I’ve read that there are more scenic and less visited waterfalls in other ares of the park.

Gatlinburg City on Dwellable

After a long afternoon exploring Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies a few weeks back, my wife and I were able to walk the streets of Gatlinburg and get both of our kids to fall asleep in the stroller. We quickly took advantage of the situation to enjoy a peaceful early dinner at the Smoky Mountain Brewery.

Outside

Even with the address in hand, we walked right past the restaurant and brewery on our first trip down the street. It sits back off the parkway behind Calhoun’s and the Cherokee Grill. The outside of the building looks like a ski lodge and offers multiple levels of dining.

Beer Sampler

Since we wanted to keep the kids in the stroller to let them sleep, we were asked if it would be alright if we ate downstairs in the small kitchen dining area. We occupied the only table but our server never once forgot about us. We enjoyed a sampling of their beers while looking over the food menu ($5.75 for 5 5-oz pours). Their main stay beer offerings seem to cater toward those who enjoy lighter beers and I was not impressed by them. However the porter was great as was the featured IPA. Plus their beer is also ridiculously cheap!

Chicken Reuben

For dinner I enjoyed the chicken Reuben with sauerkraut, sour cream, and cheese on grilled rye bread ($9.75). This was not a standard Reuben at all. I’ve had turkey Reubens many times, but never one made with chicken. The chicken was thick sliced and the sour cream was not really noticeable. Some thousand island would have really made this sandwich great, but it was still good as is. For the included side I chose the honey-mustard potato salad, which was awesome!

Chicken Cheese Philly

My wife ordered the chicken cheese Philly with fires ($9.75). The sandwich was a very large portion and filled with loads of grilled peppers and onions. I stole a few bites of the sandwich and it tasted great. The bread was fresh and soft, and the filling was piping hot. The fries were your average shoestring variety, and I would definitely recommend the potato salad instead.

The Smoky Mountain Brewery is a somewhat hidden spot just off the main thoroughfare through Gatlinburg, but it is well worth a stop for a meal and some beer.

During our vacation a couple of weeks ago my wife and I made sure to balance things that we wanted to do with things that we knew the kids would enjoy. Fortunately we found something that all of us could easily enjoy, Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg.

Trey

The aquarium has numerous exhibits from tropical rain forests, to ocean reefs, a massive shark lagoon, and an interactive penguin playhouse. The underwater tunnel for the shark lagoon features a 340-foot long glidepath, that allows you to move through the exhibit without moving your feet. Our three-year-old liked this so much we had to do it twice!

Paige

The kids also really enjoyed the discovery center with puzzles, touch tanks, and other interactive displays. We spent the better part of three hours here and we even rushed through some of the exhibits. For those with longer attention spans, you could easily spend the better part of a day at the aquarium, and you will likely want to as tickets can be a little on the high side, $27 for adults. Also the crowd seemed to build as our visit went on, so arrive early to avoid the rush.

Gatlinburg on Dwellable

What a start for Team USA in the World Cup last night! Kim and I took the kids down to Fountain Square to watch the match versus Ghana. All of the round-robin games will be televised there on the big screen and last night there were easily thousands in attendance.

GOAL!

The next two events are Sunday, June 22nd from 12 PM – 9 PM, game time at 6 PM, and Thursday, June 26th from 11 AM – 4 PM, game time at 12 PM. I’m hoping to make it down for another fun game watch party.

While in the Great Smoky Mountains area last week we rented a cabin from Timber Tops. They offer everything from small one bedroom cabins to massive fifteen bedroom lodges, most of them hot tubs and amazing views. I was getting ready to pull the trigger on a standard one bedroom cabin but took one last look through the offerings and found a cabin called Bearly Wet.

Indoor Pool

The biggest selling point with Bearly Wet is the indoor pool on the lower level of the cabin! It also has one private bedroom and a loft space with two additional queen beds. Including a pullout sofa, the cabin sleeps eight.

Enjoying The Pool

For most of our stay it was just my wife and two young kids in the cabin, though her brother and his girlfriend did stop by on our last night. We still had plenty of space, though it should be noted that the loft does not have a bathroom, the main level bathroom is inside the bedroom, and the only other bathroom is downstairs adjacent to the pool. This isn’t an issue for one family, though it could be problematic for a couple of families trying to share the cabin.

Hot Tub With A View

We had an excellent stay in the Bearly Wet cabin and Timber Tops was very easy to work with. In fact we were offered a discount special when calling them which was not offered online. I would be sure to give them a call before booking to see what they can do for you. Also I would not hesitate to rent from them again, and this particular cabin comes highly recommended.

Pigeon Forge on Dwellable

After an exhausting day in Great Smoky Mountain National Park, my wife and I decided to order carry out for dinner. While she made a quick trip through a nearby grocery store, I placed an order over the phone with Bennett’s Pig Bar-B-Que. Placing the order was simple and the kind woman on the other end of the line said that our meals would be ready in five or ten minutes, which I think is a really quick turnaround. Upon arrival at the restaurant ten minutes later, our food was ready and the transaction couldn’t have been easier.

Ultimate Pork Shoulder Sandwich

Back at our cabin, I opened up the bag to find our individually packed meals. I ordered their ultimate pork shoulder sandwich with grilled onions, topped with sweet honey-bbq sauce, and served on garlic toast with pickles ($11.99). This included two sides and I went with fries and coleslaw. The meat was moist and tender. The sauce was too sweet for my taste, but the onions on my sandwich helped balance it out a little. The fries were still pretty crisp, even after traveling awhile in the Styrofoam container, and the slaw was pretty good as well.

Bar-B-Que Pork Shoulder

I thought I ordered my wife the Carolina pork sandwich ($10.49), but when we opened her box there was no coleslaw on top of the sandwich. No worries though, I just gave her some of mine to top off her sandwich. To round out her platter she chose bar-b-que beans along with macaroni and cheese. The sandwich was roughly the same as mine, just on different bread and with slaw instead of onions. The beans were good but a little too saucy and sweet. The macaroni and cheese was surprisingly great.

Overall I would have liked to have tried some of the other sauces that the restaurant features, as I was not a big fan of the sweet honey-bbq sauce. Besides that fact, the food was good and I would not hesitate to eat at Bennett’s again. The service was also top-notch.

My family and I spent a few days last week exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and surrounding areas. Our first full day in the area was completely dedicated to the park. We first made the hour or so drive from our cabin to Cades Cove.

Black Bear

Within the first fifteen minutes we had our first wildlife spotting along the eleven mile Cades Cove motor trail, a black bear. The bear was a little tough to see in the fairly thick wooded area, but take my word that the black spot in the center of my picture is indeed a bear. We also saw a few turkeys and white-tailed deer.

Methodist Church

In addition to the chance of seeing various wildlife in Cades Cove, there are a number of historic buildings dating through the 1800’s and very early 1900’s. The kids seemed to enjoy exploring the Cable Mill area the most.

Cades Cove

Cades Cove is one of the most popular areas of the park, and traffic can move very slowly at times. We spent between two and three hours in the area and only made a couple of stops along the way.

Newfound Gap

All of my passengers in the car fell asleep pretty quickly after leaving the Cades Cove area. I decided to keep exploring the park and drove along the Little River Road to the Newfound Gap Road. I followed Newfound Gap all the way up to Clingmans Dome, at which time everyone was up and ready for a little more exploring.

Mount Le Conte

The hike to the top of Clingman’s Dome is only a half mile, and it is paved, but it is really steep and provided a pretty good workout as I pushed our double jogging stroller all the way up the trail and to the top of the observation tower. At the top we had 360 degree views of the entire area, including Mount Le Conte, the third highest peak in the park.

Clingmans Dome

Clingmans Dome is actually the highest point in the park, and it is really cool that it is so accessible for all to see. I wish the sky would have been a little clearer, but I could still make out the cities of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge with my naked eyes.

Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail also crosses the area at the top of Clingmans Dome. As we were leaving the observation tower, we saw a group of four backpackers making their way along the trail, which was cool to see. Having visited the two most popular areas on the park on our first day, we spent the following day exploring Gatlinburg before returning again to the park the following day for a quick hike, which I will write about in the coming days.

Clingmans Dome Family Shot

Sevierville on Dwellable

This past weekend I took my wife and two kids out to the Nelsonville Music Festival for our first visit. Not only was it our first time at the festival it was our first time in the Hocking Hills area of Ohio, but for sure it will not be the last time. The area is full of wooded, rolling terrain, along with plenty of little towns along the way. Nelsonville is one of those towns, which is home to the Hocking College, site for the music festival.

Frank Turner

Jason Isbell

The four-day festival kicked off at 6 PM Thursday. After making the less than three-hour drive from Cincinnati, and then settling into the cabin that would server as our home for the next three nights, we made our way to the festival for a couple of hours to enjoy the sounds of Frank Turner and Jason Isbell. I was already a fan of Frank Turner, but had never heard much of Jason Isbell, other than knowing that he used to be in the Drive By Truckers. I left the festival a big fan of his and will be downloading his catalog soon.

Shakey Graves

The Men Porch Sitting

Friday we made our way to the festival site in the mid afternoon. The first act we caught was Shakey Graves, and he made a huge impression on me. I immediately thought his solo performance sounded a lot like Xavier Rudd, who I really enjoy. He had a couple of friends join him for some of his performance, but I actually liked his solo work better. We also caught performances by Grupo Fantasma, The Men, and a local group by the name of Total Blam Blams before retiring back to the cabin to rest up for a big Saturday.

Festival Babies

We’re no strangers to taking children to music festivals, and from what I’ve seen this has to be one of the most family friendly music festivals out there. There is a really interesting children’s zone with various activities throughout the day. Plus the Robbins Crossing Historic Village offers a handful of cabins and trees to escape the heat and explore. There were a ton of kids in attendance and many brought along great toys to share with everyone.

Pokey LaFarge Cabin Performance

No-Fi Cabin

Kid’s Zone

We originally intended to arrive in the middle of the afternoon again on Saturday. But after realizing that The Avett Brothers set wouldn’t end until at least 11:30 or likely later, we decided to hang at the cabin until the temperatures dropped a little bit. We were still able to catch the No BS! Brass Band, Pokey LaFarge, and personal favorite The Head & The Heart before enjoying the entire Avett Brothers set. Our plan worked our really well.

Hula

The Avett Brothers

Group Shot

I was really impressed by our first visit to the Nelsonville Music Festival, and I know everyone else in our group was too. We had six kids between the four couples and everyone one of us has already said that we should make this a yearly trip. The only thing I wish I could change would be the headliners set times, as I wish they were a bit earlier so the kids could try to enjoy them as well.

We’ve been spending a lot of time at the lake over the last couple of months. This winters very frigid temperatures left us with some busted pipes that needed to be replaced. Fortunately that work is mostly complete and we were able to actually enjoy the lake on our last visit a couple of weekends ago.

Jr. Lifeguard On Duty

Paige’s First Lake Swim

Mother Son Kayak Trip