We had a wonderful week in the Smoky Mountains! If anyone is contemplating a trip here, I highly recommend it. There are lots of fun things to do for all ages. We started our week by just going to the shops and enjoying some of the local things in Maggie valley. We went to a chocolate shop...the fudge was wonderful! We found a great park in Waynesville where our younger 2 had a blast! Plus the ice cream truck came while we were there, so that was an added bonus! Downtown Waynesville is a beautiful historic area with tons of great little shops...the sidewalks were brick and the shops were quaint. We especially liked the local coffee house/furniture store. The furniture was a lot of locally made looking stuff...great home accessories and beautiful wood furniture.

The next day we spent the day touring the Biltmore Estate...It was so gorgeous and we all learned so much! The neat thing was the audio headphone system we all got. We each had little headphones and whatever room we went into, we just clicked a number and the narrator told us all about that room, its significance, and about how the Vanderbilt family lived. I loved that!!! My oldest daughter loves to write about that time era, so I know she learned a lot about life in those times. The house takes up a total of 4 acres(the actual house), which I believe is about 160,000 square feet...that makes our home seem tiny. It was completed in 1896. This was the first home that had electricity. It was amazing to think about how Laura Ingall's family lived right before this time and how the Vanderbilt family lived! That is such a contrast. I am amazed that they could build a house like that during the late 1800's. George Vanderbilt's Grandfather made 100 million dollars during his lifetime and his son, George Vanderbilt's father doubled that amount...and this was before income tax. Wow! Two of the floors of the home was strictly for the servants(where they lived and worked)...the other 2 floors were for the Vanderbilt family. I'm thinking...don't have a house that big, then you don't need so many maids and servants! Our favorite room was the library! There were so many leather bound books in there...with gorgeous wood and leathers. Just a gorgeous room! We would love to have been able to go through some of those books! We learned that Mr. Vanderbilt read about 2 books a week, which makes up about 3000 books in his lifetime. And these were not the little cheesy fiction books so many read today...he was a very educated man.

There were lots of references to his faith all through the house, which I found very interesting. It was in the art work, enscribed on the walls, in the woodwork, and in the books and literature. I do not know if he was a believer, but he obviously had a strong sense of a great and mighty God. He seemed to give God the glory for all that he had. That was evident all through the home. I appreciated that aspect of the tour.

Here are some of our many pictures of our fun day. We could not take pictures inside the home, but we got a few outside and in the gardens, which were beautiful as well. There was no way to capture the actual size of the house. The picture of us outside is just of the front entrance and the one of Jack Henry and I is on the side of the house. It was enormous!








The next day was our fun time at Tweetsie Railroad. This was about a 2 hour drive from where we were staying, but worth it and so delightfully fun! There were many fun rides and shows for the little ones. We especially liked the 2 train rides. The chair lift that went up and down the mountain was a favorite of my older 2...they also found quite a few rides they liked. We are not big into rides, so this was right up our alley...no big scary rides, just fun little ones. My younger 2 especially enjoyed the boat ride and the cars. On our way home, we stopped at Grandfather Mountain. We also drove home on the Blue Ridge Parkway! That was beautiful! We stopped and saw a gorgeous waterfall and the view in one area was outstanding! I got a great shot of a motorcycle going around a curve that looks so neat.

Here are some pictures for that day:





We headed out to Cherokee, North Carolina the next day to the Indian Reservation. We saw some real live Indians! We also went to Mingo Falls. It was 150 steps up and a short hike...it ended with a bridge and a beautiful waterfall. Gracie and Abigail climbed up a trail and actually went all the way to the top of the waterfall. The little ones enjoyed small rock climbing and playing in the water. It was really a pretty site.

The rest of the week we stayed closer and enjoyed some more local shops and spent time with extended family. We had 3 family dinners...one was catered at a restaurant and the other 2 were at one of the houses we were renting. Thanks, David and Ruby, for hosting those delicious meals and fun fellowship time!!! We played games and enjoyed great Texas barbeque. There was a really sweet playground and park area near our log cabin. We went there the last day to play and take pictures. Here are some fun pictures from that day:



The view going up to our log cabin!