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Weekend Retreat to the Smokey Mountains

Last weekend we had an amazing adult weekend relaxing in a cabin in Tennessee.  It was a little stressful getting there as the GPS switched the address after I entered the cabin address...AND I tried to take a "short cut" to "go around the traffic." We had a great tour of the country and finally arrived at the cabin before dark.  I was happy to get them and ready for a glass of wine!!

For dinner the guys grilled burgers and we had 5 bean salad and sweet potato chips.  Then we played a game of Guesstures...boys vs girls and had tons of laughs and giggles.  We've played this game for years and it is always a blast.  It's a version of charades but with the timer, you have to get your teammates to guess the words before the card goes down and so there is a little extra stress added!

After our game, Matt and I went to the hot tub to relax and talk.  It's a great way to engage without devices and have a REAL conversation.  Then we headed to bed around midnight and "slept in" until around 8am and then had Cafe Latte Shakes in bed!!  I realized I forgot my workout DVDs but had my computer so I practiced a new Country Heat LIVE workout that I will teach in January.  After the 45 minute workout I showered and then we watched the UK football game.

At halftime, I sat on the porch and read for 10-15 minutes as the church bells and music played.  Then we took some selfies with the amazing scenery in the background before heading to Gatlinburg.



I've been to Gatlinburg numerous times and it's always fun to find something new to do and somewhere I've been before to visit again.  We had never experienced the moonshine tasting, so we stopped at the Olde Smokey Distillery to listen to live music outside and then picked a sampling bar inside.  It was hard to choose between pumpkin, blackberry, and apple pie, but in the end Java won out and we got a jar to share during the Thanksgiving holiday!!

After our tasting, we headed to Cherokee Grill for dinner.  We ate at this steakhouse last year and really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food so suggested going back again.  Matt and I always get calamari to share and then I had a steak salad and he had the prime rib sandwich, but elected to eat it without the bread.  It's always interesting to see the sandwich is 1/2 the price of the prime rib entree but the cut of meat is typically the same!!
After dinner, we ventured to the Gatlinburg Mysterious Mansion.  It's been years since I've been to a haunted house and this wasn't the scariest I've seen but it was a good thrill!! Our group had lots of screams and I did hold on to Matt and have him go first most of the time!! We made it through the house in about 20 minutes and then decided it was time to head back to the cabin for another glass of wine :) 

Once back at the cabin we realized how tired we were so we went to bed early.  Then on Sunday we got up early and packed to head home, but stopped at the Apple Barn for breakfast.  I had always wanted to go to this restaurant but it typically has a very long wait.  We got there around 9am and it was only a 20 minute wait...so we look around the Christmas shop and general store and then gobbled down our eggs, fritters, pancakes and potatoes!! I bought pancake mix to make pumpkin pancakes for Thanksgiving!! The weekend was much needed relaxation and friend time.  Of course it went by too quickly, but we know we have another trip scheduled soon!!

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