To Tellico Plains and back

It is over 800 miles from Carthage, NC to Tellico Plains, TN via the Cherohala Skyway. How do I know? Because we just drove it... with all three kids! And we are all still happy to be in the same family! HA

Though we don't usually have the time (or finances) to be very spontaneous/adventurous; I love to be! Some of my fondest memories with my parents are the weekends we would literally pick a place on the map, fly there, rent a car, and just drive. We had no destination usually... just driving to see what was there. Well, Andrew sprang a trip idea on me early last week and we never looked back! I am so thankful he decided to speak to my love language in this way! We had SO MUCH fun! The children did an AMAZING job of riding for such a long distance. They had one hour of arguing/craziness where I was seriously rethinking the whole third seat thing! ha That was on the way home though, and thankfully a lunch break snapped them out of it!

We drove to Cherokee the first day and chilled out around the town since it was getting late and raining. The next day though, we got up early and struck out for the Cherohala Skyway. This is a 48 mile stretch between Robbinsville, NC and Tellico Plains, TN that rivals anything you have ever seen on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was gorgeous! Even during the winter, it was breathtaking.... I can't imagine what it would look like in the Fall or even summer with all the leaves. Ceilidh is my outdoors lover, and counted all the hiking trails off the skyway. There were 11. wink We promised her on the way back through we would stop a hike a few, which we did. We also stumbled upon one of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen! I write "stumbled," b/c we literally rounded a curve and WHAM, there it was. We got out and scaled the side of it which THRILLED C and G's little souls. ha Ceilidh thought it was so cool she could feel the water spraying all over us.

Graeme got his surprise when we stopped in Bryson City on the way back to Cherokee, and let him climb on the Great Smokey Railroad trains! He kept saying, "They're big!" Pizza Hut for Andrew and Dairy Queen for me made the day great for everyone! We really had a great time. We laughed the entire trip. It was a wonderful family unifying trip. I hope we 'strike' out again soon!

My beautiful girls

Ceilidh and Graeme thought staying in a hotel was SO cool. HA!

Oh man... this kid is silly!

After we climbed the mountain, we had to go back down!

That is pretty high! ha

So beautiful

I HATE this picture of me, but it is the only one we have where you can see the spray from the Falls. Pretty neat, huh?!

Sitting beside the waterfall

Finished the hike! Jane still gets a ride (wink), but C and G both hiked themselves!

He was mesmerized!

He just stood there, swaying back and forth looking at the trains! ha

Finding a river rock for Pops