Gatlinburg.

Nestled between the Great Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburg, is a pretty little town in Tennessee.

Having only about a day and a half at our disposal, we decided to take it easy and stroll through the main street in downtown Gatlinburg. Packed door to door with stores, gift shops, craft fairs, bars, restaurants, haunted houses, Ripley’s Believe It or Not kinda places for kiddos, the place is ideal to while away a sunny day shopping, people watching, beer sipping….just chillin’…

We started the day with a hearty breakfast at Crockett’s Breakfast Camp.

The place is delightful!

Old Fashioned Cinnamon Candied Apple Waffle. This was seriously good stuff! All warm and cinnamon-y, not too sweet. Yum!

Huevos Rancheros

Florentine Eggs Benedict

Fortified with good food, we stepped out into the milieu.

Good old Moonshine. LOTS of places to try out this particular beverage steeped in illicit history.

Moonshine, white lightning, mountain dew, hooch, and white whiskey are terms used to describe high-proof distilled spirits that are generally produced illicitly. Moonshine is typically made with corn mash as the main ingredient. The word “moonshine” is believed to derive from the term “moonrakers” used for early English smugglers and the clandestine (i.e., by the light of the moon) nature of the operations of illegal Appalachian distillers who produced and distributed whiskey. The distillation was done at night to avoid discovery. ~ Wikipedia

The seat of a Harley Davidson.

People settling in to listen to some live, soulful, bluegrass music.

Almost all these breweries offer free samples of moonshine which come in many flavours. Peach, Strawberry, Cherry..

After some moonshinin’, we took a trolley ride..up..up..up..

A short trolley ride takes you to a small plateau with a stunning view and a souvenir shop.

After which, we carried out some yummy pizza from the Smoky Mountain Brewery.

< Sorry, I forgot to take photos! I was too busy yapping with my friends. 🙂 >

It’s a wonderful place to sit down and enjoy some hot food and a chilled beer but the kids were tired. So we decided to forego the pleasure and carried it out instead to…

The chalet we rented for the weekend. 2 bedrooms (1 King and the other with 2 Queens), 1 1/2 baths, fully equipped kitchen, dining area, living room with TV. It was clean and comfortable.

And so ended our first day.

Bright and early the next morning, we headed for Pigeon Forge where we went up in a balloon!

Just so!

And made a friend. Of sorts. 😉

Often, while traveling with family or friends, and having a grand old time, and between you-stand-there-and-I’ll-stand-here’s, one quite forgets to take photos of the town itself, by itself. And besides, one can’t just pull over and make everyone wait while you ogle over a never before seen flower through a camera lens.

Unless its the moon of course. Then all bets are off. 😉

Rising over dark mountain silhouettes, he dazzled us all with his bright silvery light.

Sorry, I do not have better photos to share. I hope you understand.

But do visit Gatlinburg when you have the chance. One of its main attractions, which we were unable to do this time but have thoroughly enjoyed in the past, is hiking. The Smokies are full of lusciously green hiking trails!