Tennessee Part 2

 On Monday morning everyone was healthy again.  We called the condo people and asked if we could add a night and it worked out so we stayed all day Monday.  We started out with a late breakfast at the Flapjacks Pancake House!

Then we drove out to the Great Smokey Mountain National park in Gatlinburg and hiked the Noah "Bud" Ogle trail and saw the Ogle family cabin, barn and mill.

It was a perfect place to hike with children- relatively flat with tons of boulders and tree roots to play on beside bubbling mountain streams.

They loved climbing to the top of this boulder-

We sat for a while by LeConte Creek.

We loved seeing how they built the hollowed-log flume to bring the water into the mill.  We were also able to show them what a millstone is.

After the hike Marky somehow talked us into going to Hollywood Stars Car Museum in Gatlinburg.  I REALLY didn't want to go, but was pleasently surprised at how awesome it truly was.  All of the cars are the ACTUAL cars used in T.V. and film- not replicas!  This truck was actually used in the Avengers-

We paid extra to let the children get in- it really blew my 10-year-olds mind to think he was in the ACTUAL car from one of his favorite movies.

They had the bat mobile from the show and Michael Keaton's bat mobile.  The Beverly Hillbilly's actual truck, the car from Days of Thunder, Smokey and the Bandit, the Andy Griffin show, the weather truck from Twister, the original Herbie, the real Back to the Future car- on and on it went.

This was actually the one in the Flinstone's movie-

 After the car museum we walked around Gatlinburg looking in shops and then had ice cream.

Then we went to the Old Mill section of Pigeon Forge and looked in the shops and had dinner at the Old Mill Restaurant, which is a lot like Lambert's.  Our table overlooked the Pigeon River and waterfall-

We played at Patriot Park for a bit after dinner-

And then headed back to the condo- here's the view!

And right beside the condo, which is on top of a hill, is this huge cross.  We went swimming Monday night and headed home Tuesday morning.  It was a great little trip- even with the sickness.  I am just happy to be back and ready for the Easter Triduum and the two older children's birthdays this week.

I hope you had a nice Maundy Thursday.  I just learned that Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ("A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you"),  These are the words Jesus said to the disciples as He washed their feet.  

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.