Gatlinburg: My spirit place

Written April 1, 2020

A spirit place is a thing right? Like a spirit animal, but a place.  Well I guess it is now haha.   And Gatlinburg is that place for me.

We are all cooped up at home right now, staying safe from the coronavirus.  All this time at home has many people, including myself, daydreaming about trips far away from our houses.  We are hoping to go to Gatlinburg in the Fall and are very ready to get there again.

We were on a schedule of visiting Gatlinburg every 6 months for a while before we had Hannah.  We have went once since she was born but she was teething and Andy and I had food poisoning or a stomach bug.   Some of you have kids who didn’t have a lot of issues with teething.   Take a minute to just soak that up.   Because we have a sweet girl who has a rough time of teething.  We can’t wait until those choppers are all in. And whatever stomach bug/food poisoning we had, it was the worst I’ve ever had.   So we are due for a redo of that trip.

Why do I love Gatlinburg so much?  Here are some of the reasons this place is one of my favorites:

1. Mountains – beautiful mountains.  I’m super nostaligic with mountains because we didn’t travel much when I was a kid, but when we went on vacation, it was usually down to Tennessee to see my great grandma.   There’s just something Godly and magical about mountains.  Which kind of leads me to my next one…
2. Dolly Parton – I know she’s associated more with Pigeon Forge but it’s all a cool area.   I think Dolly Parton is one of the most amazing people.   Look up The Imagination Library if you don’t know about it. She runs this charity and it provides free books to children under 5.   And when the fires hit the Gatlinburg area a few years ago, she managed the money donated (including money she donated) very well.   Many politicians haven’t handled distributing money and resources during a natural disaster well, but Dolly did it like a boss.   She has such a huge heart, no wonder she had to make some things bigger to hold it in.   She is very talented and a giving person.  I like supporting her businesses and the area she loves because I know she is giving it all back.
3. Cabins – I am a sucker for log cabins.  They are so warm and cozy.   Throw in a fireplace and a hot tub and I am in a cloud of happy.
4. You can be out in the middle of nowhere and still have stuff to do.   Sometimes I want to be the person who does nothing but relax for a week.  But neither Andy nor I are very good at sitting still that long.   Gatlinburg is a great balance for us of slowing down while still having things to do and places to eat.
5. We went to Gatlinburg about 5 months after the fires, only a couple weeks after my miscarriage and the metaphor was hauntingly beautiful.    Seeing a place that had just been through such devastation still thriving and to see the new growth in the midst of the ashes was huge for me.   I needed that trip during that time and it was the perfect place to put things back into perspective.
6. Other than getting to and from your cabin, you can walk to a lot of places.  I love walking around downtown areas.   Gatlinburg’s downtown area is cute and I like only parking once and just exploring.   This is the same reason I love Clearwater Beach, which I’ll have to post about sometime because it’s a close second to places I connect with.
7. Bears – This is kind of a pro and con for Gatlinburg.  I want to see bears, but I want to see them driving in Cades Cove (beautiful by the way – just look up the off times to go because traffic is crazy on the weekends).   We went on a hike once to Laurel Falls and saw a baby bear.   That was cute but then it was a little scary to think momma bear wasn’t far behind.  And we know a lot of people have seen them outside of their cabin.  I want to see them from a safe distance.   If one ever runs through downtown while I’m there (look up videos, it happens), I will lose it lol. 
8. It is family friendly – There are tons of things to keep your kids busy in the area.   We have only taken Hannah down once and she was little and teething, but there were multiple visits when having a kid was on our mind and there are many things we want to take her to do and see when she’s older.  There are many kid friendly restaurants in the area too.   And they all loved seeing a little 14 month old roam around.

I know that I have probably missed something cool from the area, but there is so much going on it is hard to cover it all.  It is a beautiful place with much to do. I highly recommend you add it to your daydreaming adventures and plan a trip for when we all can travel again.  You all stay safe and I hope we can all explore these places we are daydreaming about soon.