Vacation - Day 1

We actually left on Wednesday after work and got a few hours under our belt.  We ended up making it to Nashville before calling it a night.  Nothing exciting so I won't talk about that!

So I will start this recap with the first full day of vacation.  We got up and left Nashville pretty early on Thursday - we had a long day ahead of us.  We ate breakfast at the hotel and hit the road, Jack.

Sidenote:  Before the trip started we checked out Roadside America to plot some truly unique vacation experiences.  I highly recommend checking out this site before you take a road trip!

Our first stop was at the Minister's Tree House.  The site says that a minister receives directions from god on how to build this insanely large tree house.  Even though I saw the pictures before we went, this place was incredible.  You find it by driving down this small road that turns to gravel.  Then there's an open gate that says no trespassing, however there's also a sign for parking.

My favorite part was the seemingly random wood walls...

Here we are at the entrance to the steps...

It's a really neat and FREE place to check out if you're ever in the area... they even have a lawn chair attached to really long cords as a swing... we didn't get a chance to swing, but it looked fun.  You can kind of see it in the first photo above.

Out next stop was in Gatlinberg, TN.  I'm not sure if you you've ever been to this place... but I've never seen a bigger tourist trap in my life!  There's a man strip that's just tourist thing and souvenir shop, wash, rinse, repeat.  We stopped in Gatlinberg to check out the Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers. 

This place was actually featured on Unwrapped on Food Network.  Here's the click from YouTube.



It's pretty amazing... just room after room after room of Salt and Pepper shakers... pretty incredible.

We ate lunch at TGI Fridays (the parking was easy, don't judge)  We then headed through Smoky Mountain National Park.  Here I am with the Smokies in the background... it was so nice and cool up on this mountain!

If you've never been the the Southeast there's some soda called Cheerwine.  I actually learned about it on Unwrapped.

It kind of tastes like Dr. Pepper... but worth trying!

We found our hotel in Charlotte, NC and were super tired so we ordered in from a local restaurant for dinner... it was pretty good.  And that concluded day one!!