Our day begins with breakfast at Crockett's Breakfast Camp!
This place has a cool atmosphere with lots of props and decorations.
The salt and pepper shakers are mason jars!
We ordered a fresh squeezed orange juice mixed with pureed strawberries.
My daughter LOVED their fried cinnamon roll, and so did I!
After breakfast we stopped by our hotel's pool, at Brookside Resort. It's a fairly nice place. The pool has a waterfall and our room was on the creek but the place needs some updating.
To our surprise we discovered a walnut tree growing by the pool!
We worked up an appetite at the pool and went to lunch at my favorite restaurant in Gatlinburg, The Smokey Mountain Brewery.
They have an amazing vegetarian philly cheese steak sandwich made with portabella mushrooms.
Not to mention great craft beers and pretzels with with beer cheese dip!
After lunch we went to our first escape game, The Tomb! It was lots of fun and perfect for our group of nine including adults and kids age who ranged from 6-12 years old.
To get out of the tomb once we were locked in, with a guide of course, we had to work out a series of puzzles. There were lots of colors, sound effects, and moving parts inside the tomb and we all got to work together as a team.
Afterwards, to keep the day action packed, we rushed straight to an 8pm family comedy show at the Comedy Barn.
My daughter laughed so hard the whole time, it was awesome!
She even got to go on stage!
The show was great, lots of acts involving animals and enough entertainment for us to have fun too.
Our awesome night was topped off by the unforgettable memory of seeing my first bear. Although sadly I wish it had been under better circumstances for the bear. The image I'd had in mind of seeing one of these majestic beasts was hopefully at a distance while it peacefully fished in a creek. Instead, due to the recent fires in the Gatlinburg area, the local black bears have been hit hard, and because of reduced habitat, they are forced to now dig through dumpsters.
This guy didn't look in the best of health, and although the noisy photos look rough, so did the bear.
Hopefully the area comes back to life soon and natures works her magic to bring back their home. As for the tourist attractions and human habitat, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge seem untouched by the fires, despite what we had heard on the news months prior to this trip.
I hope you guys enjoyed this content! Please feel free to check out the rest of the road trip, I appreciate the support and love you all!
Day 1 Post 1 Lunch at Fresh Kitchen cafe
Day 1 Post 2 24 hour Healthy Restaurant in Atlanta
Day 2 Alpine Helen River Tubing and Fried Cheese Restaurant
Day 3 Enota Springs to gather drinking water and visit the waterfall.
Day 4 The Great Smoky Mountains - Elk Encounters and Roller Coasters!