T5-Day 1 in Tennessee

The view from the place we were staying was incredible. I was a tad bit worried that I wasn't going to see any "smoke" in the Smokies but I did on the last couple days. Nevertheless, it was beautiful. We scouted out the town of Gatlinburg the first day, renewing our tired bodies and building our excitement to go into the park. We stumbled across the aquarium downtown and spent some time browsing and conversating about the fish. I practiced the manual settings on my camera in different light sources and we generally had a great time. We ate lunch at an outstanding Mexican restaurant called "No Way Jose's." I almost got a shirt. It was really good food and they had this homemade corn masa - yummy. A clear water river ran through the town, beside the aquarium and Mexican restaurant and there were people fly fishing for trout in it. It was picture perfect. We stumbled upon "The Village," a charming group of stores including a camping/hiking store and a shoe store that carries Keen and Sanuks. I'm willing to admit up front that I have a shoe issue. I like expensive shoes. It's a disease. Kyle and I had planned to go river rafting on the Pigeon River the next day and it was required that footwear with a strap on the back be worn. I didn't have any tennis shoes I was willing to sabatoge into the river or get filthy so that provided me with an excuse to get some new shoes. After debating on whether to get the nerdy looking ones or the keens with the toe guard, you can imagine what I chose. And actually, they were way, way, way too expensive. But I love them. They are tres comfortable and I even wore them hiking a bit. Kyle got some Sanuks (see picture below) and I think they are so cute. Yes, cute. Even though nothing a guy wears is supposed to be deemed as cute. I guess I could call them something else but I don't know what.Not being able to contain our excitement for entering the park any longer, we drove in a couple of miles to the Sugarlands Nature Center to procure maps and plan out our hiking route for the future days. We ended up driving on one of the motor loops, which I was afraid would be closed due to my pre-trip research. According to the park ranger and to our delight it had opened early. It was about 28 miles of curvy national park road to get to the 11 mile long Cades Cove Motor Loop and we were running short on sunlight. It turns out we timed it perfectly. Cades Cove will have to be a post of it's own, with much too much to add into this one. We enjoyed it immensly but we very hungry by the time we got back to town. In fact, Kyle was about to starve to death. We are all for eating at new places when we travel and have really found some great restaurants. We weren't going to pass up eating Tennessee bar-b-que and so we found a brewery late that night and settled in for some live music and some ribs. Well, I believe I had ribs and Kyle had a plate of a bunch of stuff, but I can't really remember. It was good, I do remember that. It was a great first day and we were uber excited about the rafting the next day. Wait until you see the pictures. My mouth was open every time that freezing cold water hit me!

Until Cades Cove....