How do we spell relief V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

That's right we took a vacation.  We headed north to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We took the RV and stayed in Townsend, Tennessee.  A quiet little hamlet by the mountains. The weather varied from hot and sunny in the 80's during the daytime at the beginning of the week to cool and wet mid week (50's) and rather cold in the morning's (34 one morning).  It was great!  The leaves were beautiful, the area is fun to drive around and it was quiet and peaceful in the campground for our stay.  We got lucky on the campsite.  We had reserved one site in the campground that was okay but not scenic, another one on the river came available when the people who had reserved it didn't show, we quickly moved to that site and enjoyed the whole week on the river.

The view from our campsite.

The river front sites had been reserved for a year so this was a lucky turn for us!  We spent several days driving through the National Park taking pictures of the leaves, rivers and mountains.

Fall leaves.

Could have stayed here all day!

We also went to the Craftsman's Fair in Gatlinburg - hundreds of wonderful booths of crafts and artisans.  When we came out from the fair we realized there was snow on the peaks of the mountains over Gatlinburg (this was the only time we went into Gatlinburg).  We are not big fans of Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge just because they are so commercial but we did go in to Pigeon Forge to eat and grab a Starbucks Frappuccino (you gotta splurge some time)!  When we left Gatlinburg we headed back into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and took this picture of the snow capped peaks and the valleys below with the bright leaves in front.

You had to be there - it really was beautiful

All in all we had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying our time together.  Now we are back and it's time to get things done around here.  Hope everyone is having a great start to their week.

Peace,
Karen