Gatlinburg Weekend!

This past weekend was Travis' 28th birthday, and our 11 year dating anniversary! Can you believe that? To celebrate, we were able to take a long weekend from work and rent a cabin in the smokey mountains. It was much needed. Our little cabin (called "Right at Home") wasn't too impressive from the driveway. 

But it had a great view. We had a sweet hot tub on the deck, and we hopped right in when we got there around 10 pm. There is nothing better than sitting in a hot tub when it's cold out! Heavenly! This is our third time renting a cabin through Mountain Rentals and it has been great every time. I really recommend it. It is not that expensive, especially if you go with a group of friends! We did that last fall and it was one of the best vacations we've ever taken!

The inside was deer themed. Well, part of it, the bedrooms were bear and fishing themed respectively. The bedroom we slept in was awesome, it didn't have any windows and was perfect for sleeping in.

The first day we headed to downtown Gatlinburg and walked along the touristy strip. There was actually not even one store we wanted to go in! Most of the fun kitschy stuff is gone, and it is all tacky (in a bad way) t shirt and knife shops. But here is some cute stuff we saw.

I told him to look serious.

The Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen is still cute! It was there when I was a little kid and it doesn't seem to have changed over the years.

I love that taffy logs sign. Too bad taffy isn't vegan. It is so good!

Sweet little carved animals. I wish I had this as a centerpiece for my kitchen table!

Look at their sweet packaging. 

I'll also take this latch hook rug.

The Harry Potter one!! I have always wanted to get a caricature of us. My cousin had one when we were kids of her as a Ghostbuster and I was always so jealous! I bet it wouldn't live up to my expectation though. Also, poor Nicole Kidman!

We've never done the space needle, but I loved this review of it on trip advisor. Spoiler alert, angels saved that family from dying on a rickety elevator. I use that site a LOT and my favorite part is reading the terrible reviews. 

The lady in front of the magician moved up and down. We should have gone in there, I've always been curious. Gatlinburg is so full of over priced tourist traps though, it is hard to tell which ones will be funny terrible, and which ones will just be a waste of time and money.

It is a good thing there was a Mellow Mushroom there! It was the only vegan option we could find in town! Their vegan pizza is so good! Their regular pizza is good too! I'm glad they seem to be in a lot of touristy areas.

Travis was happy about it too. We get the enlightenment salad too. It has apples and dried cherries on it. Mmmmmm so good!

I'm finally starting to appreciate mushrooms.

After we ate we came back to the cabin and sat in the hot tub forever. I wish we had a hot tub, that someone else took care of for me. It was so relaxing and awesome. I totally snuck this picture of Travis through the window. He is drinking a san pelligrino! We are little obsessed with them. 

That night we had a fire and Travis made me mashed potatoes with peas (one of my favorite things to eat) and we watched Sound of Music! Travis remembered me saying I felt like watching it a few weeks ago so he brought it, isn't that sweet? It was awesome. We (well, I) sang along and then we got Travis' birthday pie ready! I made that fudge one I posted recently.

26 plus 2 is 28 right?