Sunday, December 21, 2008

Where's Amanda?

I'm in Waynesville, North Carolina, which is on the east side of Smokey Mountains National Park. It is actually very ironic that I am in Waynesville, N.C. if you know the whole story, so here it is, in a condensed version.

My husband and I have moved all over the country, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin, California, and now, Florida. We made the last move to Florida in order to be closer to family and to NOT HAVE TO TRAVEL FOR EVERY HOLIDAY. We moved to Florida in mid-2007.

Not long after we made the move to Florida, BOTH my family AND my husband's family decided it would be nice to do family reunions in 2008, one in June and one over Christmas.

Now, you have to understand, that our families don't know each other. They don't communicate. That aside, somehow Pigeon Forge, T.N. was selected for the location of the family reunion in June and Waynesville, N.C. was selected for the location of the family reunion over Christmas.

Now, for those of you not familiar with the Great Smokey Mountains, these towns are a grand total of 60 MILES apart. One is on the east side of Smokey Mountains National Park, and one is on the west side.

So here's the ironic part. After deciding to move from California to Florida to cut down on family-related travel, our families arrange it so that we have to travel 10 hours, twice, to the same location, during the same year.....

All that being said, we had a blast in June and we're having a fun, albeit colder, time now. Here's some photos so far:

I met these fellows in downtown Waynesville:
The Great Smokey Mountains:

A little bit of natural art:
A small waterfall we hiked to, this is the area above the fall:
And this is the fall from above:
More pictures later. Hope you are enjoying your holiday!

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