Today was our last and final day in Tennessee. We had plans to go out to Cade's Cove and have a picnic. We started out early and went to a shop in the country that sells picnic baskets. We ordered some sandwhiches, chips, and dessert pies. After we drove to Cade's Cove. Cade's Cove has a really neat driving trail where you drive around and see wildlife and old cabins and churches and other buildings from the 1800s and 1900s.
Our first stop was a cabin. It was 1/4 mile to get up to it. Colby did great walking most of the way. In fact most people we saw were shocked our 2 1/2 year old was walking that whole way. I think he liked having the wide open space to walk/run in. He also liked checking out the "old cabins" not sure how much he understood but it was fun to him. This time period completely fascinates me. I guess because I grew up reading Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables. I would loved to have gone back in time to see how people really lived. I really was "into" this trip this time. I wanted to check out each place and learn more about the history. I hope we can always do things like this with Colby to give him an appreciation of history. This is one reason why I like to travel is to give Colby an appreciation of different things and places. I was fortunate to get to go to many places as a kid and I want the same for him.
Our next stop was an old church. We spent a lot of time here. It was nice to just sit in the old pews and wonder what life would have been like back then. We also spent a good bit of time wandering around the graveyard. Its sad to see how many young children died back then. We saw several graves for babies and 1 and 2 year olds. You figure they either died in childbirth or some disease that we now have vaccinations for.
After those 2 stops we decided to drive on through the rest. 1) because it was getting near lunchtime and 2) there are no bathrooms on the way and we knew Colby would have to potty. So we stopped near the old Mill where they have bathrooms and also plenty of areas to picnic. We spread our little picnic out in a field by a creek. It was so nice! I love picnics! We don't do them nearly enough and now that Colby is getting older we need to start b/c I think he really liked it too!
After eating we made one more stop at a cabin. Once again Colby enjoyed walking around and checking out the sights. After this though we headed home back to the cabin to rest. We hung around the cabin that afternoon then cooked steaks, baked potatoes, and a salad that night for dinner. Once we got dinner cleaned up though we brought Colby to a playground at the elementary school that was nearby. We figured he needed to burn off some more energy especially since the next day he would be in the car all day! We stayed about an hour and he had a blast running around. He also discovered dandilions which brought back so many childhood memories for me. I don't see them often here anymore so it was fun to pick those with him.
I'll go ahead and post about the way home here. We left the cabin at 5am central time and got home to our house in New Orleans around 5 pm. That was 12 hours total in the car! Colby did well though but we were all quite ready to get out of the car! He didn't fuss much. He slept probably about 2-3 hours total. He watched a couple movies but he was only allowed to watch them at certain points the rest of the time he just looked out the window and talked to us. We probably could have made it quicker but we had to stop often for potty breaks and food breaks for him. I'm so thankful we could take this vacation as a family! Can't wait to do it again!
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