Gaycation 2012- Gatlinburg, TN

Who decides to go on vacation in Gatlingburg, TN, as a biracial couple and bring along two gay outlets, one of which is also biracial? Apparently, we do. What were we thinking? All joking aside, we did have a fabulous time, despite a few peculiar looks. Our friend's father has a time share down in Gatlinburg, find he was kind enough to let us use it for an extended weekend. The condo was lovely-except that it was two bedrooms for four couples. Oops. The hubster and I ended up sleeping on an air in the living room. Not exactly a romantic retreat, but the worst part was the bathroom arrangements. While there were two bathrooms, one was accessed through the master bathroom, while the other could be accessed through both the second bedrooms and the front hall. Somehow, though, we ended up not being able to into the hall side of it in the morning, and the master bedroom couple was not yet up, restricting access to that bathroom. Needless to say, both the hubster and I nearly had a few accidents trying to make it down to the bathroom.

We left on Wednesday, July 11, once the hubster was done with school and I had taken Pilates. The trip took about 8 hours to get down there, and really wasn't that bad. Our travel mates had gotten down there a about 2 hours before us, so they were settled in, and waiting for us with drinks in hand.

Thursday was our big wine tasting day. There are several wineries in the area, and we ended up doing two different trails. The first was right in the area where we were staying: Hillside Winery (loved it, fabulous sommelier), Apple Barn Winery (fun sommelier, wine was too sweet for me), and Mountain Valley Winery (horrible sommelier, pretty good wine). We got a complimentary wine glass for hitting up all three, and all the tastings were free. Then we drove into Gatlingburg proper for the Grapes, Grains, and Brews trail. The firt winery we visitc was Smoky Mountain Winery, which had decent yet over priced wine, but the most horrible tasting experience due to the lack of personality on the part of the sommelier. From there we visited Sugarland Cellars, who kicked us out. Granted, he was just doing his job, but he completely misinterpreted what was going on. The hubster was fighting a nasty sinus infection, and had fallen asleep in the car. The sommelier took this comment to mean he was drunk, and state law prohibits him from serving visibly drunk patrons. From there we walked down to Bootleggers Winery, which was too sweet for me, and then entered my favorite of them all, Ole Smoky Moonshine. The moonshine was awesome, but even better was our taster. She seemed to be off in noman's land, which made it convenient for all 6 of us to fit in and taste there. She said she was relinquished out there because she "doesn't play well with others," but she was perfect for us. The last stop on the tour was Smoky Mountain Brewery, which was enough to complete what as needed to get our free tshirt, but nothing that super excited any of us.

Friday was supposed to be our big hang by the pool day, but, unfortunately, the weather had other plans.  We decided the outlets were a better alternative. The hubster and I demonstrated a great amount of restraint; however, I had a $30 J. Crew gift card burning a hole in my pocket. I walked away with a long sleeve button down shirt, a pair of shorts, a pair of capris, a 3/4 length tshirt, and a thick Henley for the hubs...all on clearance, with my 15% teacher discount, totaling $60 before the giftcard. I was happy as a lark.

Before dinner, the hubster and I ventured out on our own back to Gatlinburg to visit Cooter's and the Star Car Museum. Not my first choice, but we did have a lot of fun, especially being able to go off by ourselves.

Saturday was white water rafting day. We ventured down the Pigeon River, which allegedly has class 3 and 4 rapids. I was very nervous at first-I had never been on something like this-but, I really enjoyed myself. I felt like most of it was rather tame. And no one fell into the water! A few of us almost fell into the boat itself a few times, but otherwise, we were pretty balanced.

The best part about the vacation, though, was being able to go down to the pool and relax in the hot tub every night, drinks in hand. Makes me seriously considering getting a hot tub put in at the house....

Sunday was time to say good bye, and after a good ole fashioned breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we hit the road. Somehow, the drive home took less time but seemed a whole lot longer....I think it was just the anticipation of finally getting in my own bed!