We Saw The Smoke On The Great Smokey Mountains

This weekend we took Liam to ride the Polar Express on the Great Smokey Mountain Railway, which departs out of Bryson City, NC (about a 4 and a half hour drive from Greensboro). We left on Friday morning and arrived at our hotel around 2:30 p.m., since our train didn't depart until 8 p.m. we had a little time to explore the area. We stayed on the Cherokee Indian Reservation and the scenery was beautiful. We even got our picture taken with an Indian Cheif (for the very reasonable price of 3$ a shot!), after getting some homemade fudge from a local candy shop on the main strip of the village. It was very yummy. Then we went back to the hotel so that the boys could get changed into thier pajamas for the train ride (pajamas were the recomended attire for this voyage!), and drove 20 min. further West to Bryson City, the mountain views were amazing and there were lots of people still out fishing on the river. We had dinner at a place near the train depot called Jimmy Mac's that was really good, it was full of families and children all in thier pajamas! Beside our table was an antique sculpture of a priest/monk that looked alot like someone we know, it was really uncanny actually! There is so much to do in this little part of the world, I would love to come back in the summer when more of the attractions are open and have more time to explore. There was a Cherokee Indian Mueseum and an Indian Village that reinacts traditional Cherokee life. We were right beside the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and there are all kinds of hiking/outdoor activities etc. available there. There are white water rafting companies and hot springs not to mention the fact that Ashville is only an hour away...you could easily spend a whole week there and have plenty to do! So I think sometime in the future we will definately have to head back there on a family vacation to check out the rest of this stuff!