01 jun: day 03 of our vacation: gatlinburg

we woke up the next morning, took showers at lou's, packed a few snacks, and headed off to gatlinburg. we were planning to spend the day there for my {26th} birthday.

after driving for a few hours, the smokey mountains suddenly popped up in front of us.i have never seen such a tourist-y area as the area was the closer we got to gatlinburg. there were"hillbilly shacks" like the ones below, as well as museums, huge miniature golf course attractions, "as seen on tv stores" everywhere, and just about any other paintball-arcade-waterpark-family attraction you can think of.the drive was going well, though, and we were having a good time. surprisingly enough i managed to sleep very little in the car this trip.

we pulled away from all of the gimmicks and found ourselves on a scenic route again. we rounded a corner a little later and suddenly found ourselves in gatlinburg. it's tucked away in the smokey mountains. we drove through town, and i had never seen anything like that place. the town is similar to a grown up walt disney world or six flags, with the themed shops and restaurants. there were also amusement type rides and attractions all through the town. it was unusual. the purpose of going to gatlinburg was to go to the acquarium. travis had been before and anytime his aunt lou visits oklahoma she talks about the acquarium as well. we paid to park several blocks away and then tried to find a map of the town (it looked just like the kind you find in six flags). a kind man directed us, and we made our way through the other tourists, purchased our tickets and headed inside. (more pics to come in the next post).