The Mountains Are Calling... Part 3

Don't miss Part 2!

Family time!

Chris and I with (from left)

Uncle Bill, Aunt Mary Alice, David, and Katie

We slept much better on Sunday night than our evening in Lexington (aided primarily by a much nicer bed), and didn't wake up until the sun started streaming through the top windows of the cabin.  After starting the day's rituals (coffee, tea, and breakfast), we moved outside to sit on the front porch of the cabin and enjoy the morning.  While it wasn't as cold as we would have liked (we tend to prefer cold weather vacations), it was still much nicer than the weather at home, and we zen'ed out, sipping our beverages while listening to the misting rain.

My steaming cup of MUD/WTR

Enjoying his delicious Jefferson Street coffee

Eventually, we got ourselves moving to prepare for the day - we'd be meeting family for a late morning wander and lunch - including once again getting a pleasingly negative result from our rapid COVID tests (hooray!).  My mom's aunt and uncle (Aunt Mary Alice and Uncle Bill) have lived in eastern Tennessee for decades, and whenever we're in their general area, we try our best to see each other.  This visit, we'd also have the pleasure of spending time with my cousin David (technically, our moms are cousins, so I'm not sure exactly what that makes us - "cousin" it is!) and his lovely girlfriend Katie.  

After a short drive (during which we made a quick run to a convenient Wal-Mart to pick up a few items missing from the cabin - dish soap, a cheap hair dryer, etc), we met everyone at the Ijams Nature Center, part of the Knoxville Urban Wilderness and slightly southeast of the city proper.  We happily greeted everyone and wandered around the nature center for a bit, picking out a good spot for lunch, which we'd have after our hike.  Although it had been raining on and off for the past few days and more precipitation was still in the forecast, it stopped coming down just long enough for us to get in a pleasant, hour-long meander on some of the nature center's trails.

The Ijams trail map -

we started at the nature center on the Tower trail,

took it to the River Boardwalk,

went to the end of the River trail,

turned around and finished up on the paved

Will Skelton Greenway.

Working our way down a section of the Tower trail - 

the wet rocks and leaves made this part pretty slick,

but no one totally wiped out.

With this crew (myself very much included),

that is a minor miracle.

Part of the Tennessee River

Post-hike, we reclaimed our lunch spot - earlier in the day, we'd dragged a dry table and chairs under the overhang on the center's back porch, and some folks were using it for a meeting when we returned from our hike, but they were happy to give it back to us - and broke out the various and sundry picnic fixin's Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary Alice brought along with them.  We had a wonderful time eating, drinking iced tea, telling stories, and sharing iPhone pictures (mostly of our animals, but of other things as well).

A bit damp (rain and humidity),

but happy!

I realized once I made it home that I

completely missed getting Aunt Mary Alice

in this picture.

My selfie skills are pretty terrible.

Eventually, we'd eaten most of the food, and it was time to pack up and bid adieu to Ijams.  We said goodbye to David and Katie, but Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary Alice were game to come along with us to visit our land in Seymour, which we acquired last year (for a potential retirement house location).

The sign for the neighborhood, Kingsview

Heading up the hill into the neighborhood - 

as you can see, the clouds had rolled in

and the rain had started by this point

Part of the neighborhood

Time to break out the umbrellas!

As mentioned above, we purchased this land last year with the intent of eventually building a retirement home here, someday (the almost total lack of water in the southwest and increasingly horrific summers in Phoenix may move us to build a bit sooner than we originally planned, but we're still pondering things at the moment).  We have about 1.3 acres, and as you can see in the pictures below, we're on a hill - our property line goes back to those big trees, and in the winter (when the trees are bare and the clouds are gone), we have a view of the surrounding hills.

Our lot is the totally overgrown one here

One neighbor - when we were here last August,

this house didn't even exist

Another shot of our plot of land

And our other neighbor

The rain cut off our visiting pretty quickly, so we hugged Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary Alice and each headed back toward home (well, the cabin, for us).  Before we tucked in for the rest of the day, Chris and I swung by the shopping/dining area (sorry, "Family Fun Center") known as the Island in downtown Pigeon Forge to visit Yee-Haw Brewing.  Aunt Mary Alice turned us on to Yee-Haw last summer (headquartered in Johnson City, where they live), and we fell in love with their dunkel.  They had this offering on tap in the location we visited, as well as other exciting offerings.

My flight

We also had some snacks - 

a great pretzel with beer cheese and mustard

and fried pickles

Fully worn out by now (driving in the rain while trying to avoid 8000 confused tourists in Pigeon Forge is a THING), it was back to the cabin for us.  We ran a load of laundry (our unit had one of those teeny tiny washer/dryer stacks, which worked well for us) and made pasta with marinara sauce for dinner.  We also dedicated our late afternoon/evening to working a Deadbolt Mystery Society puzzle box, which we'd brought with us.  My brother and sister in law, Jim and Leigh, gave us a subscription for Christmas, and we loved the boxes so much that we purchased a few more on our own; we knew this would be a great way to spend an evening in our cabin in the woods.

Solving the mystery!

Before too long, it was once again time for cake and then bed - we planned to do more hiking the next day, so we needed our rest!

On the next blog, we take (another) hike and get up into the Smokys!

Later!

Amy