The Festival of the Lion King
Kilaminjaro Safari through Harambe Wildlife Reserve
After descending Clingmans Dome, we hopped in the car and kept heading south. Since our reservations at Disney didn't start until Thursday night, we stopped for the night in Daytona Beach, about an hour from Orlando. We stayed right on the beach and enjoyed a morning walk on the boardwalk (the tide was a little high and there was a scary sleeping/passed out man on the beach). The kids enjoyed playing on the sand volleyball court.
Clingmans Dome is the highest point in Tennessee and was our destination early on Wednesday morning. Even though it was a clear day at the bottom of the mountains, we knew we couldn't be sure that would be the case at 6,643. Sure enough, our hike to the top was through the clouds (and Carolyn and I had wet hair by the time we reached the top), but it was still worth it.
P.S. Dad- Sorry for making fun of you when I was little for you not wanting to go up the tower to the top. The heights were much scarier as an adult carrying a toddler than I remembered as a 10-ish-year-old:)
Desi and James disappearing ahead on the path.
Carolyn preferred to walk on the grass and rocks than on the path.
James and our first snow sighting of the winter.
Carolyn at the top.
The first three stamps in our National Park Passport.
After a quick morning conference call for Desi, we went to the Sugarlands Visitors Center to get some tips on how to best spend our day and a half in the park. There was some talk about bear sightings in Cades Cove (also generally known as a great spot for seeing wildlife) so we made that our destination for the afternoon. There is a seven mile scenic drive around the edge of the Cove with a visitor's center halfway through.
Desi enjoying the scenic drive.
They were in the process of doing a controlled burn that did not seem very controlled as we drove through the smoke.
We saw our share of animals including horses,
many, many deer (this one was right on the edge of the road, about two feet from our car) and assorted birds, but no bears in the Cove. So at sunset, we finished our second loop and started the winding 23 mile drive (that takes an hour) out of the park, back to our hotel. About halfway through Desi rounded a curve and a baby black bear shot across the road in front of us and scrambled up the hill on our right and out of sight. I wish there had been time to grab the camera, but both Desi and I can verify that we did, in fact, see our bear!
As promised here come the blogs of photos from our regular camera...
Our trip began at 7:20 am on November 6. Our itinerary was Cincinnati, Gatlinburg (Smoky Mountains), Daytona Beach, Orlando, Hilton Head, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Western Springs. James was a little on the cranky side at first (I quickly realized that he still had his pacifier on our Texas drive, which helped calm him down. He gave up Gumby about two months ago and he has been doing great without it so I'm glad I didn't give in to my temptation to bring it along for the trip.) With the help of Cinderella and Sid the Science Kid he quickly calmed down and we had a smooth ride. While Desi went to work on Monday we took a walk to the playground in the sub-division behind the hotel (which I discovered on one of Desi's previous work trips) and around three Desi picked us up to hit the road again.
