I did not intend to have so many separate Spring Break posts, but apparently I am a bit long-winded. Who knew? Ha. Everybody. Everybody knows that, Suzanne.
Anyways! Onto our Spring Break.
We had arrived in Gatlinburg and had a day of rest and low-key hiking. Ezra slept much better the second night, although he still woke up with a lot of coughing.
It was set to be a GORGEOUS day in Gatlinburg, so we decided to get ourselves out of the cabin early and enjoy the day at Anakeesta, which opened at 10. We arrived downtown around 9:30, found parking and walked to the chairlift.
And we did that with approximately the entire population of the United States. Ok, maybe just those who were on Spring Break.
We got into line and waited and waited and waited to get to the chair lift. The chair lift wasn’t even the destination- that was just the ride to the top! We ended up waiting for 2.5 hours in line. I don’t know why we didn’t give up and just go for a hike. I have no idea why we stuck it out. I am sure that there is a term for that- some kind of Syndrome. That once you get into line and commit at least part of your time in that line, you convince yourself it’s worth it to stay no matter how long the wait is. Some kind of Line-Stockholm Syndrome.
We waited in line for so long that Theo went back to the van and made some PB&J sandwiches and brought them back to us. He then went to a little CVS to get some sunscreen. It did not help that anyone who had an express pass got to hop right to the front of the line. It was hard to not get aggravated, as I’m sure they planned and paid for the express pass, but every time a large group of people went right to the front, it would add at least 10 minutes to our wait.
FINALLY, FINALLY, we were able to go up the mountain on a chair lift!! Y’ALL, I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO TERRIFIED IN MY LIFE. There were no seat belts, NOTHING but a bar to hold you in. We were at least 100 ft in the air. It was very slow, and the view was incredible, but my hands were sweating and I had to tell myself to NOT PANIC. The kids and Theo loved it. I enjoyed it, but man…it took a few years off my life. And I was the Mom who could be heard yelling across the mountain: “KEEP ALL THE SURFACE AREA OF YOUR BUTT ON THE CHAIR RIGHT NOW.”
Once we got off the chair lift at the top, we were able to start exploring all that Anakeesta had to offer. They had several restaurants, they had a roller coaster and a zip line and then they had some fantastic play areas and a canopy walkway appropriate for kids. We decided to start with the observation deck tower.
This couple was stopping to take a picture and Tera almost ran right in front of their friend who was taking the photo. Then literally five feet in front of me, the man got down on one knee and proposed! The lady said yes. I burst into tears. No one else was crying, so then I felt awkward. We applauded and congratulated them and then took our own family picture in that spot.
We were really enjoying our time at the top of the mountain, so we decided to stop at one of the amazing play areas next. It had a lot of swinging rope bridges and was SO FUN for the kids to play on. The only problem was that it had started to get VERY crowded and it was so hard to keep track of the kids. Plus, the swinging rope bridges were only one way and we kept getting stuck. We finally decided it was time to get into line for lunch.
Well, the line for lunch was about 1.5 hours long. There was only one food option (the rest only took reservations). We ended up buying 3 pieces of pizza for $12 each. We were so over Anakeesta by that point LOL.
However, Kiah really wanted to do the canopy walkway. We had decided to save it for last since it ended near the exit. Big mistake, as everyone else at Anakeesta apparently decided to do it at the same time. Word on the street was that the line was TWO HOURS long. Theo actually got in line while I took the kids to a play area and we finally had this text exchange:
HAHA. It’s true. The kids didn’t even notice that we didn’t do the canopy walkway thing. Theo and I, on the other hand, were in fairly bad moods after our entire day was spent waiting in line and spending a lot of money. The workers at Anakeesta were truly doing their best, and one remarked that she had never seen it that busy, even in peak season. The highlight of the day and the only thing that truly made it worth it was the chair lift up and down!
After all that stress and frustration and SO MANY PEOPLE, we decided to go for a quick hike again. We found a river and the kids were content and happy to just play in the water for a long, long time. I wish we had just done that from the beginning of the day!
We ended the day making dinner at the Airbnb and watching a movie together. The weather for the rest of the week was supposed to be rainy, cold, and/or snowy, so we were a little bummed that up to that point it seemed like our vacation was not going how we would have liked for it to go.
But, it turns out that the next day was rainy and it was the BEST day of our trip by far.
Stay tuned for the amazing adventures and pictures we got from day 4!