The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN

A lovely wooded cabin in the middle of the mountains nestled in clouds with breath-taking views. The picture above is a view from our cabin. The weather changes constantly every now and then from being muggy and sunny to being cloudy and breezy with plenty of showers in the Summer. An ideal place for family reunions saying that, just because we did so. There's plenty of activities to do for all age groups or you could simply enjoy the view with a cup of smoking hot tea or wine, accompanied by friends and family.

You could very well drive around the mountain, stopping by at vantage points for taking pictures. My kids get utterly bored by this endeavor. They would rather be going on hikes, picking up sticks on the way to ward off any bears they may encounter or simply getting their feet (and much more) wet in the creeks. Much to their dislike we went on a couple of drives up the mountains and I thoroughly enjoyed the spectacular views.

It's my second trip to the place. Our first trip to the Smokies was in the Fall, many many years ago. A Summer trip to the mountains open up all sorts of outdoor activities and we took the time to enjoy a nice long river rafting. Actually a river float with a little bit of rafting here and there. The level 1 and 2 is pretty easy with little to no adrenalin rush. We wanted the kids' first rafting experience to be a good one. Mountain weather is hard to predict and we were worried it would rain. Our raft rookie guide mentioned he loves a rafting trip in the rains. It did rain and he was so right. I could not take pictures on the raft for obvious reasons, one being you could pretty much fall into the water from the raft and two, you may need your hands for holding and/or using the oar. Some memories are meant to be remembered without any reminder from photographs.