Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The Great Smoky Mountain Train Ride


Sitting outside - waiting anxiously to purchase our train tickets!

Taking the time to pose with the friendly train engineer!




The three youngers were waiting for Daddy and Martin to buy our tickets!
Rosalie dancing . . . the girl is always dancing!

We stopped to enjoy some live bluegrass music while waiting to board the train. Jonathan was too cute bouncing to the music in this position!

This is a picture of the train engineer. The boys were super excited to see him and wave to him! We showed up super early the morning of the train ride because we did not pre-purchase our train tickets. I couldn't make up my mind as to which seats to buy, and finally decided to just wait and purchase them when we got there. We were a little nervous that we wouldn't get tickets. We got to town about 50 minutes before everything opened, so we spent some time walking around the train and checking everything out. About 10 minutes before the train depot opened, the train engineer pictured above walked around the corner, and handed us two free adult tickets for the train ride! We were stunned! This was one time that we were VERY happy that we didn't come prepared with train tickets already bought! It ended up saving us about $100. This was a wonderful blessing!


They were mesmerized at the beautiful sights!
The boys took turns getting the best view at the window


The beautiful Nantahala River is in the background. Rich and I look forward to the day that we can take the 4 children rafting down that river!

The reason that we chose Bryson City, NC as our vacation destination is because it is the home of the Great Smoky Mountain Train Ride!!! We actually planned to take this trip last fall, but cancelled because of our crazy schedule. I am so glad that we did cancel because I was able to find a cabin to rent instead of a hotel room, and we stayed 3 nights instead of the 1 we had planned to stay last fall.
We went on the Nantahala Gorge excursion and it was fabulous! The scenery was amazing and what better way is there to see the beautiful countryside?
The children thanked us over and over a thousand times that day - so I guess I'd call that success!

4 comments:

  1. Oh, Larissa I'm so glad that you were able to take this trip. It looks beautiful there. I hope that you all came home quite refreshed.

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  2. What an awsome day that must have been!! Kids just LOVE trains - and talk about a blessing with the free tickets!!
    I'm sure you will be hearing them talk about this for a long time to come.

    We haven't told our kiddos, but we plan to take them to A Day Out With Thomas next month when he comes to a RR in the White Mountains of NH!

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  3. I'm so glad that you got to do this as a family. What a vacation, right up your alley! And how awesome that you got free tickets too!!! So neat!

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  4. What a blessing for the free tickets! How cool! It looks like the perfect vacation spot. My kids would love to go see the train and ride it! So glad you were able to get away and relax!

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