Gatlinburg: Old Timey Photo Capital of the World!

I have been to visit Gatlinburg and the Smokey
Mountains on several different occasions, but this year I decided to visit in the month of December, when the little tourist town is decked in its finest.

Along the way, we stopped at the Stonehaus Winery off I-40 partway between Nashville and Knoxville. After stopping by the gift shop and picking up some tasty mint chocolate fudge, we went to the tasting counter and sampled the wines. I am by no means a wine connoisseur. I really don't like most wine. Some of the selections at Stonehaus were rather good. After trying nearly everything they had, including some fantastic mulled wine, we settled on a bottle of tart blackberry wine.

We arrived in the early afternoon at the Gazebo Inn, where we had booked a room online, seeing that it was one of the cheapest rooms to be had within walking distance of all the glorious tackiness of the main street of town. At $56 a night for two, we found the room to be a good value. The exterior is very quaint, and the rooms, though somewhat small, are comfortable. The bathtub in our particular room looked a bit shabby, and the lighting in the bathroom was poor, but those are my only complaints.

After checking on the room, we headed off to walk about, in a light rain that had begun. The town is a browser's paradise, and is loaded to the brim with kitsch. 80% of the shops specialize in Christmas decorations, fudge, or taking a sepia colored Old Timey Photo of you in full cowboy/saloon girl wear. We shopped the stores, browsing with an ornament in mind. Finally, as dinner time approached we picked a place to eat. We

finally settled on the Smokey Mountain Brewery, set just off the main drag behind Calhoun's. We enjoyed our steaks a good deal. Though I am also not a beer drinker, I was intrigued by their beer sampler, which might be a fun treat for anyone who does enjoy different beers.

Once we had eaten, it was back out onto the now dark streets, and the innumerable Christmas lights, in search of the perfect ornament. We stopped at a candy shop to try a few different truffles, and a peanut butter filled, sea shell shaped chocolate. We visited an art store in the mall, where almost everything is locally produced, and we listened to the carolers, who were dressed in colonial style velvet outfits. We finally found what we were looking for at the Christmas Tree, a little store selling nothing but ornaments, tucked into a corner of the shopping area known as The Village. Mission accomplished, we returned to our hotel as the light rain continued to fall, and the temperatures dropped.

When we awoke in the morning, for what we intended to be a day of hiking, it was snowing, though it wasn't sticking. We left immediately to drive out New Found Gap Road, which crosses the mountains. As we headed up, the snow progressed to sticking to the leaves, to sticking to the trees and bark, until eventually we reached an area where the snow was covering the road. At this point we We finally settled on the Alamo, where we ate a solid meal, and deciding to splurge a bit, we decided to get some dessert. We had an ice cream filled tortilla, which was fried, and served with cool whip and cinnamon. While it was good, it wasn't worth the price, and I don't

think I would order it again. We drove around a bit, and stopped in a few out of the way shops, before finally deciding that it was time to make the long drive home.
were forced to stop by a line of cars, and turning around, we came back down through the blowing snow. Turning left at the visitor's center, we headed down Little River Road to take a drive around Cade's Cove. Despite the cold and the snow, there were many deer out and about grazing. Finally getting out fill of the white wonderland, we headed back into town for something to eat.