Heading to Maine on the AT

We only had one full day in Gatlinburg and intended to make the most of it.  We got up early and had some leftover Tombstone pizza, which my kids may not have ever had before and may never have again.  We made it to the Newfound Gap before 900am and it wasn’t too crowded yet.  We were going to hike the Appalachian Trail, or at least a couple of miles of it.  We took obligatory pictures in front of the sign that said how far it would be to Maine and the plaque for the Rockefellers.  We hiked about an hour out towards Maine, which meant we were about 1970 miles short of the end.  At that point we were taking too many risks with the youngest member of our party who was suffering some intestinal distress and claiming to need a bathroom.  I wasn't trying to call her bluff.  By the time we made it back to the facilities the foot traffic was picking up.  It is kind of odd to me that people start their hikes so late in the morning. 
From Newfound Gap we headed down to Oconaluftee Visitor Center.  We wanted to see the old buildings and say we made it into North Carolina.  The ranger in the visitor center scared Gabby by drawing lots of attention to the kid in there being sworn in as a junior ranger.  She made him stand in front of everyone and then yelled for everyone’s attention as she made him say the pledge.  Lottie was in awe and Gabby wanted to puke.  We strolled around the little village and finished the junior ranger books.  Gabby at first refused to turn her’s in.  The ranger got her to say that she’d prefer a more minimalist swearing in.  Lottie requested as much attention as she could get.  We checked another badge off our list. 
We tried to rush over to the Cherokee Reservation and fit in a trip to the museum, but by the time we got there we realized it probably wouldn’t be worth paying to get in for the brief time we had left.  We had to get home in time for dinner in downtown Gatlinburg, which is of course a whole different kind of cultural experience. 
I wasn’t quite sure we were going to make it to dinner after we had to back out of a parking lot that would only take cash, but luckily we found street parking behind the main drag.  Dinner at Smoky Mountain Brewery was fair.  Ice cream at Kilwin’s was delicious.  Free tastes of moonshine was totally Gatlinburg.  We once again crammed everything in.  The Grizwold spirit is alive within us. 

Time to get up!!!!

We like a two-for

We are really holding him back from his dreams of completing the whole thing.

We must take pictures with EVERY sign or plaque.

Holding their own.

A simple ceremony

LOOK AT ME!!!!!!

Kilwin's selfies

Kilwin's selfie #2

This is as close as these kids are getting to Ripley's.

Gatlinburg By Way of Keeneland

Since we were leaving bright and early, but couldn't check into our "chalet" until 4:00pm, we made a small pit stop in Keeneland.  I've never been there for actual races, but according to a list of free things to do in Lexington we could see the horses practicing from 6:00am until 10:00am.  Had it been about 15 degrees warmer I really think the girls would've been interested in this, but sadly it was freezing.  Luckily any disappointment over the horses races was washed away by a super cheap breakfast at the Track Kitchen which included grits and biscuits and gravy!
Even with our brief stop, we still got to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in time to purchase junior ranger books and hike a couple miles.  It's hard to complain about paying $3 for the ranger books when the whole park is free.  We watched the movie about how the park came to be.  We stared at the taxidermy in the museum.  Finally, we set off for Cataract Falls.  We opted for the long way to the falls so we could check out one of the historic buildings on the trail.  This gave Dan and Lottie an opportunity to scare the living daylights out of Gabby and me.  This particular waterfall wasn't super impressive, but the walk was lovely.  We tried to go a little past the falls but not everyone was really on board for that plan.  We accepted defeat and turned around.  The next stop was Food City to stock up on junk food for dinner.  Our rental property, the Sugar Shack, was a pretty standard a-frame. It was delightfully easy to find from town.  The drive up the hill to the property was far less treacherous than some in the area.  All major pluses since we were completely exhausted.

Waiting for the horses to come by.

They had to be still for a while so I could get a horse in the background.

Grits, eggs, biscuits and gravy.  Southern breakfasts are AMAZING!

She loves grits too!

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Thank goodness for those tumbling lessons.

Dan still laughing about jumping out from behind the door and scaring us.

Lottie only runs up hill.  Walking on flat land she does nothing but complain.  RIDICULOUS!

Warm and cozy

Sugar shack.

Links and Random Pictures

Flights
I always start looking a year in advance for tickets and have found amazing deals on kayak.com.  This time it cost of less to get to Costa Rica than we'd paid to go to California over the summer.

Accomodations
I adore homeaway.com, vrbo.com, and tripadvisor.com.  Here is the link for our rental in Pavones here http://www.vrbo.com/192416.  This is the link for our rental in Monteverde http://www.vrbo.com/106066.

Rental Car Company
This is our third time using Solid Rental Car and they are wonderful.   

Activities
 Santa Maria Night Tour
Selvatura Hanging Bridges
Curi-Cancha Reserve
Rosewood Souvenir Shop

Pictures that I don't think made it in other posts (and even if they did look at them again!):

We didn't see nearly as many of these in the house this year.  This one scared me first thing in the morning.  For something so small they are ridiculously loud.

Finally saw one of the toads on our last night.  In past trips you could always here them hopping on the deck. 

The leisurely stroll from our rental house to Santa Elena.

The most glorious plant in the world!!!!  I LOVE COFFEE!

Obligatory stop at the crocodiles under the Tarcoles bridge.

Second greatest plant.  I also LOVE chocolate!!!

Trying to eat like Ticos.  I always hated plantains until I had Patacones.  I tried my best to replicate them.  Freddy gave us "wild" potatoes to use in the soup. 

Freddy is the BEST!

Seriously I hate these bridges :(

Curi Cancha

We decided to go to Curi-Cancha Reserve instead of the Monteverde Cloud Reserve or Santa Elena Reserve.  After a breakfast of donuts from the panaderia we headed off at a reasonable time to get into the park.  Right when we arrived we saw a Blue-crowned Motmot.  Dan is now quite the birding expert and could not stop telling people about all the birds we spotted.  The man at the information desk recommended trails to us and said sometimes people catch a glimpse of quetzals along the trail we were taking.  I’m guessing those people are the ones who actually pay for guides.  It was a beautiful walk through the forest.  We were able to identify things we’d seen on the night walk.  We walked up to the overlook where you can see the Continental Divide.  We tried to creep up on other people’s paid tours to see if we were missing anything.  On our own we spotted a bird with an orange belly and Dan identified it later as an Orange-bellied Trogon.  We were informed by Richard that this is an impressive spotting and true birders have a hard time finding them.  We are the real deal even with two noisy kids.  After the park we stopped briefly in the cheese factory and saw them curds and whey.  We also bought some seriously overpriced ice cream.

Orange-bellied Trogon

This kid seriously lives up to her name!

Overlook at the Continental Divide

Big leaves

The two young explorers plotting our course.

We just learned that what Gabby is standing in front of is a tree that grows from the top down over another tree.  Eventually (150 years) the tree on the inside gets completely eaten away.

Motmot

Cheese making

The Santa Maria Night Tour

I find driving at night in Costa Rica terrifying and ill advised.  The only thing that might be worse is walking after dark.  So it only makes sense that on this trip we decided to go strolling about in the woods in the pitch black with our children.  Of course we had a guide, who I think was maybe 15 years old, so we were perfectly safe.  Earlier in the day Dan had faced his fears walking high above the trees on hanging bridges and now it was Gabby’s turn.  She calmly reminded me she is scared of the dark.  I’m pretty sure she’s not crazy about small spaces either because we dragged her into a cave over the summer and she was in a state of pure panic.  I give her points though because she held it together (perhaps better than her dad on the bridges). 
We went to the Santa Maria Night Walk because it was a short walk from our rental house.  We were put in a group with two older (than us) couples.  I’m sure they were thrilled to be matched up with little kids.  Luckily it turned out a couple of them were teachers.  They were delighted that our kids were getting to really experience nature.  The one woman kept telling Gabby how lucky she was and that she should be grateful to her parents.  We need someone to remind them of that on every trip. 
The girls held there own on some slick hills in the dark.  They were careful not to step on the lines of cutter ants, although Lottie made me a little nervous sticking the toe of her rain boots near 2 meter deep ant hill.  We were able to see a tarantula, frog, ants, and an anole.  The main event was the sloth moving through the trees at the end of the tour.  We literally sprinted through the woods when one of the guides notified the others that a sloth had been spotted.  While staring in awe at this amazing animal the former teacher was really laying it on thick with Gabby about how lucky she was.  Gabby’s response was that the last sloth she saw was close enough to touch.  She wasn’t even trying to sound snotty, but I sort of wanted to die.  It is a delicate process to explain to your 6 year old the concept of privilege and not sounding spoiled.  We can now check both a two-toed and three-toed sloth off our bucket list. 

Best picture I could get of the sloth.

Our VERY kind guide took this one.

The MASSIVE ant hill

Selvatura Hanging Bridges

So we decided to be really on top of things and get up at the crack of dawn to head to Selvatura Park for the hanging bridges.  We were certain this would allow us to see more animals and beat the crowds.  We definitely beat the crowds, but we also ended up walking through the park in a chilly downpour that was probably our worst weather in Monte Verde.  It wasn’t just a the mist you’d expect in a cloud forest.  This was real rain and it was cold.  Good thing we told the girls not to bring extra coats.  And although after Ireland I promised I’d quit being cheap and buy Gabby a waterproof not water resistant coat I didn’t.
Once again Gabby and Lottie were troopers.  They walked without complaint and even seemed to enjoy themselves some of the time.  This made me feel a little better because I was definitely the one pushing for this adventure.  I was dying to do these bridges, but I was also painfully aware that Dan doesn’t love heights.  He assured me that bridges weren’t a problem.  Funny thing, when the bridges have some questionable patches in the grates and sort of sway back and forth as you walk then they become a problem.  Dan probably stayed 20 feet behind us until the girls started feeling bad for him.  They kind of took turns going back to offer support.  He had this amazing look on his face like he could throw up or go into some sort of catatonic state at any moment.  He was excited when we spotted a howler monkey high up in the trees.  We also saw a fancy looking bird.  The person who sold us the tickets threw in a free pass to the hummingbird garden which was pretty amazing.  When hummingbirds buzz right past your head it is a little unnerving.  While we were standing there staring in amazement at the birds a pizote strolled in to drink from the puddles.  In the US I believe this would be similar to a raccoon walking in front of us, but in the US I would have run away and in Costa Rica I took 20 pictures of it.  So all in all not a total loss, but probably a guide or better weather would’ve made the bridges a little more enjoyable. 

Smiling despite her inadequate outerwear.

Offering her dad some moral support ;p

I wish I were a better photographer so you could see the height.

Here's a better perspective.

Look at those patches.  Nothing to worry about!

Pizote

Hummingbirds are incredible.

Howler Monkeys