On the Road Again...

For years, it has been tradition for my family (the Stewarts) to spend an extended weekend in the Smoky Mountains in October during the peak of fall foliage. We began traveling up here when I was really little (although the journey was not quite as far since we lived in Memphis), and have continued the tradition to this day. Now, it is even more important as we are all living in different cities (and state!). Trip and Katie currently reside in Washington, D.C. where he is attending law school at George Washington University (also his undergrad alma mater). Bobby moved to Tallahassee where he is completing his masters at Florida State University for Music Therapy. My parents are still in Ocala where my dad practices medicine, and of course Chris, Nicholas, and I are in Winter Park. Even though Bobby wasn't able to join us this time, it made for a very nice family reunion. Although, in truth, everyone was really excited to see Nicholas just as Chris and I were excited to have extra hands-and babysitters-to help!
This would be the first time Chris and I would be doing an extended vacation/travel experience with the baby. Granted, he is no longer a newborn (he will be turning six months on the 20th), but he still has his moments and we had no idea how he would do in the car for the 9 hour trip. I was terrified that he would be screaming the entire way from the panhandle to the mountains. Overall, he does well traveling in the car, but he does not like being in his carseat for extended periods. Oh yeah, and then there was the idea of packing and what to bring and what not to bring. We almost got a little crazy, and reluctantly (but thankfully) decided not to pack a few items (i.e. bathtub, diaper pail, changing pad, etc.). You might laugh, but I really did have to talk Chris out of bringing the bathtub. We're still new at this kind of thing. Even with a pathfinder we seemed to run out of space. His stroller did take up considerable room though. And when I firsted started packing his clothes and other items (sheets, burp cloth, etc.), I had the idea that we would just share my suitcase. Nope. He has the nice London Fog suitcase that I got as a wedding gift for his things, and I resorted to a small duffel bag because I just did not care. It's funny how things change.
Being me, I was hyper-focused on being organized and not forgetting any of Nicholas' things for the trip or having them lost on the trip. I spent 40 minutes creating an itemized list of everything I put in his suitcase, diaper bag, and miscellaneous items we were bringing. I checked it off as I packed, and was planning on having it as a tool to check off when we left our chalet. Let me tell you, that is the first thing we forgot. Sigh. That's what I get for being so crazy.
But with or without the list, and some other random odds and ends we left without, we made the trip up here just fine. I was most worried about getting Nicholas up in the morning and figuring out if I should feed him before we left (6am which is really early for him- he normally gets fed around 8am) or if I should wait until we swung by the Ocala house to get my mom- approximately 1hr and 45 min away. I decided to risk it and put him in his carseat and just go for it. Sure enough, he did absolutely fine! He actually went back to sleep as soon as the car started. I was going to comment to Chris and my mom about how well he was doing, but as my mother-in-law Cindy puts it "don't tempt the fates!"
After picking up my mom, we started the longer part of our journey which would take us all the way up to Bryson City, North Carolina. Overall, Nicholas did really well. We had to make maybe 2 unexpected stops as a result of him needing to be changed, and of course we had some bouts of crying as well, but nothing that couldn't be corrected by some love and affection from Nana and interesting new toys to look at (thanks Cindy!). We even got lucky and survived Atlanta traffic, only hitting some brief congestion just north of the city.
Chris decided to take us on the more scenic route to our chalet called Bryson City Road. This is a very windy mountain road that goes alongside the Tennessee River. It provided some really nice views and even Nicholas seemed to enjoy himself (this was the most quiet he had been on the whole trip). Our chalet was located on Settler's Mountain and we had to take this very narrow and steep gravel drive to get up there. We got up in time just to catch the last of the sun setting into the Smoky Mountains. The view up here is amazing though and everything it promised to be.

The house has a very open layout and is spacious. It has a big stone fireplace and a giant wraparound porch with a porch swing, picnic table, and rocker. The rooms upstairs have shutters that can be opened to look out onto the main room which is kind of funny. It would be a great house for a Nerf gun war, but that's just me.
Right now, it is just me, Chris, Nicholas, and my mom. Katie and Trip will be driving over from D.C. to join us, and my dad will be flying in Friday night as well. I have a feeling this is going to be a trip to remember!