Artificial Dragon

Trip to Gatlinburg, TN

After a long time I felt like I was in India with my family. We had a get together in Gatlinburg, TN this past weekend. I should describe it as one of the most relaxing (mentally) trip I had ever had.

Warm smile and hugs welcomed me at the airport in Charlotte. After a small food stop I drove to this wonderful small town called Greenville. They had a natural waterfall in the middle of their downtown. Where can you find such a beauty? It looked like a college town, people were laid back, the surrounding mountains added to the beauty. Rashmi & Suresh, host of this entire event, were amazing. Everything was planned to the clock (though none of them went according to the plan), a special kudos to them to plan such a long, enjoyable, amazing trip.

We went around the school (Furman University where Suresh teaches) on Thursday morning and went for a small hike that afternoon. The hike was amazing; they had this tropical (kinda) habitat nearby and also a beautiful waterfall. Oops forgot to mention the great southern Indian food that Rashmi had cooked for me. Suresh was rocking with his Canon 20D SLR camera while I enjoyed posing for it though we couldn’t avoid getting Rashmi out of the frame. Like all girls she had to be on all the pictures, how silly, just kidding. I enjoyed messing with her. I would consider her as the best cousin I have got. Rashmi speaks 3 languages – Tamil (to be pronounced Thamizh), English, and Tāmil (to be pronounced Tae+Meel, like a Setu Ootu Ponnu, Sorry I can’t translate that part).

Friday we all started to our main event, Gatlinburg. The whole day passed away in packing, traveling, picking up people from airport. There were 4 families, siblings of Suresh and their family; all together there were 5 kids 2 toddlers and 9 adults (if you consider me as an adult). I love kids but not 5 of them together. “Orange Guy” (cuz I was wearing a orange t-shirt) “Bad Drinking Boy”, “Stinky Guy”, “Monster”, “Slow Pole”, “Ghost” – these were the names the kids used on me :) but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed playing with the kids for long time.

Saturday we went around Gatlinburg, we went to all the joy rides and celebrated a surprise baby shower. Sunday we went for a 2 ½ mile hike which we called off after completing about ¾th of a mile. Believe me, that’s the max you can go when you got 7 kids in the trip. We got to this stream which was amazing. In spite of the freezing cold water condition, we managed to play on it for a while. Oh don’t get deceived by the freezing cold water part, the weather stayed above 90 all the time. For some reason the mountain water stays cold. That night we got into this big Jacuzzi and started talking about old time stories. Most of them were drunk; I was the only one who was not drinking cuz of my health conditions (I think I have yapped enough about it on my earlier post). Rashmi came up with this amazing story which I can’t forget even now. I can’t explain what it is here but man! she had some amazing childhood. Monday we went to Dollywood which was like a mini Disney World. Taking 5 kids to these theme parks was like herding a bunch of cats. I kept annoying them by calling them “Manja thoppi gals” which means yellow cap gals which was more fun. Tuesday was a sad day cuz that’s when we were supposed to leave.

The whole experience was fun. I had a great time after a long time. I am still waiting on the picture. I will upload it here once I get them. I would credit all of my fun part to Suresh and Rashmi who organized this whole vacation.

posted by Artificial Dragon @ 12:03 AM