Visit with Cousins at Fall Creek Falls

On Sunday,   George and I drove south of Crossville to one of our favorite places,   Fall Creek Falls State Park.  We met two of my cousins and their extended families for a delicious buffet at the park restaurant.  Besides eating,  we sat around and chatted for a couple of hours.  It was a great time.

Above is a picture of the nine of us...  Seated on the left is my cousin Carol --and John (hubby) behind her. They live in Michigan.  Seated on the right is Marvin and wife Carol behind him.  You know George and I in the middle with our 'matching' shirts... ha ha .....  Behind us is Dar and Wes.   Dar and Carol (the Carol on the right) are sisters of  my cousin Carol's husband John.   The two sisters and hubby's live in Sparta--which is southwest of Crossville.   And my cousin Bonnie (in the white blouse) lives in Florida with husband Dave (who was not with us since he is hang-gliding this week).   Below are more pictures...

Here are the 3 cousins:  Bonnie,  Betsy and Carol.   Bonnie and Carol are 1st cousins since their mothers were sisters.  I am a 2nd cousin since my mother was a sister of their grandmother.   Got all that????? ha ha .... These two gals are like my sisters --since I never had one!!!!!   Don't you love the SQUINTS???  We were looking STRAIGHT into the sun...

After dinner,  George and I just had to take time to drive around the park searching for Fall colors...  Even though it's been very dry here this year,  we did find lots of color to share with you.   The picture above was taken from inside the car---looking out of the front window... The roads all around the park were dotted with Fall colors --and just so pretty... It was a beautiful day to be there.

This is a picture taken near Cane Creek Waterfall --which was mostly dry... Can you see how dry the creek is in the picture above????  We have NEVER  EVER seen this small amount of water in this area---and you know that we have been to Fall Creek Falls a trillion  million times.  ha.... I keep talking about how dry we are this year in this area---but seeing no water at the Cascades or Cane Creek Waterfall just about blew my mind!!!!

There was a little water coming over Fall Creek Falls (not pictured)---but not nearly as much as we usually see.  However,  the Fall colors near the falls,  and on the nearby bluffs and gorge were really pretty.  Don't you agree?

This is always one of my favorite pictures of  the mountain ranges surrounding Fall Creek Falls State Park.  It was nice to be here on a beautiful Autumn day in Tennessee.

Finally,   a sweet lady took our picture together since George took theirs...  Hope you enjoyed experiencing Autumn in Tennessee. Even with the drought,  we truly enjoyed our day at the state park.

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I will be taking a blog break for the rest of the week.   I 'may' do a blog on Friday--but probably will wait until Monday.  I will catch up with your blog posts next week.  Hope all of you have a fabulous week.  Enjoy yourself and get out in nature---that's most important.

Hugs,

Autumn Color along the Smokies Foothills Parkway

This past Thursday,  George and I drove to the Smokies to check out some Fall Colors.  We drove on a road which we had not been on before,  the Foothills Parkway (near Townsend, TN).   The parkway reminded us of the Blue Ridge Parkway---with overlooks all along our way.

There was quite a bit of color --but not as much in the higher elevations.  However,  we picked a perfect day to be there because a cold front had blown through the area the day before,  and it turned out to be a perfect day --and very clear.

Besides seeing some gorgeous colors along the parkway,  we hiked to a tall tower near Look Rock ---and saw some spectacular views of the Smokies and of the area all around.  I will publish pictures of the tower and views in another post,  and today will share some of the gorgeous colors we encountered that day.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

You can see some of the beautiful Smoky Mountains in this photo.

I can just "ooh and ahh"  when seeing the beautiful Fall colors.

We found this beautiful red color as we were hiking up to the tower.   Isn't it just gorgeous?

Here's another picture showing some of the beautiful Smoky Mountains, and the valley below.

For some reason,  I am drawn to this picture... I love the little splashes of red!!!!   What do you think?

Finally,  this picture was taken near Chilhowee Dam --after we got off of the Foothills Parkway... I love seeing Fall color around the water.  The only thing needed is a great reflection... (Guess we need to go back for that!!! ha)

Hope you enjoyed seeing some color from the beautiful Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.   Hope also that you had a great weekend... George and I had our annual physicals this past Friday ---and both received excellent reports...  Thanks be to God for GOOD HEALTH.

Hugs,