Gatlinlove.

I'm not entirely sure when it happened, but Tennessee has easily become one of my favorite vacation spots. This weekend, my friends and I reinforced that yet again with our annual fall getaway to a cabin in Gatlinburg. About half the usual crew couldn't make it this year, but we still had an awesome, relaxing time, despite missing them a lot.

Wheat and I arrived at Rocky Top 2 (how cute is that cabin name?) pretty late on Friday night, so we spent the evening settling in and catching up with friends. Saturday morning, I was absolutely blown away by the gorgeous view from our enormous porch before heading down the mountain for some blueberry pancakes. Spoiled.

After brunch, Wheat, Alex, and I decided to check out Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies downtown. I can honestly say it was worth every penny of the $30/person admission price. We spent a couple hours admiring thousands of fish, including ones we didn't know existed, and watching dive shows and feedings of the penguins and sting rays. We even got to pet horseshoe crabs, jellyfish, sting rays, and leopard sharks.

I absolutely loved the moving sidewalk that took us through shark lagoon, which included sandtiger and nurse sharks, green moray eels, sawfish, sting rays, and more. As usual, my personal highlights were the jellyfish and the penguins. We happened to be there during the penguin feeding, so we watched them hopping around and eating fish for longer than I care to admit. Each penguin had a little arm band with its name on it and I quickly decided that Norm was my favorite.

Wheat also indulged me by dressing up as a seahorse for a picture. He's the best.

After the aquarium, we recharged at the cabin before heading to Pigeon Forge for dinner at Corky's. My barbeque baked potato was truly heavenly. We finished the night with some college football (O-H!) and a glorious soak in the hot tub.

On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a late breakfast on the porch before heading downtown for some moonshine tasting. Before the crew did three different tastings, Jenn, Alex, and Sib rode the Gatlinburg Mountain Coaster, an individual, self-controlled ride that weaves throughout the trees on the steep hillside.

The moonshine tasting became a bit of a bar crawl with stops at No Way Jose's Cantina and Blaine's Grill & Bar, in addition to Ole Smoky Moonshine, Sugarlands Distilling Company, and Davy Crockett's Tennessee Whiskey. While enjoying some chips and guac at No Way Jose's, we noticed a small crowd surrounding the table next to us. Unbeknownst to us, we sat down next to Tyler and Chico from Discovery Channel's Moonshiners. Although I've never seen that show, I was pretty entertained by their heavy accents, cut-off shirts, and the fact that they already had pre-printed pictures of themselves on-hand to autograph and pass out to admiring fans.

Once everyone was sufficiently loose, we had dinner at Best Italian Cafe & Pizzeria, where I ordered the world's largest chicken and onion calzone. No really, guys. It was the size of my head. We closed the trip with some games, drinks, and Sunday Night Football in the cabin, the perfect end to a wonderful weekend.

Is it Friday yet?