Our Tennessee Family Fishing Vacation

For those of you who know our family well, you can just imagine how well this went. Leland Sr. (aka Pappy/Grandaddy), Frances (aka Little Soldier), Mom, Dad, Trey, Leslee, Joey, 26 weeker Job (protected within his mother), Adam, and I all met in Pigeon Forge and began our "vacation." We spent all day Saturday in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinberg playing put-put ("hillbilly-style" down a mountain and "blacklight-style"), laser tag, shopping, and of course...eating in some old favorite restaurants. We branched out a little as well and tried a new Chinese buffet, which was actually really good. On Sunday, we looked at a few properties for my practice and then headed to Spring City, TN where Watts Bar lake was waiting on us. We stayed at the Terrace View Resort and Marina which was ok. Since we are experts with fishing resorts/fishcamps, we gave this one a 5/10. It was clean, but not well-designed for the avid fishing family. (Pool and marina too far away, fish-cleaning area poorly placed 150 yards from the cabin, table for 4 in a 3 bedroom cabin, etc.) But, we made the best of it and fished all day Monday and half of Tuesday. We would have fished more, but the floods stopped us (not that we are scared of a little rain, but the flood brought fog, which makes the lake really dangerous). However, we caught more than enough fish to make a great meal on Tuesday night, so all was good. Overall, the trip went rather well. I will say that cooking for 3 days while in the resort definitely met my quota and therefore I won't need to cook until we return from Las Vegas!!! (Yes, I helped with hamburgers, steaks, cookies, eggs, bacon, grits, and all meals while at the resort. And for those wondering...the resort is 20 miles from the nearest restaurants, grocery stores, etc. so yes...we cooked basically all meals.) Adam dropped me off in Atlanta today for a surgery board review course and he's now driving to Jacksonville. I'll miss him, Fonzie, Abbey, and Lilly. Here are some pics including the largest fish caught (by me, of course), Adam's first catch (small, but at least it was something besides the 3 sticks he "caught"), us on the boat (definitely the best-dressed), Fonzie's sad face as we were leaving, and the beautiful Watts Bar sunset.