Today is February 23, 2007. Its been two months since my life endedI got married and just over one month that I've been on my own again. Marissa and I tied the knot on December 23, 2006...a full six months to the day before the date we had originally chosen. Of course all of you reading this already know about the wedding and you also know that we moved up our plans because of Marissa's mobilization back into the Active Army. But I guess for the sake of thouroughness if I intend to do better with my side of the blog and keep things up-to-date, I need to start back at the beginning.

[More:]

So, I bring you the story of our Honeymoon. Well, mini-moon is more like it. We obviously didn't have time to plan a big getaway and with our time being limited we chose to go away to someplace fairly close and make the most of our time together. Marissa suggested Gatlinburg, Tennessee (a longtime favorite of mine) after I had suggested it as a possible get-away location earlier in the year.

We rented a cabin through Patriot Getaways. I had experience with this company from a trip I had taken with some friends back in 2004 and remembered they offered a military discount. They have hundreds of cabins to choose from with several different types of ammenities. We settled on renting the cabin, known as "2 Cozy." We the company also gave us a special rate and only changes us for three of our four nights in the cabin.

Here are some photos of the cabin.

Outside view of our cabin. "2 Cozy" by Patriot Getaways.

Our cabin, from the front door looking inside. You can see the living room area to the left, the kitchen in the background and stairs leading upstairs to the loft. Our bedroom was off the right. (The hot-tub is through a door to the left.)

Looking down into our kitchen from the Stairs.

Loft view of the Living room and some really hot babe that was doing all the hard work.

Upon our arrival at the cabin, we unpacked and then headed into Pigeon Forge for grocceries and wine! First, our wine stops included The Apple Barn, Mountain Valley Winery, and (later on another day) the Smoky Mountain Winery. In my opinion (IMO) I think the Mountain Vallery Winery had the best merlot. However the Smoky Mountain Winery probably has the two best wines I've ever had: The Mountain White and Strawberry Wine. (If anyone is going to Gatlinburg in the next year, let me know. I'll send money along with you if you bring me back some wine!)

...."Do you have to take my picture again?!?!"

The next morning we drove out to Cades Cove inside The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We drove the loop inside Cades Cove hoping to see at least one bear. In the end, we only saw other tourists and about 30 deer! Marissa was really fascinated by the beauty of the cove and the surrounding mountains. ....and the deer!

"Honey, quick! Look behind you....three deer!" "I don't see them!" "That's because your eyes are closed!!"

The remainder of the day, we did some exploring around Gatlinburg itself and visited Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. The Aquarium (and all other Ripley's locations) give an AWESOME military discount, too! We saved almost $30 on our admisstion to the aquarium alone!!

Colorful shot of coral fish swimming in the Aquarium of the Smokies.

On Thursday, January 4 we headed back into Gatlinburg. We stopped at Christus Gardens and then took the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg. We had lunch, enjoyed the view and took the tram back down the mountain. We stopped in a little shop on our way back to the cabin and had our full color charactures made! (Sorry, I don't have a picture of it yet but I'll work on it.)

"I'm watching you!"

We took it easy the next few days and met some local friends for dinner for one night, browsed through a myraid of shops, and even got some old time photos taken.

"This IS my smile, Mike."

Awww....aren't we cute?

It was definately an awesome time!