Michaela Hutchison: east tennessee

Sunday, October 2, 2016

OBER GATLINBURG | PHOTO DIARY

Gatlinburg is one of my favorite places in Tennessee. The mountains are beautiful, there's roller coasters through the mountains, good food, wide range of activities, gnarly shops, and more, but instead of doing the same old stuff we normally do, we wanted to try something different. Earlier in September, my mom and I went to Ober Gatlinburg, a small amusement park and ski resort. When we were in Pigeon Forge, the city we hit before entering Gatlinburg, my mom and I went to Mellow Mushroom to get pizza for breakfast. I got the gluten-free veggie pizza, which was so good. I love how more restaurants are incorporating vegan and gluten free options into their menus.

Once in Gatlinburg, my mom and I took an aerial tram up higher into the mountains to get to Ober Gatlinburg. There really wasn't much to do there, which was disappointing, but it was still fun this one time as we had never been before. We rode a sky lift to go, yes, even further up the mountain, to get to ride an alpine coaster back down to where we started. It went so fast I almost went off the track (which apparently you have to watch out for since this has happened before). We rode the sky lift again to go past the alpine coaster stop and all the way up to as high as the mountains will go. There, there was a bluegrass band and an amazing view waiting for us. I do miss Southern California, but I do love all the sights and greenery here. We rode the sky lift back down to ride two water slides. One was okay but the other one, a tall windy blue tunnel, was mine and my mom's favorite thing to do there. We laughed so hard we were crying and couldn't get out of the float, and had such a great time that we went on it again and again. There was other things there, such as a petting zoo and an ice skating rink, but we wanted to leave as it was so humid and getting late. After that we left and rode the aerial tram back to Gatlinburg to look around in shops and go wine and moonshine tasting. After having 25 different flavors for the first time, I can safely say I don't like moonshine! My mom and I had so much fun that day, and you can see the day in action in my vlog on my YouTube channel and in the pictures below!

Sunday, July 31, 2016

MOVING ACROSS THE COUNTRY

This past week, I made the biggest change of my life so far. Yep, you guessed it. I just moved across the country! Last Tuesday, I spent a long day travelling from Southern California to East Tennessee with my sister Kuyuki. The day started dark and early (I say dark because it was so early the sun wasn't even up yet) at 4am. I wanted to wake up at 3am since we had to leave for the airport at 5am, but it was hard to since I only went to bed around 1:30am that same morning. So I had to rush around, take a shower, make breakfast, do some last minute packing, take one last look at my bedroom, and say goodbye really quick to the pets all in an hour. It all happened so fast it didn't hit me until we were halfway to the airport that that was the last time I'd ever be sleeping in that room, living in that house, and seeing the pets for a long time.

We arrived at the San Diego International Airport around 8am. Kuyuki and I had so much luggage we needed help carrying it in. I had two large suitcases, a carry on, and a purse so stuffed it would barely sit on my shoulder, while Kuyuki had a large suitcase, purse, and a carry-on as well. We went to the baggage area and felt free after not having to lug around three large suitcases. We then only had our carry on and purses. Then it was time. I tried so hard not to cry saying goodbye to my stepmom, sister, and father, but I lost it. They watched Kuyuki and I go through customs, then when we were finished, we waved goodbye from across the airport. I looked back until I couldn't see them anymore. For the longest time, I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was moving. But in that moment, it hit me. I began to cry again.

With all this crying, it seems as if I didn't want to move, like it was something I was forced to do, when in actual fact I wasn't. I did want to move. Me moving to Tennessee was actually something that has been in the plan since I was 14. I wanted to move to be closer to my family. I just wanted to wait until I was through with high school first. Now that I have been out of high school for three years, I felt it was time. It was just sad leaving everything I was familiar with, and leaving all my friends and family that I had in California behind.

After the tears, the ten hours Kuyuki and I spent at the airport was a blast. I don't know if it's just us, but we love airports. There's just so much to do, plus we love traveling. Our first flight was at 10:50am that went to Atlanta, then we had a six hour layover there that we spent looking in shops, eating, checking social media, taking pictures, and taking the underground train all over the airport because our gate number kept changing. Then we boarded our plane at 10:30pm and landed in Knoxville around 11:30pm. We claimed our luggage, almost died from the humidity (not really of course but if there's one thing I hate about the south, it's the humidity), then our mom picked us up and took us to Taco Bell as a late dinner. I was so excited to be at my new home and see my cat who I haven't seen since last year. I unpacked all my things and started decorating and organizing my bedroom and ended up not going to sleep until around 6:30am.

I've been in Tennessee now for about a week and each day we have been doing activities nonstop. My bedroom is starting to look more like a bedroom, we spent a day at my grandma's house, I've applied for so many jobs I can't even remember where all I've applied and even got a call back from one of them, watched lots of movies, gone out to eat and discovered so many great restaurants we've never been to before, gone shopping, and so much more. But as this post is getting long, I will leave it here. I can't wait to start a life out here and experience new things I couldn't experience anywhere else. Down below are some pictures from our day at the airport and I also posted a video of our airport adventures you can watch on my YouTube channel.