EXPLORING MARYVILLE

Two weeks ago, I had a little bit on my mind and was feeling a little disconnected from the world. When I was living in California, I would always escape and reconnect myself by going to the park or going to a new restaurant or just exploring new places I had never been to. With me just moving to  Tennessee a few months ago, I am unfamiliar with the area and decided it would be nice to go driving and see what's around town. I only drove two minutes away from my house to find a park that I had never been to before, or even noticed before, called Bicentennial Greenbelt Park, which you will have already seen pictures of on instagram if you follow me on there. It is one of the most beautiful parks I have been to, with ducks, bridges, lots of greenery and a bike path. I literally stayed there walking around for two hours taking pictures, climbing trees, and sitting on a bench admiring what was surrounding me. I then walked a few streets over to the downtown area of Maryville to look inside shops and visit the farmers market. While traveling on foot, I came across an old cemetery, and with me loving cemeteries, I had to take a look around. The day started getting ahead of me and by this time I had been out for hours so I started heading back as it was getting late and also a little bit hot. On my journey back to the car, I went down new roads to find a different way back. I ended up finding a cute, high fashion clothing store called Razberries. So much winter apparel I wanted in there! After that I found another park called Jack Greene and I loved the tunnels you could go through. After adventuring Maryville for about five hours, I had cured my wanderlust and had taken a lot off my mind, leaving me feeling happy and refreshed. I hope you enjoyed these pictures I took during the day! 

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!