Gatlinburg Retreat

This weekend I went with some ladies from our church on a Women's Ministries retreat to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. A lot of the leaves were still on the trees, and it was just beautiful.

Here's a picture of the cabin we stayed in.


There were eight of us. It was a lot of good conversation, good food, and some good shopping. A great time was had by all ...... until this morning, when a great time stopped being had by me.

This is the sign beside the front door, but we didn't really mean it literally.


Three cubs came for a visit.





They were especially interested in some acorns beneath the windshield wipers of Ruth's (Mia's teacher) van. Wouldn't you think there would be enough acorns in the woods - why would they need to get THESE acorns?!


The people in the red SUV stopped to look and take pictures. We were yelling through the window for them to honk their horn and try to scare them away, and they honked, but I guess the bears around there are so used to people, it didn't faze them.



One came to the front door and tried to get in. He scratched off some of the weather stripping before giving up. I guess he was smelling our good food!


Soon the momma bear showed up, but never came down the hill, and after awhile they all left. I did not get any pictures of her, because I was hiding, terrified, downstairs in the laundry room, praying for them to go away. They said she was huge, and I was afraid that the she might come and try her hand at the front door (or window) and be more successful than her baby had been.

I took about a 1-minute shower, packed up my stuff and was ready to get out of there, but my less-fearful companions decided to go ahead and fix breakfast. I'm sure it was delicious, but I couldn't eat more than a few bites. I was so relieved to get in that car and drive away --- to the much safer Pigeon Forge outlets!