Trip to the fireflies

 

Rick was gone to drill the Sunday before his exam. After church Rick’s dad asked if me and the kids would like to see the fireflies. I consulted with Rick on the situation and after talking to him decided that all I would be doing otherwise would be sitting around or packing.

So I grabbed everything I thought the kids and I might need, threw a quick lunch down the kids, loaded the car, picked up Grandpa, and headed on our way to Gatlinburg TN for the synchronized fireflies.

This is a pretty cool thing. It only happens in 2 parts of the world and only for a few weeks out of the year. Right here just a few hours from where I live and some place in south east Asia.

Back to the story, the kids were great and slept the entire ride into the national park. I’ll be honest I was a little worried about how Brady was going to travel. We pulled into the parking lot next to the visitor center. As we walked up they closed the parking lot because it was full. Talk about timing. Katie browsed the displays with Grandpa while I nursed Brady. We then headed off towards Downtown Gatlinburg.

Needing to leave the car in the parking lot to save our spot we took the stroller for a spin on a little gravel/dirt path that connects the city with the national park roughly 2 miles in length. It was a gorgeous walk. We stopped to take some pictures and passed a little cemetery in the park on the way.

   

Once we got into town, We headed over to Bennett's BBQ for dinner. If you are in town give it a try. Katie and Brady both snarfed down their food. Looking at the time we got the check and started back on our path to the park.

While we ate dinner it had rained. Once again great timing that we missed the shower. Realizing that we might miss our trolley if we don’t hurry. Rick’s dad and I started a very brisk walk back to the park. In fact we were able to make the trip in half the time it took us before dinner. Which is pretty crazy. I mean we just ate about 5 lbs of food each and then decided to almost jog back. Luckily I was only a little sweaty (dripping head to toe), huffing and puffing, tired, and Rick’s dad didn’t have a heart attack so we were good.

We got back in time to stand in line for our trolley. Our weight was short but long enough we probably didn’t have to rush like we did. I figure it was better to be safe than sorry. Which our point in the line was great because we were able to sit at the very front of the trolley and Katie was able to look out the window and see where we were going.

Once we got off the trolley we walked over and covered our flashlights in red and blue. Bright white light can throw the fireflies off. Rick’s dad and I noticed that a lot of people were headed up the hill and the rangers said we could take a side path. Wanting to avoid the crowd we jotted to the side and only  a few feet past the parking lot there was a line of chairs next to a little ravine. I asked if anyone had been to the fireflies. Most were first timers like us but one couple said they had come in the past and that this would be a good spot. So we set out our chairs to wait. Katie liked playing around with grandpa waiting for it to get dark enough. Brady nursed and then fell asleep.

If you have never seen fireflies they float through the air and light up in a random pattern. Very cool to see. Especially if you are a girl from Utah where we don’t have fireflies.

I didn’t think that the fireflies at the park would be that different but man I was wrong. We sat in the dark looking up this little stream and it would be dark. The next minute the bugs would start flashing really fast and the entire area would be lit. A few seconds later the ravine would be black again. You could sit and count 1..2..3..4..5.. and the light show would happen again.  We watched this over and over again until we finally packed up the kids and stood in line for the trolley to go back to the parking lot. Once again we had great positioning and ended up able to sit at the very front of the trolley.

We got to my car about 11pm had a potty break for Katie, a quick nursing for Brady, changed the kids into PJ’s and started our 2 hour drive home. I had both kids in their beds asleep by 1:15.

Katie talked about the fireflies for days and how she got to watch them blink. She still talks about how she got to ride a trolley too.

I couldn’t have asked for a better impromptu trip. The timing was cutting it close but was perfect. The kids never had to sit for a long period of time, everyone was fed and happy, and we travelled safely.

Next year we’re going to look into getting a spot at the campground right next to the firefly meadow.