Thursday's Travel Tales & Tips: Week 1!

Welcome; so glad you could stop by! Today is the day I take the plunge and start this linky party (hoping there will be others out there who want to come and join me!).  I'm so very excited (yet a tad bit nervous)!  I can't wait to hear all of your travel tales, ponder your travel tips, see pictures of your past trips, and/or dream with you about future trips. 

Don't think it has to be exotic!  It can be anything from tips about car or airplane travel with children, packing tips, past vacation pictures, a story of one of your travel adventures, sharing about a trip you are planning to take, or giving us a glimpse of one of your dream travel destinations.  It can be local sights in your city, something in your home state, cool places to see in the US, or overseas destinations.  Be creative!

The rules:
1.) Make a post on your blog about travel. (Or, share an old post that fits the theme here.)
2.) Put a link in your post linking back here to Mrs. Sojourner's Monologues (or you can link directly to Thursday's Travel Tales & Tips, whichever you prefer).
3.) Share your link below. (Link directly to your post [not your blog homepage] in the "URL" kine.  Put your name/name of your blog and/or the name of your post in the "name" line.  The email is self explanatory.  Pick an image to share in your thumbnail.)
4.) Check out the other links. (It's not mandatory, but everyone loves some comment love!)
5.) Tweet about it another the hash tag: #TravelTales (Optional!)
6.) Have fun!

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Here is my post for this week:

In honor of the beginning of Fall and just how very much I am missing the mountains of NC I am going to share about an amazing trip we took before we left the US in the fall of 2008.  We met some of our best friends at a cabin in the woods (at the time they were between houses and we had already moved out of our apartment so there was no where for us to get together; at least that's how we justified the expense at the time!).  We look around at cheaper cabins that could fir our families and found one we thought would work.  The rental company gave us this amazing cabin for the same price (since it wasn't already booked).  {Sometimes God does unexpected things like that and I am always reminded when I look back at them of His goodness!}  We really didn't realize what an amazing cabin it was until we took the steep windy road up to it and got out of the car.  Wow!

Our "Up Above the World So High" Cabin complete with built in BBQ on the deck.  You better believe will grilled some great meals in the crisp fall air!

The kids had a great time playing in the great big yard.  (Also another view of the house.)

Seriously, the most a-m-a-z-i-n-g view!  Breath-taking.  And a cool lookout to boot.  The view was of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park; so awesome.

It had a fire pit and this is where we spent a big part of our evenings; roasting s'mores with the kiddos.  What could be more fun?!

One day we went for a hike and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors all around us.

I tried to savor every moment knowing this was our last time to enjoy fall for many years.

We got to see a really neat waterfall.  The Little Sojourners really enjoyed all the outdoors stuff we did.

(I had to include this picture of me and Little Sojourner on our hike that my friend took.  It's one of my favorites of Little.)

One day my friend, her oldest daughter and I walked around Bryson City, NC and looked at the shops, ate lunch at a little sandwich place, and had coffee and checked email at the Mountain Perks Expresso Bar/Cafe.  (They made a pretty good mocha!)  It was a fun girls afternoon.

Most days we stayed at that cabin, enjoyed the peace and quiet (besides our munchkins), sat in awe of the beauty that surrounded us, played card and board games, ate my friend's amazing cooking, chatted our heads off, and other such shenanigans.  The day we went hiking we did go to Pasqualino's Italian Restaurant.  The service was great and the food was delicious.

It was a wonderful trip that I will cherish forever.  I am so glad I got to share about it with you!

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Thanks again for stopping by; hope to see you again next week!

Dreaming of travel,

*Linking up with Alicia's Try New Adventures Thursday at Alicia's Homemaking!