By Dominic Mastrodonato
Mention The Smoky Mountains to anyone and if they’ve been there - they know. If they haven’t been there - they know they should because of what they’ve heard. This is an area that pulls you in and makes you fall in love with it from the first moment you arrive.
As I said before, I’ve been coming to the Smoky Mountains since I was a kid and have loved every single trip. There has never been a time where I was disappointed. I’ve shared my love for this place with family and friends.
When my wife and I got married, we spent our honeymoon in Hawaii, which was gorgeous. We spent 10 days there and created some lifelong memories. However, by the time the trip was winding down we both admitted that we had gotten our fill of paradise and were ready to head back home. I hear time and again from people who visit Las Vegas and say that 3 or 4 days is enough there and then it’s time to go home.
For our 1st anniversary I brought my wife to the Smoky Mountains and she was hooked. The next several years we vacationed in other parts of the country but found ourselves comparing those trips to The Smokies. After we realized that no other places compared to The Smoky Mountains, we asked ourselves why we were continuing to try to find something better.
The love of the area continued as we had kids. We brought our two girls there and they were hooked. When I would ask where we wanted to go for vacation, the answer always came back to The Smokies. I eventually stopped asking. Our girls loved it, and Tennessee, so much that they both moved there a couple of years apart.
My wife and I don’t currently live there but we have planned on retiring there. That’s always been our plan. We bought our first cabin there, The S’mores Retreat, that is rented out for guests who are building their love story with The Smokies. We plan on buying a couple of more cabins and when the time is right, we will go ‘home’ to The Smokies.
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