STEAMY SURPRISE

September means it's time for another birthday surprise trip! For every birthday, instead of presents, Cameron and I gift each other a surprise trip. We have some rules for the surprises, like distance away and budget, but other than that it's pretty much up to the surpriser what they would like to plan. Cameron outdid himself this year.....

That's right! A ride on a steam engine! Cameron had booked us a mountain excursion on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad! Disclaimer, he did drop a hint and I figured it out ahead of time, but I still had no idea where we were staying for the weekend, so some of the surprise was still in effect. We headed off to Bryson City, NC on Friday for our long weekend trip. Our Airbnb was waaaaay up in the mountains which was super cool and it was accurately named "Good Life Cabin 2". We had a little log cabin that was out in the woods and was perfect for the 3 of us for the weekend. 

We spent our first evening enjoying the warm mountain weather with some grilled food and hot tub relaxing. We woke up Saturday ready for our train adventure. Unfortunately pups don't make good train riders, so we got Luna situated for a big day of napping and headed down the mountain into town to check in for our train ride. Cameron and I had been to Bryson City years ago when we first moved to North Carolina but didn't get much time there, and always wanted to venture back, so we were really excited for this trip. 

When we got into town it was already getting busy with other train riders, but the parking and check in process was very easy to follow. We got to hang out by the train, talk to the conductor, and even watch people film a PBS documentary on the railroad and the steam engine! Keep an eye out for us in the background if you ever see it on TV! 

Our ride was the Nantahala Gorge Excursion which would take us out to Fontana, a beautiful part of the NC mountains. Cameron had bought the ticket package on the open air gondola section of the train which included drinks and a lunch meal, BBQ... what a guy! We got all settled in to our seats and pretty soon we were underway. It was really neat facing out the side with the open air. The train rocked on the tracks and almost felt like riding on a boat. I got to chat with the lady next to me who was a retired police officer and was taking the ride by herself after losing her partner a year ago to cancer. It was so special to hear her continue to carry on their bucket list of places and adventures they had wanted to tackle together. This was both our first time on a train, and we both agreed it was an awesome experience. 

The entire train ride was a little over 4 hours, which included a layover where you could get off the train and explore the Nantahala Gorge area. There were fun shops and places you could grab food, mementos, and beer! Cameron and I off course picked the beer and sat on a rock enjoying the river for our layover. 

After a nice little layover, it was time for the return ride. I don't think we could have asked for a better weather day to experience the open air gondola. The warm breeze and fresh air made the ride even better! And those views...

When we pulled back into the station everyone unloaded. The bad part of a train ride, it holds a lot of people. The shops looked pretty packed, so we decided it would be better to come back into town Sunday and explore all the shops in Bryson City. We headed up the mountain to check on our LunaBear who had a big day of sleeping. We decided to continue the fun by attending an 80's cover band at Bryson City Brewing, which was the perfect end to an action packed day.

Since we didn't head home until Monday, our Sunday morning we enjoyed the hot tub and coffee on our cabin deck and then headed back to Bryson City town to do a hike to some waterfalls that the lady I sat next to on the train had told us about. It wasn't too strenuous of a hike and had some great falls.

After our morning exercise, we hit the town to get some food, drinks, and shopping in! The town was nice and quiet Sunday, which made going through the stores really enjoyable to stop and look around. Satisfied with our Bryson City exploring, we headed up the mountain one last time to our cabin and rounded out the evening relaxing with movies and a home made dinner of pizza and salad. It was a 10/10 surprise trip to Bryson City and I'm looking forward to going full-steam ahead as another year older.