Knowing he had to be there pretty early and that games could run late into the evening we decided to make it a weekend getaway. A little early anniversary gift to ourselves.
After digging around online we managed to find a good rate at a cute little bed and breakfast nearby - The Chalet Inn. It was a very nice little place. Personal attention. Tucked away from the beaten path, but very conveniently located to Cherokee, Sylva and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
On a side note - if you ever decide to visit Cherokee in November you should be aware that, with the exception of the casino, apparently the entire town closes up shop and heads home at sundown. We went looking for something to eat and quickly found our choices to be fast food or fast food. We settled on Pizza Hut because that was the nicest restaurant we could find open at 8pm. You have been warned.
Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny, although a little bit cold. I've never been to one of these tournaments before. And clearly had no idea what to expect. In all my glorious naiveté, I expected there to be some downtime between games while other teams played. Time the Man and I could slip away for some brief sight seeing, shopping, or a quick pop into the casino to lose all my loose change in the slot machines. (If you've ever actually BEEN to a tournament of this time you are now laughing like crazy. Go ahead. Take your time. I'll wait.) The reality of it was several back to back games, with an occasional break of about an hour - IF the current game didn't end earlier than scheduled. So much for down time.
On the plus side: have I ever mentioned how beautiful this part of the country is? Well, it is. Beautiful. I mean, when you live somewhere that THIS is the view from the ballfields:
Yeh... that!
During the day the weather was cool, but not uncomfortably so. The sun was shining. (I ended up sporting a pink nose the next morning. Oops!) I settled into a camp chair, relaxed, crocheted and watched my handsome man pitch game after game.
Which is not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Once the sun set behind the mountains things got ugly cold very quickly. And as games continued on into the wee hours of the morning we found ourselves tired, hungry and frozen. Which just isn't as much fun as it sounds. Exactly.
But, their team did take second place in their division. We got a day and 2 nights away from the grind.
And on the drive home we made much less softball-ish type plans to enjoy our actual anniversary this coming weekend.
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