Girl In The Pretty Dress

I've been dreaming of visiting the Smoky Mountains ever since I first heard Dolly sing "In my Tennessee mountain home..." but none of the songs really do justice to their scale or beauty. We picked up our rental car and wound our way into the mountains. We headed to the highest point: Clingman's Dome It felt a little like standing on top of the world. When I could finally tear myself away from that view, we headed back down the mountain and made our way to the edge of the Smokies - to Maggie Valley and Cataloochee Ranch. When we arrived at the ranch, our lovely hosts fed us enough to put us into a food coma.  We awoke the next day to this beautiful view. After another feast for breakfast, we decide to spend the morning exploring Mingo Falls. I have been lucky enough to visit some of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world on my travels, and while these didn't quite match the scale of others, they were by f...

Today is my birthday - so naturally I took the whole week off to celebrate. What better way to spend it than a trip to one of my favourite places? The west coast of Scotland boasts some truly spectacular scenery. I've been a few times now and I can never get tired of it. Links to all the places we visited are below (I whole-heartedly recommend a visit to all of them) but this post is going to be quite picture heavy so I'll shut up now and let the images do the talking. Where we stayed: The Galley of Lorne Inn in Ardfern Day 1: Where we ate: Brambles (Inveraray) & The Galley of Lorne Inn The Castle: Inveraray Castle (One of the locations used in Downton Abbey) Day 2: Where we ate:   The Lord of the Isles (Craobh Haven) We went riding with:  Lunga Stables  (Craobh Haven) Where we explored: Craignish Point & Ardfern Marina Day 3: Where we ate: The Oban Chocolate Company  (Oban) Boat trip (not pictured): Sealife Adventures  (Seil Island)...