Spring Picnic - Bryson City

Last weekend we went on Spring Picnic with our Marietta friend circle - Punyarthy, Kulkarni, Dhaneshwar, Kher and Kamatkar. Prashant Deshpande was luckily visiting from Aurangabad and could join the fun. This was our 5th picnic together. This time we booked a large single cottage which had huge great room and 5 bedrooms with overall capacity for 30 persons. The location was at Bryson City - on southern side of Smokey Mountain national park. We started on Fri early afternoon since there was forecast for thunderstorms on the way. It was only 4 hrs drive on north. We took scenic route through mountain ranges hence it took longer. It rained heavily with thick fog on the way. Everybody reached by 7 pm. Bryson City is small sleepy tourist town. You can travel through almost every road in city within 15 min. Friday night was potluck day and Supriya had assigned different menu items to each family. We had lovely dinner followed by mainly chatting and discussions - most heated was 'how to preserve and promote Marathi culture/traditions'. There were 10 kids and they were busy playing among themselves. Sat morning breakfast of pohe+tea was to be cooked by gents. After lazy preparation we all set out at around 11 am. We drove to a creek nearby and parked our cars. I had planned small trek to 2 waterfalls. Weather was very pleasant (around 10deg) and cloudy. It reminded of our treks in Kulu Manali. First waterfall was just 20 min climb, from there we took a wrong route and went on a 1.5 mile detour into mountains. I had forgotten my route map in car so after a long walk we reached third waterfall unplanned. Exhausted we returned to parking and picnic area by 3 pm. Girls prepared bhel there while gents played on the green lawns. I actually had planned 'tubing rides' in the creek but the water was very cold. So in evening we just strolled in the downtown area near creek and enjoyed ice-cream. Sat night we ate all the extra food leftover and had nice singing program till 2 am past midnight. Sun morning was again lazy and we finished clean up by 11 am. After group photo session we departed. On way back we just took highways and returned quickly by 3 pm. It was lots of fun for all. Below is the link to picnic photos

Spring Picnic Photos - Bryson City

Earlier Sat we had 'trip planning meeting', below are photos from that meeting in Roswell Park.
Spring Picnic planning meeting