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Fireflies –

I won the Firefly Lottery, y’all!

[photo cred - the world-wide-web]

Seriously.

Those who know me well, know I love those little bugs.

And who knew there was a completely different species that blinks synchronously for a couple of weeks in early summer? 

 [photo cred - the world-wide-web]

Seems these elite little bugs live only in a few areas of the world – and Elkmont, TN is one of them! 

Due to the numbers of people trekking to see them each year the wise folks at The Great Smokey Mountain National Park have closed off the area and only allow a certain number of people 

in to see them each night. 

Parking passes are given out through a random drawing – 

and I won one this year!Unfortunately it was on a  misty night, so we didn’t have quite the show we were expecting. 

Still. 
It was an adventure! 
And I’m always thankful my sweetheart enjoys adventuring together! 

The evening of our pass we parked in the designated area – 

of course we were some of the first to arrive... 

 They packed our cars in like sardines, but no one seemed to mind.

Then we lined up with the rest of the group to take the trolley out to the Elkmont area –complete with a couple of other attendees who served as narrators during the drive...lol

After our trolley ride to the Elkmont area we hiked a bit to find a place to settle in and wait for nightfall. We were told they don't really start 'doing their thing' until 9:30 or so...

[photo cred - the world-wide-web]

And while we didn't see the sweeping bands of light that we were hoping for [due to the rain] we did see some of the BRIGHTEST BIGGEST light I’ve ever seen from a firefly . 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture much of it on video…

Here’s an idea of what it has been like at times –

So wonderful! 

So, bucket list = check! 

While it was fun to see the fireflies – 

 while we were sitting there visiting and enjoying the night I really was thinking how thankful I was that, 

for us – it really is more about the journey – 

and not the destination [event.] 

I’m so thankful that we live a life 

where we seek out the extraordinary, weird, crazy things to do 

– and make the effort to take the journey to do them.