Bunk Beds at Your Smoky Mountain Cabin

 Lightning Bug Lodge is designed to be family friendly.  As owners with children, we understand the desire to both create family memories with the kids and find time as a couple.  Sometimes four or more in one hotel room doesn't always match the vision of a relaxing vacation. 

Come to Lightning Bug Lodge.  We had two bunk beds custom made locally, so you and your spouse can choose "Mountain View Serenity" (upstairs bedroom) or "Forest Life" (downstairs bedroom) bedrooms and have the kids sleep close, but outside your room.  The upstairs has a bunk with a twin over a Queen.  The downstairs has a twin over a twin.

The kids think it's cool too. When my kids have their cousins, they always head to the bunk beds and it's always a bunch of chatter and chuckles.

4 Swallowtails in the Smokies

When you are near the Smoky Mountains, you learn to look all around you.  Because when you submerse yourself in the forest and look up, you might find a delightful scene or animal, not just another traffic light.  I took this photo of the Spicebush Swallowtail in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, but I saw one resting on a branch near our cabin too.  The iridescent blue makes me believe this one is a female.  The males are bright green.

 

The Spicebush Swallowtail is found only in the Eastern US and extreme southern Ontario.  While it is the state butterfly for Mississippi, I felt surounded by them in TN to my delight.  The Tennessee official butterfly is the Zebra Swallowtail, a black and white striped butterfly.  TN recognizes 2 other insects, the firefly and ladybug and a state agricultural insect (honeybee).  The firefly was designated the official state insect in 1975.  The importance of the firefly, commonly called lightning bug, to the state was one of the inspirations for our cabin name Lightning Bug Lodge.

Swallowtails are the largest butterflies in the United States.  There are 33 species in the US; besides the Spicebush and Zebra, there are four other swallowtails found in the Smokies:  1) Pipevine Swallowtail, 2) Giant Swallowtail, 3) Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and 4) Black Swallowtail.