Smurfing In Paradise

"Smurfing In Paradise" is a story that is part of the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series. It is an adaptation of the comic book story "Bathing Smurfs" set in that particular universe.

Plot Summary
It is about a month after Empath's final return from Psychelia, and the village is still in the middle of being renovated from Gargamel's final assault upon it with the Gauntlets of Gantharros. The day is rather hot, and the Smurfs are getting so exhausted from all the work that Papa Smurf declares that they shall have a day of swimming by the riverside so they could relax and cool off. Soon the Smurfs are all having a good time swimming, eating, and relaxing. It is during this that Handy tells Empath about the vacation spot he created for the Smurfs called Smurf Paradise, which took place a few years before Empath's final return.

During that time, Handy was working on a machine that would extract pits and stems from cherries, but was constantly frustrated that the machine ended up turning the cherries to mush. On top of all that, though, he was also constantly hounded by his fellow Smurfs for repair job requests. Eventually Handy just exploded and told his fellow Smurfs to go fix their own things while taking a hammer to his failed invention. Papa Smurf sees that Handy is overworked and stressed out, and that he needs to take a vacation from his work so that he could relax and be restored.

Tracker tells Handy of a place in the mountains that he discovered on one of his journeys, so Handy decides to take a hiking trip of his own to that place. There he finds that the lakeside scenery is so beautiful and relaxing that he makes some plans while he is up there. Upon his return, Painter and Poet notice Handy's change of demeanor and discover from him that he has built his own private house by the lake. They go with Handy to that same place and also find themselves enraptured by the beautiful scenery, inspired to do all sorts of creative work while they were there.

Soon the other Smurfs hear about Poet and Painter also building their own houses by the lake and tell Handy that they too also want to go there. Handy comes up with a plan for the other Smurfs to enjoy what the place has to offer and so, with the help of several Smurfs, he develops a private beach resort that he calls Smurf Paradise where a dozen or so Smurfs could get away from the village for a time to have a vacation.