Our Smoky Mountains Vacation: Day 5

Kyle and his s'more

Friday was going to be a busy day with no time to waste.  We woke up and had our delicious breakfast - scrambled eggs, banana nut bread, bacon, a rolled up crepe with fruit and yogurt in the middle!  I saw some S'more stuff sitting on the table, and Janice said there was a fire down by the creek.  We were having s'mores for dessert!  Woo hoo!  So that's what we did.  We had our breakfast, roasted some marshmallows, and had some s'mores.

My S'mores

Goodbye Whisperwood Farms :(

Then, sadly, it was time to say goodbye.  The Doctors had left the day before, so we had to say goodbye to The Germans, The Police, and Janice and Tifton.  I was actually very sad to say goodbye and to leave the cabin.  There was something very special about this vacation, the cabin and the people.  We became close to everyone, and I was sad to see it end.

I couldn't believe it, but Tifton packed us lunch, even for this last day!  He made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and put them in a paper bag since we wouldn't be coming back (they were usually in this really nice Coleman lunch box).  I'll never know what else he put in there because we forgot to grab it on the way out! :(  Thankfully we didn't forget our robes that were included with the Living Social deal!

After our goodbyes, we headed to meet my mom and Jeff.  We pulled up to their hotel in Pigeon Forge, and they had a gift for little baby Addison!  So thoughtful and nice!  Addison got a blanket, some socks, an adorable little dress, and a bib, all that matched with a little mouse and pink colors.  Thank you mom and Jeff!!!

Home of Dolly Parton!

Once we made sure we had everything for the day, we got in the car and headed to... DOLLYWOOD!  My mom and Jeff have season passes, and they got us a discount.  This was such a fun day.  Dollywood has come a long way.  There were actually 4 main rides, none of which a pregnant person can ride, but I had fun taking pictures and seeing them get excited.  It was also fun to hear all about the ride once they got off.  I think I mostly enjoyed seeing Kyle's terrified faces and afterwards hearing about how scary a ride was!

The four rides they went on were The Barnstormer, The Mystery Mine, The TennesseeTornado, and Thunderhead.  Here are some pictures...


Thunderhead



Kyle on Thunderhead



Kyle, Mom, and Jeff on the back of Thunderhead



Barnstormer is about to start



Kyle, realizing he is going to go pretty high





Mystery Mine, Kyle's favorite

    



Jeff and Mom in front of Barnstormer

 











Kyle, terrified











It was nice having Mom and Jeff as our tour guides.  They knew what rides to ride and what shows to see.  

Still scared, but
thankful it's ending





We were there during the Southern Gospel and Harvest Celebration, but come to think of it, I'm not sure we did anything specifically related to this.  We did, however, see the Gem Tones perform, as well as the Kingdom Heirs.

We also stopped in the big, but adorable, candy shoppe.  I got an old fashioned chocolate milkshake, and Jeff got a root beer float.



I had to get a picture with Kyle here since this
ride was so entertainging to watch!

 Dollywood closed at 6:00 so that's when we left, after Kyle got to ride The Mystery Mine one last time.  We grabbed a quick dinner at McDonalds, and headed over to Cirque de Chine.  This was an impressive show of acrobats, contortionists, strength, and balance acts.  It's unfortunate more people don't go.  It really was cool!

Not sure why this was in
the park, but Kyle wanted
a picture in it.  haha




Kyle with some of the Cirque people


After the show, we said goodbye to mom and Jeff.  They went back to Chattanooga, and we went to Knoxville to visit Kyle's best friend from high school, Dave Vogel.  We needed to get some rest before our big day tomorrow!



Dave Vogel

 

Our Smoky Mountains Vacation: Day 4

Kyle resting before breakfast

Thursday, ah Thursday, this will probably be a shorter recollection...  Well,  I woke up this day feeling sick again, so we decided to take the morning easy. We hung around the cabin, drank some tea, and Janice made us yet another delicious breakfast.  This was probably our favorite one.  It consisted of the fruit plate, french toast, some kind of apple muffin with a thin orange slice at the bottom of it, potatoes, and ham!

Check out that ham!

The best breakfast of the week!

We heard about this place called "Cherokee."  It's an Indian reservation where you could go to a museum for free and then see a bunch of Cherokee or general Indian stuff, at a market or something.  There are also Indian dances of the seven tribes!  Janice raved about it, as well as one of the couples that had gone the day before, so we decided to give it a try.

Well after a lot of confusion and an hour and a half of driving, we finally got there!  We went into the museum and found out that this one costs money, so we asked where the free one was, and the man kindly told us. 

Well, we never found the free museum, and we never saw a big market place, or any dancing.  The Police couple had gone this day and said the same thing, but the German couple went and apparently saw all the good stuff, so I'm not sure where we went wrong.  We just saw a touristy strip of a bunch of the same shops selling Native American stuff that was made in China... Wah wah... I didn't even take any pictures...

The little village at the Welcome Center

One good thing that came out of this trip to Cherokee was our drive back.  We found out that we could get back to Pigeon Forge (where we were headed) through the National Park.  We hit a really cool welcome center with a sample village and some education on the history of the Smokies.  The drive through the mountains was beautiful!  We pulled over a number of times to get pictures of the mountains.

Kyle at one of the overlooks

Addison :)

The Family

We made it!

Kyle at the Bookstore

My mom and her husband Jeff were so kind in taking a couple vacation days to come up and visit us!  We finally made it to Pigeon Forge and met them at the Tanger Outlets.  (we had some time to kill before our evening activity).  Oh yeah, Kyle would probably be upset if I left out one of his favorite parts of the day, the two discount bookstores we visited.  That's really all I have to say about that.  I mean, it was great, but if he ever writes a blog he can talk all about it.  It's more of his thing.


The Dixie Stampede (I always wanted to go!)


 Finally, 4:45 rolled around, and it was time to go to... THE DIXIE STAMPEDE!  Ha!  I had never been and neither had my mom or Jeff, so I was really looking forward to it!  We got there early enough to see the pre-show, a band of three men singing and playing the banjo and guitar.  It was a fun kick-off to the night.



The Pre-Show

 

Jeff, Mom, and me


Once 6:00 hit, it was time for the main event!  The show really was fun.  I was worried that it would be geared more towards children, and it was a little goofy at times, but overall I really did enjoy it.  I'm so glad I finally got to see The Dixie Stampede.  The food was delicious too.  We got some kind of potato creamy soup, a ridiculously good biscuit, a rotisserie chicken, slice of pork, and a baked potato!  My favorite part was dessert, the apple pie/pastry (I need to get more educated on foods). 



Inside the show.  No flash photography once it started...

 

After the show, it was time for bed, so back to the cabin we went.  One more busy, fun-filled day complete!


 
 

Our Smoky Mountains Vacation: Day 3



The usual Fruit Plate


Wednesday morning we woke up with the plan to have breakfast, hit a trail, then head over to Gatlinburg for the day.  This morning we had our usual fruit plate, corn bread with veggies, sweet potato slices/chips or something, some kind of pastry with cream cheese and sausage (the bread part of this was made from our leftover dough from the Apple Pies, smart!), and orange juice.  Oh, and of course, every morning we had tea and coffee available, and we ate on the back porch.

After breakfast, I just wasn't feeling very good, but we went ahead and grabbed our sack lunch of Turkey sandwiches, doritos, cheetos, and cookies, and headed for the mountains.  We pulled into the parking lot, and I really wasn't feeling very good.  (Turns out this was the beginning of me being sick for the next 10 days or so.  It was just cold symptoms, but I think that with pregnancy really wiped me out).  We decided against starting a long hike, and instead drove to Gatlinburg.

The Doctors

The Doctors warned us that Gatlinburg is the "Myrtle Beach of the Smokies."  Eek!  I've had enough of Myrtle Beach, thanks. I had been to Gatlinburg in the past as a child, and I remember the fudge and taffy, and I had been craving that since we started planning this vacation.  Kyle had never been, so we decided to try it out anyway.

Kyle showed up with the desire to just see and explore Gatlinburg.  I showed up with the mission to buy a piece of fudge and a box of good ol' Smoky Mountain Taffy!  It turns our we greatly enjoyed our whole day in Gatlinburg!  It is touristy, but it's a different kind of touristy and still not as much as the Myrtle Beach Strip, and it also has cool little "villages" that escape the strip.

The Moonshine Tour

We spent some time looking at the history of and how Moonshine used to be made!  There was a little tour where we watched it being made (and smelled of strong yeast, yuck) and then a store where you could taste and buy moonshine or souvenirs.  Little baby Addison loved the samples!  She was kickin' for the rest of the day!  I'm only kidding, Kyle and I didn't try any.

I loved this area of Gatlinburg!

One of my favorite areas was "The Village."  It was a small area that took you away from the streets, and you felt like you were in an actual small town or...village.  I loved it!  This is where we found the Tervis Tumbler store.  We had no idea they have their own stores now!



With slightly discounted prices






Fall Decorations in The Village





Kyle trying the Apple Butter



My favorite store had to be "All Sauced Up."  I wanted to buy everything in there!  You could sample anything and everything, and all of it was delicious.  There were sauces, butters, creams, dips, cheeses, and the list could go on and on.  Some of my favorites were the Apple Butter and Peppermint Whipped Cream dip.



Cirque de Chine Acrobats



At the end of the strip was the Aquarium, which cost a fortune to get in (so we didn't go), but we did get a little taste of what we would be seeing two nights later.  Some of the acrobats were out in front advertising for their show, Cirque de Chine.



Where we got our Rocky Road Fudge

Well, we had seen the whole strip, been in every candy store, and tasted an abundance of fudge, so it was time to make our pick of where we would buy.  We got our Rocky Road 1/2 pound of fudge from this little stand, where a girl from Macedonia was working.  She was on some kind of program, and as we asked more about it the more we found out she was pretty disappointed she got assigned to work in Gatlinburg, TN while others are on the beach or big cities... darn...

The Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen

And we got our taffy from the place where we got to see taffy being made, "The Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen." 

Well, we had seen all of Gatlinburg, time to find something else to do.  We were about to head back to the Cabin or to Pigeon Forge when Kyle asked, "Where is that slide you were telling me about?"  The Alpine Slide!  I almost forgot!  It's at Ober Gatlinburg (That's not a typo, it is actually "Ober").



A view of the slides from the lift

We headed to Ober Gatlinburg and after much debate of what we would purchase, we decided to just purchase the tickets for the Alpine Slide for now.  This would take us up a Sky Lift, where we would get off, grab a cart and slide down the mountain on a half-pipe type thing. 

On the lift

I was really impressed with the treatment I got for being pregnant!  They stopped the entire lift for me to get on and off.  Otherwise I'd be jumping off and trying to dodge the next seat as I raced to the other side.  They also waited for me to get all the way down the mountain and off the slide before they'd send the next person.  I was very thankful and impressed!  Oh, and they carried my heavy cart, so nice :)

 There are two slides side-by-side, so Kyle and I got to ride down next to each other.  We were cracking up the whole time.  It's just a unique experience.  On the way down, I decided to take the risk and get a couple pictures of Kyle on the slide beside me.  I'm so glad I did because these are two of my favorite pictures of the vacation. 

I was still feeling sick and full from breakfast, lunch, samples, fudge and taffy.  Kyle felt the same, so we skipped dinner and went back to the cabin. 

The Germans

We met up with the German couple out on the back porch, talked, I knit, Kyle read, and we all had some heated up apple pie, which was actually better today than yesterday!  It didn't heat up all the way through, so the inside was still a little, well, frozen.  Janice so kindly and genuinely told Kyle that it was like a delicious Apple Pie Popsickle!  haha, thanks :) 

Night on the back porch










Once again, stuffed, ready for bed, hoping but not hopeful to feeling hungry once again before a massive breakfast in the morning.  Would I ever be hungry again...???

Our Smoky Mountains Vacation: Day 2

Kyle, Me, Tina, and G

After going to bed at about 8:30 the night before, we couldn’t help but have an early morning.  Breakfast isn’t until 9:00, so we woke up and had a quiet, peaceful, morning in the cabin.  We knew there was one more couple staying the week, and we finally got to meet them.  We refer to them as “The Germans.”  Tina and her husband with a German name that starts with G… Guntri?  I never could figure it out.

Janice, being the mountain woman that she is, encouraged us to eat breakfast outside on the back porch, so that’s what we did, every morning!  We’d all talk as Janice prepared our meal on the massive grill (at least I think that’s what it was).

Janice and The Grill

It would be wrong of me to leave out what we ate for breakfast when talking about a Bed and Breakfast!  Each morning, you could count on a small plate of fruits, and a little champagne class of some kind of non-alcoholic fruit drink , like orange juice with fresh strawberries, something like that.  As for the main dish, what was coming off the grill, you never knew what you were gonna get!  Even once you saw it on your plate, or even ate it, you still may not know exactly what it was, but it was definitely Mountain food and definitely delicious!

Big Creek Trail

Assume every food I list starts with “Some sort of…”  This morning we had bread pudding, strawberry pancakes with orange saucy stuff and maple syrup, sausage, orange peppers, and butternut squash.  Thank you Janice! After breakfast, it’s time to hit the trails! 

Every day, Tifton would make us a lunch to go, so on our way out, each couple would grab a lunch box and get on the road.  Janice recommended Big Creek Trail, so that’s where we went. It was a nice, easier 2 mile trail that led to a beautiful little waterfall.  This is where we stopped to have our lunch – Ham sandwich, Fritos, and home-made brownies.  They intentionally never put napkins in our lunch boxes because Janice thought it was only appropriate to eat by the water.


Lunch Time!

 


Kyle climbing the rocks

  


Kyle, at his destination, the Falls



On our way back down the trail, we stopped at the most beautiful swimming hole I have ever seen!  We didn't get in because it was freezing, but the pictures were nice!
  


The Swimming Hole



 





Janice's class of eager learners



After the hike, it was time to get back to the cabin because a pie-making class was included in our Living Social deal!  We had a blast making the pies with the other couples.  The recipe was very simple too - flour, crisco, apples, sugar and cinnamon.  Here are some pictures of us working hard!

Look at that mound of apples!



Kyle rolling the dough



We made a great team :)





Ready to bake





Although I think I ate about 3 apples in the process of making the apple pie, and was therefore stuffed, we HAD to go to the Carver Apple Orchards for dinner!  We weren't sure if we'd get another chance in the week.  This was one of the cutest little local places. 





The Candy Store



It had a candy shop, a market, and a restaurant.  We quickly visited the candy shop, knowing that we would be in Gatlinburg the next day with lots of candy stores.  Then we looked around the market and saw a ton of delicious home-made jams, dressings, fruits, veggies, and of course apples. 





The fritters, butter and cider

We finally went into the restaurant and received  our apple fritters, with apple butter, and apple cider.  You get these included with every visit!   



Our Meal



We decided to split all that we ordered, so we went ahead and got a chicken pot pie, chicken and dumplings, green beans, pinto beans, mashed potatoes, and baked apples.  Yum!

After dinner, it was time to go back to the cabin and eat... again...  We had to try out our apple pie!  Kyle did us the honor of cutting our pie.  It turned out really well!  


The Finished Product







It was pretty simple, not like apple pies I'm used too.  This one tasted "healthier," not as sweet as the ones I've had before.

The Inside

Finally, after a full belly once again, it was time for bed.  Hopefully I'd sleep off some of the calories before our big breakfast in the morning!