Harney Hootenanny in Tennessee
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Y'all ready for a hootenanny in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee? Let me tell ya, this place is the bee's knees for all you city slickers looking for a good time. From Dollywood to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, there's something for everyone in this neck of the woods.
We traveled up from Orlando to Gatlinburg in a one day (one LOOOONG day) drive and arrived early in the evening, checked into our hotel, grabbed a bite to eat and settled down for the night. We had originally planned to go to Gatlinburg in order to teach the kids to snowboard on the bunny hills of Ober Mountain, but they closed their ski/snowboard slopes about a week before the kids’ Spring Break. Instead, we decided to spend a couple days exploring Tennessee’s Great Smokey Mountains and Anakeesta.
Our first day started out beautifully, though kinda cold, with ice on our Floridian car that was unused to the weather. The kids had some difficulty getting into the car with the temperature around freezing. We went to the Apple Barn for breakfast in Sevierville, which was only about 15 minutes away from our hotel. It was fantastic! They gave us some Apple Barn Fritters with homemade apple butter and they were warm and delicious! The kids got pancakes and Mark and I got full American breakfasts with eggs, bacon, sausage, and breakfast potatoes. It was almost too much to eat.
We went to the Titanic Museum, which required a reservation and discourages photography with the many artifacts on the first floor. It is interesting that there is a Titanic Museum in the middle of the country - nowhere near where the actual ship was built, sailed from, sailed to, or sank?? but there was a lot of great information and history in a fine example of a museum that makes the topic engaging. They gave us cards about a specific passenger around our own age and gender and encouraged to find out what happened to them.
After lunch and some rest, we went tp Pigeon Forge’s SNOW! Which is an indoor snow-tubing experience. You get about an hour to go down as many times as you can. It was really a hoot!
So far, a more successful vacation than we thought it would be!
The second day, was less successful. We tried to go to Anakeesta, but it was EXTREMELY cold and got colder the more time we spent in the mountains. It had started snowing - possibly the first time my kids had ever seen snow - when we were standing in line to buy tickets, and both Mercedes and Giovanni had already started complaining. Instead, we drove around the Great Smokey Mountains and spent some time at our hotel. In the warmth.
Dollywood was slated for the next two days and I am so grateful that we had bought a 2-day pass. My family is slightly spoiled for rollercoasters and theme parks since we live in Orlando, but Dollywood is a horse of a different color. It has old-fashioned, Southern charm while still having very enjoyable rides, food, and an ecclectic collaboration of Dolly Parton memorabelia. There is, in fact, a replica of the house she grew up in with no running water or electricity! Mercedes and I went on the Wild Eagle ride, which was a major roller coaster and we all went on the Dragonflier and Rockin’ Roadway where the kids got to drive. Unfortunately, I had an allergic reaction to something at the park on the first day and we had to leave early, but we came back the next day, got to ride the Dollywood train and go on a few more rides.
Our final day in Gatlinburg was spent at the Island, which are a bunch of shops and small carnivale-type rides to go to in the middle of the town. It was St. Patrick’s Day, so we all wore green and watched some of the Irish-inspired events that were going on at The Island. Since we had to drive from Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia that evening, we left about 4 pm and got on the road. Our trip to Tennessee was certainly a different experience to anything we had back home!