Well... We decided to pack a bag, yet again. We all had a long weekend, so we decided it would be fun to get away. Smoky Mountains, here we come!
We got into Pigeon Forge in the afternoon on Saturday and traffic was insane! Everyone else had the same idea we did. After sitting in traffic for a while, we finally got to our hotel. We had just enough time to change and freshen up a bit before heading over to The Dixie Stampede for dinner.
(Here we are waiting for the show.)
After the show, we headed back to the room where we all pretty much crashed early. It felt good to crawl into bed after a long day on the road in Labor Day Weekend traffic.
Sunday morning, we headed over to our favorite pancake place for breakfast. Here, Nolan wanted his photo taken with this tree statue. So... here's our little tree hugger...
After breakfast, we headed over to the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. Nolan has only been asking to go there for like two years. LOL. Finally... we decided to take him. I think we all had a really good time.
(Top: Dad, Nolan, and Mom enjoying a pretty school of fish. Bottom Left to Right: A lovely jellyfish, Nolan enjoying a display, and a shark swimming around us)
(Clockwise from Top Left: Seahorses, Lion fish, Nolan watching the fish, and the most awesome thing ever... a Sea Dragon)
(Left to Right: Starfish, Nolan and Mom looking into the penguin habitat, Mom and Nolan crawling through the tunnels of the penguin habitat)
After enjoying the aquarium together, we decided to take a pic!
The flowers were so pretty. There were lots of these flowers and bushes alongside the aquarium.
We headed back toward the hotel after visiting the aquarium and decided to let Nolan play a little at The Track. He didn't get to ride too many things because it began to rain.
He did get to ride the tilt-a-whirl type of dizzy car and also race on the go-karts. Well... before he hurt his knee and had to get off. We're still not sure what exactly happened. But it was red and he was crying. Mom and Dad came back from their walk across the parkway to the Harley shop just before the rain started coming down pretty heavily. Nolan decided he wanted to ride the bumper boats. So Mom and Dad decided they'd ride with him. Then Nolan decided he was not into that. LOL. So we left... headed back to the room to rest a bit. We ended up doing a little bit of shopping at the outlet mall and then headed to dinner at the Mellow Mushroom. Nolan fell asleep on the way there and slept the entire time we were at dinner. Mellow Mushroom was awesome and we discovered the best pizza on the planet there. You've got to try it, if you haven't already. Yum!
Before dinner, we had decided on going to Wonder Works (the upside-down house). Nolan talks about it every time we go to the mountains. So this time, we decided to check it out. Because he was asleep, we decided it would be our adventure before leaving town on Monday.
Wonder Works was pretty cool. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect to begin with. But there were things for everyone to do. It was a children's museum for adults, too. So much fun!
(Left to right: Mom snowboarding, Nolan pitching to Ken Griffey, Jr., Nolan landing a space shuttle, and Nolan the astronaut)
(Left to right: Dad playing with the robot arm, and the Spacewalk Challenge... you'll see...)
(Clockwise from top left: Larea and Dad waiting in line to do the Spacewalk Challenge, Larea suiting up just before realizing this wasn't going to happen {hey, she did better than me! I didn't even want to get in the line. haha!}, Dad made it to the top of the challenge, and Dad walking the ropes)
After Wonder Works, we decided it was time for lunch and headed back into downtown Gatlinburg for a Fannie Farkle Ogle dog. They're the best corn dogs ever and well worth the travel back into town to get them. After all of that, we headed home. The traffic was crazy, yet again. But everyone else was heading home, too. There was also rain... lots of rain. We did take a short cut from the downtown Pigeon Forge traffic by utilizing Veterans Memorial Drive off of Dollywood Lane. It was good to not have to wait so long in that awful traffic. But, we caught up with it in Sevierville. I-40 traffic was pretty much stop and go. But we eventually made it home.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm about ready to go again. I guess that's how it is when you come from a traveling, on-the-go kind of family. This weekend, we're staying put though. There's a very special little boy who's turning 4 on Sunday and we all get to celebrate that with him. So excited! But so sad that he's growing up so fast.
Until the next post, have a great day!
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