Dollywood and other FUN Stuff

We started off on Tuesday with Dollywood. Everyone had such a good time.

We toured Dolly's tour bus. It's pretty swanky. She traveled over 600,000 miles in it. Now she lives right here in my neck of the woods---Brentwood, TN. I didn't know that. I'm going to have to find out where so I can add her to my "stars tours" for out-of-towners.

Wednesday was a golf day for the guys and a shopping day for the girls. We had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. The outlets in Pigeon Forge are by far the BEST I've been to. My opinion of most outlets is that either they aren't all that much cheaper, or the merchandise seems like it's older or the stuff the stores couldn't sell. Not here. The sales were unbelievable. Coach had everything in the store 50% off---plus an extra 20% off clearance merchandise. I think just about everybody found something there. Coldwater Creek also had good sales. Since the store here has closed, I'm getting the feeling that perhaps they are going out of business. I bought 5 items---2 of which were jackets for $59.00. We visited too many more stores to go in to. Good bargains at them all.

We had a bonfire and made s'mores. To tell you the truth, it was way too hot for a campfire. To top it off, everyone except 3 of us got chiggers. We 3 used bug spray. I don't travel without it!

Then the games began. Actually they continued. We played games every night all week. The teens stayed up until 3 or 4 a.m. each night. As Nicky says, they keep vampire hours. Sounds like a page title to me!

Thursday was a "do anything you want" day. The kids went to Splash Country. We "big kids" went to the Bush's Beans Factory. Sandy, Stephanie, Elizabeth and I did some browsing at the Old Mill.

Our evening started with happy hour and our family book club discussion. This year we read Isaac's Storm. The overall consensus was that it averaged about a 6 amongst us. It was just an okay book. It's hard to find books that will appeal to men, women and teens. We've had pretty good luck in the past. This year, not so much. The family has decided they want to do another book prior to our August get-together. I'm not picking it.

After our book discussion, we went to The Dixie Stampede. It's a dinner show. The food was delicious. You had to eat with your fingers---no utensils. And, they had the sweetest "sweet tea" I've ever had. "Sweet tea" is such a southern thing. I like it, but sometimes it can be too sweet. I added unsweet tea to tone down the sweetness just a bit. We all enjoyed the show. Jordan---our animal lover and vegetarian---was a little worked up. She does not like the exploitation of animals. I convinced her that these animals probably have a pretty good life. They certainly looked healthy!

Friday was my favorite day. We ended our trip on a high note. We started with the adults going on a drive through Cades Cove---part of the Smoky Mountain National Park. We saw horses, turkeys and tons of deer. It was gorgeous country and so nice to experience in the early morning before it became a solid line of cars for the 11 miles.

 Okay, so we didn't really see these bears. I took this photo of the brochure and then texted it to all the teens and Mindy telling them they "missed it." Mindy and Morgan were the only ones who didn't "buy" it. 

We got home around 10:30, packed lunches and headed out for a family float trip.

We ran out the day before to pick up some cheap water shoes. They are sort of ugly, but as Butch says, "it's not a fashion show." 

The float trip was the most awesome experience. I've been on many float trips, but most of them have been in Missouri. We floated the Little Pigeon river on inner tubes. We had so much fun that we've planned to do it next year. You know it had to be fun for the "kids" to be happily disconnected for 4 hours! Sure, there were a few spills---I had 3---but no one got hurt. It was a slow moving, shallow, rock-bottomed river with plenty of fun little rapids to navigate. Unfortunately, we couldn't risk any of our electronics to take pictures. I can't think of a better way to spend the 4th of July---or to end our trip.

We got back to the house and had an  all-American barbecue---ribs, macaroni and cheese, roasted carrots, salad and a peanut butter cake. I'll be sure to share some of the recipes we had this week.

After dinner, we played more games, then watched fireworks from our deck. We sang every patriotic song we could think of. Yes, we are that "nerdy."

Alas, our trip was over all too soon. We got home today around 10:30. How is it that a week can seem like just 3 days? It's always like that. We were so lucky with the weather too. It was supposed to rain all week. Instead, we only had one drizzly day.

Back to the real world! I hope you've had a great holiday weekend.