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GATLINBURG SITES

I'm going to write a few notes about our trip to Gatlinburg.  I'm sure that many of you have traveled there before us, but it was our first trip there.  We were there for a week, having left here early Sunday morning and returning a week later on Sunday, arriving home about 5:00.  Many hours were spent at the Nexstar competition, our reason for going there in the first place, but we still had many hours to "do the tourist" thing and had lots of fun.  Many of our families did different activities - some explored the area, some shopped, some even white-water rafted. 

I have attached a few photos - I know that many of our parents took more pictures than I but only a few will work for the web site.  I know the dancers and gymnasts get tired of waiting on my camera to recharge itself (or whatever it would be called) and with the kids, I try to take three poses because somebody will always have their eyes closed because of the speed of my camera - but the pictures are usually of the quality that I can use on the website.  However, I am going to try to get pictures from others and try placing them on the website in the hopes that they will work.

John and I traveled in our individual van - separate from Laurel, who drove the white van with Shelly, Kim, Lois, Tori, Madi and Kaitlin as passengers.  We drove past Knoxville (and past the Pigeon Forge exit) on the beautiful tree-lined Interstate 40 until we hit Exit 443 which took us to Highway 321 and the Scenic Parkway (which lived up to its name.)  Suddenly there were mountains and hills in every direction that we hadn't been able to see until we rounded a long curve.  As we drove on the Scenic Parkway, we stopped at a lookout where we could take pictures off to the left.  Unfortunately, we didn't stop at any of the lookouts on the right, which I feel might have been even more impressive.

These two photos were taken of the rocky area across the road from where we had parked to take the pictures of the mountainous area.  It was a very pretty area.

Ignore the patter and just enjoy the photos if you are interested.

On Monday, our group walked down the main street of Gatlinburg on Monday just to see what it was all about and we hit many shops.  It doesn't look very busy here but when John and I drove down this street on Sunday evening, we could not believe how busy it was with cars bumper to bumper going in both directions.  The sidewalks were filled with people (like Disney condensed to sidewalks!)  We just couldn't believe how many people there were - it was not always that busy, though.

I took a few photos of the main street - just to get a feel for the area.  I didn't really set out to do that though - I always feel my responsibility is to take pictures of the kids, and it didn't occur to me to take the "tourist photos." I regretted not doing that.

I'm not a shopper so I just sat down on a bench outside a shop and I just snapped these few pictures.  Later pictures were taken on Saturday night when we returned from Pigeon Forge and I realized that I really had not taken pictures as I should have.

Note - if children are looking at the site, be aware that they might get frightened after the Ripley's Haunted Adventure pictures - parents look at it first before letting small children see it.

We walked off into a side area from the main street and were greeted by this man who was offering for anyone who wanted to do so to hold his birds - he was advertising for some place in Pigeon Forge but we didn't care what he was advertising.  Our group each enjoyed having the birds perch on their shoulder.  The green parrot tried to eat Katelin's beads.

This white bird (whatever kind he was) seemed to really enjoy being on Laurel's shoulder and she especially enjoyed it, having owned a parrot herself for a while when she was younger.

Ms. Laurel is shown here as she checks out the Convention Center where we were to compete beginning on Tuesday afternoon about 4:30.  Night pictures are shown later on.

Looking toward the Ski-lift which we later enjoyed riding.

The Space Needle is shown in some of these photos.

We discovered this pretty little waterfall in a side alley after leaving the Ski-Lift.  Started out to be a picture of the water fall - then Lois and Kim wanted a picture - Laurel came running back to be in the picture and then Shelly ran back because she wanted to be in it too - so I have a picture of two, three and then four - I wanted to say, well wait - I want to be in it too - ha!

Musical groups perform all around the town on the weekends - this photo was taken on Monday evening.  A large crowd gathered later to enjoy their music.  We usually were too busy walking by to stop and listen but we stopped to listen to these men as they were playing either "mountain" music or "blue grass" but with no singing, I couldn't tell which.  We got it on video and they were quite accomplished.  I walked in front of the crowd to get this picture.  Some of the bystanders were clapping and others were tapping their feet and others sort of dancing along with them.  It was fun to watch the people enjoy their music and the four musicians were delighted with the crowd.

This is a photo of the Convention Center that I took the last night we were there.  Another  national dance competition was being advertised for the following week - must be a popular place!

More of the Convention Center

Many of our kids (and parents) enjoyed the Ripley's Haunted Adventure.  We had seen children coming out crying so we knew it was scary.  Tori, Madi, Kaitlin and Ms. Lois (at my begging and practically insistence that she go for me) came out laughing but we could tell by their laughs (and the fact that they were all still holding onto one another) that it had had been scary for them - but they loved it.

On Monday night we went on the Haunted Walk which started in the cemetery but it was a walking tour of some of the places in the town with stories of the local ghosts, etc.  We were glad that the kids had gone to the Haunted Adventure that day.  Another attraction was the Mysterious Mansion but being tired, we changed our mind about going into it at the last minute on Saturday night.  Kids actually do get tired after a full day of rides, etc. (at Pigeon Forge).

This lively creature was sitting in the box talking to the passerbys - we had been by there a dozen times or more but had not seen him until Saturday night before we left.

Line formed waiting to go into the Haunted Adventure.

The "monsters"--or whatever they were--loved walking along and teasing the children and the kids would get a big kick out of it.  I was looking for one of the monsters so I could take a picture when I ran into this man (?) - He posed for me and I must admit that he was the worst looking ? of all the scary people.  He thought it was great fun to follow me down the street - while the onlookers laughed!!!!  He was scary-looking enough that I wasn't sure it was so funny!!!!

We didn't get to the Wax Museum but some of the dancers did go.

Not sure what this place was but I'm sure it was also fun!  Had to do with circus acts from          old times.

One of the ways to get from place to place was on the trolley cars.  We didn't take advantage of the "cableless trolley cars" but we probably should have.  Parking costs ran from $5 to $8 each time you parked in one of their lots - which was every time you went any place.  We would leave our vehicle parked for most of each day and walked our legs off for the rest of the time.

The first night we were in Gatlinburg, we really were "taken financially" when we went to a place to eat, so we were a bit leery of eating places.  Our favorite place was Bubba Gump's and we recommended it to everyone.  We also ate lunch at Shoney's and it was a great inexpensive meal.  We ate one evening at a Mexican Food restaurant, which as also good.  We ended up cooking about half the time, though, depending on our time constraints.

Just showing some of the traffic congestion - these people were just trying to cross the street as cars lined up trying to turn the corner.  Laurel got quite good at finding the back streets where we didn't have the traffic.

This is Ms. Andi's photo of a waterfall that they saw when they were out hiking around Gatlinburg.

This is Ms. Andi's photo of a beautiful Gatlinburg sunset.  Thanks for sharing with us, Ms. Andi.

HOME SWEET HOME FOR THE WEEK FOR THE ELEVEN OF US

    We had been warned about bears and we kept watching for them - didn't see a bear but a deer seemed to enjoy the property on Sunday morning before we left.

One of the waiters wanted to be PaPa with his harem of 10 females - Not sure that he enjoyed it that much - ha!

Looking up the road from our cabin - Ms. Lindsey and her mom Kim had joined us on Wednesday and we were lucky to have ample room in our log house, having four bedrooms and a big bedroom in the upstairs loft.  The rest of the group especially enjoyed the hot tub on the back balcony.  JTW and I were always too tired to even hop in the tub - keeping up with young people can be a full-day (and half evening) job!

Going through the tunnel on the way to Pigeon Forge and Dollywood

We also finally got to go to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg.  I'm trying to get photos from the rest of our group because it didn't occur to me to take my camera.  The door person did let me quickly go back in on our last day and I got a couple of photos of the stingless sting rays.  See Aquarium.

Other things that we did were to go on Wednesday to Dollywood at Pigeon Forge - and we went back on Saturday to Pigeon Forge to shop at the Tanger Outlet Shopping Mall and to ride some of the rides, which the kids loved.

We had intended to go to the Ober Gatlinburg and to ride the large Tramway, but it was rainy on Saturday, so we changed our mind.  We also had reservations for the Dixie Stampede on Saturday night but we changed our mind at the last minute because it wasn't going to work out for our entire party, but I'm sure that many of you have been to that type of show in other areas.  Seemed as if there might have been more activities than we had time and money.

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