Archive for December 30th, 2005
Hi everyone! We’re back from our adventures on the Appalachian Trail. Early Monday morning, Mommy, Daddy, Gigi, Poppa, and I all packed up and headed south to Tennessee. After a long drive, we arrived at our cabin in Pigeon Forge. It was a little late, so Gigi and Poppa headed out for sandwiches while we checked the place out and rested from our long trip.
Tuesday morning, we woke up and headed to Poppa’s favorite pancake house for…well…pancakes! After that, we headed over to the best (and aptly named) gift shop in the world, Three Bears, to see and feed the 5 bears! Unfortunately, they were still sleeping, so we drove over to the golf course so the boys could set up their round. A quick stop at the Food City grocery store, and back to rouse those sleepy bears. Once inside, we were running around and tossing bread everywhere! I can’t even remember how many bowls of apples & bread we went through. They sure do love that stuff! Poppa had a pretty good streak of 4 direct tosses in to the bears mouth (video evidence coming soon).
After the bears, the boys dropped us back at the cabin for some fun in the hot tub and naps while they played the hilliest golf course around. When they were done, they came back and got cleaned up and we all headed over to “The World’s Most Humongous Teddy Bear Store”…Boyd’s Bear Country. This place is 4 floors and 100,000 square feet of wall-to-wall stuffing and fur. We walked around with our jaws dropped and wallets out for hours. I made a bear named Smokey that wears a purple dress and Gigi helped me adopt a bear named Annie June from the nursery. We closed down the restaurant downstairs called “Rufus, Dufus, and Daryl’s” before heading back for the night.
On Wednesday, we hit Daddy’s favorite mountain breakfast buffet, the Hearthside Restaurant. It just happens to be located right next to Pigeon Forge’s newest attraction, the Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride. Note that nowhere in the title does it say “scary” or “intense” or “thrilling”. The lady and the front said that it is kind of dark and loud, but this was no Children’s Museum DinoSphere. Let’s just say that each girl had a hold of a boy’s hand and Mommy and I had our heads buried the whole time. Daddy felt really bad about dragging us there, but we did get a pretty good vacation story out of the deal.
Next stop was the mountain town of Gatlinburg. We parked and walked up and down the main drag looking at shops, along with a few thousand of our closest friends. Seriously, Pigeon Forge must have been closed that day because everyone and their brother, along with more than a few church buses full of 13 year-olds, were there. We had a great time, though, sampling from the candy shops and playing in the Ripley’s arcade long enough to win a My Little Pony! After a long afternoon there, it was back to the cabin where Gigi, Poppa, and I played with toys and in the hot tub while Mommy and Daddy had a night out on the town (which turned in to a night fighting traffic to the outlet mall, but they had fun anyway).
Thursday morning saw the beginning of the end for our fun trip, so we sent it off with a bang by visiting the Boyd’s Bear Country barn again for breakfast with Digby the bear! It should be no surprise that I was a little scared of the bear and didn’t want to give him a high-five, but I did get a prize bag with coloring pages, stickers, and a small teddy bear, so that was cool. After the eating and more bear-buying, we piled in for the long haul home.
Whew, that was a record breaking post! We had a lot of adventures and I had a lot to tell everyone! Thanks for a fun vacation, and I can’t wait to go back!