Vacation - part 2

Afternoon Sweet Friends,

So how was your weekend? 

 Did you spoil your  hubby and/or Dad?

My hubby is the only Dad in our family presently,

both of our Dad's are in heaven now,  so hubby

was getting full attention,  but now he has to 

share it again, with the new in-love Dads,  but he

 doesn't mind,  as long as he get to see the kids

that is all that matters.  Everyone was suppose

to be here Sunday,  but Scott ran into a snag,

so they wound up coming on Saturday instead,

which was fine...........then Dee, Jerry and my SIL

 Susan came over on Sunday.  Both days were

 fun and again it sort of drags the celebration out

 a few days, and you know how we love that!!  lol

Guess I had best get on with telling you about

the vacation.  Although, we spent a lot of time at 

the cabin we did manage to get out some too.

We went to breakfast and dinner at Cracker

Barrel on different days and I found this cute lil sign

you saw in my header picture.

  Always like to find a few new things for the house

 while I am away.  That spells vacation to me!! lol

They have a new white collection for all you

shabby chic and white lovers,  and also some

very cute coastal decorating stuff too,  just in

case you haven't visited Cracker Barrel in 

awhile, you might just want to drop by......

They also had a brand new "Old Time Pottery"

that just opened,  so of course, we had to go there.

They had a lot of nice things, seems like the quality

is better,  but the prices of course, are steeper.

Most everything I liked was large and didn't really

want to have to deal with getting it into the car

especially for the drive home, as we were pretty

well packed as it was.  But I did get a few lil things.

 I got a cute lil cream pitcher for my collection,

more modern looking, but different.

Got 2 of these cute lil candle jars for my porch,

 but first used them on our Father's Day table,

which I will show you tomorrow probably.

They are much colorful than this pic shows.

We also got a neat wood sign to put up,  but tried

to take a pic but couldn't fit it all in so will wait till

we decide where we are hanging it,  then I'll show

you a picture.  Also found a cute mug at Cracker

Barrel later that had the same saying,  so just had

to get it..................

We went to a Longhorn steakhouse and our best

place we went to was a historic restaurant in Pigeon

forge called "The Old Mill".  Talk about great food,

oh my,  it really was wonderful.  They give you corn

chowder, corn fritters with maple butter,  your choice

of potatoes, we had mashed and fresh green beans,

and your choice of Meat,  I had grilled Maui Maui,

and was thinking before they brought it,  that was

probably a mistake...........boy was I wrong,  it was

actually the best grilled fish I have ever had, absolutely

delicious every bite.......... strange since I live in Florida!!

They also gave you dessert as part of your meal too.

We had Banana pudding and chocolate cake

 with chocolate icing.  Everything was truly marvelous!

If you ever go to Pigeon Forge, Tenn. try and go there,

we went on a week night at about 8:30-9 P.M. and

only had a 10 min. wait.  I remember trying to go there

20 some odd years ago with our kids and some friends

but the line was very long, so we were all hungry and

went somewhere else.

We know someone who used to live there and they

said weekends were the worst time for going out.

We went into Kroger grocery store on a sunday

when we got into town,  and it was like going to

Disney world, never saw so many people in a 

Grocer store in my life.

a few pics of the old Mill

As you can see it is huge, and see where those railings are
on the right side, it twines around like the lines at Disney
world, and gets pretty backed up if I remember correctly
from years back..

They have a general store there too,  they sell some
of their products from the Old Mill there but mostly
it is just a tourist shop with trinkets.  

I went back and did the auto smart fix,  can you
believe this is the same picture as above!
Amazing what photoshop can do.....................

This is the Old Mill Wheel on the opposite side by the Pigeon Forge
river dam.  This was with the flash!

Same pic without the flash or it could be vice versa!  lol


They have a lot of neat lil shops across the street from the restaurant
 and we went in some of those another day, and got this candy that was
 so wonderful. They call them "Bear Paws",  but they are like turtles,
 just way bigger.  Full of pecans, caramel with dark chocolate on top.
Very yummy, and pretty expensive but worth every penny. 
There was a really cute kitchen shop in there too, 
 with all sorts of samples,  so that was fun!


Then another day we went over to Gatlinburg and drove through
the town, it looks the same as it did years ago, well, maybe a few
lil changes.  We went to a place called "Ober Gatlinburg" where
we had taken our kids quite a few times.  Great memories!
Made me well up for a few minutes wishing they were there,
not sure why,  guess it is just another reminder that those days
are behind us.  We used to take a cable car up to a mountain,
but hubby decided to drive this time,  and it was a fun drive up
there,  then once you get there you take a ski lift up to another
moutain and take a tabogin ride down.  We always did that with
the kids,  so we were watching people get on the ski lift with
there kids and I looked at Jimmy and said, Oh my Gosh, can
you believe we used to do that with our kids,  looks pretty 
scary to me now.  Guess that is why God gave kids young 
people as parents!  lol  We thought about going but decided
NAH!!  then later thought we should have done it for old
time sake!  lol

Inside the bldg. there are shops and food and an
ice skating rink.  I remember the kids tried ice skating
when they were little, and really had fun.

This is the tram coming...... we would typically ride that
up to the mountain.

We saw lilies like these all over the place while we were driving,
tons of them all at one time along the roadways. Tried to get
a picture of them.....but it was just a blur of yellow.

The scenic view from up there.

Hubby up at Ober Gatlingburg

View of condos and cabins nestled on the mountain seen from
Ober Gatlingburg as well.




We also did a lil exploring in Pigeon Forge,  found another area
where they had log cabins and happened to see this cute lil
wedding chapel.

We also went out to dinner at a long Horn steakhouse
and another local Italian place called "Carina's"  I think.
It was pretty good,  but we were mildly disappointed with
it............there marinara sauce was just kinda blah really,
fortunately, they gave you lots of food, so we took our
 leftovers home and put some Barilla marinara sauce on
 it and it was wonderful!  lol
So if you go to Pigeon Forge I would recommend
 Olive Garden over Carina's for sure!


Will stop here.................To be continued...........


Thanks for coming by,  


Look forward to hearing from you!


Hugs and 
Fun Adventure Blessings,
Nellie


In case you missed Part l
and would like to see it
just click here!
or see some scenery from
the back porch of the cottage
Click Here.