Tourists and Stuff

Saturday was our first day in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, and we made a full day of it! {Our hotel was actually in Pigeon Forge, even though we called this our Gatlinburg vacation.}

We started out with breakfast at Flapjack's. I'd read about it on the Mom Creative blog and we decided to give it a shot. {We also learned pancakes are a SERIOUS thing in the south. There were pancake houses on every block, it felt like.} Anyway. We got big breakfasts, since we planned to skip over lunch, and I had the BEST veggie omelet of my life. WHAT ARE THESE WORDS COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH??? BEST and VEGGIE???? But it's true! I've tried them before, but they always seemed bland to me; this one, however, was delicious and had TONS of flavor.}

There was so much food, I actually took home leftovers...and had the rest the next day!

All the food was great...Ryan appeared to be stuffed!

After we had breakfast, we decided to head out to Gatlinburg to be tourists for the day! First stop was Ryan's idea. Yes, we really did this!! {I edited out the bottom part. He made me quite busty and I didn't want to offend anyone!!}

Several things about this make us laugh: Ryan's Adam's apple hair is hilarious. As is the single hair on the top of his head, actually. Also...WHY are my teeth bigger than my head? WHY are Ryan's ears so big? And why didn't we pay him extra to make our noses smaller?? LOL!!

Anyway. It was really fun. Never did anything like this before. Mom says it should be our Christmas card photo! And it just might be. And it will also have to hang proudly in our home. 

After this fun, we wandered around town, visiting different shops and doing photo opps. We wandered by the Ripley's Believe it or Not Odditorium, and they had this cutout of the world's heaviest man. So of course we had to do photos.

 We also treated ourselves to some ice cream and a little rest inside this darling village area. We even threw pennies in the fountain...to recreate a fun moment from our very first date.

When we'd shopped to our heart's content, we decided to do a little something else I'd read about on the Mom Creative blog. {So glad her family just visited here and we could steal ideas.} She said the Tennessee/North Carolina line was just about 10 miles from Gatlinburg, so they made a quick trip there to see that.

Okay first of all, I do not think the term "quick trip" applies to ANYTHING in this state. True, it was about a 12 mile drive from Gatlinburg to the state line. TWELVE MILES UP THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. Took us over an hour to get there, gave the car a workout, and I'm pretty sure Ryan had some vertigo later because of whipping around the tight curves in the road.  But the scenery was unbelievable and absolutely worth the time it took to get there and back. Here are a few of our pictures from that trip. Oh, and pretend like we still have our tans from our wedding. The glare is UNREAL.

We came back to the hotel to rest for a little bit, and no sooner had we settled in than the skies let loose. So thankful God held the rain off while we walked around Gatlinburg and drove through the mountains. {It was a HARD, blinding rain, so driving on those narrow roads with all the twists and turns would not have been fun in the rain!} The mountain view from our balcony completely disappeared in the rain!

That night we went to dinner at Corky's, a BBQ place actually based out of Memphis. When I was still new to WBCL, Lynne interviewed someone from Corky's, so I'd heard of it before. We enjoyed our dinner...but our tummies are still partial to our BBQ back home!! {Don't tell!!}

 For my live-on-the-edge adventure...because the veggie omelet had not been enough of one...I tried sweet potato fries. I anticipated they would have a savory seasoning on them, but they had sugar! I should have guessed that in the south, I suppose. LOL!!! They were good, but I think I would have liked a salty seasoning better.

We got Starbucks and headed back to our hotel to hang out on the balcony and read...we were tired after a long day! WOW. And it shows!

A busy day, but my heart was just overflowing from enjoying the beauty of the mountains. It's been about 3 years since I've been to visit the mountains {my trip to the Biltmore before I got married...} and I loved the reminder of their majesty. God's creation is unbelievable!!