Summer Vacation in the Smoky Mountains: Day 3

Day 3 Thursday, 8/18/16:

This day also started early. And by that I mean I was walking into Crockett’s Breakfast Camp shortly after they opened. Now this is a fun (and touristy) looking place!

I was seated immediately at a huge wooden booth, and handed a menu, which was done up as an old newspaper. 

Breakfast for me was a platter that I know included eggs, sausage (that was supposed to be chicken sausage but I don’t think was), fruit, a biscuit and sweet corn pone. Sweet corn pone is a spoon bread, and was delicious. Ok, all of the food was delicious, and there was a ton of good looking stuff on the menu. Good service too.

Once I’d eaten, I headed back to the hotel to set out for my last destination in the national park for this trip: Cades Cove. Cades Cove was a slow, winding, hourish drive away from the main entrance to the park. It was a pretty drive, though.

The Cades Cove loop involves lots of historical buildings, and is actually kinda mind boggling when you start to think about the fact that people lived out here. Seriously...a million miles from nowhere. It was fun to check it out. 

About the same time I climbed back in the car, having explored the, let’s call it settlement area, the skies opened up. With “Smoky Mountain Rain” filling my head, I began the drive back to town. 

The drive took awhile, but thankfully, the rain eventually got lighter. It was a bit harrowing for awhile. Remember, driving through this park, you’re essentially driving mountain roads. In heavy rain, this isn’t very fun.

The rain let up before I got back to the main visitor center so I took the opportunity to go and buy myself a t-shirt.

Shopping completed, it was time for lunch! I decided to try Huck Finn’s Catfish. The reviews were decent and I like catfish. And the prices are amazing too.

Huck Finn’s is in Pigeon Forge, but it was a reasonably quick drive, and very easy to find the place. 

I was seated immediately, and asked whether I wanted fries or mashed potatoes with my “vittles”. The vittles are all you can eat, and served with every meal. I went with mashed potatoes, and the vittles appeared soon after. I ordered the fried catfish and got started on the vittles.

What are the vittles? All you can eat sides. And you get a plate with all of them. Specifically: baked white beans with turkey ham, cole slaw, hushpuppies, pickles and onions, and your choice of fries or mashed potatoes with gravy.

All of that plus two pieces of catfish totaled $7.99 plus tax and tip. And the food was pretty good too. It was a good lunch.

When I finished eating, it was drizzling. So, I did what any girl would do, and headed for the outlets. Just a few miles down the road were the Tanger Outlets.

I killed a fair amount of time at the outlets. They had a lot of outlets that we don’t have at home, like the Vera Bradley outlet. It’s probably a good thing we don’t have one of those at home. Especially if this whole 50% off everything in the store business is a regular occurrence…

Once I’d shopped till I dropped or something like that, I headed back to the hotel, with a brief detour back to the Christmas Place to pick up a couple more ornaments I’d seen the day before and debated. You see, my dad’s house has been under construction since a pipe burst my junior year of high school (that’d be January 2004 for those who feel like doing math to figure out how many years it’s been). The whole kitchen, dining room and entry had to be taken down to the plywood and framing because of the damage. This resulted in dad doing the addition he’d wanted, and making changes to virtually every room in the house, since he was starting all over in a large portion of the house anyway. It’s still an ongoing project, but his living room had gotten to the point where he’d bought himself a Christmas tree and seemed determined to have his first Christmas tree set up since pre-pipe burst. (And he was successful. It wasn’t decorated, but the tree WAS set up this year). Because he has a brand new tree and ornaments that were purchased in ‘95 and haven’t been used since 2003, I felt that it was not excessive to buy every ornament that was appropriate for him to stash for birthday and Christmas gifts (his stocking was easy to fill this year!)

Ornaments acquired, I headed back to the hotel to figure out the dinner situation. Since Calhoun’s had been so good, I decided to stick with the Calhoun’s Village, and try Smoky Mountain Brewery for dinner tonight.

I’m pretty sure both the hostess and the server were totally unsure what to do with a solo diner (hint...seat them, and after finding out what they want from the menu, serve them food), but other than that, service was good, and the food was great. I had a meatball pizza that had a fantastic cheesy dough, and followed it up with key lime pie for dessert. 

While the key lime pie certainly wasn’t from Kermit’s in Key West, it was pretty good. It was also huge. Because of this, I decided to take Nick’s parents’ recommendation and go to the aquarium.

So remember that statement about Gatlinburg having more Ripley’s attractions than anyone ever could have imagined? Well the aquarium is one of those attractions. It’s at the far end of the strip, so it was perfect for walking off that gigantic piece of pie.

Nick’s mom had REALLY talked up the aquarium. And it was alright, and had some cool aspects (like the shark tunnel), but it seemed REALLY disjointed. And I was a little disgusted by the price tag to be perfectly honest. The AAA discount was a whopping $1. It cost me $30 to get into this place. Like I said, there were some cool aspects, but it was a one and done place for me. 

After I finished exploring the aquarium, I made my way back to the hotel to plan my attack for the next day before I crashed for the night. Coming up? A day at Dollywood.

Summer Vacation in the Smoky Mountains: Day 2

Day 2: Wednesday, 8/17/16

Because I had crashed early the night before, I ended up waking up ridiculously early this morning. As a result, I was awake, dressed for the day, and headed out to the main strip shortly after 7. If I hadn’t been on a mission, I would have taken pictures. I should have taken pictures. Only that early in the morning do you see the main strip almost completely carfree.

I made my way to the Doughnut Friar for breakfast to go, because hey, it’s vacation. The Doughnut Friar was on the main strip, about a 10ish minute walk from the hotel. It was overcast and fairly cool compared to the previous day, so it was a pleasant walk. The Doughnut Friar is a tiny little place that sells, you know, doughnuts.

I don’t remember what flavors of doughnuts I got (I remember they really only had basic flavors...not like Dunkins), but I know I bought 2: one for breakfast and one to have later in the day. I also know that I enjoyed the breakfast doughnut after a walk back to the hotel.

Once breakfast had been consumed, I got my stuff together. The weather forecast was looking pretty unstable, but so far, it wasn’t raining, so I decided to hit the Roaring Fork Motor Trail while the getting was good.

The Roaring Fork Motor Trail is a driving route that combines natural scenery and some historic structures. Or it did when I drove it. I haven’t been able to find information about its status since the wildfire just after Thanksgiving, but from what little I know about the area, it didn’t look good.

Anyway...the Motor Trail was an easy drive from my hotel. It took me almost no time at all to understand why the posted speed limit is so low. It was a seriously terrifying drive. Crazy turns, drop offs and hills. This was not where I wanted to be driving a full size car. Seriously...I drove it wondering how many cars get lost over the side of the road each year. That being said, it WAS very scenic, and I did stop regularly for pictures. I just hope that if I’m ever driving it again, it’s in my own car, preferably without someone from Mass or Ohio (not kidding) tailing me the whole time. 

When I finished driving the trail, I went back to the hotel briefly, and then set out again. My destination this time was about 40 minutes away.

My dad is an engineer who designs, manufactures and installs wastewater treatment systems for many corporations around the country and even a few around the world. He’s done a lot of work for Bush’s Beans (and was actually headed back the day I was flying home), and through his employee, I found out that they have a visitor center/museum. I enjoy all of the made in America stuff, and the forecast was looking uncertain (for the record, it turned out to be a consistently sunny day, until dinner time…), so I decided this would be a good activity for the next portion of the day.

The drive over was gorgeous, and about 40 minutes after leaving the hotel, I had arrived at the Visitor Center. 

 When I went inside, I was ushered straight into the video intro that had started a few minutes earlier. As luck would have it, the first part of the video that played after I walked in? What they do with wastewater. I could have asked my dad that!

 

The rest of the video they showed was stuff I didn’t know, and made me gain a new appreciation for their quality standards. Much like when I visited Cabot cheese in Vermont, I walked away from that video thinking that whenever I need to buy products they sell, I’ll buy theirs.

After the video, I ventured into the rest of the museum area. It was VERY well done. I actually spent quite a bit of time here. And only a brief amount of that time was with the supposed Duke.

Once I’d finished checking out the center, it was time for lunch. As luck would have it, they have a cafe there. So I ate there. Think comfort food. I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a side of, what else? Baked Beans. They also provide you with a sample of their “bean of the day”. I think it was the grilling beans that day. The food was good, service was good, and prices were great!

If you’re ever in Eastern TN, and you like made in America sites, Bush’s Beans is very worthy of a stop. And it’s FREE.

On the way back to Gatlinburg, I detoured to the Harrisburg Covered Bridge. Looks a bit different than the covered bridges in NH, but cool to see what they look like elsewhere.

I also made topped off my gas tank. Why is this trip report worthy? Because I only paid $1.71. Gas was almost $1 more per gallon at home at that point. 

Last stop before Gatlinburg? The Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge. Epic Christmas store. I had a lot of fun in there. 

When I returned to Gatlinburg, I hung out at the hotel for a bit, and then it was time for dinner. I decided to try Calhoun’s this night. This turned out to be a good choice. Food was great and service was too. I think I had chicken marinated in bbq sauce, with assorted starches. Good stuff.

After dinner, I wandered town a bit. Gatlinburg is kind of an interesting place. It’s like Estes Park (a mountain town), Hampton Beach (a dive), and Storyland (a kiddie fairytale themed amusement park), plus more Ripley’s attractions than one could ever imagine existing, all on one street.

I wandered in and out of stores for quite awhile, before stopping for ice cream at Kilwin’s. Kilwin’s is a smallish chain that has AMAZING ice cream. I think they originated in Michigan. I discovered it while visiting my grandparents during their winter stays in FL. There’s a Kilwin’s not far from the house they rent. They have a pecan praline ice cream that is JUST like eating real praline in New Orleans...minus the part that gets stuck in your teeth. So...anyway...I can’t not stop at a Kilwin’s at least once if I know there’s one nearby. Their ice cream is really good.

I enjoyed my ice cream while listening to a family argument about why they should have left the kids at home on vacation (yay for traveling solo!), and then headed back to the hotel, where I enjoyed the hot tub for a bit. The hot tub area was a really nice set up. 

After relaxing for quite some time, both in the hot tub and on the patio, I went back to my room to plan for the next day, and then crashed.