Tennessee Weekend - Part III
09-17-2002, 10:45 a.m.

Tennessee Weekend - Part III...

September 17, 2002

We woke up Saturday morning, anxious to get our day started. We had so much that we wanted to do, and we knew that the day would go by quickly. The first thing we did though, was decide that we were going to check out of our hotel, and into a cheaper one. This one was nice, and the view was spectacular, but we realized that we just were not spending the time in it, that would make it worth paying more for it. We thought that if we checked out and got a cheaper place, then we could use the money we saved to do something else that would be fun. By doing this, we were able to save 50 dollars when we then used to do something totally awesome later in the day.

After we checked out we decided to walk around the property and down by the brook that our balcony overlooked. We wanted to get some really cute pictures and take advantage of it while we could. We teased alot that we were homeless, and it was cute. The brook was pretty low, the water that is, and we walked across the rocks and got some cute pics in the middle of it. Then we saw this branch that had fallen that went across the whole thing, and so we scooted out on that and got some cute pictures sitting in the middle of it. It was funny because at first I didn't go so far out on it, but Tonya went right out to the middle like it was nothing. Of course that was a challenge, so I had to make my way out to the middle, lol. I am glad I did though, because we really did get some adorable pictures. We took lots of other pictures while we were there as well, on a bridge, by a big bear, and then we played in the park and on the old fashioned see saw for a bit. I got Tonya back for her earlier showing off by hopping off the see saw and letting her land on her butt. Hey, we were cracking up.. it was so a reminder of childhood.. remember playing on those things, and trying to not be the person who landed on her butt? I certainly do, lol. We really were laughing by the time we got ready to leave. We were both happy with our decision to change hotels, but in a way it was a little sad too. But on to downtown gatlinburg we went.

Our first stop.. food. Kim had told me about this awesome place called the pancake pantry, and both Tonya and I were looking forward to going there. We had to park a little ways down, and we were both like wow, when we saw the number of people waiting to get in, but we both wanted to really go there, and we were not about to let a little wait stop us. When we made our way back to the place after we parked, we were seeing all these things that we wanted to do, and shops that we wanted to go into. Our plan was to shop a little while, and the go hiking up the mountain.. but then we came across this booth where they had information about horseback riding up the mountain.. and what do you know, the cost was about what we had saved by moving out of the hotel we were in. I got so excited and Tonya immediately said, let's go ahead and do that. I was jumping around, I really was so excited about that... we planned to do it later in the day, and finished our trek to the pancake pantry. For as many people as were waiting, the wait wasn't bad at all and we were at our tables and ordering within 15-20 minutes. There were so many choices and we had a hard time making up our minds, but I saw this one called carribean pancakes with coconut, and bananas and pecans, and I knew that was what I wanted. Oh my goodness, I have never tasted anything quite like it, it was so wonderful. I was nice enough to even share it with Tonya.. lol.. okay it was huge and there was no way I could eat it alone anyway. What she got was really great too, but not as great as these... we both loved them and now we are going to make them for Jen and Cory during our next visit together, hehe.

After we ate, we took the time to walk around gatlinburg. I was pretty impressed with all the little shops, and we spent a lot of time going into them and looking around. We had spent alot of money at the Christmas village the night before, so we said that we were not going to spend alot today, but of course that didn't stop us. At first I had said that I wasn't going to get any souveniers for anyone, but then I just had to... how could I not get Stephen a shot glass or the girls little gifts, and something for my mom. I would have loved to get tons of more stuff... there is always things I see that I want to buy for my friends, and for family, but we were running out of shopping money fast, so we held each other back on the purchases, hehe. It was still fun to look in all the shops and see all the touristy stuff. We talked about doing the tram up the mountain thing that they had running, and while I was deathly afraid of it, I was still going to do so. I even had myself believing that I wanted to, but then we came across this miniature golf place, the lost treasure.. that was all indoors and really neat, and Tonya said, let's do this instead. I didn't complain, we really had so much fun playing golf together the night before, and we kept saying that we wanted to play again. This place was adorable, and they had all the cutest things. We had so much fun stopping and taking the goofiest pictures. Of course, we had to let so many people go ahead of us again because we were taking so long being silly. Also, they had at the bottom of the score card, hidden treasures that you could look for, and if you found them all, then you would win a prize at the end of the game. We were cracking up looking for these things in the strangest places, but we found them all and had fun doing so.

After we finished playing golf, and winning our prize (which was a coupon for another game free, lol.. never did use that), we decided to head back to the car, so that we could go find a hotel for the night, and get ready to go horseback riding. We got almost all the way to the car, and stopped for a yummy fresh squeezed lemonade, when I remembered.. we had given the guy running the miniature golf place our bags to hold while we played.. duh!! All the stuff we bought that morning, and we just left it behind.. so it was back to the golf place to pick up our stuff.. hey that just gave us a chance to look in more little stores along the way... neither one of us complained about that. (To Be Continued)...