The Tennessee Recap

I'm done skippin' out this summer. No more trips planned until at least November. I had hoped to update from Tennessee, but this year's cabin had no internet connection. Or cell service either, for that matter. It was a true dead zone....even for the Verizon network. ; )

Like last year, we met up with some of my Ohio family for a week in Pigeon Forge. The cabin this year didn't have a mountain view, but since it was near the bottom of the mountain, it was close to the swimming pool and the putt-putt course. One of my cousins lent me her goggles and I spent one whole morning practicing head stands and underwater flips. I think I was connecting with my inner twelve year old.

The pictures in the previous post are mostly of Cades Cove and Dollywood. We didn't see any bear this year, but there were plenty of deer. It still amuses me that everyone gets so excited about seeing deer in the park, but not when we see them at home or even one mile outside of the park. My favorite part of Cades Cove was walking through the river. I love to play in a good mountain stream. I had to ooze my way through some mud to get into this one, but it was worth it!

Dollywood was still the highlight of the trip. It is by far my favorite amusement park. There were so many things to do, even for Daniel. He's not big enough to ride a lot of the rides, but there was plenty for him to do. If you ask him he'll tell you, "ride de bees, ride de duck, ride de peeg, ride de cars!" He also rode the River Battle with us, multiple times. Everyone comes off that ride absolutely drenched, but it is so much fun. Still, Brenna and I agree that the best ride ever, is the Mountain Slidewinder. It looks so tame on the website, but it's not tame! That thing flies down the slide and gives you the certain feel that you are going to get dumped out of your boat. I love that ride!

We ended our week with a back porch sing-a-long. Michael had his guitar and we sang until we were too tired to keep our eyes open. Daniel thought the "where" and "ouch" in 'I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart..' were so funny that he got the hiccups from laughing. We sang a few hymns, a few praise songs, a bunch of oldies, and made an attempt or two at a country song. And we finished off the night and the vacation with our best efforts at 'Rocky Top'.

Rocky Top, you'll always be,
Home sweet home to me.
Good ole Rocky Top,
Rocky Top Tennessee.