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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Gatlinburg Vacay 2013: Monday

Monday. Our first official day in the Gatlinburg area.  It was a busy day!  It started out really early and ended really late!  Needless to say, by the end of the day, we were both exhausted!
 
Shawn golfed Monday morning at Laurel Valley Country Club.  I had told him about the reviews on Trip Advisor and they had free golf on Monday's, all you had to pay for was the cart.  He called Sunday on our way into town and  made a tee time of 9:20 a.m. We were up around 7:00 a.m. Monday we were out the door by 8:30 a.m. that morning.  It was foggy on the drive to the golf course and when we got to the course, it was super foggy.  I wasn't sure if he would be able to play or not, but he did.  There were actually quite a few golfers out there already playing when he got started. 
 
 
 
 
After I dropped him off, I headed to Cades Cove.  My absolute favorite thing to do in Gatlinburg is to drive through Cades Cove, and I wanted to do it a couple times while we were gone.  Can you believe the difference in the day that 30 minutes makes?  At Cades Cove, it was sunny and blue skies!
 
  
 
 
 
Anytime you see a congestion of cars in the cove, you know there is usually a bear sighting.  However this congestion was due to some large bucks up at the edge of the field.  Stink, I wanted to see a bear.
 
 
I spotted a buck myself, but it was in a different part of the cove.
 
 
 
After I had driven through the cove, I headed back to pick Shawn up from golfing.  He was only on the 14th hole, so they drove me out to where he was playing and I rode the last few holes with him.  The course had some amazing views!
 
 
 
 
After golf, we ate lunch at the Apple Valley Country store and had burgers and fries and shared a delicious fried apple pie!  We did some shopping in their gift shops!  They had one shop that was a flag lovers heaven!
 
 
After lunch, we drove back into Gatlinburg down Little River Road and stopped at a couple of the pull-offs.  One of them has a waterfall you can see from the road!
 
 
 
Once we got into Gatlinburg, we decided to park near the Space Needle since we wanted to do that and were going to eat dinner just down the street from it.  We are on vacation and it's only natural for my husband to continue working :/  Don't get me wrong, I am blessed and happy that my husband is a hard worker, but I dislike waiting around for him when we are planning on doing something, especially on vacation!  I thought this picture was funny because it depicted him working, the space needle we were going too, and me taking a picture while waiting for him!
 
 
 
Got the Space Needle smashed penny!  I actually found another smashed penny laying on a race car game Shawn and I were playing.  Sweet...two pennies!
 
 
You can see all of Gatlinburg from the top of the Space Needle!  We had been up there one other time, but it was at night.  I loved the views during the day.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Loved that Shawn's iPhone takes panoramic pics!
 

  
We walked around downtown Gatlinburg some before eating dinner at Blaine's Grill and Bar.  It's our favorite restaurant in Gatlinburg. 
 
A huge transformer outside the Ripley's Believe It or Not.  Gavin...Uncle Shawn wanted to take this picture for you :)
 
 
Love watching them make taffy.  Also picked up mom a box of it for watching our furbabies back home.
 
 
We ended up going back up in the Space Needle after supper since the ticket was good for a day and night view.  It's amazing to see the city all lit up!
 
 
After we left Gatlinburg and were back in Pigeon Forge, we decided to go check out the new Ferris Wheel at the Island.  We ended up buying a day/night ticket there and rode the ferris wheel at night and then planned on going back the next morning to ride it again!
 
 
 
Part of Pigeon Forge lit up at night!
 
  
 
These two pictures of Shawnie crack me up!  We were stopped at the top of the ferris wheel and were taking a few pics....
 

 
...and then it started moving again!  Needless to say Shawn wasn't a fan!  LOL!
 
 
After the ride at the ferris wheel, we headed to our favorite sweet treat place, Mad Dogs Creamery, but it was closed so we ended up at Baskin Robins and then headed back to the hotel for the evening.
 
Once back at the hotel, I had a little mishap....the memory card was in the card reader which was plugged into the laptop and the laptop slide off my lap desk when I was getting in the bed and crashed to the floor.  I was sad my little card reader bit the dust, but happily I found a card reader slot on my laptop and was able to transfer my pictures to the laptop.  I was also happy that my memory card wasn't ruined! 
 
 
We had a great first day in Gatlinburg and can't wait to see what the rest of the week will bring!

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