...and didn't wake up until we were about to Knoxville. Matthew was wide awake...
We had never been there before, so we didn't know how things worked. They actually have four different activities inside, and they would have all been things Jacob would have enjoyed, but I could not justify paying so much per person, when the other three of us wouldn't have really done much. Jacob and I ended up playing a round of Pirate Golf, while Jason and Matthew enjoyed the a/c in the van while watching a movie.
I think we made the right choice because it was dark in the mini golf area and they used a lot of black lights. While it made a really cool effect, I'm not sure that Matthew would have liked it, and it did get a little loud in places. Not to mention it was really crowded and the kids behind me were about to lose their clubs. If one more of them had hit me with theirs, I was going to whack'em back! (Not really, but I was definitely going to say something.) There were some children who kept losing track of their family and would just start playing on the hole that Jacob and I were on. Not to mention the one girl who hit her ball hard enough to lay somebody out, and it barely missed Jacob and I by going right in between us. After we finished, and Jacob beat me, we headed back to the hotel so Jacob could try out the pool. That evening, we ended up having to go to Walmart because of all things that I forgot to pack, Jacob's underwear was it! After braving the crowd for some drawers, we just decided to grab a quick supper. Matthew was wanting Sonic anyway, so after swinging through Chick-fil-A for Jason and I, we went on down to Sonic for the boys. Jason and Jacob went on their first rounds of go-kart rides,
Oh.
My.
Word.
YUMMY!
On Friday morning, our first stop was Krispy Kreme!
We fueled up the van, got drinks and then headed out to Cades Cove. Let me say, this boy right here loves him some Krispy Kremes! Jacob got one out of the box, and he said, "He gave me the stink eye!" :) Matthew ate FOUR doughnuts...probably because everyone else was afraid to get one!
We love taking the loop and looking for bears, but were disappointed in not seeing any this time around. We did see several deer, a couple of turkey and a little chipmunk that about scared Jacob and I to death. This route also provides some of the prettiest landscape views ever, and it is impossible for me to just not take pictures.
GOOBER...
Once we were in Cherokee, we stopped at the little Cherokee village that is the first thing you come to, and went and visited some of their shops. We teased Jacob and tried to get him to take a picture with the Indian out front, but that was a definite no-go. Don't blame him one little bit...I wouldn't have my picture made either. We did some shopping, Jacob and Jason played in the arcade a little bit, and then we looked up some lunch. We just did a fast food lunch and ate it on the road.
We stopped at the Oconaluftee visitors center for a break and a looksie in the little museum area/gift shop.
I REALLY wanted to go down to the old homestead area, but it had gotten SO hot, and my head was splitting by this point, so I opted for a couple of advil from the gift shop and the air conditioning on the way back to Pigeon Forge. We rested in the hotel for a bit, stopped by a few shops, including The Christmas Place, :) and then headed to Mama's Farmhouse Restaurant for dinner. The food there was good, and we chose to eat there because we knew they had mac and cheese which should have been a shoe-in for Matthew. He, however, was feeling a bit ornery, and would not eat a single bite! I'm pretty sure it was because we weren't at Cracker Barrel!! Jacob absolutely loved the food, and wanted to eat there the next day too. He even requested to have his picture taken at his new favorite place...
We went and got Matthew something to eat, and then Jason and Jacob rode go-karts at a couple of different places. The first place they rode was an indoor track and was definitely the fastest they rode the entire time down there. I could not get a picture that wasn't blurry...
After go-karts we went back to the hotel, Bubba and I crashed, and Jason took Jacob out to the pool for a late night swim. After getting back to the room, Jacob decided Mama's Farmhouse was NOT his favorite place and that he didn't want to go back there any time soon. I'm pretty sure he ate way too many hush puppies, rode way too fast of go-karts and I'm sure the swimming didn't help either. After chuckin' he was all smiles, and slept like a baby. I decided I didn't want to go to Mama's either unless I had some antacids. I wollered the bed all night, in turn keeping Matthew from sleeping well. Needless to say, BOTH boys slept in LATE the next morning and then we were up and headed to Uncle Jeromy's favorite place to eat in the Smokies...The Smoky Mountain Pancake House. I may or may not have been a bratty little sister and texted pictures of our food to him. ;)
Jacob was having a conniption to play golf, so we decided it would probably be best to go ahead and do that before it got unbearably hot. SHEW, it was already bad enough, and we all look like HOT messes in these pictures...
We played on a "fireman" themed course...Guess who was loving that??? Oh, and see that big dog statue he's posing with? I told him to get over there so I could take a picture of him with it, and he almost KNOCKED IT OVER! That thing was NOT bolted down. Jacob said we would have walked away like we didn't know him if it had fell. ;)
After burning up, we decided to head indoors, so we hit up the arcade....
While inside, there was a fella who gave Jacob a couple of point cards that had enough points on it for him to ride go-karts, so we went out and all we had to pay for was for one extra person. Matthew and I sat in the shade and he enjoyed his slushy and chips...
When we came out of the arcade a couple approached me and asked if we would be interested in visiting the Titanic Museum. Jason and I had really wanted to go, but after finding out how much it cost to get in, we just didn't think the four of us would enjoy it well enough to pay that kind of money. (IT'S VERY EXPENSIVE!) Anyway, this couple had been to the Titanic, came straight to The Track, and won a family pass to the Titanic. They said since they just went that they wouldn't be going back and would like for us to use the tickets. Well, YEAH! We went back to the hotel to freshen up a bit and then headed on to the Titanic. I was actually surprised at how much Jacob seemed to like it. (He really liked all of the interactive parts.) He even bought a shirt, hat and big book with his money in the gift shop. And it was a good thing we got in free because I am a big idiot when it comes to the pictures that people take in places like that, and ended up buying the family set AND the set of the boys by themselves. (Probably wouldn't have been so bad if they were at least good pictures!) Since you are not allowed to take pictures inside, we snapped a few outside.
When we're on vacation, we always feel like Matthew doesn't get to participate in a lot of things, so we thought we could at least let him choose where we ate at. (And we were afraid he wouldn't eat if it wasn't his restaurant of choice.) While Jason and I would have loved to try something unique to Pigeon Forge, we ended up back at Cracker Barrel. :) After dinner, Jacob was really wanting to do another round of golf, so we went to Fantasy Golf. The guy there was really nice and even offered for us to take an extra ball and putter in case Matthew wanted to play.
This thing looked really neat. The people went backwards up in the air until they were at the end of the cable and then they zoomed back down the line. We didn't even know it was there until we heard people squealing RIGHT above our heads. It would NOT have been pretty for the people on the golf course if there had of been any type of accident from above!
Matthew hitting the ball. :)
And this was the picture we ended vacation with...
Not that we knew it at the time. We had planned to go back to the hotel, get a good night's sleep, have a big breakfast, and head into Gatlinburg to hit up a few shops (including a candy shop I really wanted to stop at!) and then head home that afternoon. After a treat from Tutti Frutti's Frozen Yogurt, we went back to the hotel, Matthew had his bath and Jacob was in the shower. For reasons unknown, Matthew began to have one of his "terror" attacks, for lack of a better term. Well, when you're in a hotel, you definitely do not want your kid to be screaming to the top of his lungs. Jason and I tried everything we could to calm him, but he was eating us alive. We were both bleeding from being scratched and I just knew the Pigeon Forge police were going to show up at any minute. Without being able to calm him down, we did the only thing we knew to do...loaded up the van and headed home....at 11:30 at night...after being out in the hot sun all day....and staying out late because we thought we'd be getting a good night's sleep! Jacob was asleep before long, but Matthew continued with his "fit" until we were to Corbin...probably two whole hours from the time he started to the time he just wore himself completely out. We had been leery of staying in a hotel because we were afraid Matthew may be too loud, but I hadn't considered the possibility of a spell of that magnitude. We had been so proud that he loved it so much, and thought we were doing good. Needless to say, we came to the conclusion real quick that we would be staying in a cabin if we ever go back! Jason and I had one of the wackiest rides home EVER, since we were talking about everything imaginable to stay awake. There were times I would doze off and wake up to hear myself talking about something I didn't even understand! ;) We made it home safely...to a house that had NO air conditioning. Once the sun came up, I loaded up the boys and headed across the road to Mom and Dad's where we stayed until they fixed the air on Monday! Overall, we had a wonderful trip, but I wish things had ended better for Matthew.
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