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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Our Tennessee vacation—part 4


Monday…

                I had a lot on my list of maybes for this day.  As I mentioned before, originally we had planned to make this our second day at Dollywood.  Had it not been for our ECVs (electric carts) there would have been no way for us to do it in one day.  Lots of hills, inclines both slight and steep, shows that would have been impossible for us to get from one to the other as quickly as we’d needed to.  Another advantage of using the carts was that we could skidder past all those little food places QUICK!  Lol  Country food, fair food, candy….all have this magnetic power over me.  With the cart’s go power, I made it through with only our meals.

                One of my MUST DO places to see was the Incredible Christmas Place.  It’s such a special place!  It’s not just the Christmas store that’s the draw.  For many, I’m sure it’s the Inn.  They have a beautiful, huge resort across the main drag from the store area.  And there is also a lovely little restaurant that we could see next to the store area.  As big as the Inn is, my guess is they have one or more food places there too.  And it’s beautiful.  Makes you think Christmas in the middle of 90+ heat. 

                The shopping here didn’t disappoint me.  I’m a Christmas lover.  It was just beautiful.  Let me drop a photo or six in here as we “talk.”  I was pleased to see they did respect the men who come with the shoppin’ mamas.   They had quite a few sitting areas.
               
                As we got out of the car, conveniently there was a potty stop.  J  They’re smart.  Having them OUT of the actual store probably kept down the possibility of thefts.  Next up, we came to the “reindeer” area.  It was a little walkway between things that had cute fake deer in stalls. 


They had a discount area upstairs too.  Nothing up there struck my fancy enough to bring it home, but I’m sure a few would have if I’d had a little more to spend.  I wanted to get some specific things to bring home.  Nope.  Not talkin’.
               
                It was mesmerizing to walk around in this place.  Beauty in every step.





                
                This was maybe the cutest of the rest stops.  Made for a man.  All done in there with a hunting theme.  And…a TV. 

            More and more and more themes.




    I was soooo tempted, Cheryl.  J
               
                Next on my list of must do places was the Apple Barn.  I love fall and give me an apple any old way and I’m happy.  This place didn’t disappoint.  In fact, we loved it.
               
                We decided to start out with our noon time meal.  Our dinner was going to be at Dixie Stampede.  We found out there is a restaurant at each end of this beautiful place.  We chose the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant for lunch.  I’m so glad. 
               
                They seated us right away.  The place is huge and we were a bit off the peak meal time so we didn’t have a wait.  I loved that our seats were in porch swings.  No kidding.  Porch swings.  Now isn’t that cool?
               
                Then we are brought a basket of apple fritters, apple butter and two little glasses of apple julep.  Very good!  It’s served to everyone like people get bread in so many places.  (They later gave us the Applewood julep recipe.   1c. pineapple juice, 1c. orange juice, ¼ c. lemon juice and 1 qt. apple juice.  Serves 6)  Wonderful, wonderful.  They had my vote!
               
Next came a piping hot cup of yummy veggie soup.  Our food was great!  I chose chicken.  This was my chicken vacation.  I’m a chicken lover from way back.  Any way, shape or form.  Just makes me happy.

                When we finished our meal, we decided to adventure a little bit and check out the shops.  First…the General store.  How cool!  Everything in it was apple related!  Even the lampshades!


               
                From there we went to the Apple Cider Bar and got a nice glass of fresh squeezed cider.  Yummy.  I bought a GIANT bag of dried apple slices for much, much less than the equivalent of apples would have cost.  And I don’t have to use my fruit fresh, my dehydrator and my time to put them up!  Cool!  Also got some recipe cards.  Awesome recipes for lots of things we’d been able to taste.

                Next…candy?  Did someone say candy?  And the sugar free section was huge compared to most candy stores.  Great selection!

                
                Yes you’re reading this next one right.  Moonshine taffy!  Lol
               
And they do make much of the candy right there.
               
                Next the bakery and ice cream shop.  Oh my goodness, my goodness, the BEST ice cream EVER is apple cinnamon.  It was like an apple dumpling ala mode!  So so sooooo good.

               
                We drove around a little bit checking out other areas.  We wanted to see what else was there so we had a heads up for our next trip down.  We wouldn’t decided on a next trip even if we hadn’t purchased the vacation deal.  Oh yes.  We really do love the area.

                And then it was time to head to the Dixie Stampede.  I  love their show and their preshow and didn’t want to miss a minute of either.  The first picture here isn’t a good one, but I wanted you to see that you are definitely close up to the action.  This is the folks beginning to bring the horses in from the stables for the show.
               
                For the preshow, they take you into a room with long, long tables and a “bar.”  No alcohol, but drinks.  I think they used to have beer but this time it was pop.  We were able to drive our carts right in and then when it was time for the show, we’d be able to go up an elevator to the seating.  Perfect.
                
                Once the room was full, the entertainment started.  Great stuff.  Loved it.
               
                Then up to the actual arena seating.  Couldn’t really get pictures.  They don’t allow them during the show any more.  I was a little disappointed.  Last time we went we could take as many as we wanted.  We did get a picture of our server.  He was great!
               
                We did enjoy the show so much.  Even though we were in the tippy tippy top seats, we could easily see it all.  I don’t think there are bad seats there.

                I hope I’m not boring you.  If I am, the good news is, you can click and exit at any time and I won’t even know!

                You know, Adam was right.  Getting away totally from it all for a while was definitely proving to be a good thing.

1 comment:

  1. Your pictures are so pretty! There are so many wonderful Xmas things and that restaurant looks great. The restaurant reminds me one in San Luis Obispo (California) that is very similar and called "Apple Farm." I love that place!

    ReplyDelete