Vacation update!

We had a great time on vacation.  It took us a couple of days to really get our feet underneath us.  What I can tell you is that we didn't really care for the main drag of Pigeon Forge or Gaitlinberg.  We made the mistake of going to the Hollywood Wax museum.  Huge disappointment; especially for the money we paid (about $62 for both) for a VIP pass.  The VIP pass was a joke.  The only benefit from it was the fact that admission to Hannah's Mirror maze was included in the price.  Really, though, we should have just paid for the maze and done that.  The maze was great fun!  It's geared for kids mainly, but we grown ups were having just as good a time.  Had we just done the maze, we would have paid about half what we paid to do the museum.  So Maze, yes, Museum, no.  The museum was okay, but not for what we paid.  In addition, while you're walking thru the museum, you get stopped by Time share folks.  I won't say it's sponsored by the museum, but they do have their own spot in the museum.  They stop folks who have the VIP pass (cause we must have more money ((eyeroll)).

The side streets are where you want to go for things like the antique stores, unique crafts, etc; You know, those things you wouldn't find in your back yard.  I even found an antique doll to work on! I'm teaching myself how to recondition/restore old composition dolls.  It's a work in progress.  She needs a lot of help.

 What we really enjoyed was the Great Smokey Mountain National park.  BEAUTIFUL!, and that was with the trees not in bloom yet!  The snow caps were gorgeous.

There's a part of the park called "Cade's Cove".  It's an 11 mile loop that includes some of the homes and other buildings of some of the original settlers to that area.  If you ever try this out, set aside 2.5-3 hours for the tour.  I am a huge fan of all things pioneering.  This was right up my alley.  The only drawback is it takes 45 minutes to get there from the visitor center because it's 24 miles away, and you can only drive about 25-30 miles per hour.  Weeeee should have packed a lunch.  Lol  We were starving when we left to find lunch.  Here's a shot from the cove to the mountains.

 Here's one of the homes built by the first settlers to the area, James Oliver

Speaking of starving...we really didn't.  That's the one thing we had no problem with....food.  I had all these plans of finding a Subway, Chic Fila, and Zaxby's when we got there.  We finally found a Subway on day 2, but by then the damage was done.  Lol.  We had no trouble finding good restaurants.  Mel's Diner I think was the best.  Big Daddy's pizza was a really close second.  In fact, not sure if they aren't tied.  Anyway, Our plans changed in that we decided to just have fun, and get back on track Thursday morning when we were on our way home.  So that's what we did.  Monday thru Weds were vacation days and we were back on track Thursday before we left Pigeon Forge.

So Sunday was our weigh in day and we were really surprised at how little was gained.  My Dh only gained .2 pounds.  I gained .8 pounds which is really good because my weight fluctuates, and should have been up a little anyway.  I was glad to see I hadn't gained all of the weight I'd lost over the 2 weeks before.

So all in all a good week.  The best part of our trip?  Just taking the time to be together.  That's what has kept us going for 25 years.  He's my best friend, and I'm his.