July 17 - On The Road Again
Not much really to report except the fact that we decided to take the same route we normally take to visit, drop off, or otherwise pick up my sister in Virginia. Naturally, we took a detour after reaching Knoxville.July 18 - Buying the Forgotten
On the way, my sister was testing out her newest toys. Well, that is whenever we didn't feel like trying to find a radio station, that is. It's funny, but most people think that if you are in the middle of nowhere, most stations would be dead. We found some surprising radios playing on the various signals we were borrowing for my sister's gadgets along the way to Gatlinburg. Mostly Christian preaching stations of the conservative kind, but stations nonetheless.We arrived at the Sunterra Bent Creek Golf Village a little after mid-afternoon. Now I know what you are thinking. For someone that complains a lot about money, this place is a rather nice room. Well, for starters, I'm the one that's broke. Not my family. But this also doesn't mean that I am going to inherit some fortune that I haven't talked about, because my family as a whole has yet to hold more than one comma in their joint bank accounts. Still, you have to admit, when we go on vacation, we go on vacation. At least, when we know we really need it.
During the "forceful" trip out to Walt Disney World in 2002, we stated at your typical hotel that we always sleep at whenever we know we are not going to be in an area for more than two days. That's how it normally works in my family. The hotel room type is determined by how long we stay. And since we were staying for a week, it had to be comfortable, pleasant, but more importantly relaxing!
The thing is, for a three-star resort, they went all out for us. As a time share, we were pretty much prepared for the obligatory "sales breakfast," to which my parents declined upon checking in. We have enough financial obligations as it is. Also upon checking in, the resort gave us a gift basket filled with muffin and candy from the local candy makers. Chief among the basket were a box of country taffy that you could find at nearly every tourist gift stand. We ended up using the basket as a fruit bowl later.
After settling in, we all did our normal things we do whenever we go on this kind of vacation. My sister and mother went fast asleep on the beds, my dad went to check out the golf course and reserve a tee time, and I made myself comfortable in front of the TV to learn which channels are which number. I could have looked at the Guest Directory that was right in front of me at the time, but channel surfing is more fun.
When my mom woke up, her workaholic side came out. She went out into the private, covered picnic area our room had with a pen, some paper, and a huge number of tourist advertisements that you could pick up at various rest stops in the area as well as most major restaurants that are well within the average Tennessee Tourist's budget. We were going to plan our week day by day and event by event. Factoring in the weather, however, would prove to be a needed factor that was never used.The whole time we were there, however, a stray cat decided to cool off on our first-floor balcony. It was kind of distracting to be perfectly honest. So distracting, that I had to take a picture of it. The same went for my sister. The thing is though, the cat appeared to like her more than the shade. My sister has a fear of cats, mostly because she is allergic to them (among other things). But this cat was rather sweet. It didn't sense my sister's fear, but somehow was able to calm her down to the point there he jumped onto her lap and stayed there for a while. However, after that event, the first thing my sister needed was a lint and pet hair roller to get all the cat hair off.
Unfortunately, it would have to wait until tomorrow. By the time all was said and done, we were wanting to go to bed for the night. The best my sister could do is throw the clothes she was wearing into the wash room for whenever we need to do our laundry.
Our sleeping situation was rather comical to say the least. My mother didn't think my sister was able to fit in the sofa chair, which she can, to where she can sleep comfortably. She took it upon herself to push the coffee table next to the chair to make a mock bed of sorts. The left me to sleep on the couch, which was suppose to be a fold-out bed. We never folded out the bed during our stay.
My dad woke up early to get in a "Red-Eye" tee time. He was in the first group of the day, and wanted to get in before he couldn't play at the pace he normally does. Because today was are "Let's get everything we forgot to bring or just found out we needed at Wal-Mart" day, we had to wait for him to come back. He is our driver, unfortunately for him. Upon his return, he told us a short story about how his game went. Turns out that most first timers on the resort's course end up losing at least three sleeves of golf balls, but my dad only lost two on his first time. This impressed the pro-shop employee, as well as the other members of his golfing party. Didn't get word on his score, however.July 19 - Dollywood: The Theme Park in the Mountains
On our way to Wal-mart, mom had us take a detour into a local tourist attraction known as the Apple Farm. It is a small but very beautiful farm with fresh produce and, of course, apples galore! We had lunch at their little restaurant where we all had our very first taste of apple butter. This is very surprising and past due in my book since we have an Apple Barn in Opry Mills that sells pretty much the same thing. We also had apple fritters, which is new to me. They are kind of like a hush puppy only sweeter. I actually will be looking out for them next time we go to eat out at any country restaurant. After lunch, we decided to buy our produce from the farm. We got a couple of ripe melons, half a peck of peaches, and about a cup of blueberries. All of which would prove to last us the rest of the week!
We then hit up Wal-mart for some needed supplies. Apparently, I was the only one that didn't pack shorts, mostly because I don't own a pair I wear on a regular basis. The reason why I needed shorts was because it was required for something we were going to do in a few days at my mother's insistence. White Water Rafting. More on that later. We then got some food that we apparently had the craving for. Dad got some plums, I got myself and my sister some microwave pizzas (We never use ovens in the resort rooms, no matter how clean they look.), and my mom got some eggs and sausages. My sister was off picking out a swim suit and a new skirt to match.
We were low on gas, so my dad decided to just fill up at the Wal-Mart Gas Station. (Yes, it was a Super Wal-Mart.) My sister took this time to try on her skirt. Didn't fit. Depressed and angry about it, we turned back around and returned the item literally 10 minutes after she bought it. The rest of the trip home was rather quiet after that, as is most car rides whenever someone is angry.
We didn't feel like going out, so we cooked what we bought or brought with us for the most part for dinner. We then went to bed early because we were going to go to Dollywood the next day. Mom thought I would like to go seeing how I have been obsessing about Disneyland all summer long. I guess she thinks a theme park's a theme park no matter what the name.
July 20 - White Water Rafting For DummiesWe arrived late at Dollywood. The park was open for about an hour, and it took us that long to get parked. There was no one doing parking traffic short of the people putting up wooden traffic barriers at the entrance to full lots. Once parked, we had to wait another 20 minutes just to get to the gates. They weren't running all the trams, which is rather unusual if you ask me. You would think that any theme park, no matter how famous it is, would have all available and working trams running during the summer season. After all, it is their peak seasons when they make the most money.
Once in the park, we pretty much split up. I went to the rides, the rest of my family went to the shows and safe stuff. Being the only person in my family that actually likes theme parks and isn't afraid to admit it, this was kind of expected. That, and my sister has a fear of roller coasters no matter how safe they may be. Because of her size, she fears that she may get thrown out if the safety restraints don't hold her down tightly. And she took physics! She should know that's not possible, because roller coasters are nothing but physics laws!
Anyway, the first ride I hit up was Thunderhead.This is a wooden roller coaster themed around a lumber company. Theming is pretty much average ,although I did like the bird houses I saw on the way to the ride. The ride is surprising smooth for a woody. It's also the first coaster I've been on where you have to have a seat belt AND a lap bar. My sister would have loved that, as she would have been made damn sure that they were as tight as possible. She would still hate how fast it would go, however. Top speed is about 55 MPH if I remember correctly.
I then met up with my family for lunch at Dollywood's new land called The County Fair. It pretty much looks like a County Fair, complete with rides that are so cheap it makes Disney's California Adventure look more expensive. You know the kind. Ferris Wheels, Sling-Shot rides, Merry-go-Rounds, Junior Coasters for the little kids. They even had a Flying Elephant and Spinning Tea Cup rides! Anchoring the are were the characters from Veggie Tales. It was part of Kid's Fest, but I'll say more on that later. Thankfully, they were tucked away to one side where nobody could really see them unless you looked at the map.
The next ride I went on was Smoky Mountain Rampage. This is your typical raft ride, and I used it to beat the heat and humidity. It's pretty much your standard raft ride with no real exciting moments short of the little game of "Rapid Roulette" as I call it whenever the boat spins and you don't know how is going to get the brunt of the splash. The only thing that I found unique is that there were air cannons scattered throughout the last fourth of the ride. The biggest of which is uses as a warning system for the ride operator if there are too many boats backed up. That gets everyone who is waiting to go back into the station wet.
Curiosity got the best of me, so I went to see what was the deal with Spongebob Squarepants Turbo Action Ride. It was the middle of Kid's Fest, which is where everything for the most part is aimed at the kids that are 10 and under. Somehow, the got a contract with Nickelodeon to secure a Spongebob ride. But don't let the name fool you. This isn't a ride at all. It's just a 3D IMAX movie with moving seats.
The story goes a bit like this.It's your first day as assistant cook to Spongebob at the Krusty Krab. Spongebob shows you how to make the perfect Krabby Patty, but the last pickle in the jar ends up escaping. It bounces out of the kitchen, all over the dining room, and into Patrick's hand, who is on a pogo stick causing some of the bouncing effects. A Customer (which will be called The Customer from this point on) comes and as if his burger is ready yet. Spongebob says thaty it isn't complete without the pickle and blows a Bubble Bike to chase after Patrick.The story is fun and true to the cartoon, but it wasn't all that impressive. First off, when I went, they were using an alternate reel. They were not handing out 3D glasses, even though you can tell it was suppose to be a 3D effects film. There were several cheap 3D tricks through out the film. I also say in front of my seat what looked like a water squirting machine. Obviously we were suppose to get wet, but it never went off. The only thing that did was the fan during the chases in the film. The seats themselves were gentle when moving back and forth compared to the more intense motion rides scattered along the Pigeon Forge strip. Still, if you like Spongebob, I think you'll like this attraction.
We hop along and begin the chase. After dodging traffic in Downtown Bikini Bottom, we end up crashing through Jellyfish Field. Patrick is bouncing the other way as we enter the field, but Spongebob gets distracted by a Jellyfish. The Jellyfish then zaps both Spongebob and us. Spongebob is stunned for a little while, only to come to once we pass the sign saying we are approaching Rock Bottom. He tries to put on the brakes, but it's too late. We fall to Rock Bottom and crash. As Spongebob is doing damage check, The Customer comes out of nowhere and ask if his burger is ready. Spongebob says it isn't as a few of the locals from Rock Bottom come out of the shadows. A curious member pops the Bubble Bike and the explosion sends us flying out of Rock Bottom.
Mid-scream Spongebob compliments us on how well our first day of work is going.
The blast somehow puts us in a direct path to the Chum Bucket. We then see Patrick bounce in. After crashing (again), Spongebob rushes in after Patrick. Once inside, lights come on to show Patrick in a medieval stock. Spongebob frees his friend and asks what he did with the pickle. Patrick is, naturally, clueless. Then another Patrick comes out from the shadows. The real Patrick freaks out and runs like mad.
Turns out Plankton made a Robo-Patrick to lure Spongebob and the incomplete Krabby Patty so he can learn the secret behind it. And this time, he's armed to the teeth! After chasing Spongebob around the kitchen using pretty much everything it has, Robo-Patrick capture Spongebob and is about to cut him in half. Suddenly Robo-Patrick just falls over out of power. Plankton looks around confused to see that Robo-Patrick's extension cord was unplugged... but the real Patrick who wanted to make toast.
Defeated, Plankton leaves to plan yet another attempt as Spongebob finishes making the Krabby Patty. The Customer comes back and asks if his burger is ready. Spongebob proudly hands him the burger, and The Customer takes a bite. The Customer then says that he ordered his without pickles. Spongebob laughs at the idea of a Krabby Patty without pickles, only to be greeted by The Customer exploding due to an allergic reaction.
Incidentally, on my way there I passed another ride that I found hilarious because of how it was themed.This car ride is your typical car ride, but it is themed to feature cars of all makes and models from the 1950's and 1960's of Americana. The funny thing about this is the ride building itself. It is themed to look like a car dealership lot from that era in time. Now the kicker for me is that some of these buildings still exist in America and still sell cars! I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. Still, it is better theming for this kind of ride than what I've seen from most theme parks.
I went to their biggest "land" in Dollywood known as Craftmen's Alley. This is probably the most beautiful place I've seen in a theme park. Various shops and attractions seem to just pop out from the rich and deep amount of forests that engulf this area. It's a wonder how many people were actually in the are enjoying themselves instead of trying to combat the heat.
However, even with all the shade, the heat was getting bad. I went to Daredevil Falls to cool off, which is kind of a poor-man's Splash Mountain. It is themed around the idea that the log you are in is going pass a bear-invaded camp site, a bat cave, an abandoned mine, and finally into a Lumber Company's saw mill. The one thing I didn't like about this ride is that you had to load and unload while the log was moving! The whole time I was in line, I kept wondering when a law suit was going to form in front of me.
At this point, there were only two more coasters I had left to ride.
The first was Blazing Fury, which is their indoor coaster. The map said it is a ride through a Ghost Town that was destroyed by a fire. The ride tries to be a roller coaster version of Pirates of the Caribbean. It fails. I won't say any more about this ride, because I really didn't enjoy myself. Seriously, for something that sounded so excited on the map, this coaster just sucks. Avoid it at all costs.
To end my day on a high note, I made a rush to Tennessee Tornado. When I got there, I was greeted by a little old lady saying that the ride was closed because they just got word of lightning in the area. There were only three rides that were left open. The Merry-Go-Round in The Country Fair, the Spongebob movie, and Blazing Fury. Everything else they couldn't operate because it was outside in one fashion or another.
This left me with a bitter taste in my mouth knowing that I won't be back to ride even if this is the closest theme park to where I live. I eventually got over this while taking pictures of some of the craftsmen that were out working and several of the surrounding environment elements. At least while the sun was still out and about.
As the sky grew more and more dark, we headed out. And when I say "we," I mean everyone in the park. It was worst than trying to get in, because of the fact that everyone had to exit the same way. Furthermore, there was only one out-bound tram station with the same problem as when we first came in. Too many people, not enough trams.
Overall, what I rode and saw was pleasant. The park itself felt like it was designed using RollerCoater Tycoon, however, as I got lost thanks to too many loops and switch-back on the main path that were not on the map. For what it is worth, it was fun. I just wish it didn't storm that day.
July 21 - The Lazy DayProbably thanks in part to a potential mid-life crisis or the feeling of inferior coolness by my mother, today was spent mostly white water rafting. But, my family and I are not of the extreme sports types. So, in reality, this was tourist white water rafting. They do offer individual canoes, but that's only if you know what you are doing. We don't, so we settled for the raft with a guide. That's pretty much the standard trip type for anyone that signs up for these kind of thing we found out.
Before we left, we did our normal check to see if we had everything ready for our wet and wild day. I, naturally, left the cameras behind, because they are not water resistant. Last thing I want is to lose the camera that I broke during my Black & White Photo I Final in a river.
Getting there was a problem in itself. It would appear there are at least four different companies that offer the same deal along the river we would be on. It doesn't help that they are right next to each other as well. The one we were signed up for was apparently hidden off a dirt road. We were lucky that we were able to find it with two hours to spare.
Upon checking in, we all had to sign a form that pretty much says we won't sue them if we get hurt by some unexpected change of events. We also apparently found out that we are not equipped right for the trip. My dad and my sister had to buy from their gift shop water shoes. Flip-flops were a no-no. My sneakers were fine, however. Also, all but my sister had to get glasses straps! They said that there is a chance that our glasses could fall off, so it is best we have something to keep them on.
Two hours went by and we ended up getting on our raft about half an hour later than the time we signed up for. There were too many people and somehow got backed up over the course we were there. We were then called and paired with another family in one raft with a guide. We were introduced to him by the company owner, and our guide escorted us to our safety equipment we were going to put on.
Speaking of the guide, I feel I need to say something about him before I end up blowing him completely off. First off, he's hot! A young 20-something with a buzz cut and tattoos on his arms, lean and fit from handling the river, and has a smile that is just melts. Our guide's name is K. P., which he jokingly said stays for "Kills People." The guy makes it a point to be morbidly funny. He's the kind of person that would joke about hurting you but in reality is rather gentle and caring. He admitted that when he takes a group for the more extreme rapids (something we definitely skipped out on), he tries to scare his group by saying things like "Okay, if ya'll don't paddle... we're all gonna die." However, when things get really hairy, that's when he gets serious. More on that later.
After going through the safety speil about how to hold your paddle and what each of his commands mean, we loaded up with K. P. in our rubber raft down the lower and more mild half of the river. Over the course of the trip, K. P. started splashing fights with other boats, raced after a few that were ahead of us, and purposely made sure that the littlest member of our party, a 5 year old boy, got wetter than he would at a hotel pool. All the while, we were hitting what is know as Class-1 and Class-2 rapids. The most extreme is a Class-6 rapid, which is what Niagara Falls is.
K. P. wanted to give us more bang for our buck, so he tried to find a rapid on the river that was good for surfing. What's surfing on a river? It is where you pretty much get trapped in a rapid. Your boat doesn't sink, but at the same time it doesn't go anywhere. It's K. P.'s favorite thing to do on the river. We eventually got to do it, but it required a lot of work, especially from my dad and myself. We were in the front, and as such we had the obligation of setting the paddling pace. Once we started surfing, we all got really soaked! It was probably the only time we actually got wet outside of when we purposely paddled into a rapid.
As a result, of surfing, we fell behind. We were behind a family that decided to rent the canoes. At this point K. P. got worried. Most of the river is find for canoing, from what he told us, but he still feels that they shouldn't be out in the lower half of the river. The reason is because of a Class-3 rapid just before the finishing area that is made out of rebarb and concrete. It is the most dangerous rapid on that half of the river, and if you hit it, you could be in big trouble. K. P. then switched gears and because the responsible river guide that he was trained to be. We kept an eye on the kids in the canoe party who were ahead. They made it pass the Class-3 without any problems.
However, when we thought everything was safe for them, it turns out we were wrong. The parents, whom we passed to keep an eye on the kids, had cap-sized in there double-seat canoe! Immediately, K. P. tried to pull us over to land so we could assist them.
But we got into our own set of trouble. The only safe place to land was book-ended by some trees. Somehow we had to avoid the trees and parallel park the raft to help the parents in the canoe! When they righted themselves back up, that's when we got in trouble. We were approaching the tree too fast and couldn't slow down enough to go around it. My sister, myself, and my mom ducked. K. P., who was sitting next to my sister (big surprise given how she looks and his age) pushed her farther down into the raft so he could duck as well. The father behind my mom of the other party tried to duck but couldn't make it in time, so he grabbed the 5 year old and his older sister of 7 years old. His mom, much like my dad, made the mistake of trying to play limbo with the branch. Thanks to them, we slowed down, but it was at the expense of some pain as the bark from the branch scratched up both the mom and my dad badly. They eventually squeezed between the hole created by the branch and the raft, and K. P. was able to pull us over to check on the parents of the canoe.
After realizing they were fine, he then tended to the 5 year old, who was crying at the scare. He then sat down in the middle of the raft as K. P. checked him out for any major scratches or cuts. The little boy was fine, but didn't settle down for a while. As a result, K. P. avoided most of the rapids until the boy was quiet and felt safe.
Personally, I was smiling. I thought this ride would be boring. After all that happened, I was grateful we had this brush with danger. I wouldn't want to have that kind of experience again, but it did make things a bit more real for our vacation.
After landing where we were suppose to pass the Class-3 rapid under I-40, we loaded up the bus and headed back to the companies head quarters to drop off our gear and go home.
While saying our obligatory good-byes, we learned more about our guide. K. P. is a Nashville native who comes from a long line of river guides. He currently is empolyeed part-time at DuPont's shipping warehouse, but during the summer he does what he loves to do at least once a day, four days a week. He lives in Antioch, which is about 20 minutes away from where I live, and he graduated from Overton High School in 2003. The same High School I went to and graduated from in 2001! Small world, ain't it?
Upon getting back to our room, everyone took turns in the bathroom changing out of our wet clothing. The car was left in a sunny spot so that the water would evaporate (and indirectly create a humidity chamber of shorts) while we were in the room.
That cat from earlier in the week also found his way back to our balcony and decided to hang out some more with my sister, who was watching him from the other side of the glass door. She eventually got to like the cat, but at the same time afraid of it. She also said if she could, she would take it home with us. Unfortunately, we don't know if it had any of its shots. On top of that, we own five birds and a hunting dog. Yeah, bad place for a cat.
A few hours passed, and my mom wanted to see Gatlinburg at night. I ended up falling asleep just before they left and woke up an hour before they came home with microwave dinners. Needless to say, because of the heat, everyone was out once the sun went down and things were cooler. Unfortunately, none of the places my sister wanted to eat or shop at were open.
July 22 - Photographing the SmokiesI'll be honest. Two days back to back of walking all over a theme park and then paddling up and down steam on a rapid-filled river made all of us sore in one fashion or another. My dad, however, is in surprisingly better shape than I am. He had another "Red-Eye" tee time on the front nine of the resort's golf course and was out that entire morning. The rest of us spent most of the morning watching the news about the London bombing that happened. My sister couldn't help but notice how this attack and the attack before it both happened on days that were multiples of the number seven. I think she's been watching too many crime dramas on TV.
After my dad came back from a game that was not as good as his first one earlier in the week, my mom and my sister wanted to do some shopping. On our drive up, my mom spotted a factory outlet mall, so we back tracked our way to it. It really wasn't much of anything. It is pretty much an open-air mall where most of the space is a parking lot. The stores are your typical mall stores. The only drawing feature is the fact that most of the stores have big signs that say "Up to 75% off any item in the store!" When all was said and done, my mom left the winner with a new necklace. My sister and I came in second with Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.My sister and I were craving hot dogs like crazy. My parents wanted Chinese. Decided to do a split dinner. We made take out order at each of the places we wanted to go. Thing is, our parents took too long getting their food, so we ended up eating our hot dogs and finishing up our fries and drinks while waiting on them. Kind of cool how I was able to have a chili dog and not make a mess while eating it for the first time. I guess it had something to do with the fact that I was in the car at the time. Well, it didn't matter anyway, because at the room I ended up finishing the chicken lo mien and fried shrimp my parents brought home for themselves.
I guess what one of my sister's co-workers says is true. A guy's stomach is like a black hole.
I knew this was going to happen eventually, but I didn't know how much I was going to actually enjoy myself let alone how much I was looking forward to this part of the trip.Well, now that I look back on this trip, I can't help but wonder why we only acted that way when we were away from all the stresses of life. In our daily routine, we step on each other's foot and piss everyone else off. We get over it, naturally, but we still do it. We never really did that over that week much. In fact, we got along just nicely. I feel we need more weeks like that week.
If you are vacationing in the mountains or near a national park, it's pretty much your obligation to pay them a visit. After all, where else can you see the wonders of nature in nature?For a while now during the trip, my sister's been wanting some pancakes, but the various pancake houses that are scattered all over the area are only open from 07:00 to 11:00. As such, we had to get up at the crack of dawn. As the sun came up, I decided to get ready for my big day of photographing landscapes. I came prepared with a couple rolls of black and white film (Incidentally, I used a black and white one-time-use camera in Dollywood when I ran out of film.) and all of the lenses I used. I started with my telephoto lens as I thought it would get me the best shots. I found out soon after breakfast at a pancake house down the street from the resort that I was wrong. I needed my fixed lens the whole time.
Our destination was the highest point in the entire Appalachian Mountains according to local maps. It is known as Clingman's Dome. It features an observatory where you can see all the way back to Pigeon Forge on a clear day.
Thing is, we didn't have a clear morning. The farther up we went up the mountains, the more fog we encountered.And the fog just got thicker and thicker the higher up we went. It got so thick at one point, visibility was only 20 feet! We didn't realize we made it to the top until we found ourselves looping the car around a parking lot for the Clingman's Dome observatory. Upon getting out of the car, it was a rather scary site to behold. It reminded me of those old films that always took place in some fog swamp with some monster that was terrorizing the locals. And what really sent a chill down my spine was how quiet it was! No birds, no sound of wind, nothing but surprised and laughing tourists trapped in the thick fog.
We eventually found a sign that pointed us in the direction towards the observatory and began to walk up a steep path. We didn't know where it lead to or how far up the ways it was until the top because of the fog. However, this is a national park we are talking about there. It's not like the government is going to put a sign that leads us straight over a cliff.
Eventually, we made it to the observatory, but to be perfectly blunt about it, there was nothing to observe. The fog was so thick that going to the top of the observatory's walk way would just be pointless! You'd be staring at fog instead of what you were suppose to.Knowing that we couldn't fight the weather, we left down the road we came in. During the drive, we started to notice that the fog was clearing up. About an hour after we had left Clingman's Dome, the Smokies were no longer foggy!
And that's when all the other tourists came out to photograph the Smokies! The funny thing is, they call it the Smoky Mountains because of the fog. I don't know why, but I believe that if you are going to photograph something as iconic as the Smokies, you have to at least get what is so famous about it. That's like going to Yellowstone and not taking a picture of Ol' Faithful. Somehow you are just missing out, you know?
Well, at this point, I not only used up all my film, but I've had my fill as far as taking pictures go. But we still were not done yet.My mother wanted to go see this place she thought was a huge religious garden of sorts. After all, with a name like Christus Gardens, one has to assume that there are plants and beautiful pathways to walk and photograph. Well, the sad truth of the matter is that Christus Gardens isn't a garden. The building is actually a large walk-thru gallery of wax figures portraying the key scenes in Jesus's life through narration. While I can see why this attraction may be worth going, I found it boring after the first room.
Apparently, the big highlight of this place is the World Famous Face of Christ sculpture that they own. This sculpture follows you around the room like one of the Haunted Mansion busts at the Magic Kingdom. And it works the same way too. You know, the whole "it's really going in instead of coming out" optical illusion?As the sun went down, we decided to work up an appetite with some miniature golf. Ever since the first time we visited Gatlinburg several years ago, I've always wondered about this one place called Hillbilly Golf. What made me curious is that, unlike every other miniature golf course along the main road, you couldn't see what it looked like. The only think you saw was an inverted train car that traveled up a hill and into a thick forest. Well, as luck would have it, we actually decided to play. All four of us, which is a first seeing how mom and dad don't really like to play Mini-golf. After three holes, we started to actually have some fun with it. It's strange, but this is the first time in recent memory where I actually felt like a happy and normal family instead of what I usually feel about my family. I actually enjoyed it.
Over the course of the game, my dad made the first hole-in-one. Immediately after that, my mom jokingly announced that he'll be buying dinner. When the game was over, we were totaling up our scores as another party joined us. Dad got the best score out of the four of us (big surprise seeing how he's the golfer in the family), and my mom jokingly out loud that he has to pay for dinner since he won. The other party overheard this and a big laugh was shared by everyone, including a few cheap pops at another person in the other party who apparently got the best score in their group.
Well, dad offered to pay for dinner even though mom was joking about it. And since he had the last $100 bill in his wallet we brought, we went to a rather pricey restaurant that mom saw in the Guest Directory during our Lazy Day. The entire time we were having dinners (and Virgin Strawberry Dacories), I couldn't help but think about Dan (You know the one.) and how the restaurant is pretty much like what he always wanted to own. It was on the water, had a nice view no matter where you sat, wonderfully large servings at a fair price, live music, a fully stocked bar, and attractive hosts and hostesses. Made me miss him while I was eating, even though we were having a serious talk among the family about what to do when the school season starts up again.
That night I felt a little sad. We were going back to our daily boring lives after experiencing what must have been a more enjoyable vacation than we've had in the last ten years. Needless to say I couldn't sleep that night.
In any event, the pictures you see here are just a sampling of the ones I'll be uploading onto my photo blog. Keep an eye out for those if you are interested to see what some of my best shots look like, one of which came out of a one-time-use camera!
