This summer we’re not making huge vacation plans, but we wanted to get away at least once. We opted to head to Pigeon Forge, TN (or, as we now call it, Las Vegas Southeast) this past weekend. We only live four hours away, so after brief discussion Denis and I realized it could be a single-day trip. We looked online at things we could do there and found a few things we thought the kids might enjoy.
On Saturday morning we were in the car by 8 a.m. driving to TN. It was a pleasant drive – that section of mountains is lovely to drive through. Once we got about 10 miles away our GPS put us onto a couple really crazy secondary (tertiary) roads – deep ditches, no lane lines, tight curves so you couldn’t see oncoming traffic. But we made it to Pigeon Forge right on time, around noon.
Our destination was intended to be The Coaster – Goats on the Roof. We found it with no problem, but upon walking up to the ticket booth, we were told they were temporarily closed for the next 3-4 days for repair. They invited us to come back, but I informed them we were only in town for the day (and now had a useless Groupon since they were closed). They assured me I could get a refund on the Groupon and apologized.
But while the coaster may have been down for repair, the gift shop was open. And WOW what a gift shop it was. Packed to gills with crap, it was on the 2nd floor of the shop that we found the gift that I’ll be putting into this year’s White Elephant game. It is AMAZING and all four of us were gushing about how awesomely bad it is. CootieGirl also snagged a hoodie while CootieBoy ordered a milkshake that would come back to haunt him a couple hours later.
From there we headed to Bennett’s BBQ for lunch. The place was empty, but it clearly gets full because the building was located in the midst of a bunch of show theaters. I’ll bet dinnertime gets crazy there. The food was delicious and we took advantage of coupons to get a 15% discount on the meal. CB opted not to eat since he was full from the milkshake, but I got a platter of pulled pork, brisket and ribs – all three were excellently prepared. CG is only a week out from her wisdom teeth removal, and officially back on solid food, but she took a couple bites and said something felt “weird” in her mouth where her wisdom teeth once were, so she stopped eating after that.
Now full, we debated what we’d do next. In the end we headed over to the Island in Pigeon Forge, a big complex filled with shops, arcades, and even some rides. As we parked, CB complained that his stomach was hurting. Denis and CG walked ahead while CB and I stopped to let him get sick in the parking lot. Good times. We at least made it to a dirt patch so that we could cover it all up when he was done. At some point last year he was finally diagnosed with CVS (cyclical vomiting syndrome) but this is the first episode he’s had in a long, long time. I think he regretted NOT taking a Zofran before we left for the day. But once his stomach was emptied of the milkshake he was fine, so we met up with Denis and CG and spent the next couple hours wandering through the shops. About 30 minutes into it, CG wanted to buy something and realized she didn’t know where her wallet was. We checked a couple stores and no one had turned it in, so she asked if we could walk all the way back to the car to check. Fortunately, it was indeed in the car, so she grabbed it and we headed back to meet up with Denis and CB at the store where she wanted to buy something. But she had a good 10-15 minute walk to lament whether or not she lost her shiny new learner’s permit and her cash that she’d saved.
Once done shopping, we debated where to go next. LVSE (“Last Vegas Southeast”) had a long strip that had tons of museums, arcades, show theaters, mini-golf and go-kart courses. TONS of go-kart courses. Surprisingly, the kids had no interest in doing one of those, so we next headed to WonderWorks, which was an activity museum featuring an upside down building as its facade. We used another coupon for discount entry and headed on in. We ended up staying there for almost four hours – what a fun place! The kids had a blast playing games, riding rides, and playing with the exhibits. Denis and the kids also enjoyed a game of laser tag with the price of admission. The kids were also eligible to do a huge ropes course, but the line was very long and appeared very slow-moving, and so we opted to skip it even though it came with the price of admission. In the end, it had a lot to offer (and was packed to the gills with people) and we were all glad we went.
Finally, at 7 p.m., we decided to head home. We hopped in the car and made good time, arriving home right at 11 p.m. despite a LONG stop for gas and food (the McDonald’s we went to was not very efficient and we ended up waiting 15 minutes for our drive-thru order because I made the mistake of ordering chicken tenders). Upon arriving home we all agreed we had a good day, and while CB isn’t inclined to go back, CG said she’d be up for a longer visit in the future – which we just might do! But it was a LONG day – I proceeded straight to bed and I think I was asleep within 2 minutes of my head hitting the pillow.
