2015, the year of the
mini-vacation, is officially over. Although I was skeptical about
replacing one long vacation with three shorter ones, I was pleasantly surprised
at how well it all turned out. My girls are still talking about our first
mini trip to Universal Studios and the Wizarding
World of Harry Potter, as well as our mid-year mini break and once in a
lifetime chance of being up close and personal with manatees in Crystal River. Two weeks ago, we
spent our final mini holiday in the mountains of Gatlinburg,
Tennessee.
Being
that we live in Florida, this qualified as a road trip, as it took over ten
hours to get there. Luckily, we are huge fans of Harry Potter, so The
Goblet of Fire audio book kept us entertained for most of our journey. We
left early on Sunday morning and arrived at out hotel, the Bearskin
Lodge, around dinnertime. Our Florida blood turned to ice the
moment we stepped out of the car into the forty degree temperature.
However, once in the lodge, we were greeted with the hotel’s cozy, rustic feel,
complete with fireplace, rocking chairs and complimentary warm apple cider and
cookies. This hotel was the next best thing to renting our own log cabin
in the mountains.
After
check-in, we went up to our room on the 5th floor.
We had an executive queen stream-view room, which had two queen beds, a balcony
with a beautiful view of the mountains and the stream below, a working
fireplace, and a whirlpool.
After
ten hours in the car, this was heaven. Normally, we try out the beds first, but
the fireplace was much more alluring. Unfortunately, the fireplace was
closed off, so we were unable to snack on the s’mores I had packed.
However, the lobby fireplace is open, as is the fire pit near the pool, so
there is plenty of opportunity for s’mores indulgence.
After
exploring our room, we decided to go to dinner. Because of the cold,
everyone voted in favor of eating somewhere close to the hotel. The
Bearskin Lodge is in a quiet location behind the main drag
called the Parkway, but we only had a three minute walk before we found Luigi’s Pizza, which we quickly darted into
to avoid the chill. As we entered, a warm fireplace greeted us.
There were only a few patrons and we had our choice of seating. We chose a spot
in the back, away from the door. The menu consisted of standard pizzeria
fare, so we selected a pizza pie, mozzarella sticks and garlic
knots. The pizza sauce was incredibly sweet, and really did not make for
a great tasting pizza. However, the cheese sticks and the knots were so
scrumptious that I wished I had ordered another round of each. Overall,
the atmosphere and the appetizers were enough to keep us happy.
After
dinner, I saw that the Ober mall was right in front of us, so
before heading back to the hotel, I decided to buy snow tubing tickets.
Note to travelers-you cannot buy tickets online. You have to do it the
old school way and physically show up to buy tickets. To make matters
worse, you can only buy tickets up to three days in advance, which might have
been an issue for us because we were only staying for four days. Because snow
tubing is super cool and sells out fast, my recommendation when arriving in
Gatlinburg is to get your tickets before doing anything else, even before
checking into your hotel. Fortunately, all but one slot was sold out when
we got there, so I paid $106 for the three of us to go snow tubing from 5-6:30pm
on our last night in Gatlinburg.
When
we woke the next morning, we opted for the breakfast that I had packed for the
trip, rather than going out to eat. Once finished, we hung out on our
balcony and enjoyed our view of the mountains. Around 9:30am, we made our
way to the Parkway, which was filled with restaurants, souvenir shops, old-time
photo shops and various family friendly activities, including an assortment of
Ripley’s owned tourist traps. So naturally, we decided on Ripley’s
Believe It or Not as our first stop of the morning. We’ve been
to the Ripley’s in Orlando, and my girls really loved it, so they knew what to
expect when entering. This one had some of the exact same things as the
Orlando Ripley’s, so the girls had a decent amount of fun, but weren’t all that
impressed.
Next,
we ventured off to the Ripley’s 5D Moving Theater. On the
way there, we stopped at a shooting gallery and tried our luck at shooting
targets in hopes that our aim would get some mechanical objects to move.
For $2, we had a great time and did pretty well.
A
few minutes later, we arrived at the Ripley’s theater, and handed the cashier
our ticket, which included two movies, Roadhoggers and Winter Wipeout.
The movies are roller coaster-esque and your seat moves pretty violently, so
make sure you and your children are strapped in! The movies were
adorable. We especially loved the Winter Wipeout because there was
artificial snow falling from the ceiling as we virtually joined the snowmen on
their snow tubing adventure. I didn’t keep track of time, but I would guess
that each movie was roughly 10-15 minutes long. We all truly enjoyed this
experience and would definitely recommend it for families (my girls are 8 and
11 years old and they had a blast).
After
the movie, we did some shopping for our plant shelf item. For readers who
don’t know our tradition, each time we go on vacation, we purchase
something from our travels that we can place on our plant shelf at home.
So far, we have items from Paris, New York, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, New
Jersey, and now, Tennessee.
We
found a cute shop in Elks Plaza called Smoky
Mountain Art that carried wood carvings and pottery. My
youngest pointed out a lovely green-blue bowl with Gatlinburg 2015 carved
inside. I thought it was perfect, so we made the purchase.
Afterwards,
we headed back to the hotel for some lunch (again packed from home for this
trip). Once we got some of our energy back, we decided to visit Ober.
We took the Aerial Tramway up the mountain, which
was worth the $31 ticket price. The views were breathtaking, and the ride
was so much fun! Even my oldest daughter, who is scared of heights, had a
great time traveling up the mountain this way.
Once
we got there, we bought tickets for the Wildlife Encounter. We got to see a
black bear, an otter, an eagle, a bobcat and some nocturnal animals. For
the most part, this was an extremely small and limited zoo. For a total
cost of $14, it was worth a look, but all in all, it was more of a sad
experience than a lively one.
After
our wildlife encounter, we went outside to view the snow tubing and ski
areas. Then, we came across an area for smaller children with a large
mound of snow called “Cubbies”.
My
youngest daughter has never seen snow, so despite our ages, I bought us all
tickets for the kiddie area where we immediately pelted each other with
snowballs. I know this sounds terrible, but watching my daughters nailing
each other with snowballs was my favorite part of that day. I am thankful
to Ober for
reminding me of how much joy can be had during a snowball fight.
Just a note-Ober also
offers skiing, an alpine slide, a ski mountain coaster and indoor ice skating.
Once
we got down from the mountain, we decided not to be too adventurous with
dinner, so we stopped in for some burgers at Five
Guys. Then we strolled around the Parkway some more and came
across The Village Shops. It was such a
lovely little shopping cove with a diverse group of shops including a sock
store, a candle store, a donut shop and our favorite, the Ole
Smoky Candy Kitchen, where we bought some after dinner chocolate
treats. From there, we decided to visit the Guinness Museum.
It
was similar to Ripley’s, only more focused on what Guinness is known for, which is odd,
record-breaking feats. There were some areas of interest for all three of
us, but like Ripley’s, it fell a little flat. Being that our day was
jam-packed with so many activities, we didn’t really give much thought to
rating the events of the day. The great thing is that we were having fun
and making the most out of everything as a family.
On
our last full day in Gatlinburg, we went to Ripley’s Aquarium. So far, Ripley’s
wasn’t all that impressive, so my expectations were a bit low. But as
soon as we were through the aquarium’s doors, I knew this was going to be
different. The sheer size of it was surprising, and as soon
as we handed over our tickets, the girls’ excitement was hard to contain.
Our first stop was the stingray touch tank. It was enormous and even has
smaller sharks roaming around as well (the staff was very insistent on taking
your hands out of the water as soon as a shark appears). Even though we
have all done this once before at Sea World, we kept our hands in the water for
a good twenty or thirty minutes, just enjoying the experience.
Once
we got our fill of the stingrays, we headed to the shark tank, where we stared
at a variety of different sized sharks.
After
about ten minutes, we moved on to the rest of the aquarium. One of the
best features of the aquarium were the hands-on exhibits at every turn.
Want
a fish manicure? There are doctor fish waiting to eat your dead skin (it
actually tickles).
Want
to learn about swarms? There is an interactive game that allows you to
choose which fish you want to learn about and how far apart they swim around
each other in the ocean.
Want
to touch a horseshoe crab? No problem.
Want
to check out how mice live? You can crawl through a tunnel and get up
close and personal.
Want
to see all of the fish in the aquarium tank? Hop onto the moving platform
that takes you through an impressive aquarium tunnel, where all types of ocean
creatures literally surround you.
Because
we had reserved a penguin encounter for 1pm, we didn’t
spend too much time in the public penguin area, but enjoyed the parts we were
able to see.
After
eating lunch while watching the fish swim by in a huge tank, we headed off to
meet Maureen the penguin. For an extra forty dollars per person, we had
45 minutes to spend with a penguin. We learned about penguins, got to
take a picture (which is included in the fee) and got to touch and pet
her. It was definitely the highlight of the day and well worth every
penny!
After
the aquarium, we headed back to the hotel to change into warmer clothes and
boots for our snow tubing session. We lined up
for our session, received a tube, and waited on the conveyor belt to take us up
the mountain.
For
me, speeding down an icy hill in a tube ranks highest on the “coolest
experiences in Gatlinburg” list! My older daughter is scared of heights,
and my younger daughter expected more of a roller coaster experience, so they
weren’t as impressed, so we left our session early. Although we all had
mixed opinions of the snow tubing experience, going down the
mountain in the Aerial Tramway for the last time was
quite a fun ride. Because it was dark, the views of the mountain were
gone, but the beautiful lights of the city were stunning.
In
addition to all of that beauty, the 100 people stuffed into that tramway all
started singing Jingle Bells…loudly. I felt like I was in a musical as
the people around me, one by one, randomly burst into song. While most
people probably think that this is the cheesiest way to end our vacation, I
couldn’t help but feel the love and the joy protruding from these strangers’
hearts. And it truly turned what could have been a sour night into a
memorable one.
The
next morning, we got up early and walked to Crockett’s
Breakfast Camp for our last breakfast before we left
town. Crockett’s looks like a log cabin, very similar to our hotel,
complete with fireplace and cozy furnishings and menus designed to look like
newspapers.
My
daughter even had a glass of water brought to her in a mason jar. While
the décor was charming, the food was not as great. The pancakes were on
the dry, yet sweet tasting side (without syrup). My daughters also were
not thrilled with their choices of waffles and eggs. Though they made a
yummy version of a cinnamon bun, I’m sorry to say that I probably would not
recommend Crockett’s.
Well
folks, that wraps up our last trip of the year. This year, we will be
replacing the mini-vacation concept with a two week trip to Ireland (and my girls’ first trip
outside of our country)! I look forward to giving you all the details of
our trip, so stay tuned! Thank you so much for reading!
