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Gatlinburg, TN

We chose Gatlinburg to be our final destination in Tennessee because it’s right on the border of the Great Smoky Mountains. Since we visited so many things in Nashville, we left there a little later than we expected. So as we were driving into Gatlinburg, it was already dark outside. However, we had to drive through Pigeon Forge to get there. Pigeon Forge was far from dark. It was like we entered into Vegas. Dollywood is based there, so you can image the bright lights and hoopla there. Entering into Gatlinburg, there were some twisty and winding roads that were fun to drive at night. Not much was going on as we drove through the city. We were afraid the food places would be closed by the time we checked into our hotel. Once we checked in, we took a look around and didn’t see much. However, one street over, it was a whole different scene. There were a lot of cute gift shops and eating places in a little village area.

After walking around and grabbing dinner, we went back to our hotel room. We relaxed by the fireplace and jacuzzi. That’s right, fireplace and jacuzzi… in our room. It was really odd. Our view from the balcony was nice though. Does anybody know what a “free hsia” is?

Before we left for the Great Smoky Mountains, we rode the Sky Lift (basically a ski lift that took us to the top of the mountain).

At the top of the Sky Lift was a platform and a souvenir shop. We didn’t buy anything because it was overpriced, but Teresa did try on a ranger’s hat.

This is the street during the day.

They actually have a Chinese restaurant there too. Don’t worry, we didn’t try it.

Apparently there’s no longhorn pooping allowed in Puckers. Sorry Austinites.

There was a store called “All Sauced Up”. They had a ton of sauces. You could sample over 200+ sauces there if you wanted too…

The Donut Friar was closed the night before when we were walking around so we went back in the morning. It was kinda disappointing.

Once we finished walking around the area, we got back into the car and drove on towards the mountains!