Monday
After a big driving day yesterday, we were relieved to have settled into our hotel in Pigeon Forge, TN.
Pigeon Forge is essentially a huge family friendly entertainment wonderland, nestled into the Smoky Mountains.
We decided to start our day by doing something fun for Logan! We spent the morning at The Track. They had 7 kiddie rides and Logan road all and rode the airplanes twice!
One of the most enjoyable things he did at the track was driving the go-cart. He rode with Angus and I'm fairly certain that he believed he was in control of the vehicle! His hands never left the steering wheel except for a very quick wave to me as he drove by! His eyes never left the road.
We headed over to Mel's Diner for lunch. Where I tried their hand battered catfish...and the waitresses were beyond nice! They all took turns holding Hamish, and gave Logan a handful of toy dinosaurs (which are his current favourite toy!).
While in the diner, we started hearing rumblings that the eclipse was starting. I went out to the car to grab our glasses to take a look. It was really something looking around and in every parking lot, there were people standing with glasses on looking skyward.
We packed up our lunch and had to make a decision on where to watch the eclipse. Some locals told us that they recommended watching from a parking lot on a hill. We opted not to drive into the state park, or 20 minutes down the highway to Townsend...the closest location for totality. We feared being stuck in traffic. So we headed up the hill to watch and decided that 98% totality was good enough!
Once we got up to the parking lot, we saw a few other carloads of people setting up to watch. We really wanted to experience it with a crowd...so quickly packed up and drove down the street to the Tanger outlets where they were hosting a viewing party. There was a musician, ice cream, balloons and a crowd of people.
When the eclipse was almost at its peak, the musician put his guitar down and blasted Total Eclipse of The Heart on the radio.
There was a moment of quiet as the moon almost completely covered the sun. It was pretty great watching the sky go dark and when it was done, Bad Moon Rising played and the crowed applauded the sun and moon for their performance. Logan describes the eclipse as the sun and moon playing hide & seek!
Watch here to see the light change!
After a busy morning, we decided to head back to the hotel to have a rest.
We ate our left overs from lunch and headed back out for the evening. We went for a walk across the street to The Island. Logan was very excited to ride the huge sky wheel (Ferris wheel). The ride provided a gorgeous view of the mountains and it was lovely to ride at sunset!
We continued wandering the island and stopped for spaghetti ice cream at Poyner's Pommes Frites.
The island is known for its lights and fountain show, which we enjoyed (while sitting in wooden rocking chairs they provide all around the fountain)
Before walking back to our hotel we decided to sample moonshine from Ole Smokey. We weren't sure what to expect....but we ended up sampling 12 different flavours! The first sample was the worst, and burned going down. By the end of sampling we were enjoying it and purchased 2 bottles!!
Our hotel happens to be right across from a Jurassic park boat ride adventure building. We knew this before heading to pigeon forge, and Logan has been talking about Jurassic park since he found out we were coming here! However....he is terrified of the front of the building, and does not want to ride the ride! However...despite being afraid of the dinosaurs,he has wanted to go back to see them every time we walk by!
No comments:
Post a Comment