50 Golden Years

Our "official" 50th Anniversary was August 4.  Although the trip to Yellowstone earlier in the summer with Amy and family was our family celebration, we decided to celebrate the actual day by going to the Smoky Mountains.  Probably thirty anniversaries out of fifty were spent in the Smokies so it seemed fitting that we return for the big one.  Bubba used to always schedule his vacation for the first week in August so we could do something special.   

We started our trip by spending two nights in Atlanta.  We stayed with Amelia on Wednesday so that Amy and Darryl could both work.  Amelia started school on August 4 so we got to see her off for her first day.  She was really happy to be back in school.

After giving the Atlanta traffic time to settle down we started on the four hour trip to Pigeon Forge/Sevierville, TN.  Our first stop was at Jaemore Farms where we purchased peaches and boiled peanuts to take with us and had a fried peach pie with homemade peach ice cream for "lunch".

We arrived at the Comfort Inn Apple Valley and found that the accommodations I had reserved were perfect.  This inn had won the platinum award several years in a row and Trip Adviser had only positive reviews for it.  I don't know that we have ever stayed in a cleaner room!  We had a balcony that looked out on an apple orchard plus one of our favorite restaurants, Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant was close by.

My Breakfast

Bubba's Breakfast

We changed clothes to eat out since it seemed appropriate for the occasion and went to Alamo Steakhouse for a delicious steak dinner.  Afterwards we went shopping at the outlet mall and Bubba bought me a Le Creuset Dutch oven I wanted.  Yep, that was what I wanted for my anniversary.  (He got two knives and a display case for knives and a $2.00 hat.)  These are not the traditional anniversary gifts but we both got what we wanted.

Anniversary Dinner Out

Bubba's $2.00 Hat

The next day we went into Gatlinburg and looked around.  We watched the taffy pulling machine at the candy kitchen like we always do.  Although the mornings were cooler (slightly), by noon each day it was sweltering just like it is in Florida.  We had an early dinner at the Applewood and then came back and enjoyed cooling off in the pool and relaxing poolside.

Smoky Mountain Candy Kitchen

Enjoying the scenery!

Definitely not the Grand Tetons!

Bubba on a rock - That must be where Amelia gets it from.

Saturday evening we at at Big Daddy's Pizza in Pigeon Forge.  We had an appetizer plus the "Mama Mia" pizza with everything on it.  It was soooo good!  We took three pieces back to the motel with us.  The next morning Bubba ate the free breakfast at the motel and I ate all three pieces of pizza for my breakfast.  And you know, it was very filling.  Maybe diets would work better if you could eat pizza for breakfast. Hmmmm.

On Sunday we went back to Atlanta via two produce stands that were packed with people.  In addition to buying some produce to bring home, we stood in line to get yet another fried peach pie and homemade peach ice cream.  (Boy am I dreading that scale!)

Monday we arrived home around 4:00 and unloaded in the rain.  We enjoyed the trip very much.  My only regret is that I wish I had planned so that we weren't in Pigeon Forge on the weekend.  The traffic was terrible on Saturday and it would have been nice to shop for produce without so many people.  With that said, it was definitely a good trip and I'm glad we did something special for the actual day.

Amelia story:
     She got up in the middle of the night and put on her school clothes for Monday morning and went back to bed!