The Adventures of the Courington Family: TN - Day 6

On Day 6, we headed into Pigeon Forge for lunch at the Old Mill. This is an actual working mill that has a restaurant. It was pretty cool. The building is a really neat, old building and they serve great southern home-cookin' dishes. Today was our coldest day to date, a chilly high of 42. Pigeon Forge is the mecca of tourist traps. It is like Branson on steroids. There are putt, museum, go-kart places EVERYWHERE. If we go back, we will definitely be shreddin' some tire on one of those tracks. Several places had go-kart tracks shaped like a roller coaster track with cork screws and all. Anyway, they even have "as seen on tv" stores. Leah was dying to go in one (she is quite the infomercial queen), but we ran out of time. While I'm on a random info kick, that area of TN has some type of fetish with pancake houses. There are literally one per resident in that area. Speaking of residents in that area, I was amazed to learn that the population of Gatlinburg is around 3,000. On the weekends there are usually 100,000 people in the town. Tourist capital for sure! So back to stuff that "matters".

"Yes, I'm warm, but barely able to see or breathe" - Kate

The "kids" - Sarah, Caleb, Andrew, Christa, Michelle and Ruthie

The "other" table - Isaiah, Lisa, Micah, Dad, Mom, Daddy-O, Leah, Mommy, Kate and JT

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch of catfish, chicken fried steak, burgers, dumplings, turkey, corn fritters and biscuits. We then went shopping at a few stores and caught a potter giving a demonstration.

Lil' Miss Photogenic

The restaurant

The water wheel

Kate was snuggled up in a snowsuit with a full belly and passed out in the backpack again. I am beginning to think we will be using these backpacks a LOT. She will sleep anywhere in them and when she is awake, she is happy in it.

Time to hibernate

When we got back to the cabin it was time for dinner and preparations for our family talent show. This was a last minute idea of my mom's, but was one of the highlights of the trip. Someday, when I get my posts caught up (ha,ha!), I will try to post the video.

Leah did a ballet dance to Music box Dancer

Kate would play a single note on a recorder and then smile and clap until everyone clapped and then repeat the whole process

Christa and Ruthie sang a fun duet

G-Daddy and Nana did a rendition of "Little Bunny Foo-Foo"

Sarah showed off her gymnastic skills

Michelle dedicated a beautiful song to Dad and JT

Lisa did her impression of Leah (which Leah LOVED)

Not shown: Isaiah's Godzilla imitation, knocking down towers of blocks, J.T. acting like a gangster, Caleb and the blind bandits, my sad attempt at juggling and Micah giving Lisa an "airplane" ride.

Daddy-O prepping for his talent

Daddy-O's talent was his ability to produce random information. A couple of years ago my dad asked the question, "how many piano tuners are in New York?" in a conversation with Lisa. She wasn't sure what to think of it. "Am I really supposed to know that","should I look it up", "Does he really know?" were some of the thoughts filling her head. It has become one of those "personal" family jokes since then. Well Daddy-O was able to find this and earn even more favor with my father. It was hilarious to EVERYONE listening, except for my dad who found it very intriguing. It was a very fun, bonding night.

Then it was off to the hot tub and theater room for some R&R!