Spring Break - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee: 1 of 2

For Spring Break this year, we drove down to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - a town nestled in the Smoky Mountains very focused on tourists.  My parents flew in to spend the week with us in our cabin rental that was very cool and made from hand-hewn logs.  I had driven through Tennessee a couple times and fell in love with the natural beauty of the mountains, trees, etc.  I had never been in Pigeon Forge, however, so we were not prepared for how crowded it would be with tourists and how many attractions it hosted.  Tanja commented that the main highway seemed like a scaled down version of the Las Vegas Strip with all the shows, features, hotels, and other things it had to offer.

Pigeon Forge is home to Dolly Parton's amusement park, Dollywood.  While we decided not to go there since our kids aren't fans of big roller coasters, we did go to a couple of her other attractions.  First we went to a dinner musical show about the Hatfields and McCoys (legendary feuding families of the Appalachians).  We had fun outside the theater with all the decorations like silly tombstones and photo stands.  The text on this tombstone reads:

Buttermilk Hatfield
Tried milkin a cow
That was really a bull
Milk can's empty
Grave is full

To get a sense of the level of kitschy attractions for miles along the main highway in Pigeon Forge, imagine attractions like this interspersed with hotels and pancake/BBQ restaurants and you have a pretty good idea.

The food was tasty BBQ and fried chicken.  We had literal front row seats to watch the actors, dancers, and singers perform their silly but very well-done show about two families who just can't get along.

A different night we went to the Comedy Barn, another Dolly Parton-owned property that advertises itself as a home for clean, family friendly comedy.  We spent the whole evening laughing hysterically, though we wish they did more animal tricks the night we were there since we were expecting that based on videos we had watched advertising the show.

Another day, we visited an artist who carved logs into bears and other figures using a chainsaw - he was very talented and we loved window shopping through his display.  I think my parents got some ideas for their cabin in Idaho.  While there, he asked the kids if they wanted to go see his goats he had outside his storefront, so of course, we went and petted the goats.

We have enjoyed escape rooms a few times; Tanja and I did one together, Karina has done a couple for birthday parties, so we decided that could be something fun to do one morning in Tennessee.  We found one that offered us a chance to escape from Alcatraz.  Without giving away too many hints, the night before we researched a real escape attempt from Alcatraz, and it seemed that the room designers did some research as well since elements of the real escape attempt wound up in the escape room.  Derek still remembers that he found a key in the cell toilet we all started in and that started us off on our escape.  Everyone contributed to finding clues and we managed to get out of the room before our one hour time limit expired!

The cabin had a nice fire pit made out of landscaping stones, so we roasted some marshmallows and made s'mores.  Of course, the kids enjoyed that activity...

...even if they struggled to roast the marshmallows without burning them.

Since Spring Break went over Easter Sunday, even though we didn't stay for Easter, we thought it would be fun to hunt for eggs while we were there.  The kids each were able to find a bucket full of eggs and the best part was that since it was a new place, there were new hiding places.