‘Gatlinburg’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Visit: Gatlingburg Space Needle {Tennessee}

April 13, 2015 · Narrative

Looking for a great view of the Tennessee landscapes and the beautiful Smoky Mountains? Be sure to visit the Space Needle in Gatlinburg.

I have to finish posting about the rest of our Tennessee trip so I can finally get all the photos off my phone and into a photo album. I think after today, there are three more posts and then we can finally close the book on Spring Break 2014.

When we visited the Ripley’s Aquarium in downtown Gatlinburg on our first night, I spied the Space Needle and asked one of the employees about it. I am all for visiting a place that would give us stunning views and photo opps.

I am not so much in for the height aspect, but sometimes you just have to suck it up.

So I did.

It was opened to visitors in 1969, and rises 407 feet in the air. After paying your admission, you take a short elevator ride to the top observation deck. Once there, you’re free to stay there as along as you want, and the views of downtown Gatlinburg, and, of course, the Smoky Mountains are amazing. When it was built, it was the second tallest tower in the state; it is now the fifth tallest.

There are many free view finders located around the 360 degree deck, and there is also quite a bit of history to read up on while you are there as well. The tower took over a year to make and weighs over four million pounds.

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Visit: Aerial Tramway, Ober Gatlinburg {Tennessee}

December 3, 2014 · Narrative

Visiting Tennessee? The Aerial Tramway at Ober Gatlinburg will give you some of the best views of downtown Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains that you could ask for.

I am not exactly scared of heights.

They’re just not my favorite.

But I try really hard not to let it impede on my activities with the kids.

See Exhibit A.

And Exhibit B.

And countless other to-be-blogged activities.

And today’s topic is another example.

There are two things that help me deal with getting over my issue.

1 – My kids

2 – A photo opp

Which is exactly how I found myself high up in the air during our Spring Break visit to Tennessee.

Because it sounded like fun (minus the up in the air issue), the kids agreed, and I knew it would be ripe for good photos of the Smoky Mountains.

Nestled right in the middle of the bustling downtown section of Gatlinburg, the tram and parking was easy to find. We paid our admission and queued up to board the next tram.

Built in 1973, it cost $5.5 million for the tram and its construction, and another $1.3 million later on for modernization. Made in Switzerland, each car (there are two) holds 120 people. And by “hold,” it mainly means grabbing for the ceiling strap and hanging on.

There is a bench at both the front and back of the tram car, but only a handful of seats. Both times we went on it (going there and back to its destination of Ober Gatlinburg), I angled for the best spot to be near a window. The counter-balanced tram cars were originally put in place to give skiers an easier way to head up the windy hill when they wanted to go skiing.

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Visit: Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies {Gatlinburg, Tennessee}

May 21, 2014 · Narrative

It’s a given that probably 75% of our outings involve animals. Or Ripley’s. And our Spring Break in Tennessee is no exception.

It actually involved a lot of both.

And that 75% is purely an unscientific guess.

When I was researching things we could do in Tennessee and saw that there was an aquarium in the general vicinity of our second hotel, it was pretty much a given that we would stop there.

On our second night in Tennessee, we made the three hour drive from Nashville to Gatlinburg, checked in at the hotel and took off for the aquarium right away.

It might not take the average person three hours to drive that distance, but that’s the beauty of road trips, isn’t it? You can stop along the way whenever you want.

The Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies is located right off the main drag in downtown Gatlinburg and was really easy to find. A tall parking deck adjacent to the aquarium made it easy to find a space, and it’s only a few dollars (cash only) for parking.

We arrived a few hours before the place closed, which I highly recommend, because I wouldn’t necessarily say we had the place to ourselves, but we almost had the place to ourselves.

Which was all sorts of awesome. It gave us the freedom to wander from exhibit to exhibit and not have to worry about fighting any crowds when it came to a show or an opportunity to touch slimy creatures.

The place is huge, boasting some 10,000 sea creatures amongst their space. Some items are usual suspects amongst aquariums, some were new to us. (They have a great virtual tour right here)

There is peaceful, calming music piped throughout the aquarium, which was really a nice touch, and there were knowledgeable staff members ready to answer any questions we had as we explored at our own pace.

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Our Favorite Eats in Tennessee {Food}

April 22, 2014 · Narrative

When we were in Tennessee last week, I wanted to make sure to have as much local food as possible … to really have a chance to dive in and find local favorites.

And I think we did just that.

I swear it feels like we ate our way from one end of the state to the other.

Likely because we did.

While most days, we didn’t even have three meals a day (some days were just one), we snacked and tasted and indulged around every corner.

And it was wonderful.

Let’s dig in.

Tennessee Pork Shoulder – BBQ is, of course, big in Tennessee and our first foray into it did not disappoint. We found the very best at Jack’s BBQ in Nashville. Tender, subtly flavored, but made amazeballs with their house-made, slightly tangy, BBQ sauce.

Cinnamon Bread – When we visited Dollywood, we spied a working grist mill where they were turning out fresh, hot from the oven loaves of cinnamon bread and giant cookies nearly as big as Madeline’s head. We bought one of each, found a shady spot outside and devoured every last speck.

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Spring Break 2014 {Tennessee}

April 22, 2014 · Narrative

Oh Spring Break, you were awesome.

(And re-entry today was no joke.)

Armed with a list of attractions and a keen eye on keeping that magical balance of seeing everything, yet being able to bask in the supreme nothingness of a true vacation, last week the kids and I set off for the great green lands of Tennessee. Something completely different for us. My first go-to for a vacation is always a cruise. Because I like the fact that everything is taken care of for you – from where you’ll go to dinner to how you’ll get to your next destination. And as the only grown-up in this traveling crew, that’s a huge help. But this year, we took a cruise off the table and set off to explore someplace we’ve never been.

Tennessee.

Choosing a destination was ridiculously hard, although my criteria was fairly simple.

A destination that was a few hours by air.

A place that none of us had been to before.

And reasonably priced air fare.

Nevada was in the running for awhile, but the airfare was out of my budget.

And the last criteria? That there be enough kid-friendly activities for us to do, with a balance of things I would like as well.

And the more I looked at Tennessee, the more we liked it. Although we planned to spend most of our time in the Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg areas, we flew into Nashville, three hours West by car. One, because it saved me $450 on our airfare and two, because it gave us an opportunity to see other parts of the state as well.

We spent the first night in Nashville, and had the most awesome BBQ ever on Music Row. The next morning, we bummed around downtown Nashville, taking in the sights and some shopping before we headed to our next destination. And also in search of sweatshirts because the city was an unexpected cold of 30 degrees (with snow even, on our drive to Pigeon Forge). Once firmly ensconced in our Pigeon Forge hotel, we spent the next thirty-six hours bouncing between there and Gatlinburg.

Our last night, I was originally planning to drive back to Nashville and spend the night there, but we ended up staying in Pigeon Forge because we liked it that much more.

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