‘Travel’ Articles at Sweetnicks, Page 4

Visit: Dollywood {Pigeon Forge, TN}

March 24, 2015 · Narrative

Hitting the road for Spring Break or looking for a fun new destination? How about Dollywood? An all-American theme park with something to see around every corner.

It’s safe to say that if there is an amusement park within a few hours, we have been there.

Likely multiple times.

When my sister and I were kids, I have fond memories of visiting Great Adventure with my Dad. We would leave at (what seemed like) the crack of dawn, so we could be there when the park opened.

And now as a parent myself, visiting theme parks have been a fun pasttime for us.

Especially since Nick LOVES roller coasters.

Higher. Faster. Better. Is pretty much his mantra.

Two feet on the ground is pretty much mine.

So when I was planning our Spring Break trip to Tennessee last year, I checked to see how far we would be from Dollywood, a theme park that has been around forever (well, almost, since they’re celebrating their 30th anniversary this year).

We didn’t exactly get there right when the park opened, which would have surely disappointed my Dad, but we did manage to make it there by noon. A day with beautiful blue skies and temps in the 80s, it couldn’t have been more perfect.

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Photos in Review {Philadelphia}

August 27, 2014 · Photos

A friend and I spent the weekend in Philadelphia, pretty much eating ourselves silly from one end of town to the other. And walking nearly eight miles during the course of it.

And now the random photo dump from our travels.

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Visit: Magic Gardens {Philadelphia, PA}

August 25, 2014 · Narrative

A not-so-secret little hideaway tucked into the South Street neighborhood of Philadelphia, the Magic Gardens is a must-visit next time you find yourself in the area.

A friend and I were on our way to visit the 9th Street Italian Market when we passed by the Magic Gardens. They weren’t quite open yet, and a crowd was slowly gathering outside. We ended up parking just around the corner, which turned out to not be as close as we thought it was to the Italian Market. A fact which I decided was fate telling me I should steal a few minutes to visit the Magic Gardens.

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Review: The Applewood Restaurant {Pigeon Forge, Tennessee}

June 2, 2014 · Narrative

Looking for an home-spun meal of good Southern cooking? Visit The Applewood Restaurant in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. A delicious, filling, and reasonably priced meal that won’t disappoint.

During our wanderings in Tennessee, I kept seeing signs for the Applewood Restaurant in Pigeon Forge. Although we left the great state of Tennessee with a few “must stop food visits” uncompleted, we did manage to squeeze in a meal at the Applewood. And thank goodness for that.

Most of our breakfasts were kind of on the fly. Grabbing something quick here and there, and taking full advantage of the hotel’s free continental breakfasts. We didn’t want to waste time with getting our day started.

But we ended up saving the best for last.

The Applewood Restaurant and adjacent candy and general store was right around the corner from the hotel we stayed at in Pigeon Forge. So on the last day, we headed over there right after we checked out.

The menu is expansive, with each item sounding more delicious than the next. It’s the kind of menu that you need to close right after you make a decision, lest you change your mind.

As soon as our waiter greeted us, he brought over a basket of fresh apple muffins, apple fritters, and apple butter. On the house.

Madeline demolished all the muffins, and the basket was happily replenished. She didn’t care for the fritters, but I did and took care of those. And the apple butter? Amazeballs. So good that I hunted it down in the general store and brought home a few jars.

Having Tennessee smoked ham had been on my “must eat” list for the week, so that was a given as part of our order. Madeline went with waffles, and Nick chose French toast. We also added biscuits, since we had been on a Southern biscuit kick for most of the week. And I had an egg white veggie stuffed omelet. Trying to be virtuous enough to balance out the apple fritters and apple butter.

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Review: Jack’s Bar-B-Que {Nashville, Tennessee}

April 30, 2014 · Narrative

Need to know the best eats in Nashville? Jack’s Bar-B-Que. That’s pretty much all you need to know.

As soon as we pulled up to our Nashville hotel for our first night in Tennessee, I asked the valet for a dinner recommendation.

Want to know the best place to eat in town?

Ask a local.

But I gave him very specific criteria.

Kid-friendly. Reasonably priced. Not a huge wait. A place that screams Nashville.

And the place where he would go to if he could only go to one place in all his time in Nashville.

And Jack’s Bar-B-Que it was.

Originally started as a catering company in 1976, the restaurant was about four blocks from the hotel, and since the weather was pretty clear, and I am intent on keeping up with my Fitbit friends, we decided to leave the car and walk to dinner.

Which totally would have been awesome had the skies not opened up during dinner to welcome us with a torrential downpour.

Yep, yep.

Nothing that a six dollar cab ride can’t fix.

So we walked into the lively Jack’s and I dispatched Nick to grab a table. There are a handful of tables in the front of the restaurant, and more on the second floor (seating that you can view from a tv screen while you’re in line).

Luckily we were a bit early for dinner, and there were just a few people in line. I queued up and started scanning the menu so I would be ready. The menu is short and direct.

Meat.

BBQ.

Vegetables.

They are focusing on what they’re good at.

Which is pretty much the way to go.

Restaurants that have pages and pages and pages of menu offerings always are off-putting to me. Lack of focus.

During our Tennessee adventure, I wanted to be sure to hone in and enjoy local Tennessee specialties. Really chow down on the best the state has to offer.

And BBQ is definitely a sure-fire way to go.

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Visit: Sterling Hill Mining Museum {Things to Do in New Jersey}

April 28, 2014 · Narrative

When my sister and I were kids, we used to do family day trips on Sunday, with each of the four of us taking a turn choosing our destination. I routinely chose Chinatown or somewhere else in NYC, as my sister did sometimes as well, and my Dad was always good for something steeped in history (bonus points if it was Civil War or involved trains), and my Mom usually chose something with antiques.

Good times, and certainly good memories.

And so when the kids and I found ourselves with a completely free Sunday this past weekend, we set off on our own little adventure. I have a running list of activities saved on my phone, which is a great reference point when we’re looking for something to do. And also so I don’t forget any places I want to visit. A great jumping off point, it’s a mix of local and not-so-local destinations, and has a variety of things to appeal to all of us. It includes everything from activities and destinations to food we want to hunt down.

As we were getting a slow and lazy start to our Sunday, I had narrowed down our destination to four locations. One was two hours away, one an hour, and two under an hour. I decided I didn’t feel like driving four hours over the day, in an attempt to retain the chill vibe we had going on, so crossed that location off the list. The destination that was an hour away would have been good to tack a picnic onto to as well, but it was a bit too windy for that, so I crossed that one off our options list. The place that was 45 minutes away had two tours during the day. One in the beginning, and one at the end. Neither of which worked for our plans.

So with the process of elimination in full effect, we ended up at the Sterling Hill Mining Museum.

With two extra kids in tow.

A mere thirty minutes from our house, one of my continuing goals for this year is to discover more of what is already in our own backyard, so this was perfect for that as well. Nick has been on a field trip to this place before, but the girls and I hadn’t visited before. He has a keen interest in rocks, so I knew that even though he had been before, he wouldn’t mind going again, and it turns out that parts of our tour he hadn’t done with his class, so win/win.

An easy drive off the highway, the Sterling Hill Mine has been around since 1761. It officially ceased mining operations in 1986 for a variety of reasons, and after being sold in a tax sale in 1989, it reopened as a museum. It was later classified as a state historic site, and a national historic site, and is also a non-profit. The mine is perhaps most known for its zinc ore with a high concentration of minerals that glow underneath an ultraviolet light.

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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Visit: The Mansions of Hyde Park, New York {Vanderbilt & Roosevelt}

April 2, 2014 · Narrative

Looking for a fun, yet historical, day trip? What about a trip to the mansions of Hudson Valley? Vanderbilt … Roosevelt … Let’s go!

When we visited the Rhinebeck area for our Jones Dairy Farm trip in February, Sarah and I planned to leisurely check out some of the sights before heading home to our kids. You know, before my kids called and asked if I could come home early. We thoroughly explored the downtown Rhinebeck shopping area, and just before hopping on the highway homeward bound, we made quick visits to the mansions in the Hyde Park area. Although a chilly weekend, the scenery was gorgeous nonetheless.

Vanderbilt Mansion was our first stop. What struck me most about this first stop was the sheer immensity of the mansion. All things considered, it’s huge by today’s standards. Which means it was positively ginormous back in the day. The original construction began in 1764, when the Gilded Age was all the rage. It sits on over 200 acres of beautifully maintained grounds, just east of the Hudson River. It is a National Historic Site, and with its proximity to New York City and the railroads, the mansion became prime real estate in the Hudson Valley. With over 54 rooms, it was the epitome of grandeur, and in the early 1940s, parts of the mansion even served as quarters for President Roosevelt’s Secret Service to stay.

One hour guided tours are available daily, and entrance to the grounds and parking are free. There is a small gift shop inside the visitor’s center that features great little treasures and souvenirs.

119 Vanderbilt Park Rd, Hyde Park, NY 12538
(845) 229-7770

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Traveling This Summer? You Need This App. {Roadside America}

June 10, 2013 · Narrative

When I was planning our recent road trip to Baltimore, I wanted to break up the road trip a bit. Both to make it more fun and interesting along the way, and to give me a chance to get out of the car to stretch my legs a bit.

I heart road trips because it gives you a chance to really see the areas you’re going through, and unless you have a tight schedule, you have the freedom and control to stop whenever you want to. Many of my fondest memories from back in the day are from road trips with friends, even The Ex (our honeymoon was a road trip to Florida), and now that the kids and I road trip together, it’s even better.

So I googled around to find some good web sites that would show me some quirky and fun stops we could do along the way to Baltimore this weekend, and I hit pay dirt when I happened upon Roadside America’s web site. You can search by state (and drill down by city), and find a plethora of places that are off-the-beaten path type kitschy things to do along the way (including specific directions, tips, and whether or not others deemed it worth a stop). It also has a route planner so you can map out your journey. I put our home address in for the start and finish of the trip, and plugged in all the stops I wanted to do along the way, to give me an itemized turn-by-turn itinerary, which I printed out and brought with me. By using Roadside America’s itinerary, I was able to have the most efficient way to visit all the stops, but then I also plugged each address into the GPS, so I wouldn’t have to refer to the paper while we were en route.

Me <<<< safe driver!

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