Dollywood Harvest Festival

 

We were back at Dollywood early this morning for another fun day, getting to the "C Section" again, sending pictures of that sign off to some of our expectant friends.  We entered the park, and pretty much split up again for the day - Maddie and Nate were on a lot of roller coasters today including the Big Bear, the Mystery Mine and Thunderhead too.  All in all this trip, they saw a few shows, including the bird show, plus rode the train, the cars, the bumper cars and more.  Oh, and they got soaked - really soaked - on the river ride.  Mildly soaked on Daredevil Falls.

Mom and I were enjoying a lot of shows today.  The guys you see above did a great version of the song "Barbecue" from "Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas," and some other fun songs.  We hung around the front area, and went in to see the Kingdom Heirs at the Showstreet Palace.

The place was packed!  There were a lot of people there to enjoy the show, and what a way to start the day!  We enjoyed listening to the quartet (of seven) perform a lot of gospel songs, starting the day out with praise!

From there we went over to Jukebox Junction for a nice walk together, and for a bit of cruisin' too!

Mom and I waited in line for a bit and got a nice car.  The horn didn't work, but the radio was playing a great old song, "Yakety Yak."  While waiting in line, we texted Maddie and Nate and made plans for lunch at the Front Porch again.  This time, not so much of a wait, and we went to the other side to eat this time, even getting the same waitress that we had last year.

The food was filling and so good.  Maddie enjoyed these ginormous wings, and Nate got that butterfly shaped club sandwich.  Mom and I shared some salad and a gluten-free burger.  We were stuffed!  We parted from there, and afterwards, Mom and I went straight to the Celebrity Theater to see Daily & Vincent, a really great show there.

These two shows we saw at the Celebrity Theater yesterday and today were so incredible with such talent.  Mom and I loved the gospel music and the fun on stage, but there was such talent with those instruments and tight harmonies. Great, great stuff.

Afterwards, we went over to the Pines Theater to see another musical act from the Harvest Festival, this one a LARGE family of performers.  There was a dad, a wife, and ten kids, and two grandkids making an appearance too.  All of them playing instruments and performing for a packed theater. 

This family act is known as the McNeill Project, and they did what they called "Americana," which basically was a little bit of everything with styles of music.  But it was a very talented family, and we enjoyed that show quite a bit too.

Afterwards, here's Mom in front of the Pine Theater.  Mom and I walked over to another area of Dollywood - did you notice they have some Christmas decorations up already?

We followed the main area down a bit, passing by all the pumpkins and heading over to the Back Porch Theater to see one more show:  the Smoky Mountain String Band was performing, so we got a spot towards the back and in the shade, and tapped our toes for a while, listening to some more bluegrass music.  

These guys were great!  As you can tell, Mom and I spent a lot of time just watching shows today, and it was really nice.  We were just chilling out, and in fact after this went up the hill a little bit to sit in a rocking chair to sit a spell, joining up with the Porch Sitters Union one more time.

Time to head back after this though.  We passed by the grist mill, just taking our time as we went towards the front of the park.

This little store is always one of our destinations, and we made sure to stop in here to look around.  I love the big mill circling inside the store.

Ah, one more visit to the Pumpkin Tree!  Looks mighty tall, doesn't it?  

So here's the part where Mom decided it was time to get another ice cream sundae.  Yes, we were going to do that.  But first, we went to the bakery, and here I was determined to get a slice of that humungous - and I really mean humungous apple pie.

This pie is legendary.  This picture doesn't show you how big this really is.  So I'm in it for scale here...

But even so, the perspective doesn't show how big this apple pie is.  How about a sign that shows you how big it is:

Yes, that's right.  It's a 25 pound apple pie.  I just bought a slice of pie there, and I jumped the line by a LOT.  Everyone was there for the cinnamon bread, and so the employees there had me scoot on up to grab a slice of that pie.  People were blown away by it when they saw what I was getting - it was a fun item to pick up.  I think I'm saving it for the party on Saturday!

So yes, Mom and I shared our sundae.  Two butter pecan scoops, a vanilla, caramel sauce, whipped cream and about three cherries!  Yummy!  We even invited Maddie and Nate to join us for some ice cream!

So here's a fun fact, and a HUGE DOLLYWOOD TIP!  If you're getting an ice cream, you'll see there are very limited seating arrangements where the ice cream is.  Here's what you do:  keep walking inside the building until you get to where there's a bunch of tables at a coffee shop area at the other end.  Lots of room, tables, and lots of quiet! 

We finished our ice cream.  Okay, it's time to take a peek at that slice of pie!

That thing is ginormous!  It's such a big pie, and I can't wait for us to try it.  That one slice of pie is bigger than a birthday cake.  It's huge and it looks delicious!

Okay, so once we finished our sweets, it was time to dessert Dollywood.  See what I did there?  We got to the tram with no issues.

And soon we were on our way back to the Resort.  It was early enough, so Maddie and Nate got a chance to head to the large indoor pool.  It's literally right next to our room!

And it has these water slides - look up there and you can see how they go partially outside of the large room...

And then they come back in, where you can see Maddie and Nate splash down.

And again, right next to us is the arcade too - and there's where I found a Ghostbusters pinball game!  I got to try that one a few times, and did pretty well!

Maddie and Nate were roasting marshmallows at the fire pit, and resting Ho Ho's too, although that was kind of disappointing.  But they enjoyed time there with the other families at the fire pit.  

Afterwards, Maddie, Nate and I played about three games of "Monster Crunch Cereal," which was a lot of fun.  

Maddie won big with Count Chocula, although we might be having a rematch soon enough.  That was fun though!

Afterwards, it was time for prayers, and time for sleep.  It was another really full day.  Time to head home tomorrow, but we'll have a little fun with something else before we go.  Time for some sleep!