Great Pumpkin LumiNights

Today Madison got home from school with familiar news:  she made the honor role again.  She got all A's on her first report card of Fifth Grade.  This is so routine for Mommy and Daddy.  She has a 100 average in science.  You want to see where you can help, and of course we do a lot of that, but there aren't necessarily any adjustments that need to be made at this point.  I mean, if the weakest area is a 95 average, how do you come in and say, "Okay, so that's a little low.  Let's focus on that."  Obviously, we're not doing that, because she's doing great across the board.  We're very proud of her, and we tell her that frequently.  She's doing such a wonderful job in school.

So we had school this morning, and work at the office too.  But it was an early release day, so we did something we love to do each October:  we traveled north.  Here above is a picture of Mommy and Madison at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line in Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  It's a beautiful drive through the park this time of year, as the leaves are colorful and the air is brisk.  It wasn't terribly cold on top of the mountains, but it was cool enough to remind us that it was in fact fall.  

Our destination today was Pigeon Forge, which we really haven't done so much with Madison.   In fact, we've never taken her to Dollywood before, and so today's visit fixed that a bit:  we went to Dollywood tonight, with plans to go tomorrow as well.

There is a deal where you can go after 3pm, and get in free the next day.  This was the plan.  We got there around 5:30 or 6pm, and really had just one goal in mind:  to see the Great Pumpkin LumiNights.  Everything else was just icing on the cake, including this very nice ride on the carousel here.  

The other thing Madison really wanted to do was the bumper cars.  This may be ever since she played "LEGO Batman 2," where she and Daddy would do the bumper car ride all the time.  There aren't too many bumper cars around, so when we heard about these, Madison got excited.  It turned out to be the highlight of the trip for her, at least her favorite ride.  We did it twice tonight with a full capacity, and we didn't really have to wait each time we got in line.  

We did that a few times, as well as the Rockin Roadway, which is somewhat like the Tomorrowland Speedway, but with older cars and fifties music.  And by the time we were done with that, it was getting dark enough to head over and see the pumpkins.

This is one of the more intricately carved ones, where the skin of the pumpkin isn't cut so much as carved into.  The butterfly is a symbol of Dollywood, of course, but it also makes for a nice image on the pumpkin.  Here are just a few of the pumpkins we saw tonight, also carved along a walkway:

They were everywhere.  It would be very, very difficult to count all the pumpkins we saw tonight - it would take a really long time.  The Great Pumpkin LumiNights is a seasonal event where you find a walkway nearby the entrance of Dollywood, and then follow it along, looking at all the pumpkins and displays along the way - like this one here:

This is one of the areas that everyone stops to take pictures.  There's music, mist, and all kinds of creepy lighting to add to the atmosphere.  It looked fantastic!  And here below are some more carvings nearby:

Like I said, it would be difficult to count them all.  We've never seen so many carved pumpkins in one place.  It was really impressive.  We walked along the pathway, taking pictures and getting ideas for our own carving party coming up.  We like the owl pumpkins!

Oh, and then there was this giant spider pumpkin too:

This one is sort of the symbol for the night, the pumpkin sculpture that shows up on all the advertising.  We're not entirely big fans of spiders, but this one seemed pretty friendly!

Here are some notable pumpkins!  We sent this picture to Madison's piano teacher, Mrs. Pam, who appreciated the shapes and carvings.  Oh, and here's one below that caught Madison's attention:

I couldn't imagine doing this one, just thinking of all those tiny strips in the back of the shell.  We're not sure if this was a real pumpkin or a foam one.  Regardless, its a unique carving, and Madison spotted it right away amongst all the others.  "Sea turtle!" she called out.  

Along the pathway, there were actually two guys there that were carving away pumpkin designs that were much more complicated:

These have to take a lot of time.  There were about twenty or so of these more intricately carved pumpkins, all lit up for everyone to see.  The artists were there in front, busily sculpting away at new designs.  It was fascinating to watch, and challenging.

Here's Madison in front of that large spider pumpkin.  She was enjoying the tour of the pumpkins just as much as we were.  The music and lighting made the night really fun, as did all the pumpkins.  Check out these owls below:

We were theorizing about the title of the area, "The Great Pumpkin LumiNights."  You can see the entrance here:

The theory is that the event itself is not "great," but that the place is home to "The Great Pumpkin" himself, and these are his LumiNights.  This theory is backed up by this image here:

Could this be Linus' legendary Great Pumpkin?  Is it that he thinks this pumpkin patch is the most "sincere," and is residing here in Dollywood?  That's a pretty big pumpkin character regardless, and we suppose he's the one that sort of rules all over the festivities.   Speaking of which, check out these characters that Madison ran into just before it turned dark:

There were a few stilt walkers out there.  This guy reminds us of Devine in the Animal Kingdom, although he's a pumpkin version.  Another stilt walker roamed about in an owl costume with lights:

Later on in the evening, it would be difficult to get a picture with him.  Owls seemed to be a theme at Dollywood, alongside butterflies.  This owl looked just spooky enough at night though!  Still, he was happy to take a picture with Madison here.  There were plenty of photographic opportunities, as you can see here:

Madison was posing inside the coffin, getting her Wednesday pose just right.  And here she is below, in front of the biggest display of all, with so many stacked pumpkins and lights:

It was a fun night.  We really enjoyed ourselves, and got into the spirit of things with this seasonal walk through the pumpkins and lights.  This year we've gotten to do so many wonderful things related to October that it'll be hard to beat.

But the month is not over yet, and we've got a big day planned for tomorrow.  We went back to our hotel by the creek, listening to the water go by just outside our window.  It was easy to fall asleep tonight.  The three of us were falling asleep while thinking of tomorrow's big plans, and looking back on a wonderful evening amongst the pumpkins.