We arrived at Dollywood again today, and the forecast was initially pretty glum. But as you can see above, that changed a bit allowing us a good long time in the park before the rain eventually did set in. This morning before heading out, Maddie and played a game of Monster Crunch, the cereal game we brought along. And we did have a little bit of the continental breakfast they offered at the hotel. It's a bit longer of a throw, but our view of the river is so great here and sure enough there are ducks down there that we could throw some bread to.
We got ready and soon after, we made our way to Dollywood, jamming to some Dolly Parton songs on the drive there. We parked in C for Candy, and got in the park at eleven on the dot, just in time to catch a gospel show at the palace theater there. It was a musical quartet, "A.R.M.D. Vasilios," and they were very good. We started the day out with praise music, the best way to begin. And we love the fact that the theater was filled with people too.
After that, we made a beeline straight for the food!
We went to the Front Porch for lunch, and it was great as always. Mom had her cheeseburger, and it was on gluten-free bread so it was just right for her. Maddie and I had street tacos, which we knew were good because we had them at the spring festival a few months ago.
And yes, the porgs came along with us again too. You'll see plenty of pictures of them as we go about our day. The meal was wonderful and filling too. We wandered outside and the next stop was the Celebrity Theater behind us, where another performance was just about to start, so we jumped right in to see an absolutely incredible mandolin player and an amazing bluegrass band.
Alan Bibey and Grasstowne - I told Maddie I doubted she'd see a better mandolin player than what she heard this afternoon. It was a fairly long set, but it was great music, just the kind you want to hear on a trip up to Tennessee. We loved that song, "When Jesus Swings the Wrecking Ball."
So maybe the biggest attraction of the park for us this time around is the decor, and of course at night it's spectacular. But during the daytime, it was super pleasant walking around and seeing all there was to see. There was the pumpkin tree, a ginormous pumpkin stack - it's been moved over to close by where we ate. And it was there that you could also find some real incredible pumpkins that grew to epic sizes. We were marveling at the large pumpkins from just about all over the South. I could only imagine the challenges getting them here and in place, but they looked great lined up along for all to see.
We were ready for a few rides after this, so our first stop was the Rockin' Roadway, which there was literally no line for. No one was in front of us at all. We just literally went through the cue, and hopped right on, and went for a ride!
Maddie took her own car - she saw a speedster that she really wanted. Mom and I went cruising together as the radio played "Lollipop" for a trip down memory lane.
The park was really quiet today. The threatening weather may have played a factor, but we enjoyed a beautiful day there, looking around as always. We were able to take pictures like these below with hardly anyone around, whereas there's usually always someone there walking by.
Our next stop was the River Rampage, which we had a great time on. Again, we pretty much walked on. Hardly any line at all!
We did get wet, but not as soaked as last time, and not anywhere near as soaked as the others on our boat! From there, we walked over to Craftsman Valley for a bit.
We stopped over at the Wings of America show to see the bird show there, getting to say hi to a red-tailed hawk, a tiny owl, and Mrs. Peregrine too.
That was a nice stop. The area of the valley has an owl theme to it, with the pumpkins all designed like owls, white owls too.
We were finding buckeyes on the ground from the trees above. And there was a strolling guitar player we ran into and talked with for a bit as well.
There were plenty of other characters to meet too, and there were no lines to meet any of them. So we walked right up to meet and even talk with them for a bit, and then pose for pictures of course. You'll notice Maddie's new friend there. She's named him Lord Puffington III. So she spotted that as a prize in the game area, which we never really stop at. But we got some tokens to play one of those squirt games that I'm actually pretty good at by this point. But the game was rigged in our family's favor because there were three of us lined up in the game, and at the start of things, we all aimed for our targets and .... Maddie won! She didn't know what she could get and didn't realize at first that she could get the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. But indeed she could and she was pretty happy with him, carrying him around the park the rest of the day. It's been secretly a little item on my "to do list" to have a family member carry around a carnival prize the rest of the day at a park. Maddie happily complied.
So our next stop was the Firechaser Express, which was our roller coaster of the day. We decided only one roller coaster per day, as that would be enough emotional trauma for Maddie each day. Not that I'm forcing her too - this is her own policy. She loves them and is terrified of them at the same time! But this one was very fun - she was screaming all the way through, but loved it!
Check out this picture of us on the coaster - that's me with my hands up there! I spotted Mom below waving back at us!
Like I said, there weren't as many people here. It was great to just walk along and talk with people and take pictures and enjoy the decorations.
Maddie spotted the bats here, and of course we had to talk about frickin' bats. We sent Camille a video of the bats, along with Maddie's voice imitating a little girl we were laughing at, one who says, "I just love frickin bats!"
We went over to Wildwood Grove because we were there in the area, and we saw a lot of the decorations there and posed for a few pictures too. We met some more characters too, including one we posed with last time, as did our porgs!
And that's when we realized something - this the same lady that was doing the chalk art during our last visit! We spent some time talking to her in the spring as she was processing with some chalk art on the ground. Anyway, it was pretty cool getting to spend some time talking with her.
From there, we made our way back through the park towards the direction we came from. There were other characters, and we stopped by to see the birds again too.
We even stopped to hear another performance there at the chapel. Some gospel singers were performing, and we sat down a spell to take in the atmosphere.
Maddie spotted a checkerboard there, and I was happy to sit and play a game of checkers with her!
We heard some other performers doing 90's country songs - although I didn't know all of them. We sat down at the restaurant there at the bottom of the hill, and got some dinner for ourselves.
I got the three-bean pumpkin chili, and Maddie got some fried chicken. Mom had some beans and corn as well, and the three of us sat there enjoying the music and the nice weather outside. It was a beautiful, beautiful day.
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