Exploring Arts, Crafts and anything Sweet!

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Word of wisdom - cured bacon that does not need to be refrigerated is super salty, not just scary! We have planned our breakfasts at home so that we can relax in the mornings. Our first morning in TN, we made crepes and Jay’s road trap bacon in addition to a food store bacon because quite frankly we had no faith in the bacon Jay bought from Abbott Farms stand in South Carolina. Let’s just say we are keeping an eye out for some collard greens to cook and add this cured bacon to because it was so salty there pretty much isn’t anything else to make with it!

Our frist day in TN we planned on touring the 8 mile loop of the Arts and Crafts Community. http://www.gatlinburgcrafts.com/ A neat concept where you find a lot of wood working, pottery, quilting and painters displaying their wares. We did happen upon a poured concrete statue place, it was a huge lot with every single kind of outdoor statue you could imagine. Dena and Ger picked up a cute sunflower bird bath and Jay and I selected a dog-like gargoyle that reminded us of the ones we saw on Notre Dame in Paris. We did eye a pagoda that we are considering returning for to add to our little Buddha garden in the back.

Gabrielle was a trooper as we went in and out of the different stores, we tried to limit ourselves to the areas that had a concentration of them so that we were not constantly taking her in and out of the car seat. Many of the store keeps were endeared with her impish charm and her frequent smiles. We found a quaint café for lunch with outdoor seating and lovely sweet tea that was refreshing as it was a particular hot day. We also found an awesome traditional ice cream/soda shop that made tasty malted milk shakes and fruit milkshakes. Jay was thrilled to discover they did sodas the old school way, with a shot of syrup and then soda water - so he grabbed a root beer which was sweet and peppery - just that way he likes it.

This is definitely the right time of year to visit the area. The mad rush of tourists are still a few weeks away so we have no traffic, no waits and no feeling of being in a tourist magnet. These are all the things we were warned about the area but we are seeing a more sleepy side of the town it appears as it gears us possibly for the start of their season with the coming of Memorial Day weekend.

We spent our afternoon lounging around the house, blowing bubble for Gabrielle and letting Lola stretch her legs. Jay and I took both on a long walk along the winding roads of the community we are in where we saw wild strawberries growing on the side of the road, lots of the local flowers and the most amazing thing was the quite, it is so peaceful here, it is impossible not to be relaxed.

For dinner we decided to go to No Way Jose, www.nowayjosescantina.com which was a decent meal, nothing to write home about but the great thing was we got to leave out car in their parking lot and walk into the main part of town. I guess you could describe the main street area of Gatlinburgh as a mix of Jersey Shore boardwalk meets Key West’s Duval. There’s the gamut of cheesy t-shirt shops and our favorite of course - all you can handle in fugde, candy apple, caramel popcorn, pecan-chocolate delights - AKA heaven for us.

It wasn’t that we were still hungry, not at all, but we are suckers for a good piece of sugary laden anything! So home we came with our bucket of Karamel Popcorn, www.karmelkorn.com , chocolate/caramel covered apple, four pieces of fudge and some random nut clusters. All to be consumed this weekend or at the very least on our drives home.

Poor Gabrielle, who was tired and ready for bed on the drive home had to endure Dena and I serenading her with the random song lyrics we could remember. We were shocked by the number of songs that we only know a few lines to. It did the trick and she nodded off but I think it was because after hearing how in her Mommy’s version of old McDonald’s farm he had a velosa rapter and our rendition of it’s cry, she just couldn’t handle it anymore. I can’t blame her! But we did get a good laugh out of it especially when it came time to make the rapter’s noise we did the same sound, yeah we need help!

Our second day of vacation we will be heading for a hike in the Smokey Mountain National Park with Lola, should be fun!

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