It was our 2nd trip to the area in the last year and our 6th over the last 13 years. Although I've been focused on getting back to Walt Disney World more often over the past 10 years it looks like the Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg area is my actual "vacation destination" home away from home.
Like the trip last September this time we decided to once again stay in a condo rather than a cabin or hotel room. We chose a complex called "Whispering Pines."
It's just off the main parkway in Pigeon Forge close to one of our favorite restaurant and shopping areas, The Old Mill.
That was the view of the roof of the restaurant from our condo balcony.
We arrived at the resort around dusk of Wednesday evening. From our front door of the fourth floor of building 1 we could see what I considered to be the most unique aspect of the resort, the lazy river.
I went swimming in it for about an hour on Thursday afternoon. It was a lot of fun. But I rubbed a blister on the bottom of my foot from walking on the rough bottom of the pool so I never got back in.
Here's what the inside of our condo looked like. First, the living room.
The dinning table and kitchen area.
Both of these areas were very nice and spacious. The bedroom, however was a little small.
After we got our bags unpacked and we were initially settled into our condo we were hungry but were also tired. Because it was after 9 o'clock at night by that time our dinning issues were limited. Not wanting to drive very far we looked for a place to eat close to our condo.
The Old Mill was closed so we couldn't eat there. The Golden Corral was only open for another hour or so. Based on our past experience you don't eat at any buffet so close to closing time.
We decided on the IHOP because it was just down the parkway from the condo and was open until midnight.
The place was not crowded at all. We were at one of about half a dozen tables with customers.
After sharing an order of mozzarella sticks we only ate about half of our meals. We took the rest of them home for lunch the next day.
Our final task of the night was our usual "start of our vacation" trip to the local Walmart a few miles up the parkway in Sevierville.
We picked up some drinks and groceries that would allow us to eat a few meals at our condo. We also got some fruit and cheese to snack on.
It was midnight or so before we got it all back to the condo and put everything away. We sat and relaxed a bit; watching some TV, signing on the free WiFi network and spending some time online. I had brought my computer and Paula had her Ipad.
Finally we called it a night and fell asleep on the first night of our vacation. We had plans to go out for breakfast the next day and then do some shopping in Gatlinburg. More on that in part 2 of this blog series.
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