Gatlinburg with the Christensens

We took a trip to Gatlinburg with the Christensens the weekend before Thanksgiving. They were going to drive to Michigan for Thanksgiving, and we decided it was a great meeting spot.

We decided that we needed to do some of the classic Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge tourist things - so we found a place that we could do Go Karts on two different tracks.

Cheering on the racers from a bridge on the course.

The second track went up and up on a spiral and then down a big hill.

Torin got to ride on this one in a 2-seater car with Jared.

We did Dolly Parton's stampede - the Christmas edition. Camie decided that the service was equal to in efficiency to Disney - everything was timed out perfectly! The food was actually pretty good.

Everything really did come out quickly and was cleaned up quickly to prepare for the next show.

 

The show was fun and was Christmas themed.

There was horsemanship, including, of course, the classic horse jumping through a ring of fire.

We did the Moonshine Mountain Coaster. It was a little bit of a wait, but it was pretty fun. A ride up to the top and then rolling down hill through twists and turns. 

It was a very Gatlinburg experience!

We went to a milkshake place that had the BIGGEST milkshakes! They were nuts - we shared 3 between our whole family and it was plenty! 

They were so fun!

We went on a hike to Alum Cave, a hike we had done as a family in 2020 as well. It was a chilly day.

Not all the hikers were cheerful the entire time - until Liam discovered that he could design an epic video game in his brain and talk about it for the last hour plus. Forks and Knives, Kitchen Battle Royale. Later in the vacation, Liam would start drawing all his kitchen drawer-based weapons.

We went on a run by the river.

Hillbilly Golf was everything Jared and Camie remembered it being, starting with the incline ride up the hill.

Near the top, Camie found a bear offering free bearhugs. Naturally, she took him up on the offer.

There was a bath tub

It was a fun time to make new memories with our family and to re-live memories for Camie and Jared!

As usual, Kate and Adele were always only a couple feet apart - often closer!

We didn't get many pictures of the house, but there were lots of games that were played constantly. It was a fun long weekend with the Christensens!