After Smokies...KNOXVILLE!

Jennifer showed us a good time in Knoxville! First, we started off just outside of the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg (super kitchsy little town with shops galore) where we went to the Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen (the place where she had bought us the chocolate bear on a stick that I slowly ate over the course of 2 months), then we did a lovely driving tour of Pigeon Forge (home to Dollywood, pancake restaurants galore, and dozens of go-kart tracks) before ending up at Jennifer's friends Charlie & Mary's house. We had a great time talking with them- they shared lots of stories and were wonderful hosts. They were kind enough to prepare a nice dinner for us too. After that, Jennifer pointed out where the Gamble farm was and some other things in the dark, before we got to her house and PASSED OUT from being so tired!

Jennifer with Charlie and Mary

The next day we went with Jennifer, John and Amy on a driving tour of the Oak Ridge area, but passed on the museum (it would have been interesting, but it wasn't the museum kind of day). We stopped at Big Ed's pizza where we chowed down on THREE pizzas. We had worked up an appetite! That afternoon, we stopped by the dog park and watched Riley (John's dog) play with all the other dogs. Adam also witnessed a dog eating another dog's business...yikes! Then it was yummy BBQ for dinner! Somehow I still had enough energy to go shopping with Jennifer and her mom. I didn't find anything, but Jennifer bought stuff to return later. ;-) Buyer's remorse!

Because we are ridiculous.

On Tuesday, Jennifer scheduled a busy day for us! We started off the morning by visiting some of her colleagues at UT. We got to see Mary again in the Orientation office, met a few students that she had worked with, and got an amazing tour of the campus. If there is one person who can share some great stories about the campus and point out interesting facts, it is an orientation leader. Trust me!



After checking out the campus, we had lunch at Long's Drugs. Talk about yummy burgers and malts. The only downside was that this placed used lots and lots of styrofoam and plastic. We weren't too happy about that, but we'll let Jennifer contact Long's when she moves back to Knoxville to encourage them to explore other ways to serve their food while being more environmentally friendly. From there, we went back to the campus and met up with one of her other former supervisors/colleagues, JJ.

Sad face with our styrofoam cups

Jennifer then took us around downtown and the site of the World's Fair. We got to ride up the elevator of the Sunsphere. They have some displays and videos at the top, so we spent a bit of time learning facts about the Fair and the Sunsphere. It was good stuff! We decided to do a little bit of shopping in Knoxville after that. Jennifer's mom was meeting her up at the mall, so we split up with Jennifer and went back to her house to research Chinese restaurants in the area. The winner for the evening was the Mandarin House Kitchen (or something). It was a typical Chinese buffet kind of place, and I didn't think it was too bad, though their ma pao tofu left something to be desired. Adam did bring some sriracha sauce too! We chatted it up with our waiter when we were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. He actually lived in Orange County but headed out to TN for family and school. Small world!



Then it was suddenly Wednesday, April 29, and time for Jennifer and I to fly to California and Adam to drive to DC! Before we got to the airport, we stopped by Jennifer's Gran's house. She had just turned 95 over the weekend and is still one sharp cookie. She doesn't look or act like she is 95 (in a good way!).


A few random things- we met quite the characters around Knoxville! From the man who asked Adam and Jennifer how to switch his cell phone off of speakerphone, to the man downtown who tried to give us his parking spot but then couldn't because his battery was dead, to the guy in the Sunsphere who gave us his whole life story in five minutes. People sure are chatty- I suppose that is where Jennifer gets it from! (just kidding! I know you are reading this! Haha).

Wow...where to start? Smoky Mountains?

There are just so many things that have happened since I last posted. We are definitely tardy in updating the blog- for many reasons including not having reliable internet, slow at uploading photos, and laziness.

My "I've been driving...too busy to blog" face. =)

In any case, here is a recap. We arrived in the Great Smoky Mountains on April 23rd and camped at Elk Mont campground for three nights. Wow, we came at the perfect time! The dogwood trees were in bloom, there weren't too many mosquitos (and I think the bug repellent arm bracelet worked) and the weather was nice. We did catch a little bit of rain on our third night that got our tent wet, but overall it was very nice! We saw some wild turkey, drove through some very beautiful scenic roads through the park, and did a hike out to some waterfalls. We also drove out on Cades Cove and saw some of the historic buildings- houses, barns, grist mills, etc. And of course, we got to listen to some Appalachian music, banjoes and all!

We were in NC just for the drive though...must come back in the future!

Setting up camp! Elk Mont was a nice campground. They even had a little store where they sold ice and firewood for CHEAP! Shocking since usually places like those charge you an arm and a leg.

Trees in full bloom in the Smokies


Dinner our first night...Zataran's Jambalaya...sadly better than the stuff I got in New Orleans. Next time I will do better research beforehand!

I love reading by lantern in the tent!

Dogwoods in bloom...gorgeous!

Meadows in Cades Cove

Old home in the Smoky Mountains

Church in the Smoky Mountains

A still-working grist mill in the Smokies!

One of my favorite pictures of Adam...hanging out in the tent!

The view of the Smokies from Clingmans Dome

Waterfalls and creeks were everywhere in the Smokies!

At the end of our time in the Smokies, we met up with Jennifer and her family at one of the picnic areas in the park that was right off of the river/creek. It was fun chowing down with the Gambles and climbing along the rocks with Jennifer before we headed into Knoxville for some good ol' Tennessee fun!

Rock hopping in the freezing water!

Adam and Emily on opposite sides of the US!

Adam and I are doing great! Right now, I am in Irvine while Adam is in Washington D.C. We reunite tomorrow in Detroit so I'll hopefully have a chance to update our blog with photos and what we've been up to!

Just as a recap, for those who are excitedly anticipating our next blog post:
1. We went to the Smoky Mountains. It was beautiful, I only got 4 bug bites, it rained on our last evening, we met up with Jennifer's family for a yummy lunch at one of the picnic areas, and I saw water falls and dogwood trees.
2. We got to spend a few days with the Gamble family at their casa. It was a ton of FUN and Jennifer took us all around Knoxville. We also had dinner with two of Jennifer's friends who are the sweetest couple- Charlie and Mary. We got to meet her 95 year old Gran and play with Riley and Winston.
3. I flew back with Jennifer and had Indian food with my fun former co-workers/friends before doing it up wedding style with Maile. It was a GORGEOUS wedding with not a rain cloud in the sky! Now it is time for a little Disney while Adam is hitting up all the museums in DC.

I'll elaborate more, along with photos, when I get the chance!

The Great Smoky Mountains!

I'll have to post pictures later. Right now we are pumping gas in Gatlinburg after getting a nice shower outside of the park (much needed...we were smelling quite pungent!). The Smoky Mountains are GORGEOUS! I can see why Jennifer loves this park so much. It's been pretty crowded but other than that, not bad!

Anyway, we are safe, I'll post more later!!

From Civil Rights to Civil War

From Atlanta, we drove to Charleston, South Carolina. They say that this is the friendliest town in America...I'm not so sure that Adam and I would say that Charleston is any more friendly or unfriendly compared to the next town. In fact, we actually experienced some incredibly unfriendly people during our time in Charleston (not to say that this is unlikely to happen in any other city). Perhaps it is because we aren't a 70+ old couple with money to spend on Sweetgrass baskets and horse carriage rides (that seems to be the average age of the visitors to this town, btw). But not to worry, in our future when we are 70 and in our RV, Adam and I will probably come back. And I will probably want to spend $200 on a basket and shop for antiques, but that is for the future!

Our first night when we arrived from Atlanta, we made "stuffed soup" that Jennifer had packed for us when we moved. It's essentially veggies, chicken broth, canned chicken and stuffing. Super good, quick and easy. Of course, our frozen veggies had long since expired, so we threw in some green beans that we had leftover from Atlanta. It was a nice yummy dinner of comfort food. Sorry, no pictures. And Jennifer- thanks for the ingredients and repeating to us the very simple directions (heat up half of broth, add veggies, add chicken, add stuffing, add rest of broth- now I won't forget!).

Then we went off to Waterfront Park. It was an absolutely cute park with swinging benches that face out onto the water. There was hardly anyone around so parking was a breeze. We came across this wading pool/fountain with the hilarious warning about not having any kind of diarrheal illness if you are going to play in the water. Mmmmm...!

The fountain with the warning signs- wonder if it happens often?

The next morning, we got totally ripped off on a film at the Charleston Visitor Center. They told us that they were showing this 45-minute film called "Forever Charleston" that talks about the history of the town and they were charging $2 pp. We figured we could learn a lot on a documentary about Charleston and it could help us frame our visit. Too bad it is really just a promotional infomercial about visiting Charleston- boooooo! They really should be playing that for free on repeat in the visitor center lobby. At least they had postcards for a quarter.

We then walked around downtown Charleston. We checked out a cemetery (kind of creepy to think that some were born 300 years ago!), walked through some historic neighborhoods, went through the Old Market Place and saw some of the sweetgrass basketweavers. On our way to the car, we happened to pass by Ben & Jerry's and have the pleasant surprise of "Free Scoop Day." Definitely a nice way to cool off on a sunny day!

After that, we stopped and had some Carolina bbq. For some reason, the only thing I understood to be South Carolina bbq was that they were big on pulled pork. I missed the memo that it would be smothered in vinegary seasoning and accompanied by vinegary bbq sauce. Oops. I can officially say that I do not really care for SC bbq!

From there, we decided to visit one of the plantations. We had an amazing time visiting the Drayton Hall Plantation. It is one of the plantations that hasn't been restored to look like a specific time period, so you are able to see how it has changed since the 1700s to now (from the fading of the paint, to where vandals stole a mantle to where remodeling happened). We were able to do a special archaeology tour of the home, so our tour was led by an archaeologist who is doing some work at the plantation. It really was quite beautiful and was a nice way to spend the day in Charleston. I'm really glad we did it instead of doing a historic home tour. The Drayton family still goes out to the plantation and they have a doorway where they have taken height measurements. Kind of neat to see the height of a child from year 2002 written next to one dated 1821.

Trees with Spanish Moss in them. They are all over SC. Really neat to see.

Proof that Adam and I were actually there!

This morning, we headed off to Fort Sumter. You have to pay $16 per person to catch a boat over to Ft. Sumter, and then they only give you an hour to go through the museum, check out the display, and hear the talk given by the ranger. It didn't feel like enough time but I thought it was definitely worth going to see where the first shots of the Civil War happened. The park ranger did a great job sharing facts and information (100x better than the ranger in Grand Canyon who put us to sleep!). Even the classes of 3rd graders enjoyed it. It was just too bad that we didn't have another 30 minutes to half an hour.

USS Yorktown...which we did not ride to Ft. Sumter. ;)



The six flags that have flown over Ft. Sumter, including 2 versions of the Confederate flag and the South Carolina flag.

After lunch, we went to the Charles Pinckney Historic Site where we watched a couple films about Charles Pinckney, the Constitution and slavery. We checked out some of the artifacts, and then Adam sat out on the porch in the rocking chair with a glass of sweet tea (minus the sweet tea).



We ended the day with a pseudo sunset at Battery Park and me finishing up Spanish hw while Adam did laundry. Tomorrow- Smoky Mountains NP!