{Travel} Tennessee Trip -Day 2/Part 1: Knoxville, Sevierville & Pigeon Forge

This was the view from our room in Knoxville.

We could also see The Sunsphere!

We were up bright and early and wanted to see a little more Knoxville before we drove to Pigeon Forge.

We took a morning walk around town to occupy ourselves until the stores opened at 10am.

There were Dolly Parton tributes everywhere.

Checking out this sculpture.

The streets were very quiet and empty.

I wanted to see a few stores and this one was amazing.  Mast General Store had an incredible inventory.  I could have spent hours in there.

They had everything from Birkenstocks to shelf stable ham and everything in between. They stocked my favorite Swan Creek candles too.  We went in a really cool vintage store, Golden Threads and spent some time in Bliss.  One thing we noticed was the abundance of Tennessee Volunteers merchandise, clothing and spirit gear. "Go Vols!"

❤️

We finished up our shopping and checked out of the hotel. I picked us up some coffee from the hotel's coffee shop K Brew and Mr. Click got the car from the valet.  We were off and heading to Sevierville to see the Dolly Parton statue in her hometown.

We were distracted by the sign for Buc-ee's along the way and had to stop. Neither of us had ever been to Buc-ee's.  It was an experience!!  I didn't take any photos inside, it was too overwhelming.  We bought some Buc-ee's snacks to try later. I mean Cinnamon Beaver Nuggets just sounded too interesting!

We made it to Sevierville and what a pretty town it is.

It is the official hometown of Dolly Parton and there's a statue of her in front of the Sevier County Court House

Of course there were more Dolly tributes.

We had this book, based on Dolly's song and it's always been special to me.

We made it to the Embassy Suites Pigeon Forge just as we got the text that our room was ready. Sweet! Look at that view of the Smoky Mountains.

to be continued....

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{Travel} Tennessee Trip: Downtown Knoxville - Day 1

 We took a late summer trip to Tennessee and our first stop was Knoxville.

We flew into to Knoxville and wanted to see the city.

It was a tiny plane but a short flight from Philly.  

We picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel, Embassy Suites by Hilton Downtown.  We picked it for its location and it was also very pretty.

Our room was ready-yay! We dropped off our bags and went out to explore. Our first stop was Market Square in search of some lunch.

Our rental car agent recommended Stock and Barrel and said they had the BEST onion rings. When we saw the restaurant, it was an easy choice. I had the Black Bean & Corn Salad and of course we tried the onion rings.  yum!

After lunch we set out to explore more Knoxville.  We walked to World's Fair Park and were drawn to the Sunsphere.  

This structure was built for the 1982 World's Fair. 

There's an admission fee to take the elevator to the Observation Deck for a 360-degree views of the city, the Smoky Mountains and the Tennessee River. 

The Observation Deck is also a tiny museum about the 1982 World's Fair.

We loved checking out the artifacts.

Cherry Coke and Petro's Chili Chips(the creator of walking tacos) were both introducted at that year's World's Fair.

The views were pretty spectacular and it was great way for us to get our bearings around the city.

Interesting highlights from 1982.

Back down on land.  We walked around the park a little bit and then walked over to the Knoxville Museum of Art.

It was a cool break from the intense heat of the day (and free admission!).

Contemporary art isn't really our thing but we still enjoyed exploring the museum.

We had about an hour before it closed which was plenty of time for us this day.

We found our way to Strong Alley to see the Gallery of Murals.

They were really incredible works of art.

We made our way back to where our hotel was and stopped at Cruze Farm Dairy (another recommedation from our rental car agent!).

The store is so cute and their soft serve is delicious. I had a combo of snickerdoodle and pumpkin. Mr. Click got vanilla with cherry dip.

At this point we were ready to head back to the hotel for a bit.

Later we enjoyed a rooftop happy hour at the hotel.

That night we headed into Old City for dinner.  Not a lot of things were open but we stopped at Stir to look at their menu.  We weren't feeling anything on the menu so we grabbed a few things for dinner at a local market and went back to the hotel.
We were off to Pigeon Forge the next day.

to be continued...

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{Recipe} Peanut Butter "Ice Cream" Sandwiches

 I did my own spin on these Healthy Summer Treats that I found on Pinterest.

I didn't have all of the ingredients for the original and I wanted a peanut butter treat.

Recipe:

1 cup thawed whipped topping

1/2 cup non fat Greek yogurt

1-2 scoops protein powder (I used PB Fit)

Mix to combine and spread onto 8-9 graham crackers squares

I added some peanuts, mini chocolate chips and drizzled some peanut butter on top of the mixture.

Put the remaining graham crackers on top and freeze for at least 4 hours. Cut into squares.

I enjoyed mine with a cup of coffee.

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