Gift Show In The Smokies & Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind. I worked on Monday and then on Tuesday I left with two of my coworkers and headed to Gatlinburg TN for the annual gift show. It is actually two shows in three cities, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. All of those are very close to one another. We go to the shows every year to shop for souvenirs for our gift shops. It is so tiring. It is three days of shopping for things that may or may not be of interest to you personally. Also the vendors can get quite aggressive jumping in front of you to show you their products. It is a lot of sensory overload with hundreds of booths set up with so many different types of displays. As always I feel like we get a good selection and variety of products for the coming year. It is a fun trip but after three days we are always glad to get back home. I will give you an idea of some of the different vendors that were of interest to us.

There are lots of food vendors and lots of samples that is definitely a perk to the show. This particular booth had corn flake chewy candy and it was so yummy. Often it is the different unexpected things that people are looking for when they are traveling.

I thought this booth was very interesting. This was a flower farm. They dried their flowers and made postcards, photos and larger pictures. The flowers were beautiful and I love the concept of using the dried flowers. I am not sure if this is something that would work for us. The price point was pretty high.

One thing that we always look for is rocks and different types of stones. People expect to see that when they visit a cave. I thought this Rose Quartz was beautiful.

O.K. I don’t know if this is popular where you live but here it is. Freeze Dried Candy. I am not a fan of it myself but all of the kids at work absolutely love it. I think we saw more of this at the show than anything else.

More Freeze Dried Candy

Aren’t these hearts adorable I loved them and actually wanted every single one of them. I love hearts!!!!

Lots of plush animals. We sell some of the smaller plush but the larger animals are not great sellers for us. I love all of them look at this adorable lamb.

These small punchkins are something I think will be a good seller for us. They are so cute.

We bought several of these water bottles which are also a hot seller right now. I can’t wait to get them in because I am going to buy the “Great Women of Science” bottle.

We also have a Sweet Shop on the property and we sell Ice Cream, Candy, Fudge and Drinks. I think these mugs will do very well there.

And more rocks. I love to look at all the different types.

Just to give you an idea of all the different vendors. This was taken at the Gatlinburg show. We were upstairs looking down into the ballroom.

One of the perks of the show is that we get to eat at a lot of really fun places. The first night of the show we ate at Little Tokyo Hibachi Grill & Sushi in Pigeon Forge. It is a very unassuming looking restaurant with only a few grills and a few tables. We got there really early and at first I wasn’t too sure about the place. We were seated at one of the grills quickly, as I said it was early, and we were joined by a few of our other cave buddies. About fifteen minutes after being seated I stepped back to the front part of the restaurant to take a phone call and it was packed with a line out the door. The wait time was approximately one hour at that time. After we had our food cooked, and served right in front of us, I could see why the wait to get in was so long. The food was amazing. I got chicken and shrimp and I think it was the best I have ever had. I will definitely return with my husband. He would love it.

The next day we ate at Cookie Dough Monster. This place has some of the best burgers you will ever eat. I was a little confused about the burgers, which I had heard people rave about, and the edible cookie dough. What was the connection. Obviously there is no connection. They just happen to sell the best burgers and the best edible cookie dough. Oh and milkshakes too.

There are about sixteen different types of burgers, Betty White, The Island, Mac Daddy, Bleu Bae and BBQ Bacon and Bacon Bomber are just a few of the burgers that are offered. I got the BBQ Bacon and it was delish. Just a little messy.

We also tried some of the edible cookie dough. I have had some of the cookie dough in other places and I never found it too appetizing. This edible cookie dough was delicious. We got, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Brownie Bite, and Heath Caramel.

But I have to say the highlight of the trip was being able to visit Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort. It is located in Pigeon Forge. Every year several of the vendors sponsor a dinner for some of the different groups attending the show. On Wednesday night we were treated to a wonderful dinner with our cave friends from several different caves. The resort is so beautiful. They have it decorated for Christmas, inside and out. If you are interested in a stay here just visit www.dollywood.com and click on the resort. I will warn you it is pricey. We didn’t actually stay here we were just here for dinner.

We arrived just before dark so we had a chance to look around outside.

The dinner was very nice and delicious. We shared different things we had found at the show and got some good ideas from others that were there. And we also got a very nice swag bag.

Enjoying the lights with my swag bag.

The last day we were in Gatlinburg and we ate at Jason Aldean’s Rooftop Bar and Restaurant. The food was pretty good but the view from the second floor was great!!! We had a seat overlooking the strip and then a beautiful view of the mountainside. Lots of fall colors still going on here. Oh and a real “Big Green Tractor” inside the bar.

Look at this fall color still hanging on. Of course this is the smokies and the temps here are cooler than in the valley where we are.

We got home late Thursday night and it was back to our regular work on Friday. Over the weekend I worked on these knitted yarn ball ornaments. I will show you more about those in a later post. But I will tell you I am loving making them.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Hello Monday

Well here we are the beginning of a new week and almost the end of another month. October, where did you go???? I love October and it went by so fast. I love the leaves falling it makes me feel like I am in leaf globe instead of a snow globe. What a week and month this has been.

I fully intended to post a Friday Favorites post on Friday evening after I got home from work. But when I got home I realized our internet was not working. Remember I live in the boonies in the woods so no internet service means no phone calls or anything. I tried a few things around the house like unplugging everything and resetting the router, you know all the troubleshooting things to try. Nothing worked. It was almost time for Mark to get home so I drove to the top of the driveway where we do have touch and go internet. I called and told him what was going on. He has an app for our internet service. He checked and sure enough it was a wide spread outage. Internet should be restored before 6:00 AM the next morning. WHAT???? how would we survive?? Just kidding I can survive very well without internet it just makes me nervous not having a phone. I was hoping it wouldn’t be that long and it wasn’t. The internet was back up within a few hours but not enough time for me to post my blog. I will save the Favorites for next Friday and have even more favorites to share.

There are a few things I will go ahead and share about last week. On Tuesday I had quite a surprise when my nephew and his wife and their son stopped by my work to visit me. They are from Jacksonville Florida and had been near our area over the weekend for a wedding. I was so happy to see them and it was a total surprise. I hadn’t seen them in over a year. We had a short but very nice visit.

On Wednesday we had Sister Lunch. If you haven’t read any of my posts about Sister Lunch you can catch up right here: Sister Lunch. My sisters and I started this about fifteen years or so just by going to lunch and then we kept adding people and saying “see you next Wednesday” We always go to a little local restaurant at noon on Wednesday. Through the years the number of people who are able to attend changes weekly. Not only sisters but nieces and nephews and friends and cousins have been to Sister Lunch. We hadn’t met for a few weeks because of sickness, doctor visits, vacations etc so it was great to get back to our old tradition.

We have had very warm days here but the cold weather is coming this week. A ton of leaves have fallen. The leaves have been beautiful but they are really starting to come down.

Look how colorful my driveway is. I just love all the different colors of the leaves. A time to say goodbye to Summer and hello Fall let’s regenerate.

***Turkey crossing on my way into work last week.***

We have been busy cleaning my father in laws house and getting it ready to put on the market. I know it is hard for Mark to be there and have to clean it out. It’s something that most of us have to go through at some time in our lives.

On Saturday I decided to clean out some of my bookcases and get rid of a lot of old magazines. While I was going through some old books I found a notebook that my mother had started. I am not sure how long ago. She always kept journals but this seemed like a “book” she had started about her and our family. It is hand written in a plain yellow notebook with lined pages. It starts when she is a very young girl and goes until my oldest brother left for the military around 1969. I’m not sure how we missed it when we were going through her things. I have saved several of her journals through the years but this one, if possible, is even more special. I would like to have it printed and bound and give copies to my family. If you have any ideas how to do that or if you have done that I would be interested to hear about it.

I went to visit MIL in the assisted living village. They have it decorated for Halloween and they are giving out candy and treats to the area children and children and grandchildren of the workers and residents. All of the residents get such a joy out of seeing the children dressed up.

I didn’t decorate a lot this year for Halloween. I out up my Spooky wreath that I made last year.

I painted the little orange pumpkins a couple of years ago. They are actually rocks.

Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday

How was your week and weekend? I worked my second full week of work at work. This hasn’t happened in a few weeks because of vacation and work travel. For some reason I think being at my work place all week has been even more tiring than all of the travel. Go figure.

Last week we celebrated my nephew Caleb’s Birthday. He turned 20. It’s so hard to believe he can be that old. We had dinner at our local Mexican restaurant that we all love.

His favorite gift was these orange and white overalls. He loves University of Tennessee Volunteers. He is such a fan.

Saturday morning I walked down to the lake and took some pictures. It was quite chilly and a fog was coming off of the water. The temperatures here have been chilly in the mornings and then warming up in the afternoon. I think that later this week the daily highs are supposed to be close to 80 degrees.

A few weeks ago this long beanstalk looking thing started to grow from one of my succulents. I have had this one for several years and it has never done this. It looks like it is going to bloom any minute. There is a close up view of it below. I posted it on FaceBook a few nights ago and several people responded with pictures of their own. I am eagerly waiting to see if it will bloom.

I have been trying to get outside as much as possible to enjoy the fall colors. Because we had such a dry September our colors haven’t peaked yet. We usually have much more color by this time of the year. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will bring more color.

On Friday after work I met my friend Lorie for a margarita and some Mexican food. It was so yummy and we got some to catch up on some much needed girl time. Saturday and Sunday was the usual laundry, groceries, cleaning and etc. I need to make plans to attend a fall festival or something fally. Fall is my favorite time of year and it passes so fast.

What things have you been up to? Join me on Wednesday I have a wonderful display of fall colors for Wordless Wednesday.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Hello Monday (Home Again)

I am so glad to be home after a week in Northern California. I got home late Friday night. Again another long day of travel. I left Redding California at 6:00 AM and then had a long layover in San Francisco. I like the San Francisco airport there is a lot to see and do there. However I barely made my flight leaving Chicago, O’Hare with just minutes to spare.

It was so good to be home and snuggle the babies. I think they were all glad to see me too.

I love the week I spend with other cave people. These are people who own or manage show caves across the US. We get to visit other caves and learn about their area. We also share ideas and experiences that are working or not working for us. This is a great networking time.

This year our host cave was Lake Shasta Caverns in Lakehead California near Redding. Such a beautiful area but man I was unprepared for the heat. Most of the days the temps were mid 90’s F. I thought the temps were going to be more like home so I didn’t bring enough cool clothes. It was hot!!!!

Some of our highlights: Sundial Bridge

We also took a walk on Sundial Bridge it was beautiful and a beautiful night for it.

This boat ramp is sooo steep. The water in the lake is down about 200 feet. It’s hard to believe but it was down even more in the spring and early summer. The sky and water is an unbelievably blue color.

***We had a nice boat ride on Lake Shasta.***

***My best cave girlfriend Ann. She is from Pennsylvania and I only get to see her a couple of times a year.***

When Shasta Lake is full, it is 517 feet deep at the dam 90% of the lake’s water comes from the rainfall. Currently it is about 200 feet lower than it should be.

Shasta Dam was built between 1938 and 1945. It is 602 feet high, 3,460 feet long, and 883 feet thick at its base. There are 15 million tons of concrete in the dam in the form of concrete blocks that are 50 feet square and five feet high. Shasta Dam was the 17th dam built by civil engineer Frank Crowe, who designed a system of towers that were used to get concrete to each of the 16,900 block forms.

Front side of the dam. We were able to walk almost all the way across it. It was so hot.

***We had dinner at a restaurant called Huff’s at the beautiful Bridge Bay Marina***

We had several speakers throughout the week.

Lake Shasta Caverns is one of the most beautiful caves I have ever visited. But it’s not easy to get to. Actually getting to the cave though is half of the fun. You take a boat across the lake from the opposite side of their ticket office. You then take a scary bus ride up a steep mountain road for 1.5 miles. Then you are at the entrance to the cave. There is 300 steps getting into the cave and then 300 steps back out. But it is totally worth it and the Lake Shasta Caverns crew have it all down to a science. They handle it all with ease. They also offer dinner cruises on the lake you can check it all out on their website here

At the top of the hill just before going into the cave. This was an amazing view.

***The inside of a stalactite. This one had been damaged and broken. But you can see the detail and beautiful design within it.***

These two boys are called The Fiddlin’ Brothers. They are 14 and 12 years old. They have only been playing for a few years and they are amazing.

After the cave tour we had dinner at the caverns and some entertainment. Such talented dancers.

On Friday morning I had to leave the hotel at 4:30 AM to catch my flight to San Francisco and then to Chicago and then into Knoxville. It was a long day and I didn’t get back to the house 10:30 PM. What a week.