Weekending- A beautiful fall weekend

Friday neither Donnie nor I worked!! I had the day off of work due to there being no school. Donnie took the day off work. It's only the second week day off he's taken besides the holidays of Memorial Day, Labor Day, and July 4th this entire year. Yep, he's taken a total of one week off including holidays this year. Such is the life of a small business owner whose business is a professional service. 

I slept in until 5:00 which was nice :). I did some reading/blogging and then Donnie woke up a couple of hours later. He went to the gym and I went downstairs to run on the treadmill. Got a fairly quick (for me) run of four miles and listened to a good, new to me podcast. Earlier in the week, I'd run to a Frank Turek podcast (his is called I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist) and he had Riley Gaines on his podcast. I found out on that podcast that Riley Gaines has her own podcast so I listened to hers when I ran Friday morning. It was as good as listening to young women talk about their experience of having a man living in their sorority house can be. I mean, it's maddening and frustrating to think about men invading women's spaces, not just with impunity but with the full support of institutions like universities that have been captured by a political ideology whose stance on gender is not rooted in truth or science. But that's where we are and I think it's important to be informed of it. I also think it's important to listen to the voices of women who have been impacted by men in their spaces and to hear their stories. 

I showered and finished packing and Donnie came home shortly after that. He showered, finished packing and then we were off- destination Knoxville, TN. We'd originally planned to go to Knoxville the weekend of Abby's birthday. We wanted to spend time with her there and we wanted Donnie to meet her boyfriend (I'd met him this summer when Alyssa and I went to Knox). However, that weekend didn't work out so we stayed home and Abby came to us last weekend. But this weekend worked out (except for that pesky hurricane but more on that later) for us to spend a couple of days in Knoxville. 

Buc-ee's in Richmond, KY is almost halfway to Knoxville so we stopped there for gas, pop, clean bathrooms, lunch, sugared nuts, and of course, Buc-ee's kitsch. I got MG cute Christmas jammies. 

The drive south was pretty and of course got prettier and prettier the closer we got to Tennessee (I could have been negative and said it got prettier and prettier the further away we got from Ohio but I'm going to positive and focus more on Tennessee's prettiness!). The leaves were not at peak- I would say that will happen in a week or so. However, we saw the beginnings of changes and it was quite lovely even from the interstate. 

The last time that I was in Knoxville, the girls and I stayed at a Drury Inn and had a good experience there (free pop!! and popcorn/food!!) and I debated booking a place for us there again. But I ultimately decided that we'd stay downtown and close to the action. (And by action, of course I mean the large ice cream place there in downtown called Cruze.) Look at us suburbanites being (very short term!) city dwellers! We stayed at the Hyatt Place on Gay Street (one of, if not, the main street of downtown) and it was pretty nice! 

A selfie before we left for dinner

Abby and her boyfriend met us in our hotel lobby. We chatted for a bit before heading out to dinner. Abby had gotten reservations at a place near our hotel called Emilia. She'd eaten there once when her roommate's mom was in town and her roommate's mom took them out to eat there. It's Italian and family owned (our server informed us of the latter; the menu/website indicated the former). 

We started with focaccia bread and octopus. Donnie quipped that the other seven were missing...

I got the salmon. It was pretty good but I've had better salmon. 

Abby and Greg

After dinner, it was time for the grande finale of ice cream at Cruze. The line to get into the large store was long- we waited probably fifteen minutes. 

The inside was kitschy and cute- two of my favorites...

So good!

Our hotel was near the  Tennessee theater so we had to pose with the latter's lit up sign. 

The area's decor was festive if a bit macabre. 

I liked this storefront's decor better :).

The next day we went to Dollywood! Dollywood is in Pigeon Forge, TN. It's about fifty minutes south of east of Knoxville. We weren't sure if  we were going to make it there or not. The area was experiencing less than ideal weather due to the hurricane. On Friday evening, rain was in the forecast for Pigeon Forge for Saturday and worse than that was a wind advisory. High wind will cause the park to close certain attractions and we didn't want to miss out on any of the rides- that was the whole point of going to Dollywood. Saturday morning, it appeared that wind was not really going to be in issue. There were still good chances of rain throughout the day but it wasn't expected to pour rain so we decided to go for it and drive to Dollywood. It was overcast the first portion of our time there and it rained lightly part of the time. But then the sun came out and it was really nice. My pictures are not in order. If the sky is in blue in the pictures, I took the picture towards the second half of our time there. 

So much pumpkin themed decor

The rides did not disappoint! We did pay extra for a "time saver" pass and I'd do that again even though the time saver pass added another $120 on top of the price for an admission ticket. By the time the fees were added, we paid about $250 a person- pretty steep but not having to wait an hour plus for some of the big rides made it worth it. 

We had a meal there and tried the famous cinnamon bread, the pieces of which are essentially cinnamon rolls. Having a piece of "bread" in the middle of the day (or anytime, really) sounds healthier than having a cinnamon roll,  I suppose. 

We rode pretty much all of the rides that we wanted and then left in time to watch the UGA football game (Greg's alma mater). The time saver pass did not include passes for two of the rides which was annoying!! At our local large amusement park, Kings Island, if you buy a fast pass to bypass the main line to rides, there are not restrictions on it (at least that's how it was the last time that we went to Kings Island and bought the fast pass). 

Comparing the park to Kings Island, Dollywood is smaller. However, it's much prettier, notwithstanding the fall decor. There are just quainter/cuter features of the park (Dollywood). I think KI has more large roller coasters than Dollywood but Dollywood has a number of nice big ones. Dollywood has better entertainment options (though we did not take advantage of them). In short, we liked Dollywood and I'd definitely go again if Alyssa or Jacob want to experience the park if we're in the area (I would not make a special trip just for it but if we're visiting Abby, I'd take the time to do it).

 The next morning, we went to Abby's church. We went to the early service (8:30!) and I was impressed with how many UT students were there that early. (I should say many looked like students- I don't know for sure if they were.) Donnie pointed out that those in attendance were probably not the ones out at bars and parties on Saturday night... still I was impressed with how many students were at church at 8:30.

After church we went to brunch at a place called Eggspectation

I had cajun shrimp and grits. It was pretty good!

We left for home straight from brunch. It was raining lightly most of the way home. I took the following pictures out the passenger window which fortunately didn't have rain on it. I think the leaves on the trees changed from Friday to Sunday. The leaves seemed more brightly colored than they had just two days earlier. 

We made it home by later afternoon and mostly relaxed for the rest of the day/evening. We were grateful for our time together with Abby and her boyfriend in Tennessee and were grateful that we returned home safely.