Last year, we went to Nashville for Spring Break, and while we don’t normally go to the same place two years in a row, we found ourselves back in Nashville again this year…for a couple of days anyway. The original plan was to spend the entire vacation in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, but when we found out that one of Stacy’s friends was going to be on Spring Break in Nashville the week before, we thought it would be fun to meet up with her in Nashville before she came back home. James’ Spring Break was supposed to be March 27th through the 31st, but we pulled him out of school on the 23rd and 24th and started Spring Break early.
Hopefully this blog post won’t crash the website. We took so many pictures. I tried to narrow it down as much as possible, but there are still around 100 pictures here.
Since James tends to travel better at night when he is sleeping, we left at around 9:00 pm on the 22nd and got into Nashville around 6:00 am, before the sun came up. I have a silly rule when we go to Nashville…we can’t take the same route there and back. From Chicago, there are two ways to get there. We can take Interstate 57 all the way to southern Illinois and then hop on Interstate 24 to Nashville; or we can cross over into Indiana and take Interstate 65 all the way to Nashville. Since we were going to be coming home from Pigeon Forge, we’d be coming back on I-65, which meant we had to take I-57 to Nashville. The bonus of taking I-57 is that we get to stop and say hello to Superman. In far southern Illinois there is a small town called Metropolis, and if you are a Superman fan, you know that Superman lives in Metropolis.
After a long night of driving, I took a nap for a few hours, woke up hungry and we all went downtown to have some lunch. We had heard good things about Hattie B’s so we decided to check it out. We knew it had to be good when there was a line out the door on a Thursday afternoon. We were not disappointed. That had to be the best chicken I have ever had! We will definitely be back.
Friday, we went to the Nashville Zoo. We think James enjoys seeing the different animals.
After a long afternoon of walking, we were all hungry and ready for a good dinner. There is one restaurant in Nashville that we always must eat at whenever we are in town: The Loveless Café. All of their food is amazing, but they are best known for their biscuits.
Saturday, we went back downtown to have lunch at Wildhorse Saloon. Eating at the Wildhorse has been hit and miss the last few times we have been in town. A lot of times they are closed for private events, but we were lucky, and they were open to the public. We even got to see Preston James perform on stage while we ate.
Sunday, we packed up the van and headed over to Pigeon Forge, which was about a four-hour drive from Nashville. After we unpacked the van at the hotel, we relaxed a bit and decided to go check out The Island in Pigeon Forge. Trying to describe The Island, I would say that it’s a mix of an outdoor mall and an amusement park. We wandered around a bit and grabbed a bite to eat at Mellow Mushroom, which is a pizza place.
Monday was the day that our entire trip was based around: Dollywood!
Although James couldn’t go on many of the rides, he was able to go on a train ride pulled by an old locomotive.
After our train ride, we needed to find somewhere for James to lay down for some tummy time. We found the first aid building and asked if he could lay down there for a bit, and they said absolutely.
After tummy time, we grabbed some lunch and wandered around a bit.
One of the reasons we wanted to go to Dollywood was because we had heard and read that they were very accommodating to those with disabilities. They really are. Everyone we talked to was very understanding of James’ needs and was willing to give us whatever we needed. Even the available handicapped parking was unbelievable. I have never seen so much handicapped parking before in my life! It was pretty much handicapped parking as far as the eye could see.
Thank you Dolly and Dollywood staff for making everything disability friendly and being so accommodating. You really went above and beyond what we expected.
Monday night we had dinner at The Old Mill Restaurant. We ran into one minor problem that was quickly solved by their amazing staff. The restaurant is on multiple levels, and James’ stroller wouldn’t fit on the lift to get us down to our table. A couple of their staff members came to our aid and carried James down the stairs. It was another fantastic meal.
Tuesday we went to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee:
Wednesday, we had a good breakfast at Sawyer’s Farmhouse Restaurant in Pigeon Forge and ventured to Cades Cove, which is a valley within the Smoky Mountains.
After we finished walking around Cades Cove, we drove the Cades Cove Scenic Loop before heading back to Pigeon Forge:
And that’s a wrap for our vacation. Well, I guess not quite. After we got back to the hotel after our Cades Cove excursion, I laid down to get some sleep. We drove through the night again to get back home, and I had to be rested for the 9.5-hour drive ahead of me, although with the time zone change going from Eastern time zone to Central time zone, we got home about 8 and ½ hours after we left.
I think that was probably one of our better trips. It was a lot of driving, but we did so much and gave James lots of new experiences, and after all, that’s what it’s all about right? We don’t know how much time James has on this Earth, and chances are that his life will be cut much shorter than most of us. We want him to see as many sights and experience as many things as he can. Eastern Tennessee is gorgeous country. If you’ve never been, you need to put it on your list of places to visit.
