Lodge Cast Iron, Old Time Pottery, Christmas Place, Five Guys and Dollywood – Pigeon Forge, TN – Day 2

After breakfast, we did some shopping in Pigeon Forge.  We went to the Lodge Cast Iron store.  I wanted a small pan I could use on the grill for cooking a batch of whole mushrooms in olive oil, butter and garlic.  Found one!  I also needed a baked goods drying rack.  I never found ours after the move to TN.

Next we went to Old Time Pottery across the street. Big store! Nancy did a lot of browsing but we left empty-handed 🙂

Next we went to the Christmas Place store. Pretty big Christmas store in Pigeon Forge. We did a lot of looking around but didn’t buy anything. Just fun to browse sometimes. There were a lot of great photo opportunities though.

We decided to splurge for lunch and split a burger and fries at Five Guys. Yum!

Our last stop on this leg of the day was to the Corningware-Corelle Store. Huge selection and some real bargains. We got 4 small plates for about less than half the regular price. So that was nice. I picked up a rubber lid for a bowl we have at home whose lid has long since disappeared.

Dave and Amy met us at our place in the afternoon and we went back to Dollywood together for an evening of fun. Nancy and I had upgraded our tickets to season passes last night, so we got to park for free today and we even got our parking fee returned to us from last night. Nice!

Our plan was to see a few shows and have dinner and maybe ride a few rides. We ended up getting it all in! The first show we saw was Christmas in the Smokies. Great show.

Dave, Amy and I decided to ride a couple roller coasters. We first rode the Wild Eagle. Very fun. Fast, loops, rolls and really smooth. Then it was the Mystery Mine. Also fast, with a loop and more. Not as smooth. A bit rough actually. But still fun!

The next show was Dollywood’s Christmas Carol. Dolly’s spin on the Dicken’s classic. This was a big production with a cast of 16. I was a bit sleepy through much of it but I “think” it was good 🙂

We went to dinner next. We ended up at Aunt Granny’s Buffet on the recommendation of a gal that was working at the Christmas Place today. She also works at Dollywood. It was a decent dinner. After dinner, right outside the restaurant was the Rivertown Lake where every 15 minutes, the Carol of the Trees was going on. This was pretty cool. It was countless trees, birds, Soldiers and other items, beautifully lit, synchronized to Christmas music. Really neat.

Next we went to an outdoor show. Brr! It wasn’t well attended due to the rain and the cooler temperature but it was still nice. It was Appalachian Christmas.

After the outdoor show, it was time to warm up until the next show. We spent about 30 minutes in the Chasing Rainbows Museum. This is the “all things Dolly” museum. Her costumes, family pictures and artifacts, awards and more. One could spend 2 hours in here. After we warmed up, it was time for our last show. We headed next door to see Dolly’s “My People” show. This was a really nice show. There were 15 musicians and singers. About half the singers were relatives of Dolly. Her sister, brother, niece and cousins. It even snowed inside for the show 🙂

Another great day and evening at Dollywood!