Stephany Writes

Categories: Travel

Stephany & Kim’s AMEOWZING Popcast Weekend

Last weekend was spent with Kim! It was the weekend we’d been planning for since I found out that our favorite podcast, The Popcast with Knox and Jamie, was doing a live show in Chicago. This was in early February. The moment I found out it was coming to Chicago, I texted Kim to see if she had the weekend free and then basically told her we were going to it. SORRY NOT SORRY, Kim!

It was such a fun-filled weekend with Kim where I got to spend time in a brand-new state (Wisconsin!), visit the best bookstore I’ve ever been to, and try my best to make her cats fall in love with me. And we capped it all off with an incredible live show with some of my favorite people. Let’s get into the weekend.

Nine Painted Rocks

Kim is quite an exceptional rock painter, and I have been the lucky recipient of many of her painted rocks. When she took me on a tour of her house after I arrived, I nearly died when I saw she had put together the cutest tray in her guest room with water bottles, toys for my girls, and the most incredible painted rock of Eloise and Lila. I’m hoping the girls will use the rock as inspiration to cuddle up together more often. 😉

During our days out and about, Kim was gracious enough to give me a handful of painted rocks to hide around town. And I got to see the expert rock hider in action! She was pretty stealthy with her hides! It was fun to get in on the action, although it took me some time to get into the swing of things. By the end, I’d like to think I had jumped up a few levels of rock hiding expertise.

And finally, Kim and I spent one of our nights painting rocks. She brought up the idea to me and I was like, “I’ll do it, but I may whine a lot about my lack of skill.” Art like this is not my forte, but I was also confident in Kim’s teaching ability. I got to see her entire rock painting setup and she took me through the process of drawing a cat butt, which was easier than I expected. And then I made a cute turtle rock for my mom! (I must admit: Kim helped me a lot with getting the body of the turtle just right.)

Seven Cats

One of the things I was most looking forward to was meeting all of Kim’s cats. For reference, she has four indoor cats and then a random assortment of cats who show up often in her backyard that she takes care of. Notably, there’s one black cat named Snow Jr who basically lives in her backyard now, and I got to see the newest cat who arrived just a day or two before I did! It’s this pitiful black-and-white tiny bebe who scarfs down the food Kim puts out and has some rough fur problems that Kim’s trying to sort out. I spent the majority of the weekend trying to get all of the cats to fall in love with me, and I mostly succeeded. Khali was not too impressed by me, even though I tried to buy her love with food tubes and lots of attention. I guess this means I have to return someday because I am determined for Khali to love me!

In terms of the other cats, Apollo was the easiest sell and we wasted no time falling in love! Ned took a little time but then he would rub against my feet and even let me hold him like a baby once. And Starbuck liked being near me but didn’t want me to get too close (although she did let me give her pets on my last morning there, and even did some tumbling on the floor near me, the ultimate sign of cat acceptance). All in all, I was surrounded by cats and I couldn’t have been a happier person!

Four Farmer’s Market Purchases

On Saturday morning, after a lazy start to our day with coffee and Kringle and conversation, Kim and I took a trip to Wisconsin to visit the Kenosha Farmer’s Market. While it was more market than farmers (I think we only counted one fruit stand and one vegetable stand), I loved all the cool vendors that set up there. I picked up a bag of caramel and cheddar popcorn from Pop’s Kettle Corn, which I can confirm is delicious. We also ran across a vendor who sold really tough dog toys. They are these densely knitted ropes that can withstand the ferociousness of hard chewers. The woman works so hard on these dog toys that she recently had surgery to repair her wrists. I bought a rope toy to see if it’s any match for Chip, who can destroy even the toys designed for hardcore chewers.

We also found a vendor who was selling cat toys, so Kim and I had to take a peek. When Kim found a Taylor Swift cat kicker toy, I knew I had to have it! This vendor also made cute cat toys from wine corks, so I bought the girls one of those as well.

Three Bookstores

Not everyone enjoys a good bookstore visit, especially people who aren’t keen on buying books. I understand that it can be a lot to take me to a bookstore because I like to spend a lot of time perusing the shelves, but Kim further cemented her permanent place in my heart when she found multiple bookstores to visit, one of which had cats to love on! In Milwaukee, we visited Voyageur Book Shop that had two adorable shop cats named Bustopher Jones and Mr. Sanders. Bustopher was a bit friendlier than Mr. Sanders, as he came right out to greet us and then hung around us while we were looking at books. Mr. Sanders, for his part, did let us pet him and take cute pictures but he spent most of the time curled up in a chair behind the counter.

Bustopher is on the left.

I left with a nice little stack of books from this location, and since it was a used bookstore, I spent right around $30 on this stack, which is a great deal!

After Voyageur, we walked to Lion’s Tooth, which was a very eclectic space! It was a very small bookstore with a carefully curated collection of books (a lot of nonfiction and social justice-type books) as well as a great selection of graphic novels for kids. It felt like a really great community space for artsy folks and was super queer-friendly, which I loved. I left with a book and a new sticker for my water bottle.

On Saturday, Kim and I spent time in Kenosha and she was kind enough to take me to a third bookstore. And I am so glad she did because this might have been the best bookstore I’ve ever been to. It’s actually a good thing I am 1,200 miles away from this delightful place, as otherwise, I’d need to add a line item to my budget for all the money I would spend at this store. Blue House Books not only has an excellent collection of books lining their walls and scattered around tables, but also an incredible array of bookish items for sale. There are mugs and t-shirts and notepads and bookmarks and stickers and tote bags and suncatchers and candles and pens and journals… and the list goes on and on from there. Here’s how amazing this bookstore was: I had to choose between two beautiful Anne of Green Gables editions. The only reason I dragged myself out of this store is because I did not account for spending hundreds of dollars at a bookstore. Instead, I spent $103 on a t-shirt, a bookmark, a handful of stickers, a suncatcher, a beautiful AoGG edition, and Emily Henry’s newest release.

Two Pride Shirts

Chicago was throwing a Pride festival the day of the Popcast live show, and since I was missing the St. Pete Pride Parade for this weekend, I was hoping we could make a quick appearance there to take in all the lovely queer energy of the city. We got to Chicago a few hours before the show so we could a) find easy parking, which we did, and b) go to the festival. We spent a little less than an hour wandering around and poking through all the great booths that were set up (I was tempted to buy more stickers, but I had spent enough money so far on this trip, haha). They also had some live concerts going on in different areas of the festival, which is great for people who aren’t like me and feel like their eardrums are being blown out from the noise. But the further from the stages we were, the easier it was on my nervous system, lol. Kim and I talked about the festival afterward and she remarked about how there was such a positive, happy energy there. I think that’s what I have found the most from Pride events—the overwhelming joy and happiness of being around people who get to be their full selves in an inclusive space like this. It’s truly something beautiful. I was really glad we made the time to visit the festival, even if we didn’t get to stay too long.

One Popcast Live Show

The main event! It was so exciting seeing the Popcast’s logo on the marquee outside The Vic Theater and there is something uniquely special about being surrounded by people who like the same silly podcast that you do. I fangirled hard at this event, especially when I saw the adorable Evan Dodson running around in his spiffy Popcast button-down. I was screaming along with everyone else when Knox and Jamie emerged from backstage. And I giggled like a maniac through every segment and bit they did. One of my favorite parts of the show was when they asked audience members to tell them what event they canceled to be there, with the winners being the woman who had rescheduled her daughter’s first birthday party and the man who left his aunt’s funeral early to get to the show on time. That’s dedication!

I had a really great time at the show, though. It was everything I could have wanted and I enjoyed being in the room where it happens! And it was fun to experience it with Kim since we talk about The Popcast so much and she’s the one who peer-pressured me into listening to them (a good kind of peer pressure). There was just an overall feeling of joy and happiness in the entire theater, and I’m glad it was such a rousing success for this team that does so much for us in terms of entertainment and giving us a soft place to land. (I was talking in the car with Kim afterward how Knox and Jamie have gotten me through some rough moments because if I’m ever feeling anxious and depressed, I put on one of their episodes to lift my spirits.)

And now I have written almost 2,000 words about the two days I spent with Kim! YOU’RE WELCOME. It was a great time and I had fun with Kim who was just so easy to talk to and be around. And now we have dozens of inside jokes, like the time Kim thought this restaurant we saw called Lulu’s was a Thai restaurant. I don’t want to embarrass her on my blog, especially when she hosted me for the weekend, but really, Kim? A Thai restaurant? Oof.

*Yes, my title for this post is exactly the same as Kim’s title, but this was the name for our weekend so I’m keeping it!

Categories: Recurring Series, Travel

Five for Friday | The New Orleans Edition

1) Delayed flights

I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to plane travel. I’ve only had one delayed flight, if you can believe that. Well, not on Wednesday! It was hard to find a nonstop flight to New Orleans for some reason, so we were flying to Charlotte first and then catching a connecting flight to New Orleans. Our flight to Charlotte was scheduled for 2 p.m. and we’d have about an hour until our flight to New Orleans around 5:30 p.m. We’d get to New Orleans right around 8 p.m. Unfortunately, our flight to Charlotte was delayed by over two hours, which meant we’d completely miss our connecting flight. There were a lot of frustrated people at the airport that day! Thankfully, we got rebooked on a new flight automatically through the American Airlines app so we didn’t have to worry about anything. Unfortunately, the new flight was at 8 p.m. so we wouldn’t get into New Orleans until after 10 p.m. That connecting flight was then delayed by half an hour so it was closing in on 11:30 p.m. (after midnight to our bodies that were on Eastern time) when we finally got to our hotel. Whew, what a travel day! Thankfully, our flights home did not have any delays.

But the exciting part of our flights were that we didn’t have anyone in the third seat with us for three of the four flights! That meant we could stretch out with one of us at the window seat and one of us at the aisle seat for those flights, which was pretty sweet!

2) The saga of my house keys

I’m always worried about losing my house keys when I travel. I always put them in the same zippered part of my backpack, but still, I worry that somehow they will drop out of my bag. When we got back into town, my stepdad picked my mom and me up from the airport and then we went to dinner. Then, he drove us back to my place. Before I let them leave, I checked my backpack to make sure I had my keys. And I could not find them anywhere! I took everything out of my backpack, everything out of my purse, and even opened up my suitcase to see if I had somehow stuffed them in there. The keys were nowhere to be found. At this point, it was 9 p.m. so I called my apartment’s emergency line to see if they could help me out. When an hour went by without any word from them, I had to start calling locksmiths. The first locksmith I called didn’t have anyone available until the morning, the second locksmith said he could come out in an hour (but then there was an issue where he called my phone and I didn’t answer because my phone, for some reason, sent the calls right to voicemail, so when I realized he had called and called him back, he said he had taken two jobs in the 10 minutes he was waiting on me—felt suspicious, but whatever). Finally, I got ahold of a locksmith that was able to send someone out right away. He arrived within 20 minutes of my original call.

I thought getting into my house would be easier because my cat sitter only uses the knob lock (not the deadbolt) on her last visit, so that she can leave my spare key inside of my apartment (rather than putting it under the doormat). But I think it might have been harder? The locksmith had to really destroy my doorknob to get it to unlock, which meant I had to pay even more money for this service. In the end, it cost me $390, which made me want to throw up, but what could I do? I had to get into my apartment! I hadn’t realized we were getting back so late, so I hadn’t had the cat sitter come the day we were coming home. The girls don’t have automatic feeders, so they hadn’t had food all day! I was terrified they were hungry and sad. (True story: I started crying when the second locksmith told me he couldn’t come because I just wanted to be home and with my girls.)

Anyway, the fun part of this story is that I found my house keys as I was unpacking!!! They were in my backpack all along!!! Three of us completely unpacked this backpack and felt around, and none of us noticed the keys!!! I paid $400 for no reason!!!

The expensive lessons I learned were: a) always ask my cat sitter to put the key under the doormat, b) always make sure my mom has a spare key at her house, and c) make sure the next apartment I rent has a smart door lock.

3) Souvenirs!

Whenever I visit a new city, I try to find a handful of souvenirs to bring back home: a magnet for my fridge, a Christmas ornament for my tree, a t-shirt, a mug, and locally made art. Yes, it’s a lot but I’m not always successful at finding all of them. In New Orleans, I was! I had great luck finding all of my souvenirs—and then some.

We’ll start with the books. At Garden District Book Shop, I purchased three books and was excited when my mom pointed me in the direction of their Agatha Christie collection. I picked out all of the Christie books I hadn’t read and then looked up the Goodreads rating. Five Little Pigs had the highest rating (4.03 stars, if you’re curious), so I bought it. And I also got a beautiful new hardcover edition of Anne of Green Gables.

I also found a magnet, Christmas ornament, mug, and t-shirt. Yay!

I found this piece of art in a local shop, but then we stumbled onto the art fair later on that day and I was bummed I already bought my piece! Ah, well. I love the one I selected!

And lastly, at the art fair, I did purchase this really cute cat painting. I couldn’t pass it up! It’s a cat and my favorite color? It also has pre-drilled holes so I can nail it into a wall easily.

4) The flare of all flares

Leading up to my trip, my psoriasis was the worst it’s ever been. I had these big red patches on both sides of my scalp and they were so, so, so itchy. I tried everything: my steroid gels, apple cider vinegar, OTC psoriasis cream, specialized shampoo, etc. I was ready to call my dermatologist and demand an emergency appointment because things had gotten to such a bad state. On Wednesday, the day we were flying into New Orleans, the flare was still really bad. I was trying to keep things at bay by applying the steroid gels every few hours, which would help my scalp calm down for an hour or so. (I was so desperate for relief on one flight that I started rubbing an ice cube from my complimentary drink over the affected areas.) On the first day of our trip, before we did anything else, I found a CVS where I bought OTC cream (Exederm) as well as a numbing cream. (When I was scrolling the psoriasis Reddit forum late one night, someone mentioned numbing cream that would provide a bit of relief and I was willing to try anything at that moment.)

I felt so sorry for myself in the days leading up to the trip, thinking about dealing with this stupid flare and how it would affect how much I enjoyed my vacation. I applied the Exederm twice (on Thursday night and Friday morning) but starting on Friday, my psoriasis cleared up! It wasn’t itchy and the redness had lessened a bit. Was it the Exederm? Maybe. But I think this flare was 100% stress-related and that’s why I was in such a bad state. I think I was feeling a bit anxious about the vacation—leaving my cats, the logistics of flying, getting to New Orleans safe and sound, etc—and once we were there and enjoying ourselves, my psoriasis flare went away. It was such a relief. It’s been over a week since that really bad flare and I haven’t been putting any steroid gel or cream on my scalp (I wanted to give my scalp a break), and things are still doing good. I have an appointment with my dermatologist in a few weeks, and we will have a lot to chat about!

5) New shoes + new exercise routine = not being sore after walking all day!

One of the things I like least about vacation is all the walking, which always leads to me having sore feet and a sore body at the end of each day. After a few days of this, I am usually ready to chop off my feet and less likely to want to walk around and do things. The whole point of vacation is to walk around and do things! (And relax, but this wasn’t one of those vacations.) One of the things I noticed about this vacation was that I didn’t end each day with sore feet! I felt like I could walk farther without getting tired, and it was a truly eye-opening moment to realize that I am getting fitter from my new exercise routine. And also, it probably helped that I wasn’t walking around in four-year-old shoes that provided zero cushioning and support. There’s that, too.

What’s the last souvenir you bought? Have you ever needed the (expensive!) services of a locksmith?

Categories: Travel

A Long Weekend in New Orleans, LA

My mom and I got back from our wonderful trip to New Orleans on Sunday night. We got in late Wednesday evening (more on that in the next post!) and had all of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to explore this foodie city. The spoiler alert here is that a) I don’t know if I ever need to go back to New Orleans and b) two non-foodies being in a big foodie city makes for some very boring meals. (We should have brought my stepdad, as he loves all of the seafood, Cajun food, etc. that is inherent to New Orleans.) But we still had a lot of fun. Here’s what we got up to:

Thursday

We started off our New Orleans adventure with brunch in the French Quarter, and just as we were finishing up our meal, it started to downpour. Our plan after brunch was to walk over to the aquarium, but that would have been a very uncomfortable walk! We opted to wait out the storm at the restaurant. I always forget that storms in Florida are vastly different than storm in other parts of the country. In Florida, it’s odd for it to rain for more than 30 minutes. Typically, the storm clouds roll in, it downpours for 20-30 minutes tops, and then the storm clouds roll out. Not in Louisiana! Instead, we sat at that restaurant for almost two hours waiting for the storm to pass. I was contemplating taking a Lyft to the aquarium, but decided to give it a little more time. We ordered drinks (the New Orleans classic Hurricane!) and played on our phones.

Eventually, the rain stopped and we trekked over to the aquarium where we enjoyed lots of fun exhibits. We especially enjoyed the penguins and stingrays! I was hoping there would be some sea turtles for my mom (she loves turtles), but we didn’t see any. Wah! After the aquarium, we took a Lyft to the Garden District where we perused around some shops, including a bookstore where I spent way too much money on books (oops). Then, we opted to head back to the hotel for a quick nap before our big plans for the night.

And Thursday night was our reason for coming to New Orleans: Nate Bargatze! I didn’t realize this when I booked the tickets, but I booked fantastic seats just 15 rows from the stage. That meant when Nate Bargatze came out, he was mere feet away from me as he strolled up the aisle! (I was especially jealous of the people on the right side of our row—we were on the left side—who got to fist bump Nate when he left the stage. Ahhh!) Anyway, Nate was amazing as expected. After the show, I asked my mom if she liked Jim Gaffigan’s show or Nate’s show better and honestly, it’s hard to say! They both are exceptionally funny. It was also really cool to see Nate fill an entire arena for this show. I love seeing comedians like him thrive!

After the show, we went to a bar close by for dinner and then headed back to the hotel.

Friday

On Friday, we slept in a bit and then headed over to the French Quarter for brunch. One thing my mom and I agreed on when it came to the food in New Orleans: they understand how to make some damn good bacon. Crispy and greasy and perfect! After brunch, we meandered around for a bit. We did some shopping in the French Market (more on my purchases in my next post!) and then went to Jackson Square, which made for excellent people watching. We went into St. Louis Cathedral, which was breathtaking and lit candles for Grandma and Pops. We stopped into Faulkner House Books, which was a teeny-tiny bookshop tucked into an alleyway behind the cathedral. I had just spent a lot of money on books the day before so I knew I had to be very particular about what I purchased from the bookstore. And then I found a beautiful hardcover edition of Anne of Green Gables from 1995, and I knew I had to have it. I have a new-ish goal of collecting as many editions of this beloved novel as I can, so it was such a delight to find a gorgeous edition in this bookstore!

After the bookstore, we headed over to the Pharmacy Museum but on our way there, it started to downpour so we took refuge under an awning for a bit but didn’t want to waste too much time waiting so once we realized the rain wasn’t letting up, we continued our journey. But then… a woman in a nearby shop approached us about a foot massage and we decided that would be an excellent way to wait out the rain. It was only $22 for 20 minutes and well worth every penny. It felt so good to get our feet massaged after being on them for so long the last few days. And by the time we were finished, the rain had stopped so we could make our way to the museum nice and dry.

The pharmacy museum was everything my little history-loving heart could have wanted and I especially loved the exhibits that focused on the number of Black-owned pharmacies that popped up in the area. Xavier College of Louisiana was one of only two universities in the 1920s that accepted Black students in their pharmacy college, so there’s a rich history in New Orleans of Black pharmacists and the pharmacies they ran. These pharmacies became community centers where people not only picked up their prescriptions but could get non-urgent medical care, sit at a soda foundation and chat with friends, etc. The building that this pharmacy museum is located in was actually a working pharmacy for the first licensed pharmacist in America. He opened it in 1823 and it was operated as a pharmacy until 1855. In the 1950s, it became a museum.

After the museum, we decided it was time to go back to the hotel and chill for a bit. Our plan for Friday night was to hit up Frenchman Street (which is, according to New Orleans locals, far superior to Bourbon Street), have some drinks, and get dinner. First, though, we stopped at the famous Carousel Bar, where we hoped to score a seat at the revolving bar, but it’s very limited in its seating and you have to be fairly aggressive in your approach to grab a seat when people leave. My mom and I, these sweet little enneagram 9s, are not the aggressive sort so we simply found an open seat in the corner of the bar and took in the action from the sidelines. We ordered drinks and an appetizer and had a good time people watching.

Then, we took a Lyft to Frenchmen Street where we happened upon a local art fair so we spent some time perusing the various artists’ work. My mom ended up buying a few things and I couldn’t pass up a cute cat painting, so we emerged from the fair very happy! We found a restaurant for dinner where the food was pretty average and the drinks were flowing. I ordered some sort of fruity rum drink and holy smokes, it was strong. I eventually had to order a Sprite so I could dilute the drink enough to finish it. Whew. Two of those drinks would have me toasted, that’s for sure.

And after all that fun, we made our way back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday

On Saturday, my mom and I woke up around 9:30 and popped into a Starbucks near our hotel for a quick breakfast. And then we took a Lyft to New Orleans City Park. We spent a few hours there, first touring the sculpture garden where there are nearly 100 works to view, all carefully installed throughout a meandering garden path. We strolled around the garden for a while and I don’t think we even made it through half of the sculptures! Afterward, we headed over to Big Lake to rent a paddleboat. It was very, very hot on Saturday (in the 90s with 75% humidity), so we hoped that spending time by the lake would cool us down a bit. Every now and then, we caught a nice breeze but we also quickly realized that paddleboating around a lake is a lot of work! We brought the paddleboat back after about 40 minutes—that was more than enough time for us to get our money’s worth, we thought!

After our adventure at City Park, we stopped by Backspace Bar for lunch and I failed to get any pictures of the bar, which is literary themed. It was a really unique spot and was pretty empty during the time we went, so I’m bummed I didn’t get any pictures. Womp, womp.

We went back to the hotel for naps and showers, and then headed out right around 6pm to get dinner before our ghost tour! Our food at the restaurant wasn’t anything to write home about, but we did have excellent service so there’s that! Afterward, we walked over to meet up with our ghost tour! As you might expect, there are lots and lots of ghost tours available in New Orleans and we opted to do a ghost tour pub crawl where we were taken to some of the creepy spots around the French Quarter and got to enjoy a few drinks while we did so. (New Orleans is an open-container city so we could walk and sip our drinks, which was nice!) I started the pub crawl with a lemon drop shot and then had a spiked watermelon lemonade at the first bar we stopped at. It was super sweet and not really that good, but I sucked it down anyway. Then, we stopped at another bar where I got the New Orleans signature drink, the hurricane, which was delicious and strong and I was definitely feeling it after I finished that drink. And then we capped off the night at a different bar with a coffee-based drink that was actually pretty good. I don’t do a lot of coffee-based alcoholic bevvies, but I enjoyed this one a lot!

The ghost tour itself was fairly interesting and I really loved our tour guide, but I was left wanting a little more historical context with my ghost stories. I love ghost tours because of the historical components, and I felt like this tour guide talked a little too fast for me to fully immerse myself in what he was telling me. He seemed like a really interesting guy, though, and I would have loved to pick his brain about the history of New Orleans and other ghost stories. It also might have been because I was a bit drunk that I didn’t connect with the stories as much as I wanted to. Whoops! Lesson learned.

After the ghost tour, it was back to the hotel and preparing to head back home.

Have you ever been to New Orleans?

Categories: Travel

Our Tennessee Vacation | What We Did

I’ve been back from my Tennessee vacation for three weeks now, and I’m just now getting around to finishing up my recaps. Sorry for the delay—2023 wrap-up posts took priority. I gave everyone a peek into our cabin life earlier this month, and now I’m going to show you guys the fun things we did while out and about! If you love to have the best vacation experience, then you might want to try the best things to do in St. Louis.

Horseback Riding at The Deer Farm Riding Stables

One of our first adventures in Tennessee was horseback riding! I’ve been horseback riding a few times (mostly on cruise excursions) and it’s always a good time, so I booked a reservation for the three of us on Thursday morning. It was cold that day (I think in the 40s) and I forgot my gloves at the cabin, but once we were moving and in the sun, it didn’t feel too bad. We were on a group with three young girls and our trail guide took us all around the backwoods. We went up some really steep hill and also went down those same hills, and I’m glad it was my horse that had to get me up and down them because I don’t think I would have made it! My mom was on a super slow horse who just wanted to meander and never wanted to get very close to my horse (I was in front of her), so I made up a great story about the lover’s quarrel these two horses were in. You wouldn’t believe what happened! My mom said she really loved having such a slow horse, though. It felt safe!

Smoky Mountain Deer Farm & Exotic Petting Zoo

After horseback riding, we zipped over to the exotic petting zoo located in the same farm area. I have family that goes to this petting zoo on their trips to Gatlinburg and have raved about it, so we had to give it a try! It was one of the best experiences of the trip, I think! We all got a huge cup of seeds and other random mishmash that we could feed to the animals and we also bought a bag of apples that certain animals were allowed to eat. We saw all kinds of animals here! Goats, deer, bunnies, a zebra, a horse, a camel, reindeer, cows, ostriches… and probably so many more that I’m forgetting! We were able to go into the deer area with our food, but whoa… they went crazy! I had a deer nosing into my bag of apples to take some for themselves and at one point, I was fully surrounded by the deer who wanted me to give them all of the food. Little adorable savages! We left the deer area before we totally ran out of food (although they did take all of our apples!) and were able to feed a few more animals before we were all out of the good stuff. Once we had finished giving out our food, we strolled around the area to see the other animals and then my mom and I went into the goat encampment to hang out with them. They were mainly interested in the people feeding them, though, so they didn’t give us much time of day sadly. It was a fun time and I’m glad we went!

Gatlinburg SkyPark

We spent a day in Gatlinburg, and boy was it busy there! Apparently, everyone comes to Gatlinburg for NYE—who knew?! We had a very early lunch (we planned to have a late breakfast at Crockett’s Breakfast Camp but it was a two-hour wait!) and then headed over to Gatlinburg SkyPark. We went on a very cold day (for us Florida gals—it was in the low 30s) and we had the most wonderful snow flurries so it really felt like a magical experience. We had to take a skylift over to the park, which was actually kind of scary?! IDK, I didn’t feel very safe so I just tried to stay as still as possible, haha. The park itself was wonderful! There were many different paths to traverse, including the SkyBridge, which is touted as the “longest pedestrian cable bridge in North America.” It was a pretty gray day so we didn’t get the full view of the Smokies, but it was still amazing! There were tons of photo opps, some fire pits to stay warm by, and a great shop located on the SkyDeck where I bought some souvenirs (a hoodie, Smoky Mountains mug, and Christmas ornament).

Gatlinburg Trail

There are two dog-friendly trails in the Smoky Mountains and thankfully, one of them was less than 30 minutes from our cabin! So one morning, we loaded up the dogs in the car and took them on a hike in the mountains. The trail was super smooth with only one or two uphill sections. There was a downed tree in the path at one point and it was cute to see the dogs hop over it with their little sausage legs. The dogs were definitely celebrities on the trail in their adorable winter coats, and one little girl tried to take Chip home with her, haha.

We only walked for about an hour or so; we didn’t want to tire out the dogs even though the trail is a 4-mile loop. But it was enough time to get some exercise, take some pictures, and enjoy the fresh air!

Ober Gatlinburg

We spent our last full day in Tennessee at Ober Gatlinburg, which is an amusement park that turns into a winter wonderland when the weather cools down. There’s not a ton to do here (the ski slopes are the main draw and there’s also an indoor skating rink) but I was super excited to go snow tubing for the first time ever. We took a tram up to the park, where they crammed us in with 100+ other people, and it’s a good thing we got there early because there can be a 3+ hour wait for the tram during peak time! Once at the park, we got our day pass + snow tubing tickets and then strolled around for a bit before deciding to do the mountain coaster. It was a long wait (probably an hour) and I passed the time by playing the only game on my phone that doesn’t require a phone signal, ha. (Ober Gatlinburg is a dead zone for phones.) The mountain coaster itself was super fun! I was zipping around so fast, I was scared I was going to fly off the mountain! (My mom hated it, as she mixed up how to speed and slow down the coaster in her head, so she was going AS FAST AS POSSIBLE and terrified—going at top speed would have terrified me as well!)

And then it was time for snow tubing! At first, I was really scared once I got up to the top of the slide because it looked much scarier from there than it did from below. But I calmed myself down by reminding myself of all the little kids who were doing this and I only had to do it once. If I hated it, I didn’t have to do it again. Thankfully, I loved it! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! It really wasn’t scary going down the slide and I was screaming with delight the whole way down. My mom and I ended up doing three runs total (eventually, we got super cold and needed to warm up inside—who knew that my fashion boots and Target cotton gloves weren’t going to keep me warm in the snow?!) while Robert was out there the whole time. He went down 7 times, so he definitely got his money’s worth on the snow tubing.

My mom and I got a cup of peppermint hot chocolate and found a table inside where we could rest and warm up, which was delightful!

And that’s what we did in Tennesee! There was also a visit to an indie bookstore in Gatlinburg, some yummy restaurants (including a moonshine tasting at The Calgary distillery that got me very tipsy one night), and a visit to the Apple Barn where I got to enjoy my first-ever cider tasting that was delicious! It was a wonderful vacation with my favorite people.

Have you ever been horseback riding?

Categories: Travel

Our Tennessee Vacation | Cabin Edition

The best way to start my recaps of our Tennessee vacation is to talk about our cabin. We loved our cabin. It was cozy and warm and spacious. It had all of the amenities we could have needed!

I spent hours scouring VRBO and Airbnb reviews to find our perfect mountain cabin for this vacation and when I came to this cabin’s listing, it immediately went on my favorites list because of the beautiful cabin and wonderful reviews. We were a little hesitant about the cabin when we learned there was no wifi connection, but we all have 5G on our phones and it was a strong signal, so we were fine.

We were situated in an area of Sevierville (which is a short distance from Gatlinburg) that is home to a ton of short-term rental properties (and most of them were bear-themed, as this one was). I didn’t love the twisty-turny mountain roads, that’s for sure, and I am very glad Robert was there to drive them for us. In general, it would take us almost 10 minutes to get from our cabin to the main road on an average day.

The cabin sleeps six, so there was more than enough space for the three of us (and two small dogs). I had the downstairs bedroom/bathroom and my mom/stepdad/dogs had the upstairs bedroom/bathroom. There was a spacious kitchen where Robert made more than a few meals for us. And there was a really great game room with a pool table and old-school arcade machine. On the large patio was a hot tub (we didn’t use it because the thought of being in the cold air to get into and out of the hot tub was too much for us!) and a grill that Robert used one night to make dinner. We also had a fireplace (so many kudos to Robert for being able to make a crackling fire every night and deal with the ashes the next day). Oh, and enough cannot be said about having a washer/dryer on vacation. On our last night, we stayed in and did our laundry so we came home with suitcases filled with clean clothes. AMAZING!

Here are some of the things I want to remember from this vacation and this cabin:

  • Spending the evenings reading with my mom – This is one of my most treasured memories from childhood and now I get to have the same one as an adult. Between the two of us, we finished five books on this vacation!
  • Lucy finding a squirrel nest in the tree and standing sentry by the window staring at it. She did not move from her spot for a long, long time.
  • Playing games of pool with my mom and Robert. “Chalk it up! Chalk it up!”
  • Waking up one morning, looking at my phone, and seeing “snow flurries” on my weather app. I couldn’t get outside fast enough! (There were no snow flurries at that time; they came a bit later.)
  • The way the dogs looked in their winter coats. They were so cute it hurt! (Lucy looked like a little Inspector Gadget in her khaki jacket, and I couldn’t help singing the theme song every time she wore it.)
  • Sitting outside on the patio on our first full day (it was the mildest day we would have) and reading my book while Lucy pattered around me.
  • Having a low-key day in the cabin halfway through our trip, which was so very needed and completely delightful.
  • Waking up every morning to the most beautiful views that took my breath away every time.