Smoky Mountain Vacation - Day 6

After sleeping in to try and recover from our hike the day before, we headed out to visit the touristy town of Gatlinburg.  First stop, this alpine coaster!  It is basically a ride down a mountain on a long track.  Even I did this, and it was so much fun that we decided to do it again!

The ride up the mountain.

On my way up I got a quick pic of son L on his way down!

And here is daughter G on her way down.

After this fun time, we headed to the shops and restaurants in Gatlinburg proper.  I have been in a lot of cute towns, but I have to say this was one of the cutest.  So many little alleys that end up being full of shops and fountains like this one!  We window shopped and looked for souvenirs.  Very fun.

My hubby and a couple sons had a good bit of fun in this place, the Pepper Palace.  It was a hot sauce shop, and my hubs loves hot sauce.

After all this taste testing though.......

....son C needed some ice cream to cool off his tongue!  And he really did *need* it.  His tongue was so on fire, it was extremely uncomfortable for him.  Live and learn!

Some really lovely art galleries.

Our kids spent the most time in this shop of all places!  They all picked out a pair of socks as personal souvenirs, and we chose some socks to buy for daughter H, who stayed with others back home while we were gone.  They had every imaginable sock design, literally hundreds and hundreds of socks.

And on our way back to the cabin from Gatlinburg we took a detour to see this brother-sister duo, who are dear friends from back home but attending the same college in TN.  Very fun!!