Gatlinburg Day 2-Part 1

Tuesday morning, we headed to Ober Gatlinburg which is a ski resort with a German flair. In the other seasons, they have a tramway that takes people up to the top of the hill to enjoy games and other entertainment.  We decided to make a day of it and we were hoping to get to the higher elevations and find more color (but not so much the color).

Below: these are some pictures from the back deck of our cabin before heading out.  It had three decks on the back...one for each level.

And some rocking chairs too...cute Jarem enjoying one of them!

After we parked near the Ober Gatlinburg tramway, we walked to the location.  On our short walk, we saw this pretty creek.  Eric has always had a fondness for Eastern rivers and creeks like he played in as a child.  He took a few pictures.  There was a guy fly fishing down there.

The kids waiting for Dad to finish taking pictures. :)

Ober Gatlinburg had some shops and food places as well as the tramway.

This picture is just after we took off in the Tramway looking back on the station.  It fits about 128 people, but it wasn't full.

The next several pictures are on the way up the mountain while on the tramway.  As you can see, the colors hadn't changed all that much, but it was still a beautiful view and if you really look at some of the mountains in the background about 5-6 pictures down, you can see a lot of red on those, but they were mostly in the clouds of the Smokies.

You can see lots of red on the mountains behind

The first thing we did when we got off the Tramway was to buy coupons for the activities and go mini-golfing.

Then we had lunch at the restaurant up there.  We chose it especially because it had free live entertainment at 1:00 and it was German themed.  My dad served his mission in Germany, so we thought that would be kind of fun.  The entertainment turned out to be pretty interesting, but fun.  The menus also had German food in honor of Oktoberfest, which is a 16-day German beer festival held in Germany.  Everyone loved their food except me, but I'll get to that part later.  My mom and Alex got an apple-glazed pork which I really wished I would have ordered.

The entertainment

You can see how close our table was to the stage.

Ringing different toned cowbells as part of the song

My mom loved this guy.  She said he reminded her exactly of her grandpa and her grandpa played the accordion also.  She said that her grandpa would always bring his accordion over to their house and she had lots of good memories singing together with him.  She later talked to this man and found out he was from the same part of Poland as her grandpa.  That was kind of neat for her.

The guy with the beard reminded me of my German teacher in high school, Herr Badger.

Eric got some brats and sauerkraut.  He loved them.  His mom is full German and his grandparents as well (obviously). :)

The boys and my parents

I think Tessa got a hamburger.  She stayed on the safe side. :)

Jesikah got spagetti pasta with marinara sauce.  She was happy.

And now the interesting part...this entertainer came and recruited me first to come and do the bunny hop with him.  I look happy, but it was more an embarrassed smile.  The kids thought it was HILARIOUS!  He told me that I had a radiant glow(Haha! Must be the pregnancy).  Eric tried to get me out of it by telling him I was pregnant, but he persisted.

He went around the room recruiting many women to join us.  I willingly made room so the one lady in the gray sweater could cut in between me and the entertainer guy.  I didn't enjoy hanging onto him! LOL!

Eric made sure to document it well! :)

Just when the song was done and I was ready to sneak back to my seat, he made me stay up there for the chicken dance.

Funny thing was, he had 5 chicken hats, and I had a hunch I was going to get one of them, but I was trying to remain discreet.  I thought I was going to get out of it when he made eye contact with me for the 5th hat!  As you can see, my discreetness didn't work, and not only did he give me one, but he said that we needed a MAMA chicken and patted my belly and everyone laughed and clapped.  It was kind of awkward, but at least I know the chicken dance! :) Many years ago I taught Kindergarten and the whole school did this dance festival.  Every grade performed a dance and Kindergarten did the chicken dance, so I was pretty good at it after all that practice years ago. :)

Lots of kids came down to the stage floor to join in, including Jarem and the girls

I was happy to have some friendly faces there with me.

They love the chicken dance!

A few songs later, Tessa got selected to help with an instrument

Then Jesikah too, so it was a family affair.

I think Tessa enjoyed it more than Jesikah, but they both have a good sense of rhythm and did a great job!

After I got back to my seat, I felt a little sick to my stomach from all the bouncing around, and did not have any appetite for my lunch.  I forced down half of my reuben sandwich (which I usually love) and couldn't eat the potato salad.  The only that tasted good to me was a few of Tessa's fries which she kindly shared.  When we talked about our favorite things from the trip, Jesikah's favorite was the watching me dance at the German restaurant.  Alex's was also the German restaurant.  He wanted a souvenir beer glass shaped like a boot, but Eric and I both declined even though he insisted he would only drink Sprite in it! :)