Dollywood, Finally

Because I know that you're all waiting with bated breath to hear about our trip.

First of all, it takes about four hours to get to Dollywood from where we live, and I have to say that I was dreading it. Sarah screeches like a banshee, I mean this kids has lungs. And her favorite place to display this ability is in the car. Sigh.

So needless to say I was terrified worried that the drive would seem like an eternity. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought, much to my mother's and my relief. Alex didn't care, he was plugged into the DVD player and couldn't hear a thing.

We decided to go to Dollywood the day we drove up because it was supposed to storm the next day. Of course.

Those of you that have braved amusement parks know that they're hard enough to handle when you're well-rested, but throw in a 5am wake-up time and a four-hour drive. Yikes.

We pulled up to the entrance to the park only to be greeted with a honking huge crowd, a forever long line of cars, and a ton of people waiting for the tram to get to the gates. Apparently Dollywood was no longer the quaint little place that I remembered.

With much fear and trepidation we got out of the car, and to make matters worse, Sarah was soaking wet. Apparently I hadn't changed her enough during the trip. *coughcough* So before we even made it into the park, I had to change her into the one extra oufit that I had packed for her. Two day trip. One extra outfit, Not smart. But then again we've already discussed my mental deficiencies when it comes to travel.

When we pulled into the parking lot we couldn't even see the gate, but my mom went ahead and parked where all the other cars were parking. Can we say sheep? Baaaah. This was an interesting insight into human behavior that I'll discuss at another time. I suggested that we might want to drive further into the parking lot to see if there were any other spots, but that didn't happen. We didn't want to wait in the humongous line for the tram so we decided to hoof it.

It was a looooong walk.

There were ten parking spots in the lot by the front gate.

Well, I shelled out the $95.65 for tickets for Alex and I, and we finally made it into the park. I'm surprised they didn't charge me for Sarah...

All in all though, it turned out to be a wonderful day.

Alex rode his first rollercoaster.

He screamed like a girl.

He loved it and promptly drug me on the rest of the coasters in the park.

I screamed like a girl.

He and my mom went on the rapids ride while Sarah and I stood outside and watched. They got soaked.

My mom screamed like a girl.

I have to tell you, that was probably my favorite part of the day.

At the end of the day we were exhausted but happy. We had a wonderful time even though Dollywood isn't the po dunk little amusement park that I remember.