Parent Time

My parents drove home with us from DC and stayed for 10 days in our humble condo.  It was a far cry from the guest amenities they used to enjoy in our Oregon home, but it all worked out.  Hey, I'm just doing my part to make sure they don't become too uppity.  

You're welcome.

Our first item of business was stopping to explore the Luray Caverns on our journey home.  My goodness!  What an amazing natural wonder.  It was my first experience with caverns and I highly recommend it.  I also did a ropes course with Kitty in the blazing sun.  I recommend that with less enthusiasm.  It was sweaty.  Nevertheless, Kitty and I had a good time and bonded over wobbling around on teeny ropes high up in the sky.  But seriously, go see some caverns!

In the weeks leading up to my parents' visit, I spent quite a bit of brain power contemplating fun things to do with my folks in our new land.  I wanted them to love TN as much I as do, so I carefully curated a list of activities that would tickle them.  

And that's why I immediately put my mother to work fixing my bathroom floor.  Hey, I'm just doing my part to make sure they don't become too uppity.  

My sweet Mommy worked her little fanny off repairing our floors in various places.  I felt pangs of guilt for asking her to work but was incredibly grateful that she did it for us.  She's amazing. 

Before you go feeling bad for the old folks, we also did some extremely fun things.  It wasn't all sweat-shoppy.

We went to Pigeon Forge and had a load of adventures like going to a pirate dinner show, where Kitty exclaimed, "This is EPIC!".  Indeed it was.

We enjoyed the fishies at Ripley's Aquarium and rode in a glass-bottom boat.  Thanks, Dad!

We even had the chance to shop in the world's biggest knife store and found the sword in the stone.  It was GINORMOUS!

I also had a ginormous belly laugh watching my poor husband trying to mount a child-sized tube in the pool at the hotel. That may have been the best thing I saw in Pigeon Forge.  

Back home we went looking for old veteran grave sites and found some from the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

We also had a tour of the Bristol Motor Speedway and were able to drive along the track and visit the owner's box.  That turned out to be more fun than I anticipated.  

And we can't forget the birthplace of country music museum.  That was a neat place...and I don't even particularly like country music!

We also did all of the important things like eating life-changing donuts at Auntie Ruth's, devouring Project BBQ and feeling what heaven must be like, and watching movies in the basement with Mykey's famous popcorn.  It was a good 10 days.

Kitty slightly disagreed.   

After about a week, Kitty was tired of running around with us to historical sites and boring adult things.  At the Tipton-Haynes historical site, my mom was reading a plaque in the parking lot.  I asked her what it said and Kitty shouted, "It says that this is the most boring place in the whole world and no one should ever come here!"

She's such a pleasant child. 

Don't listen to Kitty...you should indeed go there.  Please come see me and I'll take you.  It'll be fun.

Just ask my parents.