Last week we were on vacation in Sevierville, Tennessee. We have no pictures of our trip to Dollywood because the camera would have been a pain to keep up with, but we do have photos of a few other activities.
On Tuesday, we went to an educational activity center called Wonder Works. Some of the most fun activities--dancing for two different camera systems that alter the images--weren't photographed, but the bubble lab gave us some great photos. And we like the picture of me in the space suit. More photos are on my Picasa site.
On Friday night Matt and I went to dinner with Ashley. Sevierville is the hometown of Dolly Parton; a statue of her is in front of the courthouse. Ashley is a big fan of Dolly Parton, so we went to the courthouse to have our pictures taken with Dolly. Then we ate at an Asian buffet with sushi and hibachi. Then we went to the world's largest "as seen on TV" store. I think they figure "largest" by store size and not number of "as seen on TV" items. We didn't buy any TV items (I counted at least 11 that I already own), but we got an octopus and a hedgehog for our unusual stuffed animal collection. After we got back to the condo, Ashley, Grandma and I put on face masks. It was hard to keep from smiling and making the mask slide down our faces.
On Saturday afternoon, we went to Knoxville to shop at used bookstores. The best was McKay, which is a used book, movie and music superstore. We thought we were in the wrong parking lot when we arrived because it was so busy. We've never seen a bookstore so big or popular. We also went to a used music and movie store that had fun refrigerator magnets and toys. Matt got a set of four literary finger puppets, including Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens. He uses such things to decorate his office at school and as show and tell for his classes.
We stopped at Carpe Librum (love the name!) and didn't buy anything, but they had a big piece of paper in the bathroom on which people had written favorite restaurants. We asked the people working at the store about the restaurants and chose King Tut's. They had told us the food is delicious and it's an experience. They weren't joking. We arrived at the tiny Egyptian restaurant after parking in an empty lot and discovered it was almost full because of an engagement party being held there. We were seated by Moe, the owner. He took our drink orders and filled two vases with Matt's Dr Pepper and my water. He handed us menus, saying "I highly recommend the Greek salad and an Egyptian sampler to share." We browsed the menu anyway and saw that by the Greek salad it says something like "Moe highly recommends it." :) So we followed his recommendations and had a super meal. I think we'd eat there every day if we could. The Greek salad was covered with feta cheese and herbs. The hummus and grape leaves and falafel and all the things I didn't recognize were yummy. Moe took a music request from the groom-to-be and blared reggae-style Christmas music, which everyone sang along to even if they, like Moe, only knew the fa-la-las of Deck the Halls. The groom was also allowed to wear the pharaoh headdress while slow dancing to the Christmas music with his fiancee. Matt wore the headdress later, and I took his picture. The walls are covered with bumper stickers, colorful lights and a stoplight. Moe offered to do a magic trick if all three of the guys next to us ordered dessert, but one guy was too full. I almost bought him dessert just so I could see the magic trick. We got baklava for dessert, and left happy.
On Saturday, we checked out of the condo and stopped in Knoxville again on the way home. We ate Indian food and went to two Big Lots (a.k.a. The Happiest Place on Earth). After we had gotten home and unpacked a little, Matt took me to the garden. It had grown wildly. I no longer have rows to walk down because of how big the plants were. My green peas were twice as tall and blossoming. My green bean plants were growing at least one tiny bean (below and slightly to the right of the flower). The green onions are almost big enough to use. I picked enough basil to make pesto sauce for supper. I've got to go to the garden again tomorrow to pick more for my pasta salad. We're having friends over tomorrow for a supper of pasta salad with chicken, tomato, basil and feta and some watermelon granita for dessert.
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