Cades Cove, Village Shoppes & More Gatlinburg {Gatlinburg, TN Recap}

I’m back with post 3 (of 3) for our Gatlinburg, TN trip!

In this post I’ll share some outings we had in Gatlinburg and the surrounding areas, a drive through Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountain National Park and a few dance photos (since we were there for Aut’s dance nationals).

We went out for breakfast one day on the trip to Pancake Pantry and it did NOT disappoint. It was a short walk from our townhouse near the Village Shoppes. There was a long line around the building, but we only waited 15 minutes, because the place was HUGE inside! I got their Swedish Crepes, which are rich egg batter crepes with lingonberries imported from Sweden. It was served with lingonberry butter, powdered sugar and lemon wedges. So yummy!

Next up, we checked out the Village Shoppes, which had a variety of 30 fun stores with a European theme to the streets and outside appearance.

All of the shoppes were so cute on the outside and they even had a red telephone box you could go in. Maddi Mae’s Cafe was where I got my lavender vanilla coffee every morning.

We walked around Gatlinburg a bit and Autumn really wanted to do the Mirror Maze. I didn’t do it, but they said it was really cool. Brian and I sampled some moonshine, it was delicious!

My brother’s FAVORITE store when we were kids was Radio Shack. I had NO idea there were still locations open! I took this photo of this Radio Shack we saw in Gatlinburg.

Autumn had a team building night at LazerPort Fun Center with her dance school. She LOVED the go-karts! We did the glow and the dark laser tag and it was fun!

We spent about 4 days in all at the Gatlinburg Convention Center for Autumn’s dances and the BIG SHOW! This was probably my least favorite convention center/nationals show out of the 3 we’ve been to since Autumn has done dance. This was Autumn’s last NATIONALS, because she will be focusing just on the dance team at school and possibly some school clubs and track in the spring. Her school dance team meets for a couple hours after school each day with games on Friday nights, so we don’t really have the option to do the private dance school anymore… AND, she’s just ready to move on and try some new things with her fellow classmates! I’m excited for this year for her!

We tried out the Smith & Son Corner Kitchen close to the Gatlinburg Convention Center and our table had a really fun view of downtown Gatlinburg on the second floor, but we all thought the food and drinks were a little meh.

We stopped at the start of the hike to Abrams Falls, but realized the hike took 4-5 hours, so we checked out the stream. We were talking to a guy, who showed us how they saw a momma bear and its cubs in a tree! This was at a different time and unfortunately we didn’t get to see any bears while driving through Cades Cove or in Gatlinburg.

We stopped at The Park Grill once exiting the Smoky Mountains and there was no wait and it was delicious. You get a salad buffet option with your meal, which was great since we were all so hungry from the day.