Reflections Without a Campfire

The majority of the photos in today's post were taken at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge and the Opryland Hotel in Nashville (both in Tennessee).  These establishments truly know how to do it up right for the holiday season. 

Earlier this month, Alan and I took an impromptu trip to Tennessee.  For years we had talked about visiting both Dollywood and Nashvillle during the holiday season.  This year a Tennessee Christmas adventure finally fit into our schedule – after the holiday shopping was done but before the gifts were wrapped and in between two critical dental appointments.  I needed a shoehorn (remember those?) to wedge it into our calendar, but wedge it I did.

The Nation's Christmas Tree & Other Confusing Tidbits - Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

Guess what!  Day #10 of our West Coast National Parks Trip was my birthday!  Because my birthday falls during the summer, I usually try to plan an outdoor adventure around that time so that my special day is especially special.  (Being the travel planner in the family does have its advantages.)  Although I didn’t specifically plan this trip to coincide with my birthday, as it so happened, we would be arriving at the first of our National Parks stops on my big day.  During our previous National Parks Trip in 2010, we were in Bryce Canyon National Park on my birthday.  This time around, we’d be celebrating my big day in conjunction with our arrival at Sequoia/Kings Canyon.