Friday, March 13, 2015

Memories through my window

Space Needle

Front and center from our third-floor room in our motel was the Space Needle, an enduring landmark among  the tourist attractions at Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

During more than 3 decades of summer vacations to the Smoky Mountains we had made the elevator ride to the Needle’s topmost observation deck only once. We mostly avoided Gatlinburg crowds and the summer heat except trips for groceries or gas for our van. 

instead we camped with our two boys in the national park where the campgrounds’ higher elevations and breezes off cold mountain streams kept us cool. 

Plus, kids and adults alike found plenty of entertainment in tubing and splashing in the streams, hiking nearby trails, joining park rangers for campfire programs and walks or just sitting around our campfire with hot drinks and conversation.

But for one evening of each trip, we would load up the boys and take them to Gatlinburg. Sons and dad would rocket down a mountainside multiple times on the alpine slide, a gravity-powered ride at the Ober Gatlinburg amusement complex.

 Next on the agenda would be strolling the main street, checking out new shops and sampling the chocolate, taffy, candied apples, hot pretzels and other goodies.The boys also tested their skills in the block-wide arcade at the base of the space needle.

Now the children who populated those memories are grown and their children are making new Gatlinburg memories.


How sweet it is!

8 comments:

  1. Your picture is great, and so pretty all lighted up. Wonderful memories.

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  2. The mountains about Gatlinburg are wonderful, but the kids often prefer the bright lights of the city.

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  3. Isn't it fun when the traditions you developed continue on in the kids?

    I am always thrilled when my boys do memory makers with their children.

    My guys did an Alpine ride in Utah very similar to the one in Tenn. So full of laughter and shouts.

    Love your trip down Memory Lane.

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  4. I have not been there since i was a child, i am sure it has changed. so many memories when you look at your photos. that is what they are for

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  5. Creating memories - that's what it's all about. We have an alpine slide on Peak 8 Breckenridge. My Grands love to ride!

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  6. Hi Linda, thanks for the blog comment.
    I truly hope you can make it our to the West Coast again sometime.
    The Black Bear Diner is a date!
    Wouldn't it be fun?

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  7. Thanks Linda for the comment on my son Mark.
    He is no longer on the mission field but is now a RN, used to work in Oncology and now is in ER. I would say that he actually is still on the mission field, just in Oregon and not Africa.

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  8. Hi, I'm stopping by for a bit of catching up.
    Your vacation memories bring back old vacation memories of my own. In the words of an old song, "Those were the days my friend. We thought they'd never end..." There's just something special about camping vacations :)
    I hope you and Walter are doing well.

    Kathy (from Reflections by Kathy)

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