A Beautiful Flower and Food Festival

Are you all about a great festival? This one drew me in…Dollywood’s flower and food festival had me at both!

On June 4th, we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. I first shared about it here.

Celebrating this year took us scouting for a memorable way to celebrate. Bentonville, AR was hosting bathtub races; Memphis had lots to entice us with jazz and barbeque; St. Louis offered several events with a three hour drive; Chicago train rides and events are always a favorite; but, then we found the Dollywood’s Flower and Food Festival.

Flower and Food Festival–SOLD!

Dollywood, located in Pigeon Forge, TN is about a 5 hour drive from home. A great drive with beautiful scenery. Dollywood website images drew me in.

If you have followed me long, you know that gardens are perhaps my favorite that I have shared so often on the blog:

• Gibbs Botanical Garden
• Paducah Garden Club Mayfair
• Container Gardening
• Zinnia Planting
• Perennial Gardening

Flower gardens and food festivals are two of my very favorite events…add in my husband’s love of a well done amusement park stroll…and we have captured what interests us both.

Planning to attend went into full swing!

In planning a trip there, may I offer the following suggestions?

• Begin by calling guest services for the best rates and info for the best visit. That was much easier to have questions answered than navigating online.
• Next, remember that specials may not always suit your best needs–for us that meant foregoing the stay at the on site hotel for another great option in the area.
• Staying at their hotel gives you a day’s pass, an option for dining, and a free trolley to the park which saves parking.
• Ask for when crowds are smaller when you call…enjoying smaller crowds is always a choice for us.
• Have a list of questions before you call: do they take AAA? best rates for age ranges? their recommendations for the dinner events–there were 4 Dollywood dinner shows among their selections. The Dolly Parton’s Stampede, Pirates Voyage, Hatfield & McCoys, and Comedy Barn offer similar menus and the same pricing for all.
• Make sure that hotel accommodations are available before purchasing tickets.
• If you are close and want to take advantage of all of the seasons there, consider a season pass. A savings if you go more than once a year. We chose one gold pass to give us unlimited visits, free parking and discounts on all purchases of merchandise and food in the park and more. We also bought a silver season pass for the other one which just gave us unlimited visits to the park.
• DOWNLOAD THE APP! This was a wonderful idea. It gives you the map, all of the dining locations, rides, shows, and shops at your fingertips.

This is the dinner show that we decided would be a fun celebration for our anniversary!

TIP: don’t get so occupied watching the show that you eat all of the courses as they bring food out. It was all great…but, WAY too much food! Pace yourself.

We loved this show–from the high flying mermaids, pyrotechnics, interaction with the crowd, high diving, sea lions, parrots and fire show–it was a delightful visit.

Beauty was found at that Flower and Food Festival.

Lots of topiaries beautifully created and set into the landscape of the park.

Picturesque areas full of flowers, food and beauty!

Throughout the park there were garden benches

Beautiful garden benches were tucked in all throughout the park with gorgeous potted plants, gardening items and a sign above with Dolly’s words of wisdom. I loved each one.

Deck rail boxes and planters were gorgeous!

We LOVED the shows.

My very favorites was “Harmonies of the Heart” with Dolly’s nieces sharing family moments and songs and “Dreamland Drive-in” that gave a history of music with friends. BOTH were wonderful.

We slipped into other musical acts and they were all fabulous.

Even the street shows were entertaining. The antics with the “Bloom” artists were loved by the little ones in the audience.

The FOOD at the Flower and Food Festival did not disappoint.

Although we chose not to buy the food dining pass after the HUGE dinner meal with the Pirates Voyage, we did purchase a light lunch and bakery items to take home.

NONE of them disappointed! If you go, here are my recommendations:

• Grist Mill Cinnamon Bread- by the way the loaf is served warm which was hard to wait to eat later!
• Chocolate Brownie at the Spotlight Bakery– oh, my!
• Sweet Shop Candy Kitchen has the most AMAZING selection of candied apples and homemade candies. It was worth just looking at their works of art!
• If you want family style, we heard wonderful things about Aunt Granny’s Restaurant. We will have to try that one next time.
• We shared a meatloaf lunch at the Front Porch Cafe and it was delicious.
• My husband had to try the Kettle Corn and loved it.

There are many more food areas that are on our list for the next visit.

Craftsmen

We loved watching different craftsmen in the area of the park where they were showcased…blacksmiths, glassblowing, leather works and so much more were fascinating.

DIY inspiration from that Food and Flower Festival!

Yep! Inspiration struck! As we rounded the corner, among the seating area were these rolling flower boxes! A beautiful way to roll planters around on the deck or the garden. We measured them, took photos of them–be watching because these are in our future! Probably not this color!

Other Favorites–

We loved riding “Klondike Katie” the train through the park. I’d highly recommend it for the view of the entire park and to get your bearings on where to go and what to see. Fair warning though–we sat in the front car area and my husband on the outside seat which showered him with a bit of the black soot!

There are MANY rides throughout the park and although we didn’t ride anything else but the train, there were lots of coasters and rides to make everyone happy!

There are things of interest, like a replica of Dolly’s cabin home and a mountain schoolhouse replica that we loved.

In case that park isn’t enough…there’s the Dollywood Splash Park that you can add into your planning for those who love the water rides. It requires different ticketing, so add that to your customer call list if you have questions.

PARK TIPS:

• No food or drink is allowed to be taken into the park…so, don’t plan on bringing things in.
• You will go through security to enter.
• If getting a season pass, we were advised to wait until the line had gone down toward the end of the day to get our “hard” passes.
• Download the app and use the schedule to keep track of everything you want to do. It’s free and well worth it.
• Just a note- we discovered that there are different shows each day, so check out what’s available for the day you choose to go.
• Pace yourself! We loved alternating the shows and activities which made for a pleasurable day.
• Parking is $25 if you don’t have a gold season pass.
• Trolleys will take you to and from parking areas but there still is a LOT of walking so make sure you have comfortable walking shoes and sunscreen!

We can’t believe it’s taken us this long to enjoy all of the benefits and seasons of Dollywood. We may meet our niece there next for a cabin stay she recommended in a park area. How fun!

We hope to have our kids and grands join us later this summer for a water park play day.

Happy Anniversary to all of you celebrating June Anniversaries!

And for those of you planning a vacation close to home…I highly recommend you add this to your calendar. Although this festival is over for the year…there’s still a great calendar of events planned through Christmas. Who knew?

• Summer season is full of delight and nightly fireworks.
• Fall has so many events you won’t want to miss! Fall break visit? Yes, please.
• Christmas– how fabulous for all of those holiday lights, fireworks and shopping there?

You won’t regret it!

Thanks, Dolly Parton, for your vision for this area. We are truly thankful!

Here’s other great finds this week:

• how to make beautiful tomato cages.
• great tomato planting advice I needed.
• 5 picnic tips we all need right now.
• new pillows to create for the “princess” little girls room.
• sweet centerpiece idea from my friend.
• bread and butter pickles recipe.
• water glassing eggs…who knew?!
• best wedding planner ever for someone planning a wedding.
• it’s not too late to begin zinnia planting.
• ideas for planning your fourth of July.
• favorite mad dash mix for summer–stocking the pantry now.

We had a wonderful time with outdoor entertaining last night. Be watching for the July VUE magazine where I am sharing photos and recipes that we all enjoyed.

If you missed my Feet Under My Table article in the June VUE magazine edition…you can read it here.

Meanwhile, mulching and deck painting gets finished today. A beautiful day outdoors before the 100 degree weather occurs here next week—YIKES!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, friends!