Return to Dollywood

Since our first trip last fall, Matt has been begging to return to Dollywood. After a great many delays in the planning, we finally got him there. Unfortunately, and much to Matt's great disappointment, the steam train was not running the day we were there. Which, frankly, totally sucked. However, Matt rallied nicely and ended up having a fun day. His favorite ride remains the Little Deuce Coupes - Charles and I both got to take a turn riding with him on those. He is a maniacal driver and tries as hard as he can to wreck the little car, which thankfully can't leave its track. We hope.




He also rode flying elephants and the wild teacups this time, both of which he was too little for last fall. He loved the teacups and kept ours spinning as fast as he could.






We also took in the Birds of Prey show, which features a lot of the birds that Charles worked with when he was at the Raptor Center. Missing were the Andean condors, which have apparently been banished from the show since one of them went rogue and jumped out into the audience. Charles still has quite a collection of scars from those things. They are seriously ill-tempered birds. Matt enjoyed the show, especially the end where the audience was invited to give donations to Tuck the African Pied Crow, who takes money from your hands and stuffs in into a tip box.



Handing the money to Tuck (above) and standing in front of America, one of the bald eagles Charles worked with years ago (below).




We rode lots of other rides, explored the park for a while, continued to mourn the loss of the Flooded Mine, bought copious amounts of fudge and just generally had an entertaining time.

Matt with "prize winning vegetables" in the County Fair area.


And my favorite, the Kitts Family Self-Portrait.