Smoky Mountains Field Trip Day #2

Day 2 of Olivia's WINGS field trip began with a tour of the Titanic Museum.  The museum itself is shaped like the Titanic.  Since we were a large group, we had a guide lead us through.  I really enjoyed this.  Our guide was really knowledgeable and made the experience informative for us.  There were some interactive elements of the tour like sticking your hand in the 28 degree waters that the passengers would have faced.  The experiences really showed the kids the gravity of the situation that those on board were facing.










Before entering, everyone was given a card with the name and some information about an actual person who was aboard the Titanic.  Olivia was a first class passenger named Lucy, Countess of Rothes.  I was a third class passenger named Sarah Roth.  At the end of the tour, you could see what was the fate of your passenger.  Both Olivia and I survived.

After a quick lunch at Cici's Pizza, we headed to Gatlinburg.  We were given the choice of going to Ober Gatlinburg or of exploring the town on our own.  Most of our group chose to take the gondola up the mountain to Ober Gatlinburg.  Once on the mountain we had a lot of activities to choose from, and Liv and I did almost all of them.  We did the Alpine Slide, took the scenic chair lift to the top of the mountain for a view of the Smokies, did the mountain coaster, and went ice skating.  Most of the kids had never been ice skating before, so there was a bit of falling at first.  They kept with it though, and were looking pretty good by the end. 

After leaving Gatlinburg, we returned to our hotel for 30 whole minutes before meeting back up to go to Dolly's Dixie Stampede.  We enjoyed some really good bluegrass music during the pre-show and then headed in for the main event.  Like the previous night's show, the audience was divided into teams to cheer for.  The teams here were the north and the south and they sat us on the side of the north.  We cheered for the north as we were asked to do, but no one was sad when the south won the contest.  After the show we returned to the hotel completely exhausted.