Guys it has truly been forever it seems like since I have blogged and shared about what we have done recently! Summer has been crazy busy for us and I have not always done a great job at documenting it all (still getting used to blogging..lol)
Today I wanted to share with you our trip to Gatlinburg Tennessee! I was lucky enough to be able to go with Todd to the Worship Life Conference (perks of having the summer off!)
Normally I would do a day by day post, however I can’t remember all the details so I thought I would share the highlights!
First of all, the conference was awesome, even for someone like me who is not musically gifted! Both Todd and I had a great time and learned a lot! I believe you can go ahead and sign up for next year in Gatlinburg, as well as their conference that will be on the west coast!
It was really cool because one of Todd’s professors from Liberty who is the Director of LifeWay Worship was the leader of the event! He did an excellent job, and I know Todd enjoyed seeing him as well as a few others from Liberty while he was there!
Every day we heard from Vance Pittman from Hope Church located in Las Vegas! He was such an amazing speaker and I would definitely recommend listening to his podcast!
Then there were breakout sessions and choral readings that you could go to. Sometimes there was nothing for me, but I did go to a few sessions I really enjoyed about using Social Media and a few others about general ministry topics!
Then in the evening there was always some type of concert.
We heard from the California Baptist University choir.
As well as Christ Church Choir.
As well as Cana’s Voice
We also heard Selah, Tommy Walker, and Paul Baloche.
I fell in love with the song Broken Ladders from Selah! Oh my goodness, if you have never heard this song, give it a listen, because it will make you cry! I couldn’t find a good version of it on Youtube, so I would recommend looking it up on Spotify or whatever you listen to music on!
We also went to a thing called Songwriters in the Round where all the Songwriters that were at the conference shared the songs that all these big bands play that they wrote for them; it was super cool! This was probably Todd’s favorite concert of the whole event.
As for what we did in Gatlinburg…we did a lot of eating! Lol! We ate at Bones BBQ Joint the first night with good friends that are worship leaders from Roanoke. (The group we travelled with 🙂 )
It was good, but I don’t think it beats Mission BBQ by any means!
Todd and I went on a little date one evening to The Old Mill Restaurant, and we just got dessert for dinner!
It is a beautiful place to walk around and take pictures. There are also a lot of cute little shops around.
I had the blueberry cobbler and it was amazing!!
We also went to a restaurant called Pancake Pantry.
Just look at this menu! There were so many unique pancake and crepe options that I have never seen anywhere else!
Todd got the Caribbean Pancakes.
And I got the Austrian Apple-Walnut Crepes! If you visit Gatlinburg, I would recommend hitting this place up!
We also were able to find fried oreos, as well Kilwin’s ice cream on most evenings!
We had an arcade right near our hotel and we spent a little bit of time there! (I love how Todd wanted to smile for a pic, but was distracted by the game)
We also went putt-putting!
(P.S. most comfy shoes for walking around in which I’m wearing above)
And our very favorite thing to do was the Sky Lift. We got an all day pass. So we rode it twice at lunch time and then once in the evening!
One of the cool things was to see where there was already regrowth from the fire! The Sky Lift actually burnt down in the fire and they rebuilt it!
I will say the ride is actually a bit intimidating just because of how little you are strapped in (and this is coming from two rollercoaster lovers), but I do think it is worth it! The ride is about twenty minutes full circle.
The view at night was simply stunning, I wish my picture could do it justice!
So that was our Gatlinburg trip! We had a blast and we are truly so thankful for the opportunity to be able to go! What do we need to do next time we go to Gatlinburg? Let me know in the comments below!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Kasey