Our Trip To Gatlinburg, TN – pt. 3 of 3
Shopping
We bought gifts for our family members. Tons of different stores. What was really nice was “The Village“, a european looking old village inside downtown and tons and tons of shops. Lots of shops there.
For our siblings, we bought fudge and chocolate from the Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen. Bought chai mugs for parents, bought candle from an all candle shop for brother’s wife, bought amazing homemade jellies for some family members who love jelly, there’s lots to choose from.
Smoky Mountain Farmhouse Jellies
Besides these jellies and jams, they had tons of
syrups, sauces, salad dressings, honey, and mustards.
At some random gift shop. While I thought this was weird…
…this, by far, was weirder.
Food
Firstly, on the way, we made it a point to stop at Greater’s. If you know ice cream, you’ll know that this place is considered one of the best in the nation. They have limited chains in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky only. We stopped at one in Louisville, and while it took some time and delayed our trip, MAN it was worth it!!!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip. Read more about it here.
The first place we stayed at, Christopher Place, had incredible complimentary breakfast. At night they’d slip a piece of paper with the menu for the morning under your door. It was awesome.
Day one: A wonderful waffle with whipped cream,
hot syrup and berry compote. Fresh fruit, too.
Optional dinner at night. Grilled salmon with cherry chipotle sauce and pesto salad.
This was FANTABULOUS. Grilled, literally, grilled cream cheese pound cake with peaches and whipped cream.
Day two: White chocolate raspberry scone…
…and edd suflet over an english muffin
and grits. Southurrrn cookin’! [whip sound]
Since we knew we’d be eating out a lot after Christopher Place, we brought a cooler with some of our mom’s food that we had for lunch once or twice. We also brought cereal and bought a half gallon of milk that we kept in our fridge for breakfast. Eating out gets expensive, and having our own food with us helped a lot. Just gotta make sure you keep whatever you bring cold, and call your hotel to see if they have a fridge and microwave in the rooms. Ours did.
New cereal with just the oat clusters from Honey Bunches Of Oats.
“Tastes like the smell of an ice cream shop,” my wife said.
Ummy’s khana. Unday ka char with some gosht kababs.
If you go out to eat and order your own meals, not only will you spend more, you’ll have leftovers. This happened to us. My friend and his wife shared all of their meals and alhumdulillah they saved a lot of money, ate well, and had no leftovers to store in their hotel’s tiny fridges. We shared at least three meals on the trip, alhamdulillah. But sometimes I needed my own! Places we ate:
Monterey’s: Really good Mexican joint. Shared a giant plate of nachos. The Monterey cheese when hot plus the salsa and guacamole was like, I don’t even know, creamy amazingness.
Ariba.
The Donut Friar: The logo had a monk. Get it, friar? Yeah. We got an awesome eclair with some iced coffee and capuccinos.
Pancake Pantry: Amazing. I love breakfast and pancakes, and this place is super famous in the area. It was perfect!
Line goes out the door in the mornings.
This guy simply moves plates from kitchen to this table for waitresses
to smear some of that HUGE mound of butter on before serving.
Good coffee.
Got three pancakes with an omlett, with strawberry
topping and whipped cream on the side.
Wife’s order: pecan pancakes with pecan syrup.
Bullfish Grill. A nice “steakhouse” place in Pigeon Forge, TN (the town 15 mins away). If you’re Zabiha only, best place to get a nice fish dinner. Go for the Parmasean Crusted Grouper. If you eat chicken and beef outside, then your options are more 
Neat place.
Left overs from next day. Parmesan grouper
and garlic mashed potatoes were excellent.
Geno’s Pizza. The only place to eat that’s open after 10pm, they close at 3am. If you want pizza after Isha time, it will take a long time to make, but it hit the spot.
Best Italian Cafe. Wife found it by searching reviews online before we went. Went there on our last day, it was pretty good. Split one meal of vegetable ravioli there and we were satisfied with portions and food, alhumdulillah.
Straigt forward enough.
The mugs were really thick and kept the Coke cold.
Keep in mind costs of food can add up. A small ice cream here, a snack there, it can get pricey!
Masjids, Muslims, Islam
There is not a trace of Islam there. At best, I had my best friend who was on his honeymoon, and once in a while in the town I would see one younger Arab uncle with a few women in jilbabs. Being apparently Muslim will be a noticable change for the locals . For Salah, we almost always prayed in our rooms, as there were no masajid around the area.
Conclusion
All in all, amazing place mashaAllah, amazing trip alhumdulillah. As you can clearly tell, we enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it. As with any sort of trip, it really helps to go prepared. Most of the activities, places, and restaurants in these posts we found by doing research. We found things-to-do websites for Gatlinburg, TN, found out prices, and kept addresses and phone numbers. We also checked yelp.com for restaurants with good reviews (this helped us avoid the “everyone has Pizza Hut on their honeymoon” clause). Doing our research really helped save time.
But f you’ve got any questions about the place, feel free to leave comments for them here.
August 24th, 2008 at 1:59 PM
Albert Einstein was a genius.
August 24th, 2008 at 3:51 PM
my new reason for wanting to get married:
food
interestingly enough, thats my reasoning for most things.
August 24th, 2008 at 11:32 PM
From the looks of it you might have to exercise a crucial but overlooked sunnah of the prophet and that is to jog with one’s wife.
Stay healthy my brother diabetes has adverse consequences on your health and your iman…if you need more clarification holla at Jah.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:06 AM
Sunnah of jogging? Maybe you mean racing?
In any case, we jogged together, there, too. Uphill, even. The places were hilly. And the half-mile inclined trek up Smoky Mountain National Park’s Clingman’s Dome was quite the workout, alhumdulillah.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Jogging? Racing? Same difference – putting one foot infront of the other at an accelerated pace.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:48 PM
Hey Bro,
What’s wrong with Albert Einstein having his own action figure? He was heroic in his own way. He challenged conventional ways of thinking.
Props to the missus on choosing those pecan pancakes – they looked delish.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:03 AM
lol @ firaas
Awesome trip btw! Who’s down for a 15 seater van rental and a trip to smoky mountains?!
August 29th, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Go to http://www.fisabilillah12.wordpress.com and write comments.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:09 PM
I probably could have used some sort of a disclaimer.
(NOTE: This is not a faster-friendly post)
Ah well, I hope the ice cream didn’t melt in the dry ice!
September 4th, 2008 at 12:54 PM
My apologies, sister, it was written before Ramadan!
September 9th, 2008 at 12:38 PM
[...] our trip to the Smoky Mountains, we had something called grilled cream cheese pound cake. It was quite delish. What they did was [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 12:10 PM
So basically you do all this work to get into shape before the wedding and then you destroy it over the course of a few days, sounds like a plan.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Pretty much!
October 14th, 2009 at 12:41 PM
This is a great review (with excellent photos) of your trip. My husband & I are going to Gatlinburg next week to stay in a cabin & enjoy the fall foilage. I found your blog via Google. It was great to read your thoughts & see what is good, what to skip, etc. That aquarium looks pretty sweet, as does pancake pantry.
Thanks for sharing!
And tell your wife that upside down pic is awesome