Hey! Kid Augustine here, and I’m taking over the blog today to chat about one of my favorite trips yet: Sevierville, Tennessee.

What my mom would want you to know is that Sevierville is a fun mountain town in East Tennessee about 20 minutes from Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s home to Dolly Parton and was the site of our most-recent spring getaway with my silly grandparents.

The town is OLD, a lot older than me. It was formed in 1795 and named after the first governor of Tennessee, John Sevier. It has history, live entertainment, whiskey tastings, a winery and some of the best home cookin’ meals west of the Appalachian Mountains.

But back to me.

For any trip to be on my favorite trips list, it has to meet these requirements:

• Animal Encounters, I want to be a zoologist when I grow up
• Ice Cream, duh
• Flowers, my momma always taught me to stop and smell the blooms
• Hiking, rocks and sticks are my best friends
• Shopping, for princess dresses
• National parks, I AM a Junior Ranger, after all
• BBQ, any food where it’s acceptable to eat with your fingers and lick off the sauce is the best food in my book
• Horses, have you seen my Instagram? I’m basically an equestrian star
• Water Fun, bathing suits are required on any trip I love, no matter the season

My mom is the best and made sure to plan our itinerary with all of those things in mind. We flew into Knoxville Airport and my grandparents picked us up before heading south to Sevierville, where a hot BBQ dinner was waiting for us at Tony Gore’s Smoky Mountain BBQ and Grill. While the BBQ is what everyone was talking about, we made the excellent decision to grab a slice of chocolate cake to-go to eat up once we got to our cabin. Best decision ever. After soaking in the hot tub (my mom, not me), we each grabbed a fork and devoured that thing. It was so good I wished we had saved some for breakfast the next morning!

Our two-bedroom cabin at Oak Haven was super cool. It had said hot tub for the parents and a pool table and, from what my mom told me, old, classic arcade games. I loved the sounds and the screen although I couldn’t quite get that it wasn’t a touch screen.

The next morning was cold so we bundled up and headed straight for donuts and to see the Dolly Parton statue downtown. I dabble with guitar (my dad has, like, 30 guitars), and I’m a pretty great singer so seeing the queen of country music was pretty awesome. At Courthouse Donuts, we made our own concoctions. Mine included all the chocolate they had to offer. Chocolate icing, chocolate dipped, chocolate flakes, chocolate chips — you name it if it was chocolate, it was on my donut. I could only eat two bites, but my grandpa happily finished it off.

From there we drove over to Rainforest Adventures, checking off my #1 requirement for a trip to be on my favorite trips ever list in the process.

This Discovery Zoo is home to over 600 different animals. Some I had never seen before, like a Tamarin (one of the smallest monkeys on the planet!) and Leopard Gecko. My favorite part might have been the goat and donkey feedings, where little baby goats ate food right out of my hands. It tickles! The big daddy goats really liked to pushed the little babies out of the way and eat all the food. I got sneaky though! If I got down really low the babies could eat without the big guys getting the food. I seriously could have done that all day long.

Next, we made our way over to Five Oaks Riding Stables for a mommy and me horseback ride. My grandma and grandpa did it too. Even though I could tell my grandparents were, I wasn’t scared at all. I’m not sure when the last time — if ever — that they rode a horse. I gave them all my tips.

Finally, while I slept in the car, my mom drove us up to Great Smoky Mountains National Park so we could watch the sunset from Newfound Gap. I love hiking, so I couldn’t wait to explore. Unfortunately, I was so tired from all the day’s excitement that I slept through most of the drive, waking up to snow everywhere! My grandpa taught me how to make and throw a snowball before we drove back down for dinner.

While we waited for a table at Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant, my parents went wine tasting. I played around outside by these vines that my grandma said were vineyards (whatever that means) and we ate ice cream. (Ice cream before dinner is better than afterwards- pro tip!)

My mom and grandma ordered the large fried chicken dinner as I munched on apple fritters and colored. I noticed that despite saying we would have leftovers for the next day, my grandma and mom finished every last bite and nothing made it home with us.

The next day we woke up, slipped into our bathing suits and visited the super cool indoor waterpark at Wilderness at the Smokies. This waterpark is only available to guests of the hotel, so make sure to book at least one night here so you can enjoy the wave pool, slides and kids zone. While we needed jackets and scarves outside, inside it was a balmy 80 degrees and a total blast! I can’t wait until I’m older so I can go on the big slide all by myself.

That afternoon it started to get rainy outside so instead of hiking, we went to my first indoor trampoline park! Have you ever done it? You bounce so high and it was super cool to have a bounce off with me, my mom and my grandma. After an hour I was pooped and fell asleep pretty quickly at lunch at The Diner.

On our last day, we stopped at Ripley’s Old Mac Donald’s Mini Golf to play a round of putt-putt. My mom was really good at showing me how to do it, and we all picked out pink balls (my favorite color). The pink balls matched all the cherry blossom trees that were in bloom all around Sevierville. They smelled so good and we had a mini-photo shoot by tee 8.

Afterward I got a hole in one, we walked over to Tanger Outlets Sevierville to buy a new princess dress for me. (Can a girl ever have too many?!) My mom shopped at JCrew Outlet while my grandma and me went into Carters, Gap Kids and Janie and Jack. We might have found a princess dress AND princess shoes. It was the best shopping day ever.

On our way out of town, we drove through the national park one last time. This time we stopped at a waterfall overlook and went on a short 30-minute hike. I collected all the rocks and sticks I could and put them all in a circle while my mom watched kayakers paddling down the river. All the snow had melted and it was just a beautiful day in the national park with the sun setting over Newfound Gap right as we drove out of Tennessee.

So, just in case you weren’t keeping track, that was my awesome trip to Sevierville. It checked off all the things that make this 2 and a half year old very happy.

Until next time, Sevierville. Can’t wait to see you again really soon. Xo, Kid Augustine