Thursday, July 11

vacation recap: Tennessee resort & the Cumberland Plateau

On the second day of our Tennessee vacation, we headed west to the Cumberland Plateau and the resort where we'd be staying for the rest of the trip.  Fairfield Glade is owned by Wyndham and the parents-in-law were able to use their timeshare points.


This is our little condo.  We had a 2-bedroom unit with a large living room, kitchen, and lots of deck space that would have been lovely if it had been a sunny week.


Here's a shot of the kitchen so you can see how nice the unit was inside - all the comforts of home, including pots, pans, and dishes!


There is a British theme throughout Fairfield Glade, with place names like Robin Hood Park and Kensington Woods, but the Stonehenge Country Club is where the British obsession really becomes evident.  I think golf is probably what draws most people to the resort because there are five different courses and the average resort vacationer seen on our trip was a 50 year old man in a polo shirt and khakis.  Stonehenge has a "sports bar" restaurant inside, where we met a disgruntled hipster waiter who was tired of being around retired people all the time, had put in his two weeks notice, and was moving to Nashville.


We didn't get to take advantage of most of the resort's outdoor activities, like horseback riding and tennis, but we did sneak in a round of mini golf between rain showers.  Mr. Q won, sister in law came in second, and I refused to keep score because most of the time I have to hit the ball more than five times.  That course was tricky!  We also managed to stay dry on an evening walk on the resort's trails on our first night, and visited the community's farmer's market on Wednesday morning.


Mr. Q brought his road bike on our vacation but was only able to get in one good ride because of all the rain.  He snapped this Instagram of Lake Dartmoor, one of the two big lakes on the resort.  We'd made plans as a family to go on a pontoon cruise during our trip, but the thunderstorms didn't cooperate.

Definitely the best picture of me from the trip!

The concierge at the resort recommended that we visit Cumberland Mountain State Park and eat at their restaurant, so we made the trip one rainy night.  The state park is beautiful, especially this dam/bridge built by the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's - the state park was designed as a recreational area for homesteaders in the region.  The restaurant had a great view of the water and a comfort-food buffet - if you don't mind being the youngest person in the room.  Our other rainy-vacation activity was visiting the wineries in the area.  Stonehaus Winery in Crossville had some awesome fruit wines and was probably the highlight of the Cumberland Plateau portion of our trip for me!

Not pictured: lots of time spent inside watching le Tour de France.  Tomorrow: NASHVILLE!

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