US trip- Philadelphia, Tennessee, Kentuckey and NYC part 1

Ended up in the lounge of Ben Gurion airport after a screw up with the checking in process. Start of the torturous 12 hrs flight to Philadelphia. By the time we landed, it was 6 am in Philadelphia and since we can only check into the hotel at 3pm, we went to King of Prussia Mall (one of their largest mall) for shopping first. My best buy, a cute pug tee shirt from Urban Outfitters and a Fifi Lapin book.

 

Lunch at nearby Japanese seafood buffet.

Disappointed to find no crab legs.... :( maybe they only have it for dinner.

By the time, we checked into the hotel, I was dead tired.

We spent the next day at Philadelphia Museum of Art, where they are currently having the Van Gogh exhibition. I loved his paintings, especially Starry Night! The Van Gogh exhibit was time-based and we got the 6pm time slot (last slot available) when we reached the Museum at 10am coz we did not have prior reservations. Who knows its so crowded?! Well, at least we still managed to see it. It was worth the wait coz its really good. Each of us were given audio kits to explain the different paintings of Van Gogh and gave me a better understanding of his arts.

Inside the main entrance of the museum.

 

Paintings depicting 4 seasons.

Inside the Japanese section of the museum

The Chinese section

Artifacts from the three kingdoms warring era?! All these Chinese antiques were donated by Americans or British business men.

Sadly, no photography allowed in the Van Gogh exhibits.

 

For lunch, we decided to go out of the museum to downtown area. Had a piping hot bowl of noodles and very nice xiaolongbaos at this place called Dim Sum Garden. Their dim sums are more of the north china type, not really to my liking as i still prefer the Cantonese type of dim sum. But their xiaolongbao are really as good as the ones i ate in Crystal Jade back home in SG. Anyway, it was a freaking cold day, too cold to be outside. After that, we took the bus back to the museum for our 6pm time slot. Can't remember what we had for dinner after that, think my brain had frozen.

The next morning, we flew to Nashville, Tennessee, followed by a 2.5 hrs drive to the hotel, while getting stuck in a horrid traffic jam for almost an hr. By the time, we checked in, it's nightime. Thus an entire day gone just by traveling.

Our hotel that night, La Quinta. Nice, clean quiet and comfortable beds. Our first decent rest at last. Unlike the last 2 nights at Ramada, which was like a war zone with tons of teenagers partying the whole night, some Prom event or sth. Can't even shut out the noise with ear plugs. It was crazy...and no wonder that I fell sick again during this trip.

Next day at the entrance of Great Smokey

It was a warm breezy day, what a drastic change from few days ago.

I love blowing the dandelions :)

Found a nice quiet creek to splash around with. The water was freezing cold!

Wildlife spotted-wild turkeys.

Our hotel for the next 2 days while at Great Smokey was at Sidney James, situated in the town of Gatlinburg which is just outside Great Smokey. It was a very tourist place, kinda reminded me of the Canada side of Niagara Falls....The motel was better than I expected, even had a chimney at a corner. The bed was surprising comfortable.

There was a creek just outside my balcony. I could hear the sound of rushing water through the night.

 

Breakfast at Denny's. Yum yum.....

Day 2 at the park

Wild flowers in bloom

Lots of maple trees, will definitely look v nice in autumn. Maybe becoz of spring, the leaves are very soft and bright green.

Definitely one of my fave trails during this trip as its quiet and full of wild flowers.

One of the highest point in the park.

Finally reached the dome after climbing a very steep incline hill for about 15 mins panting away due to the scarcity of oxygen at high altitude.

How Great Smokey got its name? Coz of the bluish like mist which looked like smoke. The mist seemed to clustered together and moved in a way resembling smoke from fires, nothing like the mist in Genting highlands. Strange rite....

We crossed over the border from Tennessee to the Great Smokey( which spans over 2 states ) which lies on the side of North Carolina.

Remains of houses left behind by the early settlers.

More wild flowers.

Dinner at this very china looking restaurant. The food was not bad, as it was not too salty.

Next stop- Mammoth Cave National Park in the Kentuckey. Stop by for some KFC since we were in Kentuckey, the hometown of the famous KFC.

The KFC restaurant, where it all began. Yes, there really was a real person called Harland Sanders, also known as colonel Sanders. This is the place where he first started selling his famous fried chicken. Now its a restaurant cum a small museum/gallery.

A display kitchen from those days.

Fried chickens in those early days were so cheap, 21 pieces for less than $5!

Yum yum..... The mash potatoes tasted much more creamier than with more gravy compared with SG.

Checked into hotel Sleep Inn and suites at Cave City, the nearest town to Mammoth Cave NP. It's a v new hotel, but the beds were not that comfortable to me.