Showing posts with label vacations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacations. Show all posts

Monday, June 21, 2010

Gatlinburg Observations

Husband and I took a short get-away trip to Gatlinburg this weekend to celebrate our two year anniversary. We had a great trip and pictures will follow. Until then, here are a few of our observations:

*Seiverville is the tri-cities area red-headed step-child. Pigeon Forge is the family city. Gatlinburg is the grandparent.
*Note: Kentucky is not the only state that cannot correctly pronounce the names of cities. Apparently the em-PHAS-is makes the step-child city sound like what a thunderstorm warning might be (severe), not the surname of the family on Growing Pains. We only learned this because of a television commercial.

*Multi-culturalism is not a word in their vocabulary. We could probably count on one hand the number of minorities we saw. See below.

*Confederate flags abound. I have never seen such a large collection of Rebel memorabilia. Likely contributing to the number of minorities in the area (see above).

*Target gladiator sandals are not appropriate for walking the Gatlinburg strip. Doing so results in blisters on the balls of one's feet (Ouch!).

*Hot tubs will help said blisters feel slightly better, but cushy, clearance flip-flops from Off Broadway help immensely.

*The Cub House cabin gets a big thumbs up for two anniversary get-awayers who wanted to mostly relax, but still be near restaurants.

*People from New York really are that bad.
*a) Buckeyes and Hoosiers re-inforce their reputation (at least in our house) of being terrible drivers.

*Apparently no one really applies logic to the location of certain businesses. Bubba Gump seafood restaurant and Titanic museum...in the mountains? Really?

*There are no less than 602,584 pancake restaurants in the tri-cities area. None are open for dinner. I'm not sure I can live in a world where breakfast for dinner isn't allowed.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

International and Domestic

I just realized that by the end of the week, this blog design will be getting a new design. We're getting a new couch! Well, we're getting all new furniture before too long, but we're starting with the couch.
These past few weeks have been incredibly busy. I had the afternoon shift at my summer daycare job. I like the afternoons because they go by so fast with nap and kids going home pretty quickly, but I have to stay until 6, which puts me home right in time to EAT dinner (I'm usually the cook). We did plan for that though and Husband picked up some slack. Ain't he grand?
Saturday we left for Maysville to celebrate Mother-in-Law's birthday. We rode out to Tollesboro where Mawmaw cooked a big dinner (i.e. lunch) and napped and chatted for the afternoon before heading over to Augusta for dinner dinner. Three bustling metropolitan areas in one day; look out! I will say that those places are never boring, at least for a visit.
Sunday morning we took off for our annual trip to Canada. Lots of books were read and lots of laziness was enjoyed. I realize the IDEA of doing nothing for a week sounds like a great idea, but it truly is a perfected art form. Most people would get bored after the first day. I actually considered live blogging (ignoring the whole no internet thing...that's what Pages is for!) but decided you just have to be here to get it. 1:00 Finished book 1:05 Threw more peanuts towards the squirrel 1:06 Laughed at said squirrel for not being able to find said peanuts 1:10 Moved chair into shade 1:15 Actually started next book 1:17 Put down more sunflower seeds for the chipmunk. You get the idea.
Monday was completely lazy. I finished a book I had been working on for some time and also read an entire second (it was Nicholas Sparks, so pretty easy read). Tuesday I had a phone interview (for a job I ultimately didn't get. Bummer since I've fallen head over heels in love with the school), but managed to finish the first quarter of another book. Wednesday was supposed to be yucky, so we planned to go into town. We had a Tim Horton's breakfast, went to the public library to check e-mail and play online, and hit the mall. They were having some AMAZING sales (% off similar to going out of business without all of the "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" signs). I, of course, came away empty handed. Thursday was sunny with a small rain shower. The rain hit in the middle of the afternoon; perfect timing for a nap! That experience was only enhanced by the fact that rain on the roof in the cabin is already heavenly and we have recently put on a metal roof. Pure bliss. We planned to hit the Carver anyway and luckily the rain cleared while we ate ice cream and walked around. I did end up with a $30 hoodie (and that price was in Canadian dollars, so really it was, like, $7 ;)). We went to The Voyager for dinner and enjoyed the evening on the deck. All in all a pretty great trip.

Husband achieving "nothingness"














We did this bit of excitement Thursday: A bald eagle landed in a tree off the deck. Ironic that the first time we see this American symbol is in Canada, but maybe this is an omen that Auburn's football season won't be as bad as I think it will. I can dream, right?






Friday is where the real fun starts, though. We woke up early early since we wanted to get home in time to get Moe's for dinner. We stopped at Tim Hortons (of course) and crossed the bridge. We stop at customs and the agent asks where we were from. I say, "Kentucky" and he gets on the phone and says, "We've got an out of area." He hands us back our passports and asks us to pull into the garage. I have been going to Canada for 25 years and we've NEVER been pulled over coming back in...especially after ONE question!!! We decided they were just really bored since no one was in line. Or maybe we were the "lucky" 500th crosser for the day. Either way I am none too thrilled with the border patrol now. With everyone hemming and hawing over illegal immigrants, how about we actually let legal citzens IN? Whatever. We're probably now flagged on our passports and will always get pulled over or stopped at the airport. The drive back was otherwise uneventful.
Since coming home, we've been busy getting "back to normal." Husband's car had to get towed by AAA (they actually found us this time!) because his car wouldn't start before we left Saturday. Turned out the fuel pump was broken and something else. It all = very expensive. We still managed to get groceries and do laundry before confirming everything before our home inspection, which was this morning. That went very well. He said it's one of the best he's seen in 20+ years of inspection, many of which were new constructions. Let that be a lesson: Just because it's new doesn't mean it's good. It is ALWAYS worth the price of a home inspection. Ok. That's a small shout-out to my dad, but it's true. We have a list of mostly cosmetic things to address with our walk-through scheduled Tuesday morning and the one big issue the inspector found (which we planned to address anyway) and we are still on schedule to close FRIDAY!!!! Get excited!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Coming Soon...

Our first anniversary! OMG (yeah, I'm 13, so what?) I can't believe it's here already. This whole being married thing has been pretty awesome. To celebrate, we're headed to CAVE CITY! Now, I realize not everyone...OK, no one, would share in our excitement. Most first anniversary trips seem to revolve around the beach or some other huge vacation. That's not in the cards between the whole me not getting a paycheck in the summer coupled with the whole buying a house thing. We've got priorities! But we decided we could do a weekend trip somewhere relatively local.
While I was still at Transy, every time I would go home and again coming back, I'd drive through Cave City. It was never one of my usual stopping points as I never needed gas by then, nor did I hit it at dinner time. But every time I passed through I WANTED to stop because of a huge dinosaur that sits next to the interstate. On the way down, a sign said "Dinosaur World: You just missed us!" and I always thought to myself, "It would have been helpful to KNOW it was coming up." So naturally I shared that with Husband and we agreed that one of these days when we weren't in a hurry to get to or come back from my parents, we'd stop and maybe hit up Mammoth Cave, since it had been so long since either of us had been (I was 5 and husband was in elementary school).
Well my friends, that day is now! Husband has the whole next week off and we're taking off Thursday either early and hitting Dino World then taking a cave tour (or head out late and just get there for the tour and do Dino World in the morning. We're going to stay the night in a Bed and Breakfast about halfway between Cave City and Bowling Green. Then, we'll either do Dino World, or just head on down to Franklin to visit with my parents the rest of the weekend.
They've already planned for us to go to the Bluebird Cafe. We're also going to hit Trader Joe's for a refill on the coffee we like, but usually only get when his friend sends it to us.
Whew! I'm worn out just thinking about it!