Our Family Travel Blog

Birthday/Anniversary Romantic Get-away

2011-11-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

If you've been following me for awhile then you probably know I'm one who doesn't care to travel without my kids. I've never been able to imagine taking a trip and having adventures and experiencing other places, and not wanting my kids to be along to enjoy it, too.

I still feel that way, and still wouldn't go on any larger trip without them, but I have decided to do something out of the ordinary for us, and planned a small, weekend get-a-away for me and John.
As mentioned in the post title, it's coming up on my birthday and our anniversary. We were married on my birthday 22 years ago.
I'm not usually that much of a celebrator of such events; it was all well and fine when it just a few years, but enough already. I did try to plan a family outing, to ride the Blue Ridge Railway and Leaf-Peep. But between school and work, I couldn't match our schedules with the railway or the leaf's schedules.
So I said oh well, maybe next time, but then a couple days ago after I'd changed the calendar, I noticed J had both days of the weekend before my birthday/our anniversary off work. Ryan still had class on Saturday, so that still wasn't any good for a family outing, but then I got the idea, how about just an overnight couple's retreat thing?

That's not something we'd ever done; although J's mentioned it in the past, I wasn't interested in the idea before.

The original plan was pretty much to just go to a hotel or lodge or something like that, eat a nice dinner somewhere, spend the night, and come home the next day.
I searched for places to go, and had it narrowed down to two places, but couldn't make up my mind.
While I was still waffling between those two places, I looked around a little more and ended up coming up on information for the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad.

Did I know about the GSMR? Maybe I knew and had forgotten. I can't remember.
It's located in Bryson City, NC, which is just north of Hayesville and Murphy, so I'm pretty sure I've probably been through there before. But can't remember.

Anyway, poking around the site, I checked out their vacation packages. They had some good looking deals with an overnight stay at a local lodging and train trip included.

I wasn't planning to do a train excursion without the boys, but it's close enough that we can always go back later and ride it again with the boys with us next time.

I picked the Charleston Inn B&B. It was a bit more expensive than some of the other offerings, but I just liked the feel/look of the place, and it got alot of good reviews at Trip Advisor.

And, they serve a better breakfast.

Then I checked out the local restaurant offerings for a "nice" place to eat and located a couple, then narrowed the choice down to the Fryemont Inn based on Trip Advisor reviews.

It's not really upscale, and J's good jeans and a pullover sweater will probably be fine to wear, but I think it will do nicely for us.

We'll leave on Saturday and take a nice, leisurely drive up to the mountains, then when we get there we'll explore the nice little town of Bryson City.
Later we'll check in to our room, and get ready to go to dinner around 6'ish.
The next morning we'll enjoy a delicious, hot breakfast and then go take our train excursion through the beautiful Great Smokey Mountains, to the Nantahala Gorge.

After which we'll return home, hopefully relaxed and refreshed.

Rainy Day and Fishing

2011-06-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

We woke up Wednesday morning to thundershowers and rainstorms and decided it was a good day to sleep in.

A check of the weather news didn't sound too promising for the rest of the day, either, as more storms and showers were predicted to develop in the afternoon. So we decided to take the day off, hang around the room and hotel. Kevin played on his laptop, I read, and John went out fishing on the pier later. Ryan went with him for awhile, then came back and took a nap and I went out for awhile.

Morning thunderstorming

John fishing

John fishing.

He caught a conch shell/hermit crab?


And a baby shark

Eventually we noticed the lifeguards had put up the No Swimming flag and were directing people out the water. The sky was clear on that side, so we wondered if there had been a (real) shark sighting.
But I didn't see any sharks, and people weren't congregating along the waterline for a shark-spottting like they did in Gulf Shores the time there was a shark sighting there, so I figured maybe the weather was turning bad.
I crossed to the opposite side of the room and opened the *front* door and saw:

Afternoon thunderstorm

What you can't see, because I never was quick enough to catch it, was some awesome cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the distance.

That storm seemed to be staying to the west of us, moving North, so John and Ryan jogged up the street to a restaurant to grab some dinner-to-go.
When they got back, the sky didn't look as bad, and seemed as though maybe the storm had passed on by. So then me and Ryan ran up the road to the store (Red & White Grocery; I haven't seen one of those in years). We walked out of the store to ZAP! lighting strikes and beginning rain splatters.
John said he watched us run up the road about two blocks away and thought he was going to have to come in the car to get us (reminiscent of our trek to the PO in Steinhatchee), but we made it back okay before this hit:

Afternoon thunderstorm

Finally the storms got done and we were treated to a lovely double-Rainbow:

Double-rainbow (lighter one to the right)

John went back out to the pier to try some more fishing, hoping the storms had stirred some fish up, and caught a 3-foot shark.

John's shark

Fire

2011-06-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

The rest of day was all about Fire.

First we visited the North Charleston & American LaFrance Fire Museum and Educational Center.
This place is so cool!

They had 18 fully restored fire trucks dating back to the early 1800's and they were gorgeous; all shiny red and sparkling chrome.
There were lots of neat interactive exhibits like Can You lift the Load of a Firefighter? Can you tell if it was accident or arson? Making a 911 call. And others.
And other exhibits told about fire engines, nozzles, hydrants, etc. Also exhibits of historical fire fighting related items like old fire extinguishers, tools, helmets, uniforms.
There was a play area with a climbing ladder like on a real ladder truck, and the Fireman's Pole.

They also had a fire truck simulator, made from a real fire engine that was going to be scrapped. You sit inside and a screen in front of you makes it look like you're driving to a call. Very cool! I made a video of our "run".

I loved this place!
We stayed until closing, and were the last ones to leave, haha!

Fire Museum and Educational Center

Beautiful fire engines

Can You Lift the Load of a Fireman?
Ryan and The Load weigh about the same! LOL

Vintage firefighting relics.

After there we rode down to see the Memorial where the "Charleston 9" lost their lives in the Super Sofa Store fire.

Charleston 9 Memorial

Then, just so happened that night was Fire Truck night at the James Island Chik-Fil-A so we stopped in to see the ladder truck and meet the firefighters.

LAD801DER

Chatting with Firefighter Coleman
(I think that was his name? I forgot!)

Charles Towne Landing

2011-06-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

We'd learned from the Fort Sumter adventure that it's best to try to get up and out early to visit the outdoor activities, because as hot as it was in the morning, it gets worse later, believe you me!

Charles Towne Landing was the first permanent English settlement in the Carolina province. Approximately 148 colonists, including men, women and children, landed at Albemarle Point the first Wednesday in April 1670.
The colony had to quickly establish homes, food and defenses to survive and create a successful colony.

After the Revolutionary War, the name of the town was changed to Charleston.

The center has a nice Visitor's Center with a Museum and a digital *dig*. Then a walking trail leads around the area and you see how the original settlers might have lived back in 1670. (I find it interesting to imagine.)
There is also an Animal preserve with animals the settlers would have encountered back in the 17th century.

Checking out the Settler's route from Barbados.


Lord Proprietor Ryan, Earl of Nowhere.

I totally need one of these at home!

Trading vessel - "Adventure"

Experimental garden.


Actual archealogy dig shows where the Original Palisade Wall stood.

Turkeys (our *almost* National Bird, had Ben Franklin
had his preffers.)

Legare-Waring Plantation home ca. 1800's?

Backyard of Legare-Waring Plantation
Beautiful!

Fort Sumter

2011-06-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday we drove to downtown Charleston, to the Visitor's Center. They have a parking garage where you can pay one price (ours was $6, but I think the most is $8 or $10 for all day) and then ride the Trolley around town for FREEEEEEEE!
(You can also purchase different tours of the area at the Visitor's Center and they have people to take you around on walking or a bus tour.)

We already knew where we were going, so we waited for the Trolley to take us over to the Liberty Square area where we took the ferry boat to Fort Sumter.

In addition to the Fort ruins, there was a nice museum with a lot of history, photos, and artifacts.

After taking the ferry back to Liberty Square, we walked back to the Visitor's Center (no real reason, just because we could).

There was alot of other things that we didn't do while in the area, like the SC Aquarium or the Charleston Museum or visiting the Market. I think we are about at the point where if you've seen one aquarium, you're not missing much at the other ones (except the Ripley's aquarium in Gatlinburg, I reccommend it. And maybe the one in Atlanta, which I haven't been to yet.)
We also saw alot of museums included in the sites we did visit, so another one just seemed redundant.

Ferry to Fort Sumter

Entrance to Fort Sumter


Cannons

Mortar Shell still embedded in the Fort wall.

Fort ruins

Musket ball holes in the exterior wall.

Folly Beach, SC

2011-06-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Turns out the Be A Stock Car Driver driving experience that led us to take our vacation to SC this summer ran into some troubles and was cancelled. I called The Tides Hotel and added another night to our stay, so instead of Greenville, we went on to Folly Beach a day early.

The Tides is a really nice hotel, like both a Beach hotel, and upscale, all at once.

Our room was on the 8th floor, and was lovely and comfortable.

The view from our beach-side balcony was gorgeous, with a nice view of the Folly Fishing Pier.

From the *front* door of the room we had a view of Center Street where there were several good restaurants, clubs, and souvenir stores.

Also from the *front* door, but looking a bit off to the left, was a nice view of the (Folly?) River that made for some lovely sunsets.

From the end of the Folly Fishing Pier looking back towards the beach and The Tides Hotel.

*Trip Deal:
They had a *Chill & Fill* deal where if you stayed 2 or more nights, you got a $50.00 gas card.
The price difference in the room cost for the gas card deal was $10.00, so if you stayed 2 nights, you basically profited $30.00.
In our case, we stayed (4) nights, which cost $40.00 more than not getting the gas card deal, but I got the $50.00 gas card, so I *made* $10.00 on the deal.
Or saved an extra $10.00 on the total bill, however you want to look at it.

Greenville/Charleston/Folly Beach, SC

2011-06-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

This story starts last November, when Half Off Depot offered a Nascar Driving Experience for (about) half-off the regular $350.00 price. It included actual driving a real Nascar Stockcar racecar for 30 laps and a souvineer Fire suit.
I knew Ryan would love to do this, so bought the Experience for him as a Christmas gift.

When we went to NC, John and Ryan got to ride in a Nascar for some laps, but this one Ryan will actually be driving.
It's also a Competition and the winner(s) can win/earn a Season racing in actual Nascar events. We're not looking that far ahead (I suspect he may *win* the next few races since you have to pay $350 entry fees each time, until the end. Then you probably lose.) Anyway, whether he *wins* or we decide to do it some more or not, the 30 laps and included Fire suit seemed worth the $159.00 I paid.

Sometime in there, Ryan mentioned he wanted to go to Florida to see the last Space Shuttle take off.
So, working with that, and everyone's schedules, I reserved a date for the Nascar driving thing, and told John what days to put in for vacay at work.
The plan was to drive to (where ever the event was originally being held, I can't remember now), spend the night there, do the Driving Experience the next day, then either spend another night, or head on to my sister's house in Florida.

Then, three things happened (I'm not sure in which order, don't guess it matters): (1) they changed the Track the event was being held at and the new Track was North of us, rather than South. (2) John couldn't get two of the dates he'd put in for off work, one of them being the day of this driving experience. (3) They pushed the date of the Space Shuttle launch a week later, after when Ryan will already be back in school.

I checked the website for a different date for the Driving Experience, but couldn't find any other compatible dates. But before I just cancelled it outright, I decided to check the other Tracks.
Turned out the Greenville/Pickens, SC Track had the date we needed, and when I Mapquested, found out it's only about a 3.5 hour drive from here.

As I was checking out the Map, I noticed a road leading almost straight from Greenville (Easly) to Charleston. And it was only about another 3.5 hour drive. Charleston is one of the places we've never been, but have said we might like to visit, maybe, one day.

Well, I guess that day is upon us.
Sometimes you go where you're led, I guess.

The nice thing (for a couple of us anyway) is that Charleston is on/near the Coast...which means Beach.
I had no idea what Beaches were in the area, and did a bit of research, but everything kept leading right back to Folly Beach. There are other beaches, but for some reason, even when I tried to check them out, I'd end right back up at Folly.

Apparently there's only one hotel there, The Tides, and all rooms are Oceanfront, which is a pretty major requirement for me; there was vacancy, and the price was right. So I booked.

Easter/Spring Break

2011-04-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

For Easter/Spring Break we went to my sister's in Florida.

Due to some unforeseen hassles, we got a late start leaving, so ended up stopping at my parent's place in Steinhatchee to spend the night.
The next day we proceeded on to my sister's new house.

We didn't have any adventures planned: they have a BIG tv, Netflix, and a pool, so really no need to go anywhere else.
I did do some coupon shopping, since they have a Publix on nearly every corner :-)

Mom and Dad came on Friday; we were having to have our Easter on Saturday since we would be having to drive back home on Sunday for school/work on Monday.

Even though all the kids are pretty much grown, I still love the Traditional holiday fun stuff, so I ~~made~~ let them decorate eggs and hunt candy :-)

The Boys dying Easter eggs

Easter dinner (Not the greatest pic I ever took)

Hunting the Candy John hid.

We spent lots of time in their Gorgeous pool.

One afternoon I laid out in a lounger beside the pool (reading, of course) and ended up with a bit of a sunburn. Not bad, just enough to sting. I loved it, after being so cold at home for so long.

State Welcome Center

2011-03-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

Most everytime we travel, if we're on the Interstate and cross into another state, we like to stop into the State Line Welcome Center.

You can get a free State Map...which aren't as important as back in the ol' days before GPS, but I still like to get them to collect for my travel scrapbooks or to do crafts with.

Plus you can check the Area of the state you're visiting for Brochures advertising things to do.
Generally when planning a trip I'll go online and find things to do ahead of time, but sometimes we have found things in the Brochures that I had not found online. And we have found neat and interesting things to see or do that we didn't know about on the way to our destination. (We usually leave home early, but check-in time isn't until later, so we have plenty of time to meander our way along, or stop for a picnic or unscheduled tourist attraction. Makes for a much more relaxed trip than trying to reach our destination like it's an Appointment with the Boss or something.)

Many places we visit will have brochures in racks in the hotel lobby or a restaurant, but generally those are for the more local area. The Welcome Centers cover the entire state so though we might be visiting 'this area' this trip, if we see something interesting or exciting in the brochures then we might come back and visit 'that area' another trip.

I mentioned stopping for a picnic; we have had more than a few picnics at Welcome Centers (and parks). Ham-and-cheese sandwiches, chips, and Chips Ahoy cookies never taste better than at a picnic table.
Most of the Welcome Center picnics occur on the way home, at the Georgia WC, when we're finished with Vacation and just of the mindset to get back home and don't want to do alot of stopping; at the Welcome Center we can stretch our legs, use the potty, eat.
I like to visit the Georgia WC and look for Brochures and info on Attractions and Events here closer to home, we might could go for the day, or a even a weekend.

Besides Travel information, a large part of the reason I like to stop at the State Line Welcome Centers are for fodder for my Travel Scrapbooks.
One thing I like to do is take pictures of us - the kids and John, the kids and me, the kids, me and John, etc. - beside the *Welcome to (State)* signs most all of the WC's will have. Back when I started doing that it was just something to do, but now so many years later it's neat to look back and see how the kids have grown so much during our travels.

And, again, there's the Brochures. Colorful and informative, telling about the place(s) we visited. They're great accompaniment to my own photos and other memorablia on the Scrapbook pages.

I also look for other brochures for general craft/scrapbooking purposes.

Although I kept a scrapbook as a kid - the kind with the black construction-paper type pages bound in a leather-type book - I got into the new-fangled Scrapbooking craze back in the late 90's - early 2000's, with all the printed papers and die cuts and stickers and eyelets and hundreds of dollars worth of etc. I bought and bought all that stuff - and hardly did anything with it. Most of it is still packed in my plastic stacked-drawers organizer.

My Grandmother passed away in 1994; my parents inherited her house, but didn't do anything with her things until they retired and moved into it a few years later. Mom let me go through her albums and pictures and papers and such, and found out she had also been a Scrapbooker, years ago, back in the 1960's. The bound leather-type albums with the black construction-paper type pages.

I realized I really liked the simplicity of the old-fangled scrapbooks - only things like photos, napkins, matchbooks, ticket stubs, brochures, postcards - no printed papers to distract the eye from the content, no stickers or die cuts or do-dads. So I decided that I wouldn't buy or use anymore of the current Scrabooking gee-gaws, and only use actual things obtained during travel, or otherwise 'found'.

For instance, I was making a Family Genealogy Scrapbook; one of my Great-Grandfathers was a Civil War veteran. I don't have a picture of him, so I went online and looked up Civil War images. I found a pencil-drawing of the back-side of a soldier, and a silhouette of a soldier, so they were merely representative, but not trying to pretend to be the man himself. I printed them out and mounted them like I would have a regular photo to go on the Scrapbook page.
I printed off a few more things to use, but then I saw I had a shiny, color brochure from one of the Civil War Memorial parks we had visited at some point in the past, and there was a long, almost border-looking picture of soldiers fighting. I cut it out and trimmed it down and it did make a perfect, colorful border along the bottom of my Scrapbook page.
It turned out to be one of the best pages I've ever made, and was made from nothing but graphics printed off the internet and cut from a Travel Brochure.

So now when I'm at the Welcome Centers I'll pick up any/all Brochures that has anything - a logo or picture or whatever - that I might want to use in a Scrabook one day.

All of the Brochures in the pictures here are real Brochures from Grannie's scrapbook, circa 1960's. Which at the time I got these, was only like 30'ish years ago. I was born in the 60's, so they are around my age, give or take, but I don't feel nearly as old as some of these brochures look.

Several of these places aren't even in existance anymore. Others are remodeled to the point they aren't even the same place.

Travel Brochures are a great collectible - not to mention Free. Collect them now and maybe have a record of places long gone by the time your kids are adults.

There's also alot of HomeSchool activities that can be done using travel brochures and info gleaned from the Welcome Centers.

So if you have a free Saturday sometime, take a Road Trip to one of your State Line Welcome Centers. You can hit the next state going, and your own state returning. Have a nice picnic and collect some free travel brochures for places you've been, and places you'd like to go.

Last Day - Booted Off :-(

2010-11-26T08:34:00.000-08:00

The Last Breakfast, boo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

My loverly neice, Kirstie, who didn't get to go on the cruise with us because of school :-(

After leaving the ship, we drove back to my sister's in Lakeland and spent a couple hours, seeing their new house they are buying and went out to eat at the Alehouse.
Then we drove to my Mom's place in Steinhatchee, Florida to spend the night.
The next day, Saturday, we came home :-(

Some miscellaneous photos taken onboard the ship:
*The Blues Bros* lol,

I did it, I went there, I wore the Pink.

On a cruise is the only time we get any family pictures made, so I took the opportunity to have a family Christmas picture done.

Thanksgiving Day

2010-11-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we had no ports-of-call and spent a nice, leisurely day at sea. John went for breakfast and brought it back to our cabin. After breakfsat we napped until noon, then got up and went for lunch.
The talented server created these ice cream Turkey treats,

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in sunchairs up on deck - me reading my book, of course! Later we watched a lovely sunset at sea.

We dressed then went to catch the Show before dinner. It was a nice production with singing and dancing. (I was just mad they wouldn't let me take any pictures).

Our super terrific Waiter, Robert from the Phillipines,

Thanksgiving dinner; Slowly Roasted Tom Turkey with our Thanksgiving Stuffing, Sweet Potato something, and something else (can't recall),

And for dessert; Spiced Pumpkin and Chocolate Pie,

Thanksgiving Family Dinner,

This Pilgrim was chasing this Turkey around trying to shoot her for dinner, lol.

We didn't notice until later that Ryan wasn't with the group.

Ryan had to have his picture took with the Pilgrim and Turkey special like, lol

Alfred made us a Walrus tonight. Guess there's no Turkey towel animal,

Cozumel

2010-11-24T06:47:00.000-08:00

Panoramic daytime photo of where we were docked at Cozumel. The water was so blue and clear and clean and beautiful.

Beautiful blue water, blue sky,

Cozumel is really neat and clean and colorful.
I messed it up, but I was trying to get a picture of this yellow, yellow building contrasting with the blue, blue sky,

Mom and Kevin with their funny balloon hats, on the taxi ride back to the pier,

The Senor Frogs at the pier was apparently called 1/2 Senor Frogs. It was nice, though, they played good music and had a small beach we were able to wade around in the warm water.

A nighttime panoramic shot of the piers and Coz,

We went back on board the ship for lunch and to relax a bit, then later after dark went back ashore at the pier. Went to Senor Frog's for more margarita and moseyed around the shops a bit.
Some of us *ahem John* got a little toasted, lol,

Alfred made us a froggy friend tonight :-)

Key West

2010-11-23T04:14:00.000-08:00

Jello shots at Fat Tuesday,

Went to Kermit's for Frozen-Chocolate-Covered-Key-Lime-Pie-on-a-Stick. Kermit came out and tried to smash Kevin with a pie in the face. BTW, Ryan was helping Kermit to throw the pie, not trying to save Kevin, lol!

Back on board the ship, John and Hunter played some mini-golf,

John enjoying some of Carnival's famous Warm-Chocolate-Melting-Cake. YUM!

Family portrait, Big hug! lol

Alfred made us a cute Puppy friend tonight,

Miami Port/Boarding the Imagination

2010-11-22T14:23:00.000-08:00

Embarkation photo they took on our way to boarding the ship:

Let's get this party started!

First order of business...BEER!

LOL, not really. First we ate lunch and had to do Muster (practice emergency drill).

Me and Johnny's cabin. Our cabin steward was Alfred. He had already turned down our bed and made us a cute Lobster towel animal.

The other side of the cabin, showing the door that goes out into the hallway. To the left is a vanity and a closet, to the right is the bathroom.

This was the first cruise Ryan was old enough to be able to go in the casino. Gave him $10.00 to gamble with. He won his money back on the first couple of spins, but then when he lost a little less than $2.00 he decided he didn't like gambling so much anymore. He didn't gamble again until like the last day. I told him to go either win big or lose it all. He won his money back, plus $0.85, and cashed out! LOL, that's Momma's stingy boy.

Welcome to Florida

2010-11-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

We left Sunday to make the drive down to my sister's house in Lakeland, which is about an 8 hour drive from home, to spend the night before making the remaining 3.5 hour drive on to Miami Monday morning.

I like to have us stop at the Florida Welcome Center to take a picture with the sign about once a year, and since it was last Christmas since we were in Florida, with no plans to go again this year, it was time.

I was also able to pick up some brochures for some things to see/do around Key West, and some free maps that helped us find our way around down there.

Thanksgiving Cruise

2010-10-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

Wings Over Atlanta

2010-10-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

Today we visited the Wings Over Atlanta 2010 Air Show. It was grrrrreeeeeeeaaaaat!

I'd read that the 2008 show turned out to be a logistical nightmare, so I wanted to plan ahead and make sure we got there early to get a parking spot, and to just be patient and go with the flow the rest of the day and getting back home later.
My biggest concern was getting to one of the parking areas to be able to get a parking spot. So we got everything packed and ready, and I made a pan of biscuts and John fried some bacon the night before, and this morning we got up early, packed a cooler with jelly and apple butter and drinks, and headed out.

We got to the park where we parked plenty early enough, beating the majority of the crowds. We sat in the car and ate breakfast and then headed to the bus shuttles. Had to go through the Security Check-point, but we were early enough that weren't many people in line and got on through pretty quickly.

We rode a large Charter bus over to the Base, which I liked pretty well. Made me feel like I was a tourist on vacation somewhere.

There were all kinds of planes and displays of all sorts set up. We went inside the C-130H Hercules, and got to go up into the Cockpit and the boys sat in the Pilots seats. So cool!

The Aerial displays started around an hour after we arrived and continued pretty much non-stop for the rest of the day. Stunt planes, aerial acrobats, helicopters, a hang glider, a rocket car, fighter jets, and the Canadian Snowbirds and the Blue Angels.
I love the Blue Angels, but the fighter jets were really my favorite.

(Thanks to a camera misunderstanding, I don't have video of any of the Canadian Snowbirds or fighter jets, but I'll check John's and Ryan's and see what they have later.)

We looked around at the displays a little more, and John and Ryan rode in the Flight Simulator, then we found a spot to park our rears to watch the rest of the aerial shows. It was about an hour before the Snowbirds, I believe, so me and John left the boys to sit and watch the air shows (guard our area) while we went to grab some lunch and drinks.

A heart made by the Canadian Snowbirds:

Here's some Blue Angels video I took:

After the Angels flew the Aerial show was over, so we walked around and looked at some planes somemore, got another drink, and sacked out in the shade under the wing of a B-52 Bomber and waited until the lines for the busses got shorter.
Most of the crowds were gone when we arrived back to the car, so getting out and on our way back home was easy, too. Good deal!

To see more pictures and video, click here to visit my photo album.

Beach

2010-06-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

The Beach wasn't walking distance from the condo so we'd drive to one of the public parking areas, pay $2.00 and play on the beach for about an hour. It was so hot, and the water was so rough it wore you out, that about as long as we could stand at a time.

Here's a Panoramic taken with the isweep feature of my new Sony Cyber-shot H55 camera. I think it's about a 180* view (you have to click on it to see the whole thing):

Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson

2010-06-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

This quiet, picturesque site on the banks of the Cape Fear River has an amazing past. In 1726 Maurice Moore, the son of a former South Carolina governor, founded this port town. North Carolina was a colony of England, and the town was named Brunswick to honor George I, the king of England, who was a native of Brunswick, Germany.

The port became a bustling shipping area for exporting tar, pitch, and turpentine. This "sticky gold" was essential for building and maintaining the great wooden sailing ships of the Royal Navy and the merchant fleet that sailed the oceans between Europe, its American colonies, and the islands of the Caribbean.

A major pre-Revolutionary port on North Carolina's Cape Fear River, Brunswick was razed by British troops in 1776 and never rebuilt. During the Civil War, Ft. Anderson was constructed atop the old village site.

After decades of calm, the site once again entered the forefront of history in a national storm, the Civil War. In 1861 the Confederate States of America decided to build a large fort at the site as part of the river defense of Wilmington. The Cape Fear was an essential route for supplies moving by rail from Wilmington to Petersburg and Richmond for General Lee's army.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, archaeologists uncovered foundations from Brunswick's earliest days. The most visible structure is the hulk of St. Philip's Anglican Church with its surviving walls dating back to 1754. Another interesting foundation is Russellborough, an old sea captain's house that was used by royal governors Tryon and Dobbs.

Battleship North Carolina

2010-06-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

Tuesday we went to check out the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington.

During World War II, NORTH CAROLINA participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific area of operations and earned 15 battle stars.
Impressive!

Fishing

2010-06-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

Monday morning John and Ryan went out on a short chartered-boat inland fishing trip.

John's fish

Ryan's fish

Shark!

Another shark!

John's other fish

Fort Fisher/Aquarium

2010-06-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we slept in and fixed breakfast in the condo, then drove down to Kure Beach and visited Fort Fisher and the Aquarium:

Kevin and Pal

Ghost Gator

Me and John:

(My legs are not really fish-belly white, I don't know why the picture made it look like that!)

Civil War battlements at Fort Fisher

Going to check out the Big Gun on top of the battlement.

Bring it on, Yankees.

Fort Fisher was a Civil War blockade site, and then later used as a training area during WWII. It is a very pretty site...beyond the trees in this picture is the ocean:

Summer Vacation

2010-06-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

The Trip

It was about a 7-hour trip to Wrightsville Beach from here, including a total of about an hour or so of stops for eat, gas, and Welcome Center/Bathroom breaks.

The Condo

The Houghton Condo was very nice, and alot larger than it looks from the picture. It's three-bedrooms and two-baths are divided into four half-floor levels.

On the bottom is the front door/entrance, an entry closet, a laundry closet, and a side door out to the carport.

From there you go up about 5 steps into the livingroom. To the right of that is the diningroom, and to the right of that is the kitchen.

The livingroom had sliding doors leading out to a nice big back deck, but it was too hot and too buggy for us to be able to spend time out there. I didn't even think to take a picture out there since we only went out maybe once or twice, and not again.

From the livingroom you go up another short flight of steps and there's a master bedroom and bath. The bath also opened into the hallway.

This bedroom was called the Maui room and had a Hawaiian mural on one wall. Also had a balcony, but we didn't go out on it.

Then you go up another short flight of steps to the top floor where there are two more bedrooms, one smaller and then another master-size, with a doorway into the upstairs bathroom.

The upstairs bathroom had a clawfoot tub that I loved! I'm definately going to get me one of those one of these days.

Ryan stayed in the other master bedroom, called the Bonaire room.

Kevin stayed in the Key West room that had bunk beds and a little fold-out sofa.

Here's John cooking us chicken enchilatas for dinner:

Summer Beach Trip!

2010-04-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

A very nice lady what resides in the county John works in put on an Appreciation Dinner for all the Emergency Services Personnel. She invited everyone to her lovely home, and fed them a delicious catered dinner. And she had a drawing for a Week in her Beach House in Wrightsville Beach, NC.

JOHN WON IT!!!!!!

Rest of the Trip

2010-01-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

New Year's Day we had good, traditional New Year's day dinner of collard greens and black eyed peas w/ pork, and some grilled chicken. It was all very delish.

We left my sister's in the evening to head back to Hudson to spend the night, and be able to get up the next morning and go do the Tourist Thing.
What we had planned was to visit a DeSoto Memorial Park, The Pier at St. Pete, go on a tour at the Yeungling Brewery, and shop some Thrift Stores.

But I had forgot the Travel List at home, and when I was trying to look stuff up later, I forgot all about the Yeungling Brewery tour.

We were using the GPS to find the DeSoto Memorial, without thinking about having Toll Roads blocked from it, so we went miles and miles out of the way, all the way around Tampa, to get back back about 30 miles from where we started. That was a PITA.
But, we made it, and the Park was ok. I really had no idea DeSoto was such a creep and a loser.

Kevin got to try on real Chain Mail and Armor, so that was cool:

The little beach at the park was as close as I got to going to a beach, on account of it being too cold to enjoy a real one:

Next we visited The Pier at St. Pete. Restaurants and shopping. We went to the top but it was too cold to hang out outside long.

We shopped a couple of Thrift Stores on the way back, but it had gotten late and they were closing up. Didn't find any Treasures.

We spent one more night at Hudson, then got up the next morning and came home.

1 Year Anniversary

2009-12-31T14:38:00.000-08:00

My 1st blog post here was 1 year ago today!

Don't have any trips planned to look forward to yet for the new year, but we're ending the year/starting out the new year with a long vacation in Florida.

We left Mom & Dad's place in Steinhatchee last night and went to Mom & Dad's place in Hudson, where it was alot warmer.

Today we are at my sister's getting ready to ring in the New Year!! (If I can stay awake that long, haha)

Big Fish

2009-12-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

Dad's friends came, and he took them and John out fishing. John caught the biggest fish, a big Grouper. They also caught a bunch of black Bass, and Mom fried them up for dinner. Delish!

It's still cold, hasn't gotten much over 50* the whole time we're here, but feels colder than that. We got out yesterday and went to see the new Pier, but hurried back to the car to get out of the chill wind.

Brrrrr!!!!!

2009-12-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

Traveling is definately better on Christmas Day, than the day after. We left home about 9:30am, and arrived at Mom & Dad's around before 5:00pm.
The weather was nice, sunny and warm. Mom had a box fan going, and had to open the windows - Now that's what I'm talking about!!

We had lasagne for dinner, and opened presents and spent the evening playing cards and domino games.

The cold caught up with us that night. Daddy came to wake us up the next morning and opening the door was like opening a refrigerator. He was wearing a winter coat. It was cold all day, we couldn't even get out to go walking or fishing.

Mom cooked a big dinner of Ham and okra, green beans, fried squash, mashed potaoes, etc. After we ate my sister's family packed up and went home. We had planned to leave and go on down to my parents' other place, but Dad said they were going out fishing the next day, so we stayed over another night. No real hurry to go anywhere I guess. Especially since there's internet here.
Spent the day hanging out inside reading and playing games and eating all day.

John got up at 6am this morning to get ready to go fishing. Don't know what time they left. It had rained when I came to the house. Still very chilly, only 48* at noon today.

I think it's supposed to warm up again about Wednesday. I hope so! I could have stayed home for cold.

2009-12-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend we took another little trip back up to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

First we visited Hamilton Place Mall. I just enjoy going to a Mall at Christmas, and seeing all the lovely decorations and all the shoppers with their shopping bags. HPM didn't disappoint.
And they had a Pretzel Time!! Horribly expensive, but we sure have missed those delicious pretzel bites.

Everything was so colorful and bright!

Later that evening we drove up to Rock City, for the Enchanted Garden of Lights.

It had stopped raining, and was just chilly enough to seem Christmasy, but not so cold to be miserable.
The lights and displays were pretty, although not as pretty as the first time we went a few years I didn't think.

Afterwards we got some delicious fudge from the Fudge Kitchen.

It was a nice Christmasy-time Family Outing.

Click on Photo to View Album

A funny note to the story is, we were walking along and Ryan got a text message from a pal of his from school. The boy had sent a picture of some spot at Rock City....having no idea that we were there at the same time. Ryan messaged him back a picture of where we were at, and turned out he was just not far behind us. LOL!

Thanksgiving Plans

2009-10-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

We had a Royal Caribbean Cruise planned for Thanksgiving week, but have had to cancel it.

We'll be spending Thanksgiving with all the family at Mom's.

Enchanted Corn Maze & Voodoo Bayou

2009-10-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

Well we picked our date, and got up early to get started. I packed a picnic lunch and when everyone was here, we set out for Flintstone, Georgia.

We arrived at the Enchanted Maize about Noon'ish and bought our combo for the Maze, Forest of Fear and Ghostride. We headed on to the Corn Maze, as, really, that was the only thing to do.

When I had read on the website about the place, I had the idea that they offered more to do than they did. There was an inflatable jumping thing, and a table set up for pumpkin painting, and a small fire...but no marshmallows or smores offerings.
To be advertised as "By Rock City", it was pretty disappointing. The only things very Rock City'ish was the Gift Shop and Photos, and the concession stand prices.

The weather was pretty bad (not Rock City's fault), it was very cold and overcast, and wet following a few days of rain. The Maze was a sodden mess, you practically had to swim through parts of it.
But it was fun, I guess. Having no sense of direction, I just follow everyone else, taking my pictures of them experiencing/enjoying the event, so that makes me happy.
The Maze spent all of about half an hour, then we decided to go to the car and have our picnic lunch. Only to discover I had forgotten to have John stop and get a loaf of bread on the way up. So we had to leave and go find the Walmart. Tara needed a pair of gloves anyway.

We stopped at a picnic area place on the side of Cummings Hwy. where the Big Rock Court Motel and Super Waterslide used to be. The kids tried to eat out at the table for awhile, but soon jumped back in the car.

After we ate, it was still much too early to go back and sit and wait for hours and hours for the night-time part of the activities to start. Eventually we decided to go to Ruby Falls.
We hadn't been to Ruby Falls in years and years. To me it was always like a 'been there, done that' kind of place. But I didn't care for the Oktoberfest events going on at Rock City, and we never really enjoyed the Chattanooga Aquarium, and I couldn't think of anything else.
The caves and formations and all were still pretty much the same as always, but now, I guess the attraction has gotten so popular, they take much larger groups at a time, and they get you on through and back out.
I remember we used to stop at every formation and the guide would point it and talk and tell about it and this, that and the other. Not now. You start out watching a short video telling about the man who discovered the falls, and stop maybe twice to view some items of interest.

Also new now, they let you walk around behind and up under Ruby Falls, so that was neat.We spent some time going up on the Ruby Falls Castle Observation Tower, where there's a nice view of Chattanooga, but boy was it cold! and then it started raining on us.

They played some in the Gem Mining area, and we knocked around in the Gift Shop for awhile. Eventually we left to head back over to the Maze and take our Hayride that was included in the price of the Maze before they closed it down.
Sitting on haybales in a trailer being pulled by a tractor through a cornfield...how exciting was that!
Ryan and Kevin found some "spooky" and fixed Kevin up for the scary stuff later.
We stood around by the "bonfire" a little while, then eventually went back and got in the cars to sit down and warm up.

Eventually it got dark and the nighttime activities started.
First we went through the Forest of Fear, which was a spooky trail through the woods, with scary props and of course Monsters jumping out and scaring the pee-diddle out of you. It was pretty fun, but again, not as professional as what I was expecting for the place to be connected with Rock City.

After that we went on the Ghostride, another ride in the hay wagon trailer. We went out into the cornfield and got out of the trailer and sat around a stinky campfire and were told a ghoststory. Then we were supposed to get up and run while Monsters chased us, but we were near the back so all the chasers were already gone after the first people I guess.
We got back in our hay trailer and rode back to where we started.

It was nice to have spent the day together as a family, doing something away from home.

Halloween Plans

2009-09-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

We enjoy Fall/Halloween events during this time of the year. Some past activites we've done have included Pumpkin Farms, Stone Mountain's Pumpkin Festival, Six Flags Frightfest, Haunted Hayride at Red Top Mountain, and Vinson Mountain Volunteer Fire Dept.'s Haunted Trail.

This evening I was looking around a little bit for some ideas about things to do/visit this Fall and Christmas (I really want to visit Gatlinburg at Christmas; Tara mentioned they'd like to go to Rock City's Christmas Season that we went to a couple years ago). We'd also discussed that they'd like to visit a Haunted House of some sort.

Anyway, I ended up finding something pretty interesting: A Corn Maze/Haunted Event combo.

Corn Maze's are neat Fall/Harvest activities to do. We've gone to a few in the past.
This Corn Maze is in North Georgia at Lookout Mountain and is apparently owned/operated by the same group that had Rock City, Ruby Falls, etc. So you figure it's got to be good.

Then, once the sun goes down, the place turns into VooDoo Bayou
; the Forest of Fear trail and a Ghost Ride.

Upon further investigation (link from Voodoo site) I see they are offering an Eerie Express train ride to the Enchanted Maize/Voodoo Bayou.

For the price, you almost can't skip the train ride: The Maize by itself costs $9.00 a person; the VooDoo Bayou costs $15 for the Forest of Fear and $10 for the Ghost Ride, or a total of $20.00 combined.
If you buy a combo Enchanted Maize and Voodoo Bayou ticket, it only costs $25.00 per person.
If you take the Eerie Express train ride, you get the train ride and the admissions to the Enchanted Maze and Voodoo Bayou for $28.00 per person.

*On 2nd thought, maybe not as good a deal as it first appears. I've sent an email asking about it, but it appears the train doesn't leave until 6:00pm, and you don't arrive at the Enchanted Maize until 7:45pm. Which gets you to the VooDoo Bayou okay, but not really leaving time to explore and enjoy the Enchanted Maze part.

Day 3

2009-06-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

We got up this morning and ate our breakfast and headed for the Maid of the Mist attraction while it was still early, before it got so crowded. We didn't have much of a wait, and were the first ones on our boat so got prime real estate right up front.

This was a very cool ride, taking us close past the American Falls, and right up into the Horseshoe Falls. Also loud, wet, and exciting!

After this we headed back to the hotel to pack up and checkout and move to the Country Inn & Suites across town.
We got the to CI&S early, but our rooms were already ready and we were able to move on into our rooms.

Later we had a terrible lunch at...I guess it was inside the Niagara Casino at Clifton Hill...and then walked across Rainbow Bridge to New York. Stopped and took pictures at the Int'l Boundry line, with half us in one country, the other in the other. Pretty funny.

New York Niagara State Park is pretty, with plenty of scenic views of the falls, lots of greenspace, picnic and play areas.

We walked across a bridge to Goat Island and decided to do the Cave of the Winds attraction.

Back at home reading about the attractions at Niagara, I hadn't even planned us doing Cave of the Winds. For one thing, there is no cave anymore. It caved in.
I assumed that it was alot similar to Journey Behind the Falls, except that you can still go behind the Falls in Journey, so Cave of the Winds would be redundant, and not even as fun.

WRONG!

I think this attraction turned out to be our favorite one of all. You walk on wooden decks that actually go up under and into the Falls.
At the top there is the Hurricane Deck, where you can stand and the water thunders down onto your head.
It was really, really cool!

We returned to the hotel to dry off and rest a bit. My sister's family went off to eat somewhere, and we went and found an A&P grocery store and bought some groceries to be able to eat more in the room; sandwiches and snacks.
The A&P store still looks like they did when they used to have them down here. I don't think the sign has changed a bit. Nostalgic.

Day 2

2009-06-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

This morning we got up and headed to the hotel restaurant for a delicious hot, free breakfast. There were eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, toast, fruit, pretty much every breakfast food.

After breakfast we walked down the hill and got our first real look at the Niagara Falls. Took the first of all the necessary, obligatory "Pose in front of the Falls" pictures.

We bought our Adventure Passes, and made our way to the Tablerock Center where we started our adventure visiting the "Niagara's Fury" show/ride.
I had read several reviews about this attraction, most of which were bad and down-putting, but we liked it.

First you put on a free, recyclable rain-poncho they give you and go into a theater where you stand and watch a cute little cartoon story talking about how Niagara's Falls were formed. It was interesting and the story was cute.

Next you go into a 4-D theater and grab a post and hang on. Along with telling you how, this story shows you how Niagara Falls was formed. Including rain and storms and avalanches. Exciting!

Next we visited the Journey Behind the Falls. They give you another free rain-poncho and then you go down many feet in an elevator to some tunnels in behind the falls.
Go to the right and you can see some portals open behind the Horseshoe falls. The water thundering down is amazing.

Down the other tunnel, you go out onto a viewing deck right beside the falls. It looks like you can get within just a few feet of the side of the falls. Loud and wet and exciting!

After JBtF we returned to the hotel room and decided to go out and find something for lunch and look for a Walmart. We always like to locate the local Walmarts in case we need anything.

We were using a Nuvi navigator to locate places, but for some reason it didn't show a close-by Walmart, and we ended up going back into New York to go to what we thought was the closest Walmart.
We tried to stop at a Dairy Queen for lunch, not knowing what an "Orange Julius" DQ is/was. Turns out the only food type food they have is hot dogs. No burgers, bbq, chicken, etc.

We ended up stopping at a Taco Bell, where everyone was amused to see they had Taco Bell french fries. Our Taco Bells here don't have fries.

We tried to visit the New York Niagara State Park, but there was a $10 parking fee we didn't want to pay, since we could walk over for nothing (actually there was a .50 toll when you leave Canada).

Later we went back down to the Falls area and rode the People Mover bus out to the bus terminal and back up to the Clifton Hill area, where we would be staying next.

We walked along that area, checking out some stores, taking some pics, and making our way back to the Falls area. The rainbows come out in the evenings so we took rainbow(s)/falls pictures.

Later we got Pizza Hut pizzas and returned to the hotel and ate and the boys went swimming.
There was another fireworks show that night. John walked down to see them from the ground and listen to the band and check out the night-happenings.

Day 1

2009-06-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

Up and on our way early this morning. Aunt drove us to the airport. We arrived about 7:00am, which gave us time to check our suitcase, get through security, and grab some breakfast. We were boarding the plane before we knew it.

The flight was smooth and not too long. We landed in Buffalo, NY about 11:16am. My sister and family arrived about 30 minutes behind us.

We boarded the shuttle to the rental car place, and were given twin blue Camry's, although we'd rented Chargers (or similar)(I don't see Camry's and Charger's as similar, but Ryan preferred the Camry anyway, so oh well).

Since we were in town pretty early, we decided to do our Buffalo tour day. We started by visiting the Anchor Bar for lunch, to eat authentic, original Buffalo Wings.

The restaurant was interestingly decorated, but we were seated in a small enclosed-looking porch area of some sort that was crowded with the nine of us stuck into a corner. A bus-person had left a cleaning rag laid on the window ledge and it smelled bad. Later a fellow came and got the rag (leaning over me without so much as an "excuse me") and we saw him cleaning other tables with the smelly rag.

We got our menus and started deciding what we'd eat...I'd already pre-planned on a bucket of Buffalo Wings. Then we noticed that for drinks they served Pint size drinks, with no refills. A place that sells hotwings and doesn't offer drink refills? WTH?
The menu also stated "No Separate Checks", and that an automatic tip of 15% was added to parties of 8 or more.

As a result of this place's greed, we all ordered water to drink, and the waitress got a less of a tip by force than we would have tipped voluntarily.

The food was allright, but the wings were swimming in grease.

Next we visited the Market Arcade building, which we were standing in front of and didn't recognize, the place looked so bad. I was expecting a better kept building advertised as a tourist destination, with the Official Visitor's Center inside.
The Visitor's Center was closed.

Then we tried to visit the City Hall, which looked interesting from the outside, but was also closed.

We found Buffalo dirty and run down and not worth visiting.

We then proceeded on to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and checked into the Embassy Suites hotel.
We opted for the $20/day Valet parking, which wasn't the pain-in-the-neck other travelers complained it to be.

When we booked the room, my brother-in-law and I requested close rooms, and we were put in rooms 3606 and 3608, with a connecting door, which was great. We just left the door open and were able to go back and forth with ease.

Our room had great views of both the falls and the city of Niagara Falls in the bedroom.
The bedroom was nice, with two queen beds, that weren't all that comfortable to me. Husband didn't complain, though, so maybe it was just me.
We had a jacuzzi tub, with shutters that opened so you could look out and see the falls (if you were standing in the tub or very tall).

There was microwave and a small refridgerator. The other room was the livingroom, which was more as a bedroom for us. We spent all our time in the room in the bedroom where we could enjoy the view out the window.

We had arrrived in time for the Managers Reception so we headed off to that. It was in the atrium on the 9th floor. We had tickets for 2 free drinks; 1 per person of a couple. I don't drink so my hubby got 2 drinks. We enjoyed snacks of chips and salsa, carrots/veggies/ranch dip, dried fruit, cheetos, candies, etc.

There was an arcade on this floor, but the games were expensive at $1.00 (or a Looney) each to play.
We explored the indoor pool, and walked outside to a deck/patio area and enoyed some sun for a little while. (We found it rather chilly in Canada, after the temps we're used to in Georgia and Florida.)

Later I took the middle boys to the pool for a swim while the others relaxed in the rooms.

As we were going to bed, all of a sudden we hear a BOOM! and look outside and they are having a fireworks display.
We never did figure out why they had it on Saturday night. The schedule is Fridays, Sundays, and Holidays. Unless they were celebrating Flag Day, a day early, all we could figure was that they planned a special fireworks display just for us! lol.

Flashback

2009-06-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

Looking through some pictures of past trips, I came across this cute video clip of the boys dancing to "Hey, Baby" by DJ Otzi n our Thanksgiving cruise:

I am sooo ready for another cruise. Come on, November.....

Hotel Rates Came Down Yay!

2009-06-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Checked the rates at Embassy Suites and they had come down from $315.00/$255.00 to $295.00/$205.00, so I called and they adjusted those for me. Called my Brother-in-Law to tell him to call, and he did, and he got even cheaper rates. So I checked again, and yes, they have come down to $275.00/$175.00 now, so I called and got that adjustment. (That is the Canadian price, so even cheaper for the US Dollar.)

Anyway, that's a savings of about $120.00 total, which is great! I've never had that happen before.

When I checked the other day, the Country Inn & Suites was the same price as when I'd booked, but, just for the heck of it I checked again today and that price has also came down. The same room I had booked was about $10.00 night cheaper, but they have the same room with a Sweet Deal that makes the room about $24 per night cheaper. So I called and got the adjustment, and viola', another approx. $120.00 savings. Wow!

PS, the plane tickets did come down cheaper after I bought ours, but they don't give refunds. I emailed and asked anyway, just for the heck of it, and got an email back saying they give price differences in the form of credits on future reservations, and something about charging a fee for changes to reservations, and at any rate, they don't price compare with other websites, only their own, and they didn't show any price reductions on their website. Ohhhh liarrrrrr.

Flight & Rental Car Booked

2009-05-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

Back when I first started checking on prices for our Summer Vacation to Niagara Falls, the cheapest flight cost I could find was $138 per person, each way, on Airtran.

Not being a seasoned airline traveler, I don't know much about flight prices; whether they'll go up or down the longer you wait.

I still don't, really. Maybe they usually go up, but in this case maybe less people are traveling because of the fear of the swine flu, so they had to slash prices to try to get people to fly.
The reason I thought about that was because, as near as I can remember, it seems like before, a few months ago, when I clicked on seat availability, there were more seats available now than then.
But, for all I know, maybe it's a different airplane.

At any rate, I checked again a few weeks ago, and the prices had come down to $118 pp. I researched around and tried to find out what was normal for airline ticket costs to do...should I go for it, or wait...couldn't figure out anything.
So, I left it again.

Then tonight I checked again, and the price had come down to $69/$89 pp.
Maye it would go down further, maybe not. I decided to not risk it, and went ahead and bought them.

They gave me a code for a deal on renting a car from Hertz, but I checked around some of the other car rental places and found a better deal with Thrifty Car Rental even without the Airtran code.

Hotels and transpo all booked. That's a big part of the trip planning out of the way.
Next, What To Do and Daily Planning.

Lake Allatoona

2009-04-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

A few days ago J wanted to take the boys and go do some fishing, but there's not really any good fishing places around here. I told him we'd go over to Lake Weiss and fish one day.

At some point after that it dawned on me that we live maybe a half hour from our own lake, Allatoona. I don't know why I never remember it's so close. I practically grew up going to Lake Allatoona, we've had family reunions there, went for an EMS family day.

Checking my calendar and seeing J was off on Sunday, I decided to plan a picnic and a day of fishing.
Researching the lake on the internet turned up alot of options. Found out there was a Visitor's Center with a museum and a Dam overlook, and day use parks with picnic areas and grills.

We headed first to the Visitor's Center and checked out the museum, then walked up to the overlook and looked at the Dam and back out over Cooper's Furnace and the Etowah River. Beautiful View.

Then we drove down to the Cooper's Branch Day Use area. I didn't realize it at the time, but we arrived at a great time. There was hardly anyone there. We got our pick of spots right down beside the water. Not long after we got there, within thirty minutes probably, the place started getting more and more crowded.

J got the charcoal burning then they got the poles ready and fished, while I kicked back in my chair and read my book. Aaaahhhh. Lovely, relaxing, day.
When the charcoal was ready J cooked the burgers and dogs. We also had potato salad, cole slaw, chips, chocolate chips cookies for dessert and sweet tea to drink. Yu-u-um!

Unfortunately the fishing wasn't as good as lunch. After lunch we packed up and went to another part of the lake, off the side of the road in a cove, but the fish weren't biting there either.

So we gave up and drove over to Cooper's Furnace park and check it out. It was muy crowded, but we viewed the Furnace and read about it and walked down by the River.

Click Here to View Photo Album for More Pictures

Georgia Renaissance Festival

2009-04-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend was opening weekend of the Georgia Renaissance Festival, and they were having a special BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) ticket sale. This was something we had been wanting to visit for years but had just never got or made the opportunity to go before. Me and Ryan heard the commercial on the radio and he said we should go, and J was off on Saturday, so it sounded like a good time to go.

It was terrible time to go. Everyone in the entire world was all trying to go at the same time. The interstate was backed up for hours. Once we finally got off the exit, there was a two-lane road for a couple miles, which while those of us waited in line, other jerks would drive up the left lane and cut in front of people. I mean literally cut in. We had a car force it's way in on us. They absolutely were going to hit us if we didn't get out of their way.

We finally arrived to the festival and paid our $39.95 to get in. Thank goodness we didn't pay twice that much.

We had tried to get there around 10am, but because of traffic it ended up being after 2pm before we got in.

We caught a show called "All the Kings Horses". It was boring. A couple of girls running the horses in circles mostly.

I guess we missed the joust show.

There were some neat mid-evil "rides", but the rest of it was mostly shops and eating.

I tried a turkey leg, because that was the thing to get at a Renaissance festival. It tasted okay, but was tough to gnaw on.

The prices of everything was outrageous, even for an event like that.

Everyone left at the same time, it seemed like, and trying to get out of the parking area was crazy. We were parked in cow pastures, and some people tried to form lines, while others were just barreling out through the middle and cutting into the line at the front.

After a couple of hours, and ending up having waited behind an apparently parked car, we cut through the middle and into the line and was out of there in less than 5 minutes. Crazy!

Click on the Photo to view a few more pictures from the Festival.

Desoto Caverns

2009-03-07T02:17:00.000-08:00

We had wanted to go up to Mom and Dad's this weekend, but they had left to go back to Florida already. Since we had gotten all geared up to go somewhere, we decided to find somewhere else to go.

I searched in a general couple hour drive radius, checking out a few places, and this place - Desoto Caverns in Childersburg, Alabama - looked the most interesting at the moment.

I packed a picnic lunch and we left out after John got in and got a shower. Later than I had wanted to leave, but we got lucky...I had forgotten the time zones, so we gained an hour when we crossed into Alabama.

It's still the off-season, so the place wasn't busy at all. But it's just Spring-y enough that the Jonquils were out and everything doesn't look so grey and dead.

The grounds were pretty, clean. The day was clear, sunny, up around 70*, not humid. Beautiful day.
We paid our admission and walked around a bit checking things out until time for our cave tour.
We walked down a tunnel to get to the cave, and then walked in to where the big main part opens up, and it was just an awesome sight to see. I took pictures, but they are discolored and grainy and don't do the real sight down there justice.

We toured around and saw some different things and got our picture taken. The cave had taken alot of abuse from over the years, with alot of broken stags, but still very neat, I thought.

After our cave tour we went to the big pavillion by the campground and ate our picnic lunch. Amazing how much better sandwiches taste away from home. Kind of like hotdogs at a ballgame.

After lunch we went to do some of the activities offered at the park; pedal car racing, bath tub racing, shooting bows & arrows, going in the big, wood wall maze, rock wall climbing, mini golf, panning for jewels, riding on some spin-around-until-you-puke things.

We all had a good time and enjoyed ourselves.

Would I recommend making a special trip any amount of distance to visit the place? No. But if you're in the general area, with not much else to do - which as near as I can tell about Alabama, there isn't much else to do - then it's a nice place to pass a nice Spring day.

Visit my Photo Album to see More Pictures Here

Family Night Out

2009-01-25T07:52:00.000-08:00

Due to our schedules, mostly John's work schedule, family nights out are few and far between, so when we are able to go together and do something special, we consider it like a family trip, a mini-mini vacation if you will.

Yesterday we got to have a family night out, after Kevin's basketball game, we went out to eat and to see a movie.

We ate at Zaxby's chicken place. I only discovered Zaxby's this past week...I mean, I knew about Zaxby's, and John and Ryan had ate there before, but me or Kevin hadn't. Last week we had to go to a sports store in the next town to find Kevin some soccer cleats and shin guards, and when we were hungry and wanted to get something to eat, someone, probably John, suggested Zaxby's and we agreed to give it a tryout. The food in their commercials looks very good. I had the boneless chicken wings, and really liked them!

Yesterday morning John and I ran some errands, and it got on about lunchtime and we were hungry. The Waffle House was too crowded, and we didn't want to drive way out of the way to find somewhere else, but there was a Zaxby's there, so we agreed we could eat it again. I got the boneless wings again, and really liked them again!

In the meantime, Ryan was really put out with us for going to Zaxby's without him - twice - so yesterday evening, when we were deciding what to have for dinner, he said "I want Zaxby's!". So, we passed one, and I said, there's a Zaxby's, back up!

I think I've probably had enough Zaxby's to last me for awhile now, lol.

After dinner we went to see Clint Eastwood's brand new movie, Gran Torino.

Ryan had gone with his friends to see the movie when it was first released and he really liked it, and said he wanted to see it again. I kept hearing (reading) good reviews about it from others on message boards I visit, and thought it sounded like a movie we might enjoy seeing.

It was a mostly good movie. Could have been great, but.....that's all I'm going to say about that.

But we had an enjoyable family night out together. I recommend every family get out and do something fun together - movie, bowling, mini-golf, whatever - every so often.

Shopping for Vacation

2009-01-16T11:52:00.001-08:00

One way to save money for vacationing is by shopping at thrift stores. You can get some really nice clothes, often name brand, at thrift stores for not alot of money. I'd say probably 98% of my regular everyday wardrobe comes from thrift stores.

Once a month for two days one of our local thrift stores has a 50-cent clothing sale where you can buy clothes for .50 each piece. Today was one of those days. Coldest day in like 10 years (10*F this morning!) and I was shopping for shorts, tshirts, and sundresses, lol.

But look what I got for $5.00; 1 sundress, 5 short-sleeve tops, 3 cami tops, and a pair of blue jean shorts:

I think this is my new favorite shirt. My son says it looks tres French. I just think it's cute.

Another nice thing about being able to get clothes so inexpensively is with the airlines now charging extra fees for checked luggage, I figure I can leave my clothes behind - maybe donate them to the room maids - and have the space in my suitcase to bring back my souvineers instead.

Hotels Are Booked

2009-01-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

We decided to spend the first couple days of our trip at the Embassy Suites Hotel Niagara Falls. We booked the "2 Queen Premium Fallsview 2-Room Suite with Breakfast". The room will be located between floors 28 and 36, and overlooking both the famous Horseshoe falls and the American Falls. There's a free breakfast buffet included, and an indoor swimming pool, which the boys always enjoy.

Click on Pic for Hotel Details

We booked the Embassy for it's falls view and proximity to Niagara Falls, where we'll be spending the first couple of days of our trip visting the falls attractions like Maid of the Mist Steamboat, Journey Behind the Falls, White Water Walk, the Skylon, and taking MILLIONS of pictures and video.

Then, after a couple of days at Embassy, we're going to pack up and move to the Country Inn & Suites on the other side of town.

Click on Pic for Hotel Details

There's no views, but it's walking distance to the waterpark, Clifton Hill, and the Rainbow Bridge.

We've stayed at Country Inn & Suites at other locations on a few other trips, and have liked them everytime. Free breakfast, free internet, microwave/fridge in the suite, and also an indoor pool.

I was going to say, we're going in June, the "indoor" part of the pool won't be a big deal, "any" pool would be good. But then I got to thinking, we're going to be used to 80-90*F temps with humidity by mid-June...The average 65*F temp in June up there is going to feel cold to us!
I better remember to pack some long-sleevers.

Trip Planning

2009-01-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

Suddenly, trip planning isn't as fun as I remembered.

Oh wait. Now I remember. I don't think it ever is.

There is a saying - which I can't recall at the moment - something similar to 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder', but different. I apparently knew the saying at one time because I remember once, after we'd returned from one of our vacations, a friend asked how our trip had been. I told her to give me a couple weeks of distance from it and ask me again.

After which time, the trip had been great. Seems this same theory applies to trip planning. A few days ago I was so excited about trip planning I couldn't go to sleep at night. I stayed on my computer for hours, days, researching information.
At the time, my point was a general search of hotels and attractions and such to be able to draw up a idea of what the trip might cost. So, not extremely in depth.

With the decision to proceed made, now we get down to the serious stuff. I start with finding the hotel room.

If we're going someplace where the attractions are scattered out, or something we'd have to drive to anyway, then I'll pick a hotel on the outskirts of town, or maybe even on into a nearby town to get more value for my money. You can find nice hotels for less cost a little further away from the attractions.

On the other hand, if the place we're going is the attraction, for instance Niagara Falls, then I consider the hotel room as part of the attraction.
Why would you make the trip to Niagara Falls and not stay in a fallsview room? That would be like going to Las Vegas and not staying in one of the famous casino/hotels.

Which is what triggered my memory in regards to the trip planning not being as fun as I'd thought.

We went to Vegas in April 2007. I already had in mind that we'd want to stay at the Excalibur hotel/casino on account of the boys liking all the Midevil stuff. But I never stay anywhere without having first checked the reviews out at Hotels.com, so I looked it up, and, although there were good reviews, for some reason the bad ones stayed with me more.

At any rate, I was scared that we were going to end up spending our week in a shoddy, old, out dated, smoke-stinking room. I still wanted us to stay there, for the boys, but in order to lessen the what I was afraid would be the horror of it, only booked us there for a couple of nights, and then the remainder of our time in Vegas at the Treasure Island.

Turned out our room at Excalibur was gorgeous. It was large, and clean, with a big flat screen tv, large closet, big spa-like bathroom. We had a wonderful view of the New York New York and MGM across the streets. We loved it, and could have easily spent the whole week there without complaint.

But now, I am right back there again. In researching the hotel in Niagara Falls, I compared the options, and settled on the Embassy Suites Fallsview Hotel. The place looks great, the rooms have 2 queen beds and a sleeper sofa in the sitting room, which my boys like because they don't like to share a bed, and free breakfast.

Then I started reading reviews. Now I'm not an overly picky person, and I can generally overlook some complaints that were posted by obviously overly picky, critical people. But some issues kept coming up over and over again, and some of the things the people weren't complaining about but just mentioning that didn't seem to bother them, but I think would bother me. Or even if it was something I could deal with, I'm afraid my sister and/or her husband might be upset or aggrivated.

So now I'm second-guessing my first choice. Checking out other hotels, or considering spending part of the week at the Embassy, and the rest somewhere else.
Then I remember Vegas and tell myself I'm just doing that same thing again, and I'm sure the hotel will be fine.
But then again, what if I'm wrong?

Go here to view my Las Vegas/Hoover Dam/Grand Canyon vacation Photo Album.

Croozin'

2009-01-06T18:58:00.000-08:00

Got our cruise booked today; Thanksgiving week on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas.

We'll be leaving out of Fort Lauderdale, and visiting Key West, Cozumel, and Belize City.

Key West and Belize City will be new Destinations for us. We have visited Cozumel before, but look forward to going back again and enjoying new and different experiences.

This will be our first RCCL cruise after having only cruised Carnival previously. We loved our Carnival cruises, but thought to try out something different for a change. If we like it, it'll give us more variety in our cruising trips, of which we plan to take many more in the future.

Happy New Traveling Year!

2008-12-31T20:55:00.000-08:00

For 2009 we have settled on two big trips; a summer vacation in June to Niagara Falls, Canada and a Thanksgiving week cruise in the Caribbean.

I'm so happy! I enjoy the trip planning about as much as the trip itself. Can't wait to get started!