My thr3e weeks: Tennessee Hobos ( Final Part )

I finally got around to posting my final post on our vacation in the hills of Tennessee, and I must warn you that it will be a rather random post, using up the last few pictures.

One day we all just went into Gatlinburg to go walking/shopping down Main Street. And somehow all of us ended up taking a picture as this mountain man, and I figured it was the perfect set of pictures to show us off as the Tennessee hobos.

:: GRinddddd :: Every time we started the Expedition up and started driving this is the sound that we heard coming from the rear right side tire. I guess a vacation is never complete without a break down of some sort. The truck was still drivable but it made horrid grinding noises that made you cringe and wonder when the tire would just fly off. Knowing that we needed to find out what the noise was, Dad, during on of the sessions at the conference, went out with Micah to pull off the tire to find out what was wrong with it. It ended up being the wheel bearings which they would have been able to fix themselves if they had the right tools and parts... but we were on vacation and obviously didn't have any of the tools needed. So, Dad asked at the conference where we could find an auto shop, and ended up finding a guy who was local who recommended a good place. So having only Christine's car to work with we were kind of in a pickle, for you see it was lunch time, the truck was in the shop, and we had eight people and a five passenger car. Now, don't get me wrong, we were still very thankful we had a car, but we could only fit five people at a time into it. We couldn't eat at the conference center, they didn't allow outside food in. And Mom had packed us stuff for sandwiches but we really didn't have anyplace to eat it. Especially since it was 90+ outside and there really wasn't any shade around the conference center. So it was decided that five people would climb into Christine's car to go find a place, and three people would stay and wait to be picked up as the second load. Now I was among three people that stayed at the center so I was not a party to the group who was driving around trying to find us someplace to eat. I was able to stay in the nice air conditioned building, while the other party sweated to death in the non-air-conditioned car. I really do think us three got the better end of the deal. Forty-five minutes after leaving us, Christine came back all wet and very weary looking to pick us up, and she said that after searching for a food court at the outlet malls which they found out didn't exist they had finally decided we were eating at Wal-mart. Hmmm... I don't believe I have ever had a picnic lunch at Wal-mart but I suppose there is a first time for everything. When we arrived I gave Dad a call to find out exactly where they were we finally found them outside a little bus stop in the Wal-mart parking lot. The lady inside Wal-mart said it was the only place she could think of that we could sit down and eat. Apparently they didn't even have picnic tables for their employees. So, she had recommended the bus stop, but it was about the temperature of a greenhouse and smelled worse then a cigarette pack. So, looking very much like homeless people we ate out of a Wal-mart grocery cart. It was an adventure to say the least, and provides a lot of memories.

After our picnic lunch was over we visited Chic-fil-a and got a few milkshakes to cool us all off, and then we started Christine's tram service back up. Five of us went back to the conference center and three decided to go shopping at Wal-mart. This time I was in the first five to go back. Upon arriving back at the conference center we all found a couch or chair and made ourselves comfortable and took a nap. When the second "tram" run arrived, we found out they had gone and rented a car so we could go home that night without Christine having to drive for three hours to get us all back to the cabins. Thankfully we only had to rent the car for 24 hours 'cause our truck was fixed and ready to be picked up the next afternoon.

After spending four days in the conference center the plan was to take it easy on Friday, our last free day before heading home. Our plans changed very quickly when we were given 7 tickets to Dollywood. We would only need to buy one ticket for all of us to go and they were selling them for a special price at the conference. So, we all got to go to Dollywood for thirty-eight dollars. It was a fun theme park with several roller coasters and a few water based rides. One of the last things we did there was ride on their steam engine/coal powered train. This was the perfect ending day to a very nice but busy vacation. The next day we loaded the truck and trailer up and drove 14 hours straight home. Thus ended my three weeks in Tennessee which were exhausting but awesome.

My thr3e weeks: The Hike (Part 3)

It 'twas a fine day for a hike and one of the only opportunities that we would have to go... So we all loaded up into our Expedition and went to the nearest State Park headquarters to get some maps and figure out where we wanted to go hiking. After looking at some of the maps we realized that we'd better find a hiking trail that was nearby as it was getting later and later into the afternoon and getting lost in the Tennessee mountains at night on vacation did not sound like fun. So we chose a trail that had an old homestead somewhere along the way... that is if we could find the right trail. Finding the park entrance was the easy part... being in Tennessee was a little bit different then being at home where every trail is marked with many different signs and arrows showing you which way to go. There were no signs telling you how far to go or where the trail started. So we just drove, and drove, and drove. Now the road that we were on seemed to get narrower as you went on. And it was a two way road, so occasionally we would come upon an oncoming car or truck and sometime I think I could feel our car cringing as we squeaked by the other cars with just inches to spare. But needless to say we finally got to a gate blocking a pathway and a parking lot, so this must be the spot. It had to be the spot, wherever we were, we were going to go hiking, whether we found the old homestead or not, we would at least get our hike in. It was a beautiful day, only slightly humid... which is better then other days when it was unbearably humid. And so on this beautiful only slightly humid day we took our hike.

There were a couple very cool trees that I had to get pictures of... (Above) A tree that was right by the creek and because of the rush of water all of its roots were visible. (Below) A tree that Dad said probably grew on top of another tree stump that had over time rotted away, as there was a big cavern that the tree grew on top of.





A spider web that I nearly wore as a mask, thankfully I ducked away before I met the web and its maker.



After all the wondering and wandering we finally found the old homestead, which was actually a barn that was built in 1875, and over a little stream was a hikers club cabin that was built in the 1930's and a little cold spring cellar that they must have used for refrigeration. The cabin was actually built using logs from a nearby Whaley family cabin. Our hike was successful and was pretty cool to boot.

"Located along the Porters Creek Trail, the John Messer Barn was constructed in 1875 by Pinkney Whaley. The only remaining structure of the pre-park community of Greenbrier Cove, it was added to the National Register in 1976. The Messer Barn is a type of double-cantilever barn unique to East Tennessee and rarely found outside its immediate vicinity." ~ Wikipedia

My thr3e weeks: The Cabin (Part 2)

This post should be labeled "The Cabins," for we did have two. One cabin was a three bedroom and the other was a two bedroom. Christine and I stayed in the master bedroom of the two bedroom and Isaiah and Nathanael had the second bedroom. Mom and Dad had the bigger cabin, where Micah and Colin both had there own rooms.



A lot of our time was spent in the bigger one mostly because they had most of the food... but we did have the snacky type food in the smaller cabin, and we had the pool table.

It had beautiful pine interior and exterior. It was gorgeous.

The cabins looked about the same with a few differences in layout and furniture set up.

The Master Bedroom, had the most comfortable, huge, ginormous bed. It was like laying on pillows, you literally sank down into it... Christine said she had to really look for me the first morning, only my head was partially visible.

I didn't get a picture of the back porch which had a hot tub, and I also didn't get a picture of the super cool pool that they had at the resort, or the huge hot tub they had right next to the pool, which because it was so big, was pretty much a hot pool. It was a truly beautiful vacation spot. To bad we couldn't pack it all up in our suitcase and bring it home with us. But then it really wouldn't be special if it was normal, so I suppose we will have to leave it where it is. :: sigh ::
But anyway, enough about how wonderful the cabins were, forward to the next post...

My thr3e weeks: Summit (Part 1)

How do you sum up three weeks of awesomeness? You cannot do it in one post, I can tell you that much. So I will be doing a few posts on my last 3 weeks. Some of the content will be taken directly from my journal, so bear with me.
July 4th, Day 1: (Diary entry 1) "Chattanooga, T.N. here I come... Christine's alarm went off at 5:15 this morning. Dad greeted me with a "Happy Birthday!" and an omelet at my bedroom door. I donned my red, white, and blue star-spangled shirt, Dad grabbed my 48 lb. suitcase, Mom grabbed my really heavy carry-on, I gave Christine a hug and we were off. We made it to the airport by 7:00 am and I was through customs and at my gate waiting at 7:30. The flight was uneventful which is good. The only thing that happened worth some notice, was, as I sat down in my seat in the very back of the plane, I looked down and I had egg and cheese clinging to my shirt, breakfast left-overs. I quickly wiped them from my shirt and thought, "is this as embarrassing as egg on my face?""
~~~ Making it to the college campus late afternoon on Sunday, I then settled into the dorm room
met my room mate, ate dinner, and then I headed to orientation. Looking at the schedule I knew the two weeks were going to be exhausting. This is what the first full day looked like:

• (Diary entry 2:) ~ "5:40 - get up, get stuff out and be ready to take your shower at six. Read your Bible, take a 12 minute shower. Get ready to go to breakfast.
• 7:00 - Walk down to breakfast in cafeteria
• 7:15 - eat breakfast.
• 8:05 - Classes start. Ben W---'s does a couple sessions with a couple of breaks.
• 10:20 - Scott K---- does a couple of sessions
• 12:00 - lunch
• 1:00 - Another session with Ben W.
• 2:00-5:00 - free time to join in with the group activity or whatever you want to do.
• 6:00 - Optional-open forum with Scott K. I go play pool with a girl in my small group.
• 7:00 - Worship with Josh B---'s then last session for today.
• 9:00 - Get out of session, and walk to dorm to take your contacts out, that are starting to bother you after wearing them since six-something. Write in journal.
• 9:45 - small group meeting, which goes to 10:30
• 11:00 - Lights out."

Pretty much this is what everyday looked like, just different speakers and different topics. Over 72 hours of teaching and many different topics were covered. It was a truly awesome challenging time.
~~~

On Saturday after being at Summit for almost a week, Kami (my room mate) and I decided to join in a hike through Pocket. It was a beautiful day for a walk/run in the heart of Tennessee. I think it was a six mile hike, and it was extremely warm for this northerner. It was fun though... and Kami and I realized we were dressed alike which was pretty funny.

The two weeks went by very quickly... and before we knew it we were sitting in the last sessions... Friday night they had a graduation ceremony which we got to dress up for, which was cool. Kami and I were reunited with our families, and we both stayed in the same hotel Friday night.

This was my small group... we would meet every night and discuss the stuff that we were learning. Jessica (the one standing next to me) was the small group leader, and she would direct stuff and ask questions. We had fun together, they were a cool bunch of girls. It is weird to think that our paths might never cross again, after spending two weeks together I feel like we should live closer... it is kind of a strange feeling, knowing that they live a long way away, and I might not see them on this earth again. I am thankful for the time we had together though.

Well, that just about sums up my time at Summit... there is a lot more I could write about worldviews, and post-modernism... but I think that is better in person, and it would take forever to talk about even half of what was taught there. So this will be my last post on Summit, but family vacation (part 2) is coming shortly...

Honeymoon Part 5...

... and also the final one (are you cheering or sighing?)

And our last stop is (drum roll please)

NIAGARA FALLS, NY

We actually stayed about half an hour from Niagara Falls in this cute little cabin at a campground that my Mom and Dad are members of. We had such a nice time touring the area going to see the falls and other stuff, one of our favorite places was,

The Anchor Bar home of the Buffalo chicken wing in down town Buffalo. How could it not have been one of our favorite places when you eat (excellent) chicken wings for supper and then go out and see a movie?

Another place we really enjoyed (and would encourage anyone to go) is Fort Niagara. The fort itself was built in the seventeen hundreds and it is really cool to walk around in.

There were a few reenactors there and this one was very entertaining and informative to listen too. Behind him you can see the flags of the countries that have occupied the fort over the years.
The French, British and the U.S.A.

as you can see we had a great time there:)

There were so many pictures to choose from that it was very hard to pick which ones to show you so you will all just have to come over and see the rest for yourselves:)

Honeymoon Part 4

Welcome to

Toronto Canada

Home of the CN Tower. Standing at 1,815 feet,
it really is a cool sight to behold.

Over looking the city of Toronto and lake Ontario you really get a fantastic view.
On a clear day you can see as far as Rochester, NY.

It has three different levels, the observation deck, the restaurant level
and the Sky Pod, which is the highest at 1,465 feet above ground.

The glass floor.
Here is Curtiss and my feet on the glass floor only 1,122 feet high
This is definitely not for those who have problems with heights
but Curtiss and I thought it was cool:)

Our hotel was actually in Mississauga which is an adjoining city,
the two run into each other so that you don't really know where one stops and the other begins.
So the day we went sightseeing in Toronto it would've taken quite a while to drive there and them you have the problem of finding a parking place where you don't have to pay an arm and a leg, so we took the subway.
It is actually the first time I had ever ridden in a subway so it was fun to do new things.

In the evening we had planned on going to Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament.
A restaurant that gives a medieval show while you eat a chicken dinner with your fingers because they didn't have silverware in medieval times.
But after finding out how much it would cost we decided to go out for mexican instead and rent a movie to watch in our hotel room.

Our next (and final) stop will be Niagara Falls, NY

Honeymoon Part 3

After leaving the cabin we headed further north to....

Sudbury, Canada

Sudbury is known for its nickel mines, here we are in front of the Big Nickel (Original name don't you think :) The Big Nickle is 30 feet high and it took 700,000 nickels to make it. It was really cold and windy there the day we visited so we didn't stay long but it was cool to see.

Another attraction of Sudbury is Science North. A cool science center with all kinds of fun things to do.

Here we are on a bed of nails. We thought it was cool:)

As you can see from our smiles in the picture above both Curtiss and I really loved it there.
(just kidding, actually this is the only time on the whole honeymoon that Curtiss got jealous:)
We look forward to going back some day.

Here is a picture of one of our favorite restaurants from the whole trip.
Creo's Louisiana Grill, a cajun style restaurant with really. really good food.
You should really go there if you are ever in the neighborhood.

Next we head to the big city of Toronto.

Honeymoon Part 2

Fun In...

Canada

Curtiss's Grandma and Grandpa (the ones who own the cabin)
bought us tickets for the Island Queen Cruise as a wedding present.

It was so beautiful with the water and leaves turning on all the islands.

On our way back to the dock we had to go by the turning bridge.It actually swings from the middle to let boats go by. The boat let out a long whistle to let them know we were coming and
sideways goes the bridge :)

While we were on the island Curtiss and I went on a canoe ride around
Grave island (the one we were staying on) and
Goat Island (the island right next to us)
The morning we went it was perfect, the water was like glass and we had a lot of fun.

We went for a hike the one day and explored.
Here is a picture of us on the highest point of the island.

Out for pizza.
Yes, we actually did order three pizzas.
It was just about as much to order three medium pizzas as it was to get one large,
so we had a really good breakfast the next day :)
Hooray for Pizza Hut deals

While Curtiss and I were on our way to the cabin we noticed these piles of rocks all over the place, naturally we became curious but didn't have any idea what they were for.
Well, the one day that we went souvenir shopping and we found some little ones for sale with info cards tied to them.
They are Inuksuks and they were a sign of welcome and safety back in the days of the pioneers.
Fun huh?
so we had to build one of course :)

Next time we leave Parry Sound and head to Sudbury Canada

Honeymoon Part 1

We finally got our pictures on the computer and since

some of you were so interested I decided to post a few pictures from the honeymoon,
and since we have about 1000 pictures to choose from it could be several posts :)

The Cabin

The first place we went was the cabin that belonged to Curtiss's grandparents up in Canada.
It was beautiful with the leaves all changing colors and since it is on an island we had water all around us too and it reminded me so much of when we lived on lake front property when I was young.

The only way to get to the island was by boat and this is where we had to dock.
The land on the other side of the water is the main land and one of the buildings you see is the marina where the boat stayed when we weren't on the island.

The living room with the nice crackling fire where we stayed to keep warm, we would usually eat in this room too since it stayed the warmest.

The kitchen where I had fun making messes for two and then cleaning them up :)

I had to show this one because it shows the very nice little electric heater that kept us warm for the time we were there.
When you wake up and it is 39 degrees inside you are very thankful for the heat source :)
The hat is what Curtiss bought me to ski in this year, he thought it was just so cute on me.

Well, I think that is enough for now, next time I will share some of the things that we did while we were staying in Parry Sound Canada.