3rd Anniversary Trip

A year ago, for our 2nd anniversary, I planned a trip for Paul. He didn't know where we were going, so this year, it was Paul's turn, so for the past month I have had no idea about where we were going from August 8th -10th. I thought we'd be going to the beach after a few comments Paul made, but I wasn't sure.

After taking care of all that fun medical stuff on Friday morning, I began packing a variety of things for the trip. Still, not knowing where Paul was taking me. We finally got on the road at 1PM and started driving. Once Paul got on I-85, I knew it wasn't the beach, but I still had no idea where we were going. I figured it had to be mountains, but that could have been anywhere along the Appalachian.

We drove down I-85 going completely through SC and into GA. I still had no idea where we were going, but I was pretty sure it was a mountain location. Finally, Paul needed help navigating through GA back country, so I had to help read the directions to him. The directions were thus: "After about 5 miles GA-17 will become GA-17 North/GA-365 South/US-123 South. Continue on GA-17/GA-365/US-123 about 5 miles until it meets up with US-23/US-441/GA-15/GA-365". This was taken straight from the directions. Have you ever seen a road that was going South and North at the same time? Confusing... Why so many road names? Why not just one?

After navigating our way, I realized we were staying at a place near Helen, GA right in the middle of the mountains. At 4:30, we arrived at the cabin. Paul picked out a gorgeous cabin in the mountains through cabinrentals.





View from cabin



We were 30 minutes outside of Helen. Helen, GA is very touristy. Paul wanted to go some place more rural, and he found one of the most rural places I've ever been to..

Right after arriving, we needed to get some groceries, so the nearest grocery store was 20 minutes way in Blairsville, GA. We got back in the car and headed to the Ingles in Blairsville. We grabbed some water and snacks, but we also wanted to get some beer. Paul searched the store back and forth, but he could not find any alcohol, anywhere!!! I figure maybe I can find it, so I run around the whole store searching for beer. Well, Paul had to ask the cashier. She, in a whisper, said "Dis is a dry county. We don't sell alcohol here." Yeah, this is how rural this place is. They still had a mammoth cigarette selection, but no alcohol. How hypocritical. Anyways, Paul ask where we can find some and the cashier says in a whisper "Well, my cousin get his beer from this bp station in the next town. It's about 15 minutes that way."

Paul and I feeling like we were evil for asking for alcohol scooted out of the store with our heads low and headed to the Bp station. The Bp Station had signs all over it announcing they had beer! On our way back to the cabin (before Blairsville), we noticed a winery and figure why not, so we drove down to a very quaint winery called "Crane Creek". They had some of the best wine I've ever tasted. Crane Creek was closing up when we got there, so we weren't able to enjoy the property.. beautiful lake, cow field, rolling hills, and cottage... for long, but we did enjoy some wine tasting. :) We got 2 bottles to take home.

We arrive back at the cabin at about 7. We sat out on the back deck and rocked in the rocking chairs for a bit. The temperature was only in the 70's, so it felt great. Then, we ate the frozen pizza we got at Ingles. After dinner, we decided to walk around the cabin. There were 2 other cabins near ours, but no one was staying in them, so the place was very quite and rural! We walked around the cabin and up to a road that was alittle ways in the woods from the cabin. We walked up a really steep hill and then back down.. after that we decided to head back to the cabin.

Well, on our way back, we heard a 4 wheeler coming. All of a sudden the 4 wheeler pops out of the woods and the guy riding it miss judges the ditch he's heading straight into and flips over. The 4 wheeler was on top of him. Paul rushes to help get the 4 wheeler off. They both were able to get it lifted up. The guy was unhurt, but explain to us that he was having an argument with the folks that own the cabin we were staying in. They put up a chain to prevent him from biking on their property. If the chain wasn't there, he wouldn't have had to go into the ditch. He doesn't think that was very fair that they won't let him bike through their property to get to the other road... he continued cussing out the folks for a bit and we convinced him it was time to get his 4 wheeler back on the road. He then began pulling the chain down by tugging at a beautiful fur tree (I think that's what they are called-look like Christmas trees)... almost bending the whole thing over until Paul and I showed him he could remove the chain by pulling it over the nails that were in the pine tree on the other side. Poor tree!

That was the excitement for Friday. Saturday, we had a busy day planned. We went hiking in Vogel State Park. We decided to hike the 4 mile trail up Blood Mountain. The lady at the visitor center said it would take 2 hours, but we thought we could it in less. Wow! This was the STEEPEST trail I have ever climbed. You are completely exhausted after only a few steps.



About to start the trail...









The never ending climb....


Finally, near the top...



View from the top..









Still, it only took us an hour and 45 minutes to go all the way around. We still showed up the usual time. :)

After that, we went into Helen, GA for lunch and to go tubing (doughnut floats) down the Chattahoochee River. Helen was very crowded, so we had to wait a bit for lunch. It was 2 before we finally got to eat at Troll Tavern, but the food was good.


Some pictures from Helen





A restuarant called Paul's





Eating at the Troll Tavern

At 3, we went to the tubing place. I wasn't able to take pictures of us going down the river because I was worried my camera would get wet. It was suppose to take 2 hours, but it ended up taking us 3 hours to go about 2 miles. The river was really low, so your tube would get stuck on the rocks alot, so you had to get out and push. It was a very refreshing way to end the day, not as relaxing as we'd hoped, but fun. There were a ton of people in the river as well and that would lead to some traffic jams, as you can see from the photo below. It was taken when we were in Helen about to eat lunch.





It was fun, but you had to sit in cold water for 3 hours with wet shoes. It started to get cold at 5:30, so we were glad when the ride finally ended. Paul was tired from pushing us both off the rocks the entire trip.

We headed home and ate the rest of the pizza and watched the olympics. We were completely exhausted from the uphill hiking and hiking/tubing down the Chatahookie River. It was fun though. :)
Sunday, we had to pack up and get out of the cabin pretty early. I noticed when I went to the back deck to pick up our clothes that had gotten wet from tubing.. that some mice had walked across our clothes and across the towels. There were droppings all over them.. .... Then, I noticed my shirt! A mouse decided to start eating it! See picture below:


I had to throw it out. :( Ah well! At least it didn't eat anything else or burrow in my wet tennis shoes. :)

We got back to Charlotte at about 2:30. I'm just doing some laundrying and trying to relax before training all next week....

Vacation

Clearwater, FL

On May 26th, Paul and I drove to Clearwater, FL. It was a 10 hour drive from Aiken, SC. We left at about 11PM and arrived at our condo by 10 on Tuesday morning. We stopped for breakfast and for an hour long nap. This added some time to our drive. Throughout the trip, Paul and I switched off driving. This photo is where Paul and I switch for the second time. We tried to do 2 hour shifts. I took the 1 to 3 AM shift and Paul had the 3AM to 6AM shift. For his 3AM to 6AM shift, Paul got a Red Bull to help stay awake!


After breakfast, I drove us through Tampa during morning rush hour (not fun when you are lacking sleep!) and into Clearwater. We realized on the drive that I forgot to pack our beach umbrella, so we stopped by Target on our way in. We got an umbrella and we also picked up the Wii Fit while we were there because they were sold out in Charlotte. :)

Once we got to the condo, we took a 3 hour nap. Then, we headed out to the beach! :) It was great! For dinner, we had hot dogs and mac'n cheese.



The condo management was redoing the balcony, so you can see the orange fence in the pictures. That didn't really matter considering the beautiful sunsets we got to see each evening.

For the rest of the time there, we just relaxed on the beach. Paul and I read quite a few books. Paul always read at a rate of 3 times faster than me. ;) I got through 3 books and started another, but it really wasn't that good so I read a different book. I read The Dollmaker by Amanda Stevens , To Live by Yu Hua (a book my brother suggested which was really good), and Lost by Joy Fielding (terrible!). The worst part about the book Lost was that the author didn't understand that people knew when a flashback or memory was about to occur. Instead of having a nice flow into a past memory, this author would say (flashback:.....) (memory:...) (snapshot:.....). She would put the flashback or memory into parentheses. This really confused me. Needless to say, I'm never reading a book of hers again. Also, the entire 420 page book was about a women who believed in befriending her children instead of being their mother. Even though the book wasn't very good, I enjoyed sitting back and relaxing. I haven't been able to read for fun in quite a while.

After 2 days at the beach, Paul and I both managed to get really bad sunburns on our backs, even though we caked on sunscreen (50spf) till we were white. This is a picture of Paul's sunburn.



We wore shirts the next day down at the beach, but somehow we got burnt through those because we had different red areas later! It was a really bad sunburn. It was hard to lean back in chairs. Finally, after 4 days it started to peel. Besides the painful backs, we still went down to the beach every day!!!! :)




On Friday, some friends of ours came down. They are a young married couple that live in VA (PR and Molly).



We stayed up late most nights playing cards games with them. I have forgotten how much fun the card games Hearts and Spades are.

Paul and I in our World of Warcraft T-shirts. haha!





Monday night, Paul and I took along walk down to the Clearwater Pier. They have all kind of craft displays. You can buy really neat beach jewelry, so Paul and I got some stuff. I got 2 anklets and he got a guy's beach necklace.

Tuesday morning, PR and Molly had to catch an early flight back home. Paul and I had to leave that day too, but we decided to spend a few more hours on the beach before driving 12 hours back to Charlotte.


This was our 3rd year staying at the same condo. It's really quiet there, not many people.

This was our tanness. Hopefully, it will last awhile.

After chilling at the beach one last time, we got ready to go home. We took more pictures in the car then when we were on the beach.
This is a really blurry picture of the anklets I got.

We got stuck in traffic coming out of Tampa. It was a parking lot.

This rain cloud looked like a tornado.



Travel food... (Always good to have food while traveling.. that's what survival shows say. ;) )


A sign we saw at a Florida rest stop. I think my parents should get one for their backyard.



My reaction to hour 6. This was taken in Georgia.


Here is a really neat rainbow we saw in Georgia.



Our car was stuffed.


We got home at 1AM on June 4th.


The Wii Fit

I figured it was appropriate to have a separate section of my blog for this. If you find workouts boring and repetitive, you should get the Wii Fit! It is so much fun! The Wii Fit is a game you can buy for the Wii. It comes with a balance board. After creating your own profile, the balance board will get your BMI. It takes your height and weight (of which it can calculate by your standing on the board). After this, it gives you suggestions for what games or programs to play. There is a huge selection from Yoga, aerobic, strength training, or balance games. The balance board makes sure you are keeping good posture while doing the different activities. Here is a photo of me doing the Tree pose for Yoga. It knows when you aren't doing it correctly!



I wasn't completely balanced here, so it was fussing at me. These are photos of Paul doing one of the strength training exercises (push ups and planks). The cats look worried about us.




The aerobics are the best. It includes jogging, hoolahooping, and dancing moves. For jogging, you put the Wii remote in your pocket and jog in place while your Mii character runs for you simulating how fast or slow your going. You get rewarded if you jog a steady pace. For dancing, you have to step on the board and step off when the screen tells you too.

Ok.. I will stop with my love for the Wii Fit. If you lack motivation, this is a great purchase!