Nashville

After a lovely vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, we traveled to Nashville to spend a week with my sister, Teresa, and brother-in-law, Clayton.

We started it out by taking Teresa to get a pedicure. Mom and I were having serious CoCok's withdrawals, and thought we all needed a little pampering. Granted, it wasn't nearly as luxurious as CoCok's. We weren't privy to free jasmine tea, views of the East China Sea, fantastic leg massages, and fancy nail art. But, at least I was sitting in a massaging chair! :) Teresa chose a pearlescent green. Mom got her normal brick colour. And I chose a metallic pink. Fun!


In Nashville, we had to go geocaching to take advantage of being in another state. :) So we took off with our GPS and went hunting. We found 3 caches that day! One was absolutely tiny, with fishing line tied to one end. The other end of the line was attached to a tree limb and then the cache had been thrown into the tree! That one was really hard to find! But we did....cuz we are good like that. ;) Another cache was in the middle of some leaves that had a likeness of poison ivy leaves. Yes, we were scared! But we dug and dug, and finally found it. And then we quickly went into the nearby mall to wash off in hopes to not get poison ivy! We were sticking our feet in the sink, washing over and over again, and pretty much ran the bathroom out of soap. hehe But we didn't get a rash!! Success! And I have now found caches in 6 states, and in Japan! :)

The next day we decided to go out for a fun afternoon of putt putt golf. Clayton met us from work, so he was in full priest garb. Fun image. :)


We each shot a hole in one, at some point or another. And we each had certain holes where we took about 6 or more shots. hehe Let's just say that we aren't very consistent putt putters. Dad even took 10 shots for one hole before grabbing the ball and sticking it in the hole with his hand!














When we finished the game and averaged all the strokes, Mom and Teresa tied for first place. But I came in a close second! :)

After a few days of hanging out in Antioch, Teresa and Clayton took us up to spend the weekend at the Ingalls' cabin: Toad Hall. When staying in this cabin, you are living in the lap of luxury in the middle of the woods. What could be better?!? Each bedroom (there are three) include a king size bed and a full bathroom. And I got one all to myself! Such extravagance and comfort! While there we went for a hike, played Settlers of Catan, made smores, read books, and relaxed. It was a fabulous break!






















Last year, for Clayton's birthday, I gave him a beer-making kit. Since then, Teresa and Clayton have started experimenting making their own beer. During this trip, Dad and I had the privilege of helping make a batch. This one was a strong Belgium style ale. Here are some pics from the fun evening!


After all that fun....we went out for Ethiopian food. Now, I have been craving this particular restaurant ever since I went there 5 years ago. That's a loooooong time! So I begged and pleaded, and they were gracious enough to comply. And it definitely met my expectations. :) Very tasty!

What a great week! Thanks Teresa and Clayton for such a great time. I love you guys!!

Outer Banks, NC

After a week in Pittsburgh, we took a road trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina....where we spent another week visiting our friends, the Bunyards. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL there. In the morning, there is a dense fog that covers everything in such a way that you feel you are in the middle of an imaginary story.


All of the houses are ginormous, and most are rented out for vacationers. We, however, stayed in a hotel instead because it saved us about $7,000. I'm okay with the trade-off, especially because the hotel we stayed in was very luxurious, and located right on the water with private beach access. NICE!

While there, I attended a wedding, got confused for a professional photographer, had my first hot kiss (a jalapeno stuffed with cheese and shrimp, wrapped in bacon and grilled....whoa spicy on the lips!!), helped make the wedding cake, did sightseeing, went geocaching (of course! I had to add another state to my list!!), palled around with friends, and got a tan (a slight one, but still!).

Here are some of my favourite wedding shots...unfortunately without any cropping or editing (that program is on a different computer that is currently in storage *weep*):

We also went geocaching! We have now done this awesome activity in 5 states...not to mention Okinawa. :) Here are a few things we saw:




















This was such an awesome week to relax and hang out with friends and family. Congratulations on your marriage, Chad and Bertelle!

Visiting Pittsburgh

After moving back to the US, we decided to take a much needed tour to visit family and friends. First stop, Pittsburgh, PA. There we had the pleasure of spending a week with my sister Mary, brother-in-law Rob, and nephew Marc-Andre. It was such an amazing week!

Marc-Andre had grown SO MUCH since I had last seen him. Why do kids have to grow up so fast?? He's incredibly cute. He now has two teeth, eats baby food instead of only milk, weighs 20 lbs, and is trying to talk. And while there, we got to see him learn how to crawl!!


















During that week, Mary had her 28th birthday! To celebrate, we took her to the Strip District, which is a fabulous street in downtown Pittsburgh that has a lot of really great shops all along it. Now, normally I'm not at all a shopping girl. But this is a different kind of shopping. They have a great pottery shop where local artists display their work (I love going to pottery places because it is really interesting seeing what other people have done and getting new ideas for possible things for me to attempt in the future. This time, I got a great idea for decorating the piece. You put a leaf on it after you glaze it, and stick it into the kiln. The heat of the kiln burns the leaf right off, but the exact leaf print is left on the piece. It's absolutely beautiful!). There is also this really great international chocolate store called Mon Aimee Chocolat. And, what kind of woman would I be if I didn't like that store?!? hehe Actually, I mainly like it because I get to see the selections from around the world. I especially enjoy the section from Europe because it reminds me of my days in England . :) Another shop on the Strip is the Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. that has all sorts of stuff....lots of different cheeses, nuts, breads. It's really cool to see. They even give samples. So far, my favourite was the veggie dip. mmmm Oh! And another really cool thing (other than the many other shops that I am not even mentioning in this blog)....the movie Wedding for Bella was filmed in the Strip District, specifically in a bakery called Enrico's. The movie is one I recommend...though a quick warning: it's a chick flick. hehe But it's really fun to see such an obvious Pittsburgh location. :)

We also went on a Duck Tour around Pittsburgh , which is this amphibious vehicle that drives around the sites of downtown Pittsburgh , and then goes directly into the river and becomes a boat tour. It was very interesting hearing all the history of the city and buildings. Once we got into the river, they even let Marc-Andre drive the boat. :)













We also went to the Carnegie Science Museum / Sports Works. Personally, I wasn't all that impressed with the science museum. Maybe I'm just partial to the one in Seattle . But this one seemed a little boring. We went to the planetarium show...and it was done by Mr. Roger's Neighborhood!!! We were cracking up throughout the entire show because it was sooooo ridiculously stupid we couldn't believe we were actually sitting there. hehe The Sports Works was really cool though. It had all these things that you could actually try doing...such as shooting a basketball while wearing glasses that alter your vision, learning how to shoot a few trick shots in pool, and pitching a baseball (by the way, I found I'm not the fastest or best at aim. no strikes were thrown on my watch. hehe). And we toured the submarine, USS Requin. Fun fun!