Cedar Point

Today, August 8, 2010 is Lee and I's first anniversary.  We knew it was a big deal, but we couldn't decide what we wanted to do.  Nothing was going on in town and we didn't want to do the typical date night.  So we decided to go to Cedar Point for our anniversary weekend.  Lee couldn't take any more time off of work and we lead the college group on Sunday nights, so we had to get it all in between work on Friday and the group meeting Sunday night.


Once we decided we wanted to go to Cedar Point for our anniversary (a week before our anniversary), we started the planning.  Well, Lee started the planning.  It's nice having a husband who will plan the vacations.  Lee picked out a few cities for us to stay in Friday night.  Sandusky is eight and a half hours from our apartment, so we wanted something a little closer.  We picked Findlay, Ohio which is only seven hours away.  I researched Cedar Point and found out you can't buy discounted tickets online anymore, and Lee researched the places you can get discounted tickets.  They were of course located in Ohio, so we couldn't pre-purchase them.  Lee also found a few places for us to stay Saturday night after the park.  Because Hotwire worked so well for us in Savannah, we used it again for this trip.  It listed a 4-star hotel for a cheap price for Saturday night in Columbus, so we chose that one.  We booked our hotels and Lee planned a few stops for Sunday on the way home.  We were ready to go!

We worked all day Friday before leaving for Cedar Point. As soon as I got home, I finished packing and straightening up the apartment. When Lee got home, he finished packing and we headed out the door. It was daunting that after a full day of work, we would be driving at least 7 hours to our hotel. The drive actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. We enjoyed each other’s company and listened to a few of Mark Driscoll’s sermons. Just as I was starting to fade, we arrived in Findlay, Ohio. We checked into our hotel at around 12:30am. I was anxious to see our accommodations because you never really know with Hotwire what you will get. We were pleasantly surprised when we found our room had a living room, kitchenette, and bedroom with double beds. The bathroom separated the bedroom and living room. We crashed for a few hours before starting day two.

We woke up bright and early Saturday to get ready for the park. We were still an hour and a half away and the park opened at 10am. We saw a Meijer’s on the way in the night before, so we stopped to pick up breakfast and coupons for our park tickets. They didn’t have coupons, but they did have actual tickets discounted. So with our discounted tickets, mini muffins, and chocolate milk in hand, we got on the road. We started feeling the traffic about 20 minutes from the park. Luckily, the park had parking down pat. They directed everyone into neat rows very quickly. I guess at $10 a car, you can afford to pay people to direct parking. We started with a simple ride to warm up.  The wait was only 15 minutes and the ride was wonderful.  It was a lot more fun than it looked when it took you up high and spun you as you fell.  We were right next to the Ferris wheel when we got off the first ride, so we figured we would ride that while the line was short so we could get pictures from the top.  That was a big mistake.  While the line was short, it took forever to get on it because they weren't using all the available spots.  The Ferris wheel took an hour of our short day away, but we did get some good pics of the park.  The rest of the park was pretty thrilling.  We waited for 15 minutes to 2 hours for the rides, but they were all worth the wait.  This theme park definitely takes the cake.  Most theme parks have 2 or 3 big rides along with several small rides.  This park has several large rides along with several smaller rides.  I love this theme park!

On day three of our trip, we stopped at a few more places.  Our first stop was at the old Ohio State Reformatory.  It was the place where The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.  It looked beautiful on the outside. It was shocking how bad it is on the inside.  Also, because Lee is a college football fan, we visited the Ohio State campus.  We checked out the stadium.  It was impressive, but not quite as impressive as UT's stadium.  Also, their campus was really tacky with shiny, metallic colors all over everything.  It was strange.

Lastly, we went to the top of Carew Tower to see the city of Cincinnati.  It was very hot at the top, but it was 48 stories high so the view was amazing.  For a weekend trip, it was quite an awesome trip. We fit lots of activities in, and only paid for a few.  What an awesome way to celebrate our first anniversary!

Jack Daniels Tour

Lee and I got together with some of our friends a couple months ago to take the tour of the Jack Daniels distillery.  We met in the small town of Lynchburg and grabbed some lunch at one of the few options.  We ate at a small local place.  If you try something like that, be prepared to have cash on hand.  We had to make a visit to the ATM.

After lunch, we went to the distillery for the tour.  As soon as you get out of the car, you are smacked in the face with the smell of sour mash.  The tour is free, so that was really great.  We waited for our tour to start, looked around at the different items in the lobby area, and signed the guestbook.  When our group was called, we all gathered in a room to watch a video about Jack Daniels.  When the movie was finished, we left the room and loaded a small tour bus.

Our tour guide was a big ole country boy.  He was thoroughly entertaining as a tour guide.  We went all through the distillery learning about how everything is made.  You even get to smell the sour mash.  Don't take a huge whiff of that! The smell floating around the entire property gave me a headache.  Other liked the smell.

The tour was lots of fun.  It's always interesting to see how huge facilities like that run.  It was a good day trip and it was cheap.  And of course, no trip with our friends Philip and Abby is complete without visiting a nearby firetower!

Atlanta - Aquarium and World of Coke

My two best friends from college and I decided to get together to catch up.  Because we are located all over the state, we decided to go to Atlanta together instead of picking a city in Tennessee to hang out.  We decided that the Aquarium and the World of Coke would be the most fun when we found a coupon on the Aquarium's website.

The Aquarium was not as cool as I had hoped.  It was not really a great aquarium.  Their claim to fame is their whale sharks.  The whale sharks were awesome, I will not even lie.  Also their manna rays were amazing.  Other than those two things, the aquarium was unimpressive.

The World of Coke, however, was quite impressive. We did have to wait almost an hour to get in the building, and the heat was terrible.  It was great once we got in. There were several large coke bottles decorated from different countries.  Also, there was memorabilia from all years Coke has been in existence.

You can view several videos about the company and also can walk through the actual bottling process.  At the end of the tour, you can try all the different types of Coke from all over the world - 60 flavors.  I would say that 80% from other countries were disgusting.  Coke definitely knows the American market because all of them were good to me.  Tasting all the flavors is fun, but it will definitely give you a stomach ache if you try it on an empty stomach.  Lastly, you receive a free bottle of Coke that was bottled right there.  It's a pretty neat tour and I recommend it.  The best part of the trip though was hanging out with my friends!  I hope it's not another year before we hang out again!

Cave City

One day Lee felt like eating somewhere new.  He suggested going to Bowling Green, Kentucky for lunch.  We had to watch the kids at church later that afternoon, so we postponed the trip until the following Saturday.  After a little bit of research, we found out that there was no reason to go to Bowling Green, so we chose to visit Mammoth Cave instead.
We headed out around noon (after sleeping in of course) and started the hour and a half drive. We had an exhilarating game of the "alphabet game" on the way there and quickly got to Cave City.  We wanted to make sure we got tickets to the tour we wanted to take, so we went straight to the caves without stopping at all the small tourist shops.

When we arrived at the Visitor Center, it was packed.  It probably didn't help that we went on the 4th of July weekend.  We squeezed through to get the tickets to the tour we wanted that didn't start for 2 and a half more hours, but were sadly disappointed when we found out that tour had been sold out for two weeks.  We chose a similar one, but it didn't go by the river and it didn't start for 3 more hours.  So we left slightly disappointed and decided to hit up the local gift shops.

We started at a place that sold rock figurines.  It was pretty horrible.  I'm pretty sure everything that was in there had been in there for 25 years.  All paper products were yellowed.  Lee did find several figurines from his parent's house.  He never knew where they came from until then.  After not finding anything to buy, we went down the road and tried a few more stores.  It was amazing all the junk these stores had!  There was so much rusted, metal junk, it was amazing.  You know nothing had been bought from these stores in years.

After exploring that road a bit, we went back to the cave.  We found a parking spot and waited for our group.  I believe there were a little over 100 in our tour group.  We started down the hill and into the cave.  It was hot waiting for our tour to leave, but it definitely cooled off going into the cave.  You could feel the cool air rushing towards you as you headed down the stairs.

The cave was very family-friendly. The paths were paved, there were handrails in locations that needed them, and the cave was massive.  While this tour was not for the adventurous type, it was still enjoyable to walk around and see.  While the cave had plenty of spots where rocks were small enough to climb and sit on, don't be fooled into thinking you are allowed to do so.  They will absolutely threaten to call the authorities.

The tour ended with a tower of stairs to climb.  That might be the only difficult part of the tour.  They were also very steep, not like in these pictures.  For $12 a person, the tour was pretty nice. We stopped for dinner in Bowling Green and had some nice Thai food.  Overall, the trip was pretty fun for a day trip.  It was nice to get away!

Blue Ridge Parkway

Last Labor Day, Lee and I and a couple of our friends decided to go camping up in the Smoky Mountain National Park.  We packed up my car and headed out with our camping supplies.  The Blue Ridge Parkway is famous for its scenic drive.  It has SEVERAL stops for overlooks. 

One place we stopped was Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River (as you can see in the picture).  It was chilly during Labor Day weekend, but the short hike up to the top of the peak will warm you up slightly.  The observation deck at the top offers a wonderful view. 

We drove around to all the campsites, trying to find an open spot.  We definitely made a mistake in not reserving a campsite ahead of time.  Usually, we have no problems finding places to put up our tents, but this was not the case.  We looked everywhere until it got dark.  We ended up getting a hotel room instead.  While we were upset about not getting to camp, we weren't too upset.  We were glad to have a nice bed to sleep in after a long day of driving and hiking.  We even took pictures jumping on the bed.  We probably have more pictures of us diving on the bed than we do of the parkway. 

After exploring the mountains, we headed home.  It was a great way to spend a weekend and not a lot of money.  It would have been cheaper if we had camped as planned, but the hotel was fine. 

If you want more information about that area, go here: http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/index.php

Geocaching

Last weekend Lee and I went Geocaching with my cousins and a couple of their friends.  For those of you who don't know, Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online.  At each cache, there are small items in a container and also a log.  If you take an item, you have to replace it with something else.

We just signed the log with our team name and the date.  If you go to geocaching.com and become a member, you can search for caches in your area.  The cache llist contains GPS coordinates and hints on where to find the cache. My cousin printed out a list of caches for us to find and we just took turns picking spots.  This was my first time going, and we went at night.  I think it would be easier during the day.  My flashlight was pretty dim and it was hard to find the caches.  Also, some caches are hidden in places that are closed at night like public parks.  Keep that in mind when deciding whether you want to go during the day or at night.

We used our cell phones to find the GPS locations.  Anyone with an android phone could use google.  We went to 7 locations and found 4 caches.  One place was closed, the other two we just couldn't find.  I found the cache at the last location we went to.  It was under a rock, in a little tube.  It just had a log in it.  The piece of paper in this picture is the log that was rolled up in the cache.  So, if you like the hunting part of a treasure hunt, geocaching could be the thing for you!

Nashville Zoo

Lee and I went to the Nashville Zoo for our 1 year anniversary of dating.  Parking is free at the zoo, and we went on a family day or something and got our tickets free or deeply discounted.  Keep an eye on the website and I'm sure you'll find discounted days as well.  The zoo was fun, but there is a lot of walking between animals  I definitely recommend wearing tennis shoes.  Some were hard to see, some were inside sleeping where you couldn't see them. 

There's a reptile house that has all sorts of critters and even alligators.  There's an aviary with many birds flying around.  You can hear all the birds, but it takes time to spot them. 

Overall, I would recommend visiting this zoo.  It's not the best in the country, but it's fun to see all the animals!  For more information go to:  http://www.nashvillezoo.org/index.asp

Bee Rock

Bee Rock is a really cool overlook in Monterey, TN.  The property is privately owned, but the family is nice enough to let people use it (like Cummins Falls).  The family actually owns a bed and breakfast on the property if you want to make it an overnight trip.  No camping is allowed and only guests at the ed and breakfast are allowed there after dark.

The walk to the bluff isn't that far from the car.  It's not a rough hike at all, basically just a straight walk.  I wouldn't bring small children out there because come on, it's a cliff.  Sometimes groups will come and climb up it from the bottom.  I have never been in one of those groups, nor seen them.

Going there in the fall is wonderful.  To look around and see all the trees changing colors is breathtaking.

Directions can be found here:
http://www.southeasternoutdoors.com/ outdoors/climbing/bee-rock.html

Lookout Towers

  One of Lee's favorite things to do is explore firetowers. They are scattered all over the state and are free to climb. Some lookout towers (firetowers) are in good condition and easy to climb, some are in poor condition. This website should help you find good ones to climb: http://www.cs.utk.edu/ ~dunigan/towers/

This tower is in Celina, TN. It's about 2 hours from Nashville, near Dale Hollow lake. We took a day trip there from Cookeville.

The view from the top of the tower is amazing. This tower is locked at the top, as most are. The highest you can get is the base of the room.  I always find it peaceful at the top. Everything is quiet except for the wind and maybe a barking dog nearby.

Not far from the tower is the Dale Hollow Dam.  Lee also loves dams.  He pretty much loves anything structural.  So, if you are in the mood for heights and dams, Celina is the place for you to visit!

Savannah

Savannah was an interesting city to visit.  When Lee and I get tired of our day to day activites, we try to find inexpensive road trips.  We usually look for cities within an 8 hour radius.  Our most recent adventure was to the great city of Savannah, GA.  To keep costs down and only pay for one night in the hotel, we left our apartment at 11:30pm Friday night.  We got to the visitor's center in Savannah at 8:30am.  We had just enough time to change in the car (out of comfy clothes) in order for the center to open at 9am.  After the visitor center (it had a museum in it with Forest Gump's bench), we headed out to Hunting Island State Park, SC.  This park is about an hour and a half from Savannah. It costs $4/adult, and don't forget to bring cash. There are several trails and a really cool lighthouse.  We wanted to see crocodile in the swampy water everywhere, but it didn't happen.

We parked near the lighthouse and stopped to eat lunch before continuing on.  We packed a cooler for the trip so we could save money and not eat out.  Lee brought his wonderful fried bologna sandwiches, and I brought my favorite - turkey sandwiches.  The lighthouse costs $2 a person to get in.  The view from the lighthouse is amazing.  Getting to the top of the lighthouse is another story.  For someone as afraid of heights as I am, it was a little tricky.  The stairwell is just a bunch of iron steps going around all the way to the top.  Yes, there is a handrail, but who's that going to save?  After getting my breath back, I enjoyed the view from the top.  The ocean and trees all around were beautiful.  Down below, the beach wasn't very busy (it was March).  We just sat down and relaxed for a while. 

After a long day of both walking around and relaxing, we headed back to Savannah. To save money on the hotel, we used Hotwire.com. We actually saved about $50 on the room and only paid $58. The hotel was nice, so we were pleasantly surprised. (We had never used Hotwire before.)  After a quick nap to re-energize, we hit the town.  Savannah is the first planned community in America, so it has 21 remaining town squares.  At night, driving around is terrible.  The layout is difficult and street signs are hard to find.  We drove around and then had dinner before heading back to the hotel. 

The next morning we got up early for the free breakfast at the hotel and headed to Tybee Island to see the sunrise.  We missed it by about 3 minutes.  We still had fun though.  We got some cheetos out of the car and fed the birds.  The seagulls were crazy!  They would attack as soon as the cheeto left our hands.  They'd even catch it in the air if we threw it up there.  After we ran out of cheetos, we went down to the pier. It started lightly raining , so the pier was pretty empty.  Luckily we had umbrellas.

After we left the pier, we decided to chance the rain and go to Fort Pulaski.  The fort is $3 a person to get in.  Inside there are a few exhibit to explain the fort.  There is also a short video that plays every 30 minutes.  It's mildly entertaining.  Fort Pulaski is a fort that was used in the Civil War.  It's in great condition and it even has a moat!  There's a guy that's dressed up in period clothing and he's anxious to answer any questions you might possibly have. 

The outside is pretty neat because you can see all the places that got hit by cannons.  It's amazing to see how far cannons can fly.  The other side was across the river!  I didn't believe it until the old guy in the costume told me it was true.  After we were done exploring every nook and cranny of the fort, we went back to Savannah to eat. We headed out around 2 to get home by Sunday night.  It was a quick trip, but it was cram-packed with fun!

Cummins Falls

Cummins Falls is located in Cookeville, TN.  It's on private property, so you are on your own when you get there.  It's not kept up by the state, just by everyone who loves going there. 

 

Cummins is probably my favorite waterfall out of all the falls I've seen. When you hike down the trail to the top of the falls, you have to cross in order to get to the bottom. The water is only ankle deep in some spots. I look for those spots to cross. After following the trail, you'll come to some rocks you have to climb down. There's a rope you can hold onto, but it's not too scary. Once to the bottom of the steep rocks, there are a few muddy trails that you can hold a rope to get down easily.  After hiking a little ways back up to the falls, it's a beautiful view.

You can climb up the falls and play on different levels.  Also, many people jump from the lowest level, but I'm too scared.  I'd be afraid of hitting large rocks.  It's really fun to play all over the falls, just remember to be careful.  I've gotten bruises from falling.  There are large rocks all around the base that are perfect for laying out.  These falls are a favorite place for TTU students, so don't be surprised when you see them there.  And don't forget - don't get too tired because you have to hike back to the top!

Burgess Falls

Burgess Falls is located near Cookeville, TN, about an hour and a half east of Nashville.  It's a bit of a hike down to the falls, but it's nothing like the hike down to Fall Creek Falls.  There is a well worn path with steps and even metal stairs where needed.  The path stops near the top of the falls, where we're standing in the picture.  If you want to climb to the bottom of the falls to play in the water, it's kind of steep and the grass is usually tall.  You somewhat have to climb your way down.  I've done it several times, too.

Besides the falls, there are picnic areas. One picnic area even has a small playground for kids. If you want more information on the Burgess Falls State Natural Area, check out: http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/parks/BurgessFalls/