Lost Sea Cave

For my annual reunion with two of my friends from college, we decided to go to the Lost Sea Cave in Sweetwater, TN.  It was a bit of a drive, but I was excited to hang out with my friends, so it was wasn't bad at all.  Also, as a joke, I had matching T-shirts printed up for us that said "Three Amigos Reunion 2011" on them.  I, of course, wore mine the entire time.  My friends were awesome enough to put theirs on, too.  We looked like three nerds with our matching shirts, but it was fun.

We waited in line and then made our way down the tunnel when our group was called.  We toured the cave and had fun doing it.  It was fun to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a year.  The cave was pretty nice and easy to navigate.  The walkways were easy.  We made our way down to the "sea".  The group loaded a boat (for about 30 people) and we went out on the water.  You were close enough to the water to feel it, and I did.  It was freezing!  There were lights under the water so we could see the big fish that were in the water.  I figured the fish would be mostly blind - it makes sense.  What I didn't know is that fish are bred to live in the sea.  They can't actually reproduce in that water.  I was a little disappointed that the fish were only there because of man and wouldn't be able to survive there without them.

Once we were done with the tour, we headed out and checked out the little village next door.  There was a general store, crazy hat store, ice cream shop, glassblowing shop, and maybe a couple other things.  It was pretty cute.  After we were done at that location, we went out for lunch.  Overall, it was a pretty awesome day.

Simpson County Fair

While I was out of town for training, Lee told me that the weekend I was coming back there was a fair with a demolition derby not too far from us.  He said it was in Franklin, KY not too far from where we go to the drive-in.  I told him it sounded fun.

We decided to go and invited my brother and sister-in-law to join us.  It was definitely an adventure.  The fair was $10, which is pretty expensive, so we thought it would be decent.  We got there around 4:30 on Saturday figuring it would be pretty busy by then.  We were wrong.  Only a couple hours before the derby started, there were only a few other cars in the parking lot.

We thought we might be in the wrong place, but no, everything was set up and running.  There just wasn't anyone there.  The games were sketchy and most had live animals as pets - lizards, bunnies, fish, turtles - all kinds of stuff.  The games weren't cheap either.  We didn't really play any games.  I'm pretty sure one of the carnies verbally assaulted us because we wouldn't come play.  Also, almost all of the booths had help wanted signs.

We spent a lot of time at the playground next to the fairgrounds because we didn't have anything better to do.  After a while on the swings, people started showing up.  It never really got packed, but people were super excited about the demolition derby.  We got our seats and waited for it to begin.  I had never been to a demolition derby, so it was pretty cool to see it.  The only terrible part was the lawn mower derby.  Who came up with that?  The car heats lasted around 8-10 minutes each, and there were only a few.

The lawn mower derby lasted about an hour.  We would have left, but we wanted to see the finals for the cars.  The finals finally happened and it was pretty cool.  Some people had good strategies, some were just bad and ran themselves onto the concrete blocks.  After the derby was over, we headed home.  The derby was fun, but I don't think I'll be visiting the Simpson County Fair again anytime soon.

TN Renaissance Festival

For helping some of our friends move, Lee and I received a pair of extra tickets to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival.  I had always wanted to go, but wasn't sure that the $20 price tag was worth it.  

With the free tickets, Lee and I headed out right after church to attend the festival.  When we arrived, I literally couldn't stop laughing for 15 minutes.  Some costumes were very well coordinated, others were not.  Some people made sure to stay in character, others did not.  The people made it quite an interesting place to visit.  If you are one that enjoys people-watching, this is absolutely the place to go.  Lee and I started our exploring and stopped at the first show we came to.

The show was a comedy show performed by two "wenches".  The crowd was certainly entertained and I believe they participated more than at any show I have attended before.  They loved it!  The show was funny, a bit gross (what can you expect from wenches?), but I believe my favorite part was watching the crowd.

After the show, we continued to survey the area.  I was surprised that the festival wasn't solely renaissance.  It was more of a fantasy festival.  There were fairies and all kinds of mythical creatures running around.  Half of the booths set up were for magical and dragon items.  There were also games set up with a renaissance theme.  They were pretty comical.

The main thing we wanted to see at the festival was the jousting.  The jousting, however, didn't start for an hour or so, so after we found where the match would be held, we went and found something else to do.

There was a tent with eagles and other awesome birds for a show that would be going on later. Seeing the majestic  birds up close was amazing.  We moved on and stopped at a Robin Hood show.  It was a family-friendly show, but it was entertaining.  I couldn't hardly focus though because there was a girl sitting not too far from us who had a spider on her hat.  For the longest time, Lee and I stared at it because we couldn't tell if it was real or if it was part of the costume.  We eventually found out it was real.  It was a granddaddy long legs, so it wasn't dangerous, but when it started crawling all over her, I about jumped out of my seat.  She never even noticed it.

  After the show, we went back to the location of the jousting tournament and watched the live chess game.  It was well scripted and rehearsed with the sword fights at each move.  Our friends, who decided to come to the festival later than us, met up with us during the chess match.

The ladies went and saved seats for the tournament while the guys went to find food.  Once we were all back together, the tournament started soon after.  I guess because I'm used to movies, I was expecting someone to get knocked off the horse during this game, but fortunately for them, no one did.  

I think the joust would have been quite entertaining for kids, as the poles broke if anyone hit anything, but Lee and I wanted some real action.  It was worth the entry fee though.  Once the show was over, we walked around a bit more with our friends before heading out.  For the price we paid for the tickets, it was quite an interesting and fun experience.  I'm not sure I would pay full price to attend again.  I would certainly go back if I got discounted or free tickets again. 

Biloxi / New Orleans

The night before the trip lasted much longer than I had intended it to. As we planned on leaving Thursday morning at 5am, I wanted to go to bed at 8pm.  I got home, did some laundry, played with the cats, did the dishes, packed, cooked sausage balls and mini muffins for the road and by the time I got to bed it was after midnight. That was definitely a mistake.

The alarm went off at 3:30am and I felt like I had only been asleep for 20 minutes.  We got up, finished packing, took care of the kittens, and got ready and loaded up the car.  We said our pre-trip prayers and hit the road.  The first few hours of the trip were the most difficult because we were tired.  On our way through Alabama we saw the destruction from the recent tornado.  The amount of damage was terrible.  The entire tree line looked like knocked over toothpicks.

Once we got a little further down the road, we got hungry.  Lee made fried bologna sandwiches the night before the trip, so at lunchtime we pulled them out of the cooler and let them heat up in the window.

After many hours of driving, we finally made it to Biloxi, Mississippi.  We drove down the strip for a little as it was too early to check-in to our hotel.  

After we got a ways down the strip, we turned back and stopped off at the beach.  It was a bit too chilly to put on bathing suits and swim, so we just played on the beach, walked in ankle-deep water, and took plenty of pictures. Once it was late enough for us to check into the hotel, we went over to the pier to wash our feet off.  Lee couldn't find a place to do it, but a homeless guy pointed out the hose down on the pier.

We checked into our hotel - the Isle of Capri Casino.  The city was full of old people and the casino was pretty dead.  I didn't mind it. We went up to our room with the wonderful view of construction and crashed.  After a long day of driving and sight-seeing, I was definitely ready to go to sleep.

The next morning we had reservations for the Honey Island Swamp Tour, but we had a couple hours to kill, so we checked out of the hotel and stopped by the Biloxi Lighthouse.  Tours were only held for one hour each day and were $5 a person.  We made our way to the top - following behind the very old man leading the tour.  We were the only ones there and he gave us a very long, very slow story of the history of the lighthouse.  He was nice, but the awkward part was the fact that he never took his sunglasses off, so we never saw his eyes.  Once at the top, he continued telling the story as we took pictures.  It was a nice, breezy day out, but in the top of the lightouse it got hot very quickly.  We stayed long enough to take all the pictures we wanted, hear the end of the story, and then headed back down.

In our research before the trip, we found out that airboat tours in the swamp are extremely expensive - $60 a person.  We didn't want to spend that much, so we read some TripAdvisor reviews and found a place much cheaper that gave pontoon boat tours.  My hopes weren't extremely high, but it turned out to be much more fun than I thought.  The pontoon boats were covered, so we were in the shade and not burning up.  The guys driving the boats were knowledgeable about the area and pointed out any wildlife they saw.  

We saw several birds, turtles, and smaller alligators (a few feet long) and I was satisfied with the trip.  Then we went to see Big Al. Big Al was 12-13 feet long.  Also, Big Al apparently liked hot dogs.  We were told to keep our fingers in for that reason.  Other tour groups had tried throwing marshmallows to him, but he wasn't a fan.  Our guide made an alligator noise to call Big Al over, then started tapping the water with a hot dog on a stick.  

As our pictures show, Big Al certainly came out of the water for the hot dogs.  It was pretty creepy because he was only a few feet away at times.  After we were done taking pictures, we headed back to the dock.  I would say the tour was well worth the money.  It was amazing to be that close to such a large alligator!

After our tour, we decided to drive down to the tip of Louisiana.  It was an interesting drive.  We passed several refineries.  We also passed a few churches.  We drove right to the end and then turned around and headed back. It was a nice, calm way to end the day.  

While in Walmart the day before, we saw an ad for an airshow in the paper.  It was free, so we decided to go.  We drove to the base and waited in line to get it.  It was pretty cool because we got to park on the tarmac.  I didn't realize though how far the walk to the actual show would be.  They had buses taking people over.  

Once we were through the doors, the show had already started.  It was so hot on the pavement, every little bit of shade was occupied by people seeking relief from the heat.  We just found a spot good for taking pictures and endured the heat.  The shows were pretty impressive for the most part.  Lee enjoyed the older planes and their pretend dog fight.  The only one that was terrible was the wing walker.

The wing walker didn't walk the wings, she just stood in one spot attached to the plane putting one arm in the air to wave and then alternating to the other arm - not very exciting.  Once Lee was done watching the show, we made the long walk back to our car to head to New Orleans.

We arrived in New Orleans, parked the car not far from the French Quarter, and proceeded to explore the area.  I had forgotten from previous visits the terrible smell of the city.  The smell of trash, horse poop, and vomit wafted through the streets as we walked around.  While the smell was terrible, the area was quite beautiful.  The architecture and flowers made me want to just sit on a balcony and enjoy my surroundings.

We stopped in the shops and viewed the local art vendors on the street.  There were several talented artists, and several not quite as gifted.  Before we left the French Quarter, we stopped at Cafe Du Monde for some beignets and chocolate milk.  They of course were delicious. After leaving New Orleans, we stopped at Loyola University to check out the campus.  Lee took some pictures and we headed home.

On our way home, we stopped in Tuscaloosa to see the damage from the recent tornado.  It had been a couple weeks, but the recovery effort was still in full force as the damage was extensive.  It still shocks me to see how one house can be completely destroyed while another just a few feet away remains unharmed.  We prayed for those in the area and continued home.  We arrived home after our long weekend and crashed before having to go to work in the morning.  It was a short weekend in time, but a long weekend in activity.

Out West

Lee and I went out west with his parents. The trip was wonderful.  We crammed several sites into less than a week.  Our journey took us from Denver,CO to Grand Junction,CO to Cortez,CO to Page,AZ to Bryce Canyon City, UT and finally to Las Vegas, NV.

In the span of six days we went from snowing mountains, to canyons and overlooks, to the famous lights and shows of Las Vegas.  This trip deserved a blog of its own - so it got one.  Check it out at: http://www.alysiagoeswest.blogspot.com/

Raccoon Mountain Caving

As a young adult event, Lee and I planned a caving trip.  Originally, there was going to be ten of us, but due to the instability of college kids there was just five.  We met at the church early in the morning to drive to Raccoon Mountain in Chattanooga.

Once we arrived at our caving area, we paid and got our gear on.  We made sure to pick a cave that would be a little more adventurous than walking on a nice paved path the whole time. Many of our previous trips have been that way and it was less than exciting.

We met our guide and headed down the path to the cave.  The cave started out open with handrails and lights, but we quickly went off the beaten path.  It didn't seem bad at all in the beginning, it was actually really fun.

Then we got to the first tight spot.  Goodness, I started crawling through and got in the tight spot and almost started panicking.  It was a long crawl and I couldn't see the opening.  Tiffany was in the same situation I was and started panicking a little as well.

As a leader of the group, her panicking helped me calm down as I calmed her down.  We worked our way through and made it out the other side.  Our tour guide was pretty awesome.  Instead of being really strict, he pretty much took us wherever we felt like going.  One of our favorite spots was where we were basically sliding down a really steep spot that had a small creek flowing below.  As we were climbing down, our guide told us "Don't step in the water, I want to show you something."  The words were barely out of his mouth when we all hear "Splash! Splash! Splash!". Nick slipped and splashed all through the water.  It stirred up all the mid and we missed the creature our guide was going to point out.  We were all like "Thanks, Nick....".  But, it's okay. It was a really tough spot to get down and he was the first to go.

Our guide told us about a spot called the "birth canal" and asked if we wanted to go.  I was not thrilled with the idea of that, but everyone else wanted to go and I didn't want to be alone so I went along.  That name was definitely fitting.  Tiffany and I went first.  It was a long, extremely narrow spot we had to climb through.

The thing was, I couldn't crawl at all.  I just had to lift myself up on my toes and pull myself forward with my hands.  There wasn't enough room to actually crawl.  I couldn't even lift my head up to look forward because there wasn't enough room for that with the helmet.

The aggravating thing with that was that some of the guys were too big to get through and had to go around.  I could have gone around!  The next place we encountered was the 10 cent squeeze.  It was a small hole that had a turn at the bottom.  You couldn't go straight through.

That was a rough spot because you had to put one arm straight forward and push with the other arm.  Lee tried to get through this one - his shoulders were too broad.  He had to go around this one as well.

We had to climb around all over the place, but our last "attraction" was a slide.  It was scary from the top, but it was fun going down.  The guide caught our feet as we got to the bottom so we didn't keep going right off the edge.  We all went down pretty smoothly except Adam.  I don't know what he was doing, but he flew down that slide.  It was hilarious.  He was fine, and we found our way back to the group path and headed out.  It was a long trip and we ended up being completely covered in mud, but it was lots of fun.  We made our way to the bathrooms to change and wash off some and went to find some food.  We found a Thai place in Chattanooga and Adam of course go the spiciest level offered.  I believe this is the only Thai place that has beat Adam with spiciness.  He couldn't finish his meal.  He still wants to go back to conquer it.  We were worn out and headed back to the church.  It was a quiet trip back.  I'd highly recommend the trip, but I probably won't go again.  Those tight crawls were a bit much for me.  Overall, I really enjoyed it and I'm glad we went.

Beautiful Oregon

Seals on the beach in Lincoln City

Lee and I got back from our Oregon vacation a few months ago. It was wonderful!  The trip out there was long and I was surprised at how hard the jet lag hit me.  It's only a two hour time difference, but it threw me off completely.

Glass Blowing

We started our vacation in Lincoln City on the beach.  The beach was much different than any beach I've been on.  The beach was covered in washed up trees.  There were several spots where people had set up campfires with the logs that has washed up. Also, there were seals on the beach!

While we were at the beach, Adam and Lee decided to jump in.  After all, you can't visit the west coast and not swim in the Pacific.  I didn't.  That water is freezing!  On our way back from the beach, Adam and Lee tried to warm up and we took our time looking at the small, local shops.  

When we got back, we had dinner and hung out in Aunt Sis's cool backyard.  It's awesomely decorated in a luau theme.  We had smores and played horseshoes and then headed to bed.  The next morning we got ready and went to the art studio to blow glass.  I knew a glass-blowing major in college and I thought it was really neat.

Glass blowing was an interesting experience. Margot volunteered to go first.  While heating and turning her glass, she dropped a big blob.  We learned pretty quick that it's extremely important to keep turning the glass.  When it was my turn, I chose red and creme as my colors.  The heat was intense.  I burnt my fingers at one point and we had to put my pole under water to cool it down.  It was a pretty neat thing to try out.  We left our glass floats at the studio to cool.  The rest of the day was spent heading to Newport and hitting a few stops along the way.

The views of the coast were breathtaking.  It was really awesome to see a different type of beach.  While at the Devil's Punchbowl, we saw several squirrels running around.  There were peanut shells all over the ground, so Adam picked one up.  A squirrel came running up to get it.  He was disappointed when Adam just gave him the shell.  We wanted to play with the squirrels some more, but we didn't have any food and we wanted to make it to Newport before dark.  

We kept on our way to Newport and made it with plenty of daylight left.  We parked next to the pier and stopped to take pictures of all the boats.  We walked along the sidewalk and tried to cover our noses as we passed all the fish in the big bins.  Also, we had to try to not step in the flowing fish-nastiness water. The whole time we were walking, we could hear seals making all kinds of noise.  We walked out on the dock and saw the platforms below that the seals had swam up on. 

Apparently these seals just lay around all day on those docks and people just walk around and take pictures.  Seals always seemed cute in pictures and videos.  They were actually pretty gross in real life.  They were really neat to see, but I probably wouldn't hang out with them everyday.

We walked around the small town some more and visited the small, local shops. The shops were cute.  We took our time looking around, but didn't take too long.  These small shops didn't stay open very late.  We made it to the end of the small strip of town and Lee got to take pictures of the bridge.  He got to take pictures and he also got to drive over the bridge soon after.  We headed back to Aunt Sis's to crash for the night.  We planned our next day and then went to bed.

Because Lee and Adam wanted to hike and see some wildlife, Aunt Sis told us a place to go.  She said just around the corner on the beach, there was a place to climb on rocks and see creatures.  So we headed out to find the rocks and creatures.

The rocks that were just around the corner ended up being two miles away.  Two miles isn't bad.  Two miles in the sand is.  We finally got to the rocks and there was a big creek to jump over.  I was nervous about jumping, so I was handing my camera to Lee and it dropped right in the water.  We took the battery and memory card out and tried to dry it as much as possible.

It was very sad.  We climbed around on the rocks, and it was pretty cool.  We saw starfish, anemones, and muscles.  If you touched the muscles, they spit at you.  The starfish were not nearly as easy to pick up as I thought (they were pretty firmly stuck), and the anemones closed tightly if you touched them.  I'm sure I was acting like a little kid exploring, but it was fun.  After we were thoroughly satisfied with our exploration, we headed back.

  Other fun things while in Lincoln City included eating Thai and walking the streets to check out the local shops.  Adam's goal was to find some good taffy, and he found plenty.  It was a nice, little city.  We headed to Oregon City to hang out with the rest of the family.  We had fun with the family and our first big event in Oregon City followed the next morning. I'm upset I don't have any pictures from this event, but I didn't have a waterproof camera.  My family has their own rafts, so we went down to the Clackamus River and rafted.  

It was a really beautiful river - as I'm sure most of the rivers in Oregon are.  The whole group of us headed down the river, paddled through a few rough spots, and stopped to swim.  I enjoyed getting to do something fun like that with family I hadn't spent time with in a really long time.  After packing up, we headed out to get food.  We were starving after spending 4 hours on the water.  We stopped at a little place that had great burgers and a really neat atmosphere.The next morning we decided to go up to Mount Hood.  On the way up, we stopped at an alpine slide.  It was actually really hot that day.

We tried to stay in the shade while a few in our group went to ride the slide.  My family was getting a kick out of the place because they hadn't seen it without snow.  Our next stop was a lake - Trillium Lake.  The lake was beautiful.  As it was the only hot week of the year, the lake was packed with people.  We actually weren't going to be allowed in because there were no more parking spots, but we talked the people into just letting us drive back to see it.  There were tons of people scattered across the lake in small rafts.  I could have spent all day there - I love the water. Our last stop was the Timberline lodge - popularly known as the hotel where "The Shining" was filmed.  

It's really interesting though, the lodge looks like the one from the movie from the outside, but the inside is completely different.  In the movie, it's big and open.  In real life, it looks more like a lodge - all logs.  It was wonderful on the inside. I wouldn't mind staying there at all. It really was a timberline lodge, too.  The trees just stopped at that level.  Once we were done touring the place, we headed back down to get something to eat.  We stopped at a little place called Skyway.  I saw barbecue on the menu and it sounded really good, so I ordered it.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I should have known not to order barbecue from somewhere that wasn't in the south.  It was terrible!  I definitely won't do that again.  That was the last big day of our trip.  We played games with the family.  It was fun because I definitely come from a creative family.  The next morning, mom showed us where she grew up before she took us to the airport.  I could put a picture to the stories now.  The flight back was long of course and we were ready to crash when we got back around midnight.  Overall, it was a really fun trip and I'm really glad I got to spend time with my family.  I only wish the trip would have been longer!