Last Day of Vacation

Today was our relaxing day at the lodge. Okay, it wasn't exactly relaxing, but right now we're just on the computer and reading in front of the fireplace in the lobby. Not too shabby. Actually the highlight of the day was getting Dean to HIKE! He swears it wasn't hiking and we were just taking a walk. True, we were doing more walking than hiking (it was a paved road that led to the Fontana Dam), but you have to start somewhere. And it was absolutely beautiful!


We then made our way to the thriving metropolis of Sylva. It's the big town next to Cullowhee, home of Western Carolina University. And if you know us at all, you know that no trip is complete without a visit to a nearby college football stadium. So today we jumped out of the car to see the Western Carolina Catamount campus. Very cool. Sylva has a population of a whopping 2,500 people. It's actually a really cute little mountain town... we were big fans. We had an awesome dinner and made our way back to Fontana. Again, in the dark. But we're getting better at it.

Apparently Christian camps come up here to this resort to get away from everything and have their retreats. And why is it that a Christian camp is never complete without at least three guys playing guitar outside on their free time? Playing the EXACT SAME THING and singing slightly off-key with the token egg shaker guy. We heard this earlier today, left to go on our hike, came back about an hour and a half later, and they were still out there. Seriously?!? This guitar guy phenomenon is something that is experienced at every camp. And Fontana is no exception. It just makes me chuckle.

We're heading home tomorrow after an awesome trip. I've missed Tommy and can't wait to see him again (although I hope he doesn't wake up at 4 am for us like he did for his MeMe and BeBe this morning... sorry guys!). I'll check in later!

Holy Moly, We Just Drove Through Smokey Mountain Park in the Dark!

And we survived. Barely. Okay, no close calls, but picture steep mountains on one side, steep drop-offs on another, hairpin turns, pitch black, the possibility of ice, and truckers barrelling down your back. But Dean's a champ and drove through it splendidly!

We made the gorgeous drive through the Smokey Mountain National Park today and were just amazed at all the beauty. And all the people. And the tourist traps. On one side of the park is a "charming" little town called Cherokee (it's the closest thing to Fontana and it's 25 miles away). It's actually a Cherokee Indian Reservation and on the strip there's great shops with names like "The Wig Wam", "Tomohawk Tom", and "Moccasins". The funny thing is (besides the stereotypical names and people flocking from all over to go to these places) the people who work in these places have thick southern accents and blond hair and blue eyes. And Leona Lewis' "Keep Bleedin' Love" was playing in the background. It just seemed a little out of place. But fun.

Then we headed across the park to Gatlinburg, which is directly at the end of the park. I've never seen anything like it. It's like Branson meets mountain town, with about 15 Ripley's Believe it or Not museums and more candy shops than you can count. Oh yeah, and if you want to get an old time portrait made, you know the one where you look you're in a old western saloon, this is the place to do it. They're literally on every corner. But incredible food! We just walked the shops, had lunch at the Pancake Pantry, and strolled to The Peddler for dinner. Absolutely amazing dinner!! Then we made our white-knuckle drive back to Fontana.


Tomorrow's just a day for some R&R right here in the village. No phone service, just us and nature (Dean's beginning to panic a little). So far, it's a great trip!

I'm Baaaaack

It's been a while, friends, but Dean and I are back from our trip to Oklahoma. It was so much fun and the whole time we just couldn't believe that someone had paid for it for us! What an incredible gift, we are forever grateful!

Bedlam was awesome. For those of you who are confused (as I was about a month ago), Bedlam is the name of the Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State game. The two schools are intense rivals and the state literally revolves around this game every year. We decided to root for OSU and were disappointed (and cold) in the end, but what an incredible game!! Their fans are so into it, putting all of us FSU fans to shame. Their stadium was completely full and NO ONE sat down the ENTIRE game. Keep in mind that it never got above about 40 degrees and there was a windchill. Old people, young people, moms holding babies... everyone stands for the whole game. Everywhere else that's just the student section. As Dean observed, you get the feeling that every single person in Oklahoma decks out their house in either OU stuff or OKU stuff. Christmas trees donned in Orange or Red, driving around Sooner Schooners instead of pickup trucks, riding Bullet the horse to get around town... ok, well maybe not that intense.


We also took the day on Sunday to drive around Oklahoma City, going to the Cowboy Museum (which was really cool, by the way!) and taking a pilgrimage to Norman, the home of Oklahoma University, and apparently the college football capital of the world. I was a good wife and indulged Dean while he salivated over all the trophies, pictures, and other memorabilia.

We ate well too! On Saturday after we got there, we went to Brick Town, in downtown Oklahoma City. We ate at an incredible restaurant on Mickey Mantle Drive called Nonna's where I had the most amazing chicken pot pie. This was definitely not your grandma's pot pie! And the biggest highlight was my birthday dinner at Red Prime Steakhouse. Definitely worth the pricey bill.

So all in all, it was a great trip. We're still recovering and Dean's actually sick in bed this morning... a common occurrence after a trip. We're glad to be with Tommy again and he seems glad to see us too. It's good to be home!

Sicky

Company and fish. They both start to stink after 3 days. While I don't think we're stinky company (my parents have reassured me of that), Tommy's been sick and tired and so he's beginning to stink. But of course we still love him.

We've packed our days out down here. It's been fun and quite a trip down memory lane. Apparently my mom has saved everything we've ever done as kids and even gave Tommy one of the old McDonald's hats (think a way oldschool Burger King crown) that I used to have. Maybe I wore it? Not sure. But he loves it.

We've been wearing out our welcome at the duck park and I really showed my true colors this morning when we were feeding the rabid ducks. At least they seemed rabid to me. Then there were all these white stork looking things that kept following us. I do confess that at one point when they all started coming out of the water like a bad Alfred Hitchcock movie and running towards us, I threw the entire bag of bread crumbs and ran down the path. I may have knocked Tommy over in the process. So maybe I don't like big birds following me.

We also saw Iguanas. Since I've left here, South Florida has been overrun with them. They swim in my parents pool, run across the telephone wires (they have those down here), and lay in the grass sunning themselves. Gross. Tommy was scared at first but then decided he liked the "big yozards" (big lizards).

So tomorrow we're back on the road home at 7 am. I will have been up for a while by then. I'm tired thinking about it.

Our first full day in Fort Lauderdale. Tommy's been up since 6:15 (I heard "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?" all monotone, over and over again... it was kinda creepy) and he hasn't stopped moving since. After calling out every family member's name, almost all of us are awake (minus a certain someone he calls "Daddy").

Today it's off to Inserra field to take pictures by the sign and run around the bases (Tommy, not us). Then heading to the beach to play in the sand while trying to clear up his stuffy nose. And then lunch at my parents' new favorite spot on the beach, "Lulu's Bait Shack". Sounds so O.C., doesn't it?

I'm trying to get used to haveing a train go by the house again. This is the house I grew up in, but living in Tallahassee, I've forgotten all about the trains that go right next to the house (Random true story: before we moved here, there was a fugitive that was train hopping to escape and they found him so he ran away and wound up in our backyard. The helicopters were overhead and the police were outside telling the people who lived here to stay inside. Welcome to South Florida). We heard the train for the first time yesterday when we were almost here and had finally gotten him to go to sleep. We went over the train track and then the train whizzed by. It woke him up and he started to panic but Dean said, "That was Gordon, thundering by!" Now every time we hear it (roughly every 2 hours) he announces to everyone that Gordon is thundering by. So far, it's been a great trip.

We're Off!

There's a hustle and bustle around the Inserra house this morning. We're getting ready to drive to Fort Lauderdale in about 45 minutes to see my parents. I have the portable DVD player with 3 or 4 movies, some CD's and books on tape from the library, and lots of Sudoku (for me).

If all goes as planned, Tommy will get to go to the beach to play in the world's largest sandbox, and we'll go feed ducks at the Duck Park (affectionately named that by both Dean and I who used to go there as kids and neither of us knew each other... we didn't meet until we moved to Tallahassee at seperate times within the next 10 years. But that's a whole other story).

I'm sure I'll have stories and pictures, so stay tuned!