The South - Conclusion

Hi Y'all!

I still get tickled listening to Southern accents...

Please believe I mean no disrespect when I say this...

but it's hard to take them seriously!

It sounds to me like someone trying to be funny and I laugh...

To be clear I'm not talking about a soft southern drawl...

I'm talking about the hard, loud, twangy, exaggerated accent...

Cracks me up every time!

Last night Jeff and I were in The Pearl District of downtown PDX eating dinner outside when a woman walked by twanging away...

Pretty sure she was from Texas though...

It was a great trip here are some more pictures...

While I'm not a fan of the actual flying...

I love the results

I also think the view is pretty cool!

I'm also becoming a little less enthusiastic about roller coasters...

Is this an age thing?

I was walking my dog yesterday morning thinking about life realizing in a couple weeks I will be 44....

Does that mean I can't consider myself in my early 40s any more

am I now in my MID40s?

UGGGGG!!!!

Darrel and Connie have the COOLEST coffee table! Normally it doesn't have any pennys on it...

Since the time Joshua was old enough to play with pennys and not swallow them...

Aunt Connie and Uncle Darrel have always had a large jar of pennys and he has always loved to play with them.  Usually making long complicated designs on the floor...

This time he did something different...

Pretty cool!

Poor Darrel and Connie have lost their clock!

Our last morning in Nashville Jeff's aunt and uncle took us out to breakfast here...

Please notice the name...

Pancake House....

They ALSO serve waffles!

And yes that is the line we waited in! It went halfway down the block!

Unlike the Waffle House where you can only have waffles! ;) But there was no waiting! Probably because people don't take long with the menu because its waffles baby!



This picture is for Connie... :)

 This is a remarkable picture for the simple reason that Tyler NEVER sleeps during the day! Not since his car seat days has he fallen asleep in a car! And we have taken some LONG car trips over the years!

Josh on the other hand falls asleep when he's in the car for longer than 10 min :)

Surrender! Making Civil War history more fun :)



 Musicians on the streets of Nashville...

The girl with the spoons was amazing!

Never really heard the guy with the wash basin, stick and string...

I think he was just here for looks...

Ice Cream....Lots and lots of ice cream!

 Stayed up until 2 am the night before we left to finish this puzzle!

An extremely rare moment caught on camera!

A spontaneous hug from our youngest!

A sight rarely seen...

I suspect it was his belly full of pancakes that moved him to such action!



Enthusiasm waining... :) That's MLK Jrs home church in the background...

It's always good to return home...

But its wonderful to know we still have a home in Georgia anytime we want it :)

Frychik

The South - Part III - Animals

So we can't go to Paradise Ranch without spending time with all the animals...

These guys actually live at the Chattanooga Aquarium...but I like the way he was giving her the tongue so I took a picture :)

These two are ring tailed Lemurs.  I don't remember they guy above name but below is "Dropsy" Her tongue is permanently hanging out due to an unfortunate dental surgery accident...which makes me think twice about signing any medical releases in the future...

 Gonzo the Parrot thinks he is an eagle and has major attitude...His color photographs really well so I was happy to shoot him but I didn't want to get anywhere near that beak!

 This is Lucy an African Porcupine...she is also grouchy but she was busy munching her apple so I climbed in the cage with her and took some pictures...

Gizmo is a Kinkagew he likes fig newtons and is happt to ham it up for the camera....

Nakena the Siberian Lynx...she is VERY grouchy...the gate is open and I am shooting through a crack that is about 6 inches wide...moments after this shot she decided to get up and try to rip my face off...I was thankful that I had enough clarity to put my camera down and close the gate...

 Tyler talking to Sydney...the one that got a hold of me...

 In all honesty my favorite critters on the farm are the horses...every time I would show up in the field they would mosey over and stick their noses on my camera, knock over my tripod and generally make themselves comfortable with equipment :)

 They are big and gental and their noses are soft and the make lovely noises and I like them so much more than monkeys...

It is VERY difficult to take photos of monkeys....they NEVER hold still!

 So to recap....I prefer horses (even ones with odd blue eyes) to apes!

Golden Retrievers are pretty cool too! Hod me Josh!

This is Muffasa...Tyler loves every animal he meets...

Have a happy day!

Frychik

The South - Part II

When we decided to go to Georgia/Tenn. in August for vacation many people asked WHY? Not just because the were curious but because they are well aware of how UNBELIEVABLY HOT it is in the South in the summer...ESPECIALLY IN AUGUST!

Of course having lived there we were well aware of how HOT it would be...

The simple answer is UNBELIEVABLE FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!

We love them so much and they only rarely venture out this way and we hadn't been back for many years so we decided to be brave pack our swim suits and head south...

This is Tina, Connie and I...we have fun! Last time Tina and I saw each other we were mothers of toddlers...

It was so great to get the kids back together again! They played hours and hours together when they were too small to remember so they were a bit shy at first but eventually warmed up to each other... 

 

Darrel and Connie hosted us in their lovely home for 6 days! The provided amazing meals, comfy accommodations and the warmest most loving friendship you can imagine...Yes, I love them!

We fell into a lovely group of 5 couples when we lived in Georgia...We are missing one in this picture they have moved away as well....It was great to reunite hug old friends and meet new ones....

If I have one complaint about Connie she spoils my kids ROTTEN! They know she will do ANYTHING for them...making adjusting back to reality a bit of a challenge! ;)

Darrel is Jeff's best buddy! They crack each other up, which amuses Connie and I to no end...

It looks like Connie and I are snuggling in this picture, the truth is sometimes shes not real cooperative about having her picture taken...I am forcing her to pose :) And isn't it a GREAT picture! Your welcome Connie!



Once we got up to Nashville I spent more time photographing animals and didn't really get any pictures of our family! The only shot of Uncle Brent I have is when he kicked me out of the gator to stand in the copperhead infested creek so he could drive like a maniac towards me while I took pictures...

And this is Aunt Sharolyn....she will never read this because computers are foreign to her and she spends entirely too much time scooping poop and feeding animals to read such things...But I love her and her energy is amazing and inspiring!


So in conclusion...yes it was HOT but the people made it TOTALLY worth it!


Frychik

PS - I will not be going back in August! 
PSS - EVER!

The South - Part 1

It always happens...vacations end...and I am left with pictures and memories...

We had a fabulous time with our friends!

We love them so much and it was fantastic to spend some quality unhurried time together...but I will save that for another post.

Today its about what I learned or was reminded of in my trip back South...

 This is Waffle House...it is a truly Southern experience! The waitresses are lovely and have the most pronounced Southern drawls and every other word is "Baby" as in "want some syrup with that baby?" or in my case when I committed a major fopa (how do you spell that?) by ordering pancakes..."how 'bout a waffle baby?" Who knew you could only order waffles at the waffle house...

Yes, I made everyone go out of their way and drive to "the Pig" so I could take this picture it still makes me laugh that they have a grocery store with this name!
History lesson - Safeway and Piggly Wiggly were the first grocery store chains in American!

 Our Golden is not the only needy Golden! This is AddieMae and there was some thunder and she needed some comforting...

 My first classroom! It was fun to go back I haven't been in that room since 1995 when we left Calhoun...it seemed smaller but I had good memories there!

It rains in Georgia (and Tenn) in the summer!  Several of my friends made comments about the rain out where I live...I'm telling you I will take our rain over that HORRENDOUS HEAT any day of the week! More on that later...

 One advantage to the heat...you can grow these babies! We had a pool party and were served fresh from the garden watermelon! Fantastic!

 You can't see this well but the South has the longest escalators ever...this picture reminds me of two things...1. Don't let you son ride backwards up an escalator unless you don't value the toenail of your big toe...2. I collected several small but painful injuries on this vacation...

My first injury was on a hike our first morning.  I fell...don't know why... I was going down hill it was sudden, I was on the ground before I knew I was in any danger (perhaps I was too focused on looking for snakes)...I received a significant bruise on my knee but more concerning was the small cut on my knee...my first thought "I'm gonna get that flesh eating disease they get in Georgia..." 

I believe that if I had a pool while living in the South I would have been much happier! We had several pool parties while there (everyone has one!) The boys spent countless hours chasing the torpedo under water, jumping off diving boards and just having fun.  Water is the only way to survive outside....

 


Final lesson - dont get too close to monkeys...So besides the fall and the toenail incident I also had a much too close encounter with "Sydney" I was asked to photography Sydney and wanting to establish myself as a fearless photographer I said yes...
But to be clear monkeys scare the baggesies out of me! ~ even more so now....

This is what happens when you get too close...you can't see the full extent... on the other side of my arm is more bruising...she reached out and got a hold of my arm...it hurt so bad I was sure it was her teeth and I was trying not to freak out, which would make things worse... I turned my face away (the always go for the face) and just pulled my arm...fortunately she was on a leash and between the two of us we were able to get her away from me without too much damage but it was terrifying! 

So between my injuries and sweating to death...we managed to have a great time! Stay tuned for part 2!

Frychik