Happy 25th to Us!

"Holy cow, Batman!  Did we just do that?!"

Here are a few of my memories of that day:

• I actually went to the temple and got married on June 28th as planned.  I was afraid I'd chicken out so we mailed out the "hey, we got married" announcements AFTER the ceremony.
• In the interview before we got sealed, the interviewer told us things we didn't know: we were born in the same hospital and we went to the temple for the first time (Los Angeles) one day apart - preparing to serve our missions.
• We were originally married in the San Diego, CaliFROnia Temple.  Now our certificate just says boring CaliFORnia because my eagle teacher eye saw the error as soon as they gave us the marriage certificate.
• By this point (age 34 and 51 weeks), I didn't want the big wedding dress that I had dreamed of for so many years and opted for a simple and practical $70 cream suit - that I wore afterwards on Sundays.
• We quasi-eloped and only had a few family members and one friend at the ceremony.  I didn't want a bunch of people staring at me during this very intimate occasion.
• Only a few people in our single's congregation knew that we were getting married so we surprised Robbie when we ran into him in the temple and I nervously and quickly covered up my "to be married" tag.  Very few of our friends even knew we were dating, let alone getting married, so it was funny to find a date invitation on my message machine on the eve before our wedding day.  Needless to say, I did not return the call.
• Most of the ceremony itself is a blur, but I do remember lots of tears of happiness - lots of smiles and eternal commitments.
• We didn't book a professional photographer and relied on family shots.  We took a gazillion photos all around the temple after the ceremony.  Later at the Del, Photographer #1 realized that there was no film in the camera.  We said, "no worries", Photographer #2 will have some good shots.  After returning home, Photographer #2 also realized there was no film in the camera.  Fortunately, Photographer #3 took enough to remind us of our day.  I guess Photographer #3 was trying out his creativity and this is why we have the "up our nasal" shots (above) and other interesting angles.  We are grateful for whatever pictures we have and it makes for an unbelievable story!
• We had lunch with our nuclear families at the Hotel Del in the Crown Room.  I can't remember what we ate, but it was a nice time.  Much of our dating memories are of us walking through the Del and on the beach near the Del.  The official proposal also happened at the Del.  What a great place for a romance!
• We all said our good-byes and my brother dropped us off at the Coronado Village Inn.  I still can't believe we didn't stay at the Del - it was peak season and too expensive, I guess.
• The next day we took a cab to the airport and headed off for a 2-week honeymoon in Hawaii.
• Aloha!

2017 Moon Pie Festival in Bell Buckle, TN

Howard and I finally went to the Moon Pie Festival after talking about it ever since we moved here almost seven years ago!  The one-hour drive to and from the festival was worth it in and of itself.  We drove through farmland and quaint little towns with everything from dilapidated barns and trailer homes to beautifully restored homes that are at least a century old.  Interestingly, we've noticed that in TN the lawns are always well manicured no matter what the condition of the home is.

We lucked out and got there right when the parade started.  Here are some highlights from the very brief parade.  We loved this old-time fire truck.  One of the riders threw something at us right as I was taking the picture.  It was a chocolate moon pie!  Yelling, I informed them that we needed another one.  (Howard and I aren't very good at sharing chocolate.)  We soon realized that everyone on the "floats" was tossing moon pies into the small crowds.  We scored five big ones and three mini ones.  Howard wanted me to put them in my purse so they would toss us more when they saw that we were empty handed.

Here's the moon pie girl with her moon pie sandwich board.

The one and only band and cheerleaders were from Cascade High School.

We gave a shout out to the trombone section of the marching band.  Howard and his buddy, Joe, used to play the trombone in high school.

There were several Shriners driving cool cars.  I accidentally took two-second videos of some of them instead of pictures.  Doh!

A lot of the locals took advantage of the tourist traffic (expected to be 20,000) and had yard sales.  I became obsessed over this tree at the only yard sale that we went to.  I must have one of these trees!  Does anyone know what kind it is?

So, I had to drink an RC Cola with my moon pies.  Apparently, that's a thing - a Southern thing.  A guy named Big Bill Lister even wrote a song about it.  He was known as "Radio's Tallest Singing Cowboy" measuring in with a height of 6' 7".

Speaking of big, did you know that the largest moon pie ever made weighed 55 pounds and contained 45,000 calories.  That would really blow a diet!  You can find out more about the history of the moon pie here.

We decided that we will go back to Bell Buckle when the moon pie festival is NOT happening.  There are a few antique malls and several cute specialty shops.  It was just too crowded too enjoy them.  I especially want to go back to eat at the Blue Buckle Café which has a 4.5/5 rating on tripadvisor.com.  We found out that today there was a 2.5-hour wait!  That's worse than the wait time in Boston's North End!

You must attend the Moon Pie Festival if you are ever in Nashville on the 3rd Saturday in June.  Put it on your calendar right now!

Good-bye 2014

This has been a fun year - with lots of ordinary happenings and lots of milestones.  Here are a few highlights.  Howard and I celebrated our 20th anniversary.  It hardly seems possible that we've been married that long.  Time seems to stand still when it's just the two of us.  There are no time markers for us, like growing children - just growing waistlines!  We celebrated by taking an epic Southern road trip.

I celebrated a speed limit birthday in July, and I'm not talking a residential speed limit.  I'm getting to the age where some people assume that I should get the senior discount.  Ugh!

We celebrated the epic 50th wedding anniversary of Howard's parents.  The whole clan stayed in a ginormous house in Heber, Utah - 6 couples and 14 grandchildren.  It was a once in a lifetime event for Howard's family.

The photographer got several decent pictures of us together.  Neither of us like pictures of ourselves so this was quite an accomplishment and an extra added bonus of the family reunion.

Savannah, GA

We continued our 20th Celebration Vacation in Savannah, GA.  We waited until the last minute to book a room and ended up staying at the Judge White Cottage, built in 1799.  It was a gamble, but we decided to go for it.

You start to wonder if you've made a good choice on your lodging when all the tour guides drive their vehicles right past the front door of the place you're going to stay for four nights, including the Hearse Ghost Tours!

Then you really start to wonder when your husband reads the guestbook the first night you're there and very casually mentions that one of the guests saw a ghost.  What!?  I vowed to NOT read that book until our last morning there.  I also refused to read the chapter on 'our' cottage in Savannah's Little Crooked Houses: If These Walls Could Talk until our last morning.

During our stay, I blamed any any unrecognizable sounds as 'old house' noises and any misplaced items on Howard (he'll find this out when he reads this).  By the way, as I write this post, Howard is playing primary songs.  It's an odd combination - pleasant children's music and creepy ghost stories.

On checkout morning, I finally read the guestbook.  This third entry gave me pause.  Why didn't Joe finish his Day 2 entry?  I want to know what happened to Joe!  By the way, there were many other guests who did NOT have close encounters of the third kind.  We didn't write anything in the book.  When in doubt, leave it out.

Our cottage, along with a few other historical cottages, was located on Greene Square - one of 22 squares in Savannah.  Homeless folks, rather than tourists, seemed to hang out in this square.  One day as we were walking only a few blocks from the cottage, a woman driving past us felt the need to stop to warn us that we were leaving the nice part of town.  We weren't just afraid of being inside the house!

This back room addition to the entire 734 square feet contained a kitchen and a bathroom.  The kitchen leaned a little so the fridge was on shims.  We had everything we needed to make a few meals 'at home'.  The water pressure was powerful in the very tiny, but updated shower.  Taking a shower in there was akin to being attacked with multiple blow darts, minus the poison.

The backyard patio of the cottage was a bit unkempt, but still quite charming.  It was too hot to ever sit at the cute little wrought iron patio table.  It would've induced an immediate hot flash!

Do these steps make my feet look big?  This is the ladder staircase up to the bedroom.

Fortunately, during our four nights I only had to make a few midnight bathroom trips downstairs.  My new little flashlight came in very handy.

These three interior photos come from our hosts' airbnb webpage.  This is exactly what it looked like.  It was extremely clean for a 200+ year old house.  This is our third airbnb adventure, and they have all been adventures!  But seriously, you have to stay at the Judge White Cottage at least once!

And one last random photo.  This one is for my dad, who was a professional mason in his younger years and who built or rebuilt every fireplace in all of our childhood homes.  This building was next to our cottage and was made of handmade bricks.

It is really hard for me to write short blog posts.  I get going and I can't stop myself.  Imagine, this post is just telling about where we stayed in one place!

Soaring Like an Eagle at Dollywood

When you live in Tennessee, you just have to go to Dollywood.  So we did, for three days in a row.  We're pretty spoiled by Disneyland, where we spent lots of time as kids and teens before we knew each other, and then later as a couple.  But, we enjoyed Dollywood, and it definitely has its own charm and character. 

Most of the big rides are roller coaster rides.  I'm not a big fan of roller coasters and amusement parks in general.  I'm especially terrified after my hand therapist told me many horror stories, the worst being the one about the young woman who had both of her feet severed by a malfunctioning ride in Kentucky.  True story.

Anyway, I made myself go on most of them for research sake.  Howard and his brother are working on a game app and we were collecting data on the rides.  Above is a shot of the Thunderhead roller coaster.  It's very rickety and throws you all around at speeds of up to 55 mph.  I really didn't like this one.  But I like this shot because it gives you a feel for how picturesque Dollywood is, nestled in the Smoky Mountains.  There are lots of wooded shady areas throughout the entire park.

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We were pretty close to getting on the Tennessee Tornado after about a 30-minute wait, when they informed us that the ride was closed due to lightning in the area.  I think it was a tender mercy.  I later learned that this thing goes up to 70 mph with a 128-foot drop and that it throws you all over the place.  After learning that, this ride went on my 'um, no thanks' list.

The Mystery Mine was my first-ever upside-down roller coaster ride.  I told you, I don't really like roller coasters.  But, I gathered up my courage and went for it.  It wasn't too bad.  It looks more upside down than it feels.  We even went on it twice - better for data gathering.

Here I am celebrating a successful landing after riding the Wild Eagle.  My heart was racing and my palms were sweating while waiting in the line for this 61-mph ride with four inversions.  It added to my stress that you have to store all your loose items, including shoes that might fly off during the ride.

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The very cool 'trains' are eagles and you get to sit on their wings.  Notice the dangling feet.  The worst part for me on this ride, and all rides like this, is the first drop after you climb slowly to the top of the sky!

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I can't believe that the very cautious, chicken-me rode this ride.  Twice.  You wouldn't have recognized me in line the second time.  I was telling all the petrified crying children (who were being forced by their parents to ride it so they could conquer their fears) that it wasn't so bad, that it was actually fun. 

Here's our failed attempt at making it look like I'm dangling from the claws of this very cool metal eagle sculpture near the Wild Eagle ride.

One of the calmer and more relaxing rides of the three days was the steam engine train ride up into the nearby Smoky Mountains.

Okay, it was relaxing for us, but not for our fireman.  He was shoveling coal during the entire 20-minute ride.  Of course I had to ask him important questions like:

1. How much coal does it take for one trip? (200 pounds)
2. Who does your laundry? (He does, but he has a second washer for coal-covered clothes only.)

There's a lot of focus on food at Dollywood, but we didn't eat there very often.  It's not very tempting to eat a big meal before riding a bunch of vomit-inducing rides.  They serve up 12-pound 30" pizzas and 25-pound apple pies.  If you don't feel like eating the whole pie, you can buy a single slice that weighs only a little over 3 pounds!  

They have a bakery in an old mill where they grind their own grain and sell delicious smelling cinnamon rolls.  I'm proud to say that although we were tempted, we even passed those up.

There are also a lot of shows, similar to Branson, MO.  We went to a few of them.  We saw the Kingdom Heirs, a southern gospel quartet.  It wasn't the kind of gospel music we were hoping for, but we enjoyed it and we heard the lowest bass we've ever heard in our lives.  Howard said his lowest note was lower than the lowest note on a piano.  Now that is stinkin' low!

The quartet has changed over the years, but these are the four guys we heard.  Listen for the jaw-dropping low notes of the bass on the right.  Make sure you hear the last chord.  Remarkable!