Gatlinburg, TN

I think Jamie and I have already written quite a bit about our time in Gatlinburg, but here are some more photos and maybe a little more info.

We set out from Fairfax at about 3:45 pm. MUCH later than we had intended. But it was kind of worth it because we got to have lunch with Andrew...and his help loading our car up with everything we needed for 2 weeks of roadtrip!

Here we are riding along. This was how we looked a lot of the time. :)

The road in Virginia. As you look through these pictures check out the different landscapes we travelled through. I actually think its kind of cool to look at.

A storm that I'm sure was more beautiful in person, but still looks cool as taken through the windshield.

The hotel where we stayed in Gatlinburg. I have to admit that we actually never took advantage of that super sweet slide.

The morning after we arrived in Gatlinburg. My whole family gathered on the porch and Oma and Opa presented us with copies of their (abridged) life stories. Fascinating stuff. I'm so glad we have it! (L-R) Stan, Jon, Francis, Oma, Peter, Matthew

Matthew, Theresa, Zachary, Michael, Opa, Christopher

After chatting with my grandparents on the porch for a while, Jamie and I took a walk down the street to see where his family had vacationed when he was younger. This is the creek he remember playing in. :)

That afternoon the two of us drove around. We found this in a parking lot of a church nearby.

And this up the mountain a couple miles. (Maybe like 30-40 miles of road.)

And when we drove down one road we found this spot. We stopped (in the middle of the deserted road), opened the windows, and there was absolute silence. It was amazing.

The next day we walked around downtown Gatlinburg (pretty tacky) and found this wonderful poster.

And this store that reminded me of Julianna.

Then we went go-carting that night. This is Stan, Bobbi (my cousin), Jon and me.

This is Bobbi, Stan, and Jon getting ready to start.

After go-carting on at least 3 different tracks at least 4 times (altogether, not per track), we headed home and made quesadillas for pretty much all the adults. (They were all up even though it was like midnight.)

The next day was our day to leave. I was sad. We sat and chatted with everyone. Francis made the rounds giving shoulder rubs.

Johnny built a card tower which Jamie photographed while I was out grocery shopping with Oma, Jody, Mom and Jessica.

Jamie and I finally left around lunchtime on Wednesday. We stopped by the creek again.

And then headed out along the back roads to find I-40. Those back roads were cool. One of the major things that fascinated me was the crazy good infrastructure in this country. Look at these power lines heading out into the forest. I can't imagine getting power to all these backwoods places. Jamie and I were trying to figure out whether they were put in during Roosevelt's presidency. Of course, we didn't get far in that discussion without the help of wikipedia or google.

Savannah, GA

Well, I already wrote about our experience in Savannah. We loved it! But, unfortunately, I left the camera in the hotel room when we went out. Jamie has some videos of the performers on his cell phone, but I haven't figured out how to get a video from a cell phone to a blog quite yet.

Pembroke Pines, FL

On Monday we left Orlando and drove down to Pembroke Pines (a suburb of Miami, I think) to stay with Jamie's aunt and uncle and cousins. Jamie's grandma (we call her Nonnie) lives very nearby and his Aunt Paula and cousin Paul are staying with Nonnie. When we arrived, Matt and Sarah were there just long enough to take a picture of most of the grandkids and Nonnie. (But it was on Matt's camera, so I don't have it yet...but you can check for it on facebook!)

That evening we had a yummy meal made by Nonnie (it reminded me of Oma's cooking - delicious!) and dessert made by Aunt Paula. It was all delicious, especially the "crack sauce", so named because its so sugary that it supposedly gets you high (I think, that's why its named that anyway.)

Dinner with the family was amazingly fun. Then I went with Kelly to see where she lives with her husband Drew (he was gone for training) and Jamie stayed with Uncle Randy to watch the YouTube debate. Then, when all the "grown-ups" had gone to bed, we hooked up the Wii and had our first Wii experience. Here are Craig and Jamie playing baseball. I think Jamie is batting and Craig is pitching.

This is Craig and me boxing. That game is hard.

The next day Craig, Kelly, Jamie and I went to Las Olas, the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. We pretty much parked, walked to a restaurant for lunch, and then walked back to the car. But it was a great time of conversation and laughter...and the restaurant was fun. The tables and benches were all joined together and were like a giant table-wide swing. This is Kelly.

This is Craig.

This is me and Jamie and Florida palm tree. Patti, this is for you! :)

We drove back via Cold Stone Creamery, ate some yummy icecream, while chatting some more. Then we got back, hung out, played some more Wii...this time with Paul. He's a fun kid. :)

Then yummy dinner made by Aunt Paula and then a rousing game of Apples to Apples. Jamie said a little about that. This is (L-R) Aunt Mary, Paul, and Aunt Paula.

Craig, Uncle Randy, and Kelly.

Me, Craig, Uncle Randy, Kelly, Aunt Mary, Paul, and Aunt Paula.


The next morning (Wednesday) we left with a large bag of snacks from Aunt Mary (pumpkin muffins, brownies, oatmeal raisin cookies, YUM!) It was sad to say goodbye. I wish we lived closer to the family. They're such an amazing family and I felt such a connection with them. I felt like Kelly could have been one of my best friends from college or something. Honestly, I think its the God thing. They so clearly love the Lord, and I love that!


That day was our longest day of driving. We drove all the way from Miami area to Rocky Mount, NC in just about 12 hours. Well, actually Jamie drove all that way. But it was probably one of my favorite days. (Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, although I can't say they would have been very interesting.) We talked for a long time, listened to music, sang along, listened to 2 sermons (both excellent) and talked about what we thought about them, and just in general had a good long together time.


The only bad part was the bathrooms along the way. Ew, ew, ew. I hate public restrooms. We stopped twice. The second time we stopped I went to use the restroom in the gas station and it was crowded with people so you could barely move. I decided I could use the KFC next door. Walked in there to find it literally overflowing with, um, dirty water. Ugh. Make me barf. :-P So we went across the street to the McDonalds where the floor was covered with water. Hopefully from the sink, but I'm doubtful. I gave up, walked gingerly through it, and used it. Then I tried to wash my hands, but there weren't even any paper towels to dry my hands - and no napkins in the restaurant. I came out pretty traumatized to Jamie waiting in the car and immediately took my flip-flops off and put them in the back seat. He, being the hero he is, promptly got our germ-x hand sanitizer from the trunk, let me drench my hands in it, and then used a couple napkins from the car to clean my shoes with it. That made me feel a bit better.


When we finally got to the hotel (around 9:30 pm) we checked in (finding that the toilet seat in our bathroom was up and not completely clean - ew again! - but it got us the room for free that night thanks to Jamie's negotiation skills...) and then went immediately out to the Outback across the street. It was Jamie's reward for driving so far. And it was great to relax together after a really very good day (except the grossness). Ahhh.

Corolla, NC

I've decided to post blogs about our trip starting with the last thing we did so that, as you scroll down the page, you get it in chronological order.

We left Rocky Mount, NC and drove along beautiful roads.

Beautiful bridges between islands in the Outer Banks on the way to Corolla.

After we checked in, we spent an hour or so on the beach,

then went to the grocery store. We picked up microwavable food and some salad and ate out on our balcony. It was almost like eating breakfast on the balcony on our honeymoon. Only not as yummy and not as pretty. But still wonderful.

We took some pictures by the boardwalk. And we played mini-golf in town. Jamie won by like 23 points. Or maybe I won. I had more points.

Next day, we spent the day on the beach. and got sunburnt even though we wore a lot of sunscreen.


That night we decided we wanted to see a movie, so we went looking for the "stadium seating" movie theatre. Ha. Google maps is on crack in the outer banks. This is where we ended up, following their directions:



See how crazy green that pond behind the trees is?


We finally found the theatre, bought tickets and then got dinner at a nearby place called Mako Mike's. Oh man, I got this herb crusted chicken which had a white sauce on it. I hadn't had a meal that yummy at a restaurant in a very long time. And then we went to see the late show of Harry Potter. Definitely a fun movie. Not for kids, but also not evil. Jamie and I walk out of movies, and there weren't any walk out moments that we could see. :)


Next day spent on the beach again. That's the view with our back to the beach, facing the hotel.)

A little after lunch, a storm brought thunder and lightning over the ocean and cleared out most of the people on the beach, but it ended up not touching the beach. It was just very cool to watch the clouds and lightning over the ocean.

Oh, and there's a crab. Can you see its camoflauged self?


That afternoon (after the storm) we rented boogie boards and tried to "catch some waves". It was a super-fun time, even if I did get flipped by the waves a couple times and start to wonder which was was up (follow the bubbles right?)

After cleaning the sand off, we took more pictures.

And then headed out to a really nice (but not super outrageously expensive) restaurant that Jamie had found online. It was pretty yummy too...and VERY fancy. (Like leather couches to sit on while you waited and bread and oil so good you'd never believe it...oh, and my meal was salmon with a truffle honey glaze. TRUFFLES!)

We took more pictures of the beach at night.

Then the next morning we left for home. The traffic was completely awful the entire way. And I was sad to be leaving days where I got to spend all my time with Jamie.

It wasn't a great last leg of the trip. But then, to unlock the door to our apartment...oh, it smelled like home and it felt like home and the bathrooms were CLEAN and it felt exciting like when we first walked around our apartment and realized that this is where we would live and set up house. And, even though I wish we could spend all our days together, its good to be HOME!