• West Coast Trip Day 5 - San Francisco to Eureka, CA - Golden Gate Bridge - Wine Country - Redwoods
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    West Coast Trip:Day 5

    March 4, 2017 - By 

    On Day 5 of our West Coast trip, we checked out of our hotel and head towards the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove over it and then stopped for some photos. It was a chili, foggy day. We drove through Wine Country and stopped at a couple different wineries. The first one was Milano Family Winery. The lady there was friendly and educated us a bit on a few of their wines. We tasted a couple and ended up buying a bottle of Big A$$ Blonde, which is a white wine with fruity undertones. We paid around $15, I believe.…

  • Carnival Paradise {5 Day Western} Christmas Cruise
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    Carnival Paradise {5 Day Western} Christmas Cruise

    January 14, 2017 - By 

    Embarkation Day We spent the weekend before Christmas in Spring Hill, FL visiting with Rob’s Gramma, Grampa, Mom, and others. We celebrated Gramma McMahon’s birthday that Sunday. Then, on Monday we loaded up and headed down to the Tampa Cruise port. We always arrive at the port around 11am. Even though the cruise documents say you start checking in at 1pm that’s not true. Here’s everyone walking from the long-term garage to the cruise port and then Drew and Caitlyn after we checked in and were waiting for our group to be called so we could board the Carnival Paradise.…

  • Visit 5 Rivers #StayAlBeaches
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    Visit 5 Rivers #StayAlBeaches

    October 4, 2016 - By 

    I love sharing my travels with you even though I am so far behind. Today I’m looking back at when my family was in Daphne for my younger son’s soccer tournament. The Saturday we were there we didn’t have a game until that afternoon, so we had a decent block of time that we could do something fun. Rob had hard about 5 Rivers Delta Safari so we decided to check it out. While we were there we… strolled along the paths while enjoying the peacefulness and watching birds and learning about the trees that grow in that area. We…

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    Winter Gatlinburg Trip

    December 5, 2015 - By 

    Last year was the first Annual Ski Trip for our Boy Scout (and family can come too so we get the group rate) trip. You can read about that trip here: —Boy Scout Ski Trip 2014::Gatlinburg, TN {Day 1 & 2} —Boy Scout Ski Trip 2014::Gatlinburg, TN {Day 3 & 4} This year the boys wanted to do it again. We ended up at the Days Inn again. It’s not the nicest of places, in fact some of the parents opted to stay somewhere else this year. We like it for the price and the location. It’s in the same…

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    Clearwater Beach

    December 2, 2015 - By 

    Over Labor Day weekend, we went down to Spring Hill to visits Rob’s grandparents. One of the days we all piled in the car and drove down to Clearwater Beach. Rob and Drew hung out there at Spring Break when they went down for Baseball’s Spring training, so Rob knew the perfect spot to park Pier 60 at Clearwater Beach is a great location to park and costs $3.00/hour. We enjoyed a few hours on the beach before packing up and finding a place to eat. I spot a mermaid! Lots of building going on. A good amount of folks…

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    Afternoon in South Beach

    August 21, 2015 - By 

    After leaving Marathon, Florida, we drove through Miami over to South Beach. We stopped in at University of Miami in Coral Gables. Such a pretty entrance into campus. We made a quick stop at Marlin’s Park too. I was so excited to drive near the cruise ships at Port Miami. This is one point of many during the trip when Rob and I were talking about the surrounding areas, “Kids, see the cruise ships out there?” Silence….all three of them staring at their phones or game devices. We drove around for a good 30 minutes looking for parking. There was…

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    DeSoto State Park Hike

    August 19, 2015 - By 

    During our time in North Georgia, we actually ventured back over to our home state of Alabama. We had spent the morning not to far from the Georgia-Alabama border at Cloudland Canyon State Park. We had planned to be out all day, so we had packed a picnic lunch. We ended up at DeSoto State Park, which is on Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne. It covers 3,000 acres of forests, rivers, waterfalls, and mountainous terrain. The picnic area overlooks the A.A. Miller Dam. We stuffed our faces with fresh cut cold cut sandwiches, chips, cookies, and Gatorades. Our lunch entertainment…

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    Fun times in the North Georgia Mountains

    July 26, 2012 - By 

    Sunday we headed out to the Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area to see petroglyphs made by Native Americans. Most of them were so weather-warn you could hardly make out the shapes, but I just stood there closed my eyes and imagined the Natives pounding away at the rocks to make those carvings. Amazing! We left there and drove over to the John C. Campbell Folk School, which is a school that allows a non-competitive, adult learning community offering classes in art, cooking, craft, dance, gardening, music, etc. that vary in length.

  • Fun day in the Georgia Mountains - Blairsville, GA
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    Another fun day in the Georgia Mountains

    July 25, 2012 - By 

    Saturday was kind of a lazy day, much to Rob’s chagrin. He and my FIL, David, ended up going to the store for steaks and also to check out a couple spots. After they got back we ate lunch and decided to go tubing at Pappy’s. Every time we left the cabin, we passed this place and it piqued our curiosity. It was like $6 for an hour of tubing, but it ended up being nearly 2 hours on the river. Really great for the money! Then, when we got done tubing we walked around Pappy’s. There’s a general store…

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    Fishing, Young Harris, and Lake Chatuge

    July 24, 2012 - By 

    Friday we got up, had a quick breakfast, and headed out to see if we could get any fish to bite. Since we needed to find out a good place to fish and get some bait, so we stopped at Paradise Bait and Tackle. We saw signs for it as we drove toward the river. Turned out to be a little building on someone’s property. My MIL had to use to restroom, so the man called up his Mama and asked, “are you dressed? cuz I gots a young lady customer who needs to use the facilities.” There were several…

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    Helton Creek Falls/Dukes Creek Falls

    July 23, 2012 - By 

    Day 2 started with some homemade waffles and jambalaya quiche and some web surfing while surrounded in the beauty of the mountains. Soon after, we threw on our swimsuits and hiking boots and headed to Helton Creek Falls Daisy usually travels in a travel crate, but with 8 people in the Pilot, there’s was no room for her crate. All the pics shown on this post are of the upper falls at Helton Creek. On the way back to the cabin for lunch. Quick dip in the hottub. After lunch, several of us decided to hike at Dukes Creek Falls.…