vacation

Halbachs Take the South, Part III – Time to Eat

/ Shane / 2 Comments

The second half of our trip was quite a bit different then the first half of the trip. The first half was rustic and the second half was urban, but more importantly, during the first half of the trip we cooked most of our own food, and during the second half of our trip we went out to eat at amazing restaurant after amazing restaurant.

Our first stop was in Asheville. Asheville is a really cool place, but sort of hard to describe. There are musicians on practically every street corner. There are tons of cool, unique shops and restaurants. If I had to sum it up in one catchy little phrase, it would be “buy local”. This is probably because most of them had a sign advising you to buy local (which is probably due to the opening of a large new Urban Outfitters). I have to agree with them though; you don’t get that awesome, unique vibe without that concentration of local shops, which are bound to be more interesting than chains.

It reminds me of a day a little further on in the trip, when we just got done eating a fantastic meal at a local eatery. We were driving back to our hotel, and we passed chain restaurant after chain restaurant, Applebees, TGIFridays, and Logan’s Steakhouse, each one packed fuller than the last. “Poor fools,” I thought. “Who would want to eat at one of those chain places when there are so many tasty and interesting places everywhere?”

Anyway, I digress. We bought our only souvenirs of the trip in Asheville; local honey, hand-dyed yarn, and some homemade soap. We even stayed in a non-chain hotel, which had a great location, but was a little on the shady side. It kind of seemed like there’s not much crime in Asheville, but what crime there is takes place at that hotel.

What we didn’t do in Asheville was go to the Biltmore estate. I actually really wanted to go to the Biltmore estate. First off, when I go somewhere, I like to go do the big thing of that place. The Biltmore estate is the biggest attraction in the Asheville area. Second off, it is billed as the American version of Versaille, which happened to be the very best part of our trip to France. So I thought, conceivably, it could have been the very best part part about our trip to North Carolina. However (and this is a big however), tickets to the Biltmore estate were going to run our family about $100! Just for comparison, tickets for Cedar Point would cost about $115 for our family. Are you really going to tell me that the Biltmore estate is roughly as much fun as Cedar Point?? “Hey kids, forget about roller coasters, look at this interesting architecture!”

Before I get into the restaurants, I just want to comment on something wonderful I discovered on the trip: the vegetable or side plate. Is this a southern thing? Basically, it just allows you to order some number of the side dishes on the menu (3, 5, 7). It worked out so well to order a bunch of side dishes and then dish them out to everyone and get to try everything. It’s like tapas or dim sum with delicious, Southern-made vegetables. Way better than ordering the chicken nugget kid’s meal.

Okay, so without further ado:

Tupelo Honey Cafe – The was the first, and perhaps only, meal that everyone was happy about (and by everyone, I mean Evie). Evie is pretty picky when it comes to food, and she mostly only wanted to eat french fries. However, even she couldn’t resist steaming hot biscuits with homemade blueberry jam, cheesy smashed cauliflower, and parmesan corn on the cob (okay, we also had sweet potato fries). This was the first place we went to in Asheville, and it was very difficult to not go back again.


The Green Sage – We happened to walk by this place the night before, so we gave it a chance for breakfast. It was more like a coffee shop, but they had food too. Aaaaawesome food. They had carrot cake pancakes with cream cheese frosting topping. And they were perfect too, not overly sweet the way they could easily have been. I literally couldn’t eat any more. The coffee was good too. However, I couldn’t handle the trash/recycling/compost division, and I totally messed it up. Hey, I said the restaurant was perfect, not me.


12 bones – This was the best meal we had on a trip filled with excellent meals. It was also the most authentic southern restaurant I’ve ever seen. I ate ribs next to a guy with a gun in a holster. Real Southern barbecue next to a guy with a real gun in a real holster.

Speaking of ribs, this was a restaurant known for its ribs, but I was a little reluctant to get them. I’m usually more of a brisket kind of guy. However, I broke down and ordered the ribs…Oh Em Gee was I glad I did. I don’t know if I’ve ever tasted anything better in my life. The chipotle blue berry ribs were good, but the brown sugar dry rub ribs were out of this world. They also had a side platter option, and the sides were all great. The collard greens and green beans were the best, with the chipotle potato salad and corn pudding a close second. Seriously, there was something so great about the sides, I couldn’t even tell you. We had collard greens at three other restaurants, and they all looked more or less identical, but none of the held a candle to these. And I’m not the only one who liked the place:

Unfortunately for Oliver, he slept through the whole thing. The nice thing to do would have been to save him some, which we probably would have done if it were physically possible to do so. But it wasn’t, so we offered him a banana when he woke up right as we were leaving. No dice, he demanded a meal to go. We had no silverware in the car, so he had to eat it with his fingers. He didn’t complain. He couldn’t, because his mouth was full of pulled chicken and green beans.

Early Girl Eatery – Okay, technically this was on the way back. After Charlotte we stayed another night in Asheville on our way North. Once again, everything was really good (try the squash casserole). Sara had the sweet potato black bean cakes, and I had a blackened shrimp salad. Both were great.


If you’re keeping count at home, that’s four amazing restaurants in one small town. And I’m pretty sure we could have hit up more, but we ran out of time. Not too shabby. However, we couldn’t hang out with the hippies and foodies forever, because it was time for Charlotte…

Halbachs Take the South, Part II – Smoky Mountains

/ Shane / Leave a comment

I have had the same reoccurring nightmare since I was a child: I am riding in the car and we have to cross a bridge that is so high, that the road is practically vertical (Is this because I am afraid of heights, or the reason I am afraid of heights? Chicken and egg.) I am not exaggerating when I tell you that the road up to our cabin was exactly the same grade as that nightmare road. Except the road to the cabin was also full of switchbacks and blind corners. I honestly did not know if my car could physically made it up the hill.

However, it was so worth it. The cabin was absolutely perfect in every way. It is indescribable how perfect it was, so I will therefore try now to describe it. It was a real log cabin, with chinking in between the logs and everything. It was rustic and luxurious all at the same time. It was on the tippy-top of the mountain, with beautiful views of the valley below. The bottom floor had a bedroom, bathroom and foosball table, and a porch with a hot tub that looked out over the mountain. The middle floor had a kitchen, dining room, and living room with a fireplace, as well as a second-level porch with a swing, rocking chairs and a table to eat outside. The upstairs had a huge bedroom with another fireplace, as well as another bathroom.

The place was so big that we didn’t even use the bottom floor; we all slept upstairs in the one bedroom. The cabin could probably sleep 10 in a pinch, so the 4 of us were no problem. Even though there were other cabins dotting the hillside with us, it felt very isolated. It was so amazing being up on top of the mountain, with clouds snaking through the valley below us and no sounds of trains or traffic or anything except nature. The view from the porch was breathtaking.

In addition to the hot tub (which the kids absolutely loved and Evie said was her favorite part of the trip), there was also the biggest bathtub I have ever seen and/or imagined in my entire life. It had an entire room to itself off of the kitchen, and it was as good as any swimming pool as far as the kids were concerned. It was easily the size of a queen-sized bed. And it had jets too! I’m telling you, bath time has never been so fun.

Fortunately/unfortunately, this was a log cabin, and there was nature all around. An ant colony decided to take up residence inside the enormous tub. The first time we turned it on, ants came pouring out of one of the jet controls. I was trying to mop them up with a washcloth, but they just kept coming and coming. Luckily (or unluckily as it turns out) the tub was so big that the kids got in anyway and just avoided that section of the tub. We didn’t really think about where those ants were coming from, so when we turned on the jets…well, lets just say the kids had a couple of extra hands (legs) to help scrub their backs that night. After the explosive armageddon of their nest, they wisely did not return, so future baths were a little less creepy crawly.

In addition to eating all of our meals at the cabin (we even had pancakes on Sunday!), we spent our days hiking in Great Smoky Mountain National park. In other words, cheap vacation spot! We never even bothered with Gatlinburg, other than a trip or two to the grocery store. The hiking was pretty great.

One day, Evie hiked about 5 1/2 miles, and Oliver made it about 1 mile. Not a complaint from either of them! I was very proud of Evie, but she was having such a great time, I don’t think it occurred to her to complain.

Every hike ended at a waterfall. I didn’t really go into it expecting to see so many waterfalls, but I guess it makes sense; that water has to make it down the mountain somehow. Still, some really fantastic waterfalls, including one we got to go underneath, and a really tall one we saw later on the Cherokee reservation. After finally getting to the end of a long hike, we were never disappointed.

The Smokies are known for having a lot of bears, and consequently the cabin was appropriately garbed in bear decor. We had read to Evie the literature about what to do if you see a bear, just in case. All of this was a little too much for poor Evie, who became so afraid of bears that she couldn’t even handle the decorations in the cabin. We had to hang a sack over the bear toilet paper holder in the bathroom.

Therefore, it was somewhat ironic that we did actually see a mother bear and a cub later in the trip, and Evie was sort of excited about it. The bear was pretty far away, so we certainly weren’t in any danger from it. I guess it was easier to see when it was moving around, because in most of our pictures it’s just a black spot. Still, it was pretty cool to see some true wildlife (with a cub no less!) and certainly the biggest and most interesting animal not named Sasquatch running around those woods.

Alas, too soon it was time to say goodbye to the Smokies and move on to (less) greener pastures…

Halbachs Take the South, Part I – Hitting the Road

/ Shane / 1 Comment

In order to make the trip more enjoyable, we started by upgrading Oliver’s car seat and turning him around to face forward. He was pretty excited about it, he kept saying, “NEW car seat! NEW car seat!” However, once he got a little tired, he started demanding, “Lean back!” and looking around for the recline button. It’s a little harder to get a nap in when you’re not facing up at the ceiling.

Our first stop was Cincinnati, and I must report that there were dead daffodils on 3/22 in Cincinnati. That’s right, spring had already sprung by March 22nd. We happened to arrive on Anna’s birthday, so we let her pick the dinner spot. She mentioned Benihana, and I have to admit I was pretty excited for the kids. I thought they’d really enjoy the show, and I thought that Benihana is like the original Japanese steakhouse, so it would be sure not to disappoint. I was wrong! No fire and no shrimp throwing, two things that you simply cannot have a Japanese steakhouse without! So the kids didn’t really care much about the show, but they still had a good time, because there was ice cream at the end.

We didn’t stay in Cincinnati long, but we also had time to visit an extremely beautiful park, where there were white and purple trees in bloom like crazy. And thus began my long nightmare known as “Southern Allergies”. Uuuuuuuuuuugh.

After driving for a bit, we saw a water tower that said, “Florence Y’All” and Sara said, “Well, I guess we’re in Kentucky now.”

(Side note, turns out there is a funny story on how that water tower came to be — check it out!)

By the time we got to Tennessee, we started really getting into the mountains. Suddenly, road signs started warning us of construction on a tunnel ahead, combined with an accident. We were advised to use a small state highway to avoid the mess. We decided to heed their advice, despite the fact that no other car seemed inclined to agree. We got off on the local highway and took a long, steep, winding drive through the back woods of Tennessee. It seemed very remote. Just as we started to hear strains of banjo music, a really bad noise started coming from the car.

Uh oh.

I thought maybe something was caught under the car, since it seemed to be a grinding kind of noise, but I got out and checked and there was nothing there. We didn’t know what to do. We were just coming into a little town, so the terrain was a little more level, and we figured out that the noise was related to the brakes (which we had been using fairly continuously on our little mountain adventure). Whenever I hit the brakes, it was like a grist mill chewing on a strip of metal.

Just as we were about to exit the town, I saw a shop that said “tire and brakes” on the side, and I pulled a quick u-turn and darted in there. Sure enough, the front brakes were completely shot — right through the pads and down to metal on metal (which is exactly what it sounded like).

LUCKILY, they were amazing and nice, and fixed us up in about an hour and a half, while we ate our lunch. I was prepared to pay the out-of-state-tourist tax and call myself lucky, but the whole thing cost less than $200. (A couple of my co-workers are considering driving down to Tennessee to get their brakes fixed from now on.) In fact, they said I didn’t really even need to replace the rotors, despite the fact that I had been grinding them directly, but if I wanted to replace them, it would cost “$25”. In other words, rather than being stranded in the middle of the mountains with a broken car, I got new brakes for probably less than half of what it would cost at home, and it basically didn’t even interrupt our trip. I said to Sara, “I hope nothing else goes wrong, because we just used up all of our luck.”

Justice did demand that Sara leave all of her shower stuff in the hotel in Cincinnati in retribution, but I think we came out on the winning side of that  karmic transaction.

Oliver’s phrase for the trip was “Oh, what is that?” He started saying it about 100 times a day about anything he could think of. Often is was about something he’d never seen before and wasn’t sure what it was, but sometimes it was about something like a door, or the spaghetti he was eating. This would have quickly gotten on our nerves, but something about the facial expression he used when he said it combined with the tone of voice made it more funny that annoying. He would just make a face and say, “What is that?” like he was just looking at the most ridiculous thing he had ever seen, rather than a ceiling fan.

We were staying just outside of Gatlinburg, and I knew that it was pretty touristy. However, I was totally unprepared for the monstrosity that was Pigeon Forge. The only thing I can compare it to is the Wisconsin Dells. It’s touristy, but like over the top, amazing touristy. Like full size replica’s of the Titanic touristy, or giant upside down Greek temples. Would you believe the kids slept through the whole thing? Thank god, because I don’t know how I would even begin to explain that place to them (although I have to admit, I’m pretty disappointed that Sara wouldn’t let me go to the Lumberjack Feud).

Finally, after a long, multi-day car ride, we arrived at our cabin…

Mother Nature seems to hate us

/ Shane / 1 Comment

So we’re back from vacation and, despite some bad luck with the weather, we are mostly okay. Vacations with little kids tend to be exhausting, but this one seemed particularly exhausting for some reason. On the other hand, we had a good time, particularly Evie and Oliver. They have such a great time just being outside, that I feel guilty for not giving them more outside time. It’s like our kids love the outdoors by default, and then we train them to stay inside. Or maybe it is because Mother Nature does her best to make sure that we never go outside again. She certainly tried to ruin our trip this time. Hey, Mother Nature! We’re on the same side here! It’s in your best interest to have children who are raised to like you! In case you haven’t noticed, most people seem pretty hell-bent on destroying you!

Friday night we stayed at my Grandma’s house, so Mother Nature didn’t get her crack until Saturday. We had just put up our tent and put all of our things inside, when an enormous storm came up out of nowhere. Oliver and I were sitting in the sand box as these ominous black clouds came roiling over the trees, blotting out the sun. Luckily we had a building to go into, since there was thunder, lightning, crazy rain, and 60 mph winds. I believe about 6 tents were blown over or otherwise destroyed, including our own. One of our tent poles snapped, ripping a gash through the rain fly. However, the tent next to ours was blown away completely, with 6 holes in the side where the wind ripped it away from the straps, which remained staked down. So it could have been worse I suppose.

We managed to construct a frankentent out of the discarded pieces, taking a new rain fly from a broken tent and a piece of pipe that once served as the bottom of a solar powered light, the top of which had blown away during the storm. Our bedding and everything was absolutely soaked, and this was a little discouraging, seeing as we had just put it in there. All of our clothes were in there as well, but only a few articles of clothing actually got wet. It was hot enough to not need blankets and we had some extra sheets, so we managed to make do in the frankentent.

Sunday morning we manged to dry out our tent and things and then packed everything up and moved to the next camping location. We had barely gotten our tent up and our bedding put in, before Mother Nature came back for more! This time the torrential downpour included some hail, and our tent collapsed under the pressure. That tent has never collapsed before, so I don’t know if the rain was just too strong, or if maybe something about the way we cobbled things together caused it to collapse (maybe the ill-fitting rain fly put pressure in unusual places). In any event, everything was soaked yet again. This was even more disappointing, since we had just gone through it the day before. Luckily for us, my mom was renting a cabin there, and we managed to squeeze in with them, including displacing them from their bed (thanks mom!).

We weren’t discouraged yet, so Mother Nature turned to another set of tricks, making it so oppressively hot and muggy that nothing could dry out. However, we were able to borrow towels and bedding from other people and decided to make a go of it in the tent, even though there was a rumor that another storm was rolling in. So Monday night we were back in the tent, and it started raining at about midnight.

Evie woke me up saying, “Daddy, my pants are wet!” It turns out, she was sleeping in a huge puddle at the lowest point in the tent, and was soaked head to toe. I helped her out of her pajamas, and then she began to softly cry. “What’s the matter, honey?” I asked. “I don’t want to lay back down!” Poor girl. I guess I never expressly said that she didn’t have to lay back down in her puddle!

So, Evie started her birthday the same way she came into this world; in her birthday suit. Tuesday rained all day and sort of put a damper on her birthday. We had to cancel the big potluck dinner with everybody we had planned for the evening (though it went off on Thursday without a hitch). Later, when mom borrowed a shop-vac from the office, we found out we had a gallon and a half of water in the tent! We were struggling to keep the kids inside the tiny cabin all day, but we eventually gave up and drove to Appleton, where we found two awesome places that totally turned what could have been a really crummy day around into something fun.

The first was a fun, family oriented lunch joint known as the Ladybugs Bistro. They had kid-friendly food (and paninis for parents), and a play area with toys. Oliver mostly enjoyed pushing around a baby doll in a stroller. Then it was across the street to the aptly named Building for Kids. This was a surprisingly good children’s museum, on par with any that we’ve been to in bigger cities. Evie and Oliver would have stayed for longer, but we were all pretty exhausted at that point. Finally, we returned to the campground and had banana splits with everyone. Evie was really excited about these, and I think it was her favorite part about her birthday. She was mostly excited about the sprinkles.

After all of our weather troubles, we were still in a good mood, so Mother Nature relented a little bit and gave us a few nice days. We got some pool time in, and some guitar time, not to mention playground, sandbox and visiting time. Unfortunately, with all the rain and humidity, the bugs were pretty bad. Evie counted something like 43 mosquito bites on Sara’s legs. We also had to deal with swarms of gnats, who liked to swarm around sweaty heads (particularly Oliver’s), and some kind of mystery biting insect who seemed to only go after men’s ankles. Everybody kept asking us how the kids were handling the bugs or the rain, but honestly, the kids didn’t seem to notice that stuff. Evie complained about her bug bites sometimes, but mostly they were just happy to be on vacation with family.

We got a chance to check out the local water ski group, the Webfooters. All of the kids (ours and two of my cousins’ kids) thoroughly enjoyed it, but none more than Oliver, who thought it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. Every time a boat would make a pass, Oliver would leap to his feet, point, and say, “Whoa! Whoa!” Then he would clap wildly before returning to his watermelon feast.

Finally, on the last weekend, we went to the reunion on my Grandma’s side of the family. I knew it had been awhile since I had been to that reunion (we usually go to the first one and then cut out during the week), but we figured out that it must have been something like 11 years since the last time I went! But it was very enjoyable, and there were lots and lots of kids there! It was nice to have so many kids of age with our kids. Reminds me of when I was a kid and I would go to the reunions and play with all of my cousins. Probably the highlight of the weekend for me was Sara and I taking Evie on a canoe ride. I love to go canoeing, and I believe that was Evie’s first ride on a non-motorized boat.

Obviously, we were having too much fun in the outdoors. Almost slapping Mother Nature in the face! Well, she decided not to take it lying down, and reports began to circulate about thunderstorms coming in Saturday night. Sure enough, right as we were about to get the kids ready for bed, the wind picked up, the sky darkened, and thunder began to growl. As we were taking the kids in to the bathroom for their nightly routines, Sara said, “Should we just pack up the tent and sleep in one of the cabins?” There were large, shared-room cabins (think army barracks) that had some vacancies due to some of the people who left early.

It was certainly worth thinking about. First off, I don’t know if I could have born another soaking night in a tent. Second off, packing up wet gear is awful. And third, we don’t really have anywhere we could dry our tent when we got home. If you have a yard, fine, just put up your tent and let it dry. But for us, about the only option we have is setting the tent up in a parking spot!

I was sort of against going in the cabin though, because it was time for the kids to go to bed, and it would have involved packing up everything, then unpacking some things into the cabin, then packing everything up again the next morning, just to turn around and leave. So I was ready to just brave it out in the tent. But then it occurred to me: if we were going to pack everything up, why not just get in the car and drive home? It was only 6:30 and we were only 5 hours from home. Let the kids sleep in the car and just go.

So that is what we ended up deciding to do, and I think it was the right choice. With the help of many family members, we were pulling out less than 40 minutes after we decided to leave. It was a long drive home (thanks to Sara for driving while I nodded off a time or two!), but it stormed hard for most of the way. Much better to face it in a car than in a tent. And it had the added side benefit of giving us all of Sunday to unpack and get back into the routine, rather than arriving just at supper time. I can’t tell you how much of a difference that made. It might have had the added benefit of letting us sleep in a bed for an extra night, except that Evie was so upset that we were leaving, that Sara promised her that I would have a “sleep out” with her on the floor of the family room. Small enough concession to end a tantrum, and I was so tired by that point anyway, I would have slept on a bed of crushed glass and razor blades. We didn’t even get home until after midnight.

I won’t lie, it’s good to be home. Towards the end, the lack of sleep was getting to everybody, especially Evie, who was having a lot of trouble listening. When we got home, we took the kids grocery shopping. It was like all that time out in the wilderness had turned them into wild-children, who didn’t remember how to behave in society! But things are coming back to normal now. Oliver has stopped crying and pointing at the outside, like a bird in a cage. One of the cutest things was that Evie made a bunch of “raffle tickets” and insisted on holding raffles for prizes such as pens and rubber bands (which we’re not allowed to keep, by the way). So I think it is safe to say they had a pretty good time.

One last thing I wanted to mention that didn’t really fit anywhere else. Some of these people are a little too comfortable while “camping”! None more so than the guy with the 48 inch flat screen in his RV. Why bother going to (living at?) a campsite? Honorable mention goes to the crazy couple across the street, who set up more and more stuff every day. The fake candelabras and porcelain eagle head were something to see, but the 25 pinwheels and Uncle Sam hat and picnic table runner were such a nice touch. And it’s pretty obvious they do this a lot too; every single item was in it’s place. My description doesn’t do this scene justice. And lets not forget the meticulously placed hunter-orange construction ties around any item that could even remotely be tripped over. How long does it take to pack all of that stuff up??

Holiday Weekend Wrapup

/ Shane / 3 Comments

First off, happy belated 4th of July to everyone, and happy belated anniversary to Sara and I!

We continued the tradition we started last year, and headed up to Michigan for the 4th. We again stayed at Lisa and Orlan’s house, and Evie again had the time of her life. Sara and I had a good time too, but there’s something about watching your kid have a great time that just makes it impossible for you to not enjoy yourself. Evie loves playing with Kaycee, who never seems to get tired of playing with her (I hope…and if not, sorry Kaycee!). Randi, on the other hand, has to do practically nothing to gain her adoration.

Oliver was sort of terrified, sort of curious about their dogs. I would say he wasn’t as terrified as Evie used to be about them, because whenever they weren’t looking at him, he wanted to go investigate and keep an eye on them. So he was very interested in them. But if they showed an interest in him, he would run screaming and sobbing, as absolutely terrified as anybody could ever be about anything. 10 seconds later the dogs would be off somewhere else, and he’d be begging to get down again.

Evie warmed up to the dogs quite a bit. The turning point was after she got out of the pool and was shivering cold; “The dogs have very warm tongues!” After that she seemed to have no problem with the dogs at all, and she was only really scared of them when Oliver was getting a lot of attention for being scared of them. She even mentioned on the way home that she likes their warm tongues. This is a complete 180 reversal from her previous stance on dogs, which was that she wants no smooches from them under any circumstances.

We ended up at the lake both Sunday and Monday, which worked out good because there wouldn’t have been enough time on Monday alone to satisfy all of Evie’s lake demands. She had such a great time! We couldn’t keep her off the lake: if she wasn’t in the boat, she was on a tube. If she wasn’t on a tube, she was swimming in the water. This is all fairly surprising, since she freaks out if any water gets on her face or head (especially ears!). So I’m kind of impressed that she enjoyed the water so much.

Oliver thinks the boat is a magical sleeping machine. 3 rides on the boat, 3 naps. Every time, he was out almost as soon as we pulled away from the dock. He was sort of obsessed with the lake, and keeping him from running over and diving in was sort of a full time job. He did take some breaks to play in the wading pool, where he mostly enjoyed watching the water drip out of his swimming trunks.

Evie also insisted that Aunt Pat take her for a ride on the “other boat” (a.k.a. the wave runner). She enjoyed that just as much, taking the driver’s seat. She has no problem being in charge of driving either of the boats. The only mishap was that one time her hat blew off into the lake, but they were able to retrieve it before it sunk.

We spent a lot of time “tubing”, or foolishly being whipped around at high speeds behind a boat on a flimsy inter tube. Evie thought it was the best thing ever, even though the boat was going as slow as it was physically able to go while she was on there. Even Sara went, which really surprised me. That was probably the highlight of the weekend for me. It seemed somewhat out of character, but she was grinning her head in two the entire time, and it seemed like she was really enjoying herself. That makes me happy. 🙂

As for myself, I tried tubing as well. What I learned was that tubing is not for whiners. Well, guess what? It’s my blog and I can whine about whatever I want to. Tubing is harrrrrd! My arms huuuurt!

Look, in my defense, even though I wouldn’t consider myself old, I was at least twice as old as anybody who was out there tubing with me, and probably weigh twice as much as well. My arms are definitely not used to hauling that kind of weight around!

I was on the side of a 3 person tube, and I felt like I was practically falling off the tube to begin with. When we got out there and really started whipping around in the chop, I was holding myself on with sheer arm strength (what precious little I have) and will power. I can’t even count the number of times I thought to myself, “Oh, man, that’s it, I’m going off!” but I never did. At one point, towards the end, I slid almost all the way off the back of the tube. Orlan said he felt the boat slow down like he was dragging a big-fat-pasty-white anchor (those weren’t his exact words). I knew I had to pull myself back onto the tube, but my arms were so tired, I seriously considered just letting go. So maybe that final pull-up was when I pulled a muscle in my arm.

That night and the next day my right elbow was so sore that I had trouble shaving. They kept trying to get me to go again, but I’m telling you, I was physically unable. And I admit, I felt kind of silly complaining about it, since there were about 8 other people who went a lot more times than I did, and *they* weren’t complaining. I have to assume I was doing something wrong, though I’m not sure what. My arms are still sore today!

So that was pretty much it. I can only think of three things that were even remotely bad:

  1. There was a lot of construction both ways that added some significant time onto our trip,
  2. We bought hamburger buns from the bakery on Friday and they were moldy by Monday, so that was a big fat waste of money,
  3. My phone fell out of my pocket, and we left Lisa’s house without it. Luckily I realized this and we were able to stop by and get it on the way home (it was in between the couch cushions, under the giant stuffed frog of course)
If those are the only things that went wrong, then I think it was a fairly successful trip!