Magnolia Plantation

Okay and on the last day we went to Magnolia Plantation, which was the first man-made tourist attraction in America (you know how I am a sucker for tourist attractions). Basically the guy who owned it lost all his money and had to make more so he started letting people tour his property. On the property there are slave cabins, the HUGE plantation house. All of these little ponds with bridges and stuff. They have a horticulture maze (a maze of bushes) and the Audobon Swamp (which is supposedly famous but I had never heard of it) It was really fun but ofcourse it was still really hot out.

This is the long bridge across one of the ponds.

The plantation house.

Slave cabin

Matt was really happy see that they ship UPS!

Okay all the green is swamp water, not grass! There were huge spiders everywhere. What you can't see is how close we are walking to the water, in places the bridge is actually floating on the water. Kinda freaky since there are gators in the swamp. Matt was freaking out so we rushed through the swamp!

Palmetto Pride

Matt and I decided to go to Charleston for the weekend. We left on Saturday and got back on Monday night. Charleston is a very interesting place. When we got there we checked into our hotel and then walked around the historic district. Charleston has been around since the 1600's when people first came to America, and they haven't made alot of updates to the historic area. Which means that I kept tripping everywhere we went because the streets are brick and cobblestone and very uneven and I have a tendency to shuffle my feet instead of pick them up, and so I almost fell about 6 times. The other thing that we noticed while we were there is that for some reason people in South Carolina are obsessed with referring to their state as the "Palmetto State" it would be like us continually refering to the "Peach State" which we don't!! A palmetto is their state symbol and it is like a dwarf palm tree. There were tons of them everywhere. That was quite odd also becaues you would be walking down this historic street but there were palmetto's everywhere so it was like the beach kind of.

We ate dinner at two cool places. The first place was Sticky Fingers, it was a rib place, and they had pictures of the President getting his food at Sticky Fingers. We laughed and said that when we go on vacation we only like to eat at places where the President eats (see the Tampa post if you want to understand this joke.) The other place was called Hyman's, it is a seafood place (if you know me well you know this was a sacrifice) and when we get inside, there are these little plaques on out table. The most famous person at our table was Blind Melon. I was pretty impressed until I saw that they had a list of all of the other famous people, and they included, Oprah, SJP, George Clooney and basically all the way cooler stars. SO on our way out I was trying to look at other people's plaques on their tables but I couldn't read them without people looking at me very stangely. We also had brunch at a restaurant recommended by Rachel Ray on one of her tasty travels!! We took a picture of the place because we thought it was cool.

We went on a ghost tour on Saturday night where you walk around Charleston with a guide and they tell you all these creepy stories and freak you out. Like Georgia they bury people right out back of the church and then they have all of these little graveyards everywhere. So our tous included a tour of graveyards and Charleston's dungeon. Yes they have a dungeon, which happens to be in the basement of the building where the constitution was ratified. And there were people having a wedding reception upstairs while we were touring the dungeon, I think that would freak me out too much.


We went to the USS Yorkton which is docked in Charleston, you can tour it as well as other military ships. It is a carrier ship so inside it is HUGE! The plane Matt is sitting in is inside the ship, there were about 7 others inside the ship with PLENTY of room to spare. Where Matt is climbing through the little hole is on the submarine that they had there. To get on to it you go over this rinky-dink little platform and then go down inside it. The thing I remember most is the smell, it was interesting and not in a good way. It was so small and I can't imagine being in there, under water for weeks and a time. There would be no circulation. And like twice as many people on board. It would smell SO BAD. I don't think this is something that people think about very often but they should!! I am standing on the destroyer ship ( I can't remember the name of it) and behind me is the Yorkton. It was SO HOT we were so uncomfortable. We thought it wouldn't be that hot because it was mid-September, well we were wrong. It was SO humid, getting back to 85 degrees in Atlanta feels like such a relief.

Since everyone kept saying that we never post pictures of us on here we kept trying to take all of these pictures of ourselves. I guess when you other people go places you get random people to take photos of you?! There was never anyone around so we kept making stupid faces because we were trying to pose in the picture. This picture is of "bloody alley" where the men in Charleston used to duel. I think they said like 20 people died in this alley and then when a kid got shot they outlawed dueling. You would be able to see it better but I am standing in the way so I hope you happy to see me in the picture.

All of the rest of these pictures are from the market that they have in town. It is very cool because it is there all the time between these two streets that are really close together. I tried to get some video but I messed it up, I wish I had because the pictures don't tell the full story. As you can see, they sell all kinds of things, these baskets that they are weaving right on the street, and then random things like t-shirts and bumper stickers.

Dude

This week is probably the most interesting post ever...the thing is, I don't know if I can convey the weirdness of it all through the written word. But I sure as heck am going to try.

So a while back, a girl at work asked me if her boyfriend could stay with us when he came to visit. The girl is LDS, we are pretty good friends, and I wasn't sure that the boyfriend would actually ever come. So I said, sure just let me know when he is coming.

This week, on Tuesday, she was booking PTO. I asked her where she was going and she said she was going to go and pick up Jason, her boyfriend, from the airport. "Oh, he's coming this week? Guess he doesn't need to stay with me anymore," I say. "Oops, did I forget to tell you, he will be here on Thursday." So there it is, Dude is staying with us all weekend. I not excited, but I really don't care. He will have his own room and his own bathroom and I'm sure he will be with his girlfriend all the time. I agreed to let him stay here and I really didn't mind at all. Besides, how weird can he be, I mean, his girlfriend is really normal. LET ME ASSURE YOU, he can be REALLY weird. Like maybe one of the WEIRDEST people I have met in my whole life.

So, he shows up, and for times sake allow me to exhibit the items that make him 100% strange.

EXHIBIT A - Dude leaves stuff all over our place. Yes, weird. Weirder still, the stuff consists of an exorbitant amount of rings. Okay, he is from Utah, but does he really need so many rings... the real question being does he really need to leave so many rings around our place. I swear, dude has 12 rings, one for each finger and two spares in case he loses any. He also left one of his two laptop computers plugged in our living room. He also left his cell phone and his digital camera in our living room. Weird. He HAS a room to put all of his stuff, the guest room, but evidently he is marking his territory?!?

EXHIBIT B - Dude REEKS of TAG bodyspray. He has clearly seen the Tag bodyspray commercial, and uses the product to the excess. When Matt and I got home from church, we were knocked over by the smell of Tag. Not to mention he leaves all his crap all over the bathroom counter and the bathroom floor. Including his super cool red and blue striped pants. Modeled here by our friend Rob.

EXHIBIT C - Dude doesn't feel safe without his gun Bessy. Luckily Bessy was unable to make the plane trip with him, due to the concealed weapon laws in the beautiful state of GA. But you can see from the photo that he did bring his book, The Use of Force.

EXIBIT D - Dude gets out our stuff and doesn't put it back where it goes. He gets out the iron and ironing board and leaves them out for me to put away. He also goes through our movies and leaves them all over the place.

When we decided to share this fantastic experience with all of our blog friends, Rob and Haley were visiting from Augusta and Rob was the model for all of the pictures that we were going to post.

I want to reiterate to all of you out there, we would love to have any of you come and visit us. We have two requests: one, that we know your first and last name, this means you are good enough friends to come here and make yourself comfortable (we still don't know Dude's last name). And that if you wear and excessive amount of rings, you try to keep them in the guest room...mostly because it is just weird otherwise.

I was hesitant to post this because we don't want everyone to think we are mean...but seriously, dude is weird.

Here is a pic of Rob and Haley we took while they were here. It was great to have them visit and we hope to go see them soon.

Stone Mountain Kenny

On Saturday Matt and I were really bored so we decided to head over to Stone Mountain for the laser show. Stone Mountain is this park where you pay $8 and then you can spend the day looking at antebellum stuff and hiking the mountain (the largest single piece of granite in the southeast) and then there is a laser light show with fireworks in the evening. It was owned in the early 20th Century by a man who was active in the Ku Klux Klan and was the site of burning crosses and lynchings. Nice huh? Anyways, on the mountain are carvings of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson. After it gets dark they have this laser show. If you have ever been here to Atlanta, we have likely taken you to the laser light show. They play all these songs about Georgia, like Midnight Train to Georgia, Georgia on my Mind, Dixieland, Devil went down to Georgia, you get the idea. And the lasers and fireworks are like in tune with the music. There are a ton of people out on this lawn and you spread out a blanket and then if you can eat food or whatever. For the first time ever, we decided to get cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory and bring to the park. It was really good. I think that we will probably do that again. It was a fun way to eat our cheesecake since Cheesecake Factory was so crowded.

On Sunday night my friend Kate called and asked if I wanted to go to Kenny Chesney. Her boyfriend works for the Thrashers and he gets tickets whenever a concert isn't sold out. Evidently, Kenny added a third concert here and there were a few tickets left for the Monday show!! Matt couldn't come because he had to work on Monday, but I went without him with Kate and her boyfriend! It was fun because they are a fun couple, not crazy. So we get to concert and Dierks Bentley was opening. I love him, I think his songs are great. But he sure was...confident. Like he thought he was really cool, but it was still good. Then Kenny came out! He came out from the floor in the middle of the arena and then he started singing and then he flew over on this chair contraption to the stage (you can see it in the video). It was cool. Now, truly, I love Kenny Chesney. I love his songs, especially his new one, and I was really, really excited to go to his concert. But as Kate and I are standing there, we can't help but notice that he looks kinda old...sorta like his skin was too loose for his face...and then we talked about how he was really short compared to the other people on stage...and how he is bald and only looks good with a hat....then Chris (Kate's boyfriend) starting getting mad at us because he LOVES Kenny Chesney. But I love Kenny Chesney too...just look at him in the video...his skin is loose....and he's bald...and short. But an awesome singer and a fantastic performer. Probably one of the best concerts that I have ever been to! And really fun because it was free!

This isn't my favorite video, or song, but it shows all of the concert stuff so I thought I would post it. I love his new song, "You Save Me." It's so good!

Music Video Code provided by MySpace Video Code

Florida

Well, we have been back from Florida for a week now. We haven't posted anything because we didn't take ANY pictures. Yup, you heard right. We had our camera and NO memory stick, Matt wanted to buy one, but by the time we got around to it is was the last day. (I know none of you want to read our blog now). I recently checked everyones blogs and felt pretty guilty after I realized that even my cousin Ryan was putting us to shame (we love you Ryan and Jess but you don't post as often as everyone else!)

Florida was AWESOME. We had a wonderful time. We stayed in an awesome condo in Panama City Beach that I would recommend to anyone. I snaked this picture off their web site. We were in the fifth one up all the way on the left.

It was exactly like this while we were there. The water was clear and the sand was white, white, white! I honestly couldn't believe that we hadn't gone to Florida before this because it is so close and I really had no idea it was so nice. PCB has a bad reputation (Redneck Rivera) but I was pleasantly surprised. We rode this bungie ball while we were there and videotaped it, but ofcourse it is on the tape and not the memory card, if I figure out how to put it on the computer, I will post it.

After being in PCB for a week we headed down to Tampa to see Matt's uncle. Please prepare yourself people (Jeni especially) I am about to tell you the best part of out trip. Okay...it was Matt's birthday on Wednesday (last Wednesday) and that was the day that we were leaving... so Matt's uncle took us out on Tuesday to BERN'S STEAKHOUSE. Since going to Bern's, Matt and I have talked about it daily. It was the coolest and most delicious restaurant ever.

We are out on Tuesday afternoon and we get back to Buddy's house (Matt's uncle) and he says that he is taking us to Bern's and our reservations are at 6:30. Then he says that we need to dress up because they have a dress code. I, ofcourse, am prepared. I have a skirt that is appropriate. Matt has shorts and sandals and t-shirts. So, we head back to the mall. We go to Macy's and tell the guy that we are going to Bern's. He is like "oh yeah, Bern's a Tampa original. That's where the President eats when he comes to town." So, $150 later, Matt gets everything he needs to go to Bern's (He didn't have shoes or socks or a belt...you get the picture...and ofcourse they only make the extra expensive pants in giant size) But after all of this, I must reiterate, IT WAS WORTH IT.

We get there and it is all swanky. We go to our table to order and the steak is in a chart. No joke. A full page chart with different cuts, ounces, thicknesses. After dinner, which if I haven't made clear was AWESOME, we are asked if we would like to go to the dessert room. YES THEY HAVE A ROOM JUST FOR DESSERT. And the dessert was good. I had the trilogy of chocolate mousse. It was amazing.

On Wednesday we left Buddy's and were able to meet up with Diane and Konrad (my aunt and uncle) and their girls Erin, Audrey and Alison, who were coincidently in town for the week. They are so funny. They took us out for lunch at PoFolks. A real southern classic! We had a great time with them and enjoyed getting a chance to see them because it had been a while.

So basically, after a 10 day vacation, I spent the most time talking about one meal. Jeni, I hope I made you proud!! Check this place out www.bernssteakhouse.com and if any of you are ever in Tampa you need to go to Bern's.

Something worth FAINTING about!

Long time no post, we have been SO busy and it's sort of ironic I think...when you have the time to post, there seems to be nothing going on...when there are actually things going on, there isn't enough time to post them.

However, I had to quickly share what happened at work today! So, one of the doctors is going to a conference to present the technique that she uses to do this procedure. She was trained is Switzerland and she is one of the best in the states. She wanted to show a video of her doing to procedure. PR person tapes the procedure. We get in there and the first thing she says is "You're going to be okay right? These needles won't bother you, right?" (I have a history of being a wimp when getting different things done) I smile and say "Nope! As long as they aren't poking me, I'll be fine." So we begin. And I'm really concentrating on the technique, making sure that I am zooming in and out, catching the needle movement, moving strategically, you know basically filming the best video of our time. But then, after a while of filming, my mind starts to wander. I begin to focus less on MY task at hand and more on what is actually taking place. Then my mind goes back to the epidural injection I had to watch...can't get the picture out of my head, 20 inch needle, I come back and all I can see is the BLOOD. NOT PRETTY. I'm starting to get really hot. Like burning UP! Then the assistant and the doctor are talking and they start to sound really far away. LUCKILY I feel it coming on, I pass the camera to the doctor's assistant and high tail it outta there. I get out side and I about lose it. The nurse is putting some smelly stuff under my noise and I begin to feel better. I never actually hit the floor THANKFULLY!

I always knew that I could never be a doctor, but evidently I can't watch them either. Props to all of those that are working on entering the medical field. Best of luck and you have my respect!! Oh and if you didn't already guess, I have been demoted from my videographer position! HA!

For the fourth we went up to Helen, in the North Georgia "mountains" (that's what the locals call them but they are really just hills). This town is supposed to be modeled after the Bavarian Alps, there is no real reason why except to bring in tourists. If any of you have ever been to Solvang, California it is the same kind of idea. As you can see, everything in the town has to look German.

The Chattahoochie runs through the town and they sells tickets for $3 to get a tube and a bus ride to the top of town. Then you ride through town and it normally takes about 2 hours, I think you go maybe about 3 miles. Well Georgia is in a drought, and the river was LOW so it took WAY longer like 3 and a half hours. Matt got stuck more than me, and he wasn't too happy about the rocky ride. There were so many times along the ride that we wished our camera was waterproof. Alot of the homes and restaurants decorate for the 4th and people just sit and watch all of the tubers.
We get to the end and go get our keys from inside (they check them for you) then we go out to the car and get our bag with extra clothes and towels and stuff, I head into the change room and Matt decides he is going to stay in his swim suit. So when I come out, I get back to the car and he is standing there. He says "you have the keys" ummm....they must be in the bag, take everything out...they aren't there. Well they must be in the trunk. I'm sure of it. So we go inside and call the locksmith...Jay...Jay doesn't work on the fourth of July. BUT we can stand on the side of the road and flag down a police officer and they will be able to help us. Do we have a choice?! Nope. So we are waiting on the side of the road and then these cops drive by (its a pretty small town) we flag them down and tell them our problem. They get out to help us and they don't have a lock kit. So they call another cop. So we have three cops, two cop cars, and two cops working on unlocking our car...they took forever! Finally, they unlock it, we pop the trunk and we....pretend that the keys are in there because we are too embarassed to admit that we don't know where they are. We wait for the cops to drive off, (and yeah, we are waving and saying thanks when we still don't know where our keys are) Riiiiight. Turns out I rolled them up in my towel with my wet suit. Guess it's a good thing Jay wasn't working or we would have paid him $50 for nothing!

Then we walked around the town and checked out all the freaks and weirdos. I swear they find their way to Helen. All these stores have this German front and then inside they are selling stars and bars t-shirts. I got the most delicious chocolate caramel apple from the candy shop, they are my absolute FAVORITE thing!

Then we headed back to Alpharetta where we had burgers on the grill and watched the beginning of the Braves game. We had a ton of fireworks (see American Pride post!) so we went over to the Guzowski's to light them off. They had a bunch too so the fireworks show was really long. They had some illegals so we were able to do some that shot up in the air and exploded! All in all the day was really fun. You can see from the video. The resolution is bad, maybe someone knows how to remedy that. I'm not sure if it is the hosting or what but the video on our videocamera is much clearer than what you see here. Oh well enjoy anyway!