New Car

For our United Way campaign at work, my friend LaDonna & I bid on a car for a week...and won! I brought it home on Thursday to surprise Vince. I have it until Tuesday, when LaDonna will then take it for next week. It is huge! Vince was very surprised. We hopped in it and drove down to the only drive-in I know about, Sonic. It's a 1976 Chevy Caprice Classic, which is just a big old car with a convertible top.

Hotel DodiVince

On Friday night, my brother-in-law, John and nephew, Nathan stayed with us on their way to MS. It was a nice short visit. Nathan had just returned from 5 weeks in Germany with my Mom so he was a bit tired. They left Saturday morning so they could go visit with Kim in MS who is there working on the last classes for her doctorate.

Vince & I changed the sheets on the beds and got ready for our next guests. Mom, Dad, & Elise arrived around 2pm on Saturday. I enjoyed looking through many of their pictures of Germany. Dad was able to go over there for the last week and flew back home with Mom & Nathan.

Elise had gone to camp for the last week in VA so they picked her up on the way down to our house. They are heading to Florida to visit for a while so we were a good 1/2 way stopping point. While here, I taught Elise how to make her first ever fondant flower. She did a great job & even painted on some pink luster dust.

Myrtle Beach & Car Show

This past weekend Vince & I traveled to Myrtle Beach to see the F-Body Car Show. Vince's parents met us there and we had a wonderful visit. We stayed at the Ocean Park hotel where each room was ocean side with a balcony and a full kitchen. The accommodations were my favorite out of the 3 hotels we've stayed at before. We were right on the beach, had a huge hot tub, indoor pool, and an outdoor pool. We visited the beach Friday evening and then had a huge dinner at Captain Bennett's Seafood Buffet.

While we were there, we had a full moon over the ocean. It was so pretty. The pictures only show it as a big dot in the sky, but it was really neat. The second night there, it was a blood red moon as it came up. It was very unusual. After about 15 minutes, it started turning back to white.

And Vince loved all the different cars at the car show on Saturday.

I think we all enjoyed the new Sky Wheel at the boardwalk. We had a fabulous view of Myrtle Beach and the line wasn't too long. Each car was air conditioned and the ride was so smooth you couldn't feel it moving.

On Saturday night we went to Broadway at the Beach to stroll around and ended up eating dinner at The Tilted Kilt. The girls were dressed scantily, but the food was most excellent. One of my new favorite restaurants there. And they had some interesting quotes on the walls.

Back Yard Retreat

Vince and I have been working on the house & yard this summer. It's been hot, but we've managed to create a nice little back yard retreat. Each evening we find time to go outside and just enjoy the crickets chirping and the lightening bugs glowing. Well, except for last night when it was still 93 degrees at 9pm. This heat is relentless. We acquired a few new pieces of furniture for our patio and I keep rotating through them to enjoy them all.

Vince did manage to get the house pressure washed this past weekend. It was blazing hot, but the house looks great. The house almost looks like a lighter color to me now without the dirt film on top of it.

I have also been using my telescope this week to check in on the moon. My brother-in-law, John, stopped through on his way home this past weekend. He got it lined up for us & showed us how to use it. I'm ready for the upcoming full moon! I can't wait until a planet comes into view.

Team Outing

Last Friday, my team at work did our annual team outing. We started at the Helping Center here in Spartanburg. The Helping Center provides clothing and food for the needy. The needy have to fill out paperwork and are only allowed to come to the center twice. The biggest things they needed help with were:

1. Sorting all the donated clothes. You would be surprised some of the trash people donate. If it's completely nasty with stains all over it, no one wants to wear it. Believe it or not, poor people take pride in their appearance and like to look nice too. Tammy & I sorted through tons of bags of clothes and hung up the ones that folks would come to "shop" for.

2. Arranging the food pantry. Lots of donated items were stacked in the hall and other places. The three guys helped by sorting the items and then preparing boxes for families to pick up. For example, a family of 4 would get a box of cereal, 3 canned goods, etc. They were able to prepare many boxes so the center would be caught up for a while.

After helping at the center, we drove to Greenville to enjoy a progressive lunch. We started at Liberty Tap Room and order appetizers. I had the chicken nachos, but also shared with some of the others. All the appetizers were great. We then walked down to High Cotton. They had a fabulous lunch selection. Since we were running low on time, we ordered dessert there as well instead of driving down to Trio.

Our last stop of the day was Hollywood 20 to see the Green Lantern in 3D. This movie was highly entertaining & I thoroughly enjoyed it. The picture turned out kind of eerie with the two characters looking bright white from the flash.

4th of July in Ellijay - Part 2

Sunday was all about gold.

We drove over to Dahlonega, GA to see the Gold Museum, a gold mine, and to pan for gold & gem stones. Our first stop was the visitor's center to get our tickets. We decided to go to the Gold Museum to get our history lesson before we went panning for gold.

This was a huge machine used to crush the rocks to get the gold out. And then we posed outside on the balcony of the Gold Museum in the center of town square.

We had a nice pizza meal with the smallest bread ever. The bread was fabulous, but really tiny. The waitress also could not count. She brought us 5 really tiny pieces for 8 people. Um, we're starving & wanted 2 pieces each, not 1/2 a piece of bread. After asking for more bread 3 times, we finally got enough.

After our lunch, we browsed a few stores, got some ice cream, and then went to pan gold. It was actually a lot harder than it looks for just a few microscopic pieces of gold.

The tour took us 200 feet below ground to see where they mined the gold. It was a nice cool 60 degrees down there.

The last stop was a different gold mine that included panning for gold again, gem mining, and a wagon ride that took us by many different animals (mostly birds).

(Yes, this was a real, huge turkey)

The moonshine still wasn't running that day.

We had great weather the whole weekend. I think Rachel's family enjoyed their first ever visit to a mountain home.

4th of July in Ellijay - Part 1

On Friday evening, we met Vince's parents, Barbara & Jerry, and my cousin Rachel, her husband Pat, her 2 kids, Ravyn & Cody, and Ravyn's friend Selina, and my niece, Elise in Ellijay, GA.

On Saturday morning, we took them to Amicalola Falls to see the 720 foot water fall. The kids found some fool's gold on the rocks on the way to the falls. So many rocks were sparkling with gold on them. We also found a 1940s truck stuck up in the trees on the way to the falls. I guess they had a wreck many many years ago.

The falls were very pretty that day.

Pat, Elise, Ravyn & Selina hiked up the 400+ stairs to the top to see where the falls begin. They waded into the creek bed.

After our hike, we went to the pool to enjoy the cool water. It was so refreshing after a hot day.