01 jun: day 03 of our vacation: aquarium

01 jun: day 03 of our vacation: gatlinburg

we woke up the next morning, took showers at lou's, packed a few snacks, and headed off to gatlinburg. we were planning to spend the day there for my {26th} birthday.

after driving for a few hours, the smokey mountains suddenly popped up in front of us.i have never seen such a tourist-y area as the area was the closer we got to gatlinburg. there were"hillbilly shacks" like the ones below, as well as museums, huge miniature golf course attractions, "as seen on tv stores" everywhere, and just about any other paintball-arcade-waterpark-family attraction you can think of.the drive was going well, though, and we were having a good time. surprisingly enough i managed to sleep very little in the car this trip.

we pulled away from all of the gimmicks and found ourselves on a scenic route again. we rounded a corner a little later and suddenly found ourselves in gatlinburg. it's tucked away in the smokey mountains. we drove through town, and i had never seen anything like that place. the town is similar to a grown up walt disney world or six flags, with the themed shops and restaurants. there were also amusement type rides and attractions all through the town. it was unusual. the purpose of going to gatlinburg was to go to the acquarium. travis had been before and anytime his aunt lou visits oklahoma she talks about the acquarium as well. we paid to park several blocks away and then tried to find a map of the town (it looked just like the kind you find in six flags). a kind man directed us, and we made our way through the other tourists, purchased our tickets and headed inside. (more pics to come in the next post).

31 may: day 02 of our vacation: nashville

we woke up early sunday morning, showered, and hopped back in the car. we got into nashville around 10:30. this is the view of the city as we drove in. the car was in desperate need of fuel ... but we discovered that nashville is apparently the land of no filling stations. we finally found a place to fuel up after driving around for about half an hour.

we spent about an hour in nashville, and then decided that it could be a trip in and of itself. we had told lou that we would be at her house that day, we got back in the car and headed east again.

when we got to lou's her son wayne and his girlfriend coty and their kids were at the house finishing up a birthday party. wayne was so excited to see travis. i had never met him before but you could tell from the way he was acting that he was just so proud to have travis there and was having a good time catching him up on all that had gone on in the past few years. not long after everyone left, cyle (lou's other son) got home from work. he is more mild-mannered than wayne and he, travis, and i spent the rest of the evening visiting and watching movies.

30 may: day 1 of our vacation

for my birthday travis (kind of) surprised me with a vacation! when i was at addison he knew that i needed some time away and had planned this get away for us. then, when i was no longer at addison, he decided that we had both been through a lot and needed a good vacation. we packed everything on friday, headed to justin and lindsay's. we actually ended up consuming a bit too much alcohol while playing xbox, and instead of leaving at 7:00 in the morning as originally planned, we left around 12:30. it was great just to be out of town ... it's funny how things just feel different.
we were headed to oak ridge, tennessee to see travis's aunt lou, as well as other tourist-y sites throughout tennessee. travis had never been through arkansas to get to tennessee, so we decided to take the scenic route. the drive was really pretty when we first started, but after several hours of only countryside, we were ready to cross the state line. we had experienced country rap (seriously, a country guy rapping about living in the country), passed "broken down windmills" that turned out to be trees, and the best one ever (i can't believe i missed this photo opp) a salon called "pitcher perfect -- not just hair, it's art". we couldn't stop laughing. we had another giggle fit not far into missouri. there was a bright yellow building with large, multi-colored jelly beans painted all over the side of it. it was called jelly bean hill ... and here's the kicker -- turned out to be a discount tobacco distributor! what??
we drove and drove for hours (and i only slept 20 minutes) and finally crossed the mighty mississippi into tennessee around 8:00 that night. we had planned to stop in mayfield (from where all of travis's dad's family originates), but decided that the drive through arkansas had extended the driving longer than anticipated as it was. we drove about an hour south to jackson where we got a hotel room for the night. we were so tired from driving we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow -- we didn't take showers, turn on the tv or anything! i sent a message telling all of our family good night at 8:52 pm! we were asleep before 9.