Monday, December 23, 2019

Finally - Snow in Mountains

We were not fortunate enough to have any snow from the heavens on this trip so we had to revert to plan B. Indoor snow tubing.






We took in the Titanic museum because it is of particular intrest to Emily Grace. For some reason no one took any pictures but it was fun all the same. Highlights for Emily Grace was feeling the iceburg and feeling how cold the water was when the boat began to sink. The next morning we headed home for a real Christmas celebration.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Back to Nature

The second day of our trip was time to get back to nature. One would think that with all of the commercial enterprises available to us the these girls would not have much apitite for the great outdoors but they all acutally love it and it tends to be the one of the things that produces the greatest return in terms of life-long memories for our family. We hiked to two water falls. The first was Cataract Falls which was not far from the visitors center.







Next we drove to the Laural Falls trailhead. From the trailhead we went up - way up.






The falls were magnificent






Saturday, December 21, 2019

A Tender Tennessee Pre-Christmas Stampede!

We decided to add a little trip to our Christmas this year so we made our way to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We had just a few days so we set out to do a few things. The first was the Dixie Stampede Christmas show.



The Pre-show with hot chocolate and popcorn







The Main Event - Time to Stampede














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Monday, November 4, 2019

Autumn in New England

Megan and I had a discipline once that every year, around our aniversary, we would take a long weekend to ourselves. It was an opportunity to intentionally connect and to assess our family, our marriage, and our life together. Life circumstances have prevented this for much of the last few years but we took this opportunity to enjoy New England together.

We flew into Providence, Rhode Island. Both of us were hungry so we found this little cafe. Not fancy but quaint for sure.



We made our way down to see the sights. This is the state capital.




Out to eat and then to our HomeAway rental.


This morning we took the train to Boston to see the sights there.





Cheers! No the origional but still.








One of the hi-lites of our trip was a tour of Fenway Park. It was cool to get and inside tour of such a historic park. It was amazing and amazingly small.




Visitors locker room. The home locker room is off limits because many of the players keep things there all year.




The press box




Who knew there was a farm on the roof at the ball park. Now we know and so do you.


The new grass is going down for next season.


The next morning we got up and Joe went to this donut shop that we read about online. It is poorly run in many ways but everyone seemed to be fine with it. Later we found that the donuts are worth the wait.






These are them and they really were worth the wait. I got more than we could actually eat because I had so much time invested into the wait I felt that I had to get at least half a dozen. They were some of the best donuts I ever had.


We spent out day in Newport, Rhode Island. We began with a tour.



Our tour guide was great.




Our tour included a tour of our choice of mansions. We chose The Breakers which belonged to one of  the Vanderbilt boys. We found that as many of these fortunes waned that these houses cost more in property taxes and upkeep than they were worth to the origional owners. Many of them sold for $200,000 and less and some were simply given away. This one now belongs to the historic society as do five or six others.











We had dinner in Newport.



We ran to the lighthouse just in time for Sunset



In this moment I was reminded, as I often am, why I married the beautiful woman. She is the best thing on this earth to me and has made my life more than it could have ever been without her. I love her with all of my heart and both love those three little girls that we left back at home and are now anxious to see again. I am thankful to God that he allowed me to this love and this happiness. I love you Megan Davis.



Next we went home after a day stuck in various airports - typical air travel stories these days but we are finally home and with our family.