Vacation time!!!!!
Well, it has been a LONG time since I posted anything to LJ, so I guess it's time to write another one!
This one is going to be about the vacation that we took to North Carolina. What a difference in attitude between there and here in Cali. Everyone is just so relaxed, and things seem at a much slower pace, but everything gets done, while here in California, everyone is in such a rush, that nothing ever gets done.
To start out, our trip left on time, and the first flight was nice and smooth. Landed on time, and we had a 3 hour layover in Dallas. BTW, the food on the airplane is WAY over priced!!! 10 bucks for a sandwich? (I did not order one). After we got off the plane, we went to the concourse that they said our next flight was taking off from. A20 I think it was. Anyway, during our layover, since we didn't eat anything that morning, we went to a TGI Friday's in the airport and had the sampler and a Spinich dip, just to tide us over. We took our time eating, and about 30 min before the plane was to start boarding, we went to the gate, just to find out that they switched the gate!!!! We had to go all the way to B21! If anyone knows the Dallas Airport, it is HUGE!!!! We got to the gate on time, with about 5 minutes to spare. We boarded the plane, and as we were on the taxi way, we started seeing some lightning on outside. Lo and behold, the pilot came over the loud speaker and said that the airport has been shut down due to the storm. Wheeee!!! Ok, there we sat on the taxi way for an hour until the storm passed, and they finally started to let planes leave. While we were waiting, some india person tried to get off the plane, saying he was scared of flying, and said he would even walk back to the gate! YEAH RIGHT! After we finally took off, the rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed about 40 min late in Charlotte.
We stayed at Cheri's sister's house that night, and then went to her mom's the next morning, which was about an hour drive. The first day, we ended up just sitting back relaxing, and getting adjusted to the time difference. About 7:30 pm that night, I could not keep my eyes open any more, and I went to bed till about midnight. About that time, Cheri came into the bedroom, and we put on some TV shows on the laptop.
The 2nd day, we were slightly pushed into looking into other houses in the area. The first one we went to, it was a nice place, but there is no internet service there, so that one was a NO! Remember, this was supposed to be a VACATION not a house hunting visit! Anyway, when we finished looking at the house, we went back to the van and guess what. It wouldn't start! Good thing that I had cell reception there! We got the van towed to the garage that Cheri's mom always goes to, and on the way there, we started finding ticks all over us.. EWWW!!! All in all, I think I found at least 6 on me, and Cheri found 5 or 6 on her! I don't know how many were on her mom! Well, we got to the garage, and they found out that it was just a bad batery (which I suspected), and got that replaced, and we went back to the house for the rest of the day.
The next day, we decided to rent a car, instead of having her mom drive all over the place. It was a nice red '09 Toyota. Apparently, Cheri's mom called a Real Estate agent the previous day, and we had an appointment to see her, so we went, and got a listing of a lot more places to look at. While at that appointment, I got a call from the person who owns the house we REALLY want in the first place. Still, remember, this was supposed to be a Vacation!! So, we rushed and ended the appointment, and headed over to the place that we are really interested in and met the guy. He was real nice, and showed us around. We still REALLY want it!!!! It is more or less going to be coming up with the money to get it first. I won't go into detail about the house in this post. After we looked at the house, we went back to Cheri's mom's, and relaxed a bit before just Cheri and I went out for the night.
Cheri and I went to the Cherokee reservation, and she showed me the place where she would like our wedding to be. It is a beautiful place with two streams merging.
It is very peaceful and calm there. I didn't get a picture of the exact spot, but off to the left, you can see where it will be held. After walking around there, we strolled through the park and just enjoyed the scenery, like a real vacation would be! There was some awsome bamboo trees with a path that went through. From the outside, you couldn't see in, but you could see out of them, due to the light difference. From the Cherokee reservation, we went to Smokey Mountain National Park, where they had moved the original settler's houses from where they were, to that spot, and told about each one. It was interesting learning the history of the settlers in North Carolina. While wandering around there, off in the distance, I saw a pure white cat sitting on a fence. Having a "California exhibit state of mind", I thought that the cat was fake. Well, guess what, it wasn't fake! It was a very friendly cat that decided to follow us around for a good 5 min or so after we stopped to pet it.
Well, anyway, the next day, just to appease her mom, I loaded up the laptop with all the places to go look at, from the house listings we got the day before, and we went driving around looking at each of them from the outside. There were a few nice ones, but all in all, not as good as the main house that we went to see in the first place. Nothing really eventful happened during the viewing of all the houses. After we got back, we had to get ready to go to Cheri's aunt and uncle's house for a bbq and home-made ice cream. YUM! I got to meet more of the family. While we were there, Cheri thought it would be funny to bring me a small banana pepper. OMG! My mouth was burning!!!!! It tasted good though hehehehe.
On Friday, we had it scheduled to turn in the car, and had plans to go have another BBQ with Cheri's brother in Tennessee. On the way to drop off the car, Cheri's mom's van started smelling like oil was burning. After we got back to the house, we look at the van, and couldn't see anything wrong with it. There was nothing we really could do at that time, and we had to get ready to go to Tennessee. The van made it there and back, but in the process, while in Tennessee, we discovered that the van had split the fuel line, and oil pan was leaking. We all think it was from the tow truck driver from the other day, when the battery died. So, I met more of her family, and had another good BBQ. It was good to relax finally. Then, at the end of the night, before we left to go back to the house, we find out that everyone had the plans totally screwed up for our return flight on Sunday morning!!! UGH!
Saturday, I was on the phone all morning trying to see about renting another car for a one-way, and NOBODY has one-way rentals in the area, and if I was to rent a one-way from the airport, I would need a major credit card, NOT just a debit card attached to my bank account.. WTF!! Anyway, after doing that for a few hours, I got on IRC and got ahold of Power Salad, but unfortunately, he was 400 miles from where we were, so he couldn't do it. Thank you for responding Chris! About 2pm, we finally were able to come up with a plan to get us to the Airport. One of Cheri's sisters drove up from South Carolina, to drag us off to the airport. We had to be there at 4 or 5am. After that, it was time to relax again. Cheri and I went out walking up the road, following a creek for a little.
The plane trip home was fairly uneventful until we got back into California. We made it, but our luggage didn't! We went up to the counter and found out that it was going to be on the next flight, so we waited around till the next flight came in, and all of our luggage was there. But, now the worst part comes.... Paying for the parking. 2 1/2 hours worth of parking cost 30 bucks... now WTF!!!!! That is just highway robbery!
Well, that was a quick little recap of our vacation to North Carolina. As with any trip, it had it's good times and bad times.
Maybe I will add another entry to LJ a little more often than once every other year!
This one is going to be about the vacation that we took to North Carolina. What a difference in attitude between there and here in Cali. Everyone is just so relaxed, and things seem at a much slower pace, but everything gets done, while here in California, everyone is in such a rush, that nothing ever gets done.
To start out, our trip left on time, and the first flight was nice and smooth. Landed on time, and we had a 3 hour layover in Dallas. BTW, the food on the airplane is WAY over priced!!! 10 bucks for a sandwich? (I did not order one). After we got off the plane, we went to the concourse that they said our next flight was taking off from. A20 I think it was. Anyway, during our layover, since we didn't eat anything that morning, we went to a TGI Friday's in the airport and had the sampler and a Spinich dip, just to tide us over. We took our time eating, and about 30 min before the plane was to start boarding, we went to the gate, just to find out that they switched the gate!!!! We had to go all the way to B21! If anyone knows the Dallas Airport, it is HUGE!!!! We got to the gate on time, with about 5 minutes to spare. We boarded the plane, and as we were on the taxi way, we started seeing some lightning on outside. Lo and behold, the pilot came over the loud speaker and said that the airport has been shut down due to the storm. Wheeee!!! Ok, there we sat on the taxi way for an hour until the storm passed, and they finally started to let planes leave. While we were waiting, some india person tried to get off the plane, saying he was scared of flying, and said he would even walk back to the gate! YEAH RIGHT! After we finally took off, the rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed about 40 min late in Charlotte.
We stayed at Cheri's sister's house that night, and then went to her mom's the next morning, which was about an hour drive. The first day, we ended up just sitting back relaxing, and getting adjusted to the time difference. About 7:30 pm that night, I could not keep my eyes open any more, and I went to bed till about midnight. About that time, Cheri came into the bedroom, and we put on some TV shows on the laptop.
The 2nd day, we were slightly pushed into looking into other houses in the area. The first one we went to, it was a nice place, but there is no internet service there, so that one was a NO! Remember, this was supposed to be a VACATION not a house hunting visit! Anyway, when we finished looking at the house, we went back to the van and guess what. It wouldn't start! Good thing that I had cell reception there! We got the van towed to the garage that Cheri's mom always goes to, and on the way there, we started finding ticks all over us.. EWWW!!! All in all, I think I found at least 6 on me, and Cheri found 5 or 6 on her! I don't know how many were on her mom! Well, we got to the garage, and they found out that it was just a bad batery (which I suspected), and got that replaced, and we went back to the house for the rest of the day.
The next day, we decided to rent a car, instead of having her mom drive all over the place. It was a nice red '09 Toyota. Apparently, Cheri's mom called a Real Estate agent the previous day, and we had an appointment to see her, so we went, and got a listing of a lot more places to look at. While at that appointment, I got a call from the person who owns the house we REALLY want in the first place. Still, remember, this was supposed to be a Vacation!! So, we rushed and ended the appointment, and headed over to the place that we are really interested in and met the guy. He was real nice, and showed us around. We still REALLY want it!!!! It is more or less going to be coming up with the money to get it first. I won't go into detail about the house in this post. After we looked at the house, we went back to Cheri's mom's, and relaxed a bit before just Cheri and I went out for the night.
Cheri and I went to the Cherokee reservation, and she showed me the place where she would like our wedding to be. It is a beautiful place with two streams merging.
It is very peaceful and calm there. I didn't get a picture of the exact spot, but off to the left, you can see where it will be held. After walking around there, we strolled through the park and just enjoyed the scenery, like a real vacation would be! There was some awsome bamboo trees with a path that went through. From the outside, you couldn't see in, but you could see out of them, due to the light difference. From the Cherokee reservation, we went to Smokey Mountain National Park, where they had moved the original settler's houses from where they were, to that spot, and told about each one. It was interesting learning the history of the settlers in North Carolina. While wandering around there, off in the distance, I saw a pure white cat sitting on a fence. Having a "California exhibit state of mind", I thought that the cat was fake. Well, guess what, it wasn't fake! It was a very friendly cat that decided to follow us around for a good 5 min or so after we stopped to pet it.
Well, anyway, the next day, just to appease her mom, I loaded up the laptop with all the places to go look at, from the house listings we got the day before, and we went driving around looking at each of them from the outside. There were a few nice ones, but all in all, not as good as the main house that we went to see in the first place. Nothing really eventful happened during the viewing of all the houses. After we got back, we had to get ready to go to Cheri's aunt and uncle's house for a bbq and home-made ice cream. YUM! I got to meet more of the family. While we were there, Cheri thought it would be funny to bring me a small banana pepper. OMG! My mouth was burning!!!!! It tasted good though hehehehe.
On Friday, we had it scheduled to turn in the car, and had plans to go have another BBQ with Cheri's brother in Tennessee. On the way to drop off the car, Cheri's mom's van started smelling like oil was burning. After we got back to the house, we look at the van, and couldn't see anything wrong with it. There was nothing we really could do at that time, and we had to get ready to go to Tennessee. The van made it there and back, but in the process, while in Tennessee, we discovered that the van had split the fuel line, and oil pan was leaking. We all think it was from the tow truck driver from the other day, when the battery died. So, I met more of her family, and had another good BBQ. It was good to relax finally. Then, at the end of the night, before we left to go back to the house, we find out that everyone had the plans totally screwed up for our return flight on Sunday morning!!! UGH!
Saturday, I was on the phone all morning trying to see about renting another car for a one-way, and NOBODY has one-way rentals in the area, and if I was to rent a one-way from the airport, I would need a major credit card, NOT just a debit card attached to my bank account.. WTF!! Anyway, after doing that for a few hours, I got on IRC and got ahold of Power Salad, but unfortunately, he was 400 miles from where we were, so he couldn't do it. Thank you for responding Chris! About 2pm, we finally were able to come up with a plan to get us to the Airport. One of Cheri's sisters drove up from South Carolina, to drag us off to the airport. We had to be there at 4 or 5am. After that, it was time to relax again. Cheri and I went out walking up the road, following a creek for a little.
The plane trip home was fairly uneventful until we got back into California. We made it, but our luggage didn't! We went up to the counter and found out that it was going to be on the next flight, so we waited around till the next flight came in, and all of our luggage was there. But, now the worst part comes.... Paying for the parking. 2 1/2 hours worth of parking cost 30 bucks... now WTF!!!!! That is just highway robbery!
Well, that was a quick little recap of our vacation to North Carolina. As with any trip, it had it's good times and bad times.
Maybe I will add another entry to LJ a little more often than once every other year!