Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Cars...Planes.....Sand and Chalk....

November has been fun and busy...so much goes on in Florida during the "winter" months....

We went to an old car show at Gamble Mansion...it was amazing....these were all in perfect condition..their owners loved them, for sure







I loved this old "Woody"....perfect for the beach

This one was for sale....it's tempting to buy a fun car...


My RV friend Linda was in town for a Rally and was staying only about 10min away. It was time for Denny to see RV's up close....so we had dinner there and then enjoyed a 2-man band. They played oldies and we had a blast....maybe he'll like this rving thing after all.
Because of Veteran's Day there was an air show from the "War Birds"....very cool models





The show kept being delayed and we didn't get to see them fly, but there will be another chance in a few weeks. Was still cool to see them.

Then came the Sand Sculpting Contest and The Chalk Festival. Friend Kathy and her sister and I went to see these.
Amazing what they can do with sand.....







This was a very long sculpture that had all the sponsors names on them...

This one won the contest...with the formula for caffeine on it...pretty funny
The coffee cup on the left side of the picture got a little cut out..oops


There were a few "amateur" sculptures too....but they were pretty good in my book....

Now it was time to head downtown and see the Chalk Festtival....these are really hard to capture in pictures....the depth and detail are unbelievable...




If you ever get a chance to see a chalk festival....GO!!! There were some in 2D and 3D and they had lenses for you to look through to see how it was done...it truly was amazing.

That about catches things up .....Thanksgiving is coming....a trip to see Callaway Gardens Christmas Lights and the biggest shopping day of the year....oh boy the next 10 days will be WOW.
Then there's a trip to Disney to see it all decorated for Christmas...many fun things coming.
I will make time to bake and volunteer for the Delta Holiday Military Lounge....so stay tuned, there's much right around the corner.

Let the Holidays Begin!!!




Birthday's....Halloween and Fun stuff

Well...it's time for a catch up post. After all the September vacations, life took over and I neglected getting things posted. Vacations were great, but the fall is a busy fun time.

In September my great nephew twins, Witt and Jase turned one....so we went from this:


To this....in one year...my they grow fast.


The party theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar......too cute


Witt has him beat on hair....

Jase wins on head size.....wow


Witt was digging into the Caterpillar head...yum....
Thanks Great Aunt Shea-Shea for making our cool cake!!!


October came my 52nd birthday, which I celebrated in Atlanta with family and friends. This year on my birthday was nephew Brad's, Breast Cancer Fund Raiser... http://www.gunsandboobies.com
This started out as a fun birthday thing, but has turned into a really terrific fundraiser...it was a blast.
This was the beginning of set-up, day before...sorry I forgot to get pics on the day, but the website has plenty.

Fun outside fall time was next on the busy fall schedule......this is big boy Dylan he turned 1 in March.

Here are Dylan's cousins....Quinton and twins, Witt and Jase

This twin thing is a hoot...people still ask their mom if they are identical...REALLY???


Halloween fun........our Bat Pumpkin turned out great...good job Denny.


We had about 30 kids come to the door, but the most exciting part was the snake that showed up....of all nights. Denny thought Halloween was a great night for it...he got him off the front porch and all was well.
Mom came down for about 5 nites and was here for Halloween...we had made that our seafood nite....yum.

Quinton was a pirate.....
The twins were something Disney....maybe Minions???

Thanks Britt for all the pictures....
September and October were busy and full of fun.
We took Mom to a Publix cooking class. It was demo only, the class was called Brews & 
Chews.
Was all about fall....our menu was great and each course was paired with a different beer. I switched to wine, but Mom and Denny hung with beer....and were feeling no pain at the end of the night.

November was coming and looking busy too......








Sunday, October 6, 2013

Jericho Parade....so glad we got to see it....and Covered Bridges

We were up and ready to go bright and early....there was no way we were going to miss this. Many years ago I happened to just be in the right place at the right time to see a parade in Blairsville, Ga.....I was expecting this to be very similar...and it did not let me down. Small town parades have their own flavor....because the towns are small they don't have access to what big cities do, so, just about anyone can be in the parade....they are very colorful and highly entertaining....the town was already very busy, with lots of cars....but we fell into some "dumb luck" and parked right down from where the parade would start. We easily found a place on the street to watch and then it started....


                                                                 A local church group and maybe the mayor

                                             Had to have the local tractors and wagons.....
                             Drill team (maybe) and the High School Band......that only played when they stopped

                                                          The local Day Care...........and some more tractors

                     The Boy Scouts...................................and never really figured out what he represented


        the local Youth Dance Club...................and adult men's Liar Liar club pushing old timey mowers..hum

                                       Now that 4-wheeler could climb through anything
The band almost had on uniforms...tops/bottoms/hats all seemed to match...but shoes, gloves.....seemed if you just showed up that was good enough.


The Fire Engine was the end......it was a show for sure



With the parade over it was time to see what was at the fair. The majority of things were under tents on tables on the church grounds. Some few folks were set-up inside the church and there were PLENTY of folks set up in their own yards along the street....taking advantage of all the traffic. As we walked around the "booths" we were noticing that this was really more of a flea market or swap meet. Most of the "goods" looked to be what had been bought and saved from yard sales....it was quite the experience. We had been told for 2 days we had to try fried dough, so we were on a quest.
However we came across this unique idea for a "dunking machine"....seems instead of you getting dunked INTO the water...it gets dunked ONTO you....unique
Not sure I've ever seen animal hides/skins and antlers sold at a fair.....hummmm


And this was the Crowned Jewel....I know, (not even in Blairsville at the Sorgum Festival), have a I seen a pregnancy test booth at a family county fair.....yep, we laughed until we cried over this one. Seems you could take that stick into the port-o-potty and they could tell you in no time.....wow, who would have ever thought it?????


These guys were pretty good and were playing in front of the small church


These folks from the town of Underhill were making bread in cast iron pots with hot coals. They would cut it up for samples and you could buy whole loaves.....it was fairly good, but we passed on buying it. 


The finished product for sale....


We spotted the sign....so we had to try it. I'm so sorry I forgot to get a picture, but think of a funnel cake without any holes. It was just a round piece of fried dough that you added syrup/cinnamon/sugar or whatever you liked to and then ate it, tearing it apart just like a funnel cake. We shared one, it was good...and we had finally had fried dough....check!! 

We did some more looking and after a bit headed for the car....Karen wanted to see Boyden Winery and we wanted to see some of the many covered bridges. 
While she did her tastings and purchasing I sat outside and watched a wedding under a big pavilion ont he winery grounds....looked lovely and they had blue skys...very lucky. After sitting a while, we got our lazy bones up and went to see some of the local covered bridges....
We had to drive to Johnson about 30min away....

The first one we came to you couldn't drive across.....but is was still neat, they had done, and were still doing construction on it. 


Next was Scribner Bridge....you could drive across this one, but we didn't. It was at the end of a dirt road, so we just stopped, took some pictures, walked across and went to the next one.




Then down the road was Cambridge Junction Bridge .....it was over a very calm stream





The last one was Bryan Covered Bridge....this sign was posted on the wall inside the bridge. There used to be a gristmill here and we could see the remains... This bridge was right at a small park so we sat at a picnic table for a while, watched kids play in the gorgeous, but probably cold water, and watched some guys fishing.




Our last evening we went to 158 Main for dinner....it was packed. We sat at the bar to eat just so we didn't have to wait for a table. The filet was awesome and Karen said her chicken was very good. Then up the mountain we went one last time. We got bags packed and some put in the car, we had to start at 4am. We made our flights home, tired but happy. It had been a wonderful vacation.....Smuggs....we'll be back!!!!