Puppy Dog Blue

So after the wild and crazy times in Cozumel, the rest of the cruise was essentially spent waiting to get back to Galveston. The rest of these photos are just lounging around and eating, which is what you do on a cruise.

Myself and Sweet Sweet:

Ashley and Sweet Sweet:

Justin and Ashley:

The last afternoon and night aboard the ship, Justin and I belly up to the bar and have a few. Our lovely wives join us and Sweet Sweet and I enjoy some good times:

The entire trip, we were served by Prito and his helper (I can’t recall his name right now). Prito was incredibly helpful and had no problems bringing out additional deserts and appetizers. He was a tremendous waiter.

The next morning, we waited for a few hours to get off the ship. We were a little over 2 hours late and this caused all of us to get a tad bit antsy, not to mention, the method of getting off of the ship was quite simply awful. Needless to say, we were ready to be on dry land.

So, after getting on the ship, having a nice dinner, we finally arrive in Cozumel without any sort of plan. In fact, they always encourage you to make sure that you’ve booked your excursion and we decided not to do that.

Seat.  Of.  Our.  Pants.

This is Sweet Sweet and I getting off of the ship:

Justin and Ashley:

The Ecstasy, in all of her glory:

Walking on the dock, I can’t believe Justin would carry this bag:

So, we find a taxi and long story short, we ask the driver to take us to the best public beach in Cozumel. He does, and it’s amazing. He essentially drops us off and we find ourselves in an outdoor bar/restaurant that was made for us. We sit down and have a few beers before getting acquainted with the water.

Although I was trying to take a picture of Sweet Sweet (yes, I fail at camera), you can tell that that the sand is beautiful and the water is crystal clear:

The ocean from our table:

Yeah, this doesn’t look like a public beach, but it is:

Justin and Ashely not looking at my camera:

So I’m out in the water and to make another long story short, it turns out that Lori Cochran (now Anding) is at the same beach on a different cruise. So we hook up with their group while we’re there. They paid for the excursion and they were able to eat whatever they wanted and drink as much as they wanted. Justin and I shared some civiche as well as this beautiful fish:

Here’s everyone and the bar/restaurant:

More beautiful beach and water:

Me (someone needs to work out a little harder):

Me, Sweet Sweet and Lori:

Our afternoon ends and we head back to the ship:

Do not remember:

One of the best days ever, other than having to get back onto the ship.

So the second night of the cruise was the night we were supposed to get all dressed up and look decent. Before dinner, we tried to go out on the deck and take photos. The sun was somewhat blinding:

We then decided to take care of this later and moved inside to the Captains Welcome where we threw out gang signs, some cooler than others:

After the Captains Welcome (which turned out to be free drinks) we went back on the deck. This is prior to turning on the flash:

Then with the flash on:

Pretty amazing, right?

Prior to dinner, we had drinks:

It’s been a long time, but I’m hoping you understand. Football season takes up so much of my time that I find time scarce. I know that you guys deserve better, but when time is short, this takes a back seat.

This past weekend, we had a wedding in San Antonio, one of my cousins was married and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen my family.

Sweet Sweet and I go for a walk.

The wedding was at a very nice ranch, close to my Grandmother’s farm.

For some reason I look fat, while my beautiful wife looks gorgeous.

I’m sitting here, essentially waiting for Hurricane Ike to pass so I don’t have to worry about the dead tree in my yard falling on my house, so I thought I’d post some long overdue pictures from July 4th (I know, extremely late).

We had a water balloon fight and good times ensued.

Jenson and Grace.

Jenson intends on getting T.

Grace takes aim against TJ.

Mia gives TJ what she hopes to be a very wet hug.

T and Jenson.

Run for your lives.

Thea gets into the action.

I forgot to mention that Sweet Sweet and I also went hiked to a place called Grotto Falls in the last post, which ended up being a complete beating with way too many people. It was a two mile hike and the worst part about it was that two miles is short enough that just about any person can hike without problem, which means that all of the smokers and overweight folks seem to relish in the accomplishment by taking a ton of pictures and generally lounging around feeling very proud of themselves. I know, I shouldn’t make fun of overweight folks (and 90% of the people who we saw were probably overweight), but I am.

This is the only clear picture I could take . . .

While this is what we really looked at.

We left after about 5 minutes.

The next day, Sweet Sweet and I wanted to start things right and we went to another falls called Laurel Falls. This was a paved path and during the day this place was packed with cars, but we were the second group up and it was all ours for the 10 minutes that we were there.

Our final hike was on a trail called Chimney Tops. This was, by far, the toughest trail we hiked the whole trip, so it was fitting that it was our final trail. Nearly all uphill the entire way.

Here’s Sweet Sweet.

A river runs through it.

So we get to the top, or what we think is the top, and we realize that there is some really steep and slick rock that needs to be climbed in order to get to the top-top. I decide to traverse as far as I can.

You can see Sweet Sweet at the very bottom.

The views from where I sat.

This guy was at the top.

And he took my picture too.

My last pictures of the trip.

Sweet Sweet and I lounged by the pool that afternoon as we decided to stay one more night in Gatlinburg. We drove 17 hours the next day all the way home.

A huge shout-out and thank you to my brother, Ryan, who watched Blue and Zoey while we were away. Much love.

So Sweet Sweet and I are up early the next morning to tackle The Great Smokey Mountains and our first stop is Clingman’s Dome, which is the highest point in the Great Smokey Mountains. It’s quite a drive up to the top, but well worth it.

At some point, there’s this nice parking lot and incredible views so we think to ourselves that we should get out an take a few pictures. This is the view getting out of our car.

Sweet Sweet and I (BTW, it was close to 50 degrees this morning).

The vistas.

Then we realize that we’re actually there at Clingman’s Dome, the path was just around the bend a bit. Back into the car.

The walk to the top of this observation deck is only 0.5 miles, but this was the freaking toughest 0.5 miles I’ve ever walked. The walk was at a very steep grade and I was actually winded when we got to the top.

Here’s Clingman’s Dome.

Sweet Sweet and I at the top of Clingman’s Dome.

Some of the views from the structure.

We walk down (it was much easier getting down that going up) and there’s a 2 or 3 mile hike to a place called Andrew’s Bald. Since were were already here and there weren’t too many tourists around, we decided to start hiking and see what happens.

The path itself was very pretty.

Me.

Sweet Sweet.

Turns out a “bald” is a grassy area on the top of a mountain. It was actually incredibly beautiful because there were all of these azaleas on the top of the mountain (pink, orange, red, etc.).

Sweet Sweet and I at the top.

Views from the top.

So Sweet Sweet and I left Coldiz Cove and were on our way to our final destination, the Great Smokey Mountains. Although there were plenty of interesting things to comment about along the way, perhaps the most interesting thing was a town called Pigeon Forge, which is just 5 miles or so out of Gatlinburg, which is were we were staying (Gatlinburg is right next to the park). Without sounding like an ass, Pigeon Forge has more crap per square inch than any place I’ve ever seen. It is a bastion of restaurants and shows and putt-putt and go-kart rides and stuff. It was amazing and Sweet Sweet and I promised that we would take pictures of all of the crap on our way back through town. Unfortunately, that didn’t happy because we got up so early when we eventually left, but trust me, it’s awful.

So we made our way to Gatinburg and due to traffic just getting from Pigeon Forge, it added another hour to our trip. We kept hoping that once we got to the Great Smokey Mountains (GSM) there’d be fewer people.

Sweet Sweet and I drive through town, past our motel, and decide that we need to get out of the car and do something. Thus, we decide to take the Cade’s Cove driving loop, and although we’re still in our car we enjoyed ourselves.

Perhaps the most interesting thing was the fences and although I didn’t take pictures of it, someone had recently baled hay.

Sweet Sweet walking up to some cabin where we were told there was a black bear.

Wait, do you see it?

Is it Bigfoot?

There he is.

Pretty amazing views:

So, there’s this old mill that’s a fairly major stop along the way and wanting to walk around a bit, Sweet Sweet and I stop to look around. So there’s this old barn and Sweet Sweet thought it would be funny (and it was) to do a yearbook pose:

Part of the mill:

It was getting to be dusk and there were lots of deer out and about:

Here’s the only problem with Cades Cove loop.  You can’t pass people, so if some one wants to watch a deer, that’s right, a freaking deer for 10 minutes, there’s nothing you can do to pass them. Thus, you end up with these people, who I assume are all from the city and have never seen a deer, pointing and staring at a deer. It was frustrating to say the least.

After finishing Cades Cove we headed to the motel to shower-up, grab some dinner and a few beers. It was a good way to end the day.

Here’s the video portion of the presentation.  Slave Falls (Part I and Part II), Twin Arches, and Colditz Cove.

After Memphis, we hit the road and travel to Jamestown, Tennessee, where we stayed at the Wildwood Lodge, which was a bed and breakfast just right outside of the actual state park, Big South Fork. First things first, Clare and Julia were wonderful hosts. They were the kind of hosts that you dream about having. Without question, Sweet Sweet and I thought they were absolutely wonderful and made our stay memorable.

Back to the trip, we were pretty hungry and after driving for a while, we realize that we’re not going to be close to any restaurant, so we ask the ladies for a good place to eat. They recommend a restaurant called Bacara’s, and after a U-turn, we find the place, and we’re notified that it’s going to be a lot of food and the price is $9.00 per person. Sweet Sweet and I are fine with this, site unseen. Holy smokes, we had no idea what we were in for.

This was the first course, which consisted of fresh fruits, cream cheese and a cinnamon-peanut butter bread that was incredible:

Next up was Sweet Sweet looking pretty hungry:

Up next, was a garden fresh salad (I almost forgot to take a picture of the food):

Then we had an onion soup. Delicious:

Now we’re actually to the main course, which included the following: two large slices of prime rib, two chicken breasts, baked beans, scrambled eggs, a savory pancake, fish, rice and fresh vegetables:

Finally, we had desert, which was some sort of pastry with cream and a chocolate sauce:

Here’s the only bad thing about the meal, it took us 3 hours to eat, and that’s not an exaggeration. We had time to do a couple of small hikes. The first took us to a vista (the actual hike was 100 yards) overlooking the river, and yes, I forgot I was shooting in black and white:

Sweet Sweet:

Me:

Next, we took a hike to what was supposed to be a falls area along the river, but there were no such falls, but there were some nice photos:

Sweet Sweet is a little disappointed at the lack of falls (I was too), but we did get to work off some of our lunch:

Sweet Sweet and Me:

Sweet Sweet suggested that I get across the limb for a picture and this is me telling her to go fly a kite:

We then head back to our our lodging to check in and shower-up. First, we were introduced to another huge meal, which began with strawberry mint-juleps. Sweet Sweet quipped that we needed to start having cocktails before dinner. Again, a huge garden salad, all of the wine we could drink, and enough chicken carbonara you could eat. We were again absolutely stuffed and happy. The next morning, we decided that were were going to hike to two places: Twin Arches and Slave Falls.

Twin Arches is one of the largest land bridges in the world and here we begin our hike at 9:00 a.m. in the morning:

It was only 0.7 miles to Twin Arches and the sign for Slave Falls said it was only 2.5 miles away. No problem we said. So we start walking along huge rock formations:

And we walk:

And we walk:

And we get to a trickle of water (I seriously could have urinated a stronger stream of liquid) called Slave Falls:

It was surrounded by a huge amphitheater, but other than that, not too exciting and it took us a really long time to get there:

So we’re pretty pissed off because there was no “payoff” for walking all that way and it’s a couple of hours to get back to our car, mostly uphill. Damn. We get back to Twin Arches and go up and cross the bridge itself:

We’re both pretty exhausted so I make the suggestion that we go down to the river, grab a six-pack and hangout. Sweet Sweet was pretty nervous about getting into the river, but I had no problems sitting back and relaxing. As an aside, you may want to turn down the brightness on your computer screen, my chest needs a little sun:

Shots of the river:

After we finish the six-pack, we head back to the B&B and shower-up again for dinner. This time it was garden fresh salad, steak-kabobs, and all the wine you could drink.

The next morning, we figured out that there was another falls area on the way to the Smoke Mountains, but was still in Big South Fork, called Colditz Cove. Not a long hike, but we thought we didn’t have much to lose.

I can see some real falls:

A very pretty walk:

This is me with my killing-stick. Which reminds me, when walking back from Slave Falls, there was a snake in the pathway that scared the crap out of both of us. The snake wasn’t moving too much, but I didn’t have a killing-stick with me at the time. Luckily, I found a stick, but we did not harm the snake. We were able to jump over the snake without issue. Again, scared the crap out of us. Back to me:

Sweet Sweet:

Actual water:

Me and Sweet Sweet:

Up next, the Great Smokey Mountains.