The Cook Family Blog

I am such a slacker

2009-10-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

I am way too late in keeping this up to date. Life has been very busy, just like everyone. I read my nieces blogs and they shamed me into making the time.

The kids have started school. That is going OK but not spectacular. Ian was in a class that was sort of on hold because it was over the state size limit so they knew they were going to hire a new teacher and split the class. As a result he came home every day complaining that they were giving him "baby" work to do. I had to agree. All of his teachers agree that he needs to be in a gifted or other accelerated program but the bureaucracy of the county gets in the way. Last week his soccer coach told me he was on the field talking about polarity. First we had to wait for the class re-org to finish, then they told us he can have a preliminary test in late October, then the real test in 120 days. I blew up. Half the year is over by then. We are having him tested by an outside psychologist next week. The $500 will be worth every penny if he can get into a better program.

While I am on Ian. We had his 8th birthday party. We had a beach party at our favorite beach which is locally known as "picnic tables". It was a relatively easy party so we let him invite everyone he knew. With families we had about 70 people. The day was perfect. It was warm, sunny, and the waves were little 1 to 2 footers. Perfect for little kids with boogie boards. Everyone had a blast. It was a perfect Florida party. Ian also just got his yellow belt in junior karate and he is joining the cub scouts. He is a busy guy.

Chenna is beginning to branch into new things. She still goes to dance and Girl Scouts but she has added the volleyball team at her school. She has entered middle school which is proving to be a steep hill for her. She has a lot of difficulty organizing to get to the right class with the right books, assignments, etc. She had to spend last weekend at home catching up on overdue work but she did it. She has come a long way in her reactions to being told to do things she doesn't want to do.

Last night her and Cherie went to the "mall madness". That is a Girl Scout event where the girls go to the mall at closing time and they lock them into the mall until 6:30 AM. Many of the stores stay open (mostly Starbucks) all night. They watch movies, play games, socialize, etc. It sounds like pure hell to me but they had a great time.

We did not get to d0 our usual long vacation this summer due to my work commitments. We did get away for a week to the keys. The kids had never been there. Cherie and I were avid scuba divers pre-kids so we have been looking foreword to the day the kids would take to the reefs. We stayed at Sugarloaf Key which is about 20 minutes up from Key West. The weather was hot but with the AC in the camper and our campsite right on the beach we were fine.

The highlight was a couple of snorkel trips to the reef. As we expected Chenna took to the water with no problem. Ian was very tentative. He wanted to stay next to the boat for a while. Once he looked down he saw a school of about 100 yellow snapper under us. That was all it took for him to be hooked. At one point he saw a 6 foot nurse shark. I thought he would be terrified. He thought it was the coolest thing he had ever seen.

We did a lot of touristy stuff in Key West like hang out at Mallory Square at sunset and go to the pirate museums. It was one of our best trips ever. We will be doing that again, hopefully on a regular basis.

2009-02-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

As promised. Here are some pictures of the new addition. Still no name but the kids are leaning towards Falcor. I think Falcor is an ancient Chinese luck dragon. She is a cute thing and feeding her is a lot of fun. She attacks the crickets with a vengeance. We found that her habitat was about 10 degrees cooler than it should have been so we added a ceramic heater. Now the hot end of her terrarium gets up to about 100 F and the cool end up to about 85 in the day. At night when the heat light goes off the whole habitat is about 80 F.

Ian and I went to a cub scout troop meeting tonight to check out a den we are thinking of joining. It seems like a great group with good kids and a very active bunch of adults. We will probably end up joining them but Ian wants to think about it. All of the kids go to another school so he was a little intimidated. His school doesn't have a cub scout program so we had to go looking.

2009-02-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since the last blog. Both of the kids has science fairs, Christmas, the Disney Marathon, and visits from relatives. The latest big news is the arrival of another member of the family. Ian is now the proud owner of a Bearded Dragon. We spent the last couple of weeks building her habitat in a 55 gallon aquarium we bought at a garage sell. We studied about them, and finally after making a couple of trips to the pet store we selected one and brought her home (the girl at the store says she thinks it is a girl but it's too early to tell for certain).

Chenna and Ian are in the process of naming her. She is a lot of fun. She eats live crickets and fruits and vegetables. It's pretty exciting when she eats the crickets. I am certain that will be a

favorite of Ian and his buddies. I'll post some images as soon as we get some good ones. This is a big step for Ian. It was just like Christmas for him last night. He couldn't sleep and got up at 5:30 to see when we could go to the pet store.

Going back to older news. Christmas was fun as usual. We went to Disney for our annual time wtih Mickey for the holidays. We stayed at the campground and really relaxed.

Cherie and I ran the Disney races this year. She did the 1/2 marathon on Saturday and I did the marathon on Sunday. It was very nice weather and the course is great. I rarely tunred my ipod on because they had so much entertainment along the way, and the crowds were awesome. Both of us missed our PRs (Personal Records) by just a little. I was ahead until both legs cramped at mile 24.5. I ended up finishing in 3:41:30 which was about 1 minute 30 seconds behind my PR. All in all I felt like I ran a smart race and gave it all. I feel good about it.

Cherie finished in 2:04 which was about a minute behind her PR. She had a nose bleed from miles 9 through 11 but never slowed down. Tough woman.

The picture above is her at the finish with our neighbor Jess Trio who finished her first 1/2 marathon. Notice the high fashion ice bags on the knees. What a fun sport. Below is one of me at the finish, then the three of us at the after race celebration showing off our bling.

2008-11-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

What a great day! It began with
Ian's Book Parade at school. Ian
went as Jango Fett, and marched in the parade with his class.Chenna went

to school as Princess Leia.

After school the kids came and helped make goblin eyes for the cul-de sac party.

Soon it was time to put out the pumpkins:

We trick or treated with the Star Wars theme: Jeff was Yoda and I was Obi Wan Kenobi. Julie came with us and the kids got a ton of candy. Grandpa joined us for the cul-de-sac party after trick of treat, and we all had a great time.
Saturday Ian had a soccer game and then
we went to the Founder's day parade: that's Chenna in the truck!
It has rained ever since the parade!

The rest of the day was quiet.

Tomorrow Chenna sings in the choir

at church and Ian has soccer pictures. Back at it!

It's Halloween!

2008-10-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

It's time for the annual Halloween carving. This year both Scott and Kyle are at college, but we did a few gruesome pumpkins in their honor all the same. John and Julie came, and so did Grandpa. Ian and Jeff did the cleaning out job, and we are roasting pumpkin seeds tonight.

Here is Chenna, who swears she wants to live where it's cold!

Easter Sunday

2008-03-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the Easter egg hunt at Chenna's school. It was a nice day with some light showers but they held off for the hunt. Chenna helped by doing some of the face painting.

We have had a nice Easter so far. We got up early and went to sunrise mass on the beach. There were several thousand people on the beach. It was a nice morning. Chenna and I watched some dolphins and pelicans feeding just off the shore.

Later, we came home and saw what the Easter Bunny left for us. It was the usual 2 minute frenzy.

Cherie has been cooking all weekend for the big feast at John and Julie Cooke's. We are doing some of the traditional favorites such as Easter bread but the main theme is Brazilian / South American. We are doing tapas, followed by soup and salad. The main course is a

Charrasqueria like they have in Brazil where the meat comes out on long spits and you carve off pieces for the guests.

Ian's Room

2008-03-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

I've been working on Ian's room. I like the way it's turning out. He wanted the theme to be space and rockets. you can see the very cool curtains my mom made for him. It's hard to see in this image but those colored spots are planets. Cherie found a bed set that I swear must be from the same manufacturer. The pattern is identical.

The paint on the walls is supposed to look like a sunset which becomes the light blue sky and then fades to a darker blue near the ceiling. I did that by painting the different colored stripes, then using my compressed air sprayer to blend them at the transitions.

I found these lights on the Internet. You can also see some of the glow in the dark planets that are hanging all over the room. Even Pluto is included.
This is another shot of the curtains and the view out the window. It's a jungle out there.

Our friend Julie found the ceiling fan at Lowes. It fits the theme perfectly.

Next is the bed. I have some of the lumber to start that. It will look like a launch pad with a Saturn V rocket. After that I plan to make a corner bookshelf that looks like and Ares V rocket.

I'm having lots of fun. I wish I had more time to spend on things like this. Ian seems to love it.

Jeff

The Tail of the Lizard

2008-03-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Races for three weekends in a row. This weeks event was the tail of the lizard 2 mile race. It is run in conjunction with it's older brother the "eye of the dragon" which is a 10K (6.2 miles) race. The unique thing about this one is it includes a Florida mountain. It goes over the Eau Gallie Causeway and back.

All 5 of us ran the race and the guys all brought home hardware. They had some really cool plaster geckos for trophies. Ian was 3rd in his age group and Hank was 2nd in his. I won 2nd place overall, losing to a 14 year old by 1 second in 13:15. I felt a little guilty because most of the more competitive runners in my age group ran the 10K but I wanted to be at the finish when Chenna came across and there is no way I could do the 10K and make it in time.

Chenna came in a very respectable 7th in her age group in a time of about 25 minutes. Cherie ran with Ian so she was not out to place, although I believe she could have if she had run the race alone. See the complete results at http://mahoney4.home.netcom.com/scr/races/08dragon.txt. Scroll down a ways, the first half are the 10K results.

Jeff

The Dino Dash

2008-03-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

We had another great race weekend. A strong thunderstorm last night made us wonder if we would be rained out but other than some muddy areas and a little wind the weather was perfect. Low 60s and cloudy.

The Dino dash is a 3K (2 mile) run through the Brevard Zoo. They tell me they had keepers with animals along the path. I saw a few but mostly I was looking at the person in front of me.

I think we all ran pretty well but Grandpa was the one who came home with the hardware (or in this case, the stuffed Triceratops). He came in first in the 75 to 79 category (See results at http://www.runningzone.com/results.html?id=446 ). Check out the pictures of Grandpa and the kids with Zippy the Gecko.

Jeff

Grandpa's big race.

2008-03-05T18:06:00.000-08:00

Greetings from sunny Florida where the race weather is gorgeous. The season is in full swing with races nearly every weekend.

We all ran the Suntree Fun in the Sun race this weekend. (Results at http://runningzone.com/results.html?id=443) They had a 5K which Cherie and Jeff did and a 1 mile which Chenna, Ian, and Grandpa did. This was Grandpa's first race!! He got a medal for being the oldest finisher.
Cherie and I also got medals. She was 3rd in her age group and I came in first in my age group. Chenna came in 3rd overall in the 1 miler and 2nd in her age group. Excellent!

A good time was had by all.

Gasparilla Marathon

2007-02-21T08:46:00.000-08:00

I finished another marathon. I think 2 is enough for the year. It's time to concentrate on the upcoming triathlon season.

The Gasparilla was a hard one for me. The weather was about 50 degrees with a 20 mph from the north. I think the cold really sapped my energy. I was on a 3:30 pace up until about mile 17. At that point I felt like I was out of gas. At mile 19 there was a turn around for the final leg which faced me into the wind. Ouch!! By the time I got to mile 24 or so I was getting light headed, nauseous, and very fatigued. I think that the short distance left and the idea of not coming home with a finisher medal kept me going. As soon as I finished I began to shiver all over. It took me about an hour to stop shivering. what a fun sport!

Anyways, I finished and came home with the hardware. My time was 3:57 which was lousy but based on the conditions I felt like any finish was a good finish. Here is a link to some photos.

http://www.marathonfoto.com/order_assigned_photos.cfm?BFI=6jjhjfjtgf&OID=13972007W2&BibNumber=13367&CustomerNumber=G84502&Currency=USD&Language=en

At the end of the race they had food by Columbia restaurant which is one of my favorite restaurants. I was still a little nauseous but had to have some of their rice and beans.

The race itself was very well run. they had live music along the course and lots of aid stations. They also had the Tampa Convention Center for race headquarters which was nice because it was warm inside.

While I was at the race the kids and Cherie stayed at Fort Desoto park campground. It was a very nice campground on the Gulf coast with lots of trees, large campsites, and a day house with a big fire going all the time. We will definitely be going there again.

Here is a link to the race results. http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=33694
I was # 13367. According to the Tampa Tribune there were just under 1800 marathon entries with only 912 finishing. I think most didn't show up but a lot dropped out.

The living room is nearly done

2007-02-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

We have been working on the living room for a few months now. When we moved into the house 12 years ago we couldn't decide on colors so we painted everything white. Now we are finally decorating. The paint came out very nice and was amazingly easy to do. It uses a light color on the base, then 2 darker colors in the same color swatch mixed with glaze to create the texture. We borrowed the tools from Cherie's sister Sandra.

Next we got rid of the old carpet which was very worn out. We also decided that Florida is not the right place to have lots of carpet. Cooler flooring makes more sense. We chose a stained bamboo for several reasons. First it looked good. also it wears very well. Finally, it is very earth friendly. A stand of bamboo can grow in a couple of years while it takes a couple of generations to grow an oak forest.

Mom came down for a visit so we put her to work. She made the curtains and some blinds that I am still in the process of hanging. I think they really finish the room. Finally, she helped us figure out what to do with all of the pictures and other things we had to hang on the wall.

Disney with the Waterhouses

2007-01-26T18:16:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've been on. The holidays get so busy. We had a great time. Christmas was great. The kids got lots of stuff (as did the adults) then we went to our friends John and Julie for a great Christmas day meal.

I had the week of Christmas off so we did a lot of projects on the house and some day trips. The house is coming along very well. I am almost ready to take some pictures and put them on the blog. The living area looks completely different, but I'll save the details for another post.

The highlight in January was when my mom came to visit. She arrived on a Wednesday and we immediately put her to work. She helped us pick out some curtain and blind material. She made the curtains while she was here and took the blind material home to make them. She was a real help. Cherie and I aren't comfortable picking colors. Then we spent a day hanging all the pictures and things we have. No more bare walls!!

On Friday of that week we headed over to Orlando and stayed at a hotel near Disney. Susan and her family had arrived the night before. We spent Saturday and Sunday at the parks with them, then met them for breakfast at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was great to see them. Their kids are all in their 20s while ours are 5 and 9. I thin the older ones liked doing Disney with the young ones and I know my kids loved being with them.

We went to Magic Kingdom and did most of the big rides there. Chenna went on Space Mountain for her first time. She loved it! We all had a great time at Buzz Lightyear.

Sunday we went to MGM and did the Tower of Terror. Ian was scared to death again but insisted on going since his sister was. It was Chenna's first time. She loved it. We also saw the car stunt show and the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. We rounded the night with Fantasmic.

We were all exhausted by the end of the weekend. Mom went home on Tuesday morning. It was a great visit.

Jeff.

Christmas

2006-12-24T21:12:00.000-08:00

It's early Christmas morning. I'm ready for bed but I wanted to fill in the last week. We did our annual trip to Disney for the season. We take our camper and stay at Fort Wilderness Campground near the Magic Kingdom. You can't shop or decorate or go to a dozen parties. It's a great way to de-stress.

This year Ian and I went a day early because of Chenna's school schedule. He and I had a great time. We went to MGM to see the stunt show, Fantasmic, and I took him on the Tower of Terror. It scared him half to death but he thought it was worth it, mostly because he had bragging rights on his sister.

On Tuesday night Cherie and Chenna joined us. We drove home Wednesday morning to catch Ian's school pagent, then went back to EPCOT for a couple of rides and MGM for the lights and to see Fantasmic. The lights are incredible. On Thursday we tried to see all of the holiday stuff at the international area of EPCOT. We didn't get it all but we came close. We all learned a lot about holiday traditions in other countries.

That night was Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. That was the main event and the kids were buzzing. They had some good shows and the parade was as great as ever. Ian fell asleep about 10:00 but Chenna was going strong at closing (midnight).

I'd better get to bed before Santa comes.

Jeff

Snoopy

2006-12-06T18:35:00.001-08:00

I got a big surprise at work today. I knew something was up by the way everyone was acting. When I went to our shift tie in meeting there was a bunch of food on the table that no one was willing to explain. Also, there were a bunch of managers that are in town for the launch but were hanging around the office after they were done with their business for the day - very unusual.

Then my boss called me into his office to talk about basically nothing. He then took me back to the conference room where an astronaut and Cherie (in a very attractive black dress) were standing. The astronaut presented me with the Silver Snoopy award.

The Silver Snoopy sounds a bit trivial to an outsider but within NASA it is a nice award. It is given by the astronauts as the highest award they give. I was thrilled.

The astronaut was Tony Antonelli who I have met a few times before. I was nice to get the award from someone I know. It was especially nice to get the award with Cherie there. Here is a little more information on the award. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/sfa/snoopy.html

Jeff

Three races in two weeks

2006-11-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

In the last post I talked about the MiamiMan Triathlon. Since then we have continued to be active in the racing world. On Thanksgiving morning Cherie ran the Turkey Trot 5K. It was a great way to start off a holiday normally known for gluttany, not that we didn't do plenty of that later on. There were kids runs of 1/4 and 1/2 mile after the 5K. Chenna and Ian ran both of them. They are getting to be pretty speedy.

Last weekend I ran a 16 mile training run to see if I was up to doing the Space Coast Marathon today. The training run went pretty well so after looking at the weather predictions I decided to sign up. This is my first marathon since I ran the inaugural Disney marathon in 1992. It was perfect weather and I ended up with a 3:40 time which I was happy with.

By the way all of this training has some side benefits, especially for those of us with less than perfect genes. Last year when I went to the doctor I had a cholesterol level of 235. He told me to eat better and excersize more but if it didn't come down this year he was going to put me on something. I hate medications! When I met with him last week my cholesterol was down to 150 and the HDL level was actually higher than the LDL. I did a little victory dance in the exam room.

I kicked butt!!

2006-11-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

My turn to brag a little. I have been training for the Miamiman 1/2 ironman triathlon for the past few weeks. The race takes place in SW Miami and is centered at a large park that, among other things, contains the Miami Metro Zoo. The race is a 1.25 mile swim in a lake (no gators were spotted) 56 miles on a bike through rural west Miami, and a 13.1 mile run through the Miami Metro Zoo. The weather turned out to be ideal. The water temperature was 77 degress and the air was in the low 70s when the race began and in the upper 70s at the end with low humidity (for Miami). Of course, all of the ride and run were on very flat terrain and there was no wind that day (wind is a bad thing on a bicycle).

Based on my training I was hoping to finish the event in about 6 hours. Race day adrenaline, near perfect conditions, and some great training the last few weeks came together and I finished in 5 hours, 25 minutes, and about 30 seconds (link to race results)

Menwhile, the kids and Cherie went to the zoo and cheered me on each time I passed by (the run did 2 laps through the zoo).

Cherie has been doing some pretty incredible running as well. Two weekends ago she did a 5 K run Friday night and another 5K run Saturday morning. She continues to knock time off her runs every time she goes out. The Saturday morning run also had a 1/2 mile kids run which both of our kids did with their Halloween costumes. Ian looked impressive in his Spiderman outfit but the real feat was Chenna running as an angel in a white gown, halo and wings.

A Few Days at the Races

2006-10-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

We have all gotten the race bug lately. Not that southern NASCAR thing but the running, cycling, swimming type.

This weekend Cherie did a second 5K run for the summer. It was called the "fall into winter" run and was followed by a buffet breakfast at Coconuts on the Beach. This one was right on the beach at Cocoa Beach and she knocked 2 minutes off her previous time.

After the 5K they had a kids run of 1/4, 1/2 or 1 mile. Chenna and Ian did the 1/4 and then said they wanted to do the 1/2. They finished it (with a little coaching) and each, including their dolls they were carrying, got a prize.

The next day I ran the Health First Olympic Triathlon. It was a .93 mile swim, 27 mile bike, and 6.25 mile run. I think I ended up doing the full mile swim due to some navigational errors. I'm going to use the "blinded by the sun" excuse.

My first transition stunk. It was over 5 minutes where most people are in the 1 1/2 minute range. It was all about being prepared. I sat down to change and found my socks and gloves were both inside out.

The bike part was a lot of fun. We went over 4 causeway bridges which doesn't sound like much for a person from mountain country but it made it interesting. Most of the other riders were very courteous. Even some of the leaders were yelling encouragement to the rest of us. Cycling seems to be the last sport for gentlemen. My one sore spot was a flat tire I got about mile 16 but that only held me up for 3 or 4 minutes. Again, most of the riders that went by offered help.

The run was real work. It was getting warm and my hamstrings were beginning to cramp. The run was over the Eau Gallie bridge and back. I was just glad when that part was over. I did have a much better transition time.

Overall my time was 3 hours 13 minutes. Not a gret time but my goal was to finish and to learn ot pace myself for a bigger race coming up in November.

Two of my neighbors Mike and Cathy Manese and their friend Joe Cobb also ran the race. We did some day before bike maintanance and carbo loading, then followed the race with a large breakfast.

One of my co-workers and his girlfriend Mart Cook and Linda Jones also ran the race.

All in all a great event. The organizers did a great job and there were tons of volunteers everywhere. Here is the race info and results. There are also going to be some pictures on this site later. I was race # 110.

http://www.healthfirsttri.com/

Chenna's New Room is Finally Done!!

2006-09-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished Chenna's room. Boy is it pink!! Mom made the curtains, Cherie and I painted the walls, and I did the cabinets. Look quickly - it may never be this clean again.

Next we have some bigger projects in mind. We are in the process of painting the living room. We are learning how to do faux finishes for the east and west walls. We will then replace the carpet with bamboo flooring. To finish that room we bought a new entertainment center.

After that is Ian's room. He wants rockets and stars for his room. Hopefully it will take less than the year it took to make Chenna's room.

Triathlons

2006-08-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

Cherie and I have been doing some excersizing lately. The motivation is to do some of the triathlons that are happening all the time here in Florida. Cherie has run a couple of sprint triathlons lately and I have done a one as well. The most fun was the family triathlon that was run by a friend of mine named Jeff Kramer. The event was designed to allow first time triathletes and especially familes to run. The event was very successful. Nearly everyone got a nice raffle prize while the winners got a T shirt. Also, Jeff lined up all the kids under high school age and gave them all a big, heavy medal.

Chenna did the 100 meter swim, Cherie and Ian did the 4 mile bike with the ride along, and I finished with the 2 mile run. We had a great time.

I have signed up for the Miami Man 1/2 ironman triathlon in November. Cherie is always very secretive about her plans. As for the kids there are several fun runs coming up. Ian is certain that he will do the family triathlon next year by himself.

Last weekend Chenna took her first surf lessons. We had mixed success. I think she was having a lot of fun until she got stung by a jelly fish. That really hurts.

Both kids have started school. Chenna seems to like her teacher and is doing well. Getting her to do homework is still a painful act for all involved but she is improving there as well. Ian had to give up the lab school program that both of the kids have been through since they were infants. His class just didn't have enough students to run. He is going to pre-K at a Montessori school here in Satellite Beach. He loves it.

That's all for now.

More of the Smokies

2006-07-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

Continued from the previous post.

We camped at a place called Adventure Trail Campground which is near Cherokee, NC. IT is a very family oriented campground with a swimming pool, large playground, a pavilion, and kids movies every night at 8:00. The owners were a wealth of information.

We did a lot of campfire cooking like the trout we were cooking in tin foil packets on the coals, hot dogs on a stick, and of course s'mores.

We went to the "cradle of Forestry" which is a national forest facility honoring the place where Vanderbilt set up the first school of forestry in the world. They had a couple of nice short nature trails with several of the old log cabins used by the early settlers in the area. They also had an old steam engine and a steam powered log loaded that the kids had fun playing on.

One day we took a ride on a train through the mountains. Another day we went panning for gems in a mine. The kids found some real emeralds and rubies and a piece of an arrowhead. I thought it would be a dumb touristy thing to do but it turned out to be a lot of fun and the guy there taught all of us a lot about the old mining days and the minerals.

Our friends John, Julie, Scott and Kyle Cooke joined us for the last part of the trip. They were staying at a campground next to Deep Creek which is known for tubing down the shallow rapids. We spent a part of nearly every day tubing with them.

We went horseback riding in the Nantahala National Forest. Chenna and Ian loved it. The trail was fairly steep and went through some pretty country.

Most of the time was spent in the creeks either tubing or just wading and looking for critters. There were butterflies and birds everywhere. Cherie and I enjoyed the scenery and we all enjoyed the cool water. It was definately not Florida.

Prior to leaving Cherie bought a guitar which I had a good time playing. I was surprised how much I remembered from my younger days. I spent time playing while the kids were at the playground or while I was on the hammock. I guess we all got the music bug. Later in the trip we visited a music store and left with a mandolin for Cherie and a 1/2 size guitar for the kids.

The trip was a great get away for all of us. I think we did some inportant bonding and did some fun stuff the kids will remember.

Trip to the Smokies

2006-07-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

Our trip was supposed to be a few days in North Florida at Fort Clinch State Park but the day we arrived we found that T.S. Alberto was headed our way. We spent the night and had one nice day at Fort Clinch before heading north that evening.

Fort Clinch is a very cool park. It has a civil war era fort that is one of the few the North didn't blow apart. The kids helped a blacksmith make nails, among a bunch of other activities.

After Fort Clinch we made it as far as Savannah where we spent the night in a motel prior to heading to the Smokies in the morning.

The Smokies were beautiful. After driving all the way there in pouring rain we had beautiful, clear weather the whole 12 days. We spent most of the time playing in the creeks and rivers. Cold, clear running water with no large carnivores is a noverly for us. The image at the right is sliding rock in the Pisgah National Forest. It is a natural granite formation with an 8 foot deep pool of ice cold water at the bottom. Cherie and Chenna couldn't get enough of it. ONe time was enough for Ian. There are dozens of formations like this and waterfalls everywhere.