Morning Folks 07 15 07

A Day in Chattanooga

Ed and I spent Friday night and Saturday with Zeppelin and Arabella. This visit we decided to see some of the downtown Chattanooga area that I was curious to learn about. We started out with a Duck Tour. (all of these pictures were posted in a small format. But you should be able to see them better if you click on them.)

The term "duck", used to describe this amphibious vehicle is actually spelled DUKW.

D designates 1942-the year these were put into use

U is for amphibious UTILITY

K means Front Wheel Drive

W means Rear Wheel Drive

Captain Bill of the General Eisenhauer DUKW explained this to us as we headed through downtown Chattanooga toward the Tennessee River.

Grandma made the serious mistake of buying "quackers" for Zeppelin and Arabella.

Here we go heading into the river down the Duck ramp.

It was a beautiful day and the slow pace of the Duck as it floated down the river was very relaxing...in spite of all the quacking.

Here is a view of the Aquarium behind the "Passage" a large monument built to commemorate the Trail of Tears and the Native Americans' relocation to reservations in 1837. (Notice the water canon and see more on this memorial further down the page.)

The Hunter Museum of Art sits on a bluff overlooking the river. There is a Grandma Moses exhibit there now that Ed and I are planning to see in the next couple of weeks.
The Southern Belle went by us on the river. This is a dinner boat that is lots of fun. Ed and I spent a New Year's Eve on this boat one year.This is a view of a couple of old homes on the river. The one on the left is the McLellan house and by TN standards at 108 years old, is ancient! These Tennesseeans haven't been to the home of my friends Kitty and Rick up in Franklin, MA. Now that is old! 200+.

Another view of the Riverfront that hosts many events, including a huge weeklong music festival in June. Here they are getting ready for the Ironman competition tomorrow. I am not sure what that building is in the background, but I will find out!

Captain Bill turned over the wheel to Zeppelin.

Then Arabella took a turn. That was lots of fun.

Arabella helped Captain Bill navigate the River while Grandma looked on.

Arabella, Grandma, Grampa and Zeppelin all had a great time on this Ducktour. (We just had to buy the picture.)

After the Duck Tour, we walked around the downtown area. Here is one of the sculptures that is found along the way. It is really a lovely downtown. Not even close to the traffic you find in Boston and the streets are nice and clean.

Arabella takes a snooze.

The Passage is a beautiful "artspace" area on the river. It is a tribute to the Native Americans of the area, designed by Cherokee artists. It is made of steps leading to the river, with water flowing down the walls and down the stairs, like tears, into the river where the area's Indians began their march along the trail of tears to relocation to reservations in Oklahoma.

Along the wall are beautiful medallions, depicting the 7 tribes from the Chattanooga area that were relocated.

Grmpa and Arabella in front of one of the medallions.

Water canon at the bottom of the memorial that you can see in the picture above taken from the Duckboat.

This is a moving tribute and I hope to go back to read all of the information provided there, written in English and in the native language of the Cherokee and other tribes. It is beautiful and I really haven't done it justice. For more info, go to http://www.chattanooga.gov/Mayors_Office/9_CherokeePassage.htm

But it is also a place of energy as the kids all splash on the stairs and in the wading pool at the bottom of the stairs. It was a cool and refreshing spot on a hot summer day.
Grampa and Arabella take the stairs at Grampa's pace.

Arabella ascends at her pace!

Arabella and Zeppeln enjoy the cool water. One of the medallions is on the wall in the background.


We had a great day with the kids and I was so happy to be seeing some of the sights. There are lots more things to do and see here, too. I hope this might interest some of you in a trip down to see us. Y'all are welcome any time!

Have a great day.

Love,

Suz

Morning Folks 07 01 07 Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

Morning Folks! It has been a while since I have posted anything. Don't know why, really. The inspiration wasn't there, or the timing wasn't right or some such thing. Whatever the reason, I have missed ye and I am back. And I feel like just rambling a little this morning. So get a cup a joe, sit back and relax a spell.

Today is July 1. Can you believe that? Well down here in TN they say this is just the beginning of the summer and that we have to go all the way through September before it ends. We have had 90+ temps since I got back from the Cape almost 2 weeks ago and it looks like more of the same in the foreseeable future. And it is humid and very sticky.

We had been having drought conditions since May, but lately every afternoon about three o'clock a monster thunderstorm that lasts about a half an hour appears, leaving lots of greenery where just a couple of weeks ago there were brown and dry lawns. Have you ever heard of Chirt before? That's what they call the soil down here. It isn't really soil but a mixture of dirt and chert, which is rock of some type. So the ground is pretty hard and when it is dry it might just as well be all rock. As a result, I haven't done much gardening. I would need a backhoe to create a bed. Although Ed said he would help me turn over a spot and spread some topsoil when he gets a chance.

But it is so hot, who wants to get out there anyway?


 >Ed has been really busy, though, working long overtime hours some nights and usually 6 days a week. Because he is on the 3-11:30 PM shift, when they give him overtime he doesn't get home until almost 4AM. That is not good for either of us, especially Ed.

But it looks like he may be switching to day shift any time now. He works hard for the USPS, if you didn't know that already. And thanks for the extra 2 cents, by the way.








It will be nice to have Ed home with me in the evenings. Although I will probably be watching a lot more Law and Order and the History channel.
At least it isn't football season yet. Down here they live and breathe football. Oh boy, can't wait.

Go Pats

I suppose it sounds like I am complaining about Tennessee. It is hot and humid and it took me a while to find a hairdresser, but I finally got my hair did the way I like it. And I cain't hardly unnerstand anythang they says down har, but I am gittin' used to it, I reckon. But I must honestly say that after returning from 2 weeks on the Cape in June, for the first time I felt like I was coming home when I got back to Ooltewah. They say home is where the heart is.

Well, my heart is in at least two places now. Hmmm. That happened when I wasn't looking some how. So it's all good.



I promised more cruise pictures, and I will get those up soon, promise. I have them on my screensaver and have been enjoying them myself. So, stay tuned and I will see what I can do about sharing them with you.





For now, have a wonderful day. Hope all is well with all y'all.



Love,


Suz

Morning Folks 06 17 07

Guess what I did tonight? Kathy (Ed's sister) took me to a concert at the Cape Cod Melody tent for an early birthday present. We saw TAYLOR HICKS!!!!


For those of you who don't know, Taylor was last year's American Idol. The only contestant I have ever bothered to vote for and the only contestant I actually did a blog about. Go to my archived postings and find May 1, 2006-June 1, 206 and scroll down until you find May 4, 2006.

That blog was posted before he won later in May of 2006, but I knew he had that something special!

We weren't supposed to take any pictures, but I couldn't help myself and everyone else was taking them. I didn't get great pix, but I did get some. The sound system wasn't the best for this kind of band and the instruments drowned out his voice for a lot of the songs. He has such an appealing voice, it was too bad we couldn't hear him more clearly. It was very loud but certainly got us all up dancing and clapping. He has a very good band, with two drummers, a bass guitar and lead, keyboard and even one guy that played sax, tenor sax, flute and I don't know what else. I knew Taylor played the harmonica, but never knew he played guitar. He plays very well. Although he is only 29 years old, his audience was filled with middle aged women! There were people there of all ages, but many of them were my age. He does expend energy up there dancing, playing the guitar, the harmonica and singing his heart out. He never stands still and he didn't stop from the time he stepped onto the stage to the time he left it about an hour and a half later.

It was a wonderful birthday present. Thanks Kathy!

I am heading home to Tennessee on Tuesday and will post more of the pix from our cruise once I get back to my desktop computer.
Have a great Monday!


L-Suz

Morning Folks 06 08 07

Morning Folks

My Dad turned 80 last Sunday. But we celebrated it for the whole week before. He and Inez took his four kids, Chuck, Becky, Cindy and I on a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean aboard an amazingly fabulous ship. It was a blast. Today's blog is the first in a series. I am heading off to the Cape tomorrow and my not have a chance to get around to the next posting until I return. So, stay tuned...

My handsome Dad. Can you believe he is 80?

The four siblings their spouses and Becky's gal pal, Janet all met in Miami at the airport hotel. Ed and I drove from Chattanooga and the others came from Mass, Connecticut and New Orleans.

Chuck's son Gabe and his wife Madelyn were there for a visit before we left on the cruise.

Madelyn's baby is coming at the end of July. Can't wait to meet the next member of the family.)

(Cindy and Steve weren't in this picture. They were visiting with Steve's Uncle Shelly and Aunt Helene who live in Ft. Lauderdale but were at the hotel in Miami for a visit. Uncle Shelly is a greeter at Port Miami for Royal Caribbean. We got to see him both leaving and returning. Isn't that the best job you can imagine? He works 3 days a week and gets to go on cruises all over the place for peanuts. What a perk! We had dinner with them that night and really enjoyed their company. Steve will have to send me a picture of him since I didn't get one for some reason.)

Our ship the Liberty of the Seas is the biggest on the sea and the newest. Saturday morning, we all headed for the Port of Miami.

Chuck and Monica took the shuttle. We fit the 6 of us here in Ed's truck. It was cozy. From left to right: Cindy, me, Ed, Becky, Steve and Janet.

Dad and Inez met us at the terminal. We were all so excited!

First stop, or maybe second was the Sky Bar. Here Cindy and I have the first of what turned out to be quite a few refreshing beverages! I especially liked one called Coco Loco.

Here is a view from the Sky Bar of some of the pool areas. There were 4 pool areas on the ship, including a water park for the kids and great big hot tubs cantilevered out over the ocean on the 11th deck. That was cool.Here is a shot of Becky and Janet's stateroom, before they separated the beds. Our cabin steward might have made some wrong assumptions at the beginning of the trip. We kept calling them the Lebanese couple for the rest of the week.

We all had a balcony outside of our rooms. It was very high up as we were on deck 8. But for some reason I didn't experience the fear of heights I usually do. Maybe it was the dramamine. Becky doesn't like this picture, but I love it. Here she looks down the side of the ship from her balcony toward our stateroom. She was sitting on her balcony doing her morning crossword! I think it's cute.
This is the promenade. It was amazing to see all of this inside a ship. Shops, restaurants and a barber shop; they even had a pizza parlor and Ben and Jerry's and a coffee shop on this deck. I think a Champagne Bar, too. I didn't get photos of the ice skating rink or the many other clubs or the large theater. They put on a show every night from a comedian to a Cirque de Sole-like show. And one night there was an ice show. Can you believe that? Everything was just gorgeous and HUGE!


Here is a view of our ship on the left "parked" next to the Explorer of the Seas, another Royal Caribbean ship. The one on the right looks bigger from this angle, but our ship was 90 feet longer than theirs. This was taken at St. Maarten, I think.

This was in San Juan where we stopped for a few hours.

Here we are on the first of two formal nights. Front row: Monica, me, and Inez. 2nd row:Chuck, Ed and Dad. (can you believe he is 80?) Top row: Becky, Janet, Steve and Cindy. We have lots of pictures from that night and I will share them with you in a later blog.

The Lebanese Couple. One of the poses the photographer set up for Becky and Janet was so funny. I loved it! Janet called it her I Dream of Jeannie pose!

Dad and his kids.


We had a wonderful time. I loved spending all that time with my family and it was so much fun getting to know Janet better. She and Becky were childhood friends. Janet is a nurse and lives in New Orleans with her husband, Jimmy, who she left at home. We all laughed so much and boy did we ever eat!
Our favorite late-night hangout was Olive or Twist. A quiet nightclub up on the 13th deck. Quiet music, a few cocktails and lots of laughs. It was a lot of fun.

It was especially great to spend a whole week with Dad who I don't get to see nearly enough. He and Inez stayed up with us to the wee hours of the morning a few times. By Friday, they were ready for a nap, but so were we all.


Like I said, I am heading out again tomorrow morning for 10 days on the Cape. I will follow up when I return with lots more pix.

Here are some Previews of Coming Attractions:

The four men on our second formal night. Aren't they a good looking bunch?




Ed surfs on the Flow Rider on a Boogie Board. Steve, Janet and Becky did it too. And I have photos!

Dad floats in the warm waters of Labadee, Haiti with assistance from Cindy and Monica. Inez hates that hat. He was irritated that his cigar went out. But he still had fun.
St. Maarten was really fun...especially for Steve and Ed.

Have a great week.


Love,


Suz

Stay Tuned...