Vacation Part 6: The Ship

The ship was beautiful. It's the biggest one I've been on, however, it sure did rock like crazy. The first couple of days were good but the last day was a bit out of control, and it made Jarrod feel awful. He tried his best to stay involved but look at him. He looked rough. I'm usually the one who gets sea sick on boats but it was him who couldn't handle this one. Our last "fun day at sea" Jarrod slept the WHOLE day, while I had fun making my way up and down those water slides pictured above. They were so much fun! However, the ship itself exceeded my expectations. There is a never ending list of activities to do aboard and that is why we love to cruise.

Vacation Part 5: Fairwell Charleston

   

We were so happy to finally be on the ship. The weather was warm but the sky was cloudy and the city looked so lovely. Our ship left a little after 3 and hours leading to our departure I had doubts we should be going. Zeda was with Jarrod's family since we'd been gone. Sunday night when we had skyped with her she looked miserable and was pretty much coughing up a lung. The morning we were leaving Charleston Sherri (Jarrod's mom) took her to the doctor and they found out she had Asthma, I talk about it here. I wasn't able to find out much about it before I lost cell coverage. At the same time Jarrod was on the phone with his mom, I was on the phone to Mitchum's Jewelers asking for MORE jewelry for the 417 shoot. Needless to say, things were going wrong back at home and I wouldn't be able to check on a single thing for the next 4 days. Awesome. However, once we were off, I forced myself to focus on my hubby. Doesn't he look so cute. :)

Vacation Part 4: Charleston

We've heard from many people that Charleston is a wonderful town to visit.  While, we did have fun there, it wasn't our favorite place.  I think under different circumstances we would have loved it but we still just couldn't move from our hike.
The morning after the hike we left for Charleston.  Once we settled into our room and took the first shower we'd had in two days, we decided to hop on the trolley and hit the town.  We only had one night there so we wanted to make the most of it.  The trolley dropped us off downtown and we began to walk.  A bit miserable, we decided to eat at the first restaurant we saw that we'd heard about:  Hyman's Seafood.  It was really good.  The table they put us at sat right in front of a naked mermaid, and of course, I'm the one that had to face it.  I couldn't stop staring.  Anytime Jarrod would start a conversation with me, I just laughed.  This mermaid was right behind his head and it was hilarious.  Jarrod said I acted like a 12 year old boy since I took a picture and sent it to my family.  Jarrod said, "There are little boys walking and not making a big deal of it like you are." Hahaha.  Really, I couldn't look away.  After dinner we decided to walk a little bit before we went back to the trolley pick up.  Once we were ready and waiting for a trolley, we realized it was Sunday and the trolley ending hours ago.  No problem, we'd call a cab. After waiting over 2 1/2 hours, we were DONE with the city.  We could have walked the 5 or so miles to the hotel but everyone kept telling us the area of town we'd have to walk through was too iffy and we probably shouldn't, plus I was awesome and wore heels when I was already in so much pain.  After we finally got to the room, we drank a bottle of wine and went to sleep.  Oh Charleston, we'll give you another try someday.

 The next morning after breakfast we left early for the cruise ship.

Vacation Part 3: To The Finish

I'm going to take a minute to be slightly transparent. I'm not one to talk about what makes me tick or things I learn about myself; however, I definitely discovered something about my personality and my approach to most things in life on our LONG hike that day. Since walking for hours, and no engery to have a conversation, I had some time to think and reflect. I discovered that I have a distint desire to finsh. Here is how I came to that conclusion. The begining of the hike was rough for me. We stopped to take a break about every 15 minutes and I kept thinking over and over how there is no way I can do this all day. I think it took us an hour to go 1 mile. My sweet husband stopped whenever I wanted to but I'm sure he was secretly getting frusterated. On the second half of the journey I was pumped, speed walking and encourging Jarrod to pick it up. Once I could see the end (about 3-4 hours left), I got a surge of energy, I had to finish. In Jarrod's mind, he saw it as, "we're a good team, we pick eachother up when the other is down" Which is the case too. :) But I saw it as more...Every morning when I run, the first 4 minutes are HORRIBLE. I want to stop and walk everyday. Those first four-five minutes never get easier for me. However, usually by the end, I'm ready to keep going. Unfortunately, I have to stop so Jarrod can leave for work.
For some reason, I have the hardest time starting something.  My mind gets the best of me and I don't handle new beginnings/change well. On the hike I discovered the reason is because I HAVE to finish and I have a fear of failure.
Examples of not being able to handle change:
1) The summer before I left for college, I was so scared of moving out that I became sick with coughing fits. I would cough for serval minutes multiple times a day and there was nothing wrong with me. Poor Jarrod had to sit and listen all summer long but by the time I got to school, and loved it, I was all better.
2) The summer I got married, I freaked out. I couldn't handle the fact I was about to live with a boy and begin a new life with him. I'll spare you details but I'm pretty sure Megan had doubts I was ever going to make it to the alter. Once we settled into married life, I couldn't have been happier.
3) Deciding to have a baby. I went off and then back on birthcontrol a couple of times, including a frantic call to my ob office asking for a new precription for more. As you can see from reading my blog, motherhood was the absolute best "new begining" I've ever had.
I'm glad to have this new perspective about myself. I sit and contimplate everything forever, but once I do decide to jump in, it's always the right decision.
No wonder, it took me years to start an event planning business. If it wasn't for my partner Meg, who jumps right into anything, I would probably still be siting back "thinking" about it.
So, if you question why I've worked at the same place since college, now you know. :)

Vacation Part 2: Hiking in the Smokies

Our hike, oh our hike. I had a love hate relationship with it. It was amazingly beautiful, challenging, and left me with a sense of accomplishment. However, it was 9 hours of climbing up and down, up and down. When we were finished I could. not. move.  I thought I was somewhat physically prepared before we left but I wasn't prepared for the toll going DOWN steep hills does to your joints. And the fact of simply "being" on your feet for 9 hours is pretty daunting by itself.

Our first clue to not go on this adventure was the mere fact the ranger warned us over and over again about the bears. I mean, he kept telling us to put all food away at night but we didn't think they'd actually be a problem. Well, as we were walking to the trail from the site, the ranger decided to tell us about the bear who had devoured a tent at the camp ground the night before.  Luckily, no one was in the tent and their guess was it smelled like beef jerky but still, a bear was dangerously close to us.  He assured us not to worry and just make a lot of noise as we're walking.  I put change in a metal cup and shortly became very annoying to my lovely husband.  About 3 hours in, I started to annoy myself and put the cup in my backpack.  I felt relaxed about the bears at that point, or just tired, whichever. 
The route going up was steep.  We climbed the mountain at a pretty fast rate and made it to the top by lunch time.  We had packed our lunch and found a nice spot at the top by an old fire tower to sit and eat.  After resting a bit and taking about a thousand pictures of the beautiful land, we felt refreshed and ready to head down the mountain.  We had a choice.  We could go back the same steep 5.5 miles we came or we could take a different route that was 10 miles but looked easier.  Since we felt so good and accomplished and didn't have anything else planned for the day, we thought, why not take the longer more leisurely path. Ha. SERIOUSLY?  It might have been a more gradual climb but still a terrible mix of up and down, up and down.  By mile 7 we were dead but had to keep pushing, we were afraid of loosing daylight and then the bears would come out to eat us. :)

Once we were so close to the campsite, we saw some really amazing waterfalls and scenery.  Now I wish we would have taken pictures, however, there was no way I could muster the energy to do so.  There was no, "I'll be sore tomorrow."  We were already sore and knew that tomorrow would be 10 times worse.
Looking back...I wouldn't trade that time with Jarrod for anything and it's pretty cool to say I've hike on the Appalachian Trail

Vacation Part 1: Camping in the Smokies

Our first stop was two nights in the Smoky Mountains. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. The first night we arrived just in time to set up the tent and cook dinner. We had stopped in Nashville at Trader Joe's to grab food for our campfire. Once dinner was over, we played a riveting game of rummikub and then settled in our tent to read for the night. Yes, we sound super old, but from our crazy weeks we had leading up to the trip, it was glorious. The next morning, we made a hearty breafast before we ventured on a day hike. I'll explain our hike in the next post. Let's just say, 9 hours later, we came back to our site, barely able to more. After dinner we hit the sack.
We both thoroughly enjoyed the camping experience. There is something so peaceful about being out in the open, listening to nature as you fall asleep. I couldn't have asked for a more calming, meditating place. It was exactly what we needed.

5 Year Anniversary Trip

 

Today starts our anniversary month. July 8th will be 5 years for me and my handsome man. To celebrate, the next 8 days I will post a slightly obnoxious charade of our wonderful anniversary trip we took in May. So, sit back and get ready for a TON of pictures.