Spring Cleaning

In honor of March 21st a lot of people take to cleaning out overlooked places in their homes that tend to accumulate junk. I guess this goes along with fresh starts and new beginnings, but also to, holidays are over and it's not nice enough to really be outside. I am no different.

Last Sunday I decided to clean out my pantry and reorganize it. I tossed a few things, but was happy to see that I have been using most everything in there. Sometimes things get shuffled around and 3 years later it's like, where did that come from?

Today I have started with my sideboardish thing. It's a 15 drawer dresser that I painted and have made into a kind of storage unit for random things. Candles, crayons, light bulbs, screws, product manuals, etc. I had a lot of crap in there. Most of it was stuff in the wrong places that just kind of ended up there because two of the drawers turned into "junk drawers". Everything is back in it's rightful places and my trash can is a lot more full.

I enjoy having weekends where I can go through this kind of stuff because I hate clutter. And you never know it's clutter until it's piled up a bit and then it's like, BAM! I like throwing things out like old paper or just pure junk. It makes me feel lighter and overall just better. Now if I can just keep it up and to tackle the closet!

Cloudland Canyon State Park

After spending three days in the Chattanooga area, I decided to head almost straight back the next day with the Pennock's for a hiking trip to Cloudland Canyon. If Rob and I had taken an extra day, I think we would have hit this place up as well. It was less than a mile from the Canyon Grill.

We decided to hit up the waterfall trails first, which I think was the smartest choice. They had a bunch of stairs built to get you down to the falls and back up. I know after the 4.7 mile West Rim Hiking Trail, I would have not been too excited about that.

After the first main trail/waterfall split there was another split for two different waterfalls. We did both, but the stairs were the open grate kind and not favorable with the dog population. Mike decided to be an awesome puppy parent and save Rummy from the pain of getting back up the stairs.

I think it's a good thing Rummy was cute, because it took a lot out of Mike to haul the 70 pound pup up quiet a few flights of stairs. Another reason we were glad we did this part first.

We got slightly turned around looking for the West Rim Trail due to poor marking, but we eventually made our way there. The views while we were hiking were amazing. I think this is by far the most scenic of all the hiking I have done in Georgia.


I really liked the park a lot and think that it will be a great spot to do some backpacking with Rob. It will be something to do before we leave this state. Hopefully we will get through that long list before we actually do. :) I always enjoy a challenge.

*Editors Note* - Last entry that is backdated.

Bluff View Art District

Our last day in Chattanooga was spent in the Bluff View Art District which is just a rather large block on the Northeastern side of the city. We decided we would get cultural and go see the Hunter Museum of American Art. Since I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, I took them around the sculpture gardens outside.

It was an interesting museum, but another place I probably won't revisit. I actually like The High Museum of Art in Atlanta better than this place. That may be because they had stuff from the Louvre on display there.

We ate lunch at a local coffee shop and enjoyed eating outside. Aside from the first day of our trip, and even then only half, the weather was gorgeous. Sunny and fairly warm.

We said goodbye to Chattanooga, and headed back home to Atlanta. This was the first vacation that Rob and I did completely by ourselves which amazed me considering how long we have been dating. Nonetheless, it was fantastic, restful, and utterly enjoyable. We have decided we will continue to do surprise trips in the future because this one was a lot of fun. I had a great time planning it all and Rob enjoyed the surprise and was delighted with all that I had done.

Since I couldn't possibly fit all of my pictures from this trip on the blog, please visit my picasa page to see more. :)

*Editors Note* - Still backdated to day of activity

Rock City and Ruby Falls

The second day of our vacation was spent on Lookout Mountain visiting both Rock City and Ruby Falls. They are both pretty big tourist attractions with signs all the way out on I75. In fact, Rob had read the sign that said Rock City and commented how it was the setting for the battle of the Gods in the Neil Gaiman book, American Gods. At this point he still had no idea where we were going.

After our fantastic breakfast of waffles and sausage, we hopped over to Rock City which was less than a mile from where we were staying. We had gotten there early enough that it was still fairly brisk out, but not too many people around. Another plus to taking a vacation in the middle of the week.


This place has paths that weave up through the rocks and had cleaver names to formations and areas. They had what I would call "calming spa music" pumping in around the park so it became very tranquil. At the top of the park, the view is fantastic. So much so, you can see into 7 different states from that point on a clear day.


After we finished up with Rock City we decided to head over to Ruby Falls. This place is an underground water fall back in the mountain that you can only get to by going into the cavern paths. We rode the elevator down 260 feet and joined our tour group. That is probably my only complaint with this attraction is that you are in a group and are herded along fairly quickly. Oh well.

We watched a video which told us about the history of this place and how it came to be. A man named Leo Lambert was the one who discovered the falls and named them after his wife Ruby, hence Ruby Falls. The caverns were also used in the Civil War by both sides as a medical center for the wounded.

The cool part about walking around down there was all the formations you got to see along the way. After all of our walking, we finally made it to the great show. The falls.


They were a site to see, that's for sure. At this point in the journey you are 1250 feet under ground. I couldn't tell the difference between 1250 and 260 feet. :P I probably wouldn't come back to this place, but if you were planning a trip there, you should see it.

The remainder of the day was spent downtown looking around places and shops. It's a very walkable city. They even have a free shuttle to take you from the aquarium to the Chattanooga Choo Choo and all stops in between. We went to see that because it's almost required, but spent all of 10 minutes there before heading back. Nothing too exciting for either one of us.

For dinner we went to this place called Canyon Grill. I had done some research before hand and this place looked really cool. Because it's located in a dry county, they encourage you to bring your own adult beverages as they can't serve them to you. We brought a favorite bottle of wine and had fabulous food. It was a little pricey, but the for the quality of food, it was worth it. I would highly recommend this place.

*Editors Note* - Still backdated to day of activity

The Surprise Trip

Some of you may have known, I stole Rob away from school work and the city for a few days this past week. I thought we could use a much needed get away trip, so I took it upon myself to plan one and to not tell Rob the details of where and/or what we would be doing. I asked Rob for his availability and gathered some ideas from the people I interact with on a decent yet not too expensive trip to take. I came up with Chattanooga, TN.

Some might ask, what in the world would you do there? We managed to fill our entire 2 night, 3 day stay with plenty of things to do. When we arrived it was pouring rain and not offering the best conditions to start a vacation, but I had a plan. What better place to stay out of the rain and be entertained at the same time than an aquarium? We got there shortly after it opened and had a fabulous time there throughout the day. My favorite parts were the butterfly exhibit and the diver that had a device so he could talk to us from inside the tank.

For anyone who is planning a visit to Atlanta in the future and wants to see the Georgia Aquarium, I refuse to take you. That being said, I will gladly drive 2 hours north to take you to the one in Chattanooga. Yes, it's that much better and you don't leave feeling dumber than when you went in.

The rain let up later in the day allowing us to explore the park around the aquarium. We had noticed a lot of purposely placed art work around the aquarium that seemed to have meaning, but for the life of us, we couldn't figure it out. We asked the nice ladies in information and they handed us a decoder ring (aka - piece of paper) that told us everything. It was like a scavenger hunt looking for the objects around the area. Most of it had to do with flooding, the Cherokee Indians and history of the city.

From there it was off to check in to our place we were staying at. I thought this might be a good opportunity to try something different so I looked up Bed & Breakfasts in the area. I also didn't think I wanted to stay downtown as some of the other things we wanted to do were in the mountains. I found a place called The Garden Walk Inn. It's quaint, cozy, and best of all, quiet since it's located in on the mountain. We stayed in the room called Summer's Dream.

For dinner, we tried a local pub called Hair of the Dog. I was reading the menu outside when I made the emphatic decision to eat there upon seeing a bottle of Yuengling on a table inside. Super plus to having a vacation in Tennessee. The food was really good here and our waitress was pretty cool. My favorite part of the place was the decorations.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story! :)

*Editors Note* - This has been backdated to day of activity to break up a pile up on entries.

Can You Spell Allergies?

Ah the sounds, sights, and smells of spring; what a wonderful thing. This is the time of year when cabin fever breaks and you get to scratch that itch to open windows, go outside, and just get out of the house. However if you part of the lucky masses with allergies, your cabin fever has to last just a bit longer.

Last year I reported on the fuzz which was the green yellow covering over everything. I haven't seen that yet, but I imagine it's only a matter of time before it rears its ugly head once again. Last year I also was not having many allergic reactions to what was in the air. Oh how the times have changed.

After spending a day with a tissue box and turning my nose into some sort of monument to Rudolph, I decided I had better get some help to combat this crap this year. My doctor recommended some medication for me and I've got to say; I'm a fan. So far we have success, but I know we haven't even really gotten into the thick of the season yet. Hooray Spring! Oie...

It's a Twister!

As you all know, Atlanta has been in a bit of a drought for some months now. Recently, we had been getting some rain and storms in the area which have been great to help alleviate that issue. However it seems like our storms are the other end of extreme weather with lots of damage, power outages and as of a few nights ago, tornados. The king of storms came through and made a mess of downtown with our very own tornado hitting the Georgia Dome, Omni Hotel, and CNN Center area.

I was out celebrating a friends birthday outside the city and it was still miserable there. We made it to the car from dinner fine, but once in the car, it started to hail and pour rain in buckets. When we got to the bar, the rain was coming down in sheets. Thanks to Heidi and her umbrellas we were able to stay mostly dry. After getting inside, looking back outside was like looking at a white out in a snow storm because the rain was coming down that hard.

To be honest, we are making the national news a lot more than I would like. From what I remember we have made it for our drought, tornado, and the bus accident with the baseball team. I think we may get more coverage than normal because CNN and the Weather Channel are located right here in town. Their own backyard has enough stuff going on, so why look elsewhere? Smart thinkers they are. I just wonder what's in store for us next.

Paper or Plastic?

How about neither? There is a new option that is spreading across the nation. How about bags we can use again and again and again? We shall call them reusable bags! Brilliant!

I think most grocery chains are now sporting their own brand of bags. I picked some up from my not so local store to sport around here. They were cheaper, black (instead of oh, say bright green), and say Wegmans on them. Sweet deal.

I think the use of these bags is a great idea. I will admit I don't remember them every time but I am getting better about that. I used to reuse plastic grocery bags for kitty box duty, so I thought I was being at least half way decent about the waste (ha), but about 50% of the time, they would have holes in them making them essentially useless for litter. I have since found an alternative of 4 gallon cheap bags that come hole free 100% of the time. Yeah it's still using bags, but now I don't have to toss them out empty (recycle bin).

The only trick to using these is making sure your check out people are aware you have them and that if they can't fit everything in them, they can go to the plastic bags (or whatever your back up plan is). This for some reason trips them up every time. I bring 3 with me each time I go and for one reason or another the baggers have all had brain farts. They either pile everything into one bag or forget they are supposed to be using them or whatever. I am using stores that sell them themselves so it's not like it's a new concept. I am sure as more people use them it will get better, but for now it's a work in progress.

I have to say I do like them more though. The bags are easier to carry, they hold more, and they are friendly for the environment. The idea of reusing bags makes sense and I hope it catches on a little more. I know IKEA now charges you if you use their bags. I can see grocery stores eventually doing that too. I try to pass on bags most places I go now if I just buy one or two things. I think small changes will lead to bigger changes in the end. Go Green!!