Cedar Point

It seems that there is a continuum of how much I like roller coasters. Here is a handy illustration.




By using this graph, you can see how much I would have WANTED to go to Cedar Point. I'm not a roller coaster newbie, and I'd never been. Jason assured me that it would be tons of fun. And, once I got past that first hill, it totally was.

We went during the last week of August. It was really really the perfect time to go. It was cool enough that we were comfortable, but it was still warm enough to enjoy the water rides (at least for a minute). We didn't wait in a line longer than 15 minutes, except once.

The best roller coaster, in my opinion, was , well, I was going to pick one before I got to this point in the sentence, but I really can't! Millenium Force was huge, and awesome and I have to innterrupt this blog post to tell one of the funniest things EVER.

When Jason is scared on a roller coaster, he doesn't scream, he doesn't close his eyes, he doesn't barf (thank God). Instead, he talks smack to the roller coaster. After the first hill on millenium force, I heard him yelling things like "is that all you got?" and "fun times! fun times!". I amlaughing out loud about it right now. When I heard him it was immediately added to the list of reasons I love him Reason 6,234,452,354: He yells at roller coasters.

I on the other hand, try to scream, and I fail. A long time ago, my cousin pointed out that on the first hill (if you refer to the graph above, a high fright level place) I open my mouth wide to try to scream, and nothing comes out. Yeah. After that I yell and I'm having fun. But I turn into a silent movie star when on that first hill.

We now return you to the sceduled blog post. Maverick was also awesome. When we read that the first hill was a 95% drop, we didn't believe it. As we were going over we both yelled I BELIEVE IT. It kinda knocked my head around, but was awesome.

Another aside, this is a video of the first roller coaster I ever went on. Thanks Dad, for riding with me, and singing "Get a Job" while we were cranked up the first hill.


Raptor. I love the raptor. It doesn't really scare me as much as others, maybe because I start high up in the air. We offended a ride operator by revealing this lack of fear. He responded that "the raptor is the 7th most intense coaster in the world" Sorry dude.

Thought Mantis was going to be my favorite since Jason doesn't like it. I loved it, but I really can't pick a favorite.

Ah, Magnum. Old. Hilly. DEATH. We didn't snap the lap bar down far enough and felt like we were going to fly out the entire time.

I noticed just now that I didn't talk about any wooden roller coasters in a positive fashion. I like wooden roller coasters, but they make me feel OLD. I don't remember Judge Roy Scream or the Texas Giant hurting that much.

So, I can't pick a favorite other than Cedar Point in general. It was great. Can't wait to go back next year. I leave you with this video of the Maverick.

Texas! Part 2

We spent the next day with the fam, and I was really glad to. I like Indiana and all, but my family (extended and otherwise) is awesome, and having them live so many states away (and in other states as well) really stinks.

Jason has some things in common with my Uncle, and I'd never even thought of it before.

We visited Papa's house an got a nice tour of his studio. I don't know why he won't smile.

Papa said there was an armadillo living in one of his bushes.

I looked at about 10 different pictures of all of us together, and there's not even on where we're all smiling, or even looking at the camera.

The next day we were on our way to Palo Duro canyon. We stopped at one of the nicest rest stops ever, with the most frightening signs, EVERYWHERE.

We drove all day again, and saw an actual cattle drive. We also saw about a million wind farms. It was a long, fast drive. Mom had a great theory. The reason the speed limit is so high in Texas is that if you're going to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time, you'd better go fast.

W arrived in Canyon that night and were duly impressed. It was really amazing, the 2nd biggest canyon in the US. We stopped for pictures, then made our way down to have some dinner, and see a show.

The show was Texas, and it had been performed for 40 years at the stage in the canyon. You'd think that in that time, they could have made it awesome. Instead it was rather amateurish. My eyes didn't bleed, but it wasn't awesome either.

The real show was above us. Both in the amphitheater and on our way back to the hotel, I coudn't keep my eyes off the stars. It was truly amazing. If I've not said it before, I'll say it again, the sky really is bigger in Texas.

The next morning we took a jeep tour. The owners thought we were brave since, for them, they'd had a lot of rain the night before. To us, it was nothing, a few inches, and I remember 2 years ago 12 inches in12 hours, but they promised that if anything looked unsafe to pass, we would turn back.

The tour was really great. The guide was informative, and entertaining. The ranch he works for owns half of the canyon, and they use it. It's a working cattle ranch, even thought we only saw one cow. He looked kinda lonely. We got to get out of the jeep and walk around a little on interesting rock formations. There were lots of cacti. We saw a roadrunner, but failed to get an actual picture, he ran off. We looked over the edge. Jason wanted me to stay in the jeep.







After the tour we hiked just a little bit. Jason and I would really like to go back and camp overnight in the canyon. We saw deer, and more cacti. We drove back out of the canyon, and then we were headed home, but the long way. On the way to Indiana we stopped at a cheese place in Missouri that apparently no longer exists (we keep finding disconnected numbers) and we saw a tumbleweed. Jason says that it was just a weed, since it was stuck on a fence. :P

Texas! Part one

Jason, just to let you know, it's hard to type when you have to make an x with your hands.


Only a week after we came back from Florida with Jason's family, we were off to Texas with mine! My family is from Texas, and I spent many a summer there when I was younger. We all piled into the van it was me my brother my ma oh my pop and my little sister all jumped in the car. We headed downtown to the gallery mall.

WAIT. That's not even a meme. At this point it's just an old Will Smith Song. Extra points if you remember it too.

In real life, it was Jason and I, my parents, my bother and this:


My parents' new puppy, Penelope. She's a schnoodle. It took me 4 times to type that. She's half poodle, half Schnauzer and all teeth. But she's cute!!!!

We started our trip in Arkansas. I know that's not really Texas, but Mom's goal after retirement is to see all of the presidential libraries. Little Rock was just enough on our way to really qualify.

Penny, although cute was not allowed in the library, so we took shifts.

I has excited to see that there was a space exhibit there. I really do love all things space. If given the chance, I would 100% go into space. I wanted so much to go to space camp when I was a kid. Jason makes fun of me now because I saw a preview of the new show "Defying Gravity" and I said "OMG It's a show in space! It's a show in space!"

Anyway (I'm feeling awfully stream of consciousness today) in this exhibit there was part of Mir. As in the space station. It was a cool exhibit but something about the inside of that pod made you dizzy. Instantly. I went in around 4 times, and it never went away!

The rest of the Clinton library was kind of uneventful. There was a replica oval office, but we couldn't go in! I don't see the point of having the replica to see if we have to stand outside. Also, they knew I was coming, so they got out the Chihuly. For whatever reason, the docent that heard me say "look, a Chihuly" was really really impressed that I knew what it was. From Little Rock we were off to Whitesboro!

We drove and drove and drove (insert some more "droves" in there). And arrived at the hotel in the early evening. We checked in and invited my Aunt Dawn and Papa over.

Papa really is awesome. He's in his 90's and is completely independent. Not just independent, but a witty, sharp, extremely talented artist. He spends his days painting lovely things, and gave Jason and I a second painting while we were down there. It's really beautiful, of a beach in Cozumel (we didn't know that's where it was when we picked it, but more on that later) then we went to bed. Crash.

Florida!

It's been a busy summer. We had looong ago planned to go to Florida with Jason's family. We were going to drive down, and stay a week. Then gas prices went waaaaaaay up. So we thought we would fly. Then Jason took a pay cut. We just didn't see how we could afford it so we told everyone that we probably wouldn't make it. Then, as a last minute thing, Jason took a look online at flights, and lo and behold, we could get down there, and back, for about 300 total! So we called his family back and started to pack!

We were headed for Treasure Island Florida. I know that sounds very mysterious and islandy, but it's a town, on the gulf coast, so an island so much. It's a really neat little town that still has a lot of historic charm.

The only way we could afford to go down was to make it just a weekend, but the airlines were surprisingly helpful on that front. We could fly in really early on friday, and then leave late on Sun.

So, I coerced my wonderful parents to get us to the airport at 4:30 Friday morning. We arrived in Florida around 8:30 or so, and went to breakfast. We left our luggage at the hotel, and went on kind of a tour of the area. We stopped at the Don Cesar hotel, which was really cool. It reminded Jason and I a lot of West Baden in style. It was also very pink.

We then went to Fort DeSoto beach and played around at the pier. We saw rays and lots of little fish in the water. There were plenty of people fishing, but nobody catching. It was a realy beautiful day.

When we got back to the hotel, our room was ready. There had been some talk of an upgrade, but not really to us, just overheard between the staff. When we walked in, we realized it had come to fruition. The room was HUGE! It had a full kitchen, a living room, and the requisite bed/bath combo.

You know what? I'm just realizing that almost every hotel room we stay in ends up having one thing odd, or broken in it. Just this past weekend, we were in one that half of the light switches didn't seem to do anything in. Hmmmm. Well, in this room there were 2 oddnesses. One was the only clothing rack was only waist high (I'd brought 2 maxi dresses) and in the dresser, one of the drawers opened on it's own. Eventually I shut it hard and the handle fell off. Ooops. Lucky I know how to work a screw.

ANYWAY we got into the room and we changed into our swimsuits for a trip to the beach. We hung out at the beach for a while, and both Jason and I got beat up by the ocean. The water was rough that day. I managed not to get sunburnt! YAY!

I remember laying out as an activity. My skin wasn't always so sensitive. I used to bake in the sun all summer, but now I wear spf 70 when I go out and pray for shade. I guess it's better for me anyway.

That night we had dinner at my sister in law's husband's parents' house. How's that for a mouthful. I'm never sure what I'm supposed to call those relatives by marriage. We had some great chicken and rice and yummies out on the lawn which ended at the backwater. There was a dock and Jason fished. He wasn't having too much luck, but a hungry heron sure hoped he would.

He'd been fishing before we ate, and he put his pole down to come to dinner. We didn't want the heron to get hooked, so he left the hook (with a tiny bit of chewed over bait) in the water. As we finished eating, we all noticed that the end of his pole was curving quite a bit. While we ate, Jason had caught a catfish!

We all went down to sunset beach for guess what? A sunset.

The next morning we had a mission. Months earlier, Jason had suggested we go parasailing. I said very nicely that I would wave to him from the boat and that I hoped he had a good time. He tried and tried, and I was considering swallowing my fear, when several friends told me that it was fun, and I should definately go. So, here I was, Saturday morning, in my bathing suit, on a boat with a parachute that looked like a smiley face.

My fears were not so much allayed when the workers on the boat had marijuana leaf tattoos, and had what I feared was an ironic sticker about employee drug testing. Then, they turned on the stereo. Sublime. Nothing but Sublime. Hmmmm. (actually it was the perfect music for that morning)

Jason had convinced his sister and her husband to go parasailing too, and we had parents in the boat as well. They were going to take our pictures. The boat took off into a beautifully clear morning. I was really nervous, we were up first.

They gave us some very quick very simple instructions, and then asked Jason and I to come to the back of the boat with our harnesses on. Did I mention I was nervous? They hooked us on to the parachute and told us we wold take off sitting, and land standing up. I was, at this point, slightly more scared than a snowman in the sahara. The boat sped up, and I was instantly, incredibly, completely, at ease.

It was like floating. There was no sense of falling, it was as easy as falling off a log. Which we didn't. We went up the full 1200 feet and stayed there for 15 minutes, which was NOT long enough. Landing was just as easy.

After everyone who was planning to had gone, we managed to get Jason's dad and Carolyn to go too! They said they had a great time!

When we had all changed into some dry clothes, we headed off to Tarpon Springs to go to the sponge docks. We'd had fun there on our honeymoon and were just too close to not go again. Turns out that it was Christmas in June...

That night, Jason and I dressed up to go out to dinner which turned out be okay food at a bar. It was my choice. I should have let Jason choose.

The next day we got in some good beach time, cuban sandwiches, and shopping. We had ice cream at a really delightful place with writing on the ceiling and candy wrappers for wallpaper. We tried to see the shuttle launch, but it got postponed due to weather.

Our trip home was interesting, filled with delayed flights and running, but we made our flights, and so did the luggage. You go AirTranica.Why are the advertising to people who are already at their mercy?

Our next adventure would be longer, but less beachy. Until next time, Make Mine Marvel.



that was kinda odd, wasn't it?

Jungle Jim's!

This weekend we made a trip to Cincinnati. There were two places we wanted to go. One, Bass Pro Shops. As you have seen before, this is quite often a destination. Second, we were out of Bove's Vodka Sauce. This is not an ad, or paid for in any way by Bove's, but hey, if you want to, you can pay me in free vodka sauce. It is seriously, the best pasta sauce ever. If you've never had vodka sauce before, don't judge it until you try Bove's. If you've had it before but didn't like it? It's because it was a different brand. Seriously, this stuff is awesome. Just the right amount of tomato and cream, with a great spiciness. Wow, I'm almost drooling thinking of it. Maybe we should have ravioli this week.

ANYWAY, we were out of Bove's. It used to be that you could get it just about anywhere. Then it disappeared. Now, it's back, but $6 a bottle at kroger. At Jungle Jim's in Cincinatti, it's $4 a bottle. Yumy savings. So, this and the desire for food insanity took us an hour and a half east. You'll have to pardon the great lack of good pictures throughout this post, as there is a sign on the front door of Jungle Jim's prohibiting photography.

Jungle Jims is like no store you have ever seen. It's like they took all of the grocery stores in a state and smushed them all together. Then gave the unholy creation some steroids. Then set me loose inside the beast. When you walk in, you see a drug store type area, as big as some whole dugstores. As you pass that you are engulfed in the cheese. There is everything. Saturday was sample day, so we tried some goat cheese, and some that was coated in cocoa. I almost bought some baked mozzarella. It looked delicious. Then you can get lost in a liquour store and a half's worth of alcohol, but we went to the bakery. To get there I had to pass every kind of gum ever made. There's a huge meat section, ginormous produce, and then you get to the fish. Some of them are still alive. Swimming about in tanks. Can you get any fresher?

There's a firetruck lording over a house of hot sauce. We got a grenade filled with almost pure capsacin. Then there's the international section. This section is as big as an entire Kroger itself. If you want authentic food from another country, look here. It's really amazing.

Possibly the strangest thing about this place is that after all of that, it's also just a normal grocery store. You can get your hamburger helper, or peanut butter, or milk there too. It's really fun, check out the pictures on their site: http://www.junglejims.com/

There's a ton I've missed. There's too much to write about, so I'll just leave you with one last thing. The first time we went was on a Sunday evening. It was just right. There were so many people there on Saturday, that it was really hard to make your way through. So, think of crowds...

One Year (only a month late)

I can't believe it. Time flies when you're having fun, and boy did it fly by in Jason and I's first year of marriage. On Feb 2nd, we celebrated the first of I hope many milestones. It's really been great, and I love him more every day. I know this is all supersap from the sappy tree in sappyland, but I really never thought it would happen. So, I'm happy about it. We know that we'll only have one first anniversary, so we decided to do it up big. We'd been saving since October, and were going to West Baden Springs.

I'd heard of this place before, honestly mostly in ghost hunting circles. I think it was discussed when the re-did West Baden and French Lick Hotels, that there was a reported haunting. This is NOT why we went there. Remember back in October, when I posted about our camping trip to Patoka Lake? On the way down, we passed West Baden. I'd never seen it before in person and it was AMAZING. We stopped in on the way home, and made spur of the moment reservations for our anniversary.

On Friday the 30th, we made our trip down with only one little stop at Bass Pro Shops. It was huge.
As we arrived at West Baden, there were 3 small deer foraging right in front of the hotel! It was really cool, especially for me, who had never seen a live deer until after I met Jason. When we asked about them at the desk, it turned out to be an extremely common thing.
The whole hotel was really amazing. One of my favorite things were these statues. This hotel had fallen into extreme disrepair, at the worst time one wall was missing. In pre-restoration pictures, one of the only identifiable things were the statues.

We checked into our beautiful balcony room. The room was wonderful. It was elegant and comfortable. The furniture was really pretty. The fronts of the dressers were inlaid with a picture of the hotel. The bathroom was huge! That afternoon we went swimming. That night we took the shuttle over to the French Lick hotel and had a look around. We were glad to be where we were. There was live music under the dome every night, and it was just amazing.


The next day I had a Spreudel bath in the morning. These hotels had been built to take advantage of a mineral spring whos water was said to be a cure all. I wanted to do something in the spa that I couldn't do anywhere else, so I chose the bath. I wish I could have taken the list of minerals that were in it with me, because, it was scary. It smelled a little funky, and had turned the tap black. But, it was a realxing bath, and I thought it was neat. Plus, it cured my scurvy.


We went to French Lick winery for lunch, and had a good pizza. I tasted the wine, and decided that I've been spoiled by Oliver. EVERYTHING at Oliver is good. After that we went to the casino. Neither Jason nor I had ever been to a casino. We were excited. We each took $20, and were going to leave when we'd spent it. It was mostly slot machines, and nost of those were penny slots, so they only took one or two cents. Nevertheless, in around half an hour, I'd lost mine, but Jason had doubled his! So, we broke even. Both of us could see how people could spend all day there, but we also agreed that it was kinda boring. I think I'd want to see how somewhere like Vegas would be before I ruled on the entertainment value of gambling.


That night we went out for a fancy dinner to celebrate our Anniversary. I dressed up, and we went to the fancy steakhouse, It was good, and our table was very nice, very private. I had a ymmy martini, and we ate the biggest asparagus we'd ever seen. We went back and had dessert under the dome. There was a jazz trio there that night, and we danced on our balcony.


It was really a great trip. every inch of that place is amazing. It was a great memory to keep.

The Great Wallace Church Search

Jason and I are looking for a church. Both of us grew up in church and since my father retired, neither of us really had a place to go. Lucky for us, the denominations we are familiar with are pretty similar. So, we're looking churches in both, and possibly outside our familiarity entirely. What we are looking for is a church that has:


An active church life i.e. groups, get togethers, non-Sunday things happening

People our age

A minister we like (duh)

A congregation who is nice (double duh)


So far, we went to a church right down the street from us. The minister was really nice, although he kind of scarily reminded me of my Dad, and the congregation was welcoming and nice. BUT everyone there was over 50 or under 5. There were maybe 2 other people there around our age. And, I didn't see a lot going on during the week. DOUBLE BUT, we're giving each church 3 chances. Maybe there are more people our age on other Sundays, and maybe I just didn't see the right bulletin board. So, we've got a few other places that look interesting, and we're starting as close to home as possible, just for a shorter drive. Wish us luck!

Mystery State Part Deux

On our second day in Kentukhio , we had a lot planned. We were meeting up with Jason’s sister and her husband to go, well, pretty much everywhere. Turns out Cincinnati has all kinds of places we want to go. I was not helpful. I got us lost. We were supposed to get on to 75, at the split, but instead we stayed on 71. After we got off on “our” exit and there was nothing there, we stopped at a rest area and got a map. I planned us a secondary route through a small town called Lebanon. Boy am I glad we got lost. We saw the neatest little town! The thing that made us stop was this.

The Texaco had great vintage cars out front. When we found a parking space, we saw the rest of these, the Golden Lamb, the oldest hotel in Ohio, and a great public library.

It was the cutest place!! We think we might go back sometime to stay at that hotel.

Eventually, we made it to our first destination, IKEA! I love IKEA, but there isn’t one in Indy. We went up to the café and grabbed some lunch. It was good, but nothing life altering. Then, it begins. There’s a path to follow through the store and I thought it was pretty intuitive. They have all kinds of cool stuff, most of which was furniture. Jason and I really liked a lot of it, especially the neat cabinet/drawers in one kitchen, but we don’t have space for any more furniture now. We saw a tiny whole house, and we felt like we were drowning in space. There was a lot to see, but Jason had a mission. A stainless steel toilet seat cover. Accomplished! We got that, and a giant drying rack to replace the one the cats broke during the earthquake, a vegetable peeler, an herb chopping board with curvy knife and an octopus. Plus a giant blue bag that I hope comes in as handy as I think it will. When we left, we headed straight to Bass Pro Shops.

Also known as “The Store for Jason”, Bass Pro had lots of stuff that was interesting. I think the giant fish tank is really neat, and the giant stuffed fish that now inhabit our bed are cool too. I like to look at the camping stuff there. There’s so much CRAP you can buy for camping! I will never need a holder for that many eggs, or a camp slow cooker. But I like to look at them. Jason found lots of fishing stuff, and is actually, right now, out there using it. One of the strangest things we saw was a package of disposable “instant towels”. Just add water. What? Then you have a wet towel? But I want a dry towel if I’m at a lake. Hmmmm. We were all hungry.

On our first little honeymoon, we went to a restaurant in Cincinnati that I had been to in Ft. Worth. It’s called Pappadeaux. There are many delicious things there, not least of all the lobster bisque soup. This is where we chose to eat this weekend too. We ate and ate and then we were too full for desert, which was too bad because it looked so good. So, we went grocery shopping.

Okay, not really, we want to go see Jungle Jim’s. We had heard about this place from friends and it was held up to be the Mecca of food. It is huge. We were expecting some kind of hoity toity fancy grocery store, but that’s not what we got. What it may have lacked in snotty finish (something no-one needs) it made up for in sheer volume. There was a regular grocery section, but then a bazillion each of the following:

Cheeses

Wines

Baked goods

Candies

Hot Sauces

Vegetables

Etc.

There were fish so fresh that they were swimming around in tanks. Plus, there was an ethnic foods section so large, I don’t think there was any country left out. Then cookware, flowers, and giant singing cereal mascots. We are definitely going back.

Tired and with a full car, we headed for home. Who knew there was so much to do in Ohtucky?