Vacation blog time! My two top ten lists and tons of pictures...enjoy and leave a comment.

Top 10 Surprises:

10. TSA is no slower or more invasive than my last flight (2004ish). The metal detector is bigger and fancier, and there are more signs explaining how they do their job (without invading your privacy), but everything else is the same as before.

9. Unc's gate opener barely opens his gate wide enough to get his jeep in.

8. The spruce tree: thicker than Unc's bear hug and covered in vines, this greenery was a massive monolith, and conquering it was a war in itself. I also forgot I wasn't programming in a cubicle in Utah and didn't wear sunblock....big ol' sunburn for the rest of vacation. Yeah...

7. Unc has been both secretary and president of the Optimist Club and has been going there for over twenty years! One thing he is not optimistic about? Politics (they're all bad, Daniel).

6. Getting to hear inspirational speaker Phil Timp share his true story with the Optimist Club inside a Food City! Phil has courageously fought through health issues for his daughter Beth and now himself (ALS), using the challenges as opportunities to inspire others. He was, as Unc aptly put it, a "driven" individual, and he brightened everyone's day.

5. Cobbly Knob is in Gatlinburg. And it's only about 2 hours from Johnson City. I don't know why I never knew these things before: but close friends will attest that I take awhile to become oriented, if it happens at all.
  Mom and Unc used to get taffy in Gatlinburg: and the store that made the taffy is still there, and still making taffy!

4. Unc was bursting (pun intended) to show us the Tennessee dams. We didn't even make it home from the airport before we were gawking at Boone Dam, and that was before the weir dams, the earth dam, and even a dam at the softball fields where he works!

3. The rain. Tennessee has been getting a good soaking. Our hosts were adamant that there had been a drought, but we saw green in bunchfuls everywhere we went. A torrential rain even slowed our Friday evening trip across I-40: the worst I've driven through in years, but oddly exciting in a way.

2. Grandpa still remembers going to USO shows. I had never heard of them before, but it's a great sidelight of American history, and I'm grateful to him for pointing it out to me. Part of war is being able to keep perspective: with humor, for example. "But it's comforting to know that while we're all here celebrating Christmas at home, that somewhere out on the lonely frontier, Elvis is defending us."

1. Unc's attic: yes, it was raining and yes I only had a flashlight and yes it went out on me. Brownie points if you can guess what I saw!

Honorable mentions
- Dirt zamboni
- Live sawtooth sharks
- Finding Herbie
- Meeting the world's tallest man

Top 10 Unsurprises:

10. Grandma, Grandpa, and Unc all took us places they had lived before. I wonder if I will feel the same affinity for old homes I've lived in. Then again, these houses are older than mine...and hence, cooler...

9. Grandpa taught us even more about the Civil War - this time it was the battle of Johnsonville. Nathan Bedford Forrest's men, unsurprisingly, out planned and roundly defeated the Union outpost. The Union commander was so overwhelmed that he decided to burn what was left of the town and run for the hills, or should I say, the woods?

8. Historical markers! We passed one several times on the road that said something about a mount: but to our Westerners' eyes, there was only a smallish hill. We found another one while touring the park grounds in Bristol.

7. Grandma's sourdough bread. "We like it, so I keep making it." You and everyone else! It goes well with toasted pepper jack and cheddar cheese...

6. Gardens. There are always delicious, enormous, soft tomatoes for us when we come. Anyone else get nostalgic about having a compost pile, or is it just me?

5.  Restaurants! I love eating out; it wouldn't be a vacation without sampling the local cuisine: Golden Corral, Shoney's, Maggiano's Little Italy, Papa John's, Wendy's, and somewhere with an Argentine flair (El Matador, perhaps?)

4. Uncle Billy beat himself at pool by calling the wrong pocket for the 8-ball. I still had two stripes to go at the time.

3. Playing the Wii with Andy. Beating Andy at the cows game, not so much! (He won the rematch.)

2. Piano time everywhere there was a piano, including Uncle Carl's (where a flattering Aunt Iona called for more between pieces!). Granddaddy's spirit lives on...

George & Daniel at age 26

1. Enjoying Boone Lake. I had learned my lesson from Tuesday and wore plenty of sunblock on our Thursday excursion. Over my vote, we started late (around 11:15 am). We were only able to get in one run before a storm chased us into an empty covered dock. I made it up and out of the wake, so it would have to be called a success.

Responsibly, Unc ended the outing as soon as the rain had cleared out (around 15 minutes later) so he could monitor the weather for the softball games. (They ended up getting canceled after 30-45 minutes of uncertainty and some rain and lightning.)
    We also spent two evenings on the dock: we wore plenty of bug spray and had a great time overall. There was a little tension when Unc had to discipline Maggie: unlike Shiloh (who fancies himself a bit of a fisherman), she ignored his commands to lie down and not bother us while we were eating.

Honorable mentions
- Punctual mealtimes (and unpunctual)
- Dust (and the absence of dust)


- Dog walks (and dog rides in the doggy truck)

 - Getting beat at golf by the best grandpa ever on every hole (except 1!)









- Getting the last seat on our first flight, and the first seats on our second flight







And that's all for now. See ya'll later!