Author: Chris and Angie

Bucket List: Cave Dives and Manatees

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My muscle man and I decided that his birthday weekend would be a great time to take a little long weekend road trip! And since our roommate had Monday off for Martin Luther King Day, he decided to tag along!! With the recent cold snap, I figured that it would be a perfect time to go swim with the Manatees in Crystal River Florida!! I’ve been before, but my muscle man never has, and it’s really such an awesome experience! Of course, since it was his birthday, he decided we would also take a diversion to a cavern about an hour away for a little scuba diving!

There are actually two cave/cavern dive locations we had to choose from, Blue Grotto and Devil’s Den. I’ve actually been to Blue Grotto before, and would have been my choice, but our roommate was with us and not a certified diver, so we decided Devil’s Den gave him a cooler swim since he would be down in the cave with us. This was my our first time diving in an overhead environment, which is admittedly a little more dangerous than I would normally venture, but my muscle man was set on it! So after some assurance from the proprietor that it was safe so long as we stayed in the main chamber we were ready to suit up and dive in. Our roommate stayed at the surface and snorkeled while we went into the icy water, it was quite the experience! I mostly got video inside the cave since our GoPro isn’t the best at still photography, especially in a darkened cave.

 After our dive, we found the best little local restaurant, they had the most amazing rice-cereal breaded chicken! And mac-n-cheese! And sweet tea in massive mason jars, of course haha!

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at  Rainbow Springs park, which happened to be on the way between Devil’s Den and Crystal River. It was such a cool park, and we were able to bring the puppy with us for some exercise after she had to spend the morning in her kennel in the hotel waiting for us to dive and enjoy lunch. Not only was the park positively gorgeous, our puppy loved it, and was so happy to have so many trails to lead us down into the marshes. We thought about going back the next day for a swim, since the hot springs feed into the river it makes the water quite warm, but never quite got around to it.

 


Sunday we set out for our manatee tour at day break, and we all felt quite a bit stupid knowing we were about an hour away from jumping into water, considering that there was frost on our car windows! Lucky for us, the river is hot-spring fed, which is why the manatees come into the water in the first place… So the cold was actually good, it would mean more manatees wanted in the warmer water!  The sun warmed things a bit, but man the water still stung, even when we got closer to the spring. But the manatees were amazing, my muscle man and our roommate were both like little giggly girls when they started seeing them hehe! And there were a few little pups that were just so cute and so curious, it was so fun and really worth the near hypothermia =P

There were some great trails in the Crystal River area, so we decided to spend the afternoon hiking with the puppy, thankfully it had warmed up quite a bit since our frosty morning, and the sun was awesome at raising our spirits and capping off a great little weekend getaway!

Bucket List: Spur of the Moment Vacay

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This summer took quite a while to pick up speed it seems, we didn’t get out much during the first of the summer due to colder and rainier than usual climates… So once we got started, we really took the bull by the horns and have had a blast making up for a dreary summer this fall!

My parents were taking a fall vacation too, and so on their way back, we decided to meet them for a few days in Chattanooga, TN. We couldn’t leave without going to the aquarium, and with my love of everything underwater, I was definitely loving it!

My muscle man was super excited about the penguin exhibit, and he had lots of fun making the penguins chase his hand down the glass! Those little guys were super fast, I barely got a good shot at all haha!

 

And of course, there were sharks!  We stumbled on the big tank while they were doing a fish feeding show with a diver in the tank, so the fish were super active and we were able to watch from a side window since we didn’t much care for watching the diver, we just wanted to see the fishies!!

But my favorite was the jellyfish exhibits!!

 

 

 

Quite an enjoyable little weekend trip for me and my muscle man, and definitely helped make up for the rather blah start to our summer… So at least we were able to end the warmer weather season on a high note!  (We’re not tied to school schedules, so “summer” for us runs from when you pack the sweaters away until you break them back out again =P So this mid-October trip makes our summer list haha! )

2nd Anniversary: Back in Time

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My muscle man and I decided that for our anniversary, we wanted to do something a little special. But since the day fell during crazy busy times at work for both of us, our options were kind of limited. We couldn’t take a day off or even a half day to enjoy ourselves, so we figured the next best thing would be to eliminate our hour long commute and stay in the city for an evening.

But seeing as how we are very much not urban creatures, spending an evening in a swanky high rise just isn’t my thing. We were lucky enough to find a bed and breakfast only a few blocks away from our work, and we thought that would be an absolutely perfect option!  (link) So I called and booked us a room for our honeymoon night, figuring we could at least get off work and relax for a few hours without having to deal with traffic!The room was super cute, there was this toile canopy over the iron bed, and there was even a TV tucked away in the armoire!

 

 

After we took a little tour of the house (gorgeous!) we headed off to find some dinner. There’s several dozen awesome restaurants only a few blocks away in Birmingham’s 5 points area, so we had several choices in front of us, ranging from fast food to 5 star gourmet… We chose a great little sushi bar and lucked up with early bird specials, haha we like food, but we’re super cheap =P Then it was back to the hotel for some relaxing time! TV for my muscle man, and a nice bath for me!!

I was super excited when I booked our room that it had a restored clawfoot tub, so of course I couldn’t resist a nice long soak!

And of course with it being our anniversary, I had to get a few shots with my muscle man!

 

After our little one night stay, I think my muscle man and I are totally ready to sell our house and move downtown! haha well maybe not for real, but it was so nice to get off work and have so much time in the evening, not to mention waking up the next morning later than usual, enjoying a fabulous home cooked breakfast, and still making it to work on time! All in all, it was a perfect little anniversary escape for when our busy schedules didn’t allow much else =D

 

Bucket List: SCUBA Diving (again)

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This year has really been quite an adventure for my muscle man and I! This is really more of a ‘bucket list’ item for him as I’ve already checked it off mine… I’ve been a certified diver for 13 years now, but had gotten out of practice since I didn’t have anyone to go with until now! So even though  I was a little worried about diving into such an expensive hobby (pun intended =P) I’m really glad my muscle man decided to get certified!

The best thing about him deciding to get into scuba is that we actually live about 15 minutes away from a great little quarry that’s been flooded and turned into a dive location. It’s actually the place I took my check out dives when I got certified(it’s like the road test when you get a driver’s license, you have to pass a written test, but then you have to go on several dives with your instructor before you can scuba dive on your own). And as fate would have it, it’s also where my muscle man wound up going to do his check out dives too!

I went with his group for a bit of a refresher for myself, there were actually quite a few parents of kids in the group doing the same thing haha. My muscle man’s instructor decided they would do the required 4 scuba dives in one day, which was quite exhausting, but really fun!

Since that trip was mostly more about testing skills, and since we had a really big group, we didn’t get to see much of the quarry. But since it’s only 15 minutes from our house, we decided a few weeks later to go back just the two of us and get in a few more dives and have some fun.  =)

This trip was a lot more relaxed, and it was great to get into the water with my muscle man and swim around for a bit, and explore some of the less explored areas around the quarry. It goes down really deep, something like 180feet, but we stayed shallow since there was this terrible thermocline (level of freezing ass cold water) at about 40′.

So aside from dipping down into that cold area to check out a wrecked car or something, we stayed shallow and just took our time checking things out. As we were swimming around, I noticed the absolute coolest thing I’ve seen while diving in freshwater… jellyfish… no really… A JELLY freaking FISH… In freshwater! I tried to get a photo of it, but without a macro filter or any advanced settings on my little point and shoot 35mm underwater camera, a blurry little smudge is the best I could do =P

It was still quite a fun little day out at the quarry, but we still haven’t fully explored all that’s in this little hole. So I’m sure that we will check it out again at some point, if for nothing else than to just keep our skills up between more adventurous dive trips. =)

Kicking off Summer Right

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The absolute best thing about summer is that my muscle man loves to travel as much as I do!! =D So when my parents invited us down for a little half-week getaway to the beach, we couldn’t say no! But since we have more traditional days off, we decided to start our vacation a day early, and we took advantage of having a free Sunday to go visit the naval air museum in Pensacola link. I hadn’t been since I was a kid, and my muscle man had never been, so it seemed like an excellent way to spend the morning while we waited for our condo to be ready.


 

 

In addition to the awesome planes and signs, they also had a flight simulator, which my crazy, adrenaline loving muscle man decided he just had to try out! And because I get motion sick really easily, my mom stepped in and rode with my muscle man haha!

 

It was a great little day trip, and a wonderful way to start off our half week off! =D And then we were off to the beach! I positively love the beach, but my muscle man likes a bit more adventure in his vacations, so this was a great compromise =)

Bucket List: 3 Miles Underground

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In his effort to really make 2013 positively awesome, my muscle man went off in search of more caves after our failed attempt the other weekend (link)… And lucky for us (him?), he found a trip offered through the university where he works! And lucky for us (definitely him… I was so hoping for a bit of a break) was only a few weeks away! So off we went this weekend to a private cave with a group and (at least semi-)professional guides!

The only clue from the road that anything is abnormal about the space (and by road, I mean 4 mile long private drive =P) was the “to keep people out” barb wire fencing… Oh and the big “keep out” sign haha! It’s definitely not a tourist attraction, and the curators have no intentions of it ever becoming one, which is pretty cool, but it would be so awesome if more people could experience it! It was quite literally a hole in the wall, totally unassuming but wow what wonders were inside!

That’s no perspective error, the door/opening to the cave was tiny, we had to hunch down to get in! They broke us down into small groups, and into the cave we went with a guide in front and one in back to make sure none of us got lost in the abyss!

 

I decided not to take my slr, so these photos are seriously lacking in quality.. I only had my ancient point-and-shoot (seriously, I think I got it as a graduation gift, from high school…and my 10 year reunion is getting terribly close =P) and it has zero manual controls, sadly… But not having to worry about a camera was very nice, considering I was WAY outside my comfort zone when it came to the climbing! While there were several places where it was just walking around in relatively flat, though sometimes cramped, rooms and passageways, there were a lot more times that it was like climbing a huge dry creek/river bed, if the river was 20 or so feet tall! So lots of big boulders/rocks, and I’m just not very good at climbing those types of things, up or down… But it was so worth it!

Here’s the big, open room we took a little break in, we had a pitch black rave party, complete with a glow stick battle haha!! The first photo was when I forgot my flash was on, the second is more what it actually looked like, with one headlamp still on! It was completely dark with no lights, like in the video below! (no audio… again, super old camera haha!!)

Once our little rave was over, some of the group continued on to the more adventurous part of the cave… And with my muscle man and his friend egging me on, I wasn’t about to go with the wimp group that headed down the easy path back out of the cave… The second part of the cave was really a tight squeeze, so we left our backpacks as they would have just gotten in the way. We had to crawl/slide through several narrow passages, and even with my knee pads I still wound up with several bruises! But sadly, no backpack means no camera, so I don’t have a photo of the coolest room there. It was amazingly large, it was like being inside a football stadium with a roof (never actually been in one of those, but that’s the best idea I can think to compare to…) We got to sit and enjoy it for a few minutes while an even more adventurous group went to the top of the room up a boulder wall…

Oh and then there was an indoor waterfall!! OMG so amazing and overwhelming!! I did take my camera with me to the waterfall, but with its limited capabilities I wasn’t able to get a good shot… Definitely couldn’t have taken my slr to that without a housing, you had to climb up a hole to get to the waterfall… oh and that hole is where the waterfall drains out…

Still, despite not getting any amazing photos, it was such a great trip! And my muscle man was so excited to be inside the cave, he really enjoyed himself and is ready to go again!! As for me, I’m totally ok to let the bruises and sore muscles heal for a little bit lol =P And for my first time in a ‘real’ cave(aka not touristy, not permanently lit, and no handrails/walkways), it was quite the experience!!

Bucket Listing 2013

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We’re filling our bucket quick quickly haha! My muscle man decided to jot down a list of ‘bucket list’ items he’d like to do in 2013, and since his birthday comes at the first of the year, he took advantage of the warm-ish weather to go ahead and (almost) knock one of the items off the list! He really wants to go exploring in a cave this year, and we had heard there were some ‘off the map’ ones at Desoto State Park in Alabama. So after a little sweet talking by me to the park ranger, we had our (literally!) hand drawn map in hand and off we went! No such luck in find the real cave, but we did get half-way there with a (man made, but several hundred years ago) cove/overhang in  the rock wall =D

First though we went to the park’s namesake waterfall, desoto falls, which has a man-made dam just before cascading over a gorgeous rock face… Here’s the view you get from the normal, easy to walk from the parking lot overlook: (I only took my 50mm lens with me, since I knew we’d be in possibly treacherous areas and didn’t want to risk my expensive–not to mention heavy to carry on a several mile hike–lens…so my angles were quite limited)

And then here’s  the view from the mile or so hike that we thought would take us down to the river’s edge after swinging toward the waterfall (it didn’t.. but still, very glad we took the detour, this view was absolutely amazing!!!) If you look really closely you can see little people off to the left side, that’s where the first photo was taken.

So, slightly disappointed that the trail didn’t take us down to the water after the gorgeous overlook, we tried again to figure out where the trail the park ranger had drawn for us was… We finally found it, but were way too tired to hope that we were right and continue on down river and away from our car… Instead we walked around between the two trails, which gave us some really amazing vantages and it’s also where we discovered the little welsh cave (named apparently because welsh settlers carved them, I think I remember the ranger telling us).

See that little person at the bottom left? That’s my muscle man, about 20 feet away from the rock face that goes up so far you can’t see the sunlight!! I wish I would have had my regular lens to really capture how huge it was! I was also concerned my battery wasn’t going to last, so I didn’t take many photos in case we did find the big cave and I wanted to use a battery-draining flash to light photos in it…

And here’s the whole expedition group!! We even brought the dog along with us, he absolutely loved exploring! =D Granted, he was so excited when we finally got home from our journey haha, his poor little paws were exhausted after 2 days of hiking!!

From the very back of the cave to the opening, I’d say it was probably a good 30-40 feet? Lol I’m really bad with distances, but suffice to say it was quite large! I think all three of us sat down on that large rock to the left with plenty of room to spare… The 50mm lens really didn’t do it justice, but I was very glad to have a lighter weight camera than my other lens, which is a beast…

Oh, and then we decided to stay for the night because my muscle man wanted so badly to find the cave, and we figured that since we had found the unmarked trail that was close enough to merit staying, and I certainly wasn’t going to tell him no on his birthday trip!! But that’s another story for another day =D

Disney Day 4: ‘Round the World

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And off to EPCOT, obviously!! I absolutely love a good trip to EPCOT, and while the Magic Kingdom defintely has a warm spot in my heart, EPCOT runs it a very close second for favorite park, so getting to enjoy it with my muscle man made it even more awesome!

Before we left for Disney, we had these amazing personalized maps sent to us from the mouse house! I think they’re meant to be more of a keepsake instead of actually taken to the parks, but since me and my bestie have the parks memorized I thought we’d bring these to the parks so our boys would know where we were headed next (you can choose what attractions you want on your ‘favorite’ list and they are in yellow, the rest of the items are in blue)

Oh and did I mention the best part? Our vacation was smack in the middle of the best time of year to visit EPCOT, the annual Food and Wine Festival! So let’s just say I’m glad it’s a long walk around world showcase, because I definitely took advantage of all the amazing cuisine!

First up on my list though was a year ’round delight, the turkey and cheese with chipolte mayo!!  They have changed the kind of cheese and bread, and it’s not as good as it once was, but wow it is still an amazing sandwich!!

And of course, we had to stop in and try some foreign coke products…Yes, I made my muscle man try beverly… he actually didn’t mind the taste, but he definitely preferred the fruity mexican and japanese sodas they offer there =) I’m waiting for those ‘mix your own flavor’ machines to offer some choices like those now that some fast food places around here have the fancy touchscreen coke dispensers haha, I’m sure they would be quite the hit!


And finally we were off to world showcase, where the shopping, eating and drinking could commence! (I should point out at this point we didn’t get to the park early, so it was well past noon before we started drinking haha!! And due to some medication I was taking, I settled with trying a little bit of everyone’s drinks, since the pill bottles said not to drink, and I’m a lightweight at it is!)

Thanks to the lower crowd volumes (at least before 5pm when the locals get off work and come to eat and drink!) October is a great time to see the characters and not have to wait in forever long lines! We randomly found Aurora in France and my muscle man was a bit star struck so we just had to go introduce ourselves =P  He’s only ever met ‘mascots’ and cosplayers before, so the whole idea of a real character was a bit new to him, he was quite impressed by all the lovely princesses (and mice, ducks, and loyal pet dogs!) that we ran into.


 

I had intentions of getting photos of our food as we went along, but with a hungry (and slightly drunk) muscle man, that was pretty near impossible even when I did remember that I wanted to get a shot =P However, I did get one shot of this fabulous “off-the-menu-special” that was over in China I’d never tried, I think it was teriyaki chicken over rice that was really quite good, though I did miss the orange chicken a little bit. (we only ordered one entree each time we ate, then split it, that way we got hungry more often and could try more stuff!!!) And then it started getting dark, which meant it was time for the beer to take over!

During the food and wine festival they have this amazing beer ’emporium’ set up next to Germany, where they offer beer samplers for a pretty decent (for Disney at least) price. They had two different options for the 4 beer sample packs, so my muscle man got one, and my bestie’s man got the other. And then we all compared which ones were the best! For me and mine, it was definitely this fruity mid-range beer, don’t remember what it was, but considering I don’t drink beer, it was pretty tasty! As for the beer man in the group, my bestie’s boyfriend loved the dark, hoppy brews… yuck!

All that beer (mixed with all the grand marnier slushes, sake, and norweigian liqueur) had the boys feeling a bit more than tipsy, so we grabbed a little dessert and found a spot for the fireworks! I just love the music for Illuminations, which worked out great since I sat us right under a speaker lol! What a great day at EPCOT!

Day 3: A Disney Proposal in the Wild

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Since my muscle man had only ever been to Disney World once before, and it had only been for one day, he had never made it to the Animal Kingdom. So this time around, he was super excited to get to see all the animals, and enjoy some of the amazing rides and shows that Animal Kingdom has to offer. Of course, little did he know I had a little secret hiding for him as well! (more on that later!)
 When we got there we were just in time to get one of the last seats for a showing of Festival of the Lion King. Admittedly, this show was less for the boys (we again went to the park with my bestie and her bf) and more for the ladies! =D These costumes are amazing, and the show itself is just so unusual and very fun to watch! Plus, as a theater in the round, no one has a bad seat and it’s very fun to see the action so close to you.

And of course, no visit to Animal Kingdom would be complete without getting a shot of the Tree of Life… The muscle man really enjoyed seeing all the animals carved into the stump, and of course the jungle-like ambiance of all the pathways. On the downside, now he wants our backyard to look like this, complete with waterfalls!

And then after lunch we were off to Expedition Everest! I’m very much a fan of this coaster, it’s really intense but it’s just so much fun… It’s like 2 of my favorite Magic Kingdom attractions mixed together (Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) and kicked up to 11! My muscle man was super impressed with the theming, it’s almost a shame that we had fastpasses both times we rode (yay for my friend and her man backing out, giving us a chance to ride back to back!!) But at least they have changed the queue lines to make it so fastpass users still get to enjoy a shorter version of the backstory/expedition stuff, when the ride first opened fastpass went straight through without seeing any of the queue!

I figured this was another good ride to turn the camera on myself and the muscle man, haha he had no clue what was coming next and that was so much fun to experience, especially on a ride like this with so many surprises!

 

Then it was over to DinoLand for even more adrenaline!!

Dinosaur!!

And then it was over to Primeval Whirl!
 

 

 

Next we were off to a little afternoon safari!

 

 

And after spending a fabulous day at Animal Kingdom, my muscle man unintentionally chose the perfect location for his own little surprise gift from me. He suggested we go get some photos in a little cove with a great view, and I knew it was the right time to unveil my secret! I had secretly gotten him a new wedding ring, since he lost his original one a few months back while trying to pretty up the yard at the new house… He was pretty bummed he had lost the ring, so I figured giving him a new one with an unforgettable story would cheer him up!

And you know he said yes =P Not like he really had a choice lol!

Disney Day 2: Adrenaline Rush

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While me and the muscle man got a practically free Disney trip from my friend, she had to earn her keep and go to work for a day, so while she made magic we went with her brother (who also works at Disney) and boyfriend for a day of fun at Hollywood Studios. It worked out quite nicely since my bestie isn’t a huge fan of trill rides, so we were able to get the wild rides like tower of terror, rockn’ rollercoaster, and star tours! First up we swung to tower for fastpasses, and spent our wait time hanging out at g-force records.

 

 

 Waiting in this queue line does have some advantages, mostly this amazing marble door! I’ve seen kids torture their parents with this thing, but honestly the textur-al experience is just so cool!
The best thing about having lived and played at Disney before is that I’ve gotten so used to the timing and rhythm of the rides that I feel pretty comfortable taking (self) portraits while on the rides!  I’d taken photos before on a few rides, Space Mountain mostly, since I know that ride best and I tested out my bravery on Tower of Terror last time we came to disney (and tried to do everything in one day, wow!) … But this time around I went all out and got a shot blasting into the abyss at 60mph!

 

Successful ride and photo taken and a quick brunch pizza later, we headed back to tower of terror, which is one of the muscle man’s favorites… He’s quite the Twilight Zone fan, so he especially loves the theming!

 

 

 After a trip to watch the Indiana Jones stunt show and the Muppet’s 3-D muppet-vision, it was back to Star Tours (we grabbed fastpasses on this one too, it was surprisingly popular, which made me excited!).

We finished up the day at Hollywood Studios with a rainy Lights, Motors, Action show, and my friend was able to finish up her day at work and join us about half-way through the show! I think my muscle man really enjoyed the show, he’s a bit of a gear-head so he really enjoyed watching the cars and seeing how they modded the vehicles for the show.

 

Since there was still a bit of rain, after the show we decided to wait out the weather in the car and head out to Epcot for dinner,  by the time we arrived there the sun was back out and the food sounded amazing! But that’s for another blog =D