Author: Chris and Angie

Travel Days: Down to Disney/Day 1

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To say that the muscle man and I have had a crazy past few months is a bit of an understatement, what with the stress of buying our first house (or, rather, the stress of waiting forever for the short sale to go through!) and slowly moving in while renovating/refreshing 17 years worth of apathy from the previous owners… But we’re well on the way to feeling like this is our home, and the list of major projects to be completed is quickly dwindling… So when my bff said her and her boyfriend were going to disney, and would we like to come, the answer was a very quick and very enthusiastic YES! And even better is the fact that since she is a seasonal cast member, our trip was going to be incredibly cheap!

Still, we’re very frugal people, so we decided to drive down to save $$ not just on airfare, but we also decided we would ‘car-camp’ the first night so we didn’t have to pay for a hotel. We made it to FL, and started trying to decide if we wanted to stop at a rest area or find a big-box store to sleep in (we’ve done each once before this trip, both are very amicable to people sleeping in their cars, we’ve yet to experience a problem). We finally settled on a turnpike service plaza, although it was a bit warm and a bit loud (service plazas are in the median of the road, so the traffic was a bit loud, especially with the sunroof open) it was good enough for a quick night’s rest before making the short trip the rest of the way into Orlando and to the hotel for some real relaxation =)

Once we checked in, met up with my bestie and had a nap, it was off to Downtown Disney for a long overdue visit to Earl of Sandwich!

I’ve only ever had one type of sandwich from this place, but it’s really amazing! Turkey, ranch dressing, and cranberry relish… all melted into amazing toasty bread… I missed this sandwich haha!!

What a nice welcome back to the mouse house, and the muscle man was pretty impressed with his sandwich too! (don’t remember what he got, I was a bit distracted by my own indulgence haha!)

We decided that with our bellies full, we should work off some of those calories with a little putt-putt, and Disney does that wonderfully too, so off to Fantania Gardens we went! I’m pretty sure I came in last place, but only because we did not give penalties for flying off the course! Everyone save me managed to leave the green on at least one hole, but we just took a ‘throw it back on the course and keep going’ approach, on a few holes the balls landed in places where they could be played despite not being in the actual playing field, so it was quite the fun experience regardless!

 

I think at some point I’m going to take a trip to Disney, and just never go to a single park, and instead do all the fun stuff that there is on property that’s not a park… Mini golf, water parks, DisneyQuest… Seriously, there’s so much to do that has doesn’t involve a hopper ticket! But you know, since my friend had free tickets, we were off to the parks the next day!

Geeky Wednesday: The Big Rock

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Since my fabulous muscle man took a few extra days off from work last week to celebrate my birthday and the 4th, we decided to go out on Tuesday for some fun exploring! =) Not wanting to get too far away from home, we chose to run up the road to where we’re getting married =D The muscle man has only been once, and the times I’ve been it’s been all business, so neither of us has really had a chance to see the whole property, and it’s pretty massive! Just adjacent to the chapel is a summer camp, so there’s plenty of trails and such that the campers use, and a natural rock face for climbing too!

But we started our little journey over on the chapel side of the property, getting a closer look at what’s left of the old home site that used to be on the property. (At least I think that’s how the story goes… Our tour guide-the property’s curator and manager-wasn’t there, he took a long holiday weekend too!) Whatever the story behind these little half walls and chimney, and the well next to it, they are gorgeous! Definitely hoping some of our wedding guests find their way over to it, it’s only a little way behind the reception building =)

From there we headed out to the lake, and to the little boat house. It’s for storage for the campers, and an arts and crafts house too! If you’ve ever watched one of those 90’s summer camp movies, this place would have been right at home. I’m so jealous there wasn’t a camp like this where I grew up =P

The muscle man wanted to bring the dog along for our little outing, and he loved it! It was definitely more of a workout than what the dog is used to though… See that rock jutting out from the corner of that second photo?

This rock.. no biggie, looks pretty close, right?

Well we had heard there was a trail that took you over to it, so off we went! Luckily it was a pretty wide path, thanks to the campers, but mostly, it was far enough away from the water that there was excellent tree cover, and shade! We went mid-morning, but it was still absurdly hot! But after passing the dam (which was super pretty and had this amazing iron release valve at the bottom) we finally made it to the rock, and found nice little arrows directing us the safe way to scale to the top!

Remember that boat house/crafts center?

At this point, I was really regretting the decision to leave the 50mm lens on my camera, instead of my more versatile 18-200… but I was still able to get some fun shots!

The dog was so brave, and surprisingly nimble on the rocks too! He just kept hopping along like he’d been up there a hundred times, he only hesitated occasionally when he was about to step onto a narrow ridge that had a deep drop on the other side =P

And there’s that 50mm problem creeping in… Combined with the fact I was shooting from the hip, and that the dog was moving… But still, I mostly got his snout in the shot, and I just love that DOF, so I’m keeping it!

I didn’t take my tripod either, so I was really pleased to be able to get a shot of both of us on top of the big rock, despite the fact you can’t really tell we’re so high up on a massive rock, sitting feet away from a sheer dropoff…

 

Then it was time to head back, since we didn’t exactly come prepared to repel off the rock, we really had no reason to keep baking ourselves in the insane heat, so down we went.

But I was able to convince my tired muscle man to go a bit out of our way to go to the bottom part of the rock face for a few photos =D I love rock faces, they make for the most amazing backdrops! It’s really a shame the rock is so far away or I’d probably wind up over there on my wedding day for some pics (even though supposedly there’s a golf cart path to it, it’s still quite a bit away from the ceremony, and it’s going to be hot enough in the middle of August without running all over the place haha)

Overall it was a fabulous little excursion, it was great to be able to go all over the property and have the chance to find some great spots for pictures for the wedding, but even more impressive was that rock! I’ve been to the mountains in TN and such before, but this is just a massive rock, jutting out near a gorgeous lake… With no rails or anything to keep you in a certain area. I can only imagine how much fun the campers have repelling off of it, but I was quite content to keep both my feet firmly planted thankyouverymuch =P

Geeky Girl: Storm the Castle!

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In addition to doing a photoshoot wearing my mother’s wedding dress this past weekend, I also had a fabulous day trip planned for the following day! I love how I seem to have photoshoots back to back like that, it made for quite an exhausting weekend though! I’m still working on catching up, and there’s more photos still to go through, but here’s a few from our Sunday drive…

Oh yeah, did I mention my photoshoot was at a castle?? In Mississippi… Haha seriously! This little gem has been there for about 30 years actually, but only became well known about 10 years ago, when the owner started opening it up for parties, weddings, and even as a bed and breakfast, but after he passed away a few years back it has fallen into disrepair… But now a new owner is making it back into an event venue, and after seeing a local ad saying it was soon opening bookings, my dad just had to call and see if we could go for a tour! We had thought about having our wedding there, but didn’t know if it would be open in time, or if we wanted a wedding in Mississippi for that matter… You can’t deny it’s gorgeous on the outside though!

I’ve actually been in the castle a few times before, my dad knew the previous owner, and even lived there for a time when he was younger! Of course, it was only just the beginnings of a castle then, over the years the owner built it into whatever he dreamed of, just for his own enjoyment until he found a lady friend who convinced him he could make money off it haha! That’s all you’ve gotta tell a crazy old entrepreneur! And this guy was crazy, I’ve been to his house before, but never got the full tour like the one we got last Sunday, because he would never have let people see everything, especially not places like his private house areas, and certainly not his bedroom lol!

This has to be the coolest bathroom I’ve ever been in! It’s one of the guest bathrooms, and yeah that’s a pink whirlpool tub built into masonry, and it’s tucked into an A-frame type corner, so it’s super cozy and has a shower built into the brickwork too! (hence the rather suck angles, I did the best I could haha)

This one turned out dark, but I still love the motion in the skirt! I chose to only wear half my marie antoinette gown, with shorts and sneakers underneath, for a sort of modern fashion-y angle for the pics… Plus it’s way easier to walk around in haha! As for the muscle man, we found him a 70’s inspired peasant shirt to match the modern-takes-on-old look, I think it worked out pretty well, given the short time we had to find him something =P

This is from one of the newer parts of the castle, the new owner has it set up as a chapel, in a very lovely feminine shade of blue lol =P Leading out of the chapel is this gorgeous rock and mortar wall, with cute little planters and even a water feature… plus these awesome iron gates haha!

 

The original entrance to the old house is really cool, though not as medieval as the rest of the house, it’s still very photogenic!

One more parting shot, I had to make the parents nervous by jumping up on a ledge, haha! You can see the moat here, and some of the landscaping in the front of the yard, and a turret that I think was just used for storage and decoration… Come on, what castle would be complete without a moat!

Geeky Wednesday: Geek Roadtrip

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 After visiting my bestie in Virginia for a few days, it was time for me and the fiance to start heading back towards Alabama, and with our car fitted for us to sleep somewhere along the way, we quite literally had the world in front of us and no plans =) So when the muscle man suggested we stop in Chattanooga, which was on our route, I leaped at the chance to go a little out of our way and go to Gatlinburg instead for the night! So off we drove, and we got there a little before sunset so we were able to enjoy the street life (read: tourist traps) along the main drive in town.

Totally my kind of street food! We had to stop and get some fresh made taffy, and candy too! We even found gummy penguins, we had to get some of those because the muscle man’s brother loves penguins! We only got a snap of the penguins from the cell, so it’s crap quality but it’s still fun!

That was mostly all we did Monday night, since it is still off-season most of the stores closed early so we went off in search of a safe place to stay for the night and pulled our curtains shut for the chilly evening

I should have packed us an extra blanket, it got cold! But the curtains did a fabulous job keeping out lights from the parking lot we found to stay in =D

We both wound up waking up around 5 am freezing cold, so when my muscle man wanted to turn the car on for some warmth I figured we should just drive into the national park to watch the sunrise! It’s illegal to park there overnight, but I figured watching sunrise then napping a few more hours would probably either a) be ok, or b) not be noticed by any passing rangers, as hikers leave their cars for day hikes all the time… In any case,  no one tapped on the glass, and the sunrise was totally worth it! Super fun to watch a beautiful sunrise over the mountains from the backseat of the car haha!

A few hours later the view I had chosen was just as lovely, and had that gorgeous haze the smoky mountains are famous for.

More Mountain photos to follow, but I figure that’s quite enough for one post! And today is about the geeky part, which is my fabulous road trip ready car! I’m so happy with my curtains that are going to let us do so much more traveling now =) It requires a little sacrifice on our part (no shower, no potty! lol) but for a one night weekend trip or a “just passing through” stop on our way somewhere else, it’s perfect!