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Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Drive-Thru

Last month I had a really fun experience at Georgia's "Pine Mountain Wild Animal Park". I remember going to safari parks a lot when I was a kid because there's one located only about a 20 minute drive from where my parents live. But it's been decades since I last visited one.




It was a real treat spending the afternoon there. They even have dedicated vans that you can rent for your drive-thru so you don't have to risk your own car.




You just drive through the park on the designated road & enjoy seeing the animals flock to you! 




They certainly are not shy - you can buy animal feed to throw out to them, so they are extremely accustomed to approaching you in the hope of getting a treat or three. Many of them have no problem sticking their heads into your window if there's enough room.




It's a real gem of a place - we only found it because we were doing some online research trying to find local places for day trips. It's kind of tucked away off the beaten track, & not too well signposted until you're almost right there.



We had such a fun time, it was just a drive full of laughs. I tell you, animals really bring out the best in me. I loved the whole experience, but I think my favorites were the pigs - especially the dozens of piglets that were kicking around at that time. I love those little things!  



They also have a separate section that you can walk through, & we were lucky enough to catch one of their latest additions having an afternoon snack - this "little" guy was only a month old!



So be sure to check it out if you're in the area - I guarantee you'll have a lot of laughs.





Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Natives Are Revolting

I want to share some photos from a visit we made in mid-October to Andersonville, GA. We spent the afternoon at Andersonville’s National Historic Site - or Camp Sumpter, the Confederate Prisoner of War Camp during Civil War times. It’s an amazing place to visit, & not only hosts the POW Camp, but also the National POW Museum, as well as the Andersonville National Cemetery.  

It was very awe-inspiring, especially thinking that it’s the final resting place for almost 13,000 Union soldiers who were imprisoned there during the war. Another place that I’d highly recommend visiting if you are in the area.

The little town of Andersonville itself, just a bit away from the site, is worth a visit too - quite quaint! They do have a store there that has some wonderful ice cream as well - great on a sunny day, especially when you want to lighten your spirits a bit after some heavy-hitting history.


I'd recommend devoting a whole day to visit Andersonville if possible - best to have extra time available to you than be rushing through it at the end of the day. The POW Museum alone is so intriguing - I don't feel that I spent enough time there. It's a fascinating place.










Outside the POW Museum





Some amazing scenes from the Camp itself. 
Can you imagine being imprisoned somewhere like this for so long?











The National Cemetery











Time for a little post-ice cream light-heartedness in Andersonville town itself!



Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Fours


Well I was bullied by "It's a Dog Tag Wife Life" into posting my "fours", so here goes!



1. Four shows that you watch:
What Not To Wear
NCIS
Law & Order, SVU
CSI


2. Four things you are passionate about:
My job
My volunteer work
Photography
Travel


3. Four phrases you say a lot:
"Not too much cream" (for my coffee order - Dunkin' Donuts love to give me anemic coffee)
"When did you say you needed it for?" (at work)
"For f$@#&'s sake!" (it's a British thing)
"Can we stop for a photograph?"


4. Four things you've learned from the past:
Trust your gut instinct
Watch what people do, not necessarily what they say
Trust people only as much as they show they are worthy of
Over-achieving at work only brings the reward of more work!


5. Four places you would like to go:
Australia
South Africa
The Galapagos Islands
Alaska


6. Four things you did yesterday:
Finally made it home from Atlanta airport - it only took me 24 hours!
Opened 11 doors on my chocolate advent calendar
Did some editing of my most recent photographs
Revised an itinerary for our January NZ trip


7. Four things you are looking forward to:
My boyfriend arriving in a week
Christmas vacation in Niagara Falls
Some decent snowy days
Our January NZ trip


8. Four things you love about winter:
The snow
Christmas foods & flavors
Winter skies - you know, the clear, bright, blue skies (great for photography)
Festive lights 









Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Truffle Hound


On Sunday I cooked dinner for 2 dear friends, a married couple, who are leaving me this coming weekend as they move south on a new venture - leaving MA for new jobs in GA. I'd been promising them for ages that I'd cook haggis, so it was now or never! 

I spent a lot of time living in different parts of Scotland throughout my working life back in the UK, & I love all things Scottish - including haggis! A few years back I discovered a company, in Texas of all places, that sells canned haggis, & they have a convenient online ordering system too. 


I was a bit skeptical at first - dodgy enough risking buying haggis outside of Scotland anyway, but to order the canned stuff too. I was certainly taking risks at this stage. You can get a spectrum of haggis that ranges from "awful" to "fantastic" haggis, but let me tell you that this stuff from Texas is very fine indeed! I was just amazed at how good it was when I first ordered it a few years back, & I've used the same company multiple times now - it's been consistently good.  My friends loved their "haggis, neeps & tatties" dinner anyway, it was a big hit!




I also made some chocolate truffles for dessert & I thought I'd share the recipe with you - it's very simple, just how I like my recipes. I made way too many - I ended up packing most of them up to send in a care package to M. Naturally I saved a handful for me though! 








These are amazingly tasty treats for such a simple recipe.






Monday, December 6, 2010

Road Trip


Over Columbus Day weekend we took a roadtrip. M’s car had been stored at his parents’ place in NC, so he’d used a rental car initially when he returned home from Iraq. The long weekend was a good time for him to drive up to NC & combine visiting his parents with collecting his car.


He’d asked me if I’d like to do a roadtrip with him on the way back, so he picked me up at Raleigh Airport early Saturday morning & we drove across to Asheville, NC. We booked into a hotel & later in the evening we headed off on a “Brews Cruise”! It was a fun, organized tour of a few local breweries, with lots of “sampling” to be done, as you can imagine. Thankfully we were able to take a taxi, so we were both free to do a little tasting through the night.


Next day we spent some time in Asheville itself, wandering around the town, browsing the bookstores & coffeeshops. It was my first visit to Asheville, & I must say I really liked the little that we saw of it! The downtown area itself is quite quaint, with plenty of quirky shops, bars and restaurants to enjoy, & we decided on a local pub when it got to lunchtime.


Afterwards we headed out along the Blue Ridge Parkway for some sightseeing - what a stunning drive we had along there! The scenery was just breathtaking, & we had such a beautiful day for driving & photographs.








After a few hours driving & stopping off at different locations, we left the Parkway & headed off toward the northern, mountainous region of GA. We spent the night in Helen, a little town that is a re-creation of an Alpine village. It was a lot of fun, especially as we happened to arrive in the middle of Oktoberfest month. It’s quite a tacky, touristy town, but still fun, nevertheless, if you can keep an open mind.








We certainly had some great beer & lovely German food while we were there anyway, & even visited an amazing model train exhibition by a German gentleman who has been here for a long time. He wanted to celebrate his love of model trains by putting together a set-up that represents Germany - from the North Sea to the Alps. It had taken him about 23 years to put together. A fabulous work of art to see.






Overall this weekend was really my first introduction to NC, & I was extremely pleasantly surprised. I’d always known that it boasted some beautiful regions, but it was even more lovely than I’d imagined. Ditto for the mountains region up in northern GA.

Monday afternoon we drove south, & M took me to the airport in Atlanta for my flight home, & then headed home himself. Another fun, but all-too-short, weekend!


Friday, December 3, 2010

Take Two

After such a wonderful first weekend together, we’d decided to have a re-run the following weekend. In the middle, I was across the country in Iowa all week for a meeting, but we talked often, & both really enjoyed catching up a lot throughout each day.
My meeting ended on Friday October 1st & I headed back to Columbus, & this time it was M’s turn to meet me at the airport! I have to admit that I really enjoyed that bit - seeing him waiting at the bottom of the stairs wearing his uniform and a big smile was priceless. He took me out for a lovely dinner that evening, & we pretty much continued the weekend where we’d ended the previous one!
On the Saturday we met up with some of his friends for lunch as well as a wander around the Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus - another really interesting place with lots of cool Civil War history. Definitely worth a visit if you’re down that way (although I know not everyone is a history fan like me!). I do enjoy all kinds of stuff like that, so I’m usually very easily amused wherever I go, provided there is something historical to see.






M had also just moved into his new apartment midweek, so we spent a little time ferrying things out there that he needed & getting it a little more user-friendly for him. Overall I think his favorite new toy was the enormous LED TV that he bought over the weekend though!  

We spent some of the evenings with a bottle of wine & some travel brochures - the start of some research into a trip to New Zealand that we’re hoping to take in January. We'd actually started talking about this trip back in the summer when we were having our phone dates while he was deployed. Visiting that part of the world has always been top of my list for "far away travel", and I discovered that M was also very keen to head out that way when he returned from his deployment. Somewhere along the line we came to the decision that we'd travel there together, probably in the New Year.






I suppose he further confirmed for me that he is a man of his word when he presented me with a bunch of travel brochures he'd collected before I arrived that weekend!





Monday, November 22, 2010

The Early Days

After we found each other at the Homecoming Ceremony, we eventually realized we couldn't just stand there indefinitely, & would have to leave the Air Field at some point! It was still very early when we left - probably no later than 06:15 - but we wandered back to the car & M took me on a little guided tour around part of the base, albeit still in the dark!

As daylight began to break, we headed back to the hotel & snoozed a while. Then it was time for a late breakfast - M had made a special request for omelette & waffles, so off to a local diner we went, & he seemed to be in heaven! Afterwards we hit the mall since he had no civilian clothes to wear - they were all either at his parents’ home in NC, or in a storage unit & apparently not easily accessible. I was impressed though with the ease by which he managed to choose enough clothes to get by for a few weeks. One of the reasons I hate shopping is because I hate trying on clothes & it always takes me forever (& a lot of trying-on) to find clothes that seem suitable for me. So the fact that we pretty much had a wardrobe's worth of clothing in under an hour was quite impressive to me.
I was then instructed to find a quiet corner of the mall's parking lot so M could change. That too was quite impressive (and amusing). Soon he looked civilian, & we went off for our first lunch at one of his favorite Mexican restaurants. Seeing his excitement at eating some “real” food for the first time, both at breakfast & lunch, was a lot of fun. He'd told me that he felt they were well-fed while in Iraq, but I can only imagine that the ability to once again freely choose whatever you want to eat, as well as where you want to eat it, must be wonderful, if not somewhat overwhelming. M seemed to be doing a great job of hiding the overwhelmed bit though! 
Later we had a lovely "first evening" too - mostly courtesy of our champagne & chocolate. I’d brought champagne as part of his “Welcome Home” gift, & he’d brought some nice chocolate from Germany.  We’d grabbed a fruit tray earlier that day (as well as some more chocolate), so we settled in for some tasty treats that night. Before I traveled down there I'd been looking for some travel-safe "wine glass-looking" things - you know, the plastic type ones that you often see in the summer that folk choose for around the pool etc. I couldn't find any though, so I decided to just pick up a couple of cheap wine glasses that I wouldn't object to finding shattered in my suitcase when I arrived in Columbus. Amazingly they'd survived the trip, all wrapped up in some bedsheets that I'd brought along too - I'd packed some things like this that I thought might be immediately useful for him until he could get into his storage unit at some point. So anyhow, it was actually quite nice having real glasses to drink from!


The next couple of days brought a few more shopping trips so M could continue to gather odds & ends that he needed, as well as some preliminary investigation of his storage unit. As soon as I saw the unit, I realized why he would've had a hard time finding anything in there quickly - it was packed full, barely room for anything else other than maybe some flat objects at the front. I'd half expected a couple of long-lost relatives to emerge from the back at one point.....

We also checked out some apartments - he had a 10 day pass to the barracks upon return, but he was reluctant to even stay there for that short time since it was an open bay arrangement, sharing with who-knows-how-many other soldiers. Thankfully on my last day there, we found a place that he really liked. And I must admit I really like it too, I'm extremely glad he chose that location - the complex is relatively new, and it's close to the base so commuting is easy for him. All in all it's nice, modern & very well maintained.

In the meantime, however, we managed to enjoy some more nice lunches & dinners together, as well as having some fun during the day. M showed me around some more of the base at Fort Benning, & we visited the National Infantry Museum which is fabulous - I recommend it highly if you ever get the chance to visit. It's a great museum in its own right, & is pretty big too, with some great exhibitions.









They are more than "just" a museum though - they have an IMAX theater, & we popped in there to see "Lewis & Clark's Great Journey West" - stunning scenery as well as an interesting, historical recap of their exploration to the Pacific Ocean & back east.  In one part of the museum there's even a shooting range that you can try your skills at - it's a rifle simulator, so no live ammunition, but was quite a treat for me. I'd never even held a gun before, so it was all new & exciting. I was actually pleased at how relatively well I managed to do too! Although I was also mightily relieved that M did way better than me! Yes, I definitely prefer it when our US soldiers perform better than me with a rifle.

You should also make a point to enjoy the museum's nice restaurant, The Fife & Drum, at some point if you visit. The grounds outside are lovely too, and you may even be lucky enough to get to catch a graduation ceremony taking place while you're there. 
All in all, our first long weekend together whizzed by quickly, & soon it was time for me to head back to MA on the Sunday evening. We checked out of the hotel & picked up a rental car for M (since his was in NC with his parents). I drove back to Atlanta for my flight & he headed off to stay with a friend & his wife for a few nights until his new apartment was ready. 

I have to say though, that while I really enjoyed the fun things we'd done during our first few days, I enjoyed the little things just as much - things like just watching our first sunset together with a glass of wine, or chatting at the poolside & in the jacuzzi. 

I suspected that was a good start.