Day 14, 15 and 16-Yes, we are still on vacation

Library in Columbia, SC

This is the last post for this vacation.  It has been a long one and tonight, the 8th of July is our last night in Greenville with our kids and grand kids.  We are sad to leave them, but feel so fortunate to be able to visit them. 
Some highlights of our last few days with our family.  

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• Visiting the library where my sister Anne works in Columbia.  Very cool.
• Swimming in the pool.
• Spending two awesome evenings out with our adult kids.  So much fun.
• Going to church together on Sunday night.
•  Making Jambalaya again!  So good. 
• Visiting the new State-of-the-Art Greenville Library. 
• Hugging, kissing, listening to, hanging out with and just enjoying our awesome grand kids.  That is the best. 

Grrenville Library-This is where you return books.

Now back to real life, refreshed, filled up and ready to "kill it."

The books move on the conveyor belt and is sorted automatically

Day 13-Zoo, Birthdays and Baseball

We left the house early this morning to go to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC.  We met my sister, Anne there and had a great time.  We walked through the kangaroo exhibit where the kangaroos were NOT behind a fence or anything.  They just laid there as we walked through. The zoo keeper said that it is not the tail that can do the most damage, it is the claws.  We also got to pet Alpacas. Everybody got to see their favorite animal and the little ones and Grandma rode a train.  We left there right before it got too hot. 

Next was lunch.  This was unique because we were meeting our nephews, Jake and Ty at Za's Pizza to celebrate their 17th birthday, but they didn't know we were going to be there.  They just knew they were meeting their mom and bringing a couple of friends.  They were definitely surprised and the food at Za's was awesome.  

Our last adventure in Columbia, was the Columbia Fireflies' baseball game.  Our brother-in-law, John Katz is the president of the organization.  A family tradition is that the boys throw the first pitch of the game on their birthdays. They have done it for the last 12 birthdays. They look so grown up.  It is a very nice stadium and kid friendly, but very humid that night.  We made sure we visited the concessions that Jacob, Ty and their sister Abby work in.  We ate dippin-dots, philly steak sandwiches, hot dogs, fries and soda.  In between the innings, they have games and throw stuff out to the crowd.  Jade caught a hacky-sack ball and Cole actually got a baseball from the field.  Jade got on the Jumbotron with her dancing. Oh, and the game was good, although the Fireflies lost to the Greenville Drive 2-4. 

Another fun-filled day.  



Too many pictures to put on the blog.  Below is a slide show of our day.

Day 12- INDEPENDENCE DAY!

We started celebrating the 4th by swimming in the pool.  We took our lunches and went to the pool, swam, ate lunch and then in the afternoon returned to the house for naps and prep for the 4th.

Celebrating 4th of July in South Carolina is nothing like California!  In SC, you can buy and shoot off mortars, like the kind we usually see at Community or City firework displays.  So the fireworks are up close and personal, very loud and hundreds of them, since every house can have their own.

This year, John and Angela's neighborhood had a block party.  They blocked off part of the street, had a water slide bounce house, music, food and free snow cones from a neighbor that owns a snow cone shop.  It was very fun, but very hot.  We barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers with the fixings, corn on the cob, and deviled eggs as the sides.  

They have a cool fire work here that launches plastic men with a parachute high into the air.  It is like the pied piper, with many of the kids running to us so they can chase the parachute and see who can catch it.  They loved it.  Then came the smoke bombs, the roman candles and then right before it got dark enough to start the main displays, everyone on the street, stood, removed their hats, put their hands over their heart as a woman sang our National Anthem (I couldn't see who, I am too short) So inspiring.  

After about 10 minutes of loud explosions and piccolo petes, River had had enough.  We departed to inside the house and watched the movie "Star."  It took over two and half hours to light every firework that we had and that the block party had.  Even after we cleaned the mess, the kids were in bed and we were quiet in our room, we could hear neighbors still setting off fireworks.  

Very fun and busy day.  Heading to Columbia, SC tomorrow. 

Day 11-Travel Day back to Greenville, SC

Condo main building decked out for the 4th

It takes about 4. 5 hours to go from Nashville to Greenville, SC. It is a beautiful drive and uneventful except we took a little detour to Dandridge, Tennessee.  We had lunch at Tinsley-Bible Drugs in Dandridge, TN.  It is a small drug store with a traditional soda fountain and lunch counter.  It has been open since 1911.  Our friend from church, Cheryl, suggested we visit there because she is from Dandridge and her Aunt Peggy works at the drug store.  The whole town of Dandridge is very charming and the Tinsley-Bible Drug store is so quaint. 

Trivia: 

1. The Bible in Tinsley-Bible Drugs is a last name of the person who opened the drugstore, not God's Word, like we thought. 
2. Aunt Peggy has worked there for 28 years.  She is very proud of the place. (She said so.)
3. Dandridge was named after Martha Dandridge Washington, the wife of our first President. 
4. Dandridge is the second oldest town in Tennessee. 
5. You can tour Bush's Beans facility, just outside of Dandridge.

The adults had Bible Burgers and the kids had Bible Hot Dogs.  We met Aunt Peggy and told her who we are and actually did a video call with Cheryl and her mother.  Aunt Peggy was thrilled to see her niece and sister-in-law.  One thing I love about traveling is doing something different, experiencing new places and meeting new people.  This was a great addition to our vacation. 

Thanks Cheryl. 

Day 10- Financial Peace

We have been on vacation 10 days now?  Wow.  It does feel like I haven't been home in a long time, at the same time feels like it is going by fast.  We are having so much fun either way.

Today we went to visit a place of business. Dave Ramsey, of Ramsey Solutions hosts a radio show on dealing with your money.  He also is on YouTube and writes columns for print.  He created a class that is called Financial Peace University, which John and I took and then facilitated for our church.  It helped us tremendously with our financial planning and budget.  John and Angela have had the same experience with Financial Peace University, Ramsey Solutions is based in Nashville and Dave was going to be live on the radio, so we went.

It was more fun than we expected.  They have a small coffee shop in the lobby with free cookies.  The kids were great as we all had to be quiet during some live shots in the Lobby.  Dave and his daughter Rachel Cruze, another talent at Ramsey Solutions came out during breaks to take pictures and sign books.  

I even got to meet my representative from the company that helped with the personal finance curriculum I used for my middle school students at school.  It was fun to discuss the upcoming school year in person.  All the employees at Ramsey Solutions were kind, helpful and made our visit very fun.    

That evening, the guys took the kids to Dave and Busters, so Angela and I could continue our tradition of making Jambalaya.  This started 7 years ago, on our first vacation together to Gatlinburg, TN on the 4th of July.  We have been doing it yearly ever since.  I am her Sous Chef and we use a recipe from Emeril, BAM!    It was delicious.  

It was the grandparent's date night.  For the first time ever we Ubered.  We Ubered down to Broadway, where the action is, and we Ubered home.  Parking is so expensive and being unfamiliar with the area, we thought it would be easier and it was.  It was easy, quick and not that expensive.  After being dropped off, we walked into a few establishments, listened to music, had  beverages, some adult, some not, and even danced in one venue.  John had a Johnny Cash hat on, so we tried to see how long it would take the band to play a Johnny Cash song after we came in.  We tried to sit near the front and about 90 percent of the time, they played a Cash song within 10 min. of our arrival.  We had a great time. 

Another busy vacation day and that is how we like it.  

Day 9- Johnny Cash

What a great day in the city.  Nashville is such a big city.  Lots of history, music and things to do.  Today was a bucket day for our son John.  Johnny Cash has been a favorite of his since he was a kid.  He and Angela danced to "Ring of Fire" at their wedding.  So first stop, the Johnny Cash museum.  This was a well thought out, excellent museum with lots of music, video, stories and artifacts about Johnny's life.  The grand kids even enjoyed it for almost an hour.  We got to try our hand at music mixing using a sound board,  read about his childhood, his struggle and triumph over drugs and his conversion to Christianity. 

Our next stop was to a store called Goo Goo Cluster chocolates.  This is where we will have dessert before lunch.  The is a Nashville thing.  This candy has been around since 1912 and promotes itself as the first combination confection in the nation.  In the early days it was marketed as a meal.  Poor workers can buy it for 5 cents at lunch to give them energy for the rest of the day.  Of course, we had to try the Goo Goo Cluster AND the ice cream.  Too much food. 

We walked to a street called Broadway and that is where all the bars and restaurants with live music are one right after the other, literally.  Music can be heard on the street as you walk.  Our grand daughter River thought it was too loud, and at some of the venues it was too loud.  Just in case you don't know, the music is country music, all kinds of country music. It is a unique place, something John and I have never seen before.  Somebody mentioned that it is known as NashVegas.  I can see that with their neon lights.  It kinda looks like the Las Vegas strip at night. 


If we can add two more activities to this day, we will and we did.  We traveled back to the condo and got ready to swim.  This is an activity we all like.  The heat is tolerable if you are in water and the kids of course loved it.    Watch the slo-mo film. Lots of fun.

We ended the day with food...we went to Pucketts's Grocery restaurant.  This restaurant was recommended to us from people in South Carolina and friends that I know in California that just went.  It has live music and a great menu for all ages and a reasonable price.  

After dinner, Grandpa, Grandma and the kids dropped the parents off on Broadway for their date night.  We took the kids shopping at Walmart (Grandpa gave them each $10.00) so we spent over an hour "shopping," in a Nashville Walmart.  Eventually they found something they each wanted.  We finally got the kids to bed at 10:30 pm.  What a day.

 More Johnny Cash Museum Pictures.