Mini Vacay

The Fam in Gatlinburg, TN

Last Wednesday Barry and I packed up and drove to Dillard, GA to meet up with the family. My parents used their timeshare to rent a condo in Sky Valley, which sits right on the border of Georgia and North Carolina. It was the first time that all 11 of us were able to spend a vacation together (2 Grandparents, 3 daughters, 3 son-in-laws, and 3 grandchildren!) Its so beautiful up there. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much on the drive up because we got in after dark.

The next day we (all 11 of us!) drove to Helen, GA to go river tubing. It was a great surprise to arrive in Helen and feel like we just drove into Bavaria! All of the houses have the same Hansel and Gretel look and there are all these fun shops and restaurants. We quickly found the tubing place and got our gear. Tubing in the mountains is nothing like moseying down the Ichetucknee! The average depth was about 12 inches, the river had a rocky bottom and goes much quicker than in flat Florida. We had so much fun! Towards the end they take your picture, so we got all linked together so we could hope for a fun group shot. When we got back to the main camp, it turns out they only charge 9.95 for a CD that includes all the pictures you want (up to 400!) So we got some GREAT shots. I'll try and remember to post them soon.

From Helen, we drove to Tallulah Gorge. Its in between Dillard and Helen so it would have been ridiculous to be this close and not visit. It is beautiful! Barry and I ended up going down one side and up the other, and probably took 1000 steps to do it!

(going down wasn't nearly as bad as coming up!)

I know the baby got plenty of oxygen that day because my heart was racing. But we took it slow and I was very proud that we did it. :)

At the bottom of the gorge!

On our way back up, maybe?

My Parents. How cute are they?

On Friday, we drove north to Gatlinburg and visited Ober Gatlinburg. Its a quaint amusement park in Gatlinburg that was a lot of fun for both the kids and us big kids. The coolest part of the day, though, was as we were going up the ski lift to the Alpine Slide, a black bear walked right underneath us!!! It was unreal. I love wildlife. Seeing it in the zoo is one thing, but seeing a for-real black bear in the mountains was just unbelievable. I was only quick enough for one snapshot before he went into the woods. It was a-mazing.

Getting ready to go down!

We passed my dad on the way up!

From Gatlinburg, we drove across to see Angelle and Laurie and their families, but broke up the drive by stopping at my brother in law's parents house for a much-needed good night's sleep. I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of the dogs barking and the smell of bacon. mmmm... to my happiness I walked into the kitchen to see the largest pile of bacon and sausage links that i have ever seen. :) After a delicious breakfast, we headed east to Monroe.

We arrived just before 1:00 and spent the next day and a 1/2 with the Maddex's and the Galler's. We always have so much fun together and I was so sad we were only there for a day. But we made the most of it and played lots of games (Loaded Questions is hilarious!!), watched the kids play and just caught up. By Sunday afternoon, Bryan ALMOST had me convinced to talk to Rhi about buying her house on the cul-de-sac. Sorry, Rhi... its a no-go.

After a 6 hour drive home, we came home to an empty house! Our roommate had gotten the keys to her new apartment and ended up moving out just a few hours before we got home. The first thing we do? Get nekkid in the living room. It was marvelous!! It was nice to have her, but it's nice to have our place back.

Now it's back to the daily grind. *sigh*

The Cruise

From Feb 14-22, 14 members of the Swedlow family went on a cruise to the Southern Carribean on the Carnival Fun Ship Victory. It was a helluva of a good time. We visited 5 countries, plus San Juan, PR and St. Thomas, VI. We flew to San Juan on Feb 14th, spent valentines day in Old San Juan and boarded the ship the next day. Old San Juan is beautiful- we could've spent a few more days there!

(One of San Juan's many sloped coblestone streets)

I could write forever on the daily events, but I'll just mention my favorite day and just show some pics from the other days.

My favorite port, by far, was Dominica (pronounce DOM-a-neek-a). Five of us picked up a taxi in town and our guide, Bobby, gave us the best tour ever. We walked on black sand beaches, soaked in a hot spring, swam in crystal waterfall pools, and felt the heat of their volcanos. It is simply the best kept secret in the Carribean. I hope maybe sometime soon to spend a week there to experience all the amazing things to do on this awesome island. (we didn't get to dive!!)

(He even bought us the local beer! YUM!)

(Barry, Rachel & Sharon in the hot spring)

(I love this picture!)

(Doesn't Barry look like an angel? - this is Jacko Falls)

All of those pictures were from Dominica. Here are some other pictures from the cruise :)

Josh & Barry (Cousins) by the smoke stack

Waiting for the R-rated comedian to start!

(In order: Dave, Rachel, Stephanie, Melissa, Mandi, Barry, Sharon, Bruce, Josh)

I clean up nice (this is one of the formal nights)

Relaxing in the hottub after a "brutal" day on the islands

An amazing view of our ship (on the left) on the island of St. Lucia

One of the lounges on the ship: we thought it looked like a strip club :)

One of Barry's classmates is from St. Kitts and mentioned that the best local dish to eat in the islands is Roti, kind of an Indian/Carribean burrito. Needless to say, it was de-LISH and we tried to find some on each island as each one cooks them just a bit differently. Roti King was our favorite. SO GOOD!

This is the Skirt Steak with Yuca Mofongo from El Jibarito in San Juan. OMG, this was one of the best dishes i've EVER had - and that's saying alot from a foodie. We ate there 3 times in the 2 days we were in San Juan.

Me and one of the cruises infamous towel animals

A crowd of us just before we board the Carnival Victory!

The Gang

Last Trip to "Grandma's"

I can't believe this is the first time I've actually been on blogger in like 6 days. I've either been that busy or that lazy. I think it's a little of both.



Part of it has been because I'm not sure what to say about my grandma. We've known it was coming for such a long time. Before it happened I thought I was ready. But there was so much hype about it - one day she's got a few days "max", the next day the nurse is saying it could be weeks - that I just got tired of the non-updates. Predicting the future is not exactly a science. Well, life caught up to her at about 3:00 on Thursday, January 29th, 2009. I got the call from my mom while at work. I got a hug from my boss then went to the bathroom. It was the strangest feeling, sobbing on the toilet in a public restroom. I was so afraid someone would walk in, but at the same time hated being alone. I pulled myself together and got to the elevator before a good friend, Steve, stopped me. When I told him, he stopped what he was doing and got into the elevator with me and let me sob on his chest down 10 floors. Its the little things that people do that really make me realize what great friends I have, even co-workers.


Fast forward to Saturday. My mom, Barry, and I got on a plane to Midway (Chicago) at the ass-crack and landed about 10:00am. We took a detour to Chinatown (yum!) before going to Union Station to take the train to Lake Villa. I've mentioned before that the biggest fear I had was seeing my Grandpa. When we got there he was in their room. I was able to hug him for a long time. I tried to be strong but I just cried in his arms, with our family around us. I was so afraid that my favorite place in the whole world would have somehow lost it's magic without Grandma. Yes, there was something missing, but luckily not all the magic was lost. I realized that although Grandma leaving us was unbelievably hard, her life and body wasn't what defined the love in our family. The fact that EVERYONE was together, for the first time since all 8 cousins were children, kept it all real. Kept the magic of that house alive. We spent 5 days crying, laughing, looking at pictures, crying and laughing some more.

At the viewings and at the funeral, Barry told me I shouldn't have to "be strong" for anyone, but grieve for myself. I think that even though I've lost both my mom's parents, plus 2 of Barry's uncles, that this is the first time I've experienced true grief. I loved all of them, but my Grandma Jo like no one you'll ever meet. If you were lucky enough to know her, you are a better person because of it. Grief is just the weirdest feeling. One moment it seems as though I'll never feel joy again, and then I quickly recover and can laugh and talk about where we're going to get dinner. At the actual funeral Wednesday morning I was a flippin' wreck, but at the cemetery I was fine. I know it'll get easier...

I think my Grandpa will be OK. He will probably even come down to visit in a few weeks. :)

As for me, I'll keep her in my heart (and on my foot).

I love you, Grandma.

Savannah: A Cherry-Poppin' Good Time!

I enjoyed my first trip to Savannah last weekend. After living 2 1/2 hours away since I was 6 years old and being a girl scout for 10+ years, I finally made it. Thank you, Angelle, for popping my Savannah Cherry. :)

Some highlights of the trip include:

• Of course, being with Angelle and Stacey. But that should go without saying. I hadn't seen Stace since Angelle's wedding! It was great to visit.


• Staying up until *GASP* 9:30 on Friday night. It felt SO good to go to bed early, honestly. I woke up about 9:15.

• Taking a picture with Paula Deen!!!!! We also saw this at the back side of her restaurant and thought it was kinda cool:


• Meeting the World Famous Writer/Days Inn Concierge, Rowan Wolfe. What, never heard of her? Yeah, me either. But apparently she had to move to Savannah to hide from some government conspiracy. She also has a living ghost in the guest wing of her home. And she just happened to have her latest book on her Concierge desk, right next to the trolley brochures. Lucky for us, she brought her sports car today and had some in her trunk. We learned all this about her in the 10 minutes it took for us to buy ghost tour tickets.


• Eating the world's smallest Cuban sandwich at Larry's Giant Subs. We were going to the spa and needed a snack beforehand. I didn't want a plain turkey sandwich but didn't need an 8" Mighty Mitch either.


• Having a relaxing mid-day spa treatment. I got a manicure whilst Angelle and Stacey got pedis. The spa was called JW's. It was a perfect way to release a lot of they daily crap you have to deal with in normal life. They did a great job and my nails look fantastic. :)
• Enjoying an awesome tapas dinner at Jazz'd, along with this YUMMY Bellini Tini. The tapas were so delicious also, but we ate them so quickly that I forgot to take a picture of them.


• Missing our ghost tour trolley by 2 minutes. That's right. We arrive at 8:32 in time to watch the trolley roll on. They 'squeeze' us on to the 9:00 tour, so we had just ehough time to get a drink to go (Gotta love Savannah's open container laws!) and chug it before we get on the trolley. Finneus the "Dead" "Irish" Privateer was our guide. Really he was some 30-something D & D player that needed some lessons in eyeliner. BUT, we were on the bus so we're happy. See? Then Finneus says that we will start a few minutes late to wait on one party. Seriously!? Grrrr... Luckily I had a drink in me that I practially injected I drank it so fast, so I got over it quickly. The tour was beyond cheesy, but it was entertaining. Angelle was a wuss and wouldn't go into the "haunted house". The true haunting experience, however, was the 60 year old woman that calls her self a Thespian *coughoveractorcough* telling ghost stories in a room with black lights. *shudders*


• Going to Savannah Smiles Dueling Piano Bar. That's our kinda place - Sing at the top of your lungs and drink and dance. It reminded me a lot of Harmonious Monks for you J'ville Folks. We had a good time: But Angelle didn't like the smoke: After a few drinks we were cutting up and singing out of key with the best of them! At random points of the evening, I stuffed a dollar in a guy's pants and got out-of-this-world excited when the pianist played my request (Sail Away).We also met a fun guy named Philip. He's the guy behind angelle here: He was disappointed I was married, and that gave me a small ego trip for the night. :)


• Sunday we we went back to the graveyard that we visited on our ghost tour. Apparently during the civil war the army thought it would be a great fortress since it was bordered by a high brick wall, so they moved all the gravestones to the wall and half of them never got put back. To this day some of them still line the east wall, some of them with pot marks from where the soldiers used the stones for target practice.

It was a great weekend. I can't wait for the next girl's weekend!