What I did on my summer vacation
Aug. 16th, 2012 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kippurbirdWhat I did on my summer vacation
A ramble by Kippur.
I just got back from my summer vacation with the family. We went to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. It was a fun trip with a few bumps in the road.
Tuesday we flew in to Atlanta and managed to find our motel fairly easily though we were still trying to figure out how to use the Tom-Tom. Something we never quite managed. The room was nice except there was one small problem. While it had a sofa it didn’t have a sofa bed. Obviously my brother and I aren’t going to be sleeping in the same bed. What the room also had was a recliner chair. As I was feeling a bit on the miserable side it was decided that I would take the recliner chair with blankets and some Nyquil which would knock me right out and my brother would get the bed.
Wednesday was a driving day up to Ashville NC. It was supposed to take us about four hours. We left at around eleven, we were supposed to get there around three thirty. My internship interview was at five thirty. Plenty of time to get to the hotel, rest, find a place for me to have the interview. Sounds good, right?
But then we got stuck in traffic. About four miles out from the South Carolina-Georgia border a bus caught on fire. And they had to divert traffic off the freeway into a detour, which we discovered about an hour after sitting in mostly stop traffic. This wasn’t thought too much about, after all detours in Los Angeles are basically get off the freeway and get back on a mile later. This does not happen in Georgia.
We got routed off the freeway and onto some buttfuck middle of nowhere back road. Which dragged along at mostly stop and little go traffic. Time crawled as traffic did on this little one lane road. We didn’t see any places to turn off. No cities, no towns, just some houses sometimes. Five thirty ticked closer and we still hadn’t left Georgia.
Eventually we pulled off the side of the road into a little drive way thingy and I took my interview inside the car. It was hot and sweaty and my phone dropped a couple of times, but I think the interview went all right.
We didn’t get to Ashville until nine thirty at night. NINE HOURS in traffic. O_____O
Thursday was visiting day with my dad’s cousin and aunt. We did a walking tour of downtown Ashville and it’s a LOVELY place. I utter adore the city and would like to move there. We had lunch (well I had a milkshake and my dad had a malt and the rest of the family had ice cream, does that count as lunch) at an actual soda counter. The weather was nice and cooperative.
After that we went to visit my dad’s aunt in her old folk’s home. I gave her a wampa which she loved and put on her bed. We got a picture of her wearing it on her shoulder for the family photo. She would have worn it on her head, but we decided against that.
Friday I got to have breakfast with a friend from Milliways, my Other Me. She forced me to eat a horrendously lovely sweet potato pancake with apple butter and pecans. The cruel person she is! After that we wandered around downtown again and had a good time talking about RP and life and writing and stuff. I’m glad I got to spend the time with her and wish I could have spent more. Unfortunately I had to meet up with my parents at eleven.
From there we picked up my dad’s cousin again and went up the Blue Ridge Parkway! It’s beautiful! There are winding roads! My mom got car sick! We stopped off and I got a nice hat that said “Blue Rige Parkway”. Note spelling. I somehow managed to get the one hat without a “d” in it.
Then we stopped at the Oak Grove Inn which was very pretty and would have liked to explore it more, but Time. We didn’t go to the Biltmore House because it was fifty dollars a head.
Saturday we left for Chattanooga, Tennessee driving through the Smokey Mountains. Where upon my mom got carsick. Again. :D She does that. At one stop there was a river and I stuck my feet in it. That was a great moment. I just love being able to stick my feet in water and letting it rush all over me. I wish I had time to go wading, but the spot I was in wasn’t good for that. From the Smokey Mountains we went through Dollywood which was… interesting and into Chattanooga.
Sunday we did Chattanooga. We went on the Incline Railroad which is the steepest railroad in the world. Straight up a mountain for about a mile onto Lookout Mountain. From there we could see seven states (because they’re so TINY). After that the riverboat tour where I got queasy but manageable and my mom… got sea sick. (Sensing a theme here?) It was a nice trip. From there we swung by the Tow Truck Hall of Fame on the way to a railroad and the civil war museum.
That was a cool museum! It had a locomotive called the General which was used in a train chase during the civil war. Here’s more about it. Disney did a movie based on it.
We trundled into Atlanta when done with the museum without a nine hour delay.
Monday was my dad’s day which meant taking the public transportation places. This wasn’t so bad. We went to the Fox Theatre which is a fantastic building, utterly gorgeous on the inside. The tour guide didn’t show up so the gift shop lady was nice enough to give us the brief tour. Because we didn’t get the official tour guide we didn’t have to pay for the tour, which was awesome.
For lunch we had a Subway subway at the Subway in the subway before getting back on the subway where upon my dad ate the wrong subway. >.>
From the Subway at the subway we went to the state capital and that was lovely and interesting. The state fossil of Georgia is a shark tooth.
We were going to go to tour CNN but it turned out to be too expensive and involved eight flights of stairs with no restrooms along the way. So we ended up going to this kosher restaurant that my mom explicitly told my dad she didn’t want to go to way back in Los Angeles. That didn’t end well. The food was okay.
Tuesday was my brother and mom’s day. We went to the Delta Airlines museum. It was really very interesting. My brother got a full set of silverware used in first class from the gift shop. For my mom we went to this plantation house called Stately Oaks which was used as inspiration for the house in Gone with the Wind.
Random Gone with the Wind movie facts: The person who played Scarlett’s father in the movie when he’s riding out in the distance and dies was my mom’s horseback riding instructor. The horse’s name was Panda. The horse Rhett was sitting on before kissing Scarlett was named Duke. Duke was a horse only experienced riders could handle. Duke and Panda were at the stable my mom took lessons at. The tree that Scarlett and Rhett kissed under was in my neighborhood a few blocks away but was cut down a few years ago because of bugs. /end random facts.
I also learned a lot about Victorian mourning customs. The house tour was doing a thing on Victorian Era mourning customs. Women had over two years of mourning where they had specific clothing regulations.
Our last day we went to the Federal Reserve bank number six which is headquartered in Atlanta. We got free shredded money! Finally, we flew home and it was good.
A ramble by Kippur.
I just got back from my summer vacation with the family. We went to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. It was a fun trip with a few bumps in the road.
Tuesday we flew in to Atlanta and managed to find our motel fairly easily though we were still trying to figure out how to use the Tom-Tom. Something we never quite managed. The room was nice except there was one small problem. While it had a sofa it didn’t have a sofa bed. Obviously my brother and I aren’t going to be sleeping in the same bed. What the room also had was a recliner chair. As I was feeling a bit on the miserable side it was decided that I would take the recliner chair with blankets and some Nyquil which would knock me right out and my brother would get the bed.
Wednesday was a driving day up to Ashville NC. It was supposed to take us about four hours. We left at around eleven, we were supposed to get there around three thirty. My internship interview was at five thirty. Plenty of time to get to the hotel, rest, find a place for me to have the interview. Sounds good, right?
But then we got stuck in traffic. About four miles out from the South Carolina-Georgia border a bus caught on fire. And they had to divert traffic off the freeway into a detour, which we discovered about an hour after sitting in mostly stop traffic. This wasn’t thought too much about, after all detours in Los Angeles are basically get off the freeway and get back on a mile later. This does not happen in Georgia.
We got routed off the freeway and onto some buttfuck middle of nowhere back road. Which dragged along at mostly stop and little go traffic. Time crawled as traffic did on this little one lane road. We didn’t see any places to turn off. No cities, no towns, just some houses sometimes. Five thirty ticked closer and we still hadn’t left Georgia.
Eventually we pulled off the side of the road into a little drive way thingy and I took my interview inside the car. It was hot and sweaty and my phone dropped a couple of times, but I think the interview went all right.
We didn’t get to Ashville until nine thirty at night. NINE HOURS in traffic. O_____O
Thursday was visiting day with my dad’s cousin and aunt. We did a walking tour of downtown Ashville and it’s a LOVELY place. I utter adore the city and would like to move there. We had lunch (well I had a milkshake and my dad had a malt and the rest of the family had ice cream, does that count as lunch) at an actual soda counter. The weather was nice and cooperative.
After that we went to visit my dad’s aunt in her old folk’s home. I gave her a wampa which she loved and put on her bed. We got a picture of her wearing it on her shoulder for the family photo. She would have worn it on her head, but we decided against that.
Friday I got to have breakfast with a friend from Milliways, my Other Me. She forced me to eat a horrendously lovely sweet potato pancake with apple butter and pecans. The cruel person she is! After that we wandered around downtown again and had a good time talking about RP and life and writing and stuff. I’m glad I got to spend the time with her and wish I could have spent more. Unfortunately I had to meet up with my parents at eleven.
From there we picked up my dad’s cousin again and went up the Blue Ridge Parkway! It’s beautiful! There are winding roads! My mom got car sick! We stopped off and I got a nice hat that said “Blue Rige Parkway”. Note spelling. I somehow managed to get the one hat without a “d” in it.
Then we stopped at the Oak Grove Inn which was very pretty and would have liked to explore it more, but Time. We didn’t go to the Biltmore House because it was fifty dollars a head.
Saturday we left for Chattanooga, Tennessee driving through the Smokey Mountains. Where upon my mom got carsick. Again. :D She does that. At one stop there was a river and I stuck my feet in it. That was a great moment. I just love being able to stick my feet in water and letting it rush all over me. I wish I had time to go wading, but the spot I was in wasn’t good for that. From the Smokey Mountains we went through Dollywood which was… interesting and into Chattanooga.
Sunday we did Chattanooga. We went on the Incline Railroad which is the steepest railroad in the world. Straight up a mountain for about a mile onto Lookout Mountain. From there we could see seven states (because they’re so TINY). After that the riverboat tour where I got queasy but manageable and my mom… got sea sick. (Sensing a theme here?) It was a nice trip. From there we swung by the Tow Truck Hall of Fame on the way to a railroad and the civil war museum.
That was a cool museum! It had a locomotive called the General which was used in a train chase during the civil war. Here’s more about it. Disney did a movie based on it.
We trundled into Atlanta when done with the museum without a nine hour delay.
Monday was my dad’s day which meant taking the public transportation places. This wasn’t so bad. We went to the Fox Theatre which is a fantastic building, utterly gorgeous on the inside. The tour guide didn’t show up so the gift shop lady was nice enough to give us the brief tour. Because we didn’t get the official tour guide we didn’t have to pay for the tour, which was awesome.
For lunch we had a Subway subway at the Subway in the subway before getting back on the subway where upon my dad ate the wrong subway. >.>
From the Subway at the subway we went to the state capital and that was lovely and interesting. The state fossil of Georgia is a shark tooth.
We were going to go to tour CNN but it turned out to be too expensive and involved eight flights of stairs with no restrooms along the way. So we ended up going to this kosher restaurant that my mom explicitly told my dad she didn’t want to go to way back in Los Angeles. That didn’t end well. The food was okay.
Tuesday was my brother and mom’s day. We went to the Delta Airlines museum. It was really very interesting. My brother got a full set of silverware used in first class from the gift shop. For my mom we went to this plantation house called Stately Oaks which was used as inspiration for the house in Gone with the Wind.
Random Gone with the Wind movie facts: The person who played Scarlett’s father in the movie when he’s riding out in the distance and dies was my mom’s horseback riding instructor. The horse’s name was Panda. The horse Rhett was sitting on before kissing Scarlett was named Duke. Duke was a horse only experienced riders could handle. Duke and Panda were at the stable my mom took lessons at. The tree that Scarlett and Rhett kissed under was in my neighborhood a few blocks away but was cut down a few years ago because of bugs. /end random facts.
I also learned a lot about Victorian mourning customs. The house tour was doing a thing on Victorian Era mourning customs. Women had over two years of mourning where they had specific clothing regulations.
Our last day we went to the Federal Reserve bank number six which is headquartered in Atlanta. We got free shredded money! Finally, we flew home and it was good.
