After dinner we headed over to our friends Kit and Bob’s house. There were a few other people there and it was the perfect little gathering. Nothing too over the top and crazy, but just the right mix of people, drinks, dogs, pool, darts, and explosions. Eventually it got late, then later, then REAL late. Seizing this opportunity we all piled in Jess’ car (about 6 people in a car designed to hold 4) and headed to the Waffle House. There really is no better first meal of 2011 than something, anything, from a Waffle House. The service was a bit on the slow side due to the fact that they were tending to the onslaught of strippers and thugs, but eventually some of us got our food. Shortly after, however a skirmish broke out between one of the cooks and one or more of the patrons. We really have no clue how it started but we do know that the cops eventually showed up and it was something to behold. Strippers and their “boyfriends” on one end of the place, “gangstas” somewhere in the middle, Waffle House employees with cutlery in hand over here, and the most rag-tag bunch of rapscallion white folks you’ve ever seen huddled in the corner. It was a visit to the WH I shall never forget.

After that, we headed home and quickly retreated to our slumber. The next day was spent tooling around the house, sleeping off our adventures. Over the next few days we got the house whipped into a level 5 cleanliness, built some shelves and organized the garage, sewed some new pants for me, and generally reminisced at the amazing past few weeks we’d had. It was the best way possible to end 2010 and I couldn’t think of another way I’d want to kick off 2011.

I’ve found the person that I truly love and want to be with for the rest of my life. I got to share yet another adventure with her and am now counting the days until she’s my wife. Somehow, despite the craziness of last year, the year before last, and so on, manage to “out do” the previous year… ten fold.

The pics:

The Pics:

• Survived horrible traffic on 95South, but made it to the Camp Lejeune Inn. Nice and economical!
• Visited the “mall” on base for last minute must haves.
• Had a cookout at the Bateman’s!
• Watched the kids play in the water all day!
• Listened to Marines talk about things and acronyms I pretended to understand.
• Watched Marines grill meat!
• Met new friends.
• Drank beer and ate delicious food!
• Fashioned a homemade fly trap!
• Ate MORE delicious food. (Hey..it’s vacation!?)
• Played RockBand
• Watched three kids wrestle and tackle a Marine for about an hour.
• Sat with friends and family to watch one of the best fireworks shows ever!
• Celebrated the fourth with my two loves, and awesome friends we don’t see enough.
• Prepared for day 2! BEACH DAY!!

The Pics:

Pool time!

Despite a bit of construction traffic we arrived in Philly a little after lunch time on Wednesday. Everyone was awaiting our arrival and it felt so good to be there! I love the constant flow of visitors and family through the house and MAN did we eat! The first night my Grandmom made us the most delicious meal: Ham, beans, potatoes, rolls. It was so nice to take a break from eating out or grabbing fast food on the road. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and learning how to play pinochle. It’s a family tradition and SniperBen fell into place so perfectly. Everyone seemed to love him and he even got in some guy time with one of my uncles!

The following day we loaded up and headed to the city. My Aunt Jackie, two of my cousins, and the Snipers all went to Ride the Ducks! We quacked through the city and learned about the history of our nation’s first capital then we quacked down the Delaware River! The kids had a great time and Chase loved spending time with his cousins. Oh! And not long after coming home to GA my aunt sent me this link. OMG! (Our favorite phrase of the week btw). I couldn’t believe just days before we were on one of those ducks! It’s a good thing we got it done when we did though…because my ass will never sit on one of those ducks again!

Nomnomnomnom

After the quackin’ we were ready to experience the most delicious lunch ever. We went to South Street and ordered Philly Cheese steaks from Jim’s. They were the perfect way to end our duck trip! Aunt Jackie and the kids went to Johnny Rockets for chicken and shakes. My family, the jokes, the food, the laughter, the card games…they are all such a huge part of my life that I don’t get to experience often enough. It meant so much to not only have SniperBen there with me, but to see just how perfectly he fit in made it even better. I can’t wait to go back!

The Pics:

Sunrise on the start of the road trip

Every summer needs a summer vacation. This year our summer vacation was an epic road trip. Since Jess has family in Philly and I have some friends in NC that we hadn’t seen in a while, we figured it would be the perfect time to see them both all while visiting our nation’s capitol, especially since Jess and Chase had never been there and the last time I was there was when I was a kid.

As with every great road trip we planned it all out, got all our ducks in a row and headed out early. Our first stop was DC, approximately 10 hours away. The trip was a lot of fun. We played the usual car games of I Spy and how many different state license plates can we find (nearly 40 during the entire trip) and did some singing and all that. We made great time and arrived just in time for dinner. I had scoped out places to eat prior to getting there so we wouldn’t have to spend our time looking. First up was Matchbox DC – Vintage Pizza Bistro. The food and atmosphere were great!

After dinner we walked around a bit. We actually managed to make it all the way to The Capitol. It was MUCH larger than I imagined and quite a site to behold. We snapped a few photos with our phones then headed back to the hotel to get tucked in. After all, the following day would be a marathon of sites.

Washington Monument

The day started off with some scrapple at Lincoln’s Waffle Shop. This little hole in the wall place was un-freakin-real. Quick, tasty, cheap, fun. Once we were done eating we headed over to Union Station to park and begin our excursion. Rather than try to find parking all over town we did a double decker tour. We could get off/on at pretty much any of the sites for the whole day. This turned out to be a genius idea.

Our first stop was The National Air and Space Museum. This place was awesome. It was huge. We walked around looking for the cool things, minding the time since we could spend all day in here, but had an entire city to see. In the end, Chase and I rode the flight simulators while Jess hung back and took pics. Even though it was first, it was probably the highlight of the day.

From NASM we headed over to the Washington Monument. I had no idea how tall or massive this thing was. You see pictures all the time, but you can never really appreciate something like this until you are right up on it. We got our necessary pictures then headed over to the Lincoln Memorial. Again, this is something you have to see to believe. Abe didn’t come alive and walk around like in the movies, but then again there were a lot of people around and he probably would have killed several of them.

It was getting to be that time when we need to not be walking for a bit, so we took a little break while waiting on our bus. Once the bus came we rode over to Arlington Cemetery, passing the Pentagon on the way. Not to sound in any way disrespectful, but Arlington is an amazing place. There is a LOT of history at that place. It was getting late in the day but I wanted to see the Eternal Flame and the Changing of the Guards. Watching the extreme dedication those men have to doing what they do is awe inspiring.

Chase and Jess were feeling a bit pooped after walking around Arlington, so we hopped on the bus and headed back in town. We still had a few more stops before we called it a day. We hit up The National Museum of Natural History. It was between this and The National Museum of American History. We wanted to see the dinosaurs so our choice was clear. The dino’s were cool, as were all the other exhibits, but we were tired and hungry. It was dinner time in DC and what better place to eat, than America. I mean, it was freakin’ AMERICA! Yet another amazing dinner in our bellies, but it was getting late and we were all dead tired.

And.... we're done.

We headed back to the hotel, got packed up, and hit the sack. It was a fun filled day with lots of sites and history lessons, flight simulators, monuments, “hollowed” grounds, ground animal parts, sunshine, and all manner of things. Our DC trip had come to a close and we had managed to cram it all into one day. It’s not something I will soon, or hopefully ever forget. Getting to be there as Chase saw all these things that make up our great nation was worth the miles of walking we did.

Next on our list, Philly Cheese Steaks. Oh and some family time as well.

The Pics:

El Savador Sunsets.

Now I will say that the laid back feeling was put on hold for our travel day. Here’s what I knew: 1) We were at LEAST 2 hours from the rental car place. 2) Where was that rental car place again? 3) Every time we venture out on four wheels, we get lost. 4) We had buddy passes 5)There is only ONE flight from San Salvador to Atlanta, GA a day.

Needless to say we left pretty early. We enjoyed another beautiful drive and were confident about directions so we were able to relax and talk and take pics and enjoy what may be one of most beautiful places I have ever been. I found myself envying the country that only a few days prior I was cursing at. It was raw, untouched, un-superficial, and happy. I remember wondering what the native people would think of Americans if they visited our home.

Beautiful Country!

So we made it…and everything was smooth sailing. The bridge was out, again. We drove through the river, again. We were stopped by the policia in a routine traffic stop and made it to the rental car place with time to spare! They took us to the airport, bags checked, gate found, snack had…we were ready! Then…the stress began. Have you ever flown on standby? Well, it’s one thing to fly standby on a flight that leaves every 30 minutes, it’s another thing entirely to wait for seats on a flight that happens once a day! The gate filled up, fast. No one at the desk could tell us if we were getting on. I tried taking a head count of the people at our gate…there at least 100.

Ben: “Umm…ok. Maybe we should start thinking of a plan b?”
Jess: Biting nails. “No. There is no plan b. There is only plan a. Which is us, on that plane.”
Cue hispanic man who sits in one of the few empty seats (beside me) dressed like a soldier only he’s not, but he does know his English expletives and smells likes he’s been up drinking for about oh, say, three days.
Hombre: “I’m sick of this fucking country…you? The police stole my laptop…and you know…I got a little pissed off…you know? Those police back there? points behind us to three cops… They are the ones…they are pissing me off following me. Hey amigo..to Ben…take this back to your friends…yeah?”
He laughs…and hands Ben a homemade ‘cigar’ with God knows what inside of it.
Ben: Politely “Oh no thank you…I’m gonna pass this time.”
Jess: Oh my God we’re gonna be stuck here forever…

All dramatics aside, they loaded the plane for about 20 minutes before FINALLY calling our names. Biggest sigh of relief ever! And..it was first class. We watched a movie, had a great meal, and prepared to be home. I miss my nino so much I wanted to kiss his cheeks off when I saw him! We landed and were high on life. We made a beeline for baggage claim and were going to book it home because a very, very important finale was coming on that night! Last snag of the trip: no luggage. None of our three bags had made the trip back to Los Estados Unidos. We claimed the luggage as lost and made it home just in time to order a pizza and crash. Thankfully..the luggage showed up later that week!

Love and Weddings in El Salvador!

We have souvenirs and memories from the trip that I will never forget. Jude and Neal are such a beautiful couple inside and out and being a part of their beautiful wedding was an honor. Adios El Salllbaaaddoooorrr!!!!!

Where we're going, we NEED roads.

Jess was the driver and I was the navigator. I had my maps, my phone, and my eyes on the road. She was driving and not missing a beat. We soon realized that to get around this place you had to drive like the locals. The locals drive like they just don’t give a damn. So I had her going left and right and here and there and all over the place. We finally turned down what we Google thought was the road where the hotel was. As it turns out, it was simply a dead end on a cliff. We sat there for a few moments, took a few deep breaths, and started driving again. I can’t say how amazed I am at Jess’ calmness during all this. We were driving around people and busses and bikes and all manner of things that were jockeying for spot on the road. She zipped around here and there it was amazing.

Where the streets are paved with people and busses and cars

I finally got in touch with Neal and he informed us that the hotel was in the south west part of town. We were currently driving through the north west. So we hauled ass down that way, and finally in a bold move on Jess’ part, asked a local for directions. This lady didn’t understand a bit of English, and we sure as hell didn’t understand her. What we were able to communicate was “Holiday Inn Santa Anna”. She understood, gave us some very detailed directions in Spanish using land marks like “banco” and “St. Nicholas” and making some sort of hand gesture like we’d be driving around a circle. We jetted away and sure enough we passed a bank, a big sign that was for some St. Nicholas thing and went  through a round-a-bout! Next thing we knew we were at the hotel. I’ve never been more excited in my life. Jess shared in this joy. We felt so accomplished and proud of ourselves. We had overcome a LOT on this 3 hour journey and made it. There was no obstacle we couldn’t overcome at this point.

So we met up with Neal, quickly changed clothes then hopped back in Pedro for our trip to the location for the wedding. Luckily, we were following someone. After a mile or so, we soon realized this was going to be an interesting ride. The roads kept getting steeper and steeper. We were climbing further and further into the clouds. Once we finally got to our destination we had a beautiful view of the city. We had to be like 3 miles in the air (probably not that high, but it felt like it). The location was beautiful and the wedding got started as soon as we got there.

Contrary to most weddings I’ve been to, or been part of, this one was almost a “figure it out as you go” kinda thing. There wasn’t a ton of organization, but that was part of the fun. I was told to walk in with Neal, then wait, but now go, but you were supposed to stand over there, ok, now you all go sit down and BOOM, I now pronounce you husband and wife! It was a short and sweet ceremony, where unbeknownst to Neal and Jude they had to say their own vows. They totally winged it and it was perfect.

True happiness!

After the ceremony, we did the usual every possible picture combination possible thing. The food was traditional El Salvadorian and fantastic. We danced, talked, laughed, and just enjoyed ourselves. The Bishops had a beautiful wedding. Everything turned out as it should. There was no “backstage drama”, all the guests were happy, and it was a wonderful time. I love seeing my friends happy, and to be there on this day of ultimate happiness for both of them was an honor. To share it with the woman I love most in this world, made it unforgettable. This was quite possibly the best wedding I’ve ever been to….so far.

As the day went on, the clouds rolled in. At first, we thought something was on fire, but as it turns out, it was just the clouds rolling UP the mountain we were on. Knowing our luck with driving and visibility down to about 10ft, SJ and I decided to roll out before the weather got any worse. We hopped in the car and took off down the mountain. Jess was now a pro El Salvadorian driver and handled the roads like a champ. We were soon below the clouds and well on our way back to the resort. We made it in record time and quickly got into our bathing suits so we could enjoy the evening by the pool. After all it was our final night in this place and we wanted to make the best of if.

Oh fog!

Our final day in El Salvador had come to a close. We had witnessed our friends getting married and survived another journey in a foreign land. The next day was our final adventure and what an adventure it was going to be.

The next day was Thursday. Jueves. (I do remember some things from High School!) We started the day off with a massage on the beach. It was JUST what my body needed after travel day and we walked out of the tiki huts feeling fannnntastic. We hit the pool asap and had cold drinks in our hands. We were ready to take on the challenges of language barriers and enjoy the beauty that was around us. What we were NOT prepared for…was the sun. Somehow, the idea to dab on a lil sunscreen escaped both of us. We don’t put it on at home…probably won’t need it here, right? Wrong. Only a few short hours later we realized just how burnt we were. Despite our efforts to put on sunscreen after the fact we decided to head inside for a siesta and to get out of the ball of fire.

Just a few hours too late!

Viernes. Needless to say we were sunburned, but we were feeling more and more comfortable with the surroundings at Decameron. We figured out what to eat (and more importantly NOT eat) at the restaurants and found a modest little spot on the beach to spend the day. It was covered by a tiki hut umbrella thing to block any unnecessary sun. We did some exploring in the ocean and took lots of pics. We relaxed and we had some talks that brought our relationship to an even better level. We needed this trip. We also needed the day of relaxing to prepare us for the following day…Neal and Jude getting married! On Sabado…we continued our journey…

Beautiful day to be in love

The map that saved our lives!

When Neal asked us to come to his and Jude’s wedding, I wasn’t sure that an excursion to another country would fit within the things we were going to be able to do this year. However, after much deliberating, Jess and I decided to do it. So we budgeted out the next few months and booked the trip. The events that followed were something I will never forget.

The morning of the trip sprang on us faster than we thought but we were ready. Chase was dropped off with his dad and we hit up the airport. We had buddy passes so we were on stand-by. No worries, we were about 5 hours early to the airport. It was freezing cold at the airport as well as on the plane. Being in first class certainly helped, but it was still chilly. The notion of anything cold soon evaporated. From what I remember it was about TWO THOUSAND DEGREES in El Salvador when we got there. The humidity was off the charts and it was a new kind of heat. Something the likes of Georgia just doesn’t have. No worries. This was a tropical adventure.

Our car "Pedro"

Having never been out of the country, Jess and I were ill prepared for the lack of U.S. Citizens and anyone that spoke english. We managed to round up our luggage and get to the rental car place. I had enough sense to pre-book us a car so we were quick to actually get in the car and get on the road. Despite not being able to speak the native tongue we were able to communicate as needed. The car they gave us was this 1992 Nissan Sentra that had seen better days. I’m not sure if they realized a) who was going to be driving this car and b) what country they were in. The roads were rough at best. Never-the-less, we made the best of it, and Jess, me, and “Pedro” (that’s the name we dubbed our car) were on our way.

It took about 30 mins to figure out where we were exactly, but once we got going it was an awesome drive. That is until we made it to the river that we had to drive through. Apparently, the roads in El Salvador aren’t their highest priority and a recent storm had washed away one of the bridges. Thankfully, the local children were gracious enough to navigate us down a dirt path through the actual river (about 12″ deep) to the other side. I will forever be grateful to the little children of El Salvador.

The rest of the ride was pretty straight forward. It was about 2 hours driving through gorgeous country side and cliffs overlooking the ocean. You could see mountains way off in the distance that dwarf anything I’ve seen before. The camera was all a flurry. With no music to keep us company, we resorted to talking to each other. It’s a foreign concept that seems be long gone from some relationships, but not this one. We talked about the cows and people on bikes. About how the people there seem to have a simple life. How no one seems to harbor any sort of ill intentions or desire to harm or wrong us. People were just nice there. The country was “untouched” as Jess put it. With out the distraction of a radio or technology or Facebooks and Twitters we really got to reconnect. That ride was something I will always remember.

Around 3pm El Salv. time we rolled up on the hotel. It was a stunning place and we figured surely, there would be other gringos there and someone to speak our language. Again, we were mistaken. All the hotel staff and guests and armed guards were either from El Salvador or from El Salvador. This didn’t stop Jess and I though, we were going to make the best of it. It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but we soon realized that at 3 they start checking people in. We were all (like 200 people) into a big conference room where we were assigned a number. This tiny little card with “88″ was all we were given. Up on stage there was a guy that sounded like a cross between a Spanish auctioneer and a monster truck announcer was going to town. We saw people check their cards, then head up to one of five booths. We deduced that they were calling out the numbers. Jess knew enough Spanish to know that “88″ was “ochenta y ocho”. So there we sat, listening for the those 2 words. Eventually, our number was called and we worked our way through what the host lady was saying at the booth. We got our key and a map of the hotel and headed to our room. The room was very nice. It was a million degrees outside, but inside, it was nice and cool.

The end of day one

After some unpacking and re-gaining of our bearings we donned our bathing suits, some towels and hit the pool. The resort was all inclusive, so the drinks were free. However they were served in the worlds smallest cups. Jess and I fixed that problem with a trip to the gift shop. We got our huge coffee mugs and were set for the rest of the trip. The rest of the afternoon was spent just walking around the resort, making sure we knew where everything was (bars, restaurants, spa, etc). Dinner was at Pastafari (a fusion of Italian and Jamaican food… still not sure that’s a successful combo). We wanted to hit up the shows or “discotech”, but sadly we were exhausted and decided to call it an early night. We had survived our first day in a foreign country where only about 1% of the people spoke our language. We had driven a tiny little car literally “over the river and through the woods” through streets lined with cows, old ladies on bikes, people selling shoes, DVDs, mangos, and children. It was an adventure. It was unforgettable, and it was only the beginning.

Our family adventure begins

A few weeks ago Jess and I decided it would be nice to take Chase to Stone Mountain to see all the Christmas decorations, the laser show, the Atlanta skyline at sunset, and the building of the Snow Mountain area. Despite living in Georgia my entire life, I have never been on top of Stone Mountain. I know…it is a shock to me too! We packed up the camera, got bundled up, made a quick stop to get a snack, and we were on our way.

The park was NOT crowded at all. Then again it was a Monday afternoon and people still had to work I reckon. We walked around for a bit, checked out the Snow Mountain area, snapped a few photos, then decided to take the sky bucket thing to the top. I was pretty excited. I mean, it’s the top of Stone Mountain! I had heard how beautiful the city was from up there, but I never imagined it would’ve been as beautiful as it was on that day.

Got'cha!

Chase pretty much took off running as soon as we got up there. Jess and I just took our time and enjoyed the view. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Yeah it was cold and the wind was kickin just a bit, but the sky was perfect and the view was amazing. There were a good deal of people up there, but not too many where we couldn’t just sit down in a nice cozy spot and enjoy it all. Chase had fun jumping over puddles, climbing on trees and rocks. However, he got a little ambitions and slid off the side of a big on. Luckily, Jess was there to catch him. Using her Super Mom abilities, she pulled him to safety! To celebrate, we decided it would be a grand idea to walk down instead of take the lift.

I had always wondered what it was like walking up/down the mountain. I mean…where did it go? How steep was it? Were there steps or was it just huge rocks you had to navigate around? Would there be bears or timberwolves? Perhaps there was a great chasm that one could fall victim to if you stepped in the wrong spot! Unfortunately there was no such thing, instead it was a gentle walk down a steep graded rocky mountain. Don’t get me wrong though, the walk down, far outweighed the ride up.

The sun never sets on happiness

Neither one of us were really prepared for the mountain excursion we had just embarked on, but we weren’t going to let some mountain get in the way of our fun. So we took off and every once and a while would stop, take it all in, enjoy the view, holler at Chase for going to fast, slip on a slippery rock, or race each other to the next tree before realizing we were running down a mountain…and there were slippery rocks all around. About half way down we paused at a clearing and watch the last few moments of the sun set. It was beautiful to see the sun just slowly move out of view before saying goodbye and dipping just below the horizon. It was definitely one of the best sunsets I’ve witnessed.

Once we got to the bottom we realized we were now standing in a random parking lot on the other side of the mountain. The train was no where in sight and there didn’t appear to be any easy way to get back to where we started. Never fear, Jess and I are not one to let a little diversion stop us from having a good time. So we pulled out our map and decided on the best course of action, which was simply to walk back around to the front of the park. Chase was tuckered out from all the scurrying around, but that was nothing a quick piggy back ride couldn’t alleviate. We finally made it back to the front and were all set to walk around the shops, get some hot chocolate, and fill our bellies with what ever wonders the great people of Stone Mountain Park could come up with. Unfortunately, the only thing they could come up with was an additional $26 PER PERSON to just walk into a shop. Wait…what?! Yeah. In order to walk around the “towne” we had to pay MORE money. If we wanted to go into a shop and buy a glass blown ornament of a fat Santa snoozing in a chair or a snow globe of Stone Mountain it would cost us about $80. Even if we DIDN’T buy anything, it would still cost us. We couldn’t even walk around the village and look at the lights!

So rather than hang around any more, we chose to pack up the kiddo and head on back home. After a stop by Garcia’s for some delicious Mexican food, we got home, got warmed up and settled in for a long winter nap. Well, more like a few hours, but still.

And there you have it. Our first trip to Stone Mountain. I have to say that it is an adventure that I’ll not soon (or hopefully ever) forget. There were so many “ahhhhh” moments that I can’t even begin to recount them all. Despite the fact that we had to walk around the mountain to get back where we started and the steep price to pay for some extra fun, we found our way. We got back to where we needed to be. We made our own adventure. We made the trip ours.