Precious Memories

Early Wednesday morning (July 6th), my grandpa went to be with Jesus.  Although I know he's no longer in pain and with his savior...my heart aches.

 

Frolicking in Florida

This forth of July I decided to head down to Florida for some R&R and for a weekend of catching up with my friend Jennifer.  She and I worked at Baylor together and she & her husband recently moved to Florida...conveniently between Tampa and Orlando.  The weekend was packed with all sorts of fun with good friends.

I drove down on Friday and met up with Jennifer at University of South Florida, where she works now.  After getting the tour of campus, we headed to her home to meet up with Stephen for dinner and fireworks in their town.  The fireworks over the lake on the dark night sky were fantastic!

After the fireworks display we headed to downtown Disney to walk around and peruse the Disney Resorts.  A-maze-ing.  Each resort is themed, detailed, and ... magical.

Saturday was open to the possibilities.  We talked about Disney, we talked about Universal Studios, the ocean and the gulf were also options.  The possibilities seemed endless.  After discussion, we headed for Universal Studios-Islands of Adventure.

Why?

Mainly one reason.

Or maybe seven.

It doesn't require a train, although possible.

Maybe it's the butterbeer?

Which is neither butter nor beer. :)

The reason?

It's magical.

...


The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

What a fun experience, truly.  After having read and watched all the movies the wizarding world was quite like I imagined (and kind of like the movies).  It was fun to experience it with Jennifer too as she hadn't read or seen the movies, thus I was able to explain some of the intricacies.  However, before heading straight to the Harry Potter world...we did visit a couple other parts of the park.  I mean, you can't spend the whole day just at the WWofHP.

The Hogwarts train & platform 9 & 3/4

Hogsmead

 The three broomsticks

Butterbeer-delicious! I've already looked up recipes.

 Olivander's wand shop-no I didn't purchase a wand, but watched a wizard & wand matching. :)

 

This picture cracks me up.  Jennifer took it while we were standing in line for the Harry Potter ride.  A wonderful experience through the world of Harry Pottery (some virtual & some through the castle).  It was obviously hot outside (FL in the summer) but they had misters and fans...a little piece of heaven.

 After HP we walked around the rest of the park and rode some great rides.  The one above was a bit of a shock!  I thought we'd ride up nicely to the top and then drop.  This was not that ride.  This one shot straight up at lightening speeds and then slowly lowered back down.  Really fun, but was completely unprepared for the experience.  :)

After riding Jurassic Park, Jennifer suggested we ride it again.  In the front.  The front row.  Yes friends, we rode the water ride with the giant TRex in the front row.  Contrary to popular belief we didn't...oh wait, we did get soaked but it was fun.

 

The spiderman 3D ride. Really cool.

 

  The park was really neat at night...the lights, the sounds, the cool breeze.

Of course I couldn't pass up seeing HP at night. :)

The Atlantic Ocean
Sunday, Jennifer and I went to the ocean via South Beach (not Miami South Beach...another one). :)  It was a beautiful day spent lounging (literally) by the water.  The breeze was delightful and the sound of the waves was memorizing. 

And I didn't even burn :)

The Gulf Coast
Monday, Stephen, Jennifer, and I went to Clearwater Beach on the gulf side.  Although there were more people, it was still manageable.  I was so surprised that for the holiday weekend we never really waited in lines or traffic.  The gulf  water is a little warmer than the Atlantic (and yes the Atlantic is warmer than the Pacific) and the sand is much whiter.  As the three of us were in the water, Stephen made some comment about the water being so clear...to which a little girl nearby replied, well it is called Clearwater.  Schooled by an 11 year old. :)  I could have stayed in the water all day, only I was beginning to burn, and I planned to return home that evening...thus I had a long drive in front of me.

Lunch at Frenchy's on the water. Yumm.

 

The drive home was filled with more Harry Potter on tape (yes, I listened to it on the way down and no, it wasn't actually on tap, iPod actually, but it doesn't sound the same) AND a magnificent sunset.  The time with friends was dear and although I was happy after many hours to no longer be in the car, I was glad I made the trip!

Excited Face!

Last weekend was exactly what I needed for my spirit!  My friend Tiffanie had been at a new professionals conference in Atlanta at Emory and planned to stay through the weekend and visit me in Athens! We had a good time roaming through Atlanta, walking around Emory's campus (beautiful), driving through four other colleges (some accidental and some on purpose), touring UGA, watching a movie, introducing Tiff to FRINGE, enjoying a leisurely Saturday morning which involved favorite coffee (from Common Grounds) and chocolate chip pancakes.  Leisurely mornings are my favorite, especially with a favorite friend!

Here are some pictures from Tiff's visit!

Tiff LOVES the Olympics so we visited centennial park.  Below are the Olympic rings that shoot up water.  The kids were having a BLAST.  Tiff was not so sure about it. :)  I tried to convince her to join in in the fun. Ha.

Tiff next to the torch! They're huge! She kept asking if I could get someone to turn them on for her.  Oh how I missed Tiff's face! :)

Tiff could total be in the Olympics. Maybe for long distance running?

So centennial park had all sorts of 'quilts' in remembrance of the Olympics.  This one was definitely the most, unique.  Can you pick out Tiff?

After visiting centennial park we headed to CNN.

We found Kenn Star on the CNN highlights board.

Tiff with her President (of Baylor).

Some nice lady asked if we wanted a picture together! Yay!

We just had to find a picture of Anderson Cooper, Tiff's favorite.  Here she is imitating his face in the picture.  They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.

This is as close as we got to seeing a flame.

The next two pictures are random! As we were walking around downtown Athens, we stumbled across this...the spirit of Athens.  Just so strange and very random.

When we were walking around UGA and downtown, I had a brilliant idea.  Well...I think it's brilliant.  Uga's are present all over town, some have glasses, others are painted with outfits, etc.  I've thought it would be fun to get some pictures (at some point) with some of these clever little uga's.  (this is where my brilliant idea comes in) I've decided that when people come to visit, we find a uga dawg and get a picture.  This also means that my dad, sister, mom, and Megan will need to come back for another visit so we can grab a pic with an uga. :)

Tiff humoring me! :)

 

I was so grateful for the time with Tiffanie!  This year has been full of transitions and it was so nice to spend the weekend with a dear friend!  I miss her face!

Ps. for those of you who don't know Tiff, first, you're missing out, and second, she loves and frequently uses the word face! 

Nashville, TN

During Easter weekend...I know, I know, that was awhile ago, Megan and I met up in Nashville, TN to explore the wonders of the city.  So what was the first thing two student affairs people do when they meet up in Nashville?  Head to Vanderbilt!  Upon arriving, we found parking in the admissions lot.  In order to park there, we needed a pass.  So it was off to the admissions office.  After talking with the admissions people about my interest in a PhD in higher education...we received our parking pass. :)  Here are some pictures of the campus, it's beautiful.

Megan and I with our parking pass, yes, we were a little sneaky.

Our hotel was across the street from the Gaylord Opryland Resort, so we decided to walk on over after our tour of Vanderbilt. 

I could not have imagined what the inside of this hotel would look like, absolutely magnificent!

Here is the map, yes, you need a map to find your way around all the gardens.  If you haven't been there, it's incredible.

Many water falls inside the gardens.

The next morning, Mega and I got up and visited the Pancake Pantry.  I had sweet potato pancake.  Absolutely fabulous!

 We then hit up the city, a park, and a green festival.

Just taking a break and enjoying the sunshine and warmth. Megan doesn't get much in Ohio (warmth).

Oh, and it was windy.

We also visited the Grand Ole Opry.  How can one visit Nashville and not go to the opry house.

Yep, we're that cool...or we just bought tickets for the tour. :)

The floodline for the May 2010 flood in Nashville.  I realized it was bad, however, this was a implausible.  The picture below this one is Megan standing next to the line, just for context.

As part of the tour, we got to stand on the stage and the tour guide took our picture!  The circle on the ground is from the original opry when it first began...kind of a neat piece of history (even for this non-country fan).

 

That night Megan and I went country line dancing.  We left our purses in the car, thus, no pictures.  However, this was taken before we left.  Oh how I miss country line dancing.  Yes, this non-country loving music girl does love line dancing...or any other kind of dancing!

As usual, Megan and I found a fun coffee shop, ugly mugs.  We had coffee there before heading back to our perspective homes.  And if you are asking the question I was...yes, they do serve the coffee in ugly mugs!

As we headed home, gotta get some coffee to go!

 

Not sure where we'll meet up next as we've now explored Knoxville and Nashville.  Maybe we'll actually have to make visits to each others homes (Oxford, Ohio & Athens, Georgia). :)