Memorial Weekend Vacation

My sister, Sandie came to visit this weekend.   She is the one whose home burned in April.  Her children and friends have been helping clear the debris from her property so her new home can be delivered within a couple of weeks.

As always when she and I are together, we had a great time.   We began the visit on Friday night with pizza.

We think it's the best pizza in the South.  The owner is from Long Island and bakes a NY pie.  Since our family was raised in upstate NY, that very much appeals to our palate.

The dough is handmade.  The cheeses are grated at the restaurant.  Their sauces taste like tomatoes hand-picked from the garden that day.  Pizzas are only one of many items on the menu.  My husband's favorite is the Steak Antole (did I spell that right?)  which is basically a type of Philly Sandwich in Calzone form.  I have difficulty deciding between the pizza and the Chicken Parmigiana.  It is baked and not deep-fried.  It, too, is prepared there from scratch and not taken from the freezer storage off a delivery truck.  Can you tell it's one of our favorite places when we dine out?

However, if I write this much about every place we went, this post will be very long.  Rather, I will give you a few pictures from our trip to Chattanooga on Saturday.  Whenever we go to the Riverfront area, we park ($3 all day) at the garage on Market Street next to the Choo Choo and take the electric shuttle.

Our destination was the Aquarium.

Sandie had been there before but it was her granddaughter's first visit.  This is one of the river views from inside the aquarium.

The aquarium is actually in two buildings.  The first has seahorses on the bottom floor.  Then you take an escalator or elevator to the top to begin the journey of a Tennessee River from the mountain to the ocean.  There are a LOT of exhibits and fish tanks (2 and 3 stories tall) to view in the first building.  The second building has a few tropical birds, fish, PENGUINS! and a Butterfly Atrium.  In the Stingray petting pond, they had blue tang.  Since blue is my favorite color, you have a picture of one.

Remember the camera is looking through the water so may not be as distinct as you would like.  In that same area was this bench made from recycled milk jugs.

Oh well - - you only got the label.  In the next you will see my sister transferring a butterfly to her granddaughter's hand.  Sandie had put her finger in front of a leaf where the butterfly had landed and it walked onto her hand.

Lunch was at the Blue Plate.  For those in the area, as you look at the aquarium, it is on the left and faces the riverfront.  Their food is fresh every morning and is excellent - - - menu items from hamburgers to seafood with wonderful side dishes.

Since I started this post with food and am back on the same subject, I will stop here and give more pictures in my next update.  But speaking of food . . . . . I did NOT cook all weekend!!!

And this day shall be unto you for a memorial . . . . Exodus 12:14a

Ocoee Dinner

Last Saturday my husband and I drove out Hwy 64 to this location.  We went to the restaurant.  Here are the views looking out the window from our table.

After dinner, we took a few pictures of the surrounding outside area.  You can rent cabins with a view of the lake.  (The link above gives the rates and some interior pictures.)

You could go sail boating or fishing.

Or for the more adventurous - - - how about some river rafting?

The rafts are tied on top of the buses when delivering rafters to their point of origin and return trip.

It was a beautiful drive and we had a good time getting out of our  normal routine for a few hours.

One day Jesus said to His disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake."  So they got into a boat and set out.  Luke 8:22

He's a Winner!

I guess it's better late than never when it comes to posting.  Last Thursday was the annual spelling bee to raise funds for the Learning Center for Adults and Families, Inc.   They offer a lot of great services to aid persons with education.  Some of the funds are used for GED scholarships.  Can you imagine studying hard to pass the test but not having $75 to take it?

Anyway this was our team's fifth year to participate and after 20 rounds, we took second place.

This is my sweet husband.  There were two other members on our First Baptist Team but I did not get their permission to post their faces so just cropped them out.  The good news about being second is it was time for another team to win since we have taken first place the last three years.  The 2010 first place winner  was Merck.  They have been the corporate sponsor each year and our close competition.  They generally finish the spelling bee in the top three.

The funny thing is our team could spell words of this difficulty:  ulotrichous, unguiculate, marcescent, and acciaccatura.  The word they missed is anisette.  Do you know why?  Our church team missed the name of a liqueur!  None of them had ever heard of it.  Let's just say that our church friends were pleased to know we were not familiar with anisette!

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.  Ephesians 5:18a