We got to go to the Opry twice this week. Tonight Little Jimmy Dickens was on. He's been I'll so this is his first appearance this year. He's 92 years young! What a great night and a great line up! We're having a great time on Nashville!!!
We got to take a dinner cruise on the General Jackson last night. We cruised on the Cumberland River and we got to see downtown Nashville at night. They had a really great show highlighting the distinct music from each of the three areas in Tennessee. There were music students from two high schools in Pennsylvania in the audience and the teacher's and some of the students got to get up and demonstrate the Gunky Cjicken . We thought of John!! Tonight we're going to the Opry again. It's a really cool experience.
We got to visit Helen Keller's birthplace in Tuscumbia last week. Pretty cool to see the actual dining room where Annie locked Helen in, the fountain where she said her first words and the house she was born in and lived with Annie in (Howard's standing out front.) Pretty cool visit. I got a nice new winter coat while we were in the area and we had lunch at a "good oil' down home restaurant where the owner can to our table and visited with us for quite a while. The coat has come in very handy. We about froze for a few days in Nashville! There are some hardy folks here though--there were three tents set up when we got here. Very brave souls!!
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| On the way to the islands. This is low country! |
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| Pretty canopy over the road! |
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| Pretty lighthouse. |
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| This whole island is a state park. |
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| The beach (my artsy craftsy picture!) |
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| Looks like Florida! |
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| Another canopy picture! |
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| William Horton was an officer with General Oglethorpe and built this house in 1736. He was the first settler in this area and brought his wife and children from England to join him here. |
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| The house had shells in the grout and the bricks. |
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| Brunswick is a major port for shipping cars from Europe. |
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| The port sign and a car carrier. Just in the time it took to take 2 pictures, 4 car carriers left and 2 empty ones came in! |
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| Don't know if you can see this very well. We drove from Brunswick to St. Augustine's today and in the first 30 miles we must have seen 50 utility and tree removal trucks! On the news tonight they said about 300 have been sent to the northeast. |
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| These are the tree trimming trucks. A cold front is moving in tonight and we actually have the heat on -- yes, we're in Florida!! Lows tonight are supposed to be in the high 30s! That's really cold for here this time of year! |
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| The Country Music Hall of Fame. Only about 10% of all the inventory in the museum is on display at a time. Lots of stuff. We tried to go to the Opryland Museum again, but it was flooded out a few years ago and lots of the inventory was lost! When we were here a few years ago we kept seeing "Rand Hats" on display. When I looked them up online I discovered they are made in Billings, MT and the CEO is Rich Rand. I graduated with Richy Rand from NHS! Pretty cool. |
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| Sunset over Nashville. Pretty cool! We had lots of fun visiting with Loriann and her friend, Jody, and we got to eat at some really good restuarants! |
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| We kept hearing about this park in south eastern Georgia. It's pretty cool. We spent several hours here. We got to go on a little train ride, watch a wildlife display, and go on a boat ride. |
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| Makes you think about Stephen Foster doesn't it? |
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| Love the Spanish moss on the trees! |
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| This otter kept posing for pictures! |
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| Looks like a swamp cabin right out of a movie! |
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| Thought this was pretty cool! Thought the grandsons would like all the bees. |
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| The biggest alligator in the park. He's killed about 20 other alligators that they know of. |
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| Here he is again a little close to the boat! |
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| A nonpoison snake on a tree stump |
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| The channel we went on in the boat through the swamp. |
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| These plants eat bugs! |
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| This is an alligator nest (the pile of weeds and dirt on the bank) about 20 baby alligators were hatched in the nest. |
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| Just thought this was cool. |
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| Walking out to a 90 foot tower to look over the swamp. |
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| From the tower looking south. |
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| Looking more east. |
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| From part way down the tower through the trees. |
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| For Di! Lots of spiders on this trip! |
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| Here's another one on the tree stump! We had a great time and after spending a few hours here we went into Waycross, Georgia and had lunch. |
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| If you haven't seen Niagara Falls, put it on your bucket list! Pictures don't do it justice, it's like trying to capture the feeling you get when you visit the Grand Canyon. This is The American Falls from the bus. |
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| This is the Canadian or Horseshoe Falls from the bus. You can hear the roar from a long way away! |
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| This is the cablecar that goes across the Niagara River at the whirlpool. The other side is also in Canada! What a beautiful trip across! |
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| This is looking into the whirlpool. From 8 am to 12 midnight the whirlpool flows counter clockwise. From midnight to 8 am it flows clockwise. Pretty cool, eh? |
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| Down river from the cable car. |
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| Up river from the cable car. The rapids on this part of the river are Class VI rapids! |
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| We went to the Journey Beneath the Falls and from a viewing stand we watched the Maid of the Mist go into the mist. The Maid of the Mist is the oldest continually operating tour at Niagara Falls. It has operated since the 1840s. This is the last year the Maid of the Mist will run! We were very glad to be on one of the last runs. |
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| Howard and I beneath the Falls. |
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| The Canadian Falls from the Maid of the Mist. We went clear up into the mist and it was so wet, I put my camera away for awhile! |
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| The American Falls from the Maid of the Mist. They are beautiful too! |
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| I took this from the top of the Falls looking over the Canadian Falls toward the American Falls. The water is traveling about 35 mph at this point. |
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| This is our tour bus. It is an authentic London double decker bus and it was lots of fun to tour in! |
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| American Falls from the bus, upper level. |
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| Canadian Falls from the bus, upper level. |
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| We got to have dinner in the Skylon Tower. We arrived at 6:30 pm and didn't finish dinner until about 9 pm. The tower revolved around twice while we were eating and the Falls (which are lit up at night) changed colors many times. We thought it was cool when the American Falls were red, white, and blue! I tried taking pictures, but none of them turned out so we'll have to rely on memory! |
