What are you doing for fun??

DivineMrsM

chele, congrats on the belt buckle...so impressive...grand champion!

ebru, you are simply beautiful inside and out and yes, you rock that hairstyle.

Gals, my DH and I just got back from a 3 day bus tour to Nashville, Tennessee, which is about 8 hours from where we live and seems like light-years away.  Soooo much incredible talent in the town! It was nice to get away, saw some great stuff and love listening to southern accents of people there.  I have to say, Tennesseans are such nice people.

Tina2

We're cleaning up from last night's spectacular six-course, all-Italian dinner for six ( Susan, details PM'd if you want them), then starting today at a bathroom remodeling seminar (not to learn how to do it ourselves, heaven forbid, but to learn more about what's involved and costs).

Later this afternoon we're heading 'way out to the "countryside" for a wedding. It's a gorgeous June day here!

Tina

chele

Thanks The Divine Mrs M! Was it fun taking the bus? I've kind of wondered about taking a bus tour.

DivineMrsM

Taking a bus has its good and bad points.  Our trip was only 3 days, I'm not sure I'd go on a trip that was any longer on a bus.  Your trip is going to be slower, but it can be interesting to meet all those different personalities on the bus. The tour guide and bus driver encountered a few snags on the way...taking the wrong route at one point and changing our schedule on the last morning, but DH and I were on vacation so we chose to overlook those 'bumps in the road'.

The upside is we didn't have to drive so DH and I were able to sit and enjoy the trip together.  The itinerary is already laid out for you: go hear, do this, see that.  That makes it easier on me so I didn't have to figure out all those logistics, where to go when, ect.  Also, I liked talking to others on the bus as DH can be one of those who doesn't feel the need to be chatty, even on a long trip!  

So, the price was right, the length of the trip was right, and it was a place we'd wanted to see.  I'd definitely try a bus trip if I were you, just to try it out.  I would try another one depending on where it was going and how long it would take.

chele

Thanks!  I might look into one.  We've also considered a train vacation - for the same reasons you listed.  I would be nice for hubby not to have to do all the driving.

Latte

I did a 3 day bus tour in north Scotland about 7 years ago. It was great! Now with the pain from my bone mets I don't think I could be on a bumpy bus for so long.

stagefree

ditto Latte..

marywh

Just got back from Amelia Island Florida, had a great time, went to St. Augustine, but didnt get to do the ghost tour. It was so hot and crowded. Did get to go into the old Flagler Hotel and did that tour, which is now part of Flagler University. Flagler was the man who built the railroad to the Florida Keys. What a place. I did learn that back in the 1800s when the hotel was opened the women were not allowed into the geust registration because they thought if women were seen watching money transactions, it would drive them mad!!!

DivineMrsM

mary, I love going on tours to places like that.  How bizarre about money transactions and women!  I mean, where did they get ideas like that?  lol

chele

We went zip lining and white water rafting!  We had a blast!  The guides at Royal Gorge Rafting did a great job.  I can't wait to go again!

Rafting:

Zipping:

DivineMrsM

chele, what are your thoughts on the zip lining?  Had you ever done it before?  My son and I plan to try it this summer.  That's a great photo of you on the zip line, how did you get that? I am just wondering about what is gonna go through my head at that jumping off point on the zip line tour!

Heidihill

Great pic, Chele!  DivineMrsM, I tried ziplining last summer, but the zipping was just the last part of a high ropes course. I couldn't wait to get back down to the ground so I was happy to be at that point and almost home. But then once you're off you start thinking if you're going to slam into the ground or what. It somehow didn't happen and I landed OK.

chele

M, I LOVE zipping! LOVE IT! When I'm on the launch pad/deck all I'm thinking is "my turn my turn"! My next thought as I prepare to launch is "wheeeeeeeeeeeee"!



We had a short training class first. We were shown how to brake and turn, and we were double clipped in. I felt in control and safe. Our two guides were awesome. They were professional and fun.



My SIL was pretty nervous about going. Basically terrified. She loved it!



Thanks heidihill!

chele

Oh! And they had a photographer follow us on the first three lines.

DivineMrsM

Wow, chele, you little daredevil!  I'm hoping to zip line this summer, but I will be overcoming some apprehension before doing so.  I'm gonna let your words simmer in my thoughts, tho...

GatorGal

Ebru, love, love, love the new hairstyle. And Chele, just wow! Congratulations on the success you and Blue had. Love the big huge buckle and you've just made me add ziplining to my bucket list. Cross one off, add two. Guess I have to hang around for a while! LOL! Divine, I love Nashville. Went spring break 2012 with my sister and her granddaughter, Sydney, and we had a blast. I would love to go back. Sydney would like to go to Vanderbillt. Hope she does, then I can visit anytime! It is a "LIVING" city .... something going on all the time and yes, the people are very friendly.



Posted this on another thread but easier to copy and paste then re-type. Had a wonderful beach week with my sister, her three granddaughters, my grandson, and a niece. Then we left my grandson behind (he was definitely not interested in Justin Bieber's hometown) and went to Niagra Falls and London and Stratford, Ontario. Saw Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Festival and did all touristy things related to Niagra Falls. Lots of beautiful pictures Hoping my sis and I helped the kids make some memories to treasure. Thankful that I have that chemo free week to plan fun activities.



Had a short visit with a dear friend from high school (hard to believe I'm old enough to have known someone for 50 years) who came from California with her granddaughter to visit the Naval Academy. Another friend from college is in Baltimore this week visiting her son and i will spend time with she and her husband on Friday. Just love visits from dear friends!



Had a PET scan this morning and will get results tomorrow when I go for chemo. Scanxiety will keep me awake tonight so tomorrow night I'll probably sleep like a log. Praying for stable or better!

chele

Thanks Glenna!  Your trip sounds like fun.  I hope you get the best news from you scan!

GatorGal

Not the best news but could've been worse. Onc says the tumor is stable with insignificant progression and staying in the lung. Looks to me like it's doubled in size but will have a CT scan next Wednesday to compare the size more accurately. The good news is that one spot on the liver is gone. For the time being, staying on low dose taxol. Compared to other chemos I've had, it's been very gentle for me. Thanks for asking!! Putting my big girl pants on and soldiering on!!

stagefree

Now Glenna that's good news!!! stable is good. The weekend worked I guess. btw tnax for the compliment. I just had my 2oth year highschool reunion last weekend & guess what??? I was announced the most beautidul lady of the night more than once...little do they know..So yeah, I'll keep the P!NK for a while longer, hope to at least. Loving every second of X,though it's a harsh boy! 

Chele, wow, how great are those photos. I've always loved rollercoasters & stuff, but haven't tried that yet. Is it possible with my very extensive bone mets I wonder?? 

Mary, your ghost tour reminded me of our stay at a very ancient hotel rural France, right in the middle of the forest, where we arrived late at night. It was dark all the way & the owner of the hotel wasn't keen on strong lighting in the hotel either. It was very dusty everywhere, so I had no hope about the hygene of our room. Not seeing around clearly anyway, I just jumped in the bed, soooo tired trying to find that place in the middle of nowhere. And did I tell you our stay there was actually a gift our our friends??? Anyway, right in the middle of the night we woke in terror with the sounds of stomping & shouting in many languages, I was so tired to get pissed, though was in horror, not able to see to differentiate whether all that happening was in our room or outside. Oh well, the dim lights, I still hate them & not think the very least that they are romantic in any way!!!

stagefree

btw Wordament out, online Scrabble in!

marywh

Ebru, I love online scrabble too.                                                                                                         my mom and I used to play scrabble all the time,we were the only 2 that liked it.We would play for hours. Daughter got me into the online scrabble. Btw,Ive always wanted to go to some of those ancient castles for the ghost hunts, but I dont know if I could really do them, I am such a chicken at heart.

DivineMrsM

We live less than an hour from the former Moundsville State penitentary.  It's a gothic structure with a violent past. It operated from 1876 to 1995.

Now it's a tourist attraction.  A couple years ago we went for their Halloween Haunted 'House of Horrors'.  It was fun.  They give regular tours of the place throughout the year and DH and I plan to return for one of those.  This place allegedly has paranormal activity and is study by those who revel in that kind of thing.  If you've ever seen the movie "Shawshank Redemption", the prison in that movie would remind you of this prison.

Believe it or not, Moundsville is one of those quaint small towns located on the Ohio River. 

chele

Stagefree, I have a lot of bone mets too. When I told my Oncologist that I was going to start barrel racing 2 years ago his advice was "don't fall off!" There was nothing violent or jarring at all on the zipline. Some bouncung around on the raft. I have a lot of bone mets too.

GatorGal

Stagefree, thanks for the encouragement. I just hate mixed messages! So glad you had a great time at your reunion, and you are beautiful!! I play words with friends online, very similar to scrabble. No matter how hard I try, I just can't improve on wordament.



Oh, I don't like dark castles or scary places. My cousin owns a club in wilder, kentucky that is supposed to be haunted. It's called bobby Mackey's hideaway. I've been on their ghost tour and it is scary!! I'll visit wineries over prisons or haunted places anyday!!

DivineMrsM

I've been to a couple of 'man-made' haunted houses, they are big in our area around Halloween.  I've never taken a tour of supposedly 'real' haunted places.  I'd go to the penitentary simply because its not far from my home.  I never visited the place until a couple years ago, and it's surprising how beautiful the outside architecture is.  Also surprising is that it sits right in the middle of a neighborhood of middle class homes right off the main road that runs through town. I'm not really a believer of the paranormal, but I'd try to be open minded when taking a tour about it...you know, just in case something out of the ordinary happened.  lol

exbrnxgrl

We have two famous haunted venues in the SF Bay Area. The Winchester Mystery House , in San Jose, and Alcatraz in SF bay. Sarah Winchester was part of the Winchester Rifle family and became very guilty over all the people who had been killed by her family's products. A medium told her that if the house was always undergoing construction then the spirits would be appeased. Quite an interesting house, now surrounded by movie theaters and shopping malls. They give midnight tours and Halloween tours. Alcatraz is fascinating. You take a ferry out to the island and walk up the long hill to the cell house. A self guided CD tour is the best way to go since it is narrated by former inmates and guards. It really is amazing and I never imagined that I would find a prison tour that captivating (pun intended!),

Caryn

stagefree

For the ones looking for some excitement, I suggest an overnight stay at the Lucia "cabins" in California, on Highway Pacific One, located right on the edge of the high cliff. On the condition that......

with your car -shouting I am rental & tourists inside, you travel in the middle of the night, once enjoying the beautiful sea view on the one side a couple of hours ago, that became scary as it got dark, with no lighting of the road.. the road sign ahead saying there's construction nearby, so a lane is closed (wtf the road is 2 lanes indeed!!!), so praying no other car comes from the other end.. another road sign saying there may be rocks falling on the road from the mountain, which you actually see & have to be careful not to have a major accident...then seeing the city sign Lucia and feel relief.. park on side of the cliff to ask the "guys" in a small bar-like cabin where the entrance to the city is, only to get the reply, it's here. Not really understanding the guys literally meant it, asking for a hotel & led by them to one of the cabins at the very edge of the cliff.... The cabin is cold, dark.. your effort to heat it up indicates why the place is cold, because there's gas leak in the radiator once it's on...on the other side of the cabin is the steep mountain, soooo dark everywhere. there are some sounds outside in the middle of the night, but you are soo tired to become scared & decide leave things in the hand of your fate..only to wake up to the most beautiful view in the first lights of the morning. The cabins looked really cute in daylight & way safer than they looked at midnight. ...then you see the exact (color even) same rental car parked next to yours, grasping you were not alone in this experience....and chat a bit more with the owner guys who were nice people indeed, not like the ones you see in horror movies. Though I would suggest they dress more decently. well that was back in 2000. I am sure the place have been improved since then.  

Glenna that2s the main reason I quit Wordament, one needs encouragement when trying to have fun playing, indeed!!!

hugs, Ebru

surfdreams

I love playing Words with Friends with Glenna! She usually beats me, but she's so nice about it. It's so fun!

Your pics are great, Chele! I've ziplined several times, in both Jamaica and the US. There's a noticeable difference in the equipment between the US and Jamaica, but both were oh so fun! Great experience!

You are beautiful, Ebru. Glad you had such a great time at your reunion! I loved your "haunted California" story. My sister and I were traveling through South Carolina once, and became so creeped out by the hotel we picked. We checked in and the creepy guy said he was putting us in a room " down by the salt marsh". Then he laughed "Heh, heh, heh"! Really initimidating. We went out to eat then, and talked about it and got more and more uneasy, that we returned to the motel, drove down by the "salt marsh" where we were the only car, yet saw someone peeking at us out of the room next door through the curtain. I ran to the door, opened it, threw the key in, and we took off and drove on 70 miles to a beautiful ocean front  hotel. We laugh about that story now, and say that they probably use that gimmick with every Yankee tourist that comes by - probably rent the same room over and over many times per night!

Divine MrsM - I also am questionable re: the Paranormal, but I like to to keep an open mind. I went on a haunted tour once with my mom and a friend. They were most skeptical, and they were so funny - making little comments and funny observations under their breath the whole time. Well - there were people on the tour who were very serious about this. Finally by the end of the night, after supressing my laughter at some of their comments for the whole night, out of respect for others in the group, at a VERY inopportune moment, (total darkness in the basement of a building - total silence as the medium was requesting that the dead killer make his presence known), my friend made another comment for my ears only, and I had that moment when it hit me as so funny. You know when you just start laughing at the totally wrong time, and you can't stop yourself? Trying to suppress it caused me to start snorting, etc. Then it just got worse, and the tour abruptly ended. The other members of the group looked like they wanted to leave me in that basement. I'm sure our names are on the blacklisted names for inclusion in any other tours with that company. 

Haunted houses at Halloween are so fun and SO scary to me. The last time I went through one a couple of years ago, I learned that I will literally run over my children to get out. I'm probably not the best person to take through one of those.

marywh

Im a believer when it comes to paranormal things. When I was a little girl, we lived in a very old farmhouse that was used during the civil war as part of the underground railroad. It was a huge place with lots of dark corners and little rooms off by themselves. One night in the middle of the night I woke up and saw a Huge man-like shadow on my wall. It terrified me and I ducked my head under the covers and didnt come out until daylight. To this day I can still see that shadow on the wall. It still gives me goosebumps to think about it. Other people had very strange experiences there too. Voices coming out of closets, things getting moved, pictures falling off the walls, all the spooky stuff you see on those ghost shows on t.v.

surfdreams

Marywh - I've also had some very strange experiences similar to yours. That's what keeps me having an open mind about this possibility.