Afternoon Tea

It is down to the final countdown. One more week and I will be hanging out in London. I am so excited, my travel partner Scarlet and I got together just the other night to discuss sites to see. We are going to do all the obvious ones, like Big Ben, Tower of London, London Bridge, Museums, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and so much more. We are staying in a hostel for the first week. Then when our friend Kerry gets back (she is the whole reason we are going over.) We are going to go to her house in Portsmouth and then on to Brighton. I am so excited. Once we meet up with Kerry the 3 of us are going to journey to see: Liverpool, Manchester, Bath,Salisbury, and Oxford.

Although it has been rather stressful, trying to figure out all the things you really need for traveling. The only travel we will have to do publicly is the first week that we are in London. The best deal that i have found is to purchase an oyster card. It allows you to use any public transportation not just the tube or the bus, but all!

A very helpful book that I found was Let's Go London On a Budget. It has so much helpful information. Also things to do if you were going to stay in London and work and what not. The book is filled with all kinds of websites. Also another book that has been used and I would suggest is National Geographic Traveller Guide to Great Britain. This book is more pricey then the first but it also hold good information and great pictures.

Let's Go London On a Budget $16.95

National Geographic Traveller Guide to Great Britain $27.95

But of course you could go onto amazon.com and find these books and more to your liking for a cheaper price.

Til Next Time.

Helpful Websites:

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk

Winter Holiday

I am very excited because the days are counting down to when I leave for England. It is my first time to leave the country and i know it will not be my last! I thought i would go ahead and start writing about my venture to come. I have just started to really hard core plan. There are some pretty good websites. There is also so much that goes into planning. Needing a rail pass, all the different sites and prioritizing what to see first and when.

Camping Extravaganza!

This is my latest Venture. My good friends and I went camping little less then two weeks ago. This was my first time camping with out my family. The best part was that I actually got to go camping two weekends in a row because my family had come up and gone the weekend before.
I had a lot of fun, because it was my first time planning a camping trip. I certainly learned a lot from it and hope that the next trip i plan will go more smoothly. Not that this one did not it was just a lot of small forgotten things.
So we chose to go to Warrior's Path Park in Kingsport, Tn. It was an okay part. If you really enjoying camping like i do then this not really the place. Most of the sites are geared towards RV's and RV's are not real camping! Plus it was not very far back into the woods.
So of course, I can never get to a campsite to set it up before dark, because then what kind of trip would that be. Plus it always fun to watch people try and set up a tent with no lights. You can really learn a lot about a person. hahaha. It was very typical, The girls and I watch the boys be very manly, and set up the tent, go find wood, cut the wood, and start a fire. They were so handy. Very funny though, because I am not sure that the best way to cut wood is with a Machete.
One of the funniest things that happened (which also shows a glitch in my planning) was when dinner Saturday night came around and we realized that no one had signed up to bring hot dogs and we had nothing to eat. Luckily we were far from civilization and we could run to the store and pick some up. Other then that we had a nice fat raccoon that joined us each evening. We named him Melvin. He then beat up some other raccoon on Saturday night which was some first class entertainment.
All in all it was a great weekend. Like I said if you are really into camping and like to be off deep in the woods, Warrior's Path is not the place to go. It's more for people who like to think they are camping. Even though a lot goes into camping it was a really nice relaxing weekend in the great outdoors!

Just Jump

This venture took place on September 29, 2007. My good friends, invited me to come down and jump of cliffs with them. We went to Rock Island, which is over between Cookville and McMinnville Tn. I had just had surgery less then 2 weeks prior to this engagement so I did not jump, but i documented the greatness. The drive there was like 45 minutes or something. But we road with Rob in his jeep and it was so cold, we had the top off and the wind was crazy cold. Hints the picture above trying to show everyone it was cold!

It was a nice little hike to get to the cliff (overall it took like 20 minutes maybe). Nothing extremely notable happened. The cliffs were i believe something like 30 ft high, i can not remember. I know that it was high enough that in mid air you got the o shit feeling right be fore you hit the water. There is also a much smaller cliff that may only be 10ft that one can jump off of if they are not into anything higher. Over all the day was a whole lot of fun and i got to spend it with a few of my favorite people. All in all I high suggest that you and your friends find some cliff and jump off of them its great! But always do these activities SAFELY!

Old Men & a Number

Stated before I worked at a summer camp. Camp ended on July 27th. 2 of the other girls that I had gotten close to decided that we were going to go to Florida for a little goodbye holiday. So it was Banksia (she is from Australia) BigBird (she is from England) and me heading to Panama City Beach. We had the best time ever! The whole way down we listened to the cheesiest pop music, because we all seemed to have a place in our hearts for the backstreet boys, nsync, and britney spears!

So probably the best story we have from this trip was the first night there. Us 3 and my sister all decide that we are going to go out. We had dinner (at pineapple willie's; good but nothing special) and then some corona's on the beach for starters, just sitting on the beach talking about the summer and all the inside jokes. Then we decided that it was time to move on.

We went to a locals bar, which was were the fun really began. Before entering we stated the game where you can see who can get a guys number first. Thought it would add another fun element to the night. We get in and a round of drinks, we are sitting just chatting watching people play some beer pong and dancing, this guy walks by and bumps into BigBird and then it begins... First this man was not one of the young hot type he was an older man probably old enough to be our fathers and not good looking. Well he is already pretty well lit. He comes back to say sorry and then sits down, he is talking all kinds of crazy junk. For example he says he can rap; here is a taste "I am the peckerwood pimp, i feed my bitches lobster and shrimp." My sister and I exchange looks and then die laughing! The man just kept talking to BigBird. We decided that in honor of the night we should take a picture with this man. I was the one who got volunteered to sit on his lap!

More drinks for everyone, another man then approaches us. This man again not good looking and old enough to be our father. He is needing help, he is texting his daughter and wants to tell her that he is not drunk. So he comes to me for help- I send the text to his daughter, then there is a little texting game, nothing to funny. Since i was so nice i receive a drink. YAY for me! But then again we have another old man who will not let us be. So needless to say its getting later we are having more drinks and thus far no one has gotten there number.

I spot a cute guy at the bar, who has been watching the activities and laughing at us and these old men. i make the move. I go up and start a conversation. One of the old men interrupts with a joke stating that he is in fact my father and the guy should watch out. insert laugh and then moving on. The guy asks how long we in town for and everything typical conversation, then i see my chance and just shoot out hey let me get your number and we can hang out later this week. But then i can not find my phone, must have left it in the car, but no fear God created napkins for more then just cleaning up messes. He also gets my number as well as his friend and i exchange numbers. Yes, i will count that as 2 numbers and I win!

But wait the night is not over..... The bartender who must be a jealous bitch sees that i have received this guys number, comes over then spots the x's on my hand (implying that i am in fact not 21) She extracts my drink from my hand and throws it away. Fair enough. But yet she can not leave it there, she then gets the bouncer or who ever to come over. He asks me if i have been drinking and a few other questions, and then gets smart with me. I am very chill given that i am in the wrong, but no need for him to be a smart ass about it. Needless to say- I spent the night in jail. KIDDING!!! I say let me get my sister- we gather the gang and get ever so nicely escorted out.

We then decide to go to Waffle house, were i let everyone know that I got a number, I can be very competitive. So we are sitting at waffle house enjoying ourselves, we get the check and before we are walking out- in walks the "Peckerwood Pimp" man. We have a few more laughs and then say we must go. Ending out ever so eventful night!

Wild Wet Fun

This story is from the past summer. Short run down, I worked at a summer camp which changed my life all together. There was a good amount of counselors that were from out of the country, so during the weekend when we did not have campers, there were staff trips available.
One of the trips that my closest click went on was White Water Rafting on the Ocoee. I had been white water rafting before, but it was when i was younger. The trip was so much fun. We had seven people in our raft, one person (Hulk) got to be like a hood ornament and did not have to paddle. Plus our guide was so awesome! I would high suggest going white water rafting. Its not that expensive (like 15 bucks a person).

Nothing extremely hilarious happened. Besides just inside jokes and what not. Although there is a point were everyone in the raft can jump out and swim around for a bit. I have done this before and being tall and trying to get back in the raft does not really work for me all that well. I am literally in mid-sentence stating that I do not think that I am going to get (SPLASH) our guide pushed me in before I could finish! It was really funny. Again I think that goes to show how fun the guide was to just not give a flip.

Also as you can see above there is a place were they take your picture. Like I said Hulk was the hood ornament and out of no were she pulled out her tooth brush. Who does that right. So in the picture above you can see that she is "brushing" her teeth. The guide is throwing the shocker (how awesome!) and the rest of us are just trying to look like BA's with the paddles above our heads.

http://www.ocoeeadventurecenter.com/rafting/rafting.htm