Things have been a little quiet over here with us lately. Well, quiet in the sense of taking off for adventures here and there anyway. Behind the scenes it has been busy and slightly chaotic, on top of just being too hot and sticky lately to really want to get out much.
Brad has been working crazy amounts of over time lately as he took on all the projects of five people who left for other things. Along with that he has been traveling for work, spending one week in northern California and the next week in southern Arizona.
When he landed in California he had a few hours to himself and he was able to go see the mountains for a little bit before diving into the work stuff again. The poor man needs a vacation soon before he starts twitching from the work load.
While Brad has been working, Tessa and I have been getting back into our usual routine with the school year starting. School starts so early here, at least a month sooner than other parts of the country. But already she is loving her new class and teacher and she is back to being busy with homework, dance class, and soccer practice.
My work at the university has been a lot of making arrangements for new international students to arrive on campus, especially a large group of students from Egypt that are coming here for one semester. I am also starting to see a lot of the returning faculty stop by getting ready with their plans for a study abroad program for next year.
I will be teaching a class at the university again this fall so I have been working on putting together my lectures in anticipation of the start of class. Every year, I teach a class on culture and education here in the US. The class is meant for international students, but I always have a few domestic students to join too.
As I was looking over my class notes from last year, I had to laugh again when one student was talking about the 1930s and asked if I was alive then. I blinked a few times, wondering if he was kidding or not, and then realized he was serious. “Nope”, I said, “that was a little before my time”. Apparently for those born in the 2000s, they assume that anyone born in the 1900s (whether that is 1908 or 1980) that we are all lumped into the same group.
But even with all that has been going on lately we have managed to get out and do a few things. One day when we had hit a record high heat wave, we decided to take a stroll through the atriums at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.
There are 3 large atriums at this hotel full of restaurants, waterfalls, garden paths, and even a river offering a boat ride. The atriums are really beautiful and staying in one of the rooms that overlook them must be a real treat.
We also decided last minute to drive over to Dollywood to cool off at the water park, Splash Country. As far as water parks go, I would say that this is a pretty great one. There are plenty of shady places to sit and a variety of activities for any age. We really loved all cramming into a giant family size tube and going down the slide.
Also, the water coaster that is the delightful mix of water slide and roller coaster was a blast and we came back to do it a few times. It was well worth the drive for some time escaping the heat with water slides and the Smoky Mountains in the background.
We are making plans for the rest of the year and are looking forward to those. There is a long weekend coming up and we are narrowing down what we want to do with it. We may try camping in Kentucky, or go back over towards Asheville, North Carolina or go visit the ‘land of Lincoln’ in Springfield, Illinois.
After that, in October we are going to Missouri with a detour into Oklahoma. I am so excited to see Oklahoma, which I know may sound a little strange. In my goal of seeing all 50 states, I have seen 38 of them. When I look at a map of the states I’ve been to, the west and the south are all blocked out except for Oklahoma. And it needles me every time I look at it. There is a splattering of states in the midwest and northeast that I haven’t seen, but for some reason it is Oklahoma staring at me from the sea of seen states that has put it at the top of my list of states I want to see.
After that, November will see us returning to Europe to enjoy the festivities of Christmas markets in France, Germany, and Switzerland. We have just decided this is our favorite way to welcome the holiday season. We are anxiously counting down to this trip and have been making plans as we pour over books and blogs about where we are going.
Lastly, we will spending Christmas in a cabin by the lake in Arkansas. Sounds like quite an idyllic way to end the year. I’m sure in between these we’ll have any other number of adventures that come up.
Anyway, there are the rambling thoughts of today’s post. Thanks for being here. Know that I am always grateful for your community and the time and places we share together. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
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