Life List for Traveling

Some people have a bucket list. I prefer to have a life list...things I want to do over the next few years. I've been adding things to a list for a little while and crossing things off when I've accomplished them. One of the themes that stands out the most is travel.

So, here's my life list for traveling:

1. Visit all 50 United States.

I'm a little less than halfway there!

2. Take an Alaskan cruise.

Marc has been to Alaska, and after 

seeing his pictures, I want to go to!

3. Take a cruise on all four Disney ships.

We've already sailed on the Wonder.

4. See the Grand Canyon.

The immensity alone would be worth it.

5. See the fall leaves in Maine.

I've been in New England during the fall, 

and the leaves are stunning!

6. Go to Disneyland/California Adventure.

To see where it all began.

7. Drive Route 1 from Florida to Maine.

We've driven parts of it here and there,

and there's no better way to see the East coast.

8. Visit the Neuschwanstein Castle.

It was the inspiration for Sleeping 

Beauty's castle in Disneyland.

9. Visit 10 different countries.

(Two down, eight to go!)

10. Visit six continents.

(Sorry Antarctica, but I'll have to take a pass on you!)

Happy Anniversary!

to the Most Magical Place on Earth!

Thank you for all the wonderful memories!

A Day at the Tennessee Aquarium

This has been an awesome week! Marc had another day of no school and no studying, so we decided to take advantage of it and get away for the day. We tried to look for something to do inside, another heat wave heading our way. We decided to go to Chattanooga...quick ride and lots to do!

We started off with lunch at one of my favorite sub shops in Chattanooga, Ankar's Hoagies. They recently opened one a couple of blocks from the aquarium, so it worked out perfectly! After our quick lunch, we walked back down to pick up our tickets.

We started off with the River Journey building. We went to the seahorse exhibit first and checked out all the beautiful coral.

Coral

Little Seahorse

This guy was attached to the side of the tank. (Patrick!!!)

More colorful coral

Next we went to the Delta Swamp area of the aquarium. 


They had lots of interesting and colorful fish.


This little guy was swimming all over the place. He was moving so quickly, most of the pictures I took of him came out blurry.


These alligators were so still that several kids made comments that they must've been plastic. You had to look really closely to see them breathing. I didn't take a picture of it, but there was a sign above them that said not to life children over the side of the case. What makes me thing some idiot tried to do just that?

Turtles, turtles, and more turtles!

After leaving River Journey, we went right over to Ocean Journey. It was starting to sprinkle a little bit, and we didn't want to get wet.

Leopard Stingrays

Hyacinth Macaws

When we went to the stingray petting area, the lady that was leading it gave me a raw shrimp to feed to the stingrays. She showed me how to place it between my fingers and told me to put it pretty deep in the water. While I was waiting for the stingrays to come back around, one of the sharks stopped right in front of my hand and watched pretty hard. I didn't know it was a shark, so I kept my hand in the water. About that time, the lady told me to take my hand out of the water because the shark would bite it. Eeek! I tossed the shrimp back into the water and made my way to the butterfly garden. That was enough for me!

Nice stingray...NOT a shark!

The butterfly garden was pretty boring. We've been before when it was covered with butterflies, but most of them were at the top of the dome this time. We've had better luck with them in the Spring, so maybe it was too hot for them.

Next up was Penguin Rock. Marc loves penguins, and he would've been perfectly happy to stay there all day. They were very cool to watch.

Penguin Rock

Getting ready to dive into the water!

Posing for the cameras

Then we went over to the jellyfish exhibit.

Upside Down Jellyfish

More jellyfish...

After the aquarium, we went to the Rib and Loin, our favorite Chattanooga barbeque restaurant. I got a pulled pork plate, and Marc got ribs. It was great, as always!

After our little getaway, we decided it was time to head back home. We were tired, and it was getting close to eviction night on Big Brother! (Priorities!)

Dinner and a Movie

Marc (finally!!!) had a day off from school and studying yesterday, so we went to a movie. We saw Bad Teacher. It was hilarious, but I think you'd have to be a teacher or work with kids to get a lot of the humor. We were the only ones in the theater, so we were able to laugh out loud at all of the inappropriate scenes.

After the movie, we decided to try the Mellow Mushroom. It opened a few days ago, and it's been packed ever since. We timed it just right, and we were able to walk right in and grab a table.


We decided to try a few things from the menu. We started off with the butter and salt pretzels because everyone kept telling us how great they were. They were right! They were sooo good! They were crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. Perfect!

We also ordered two different hoagies and a small cheese pizza. The sandwiches were good, but not great. They were supposed to be served hot, but they were barely warm by the time they got to the table. I only tried the crust of the pizza, because I was stuffed. Marc really liked it, though. He said the crust could've been a little thinner. It also had A LOT of cheese on it. Marc didn't mind, but I would definitely have to ordered it with less cheese.

Overall, I didn't see what all the fuss was about. We'll probably give them a few weeks to work out the kinks, and then we'll give it another try.

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

The weather has been wonderful for the past few days so Marc and I decided to go to Nashville to check out their zoo. We'd heard great things about it from friends. It's kind of set up like the animal trails at Disney's Animal Kingdom, which was neat. We were able to get our AK fix!

It starts off with a jungle-themed area.

Blue Macaws

Then you move into the historical area of the zoo. The land used for the zoo was once a working farm, and the family donated the land. The original house, outhouse, cemetery, barns, etx. are still on display. There is also a beautiful carousel around the corner.

Marc and the Meerkats

There is also an aviary section called Lorikeet Landing. The lorikeets loved Marc! I have to admit, the area was a little creepy to me, because the birds would fly up to you and land. Eeek! Not having any of that!



The next area is the savannah. They have several elephants and giraffes, as well as zebras and meerkats. (I can't remember the other animals on display, but there were a few more.)




They also have a petting zoo that had donkeys, goats, cows, and a camel to name a few. This little guy (or girl?) was so tiny.


The zoo is on the smallish side, but the animals seemed very happy. I took a lot of pictures, but next time, I'll definitely bring my zoom lens. (Didn't want to schlep it around all day...)

We also went ahead and bought a membership, because they gave a great educators' discount. It pretty much paid for itself, and we can get discounted or free admission to lots of zoos and aquariums in places we often visit.

Can't wait to go back!

The View from the Top

Okay, so one of the main reasons that Marc wanted to stay at Bay Lake Tower was that we'd be able to see the fireworks from there. You can only access the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower if you're a DVC member staying there on points. Lucky for us, we met both requirements!

We went to the lounge a little early to have a few drinks and take some pictures. The view was amazing! You could see Magic Kingdom, the Grand Floridian, the Polynesian, the Wilderness Lodge, etc. The sky wasn't very clear that night due to brush fires, but we were still impressed with the view.

Magic Kingdom

The Grand Floridian

Cinderella Castle, Astro Orbiter, 

and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Space Mountain

Ferry boat on its way to Magic Kingdom

Red monorail on its way to the 

Contemporary Resort

Bay Lake view from the lounge

The lounge had a lot of little sitting areas. It was early, so we were the only ones inside the lounge at this point.

I got a Pom-Power Mojito. It was the first time I'd ever had a mojito, and it was very (VERY!) strong!

Seeing the fireworks from the lounge was so exciting! They pipe in the music that's played in the park so it was just like we were there. Of course, I cried during Wishes like I always do. Sniff, sniff...

Unfortunately, I didn't get many great pictures of the fireworks. I didn't bring my image stabilization zoom lens with me. (Stupid, stupid, stupid!) Oh well, there's always next time. And there WILL be a next time. We loved our stay at Bay Lake Tower!