vacation- the end

I'm so ready to move on to other things so I'm blasting through the end of my vacation tale.

After our fall Tuesday and resting up we headed out to Mellow Mushroom for some seriously delicious pizza. And we got to meet our friend Wendy! Which was even more awesome than the pizza. (Mary will probably tell you that I thought the waiter was a cutie, which is true, but he was a horrible waiter. Being cute does not excuse poor service!) We closed the place down and they had to kick us out. Afterwards we just went back to the hotel and stayed up late gossiping.

Wednesday: A very full day. We (hold on... what did we do all day?) slept in a bit. Went to Smoky Mountain Brewery for lunch. Good burger- and the cook actually cooked it medium- but their BBQ sauce was GROSS! Glad I got it on the side. Afterwards we went to the Titanic exhibit. It's So. Freakin. Cool. You can actually touch water that is the same temp as the water the passengers went into. (It burns, it's so cold.) And we got to see the grand staircase- the one that Jack and Rose meet on at the end of the movie. We got our picture taken standing in front of it. (Ok, so we were really standing in front of a blue screen- the picture still looks awesome.) After all that walking I needed to relax so when we got back to the hotel we went swimming. Well, Mary and I did. Meg was worried about the water stinging her wounds- and it probably would have. I was mostly bruised but the few "road rashes" I had definitely did not like the chlorine. Especially in the hot tub. After getting back to the room Mary teased me that I didn't realize some guys were showing off for us. What can I say, I was all about just enjoying the water. (Being in a pool is like being weightless... and there's no real need for good balance when you're floating. I even "dance" when I'm in the pool. Ballet is my specialty but I can bust some other moves, too.) For our last night we got all spruced up and headed out for some Asian Fusion for dinner. I had Japanese. It was pretty good, a little salty. (Which is saying a lot since I generally snack on salty type foods like chips, pretzels and nuts.) Then we went for the highlight food of the trip- FUNNELCAKE! Oh, nom nom nom nom. It was made fresh (of course) and so gooooood. Next door was an old fashioned photography place so after we finished our snack we got our picture taken as true southern bells. Turned out better than I thought. We be some beautiful chicks. Another late night gossiping. Our last night. :(

Thursday: Up early for our last free breakfast at the hotel. Then loaded up the cars and said our goodbyes to Mary. Megan and I had one last thing to do. We never really gave up on our dream to see the parrots at Parrot Mountain. It's a rescue and rehabilitation place, which fits right in with Meg's philosophy. Me, I just really wanted to see and feed and pet some pretty birds. Plus, I had something to prove. That mountain did not defeat me! So, we headed back to the place of what is probably the scariest fall I've ever had. And it was every bit as scary as I remembered. But there was no way I was letting Meg brave it alone. We had some nice strangers let the employees know that we needed a ride up from the parking lot. When we got to the top of the ramp and got out I realized that the whole place was slopes like the parking lot, with a few flat places in betwen. Worried that I would again ruin the day for Megan I told the driver that I would need him to take me back down and he said the most magical words: "I can take you on a tour in the golf cart." Yes, yes, let's do that. :) We paid up and got settled in and off we went. Some of those hills were even scary in the golf cart. New appreciation for just how bad my balance really is. We got to stop for as long as we wanted at every habitat (cage just sounds so... prison-like). And the ground was flat enough that we were able to get out and feed some little birdies (Meg knows what kind they were- I just thought they were adorable). While I was feeding one, another apparently decided my head was a good place to nest or something. I didn't see it but I sure felt it. (Really wish we had gotten video or a picture of that.) The end of the tour was at the nursery (I think) where there were lots of birds being helped to... (do something I'm not sure about, heal?) But they were not flying around and they weren't tied down or caged so they must have been recovering from something. We were allowed to pet them at our own risk and boy were they quick to snap. I didn't stay long; the gift shop was calling my name. :) I wandered around a bit and ended up getting the boys some "happy birds" t-shirts. Then, while Megan went back out to spend more time with some of the birds, I ate lunch ( a really good hamburger) and rested my leg. Finally, one of the high points of the trip for sure, Meg and I got our picture taken with real parrots! The one sitting on my shoulder would NOT sit still. It kept doing its little parrot dance (you know what I mean, bobbing back and forth.) At least it didn't try to next in my hair; it was quite a bit bigger than the other one. After we were done visiting the birds we got a ride back down to our cars and said our final goodbyes. (There was an incident in the parking lot involving a total bitch but that's a story for another time.) The only thing left was the drive home. And all I can say about that is it was very long and I used my cruise control A LOT.  And it was very late FRIDAY night before I finally made it.

So, the first girl's week was a complete and total success in my opinion. Because even though my vacation tried to kill me, I had a blast and made it home in one piece.