Vacation is Over

Well, we got back from vacation yesterday evening at about 9:30. After being on the road for a week and a half, it was nice to be back home. It also feels good to have time to get on the computer! We'd been keeping pretty busy on our road trip. I'm going to try to organize this by the places we stopped and their highlights, but it's probably going to be kind-of long.
1. Cincinnati, Ohio
The day we arrived, we went to the Cincinnati Zoo, which was a nice change for me from the Cleveland Zoo. The Cleveland Zoo is bigger, but there are pros and cons to both zoos (like sharks for the Cleveland and Manatees & Penguins for the Cincinnati).
The second day we went to the Creation museum, which is always incredible. They'd added a few very intricate exhibits to the area dedicated to Noah and the Flood since my first visit, which was a nice surprise. There was a speaker there whose presentation was called "Why Can't a Day Mean a Day?" Rosey didn't care for it (actually, I think she daydreamed through most of it) and my dad didn't even bother to go in with us, but it cleared up some things for me about Theistic Evolution vs. Six-Day Creationism. I took notes, of course, and I plan to go through them soon.
2. Gatlinburg, Tennessee
We technically stayed in Sevierville, but Gatlinburg was the intended destination. The entire area was the worst tourist trap I'd ever seen! All the factory outlet malls, restaurants (mostly pancake houses for some reason), hotels, Dolly Parton attractions, miniature golf courses, and trolleys quickly became overwhelming.
Our first night here, we took a suggestion from Rosey: blacklight mini golf. Rosey and I had done it before with our volleyball team (this was when I was still statiscian), but it a whole new experience for Mom and Dad and we all enjoyed it.
The second day we went to the place that was the whole reason we were there: Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. It had caught my attention when I was browsing through the internet because of their 13-foot sharks. I'm absolutely fascinated by sharks (if I didn't love books more, I would love to become a shark research biologist), so I wanted to go immediately. I was disappointed, though: the large sharks turned out to be only sand tigers (the shark which is most commonly kept in aquariums because of its placid nature), but the trip was still rewarding. I've got lots of pictures, so I'll try to post some.
Our third and final day there, we went to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We took a hike to see Laurel Falls (gorgeous: lots of pictures) and on the way back, we saw a black bear with three cubs! My dad was convinced Rosey and I were going to be eaten (even though the bear was 30 feet away and we had two park rangers with loaded guns with us), so we left before I got to get a very good picture.
3. Boone, North Carolina
We decided not to do anything too big our first day here, so just had some great seafood and Rosey went swimming. (She went swimming wherever there was a pool, and the only place there wasn't one was Cincinnati.) We stayed one night in a Holiday Inn and two in a Fairfield Inn here. (This'll come into play later.)
We spent the next day checking out the area, touring some of the attractions (including Grandfather Mountain and the Blowing Rock) and got lots of souvenirs and pictures. The driving was the only bad part: my dad went so fast through the windy roads that I lost any sense of equilibrium. At the Blowing Rock (named so because of the winds that blow vertically, causing snow and light objects to defy gravity), there was a very good Bluegrass band which enjoyed listening to. There other surprises here, such as a butterfly who held still for photo after photo and a blue-tailed salamander, that made it one of the most fun trips of the vacation.
That night, back at the new hotel, Rosey again decided to go swimming. Unlike the other hotels, this pool was indoor, and there was so much chlorine in it you could smell it from the lobby. My mom had to buy eyewash for Rosey because her eyes burned and watered so bad. Needless to say, she didn't swim there again.
The next day, we drove to Asheville intending to visit Biltmore Manor (the largest house in America...more like a castle, really), but found that it was too expensive and spent some time in the gift shop, instead. My dad bought Rosey and me each a beautiful music box for $75 each. I felt like it was a little too much, but they were so pretty I didn't protest being spoiled for very long.
4. Huntington, West Virginia
We stayed at my Uncle Kenny's house for two nights to visit my dad's family. It was great to see me second cousin Amanda, who's about my age, and her friend Lauren, who might as well be family. We didn't get to hang out like we did the last time I went down to West Virginia, but we did get to sit down and catch up. We also got to see my Uncle Buck, who has unfortunately been having some health issues, and who had a very large part in raising my dad.
On the way back home, we stopped to visit my Uncle Pete, who lives in Ravenswood, WV. My dad has a lot of siblings, but Uncle Pete is the only younger one still alive. You can tell they're my dad's brothers because they all have the same blue-gray eyes, as well as the same nose.

It was great to finally get back home after all that, but of course, there were surprises waiting. The first was that the kitchen faucet had been broken while we were away. By broken, I mean snapped completely off. My dad's fixing it right now, but it was certainly unexpected. The second was that Enoch had been relieving himself on my mom's towels. He's now permanently an outdoor cat because of that, but he seems to be doing alright. We've been giving him lots of love and attention, so he's getting along fine. And he grew so much! The third wasn't much compared to the other two: just a dead housefly on my bedroom floor that I looked at and thought "How did that happen?"
So that was it for my vacation. I have lots of things to catch up on around the house (it's actually taken me an hour and a half to write this because I have to keep getting up to do things) so I'll see most of you Sunday. God bless!
- Becca