Life after Potter!

All right, I know that a reading a book is not that good of an excuse for not posting, but I really was trying to finish before I heard details about the book that would ruin the ending for me. Suprisingly, I accomplished this and thoroughly enjoyed the book. I would recommend it to anyone that has had any interest in the Harry Potter series at all. Now on with the update!

Stone Mountain

As Pfizer was providing us with free all day passes to Stone Mountain Park in Georgia, we decided to head out after lunch to the park. Well, it was a good idea in theory, but ended up to be somewhat of a disappointment. Besides being a very hot day, the park was extremely crowded (we overheard a couple of the employees saying that it was busier than July 4th, which is one of their busiest days of the year). We would wait in line for an attraction, get hot and decide to ditch the line and find something else. We did that about 3 times before seeing nothing and finally giving up. Early in the evening, Pfizer provided dinner and games. That part of the experience was much more enjoyable. The girls had a lot of fun participating in the hula-hoop contest, the dance contest, relay races, and tug-o-war. We all left with temporary tatoos and before finding our seats for the laser show, we decided to take a ride on the skylift. As it had started to cool down a bit, we actually managed the 30 minute wait in line and made it to the top. The kids enjoyed the ride and the view from the top was pretty cool. After heading back down the mountain, we claimed our seats for the laser show and hung out enjoying the opportunity to sit in the cooling weather. We set up a little tent for the girls which kept them more than occupied and once it began to get dark we pulled out the glow-in-the dark bracelets and necklaces. The girls loved the laser show...Trey finally gave up and fell asleep just as the show was starting. We had a great time and I am sure as long as we live this close to the park, it won't be our last trip there.

St. Thomas

Sunday, Jeff and I left for St. Thomas. The kids were fortunate enough to get to stay with their Grandma and Grandpa Griffeth and Aunt Alyssa and Uncle Grant. The kids had a great time and enjoyed being spoiled with attention! I know that I had a harder time being away from them, then they did being away from me! I think about 4 days is my maximum when it comes from being away from my kids. I miss them too much! Jeff and I had a great time on our much needed vacation and did a lot of fun things. I will summarize our activities by day.



Monday
Jeff and I got the day started pretty early despite getting in pretty late the night before. We arrived in St. Thomas to rain and a beat up rental car. Everytime we went over a bump the car would make a horrible scraping noise. We decided to see if we could exchange cars and fortunately were given a better option. Most of the rental cars have damage of some sort and after driving there for a couple of days you can quickly realize why. First, they drive on the left side of the road. Second, the roads are extremely narrow, filled with potholes and the terrain is extremely hilly. I am pleased to report that Jeff and I survived the crazy driving and enjoyed the freedom that having a car afforded us. Monday was our day to explore St. Thomas. We went first to Coki Bay. We were some of the first people on the beach, so we dove in right away to check out the snorkeling. It was awesome...probably the best snorkeling we had on St. Thomas! There were tons of fish and the terrain wasn't that bad. We enjoyed Coki Beach for a couple of hours and left just as it became busy. After Coki Beach we headed to Magens Bay. Supposedly one of the highlights of St. Thomas, we found the bay beatiful and big, but the snorkeling very disappointing. After seeing very few fish, we decided to head out and make the trek to the highest point on St. Thomas...Mountain Top. After an interesting car ride on windy and steep road, we made it to the top of St. Thomas. The view was amazing. Besides the view, we also enjoyed a world famous virgin banana daquiri. It was pretty good and very refreshing on a hot day. After cramming in all of the sightseeing we could in a short amount of time, we headed back to our room to prepare for our dinner sail. We boarded a sail boat with about 20 other people and enjoyed a short ride to a quiet bay looking out at St. Thomas. We had crab legs, mahi-mahi, chicken, rolls, fruit, salads, and dessert while we watched the sunset over St. Thomas. Very nice and relaxing! It was a great end to a great first day of vacation.

Tuesday
Tuesday was deemed our day to go to St. Johns. We took a car ferry over so that we would have transportation when we got there and while we were there we went to four different beaches. Our favorite as far as snorkeling was Caneel Bay, which was a surpise because it was not one of the noted beaches. We also explored Cinnamon, Trunk, and Hawks Nests. It was a very enjoyable day. Towards the end I was getting tired of snorkeling, so I just sat on the beach at the last couple of place we visited. Jeff couldn't seem to get enough snorkeling. After a full day on St. Johns, we took the car ferry back to St. Thomas and enjoyed a gourmet meal at a restaurant called Havana Blue. The portions were small, but the atmosphere was pretty cool!

Wednesday
Wednesday was supposed to be our day to go on a daysail to the British Virgin Islands. We woke up early and headed out to meet at the appointed location. After waiting about 30 minutes and seeing no crew or additional passengers we had the feeling that the sail may have been cancelled without us knowing. After a call to the charter office, we did find out that the charter had been cancelled because too few people had signed up. We were a bit upset because had we have known this we would have booked with a different company. Now faced with a day with nothing planned, we spent most of the day at the hotel hanging out at the beach and the pool. Definitely not what we had planned, but still an enjoyable day nonetheless. It was definitely a lot more relaxing than what we had originally planned.

Thursday
After a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, we decided to spend our time before our departure doing some last minute shopping. In downtown St. Thomas, they did have quite a few shops, but most of it was the same stuff at all of the places. We spent a couple of hours shopping then headed to the airport. Our return home went all right except that we were delayed leaving Miami a couple of hours because of a problem with the plane and didn't get into Atlanta until 2:00 a.m.

Overall, we had a great time and would definitely go back to St. Thomas. Sorry it has taken me so long to post. We have had a busy week trying to enjoy Bayley's last week before she starts school. Her teacher's name this year is Mrs. Reid and we are so excited that she got the teacher she did. We know that she is going to have a great year. Rick and Nancy are here this weekend. The kids love company! We will be headed to Grandma and Grandpa Griffeth's for a couple of days next week while our hardwood floors are refinished...the movers put a large scratch in them when we moved in and we are finally getting them fixed. I will post more pictures soon!