Spring Break Pictures

Here are some of the pictures from spring break. I kept forgetting my camera(I’m used to having my purse all the time, so when I left my purse in the car so I didn’t have to lug it around, I forgot there are actually things I need in there.), so some of the good ones are on my mom’s camera. These pictures aren’t all I took, but they, to me, are the most interesting, prettiest or most unique. I hope you enjoy them.

This is actually an amazing picture when I consider that I was blinded by the sun when taking it. My eyes burned for an hour after this. I’ll also say that while I was taking this picture, some snobby local was making a snide comment about how ‘silly tourists were taking pictures of everything’. I will tell you that I was on vacation and I can take pictures of whatever I want. I will also advise that you do the same and if your that local then I will say that if you don’t like us annoying tourists then don’t go to tourist attractions.

I was still blinded, so this is a pretty good picture I think. This place was our first official stop on our tour. I laid down on a bench to get these pictures. It was kind of awkward, but I like the turnout.

I took this picture at the top. It was super foggy and amazing. That is of the baseball field (I’m not sure which one).

I am no way, shape or form a professional photographer. I’m pretty sure I’m not even good enough to be called a photography, however I do love to take pictures, good or not. I happen to love the sky line in this photo, but I took it people of all the people in what I think is the downtown. They look like ants; ants that are preparing for what I think is a 5k.

I love this picture too. And it seems the ants are doing their 5k.

Is is one of the last things we did, so I’m not sure how it ended up in this order, but oh well. The Rocky Mountains are my favorite mountains by far, but these are pretty amazing too.

Nature is so amazing isn’t it?

This was at Clingman’s Dome in North Carolina which is the highest peak. It was pretty amazing.

I could go on and on about how much I love the mountains, but I think it would get annoying, so I’m just going to sit here quietly.

This was taken from the aerial tram that my dad and I went on. It took us to the top of one of the Smoky Mountain peaks. It was a mall with an ice skating rink, a petting zoo, some shops and restaurants. It was pretty cool.

This is at the highest point on the aerial tram. That is Gatlinburg. Have I mentioned how much I love the mountains?

This is a picture of a cute little penguin. I had to take 500 of these pictures just to get this decent one. Those things are fast. I hope that lady in the reflection doesn’t mind being on this blog.

These are shark eggs. The tank was dark and only the eggs were lit up. It was hard to get a decent picture, but I still thought they were nifty.

This was an octopus. It was hiding, so I didn’t get a good picture of it either. Although I find octopi and squid somewhat scary, I would have loved to see it.

The same octopus.

Jelly fish. I think jelly fish are amazing.

This is a lionfish. It’s poison is delivered through it’s 18 dorsal fins.

This is a sawfish. It was rather large and there was a lot of them. I was rather surprised that they didn’t eat each other.

Yellowtail Snapper. They eat plankton, shrimp, crab constantly. I think they’re cute.

This is a leafy sea dragon. These are super cool. They just float around. Not swimming, they hardly move, they just floating. Just like sea horses, the males carry the babies.

These are Spotted Garden Eels. The tips of their tail are pointed, so they can burrow holes. They just move up and down, but they never really leave their hole.

Cheetahs! I love small cats and I love large cats. These cats remind me of Cheerio. He’s shaped just like them and I’m sure he could beat them in a race. But I think he’s better because I know he won’t eat me. These sure are pretty though.

Penguins! This photo shoot when a lot better than the last one. They posed and everything.

An electric eel. They had a speaker set up above the tank and you could hear the electricity. It was awesome.

This is a Komodo Dragon. These things are ancient. I did a report on these once and the fantasy dragons could have been inspired by these dragons.

This is a Philippine Sailfin Dragon. If they weren’t living a zoo they would be living in a tropical forest. Their species is being threatened by habitat destruction. I thought it was cute eating it’s little vegetation.

This is a Reticulated Python. The word ‘reticulatus’ means ‘net like’ and refers to it’s patterns. I love snakes. I love holding them. There’s nothing else like it. I would have a non-threatening (not one that would suffocate me and a non-poisonous. I think they’re awesome, but I also respect them and think they’re better off in the wild.) one if it didn’t mean I would be homeless.

This is a crocodile monitor. This guy kind of caught me off guard. He was kind of gross, but equally cool. As a general rule, I love reptiles, but I don’t I’ve ever seen one like this. I sure would hate to wake up and find it in my bed.

This is a hippopotamus. I’m not going to lie, I thought it was adorable, but again I would hate to wake up and find it in my bed. Mostly because I have a rather small bed and that would mean that it was squashing me…to death…but still.

The hippopotamus before it got into the water. I tried to get it before, but it went to fast. I think it was shy. These things can be up to 5,000 to 8,000 pounds. Hippopotamus is greek for ‘river horse.’

This is a cute little panda. It was chomping on some bamboo. It was adorable, I must admit. Gosh, it was just so darn cute.

This is a giraffe. He was just sitting, posing for me. This is my mom’s favorite animal. They have a 21 inch long tongue.

The bald eagle. Eagles are my favorite animals besides turtles and when I say turtles I mean tortoises, sea turtles, and just all kinds of turtles. It was on the Endangered Species list until 2007, but it is still protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

These are orangutans. I never knew it, but they have the weirdest eyes. They are like an orangish-brown and they’re is something quite striking about them. It’s hard to explain, but a neat little experience.

Unfortunately my camera started to die at the zoo, so it missed the rest of the animals. What kind of idiot doesn’t charge their camera before going to the zoo? Well, I don’t. I didn’t bring my charger either. The battery gained enough energy to take these last two pictures. This is graceland. This picture doesn’t do justice because this is just a small fraction of everything on the property, but here is a taste anyways. His house was pretty cool.

This is a picture of his piano and living room (I think). Elvis sounds like a really nice guy and learning all about him was an experience I didn’t think I’d really appreciate, but I’m glad we went.

Spring Break 2012 Part 3

(Some people have been saying that they get a 500 web server error. If you could leave a comment below if you’ve had this problem and tell me when and where it happens that would be very helpful. Thanks.)

So it’s back to reality. It’s Monday which sucks, but there are worse things…like being hit by a truck. I’m kidding, Monday is definitely worse than that. Okay, that’s a lie. Monday’s aren’t so bad unless you have to go to school. The good thing is I’m inspired. Inspired to make some serious changes in this town and motivated to get the ball rolling. How I’m going to do it, I have no idea, but I know that I’m going to. The bad news is that I’m afraid of failure and that has always kept me back from doing the things I really want to. I’m going to try to just plow right on through, but who knows what will become of it. I’ve got some pretty exciting things coming up in my life and the fact that spring break is over just means that I’m that much closer, so I at least have that to be happy about.

The other bad news, at least for animal haters who visit my blog, is that I visited a zoo. It would seem that every once in a while when I get to go to some kind of zoo I get super excited. It’s like a kid in a candy store and it’s quite annoying to those around me. I don’t know why I love animals so much, but I just do. As a result, I’m quite inspired by the animals and after I get some research done then I will be posting several animal related posts in a row. For some, my over zealousness may be annoying and for that I apologize. If I could control it I would, but I just can’t. Anyways, on to my last update on what I did for spring break.

On Friday we went to the Memphis Zoo. It was pretty cool, but I think it will probably be my last zoo. I always feel bad to see to all the animals in cages and whatnot, but I seem to be addicted to the animals. Before now I have always just ignored that voice in my head, but I’m listening to it about other things, so I might as well listen to about this too. For every trash can that was placed throughout the zoo there was a recycling can right beside it. That was actually the first place that I saw so many in one place. I was very happy to see them.

On Saturday we went to Graceland, Elvis’ mansion, and it was quite amazing. When I was younger my friend and used to be neighbor were huge fans of Elvis. At her house, I watched one of the movies that he was in and to be he seemed annoying. I can’t quite put a finger on why, but he just seemed too gregarious or portentous or something. Unlike what seems to be the majority of the female population, I don’t think he’s that cute either. I remember his hair being a reason for thinking that. I just didn’t get him or his songs. But then I went to his house and I listened to this little audio thing which told a lot about him and the house and my opinion of him was totally changed. He was only 22 when he got his break, but he had promised his parents that he would work to make his family’s life comfortable. He lived with his parents and grandparents (I think) in Graceland. He’s sold more records that anyone else ever and he wasn’t greedy with that money. He gave it to lots of different people who needed and charities. He bought cars for his friends and family. He was so generous and that made him so much more appealing. I heard him talk on the audio and it was such a relaxed and just such a kind voice. The second I heard his voice I already liked him a little more. You hear it the songs of course, but this was different. I always thought it was probably just a party boy like the celebrities today, but he really wasn’t. His music was good and although it’s not my favorite kind of music, it definitely beats most of the stuff made today. He was also his own producer. I really like that. He knew what he believed in and he wouldn’t let anyone tell him what to sound like. Later in life he dealt with stress and as a result, had some heart problems and he died from an overdose on prescription drugs. He was such a good guy it seemed and it’s a shame he had to die so suddenly. It’s safe to say that I have a lot more respect for him.

We also went to a civil rights museum. It was cool. Every time I had to do a research paper in middle school, I always chose to do it over Martin Luther King. He was such an inspirational guy and I really appreciated the way he saw the situation. He wanted change no doubt, but he was willing to wait for people for people to accept it instead of having to force it. He only wanted to peace, not acceptance through force. I also love that he figured out a way to stand up for what he believed in without doing it violently. No matter what white people did to him, he held his ground and he did it with grace. He was very wise and I wish that more people would take that approach when trying to change what they don’t like. He is still one of my role models and will continue to be probably until I die. He too had a very sad death. It really was a shame. Overall, I’ve had an amazing vacation and I’m sad that it’s over, but it is time for me to get to work.

Spring Break 2012 Part 2

I’m so sore, like I knew I would be. The thing about being sore is that once you are then if you keep being active it just gets worse until you finally let your muscles heal. That is what I’ll be doing today during the car ride Memphis.

Although I’m super-duper tired and sore I had an awesome day yesterday.

First I went horseback riding (Which is one of the major reasons I’m aching. I felt decent until I did that.) It was awesome and worth the pain. I rode a horse called Mr. California; he was a good horse. I rode with a family of four, a little girl, a mom, and another younger girl who rode with her dad.  I rode in the back and pretty much let my horse meander along. I don’t expect much from animals as long as they don’t try to kill me or destroy my belongings or in the horse’s case just get me left behind then I pretty much let them be. The dad in the group was a nice guy who had ridden horses before or does on a regular basis, but the other three, not so much. The older girl did well, the younger girl cried almost the whole way and the mom was just an idiot.

When we were sitting on our horses still in the stable, waiting for the rest of our group to be ready to go, she turned to me and said, “I used to like horses until I saw all of their bodily functions.”

She was already acting a little grossed out, so I knew she was going to be annoying, but then that just made me mad. They are living, breathing beings, so yeah they’re going to have ‘bodily functions’ unless they’re dead which means they would be living or breathing anyways. I hate when people act like that, like animals don’t have rights to just simply exist. I think Mr. California was tired of listening to her too because he just turned us away from her. I tried to block her out.

On the trail, I was in the back so I just let my horse meander. He knew what he was doing and I had no clue, so who am I to tell him what to do. The mom was right in front of me, so I heard every complaint. Animals to me are not property and they are not my slave. As long as my cats aren’t tearing things up, I let them do just about whatever. I don’t yell at them if they’re crying to loud or for cleaning themselves because I realize that’s what animals do. If I don’t like then I would get rid of them, simple as that. Anytime her horse would slow down she would yell at it or say something mean about it. My horse only slowed down on an even spot or on a rough hill. I would feel it slip and I would just pat it and tell it good job. It wasn’t its fault that it slipped, I’m sure he was doing the best he could while carrying such a heavy load on its back. I don’t know why she was being such a jerk. When the little girl started crying, Mr. California slowed down a little and I let him. I didn’t want to listen to her either. She was crying because she wanted ice cream for goodness sakes. After a while I felt we were falling a little too far behind, and since I don’t even like to do the little side kick and so I just told him to come on and he did. He was smart.

I guess I’m sounding a bit harsh, but I hate how people treat animals sometimes and I may be a bit hypocritical because I was also an idiot I’m sure.

I knew that probably hundreds of idiots rode him every day and I didn’t want to be like that, but seeing as I know nothing about riding, I’m sure I was doing something wrong. My feet kept slipping out of stirrups, so I had to fidget to get them straight and I’m sure I was not balanced either. I did my share of idiotic things, so the least I could do was try to be nice. I hope he understood.

It was a good ride for me all things considered, although less so for Mr. California I’m sure.

After that we went to Ripley’s Aquarium which was wicked awesome. I’ll post pictures of this too. There was a bunch of kid views that I kept getting in which was stupid because they were small and I had lay down on the floor to scootch in there. Some people were looking at me like I was an idiot, but I didn’t care. I never got to go places like that when I was kid, so I’m making for lost time. I’ve said before that I love water, but I also love fish. Sea World in Orlando was the only place I’ve been to, aquarium wise, that was better than this. You can’t really beat Sea World though. I mean it has dancing killer whales for goodness sakes.

We ate at the Hard Rock café which was fun.  The one in Gatlinburg is the only one that you can get married in. It was pretty cool. A lot of outgoing people work there. Then we went the Guinness World Record Museum. I love the book, but the museum not much. It was kind of lame and I was overwhelmed by the number of things I had to read in the short amount of time I had. I think I’ll stick with the book.

My dad and I rode the aerial tram. It took us up to a little mall thing with an ice skating rink. It was cool, but on the internet it said that it was a ski-lift that just took you back around. It was a nice surprise, but we didn’t know any of it was there, so we didn’t have time to do it. Ice skating freaks me out anyways. I also envision myself falling and then cutting my leg or something off with my skates.

My mom had stayed in the car (she doesn’t like heights) and she found that we were only 30 miles or so away from North Carolina and a place called Clingman’s Dome which is the highest part of the Smoky  Mountains. It was beautiful view (pictures coming later). I love, love, love the mountains. My mom says that if you ever stay in Tennessee stay on the Tenison side rather than the Gatlinburg side. She said its way prettier.

Then we went to get some ice cream and came back to the cabin to eat dinner. Ice cream before dinner; such healthy choices we make on vacation.

Spring Break 2012

This break is very refreshing to me. Right now I’m sitting outside watching the sunrise and I can see the mountains. There is a cool breeze and everything is quiet.

I’m in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and in my view is the Smokey Mountains. Mountains and waterfalls are my favorite things in the world and I can find both right here.

My vacation started out on the road to West Virginia. We stopped and stayed in St. Louis, Missouri on our way there. I got to go to the top of the arch. It was a rather neat sight. I saw 100’s of 5kers preparing and running their race in the downtown area and I saw other things from 630 feet high. I’m obviously not afraid of heights.

To get to the top we had to ride in these three feet wide car and there was five us in there. According to the nerd riding with me and my dad on the way down the ride was exactly three minutes and ten seconds. They had it pretty cool in there which taught me that I don’t necessarily panic in tight spaces because I’m claustrophobic, but because I can’t stand to be too hot. One usually goes in hand with the other. I still know that I’m claustrophobic because I got that way in the car, but it’s good to know that if I can just keep myself cool then I can do other things that I have wanted to do even though they were in such small spaces.

Then we traveled on to West Virginia where we saw my mom’s best friend from high school and her husband. Her friend lives in a tiny town with only around 1,000 people and guess what? They have a recycling center. My town has 70,000 or so people and it has almost the same things as them. The closest town to them has 60,000 people, but it just had such a variety of stuff to do. It was the town that I always had dreamed of living in. Small, almost traffic less, but still had something to DO. It was a cool place. Very pretty too even if the trees hadn’t gotten their leaves or anything yet. It would probably be amazing later on.

We went to the State Capitol and looked around. It had a gold dome, fancy right? We went to the senate and representative chamber which was neat. We were the only tourist type people there. All these people with fancy, nice suits and shoes, the women in ridiculously uncomfortable clothes and shoes, and I was walking around in a t-shirt with my shoes untied. I’m sure they were jealous.

Then we went bowling. I haven’t bowled in years and last time I bowled I wasn’t that good. Maybe a 60 or 70 on average. The two people we went with boasted of their awesome skills, but my dad ended up winning the first game and I, the second with a score of 113. The husband was pretty upset; I guess he’s pretty competitive. He was determined to beat me at tennis, but we didn’t end up having time to play. Too bad. I love tennis even though I’m terrible and I would have liked for him to have some of his pride back.

While we were there we ate at ‘Hillbilly Hotdogs’ as featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the food network. That place was intense. It was really overdone with hillbilly type decorations, but I guess I had a sense of humor for since I come from a hillbillied type town. I was apprehensive at first, but the food was good. We ate in a bus that was connected to the restaurant. How’s that for upcycling?

Then we made our way to Tennessee. We’re now in a cabin, a really nice cabin with everything a girl could want including the mountains. Yesterday we went to a couple of waterfalls we had to hike to. The first one we hike 1.3 miles to get to and it was all up-hill. With the steepness of the hike and the high altitude I thought I might die when we first started, but it really wasn’t too bad. I’ve been trying to get into better shape for a while and everything seems just as hard as it did when I first started, but I guess I may doing better than I thought.  Despite the steepness, my breathing never got super heavy and my legs never really started burning. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t very hard either. It was just perfect. And the weather was good to. I’ve complained about hating the heat (just wait until the summer, I’ll never shut up about it) and although winter would have been an awesome time to come, it really wasn’t that bad.

The next fall was only a .3 mile walk, so it was more a meander than anything. It was a cute little fall. My legs are getting a little sore and I can tell that I’ll be hurting in the morning. It wouldn’t be much of an issue, but this cabin has two floors and my room is on the top.

I’m obsessed with mountains and waterfalls and rivers and streams. Flowing water is just very relaxing for me. I thought for a moment that maybe I had been a trout or fish of some kind in one of my former lives and maybe I did something wrong, so I had to be demoted to a human, but that only explains why I like flowing water and contradicts everything else that I like, such as cats. I wish I could have seen more, but they were so far away and it takes too long. It was nice to see just the two.

That’s it so far. I’ll try to upload some pictures when I get home.My favorite part about vacation is getting to see all the different places. It’s nice to remember that there places outside of where I live and that no every place feels so dead. It’s good to be reminded that people are different and somewhere there’s actually a person or two that care about the environment  or wants to better themselves. I’m really loving this vacation.