I think it must have had to do with the way July 4th landed on the calendar. That's the holiday, fireworks show and the week in Maryland that happens every year between Regina's birthday and mine.
To celebrate her's, we went to the Biltmore in Ashville. That place is really amazing as well as the way the Vanderbilt's lived and how the mansion got built. This time we did a plantation tour which takes you off the beaten path to see some of the history and workings of the Estate. Of course, there's the afternoon visit to the winery and the food at their restaurants is fantastic.
Our annual trip to Maryland to visit our friends, Tom and Teresa, has become a tradition. This year, Brittany came from Texas to join us for a few days. As always, the shrimp, crab and lobster were to die for and we ate until we rolled back onto the plane. Tom and I started the week in his bilge replacing the water pump impeller on the generator. Here I discovered about the only thing easier to get to on my boat than his. What an exercise that was! Much of the rest of the week was spent playing on his dinghy and visiting marine stores to help me figure out what kind I will ultimately buy.
By the time that we had finished all of those activities, it was late July and we had missed over a month of boating on our Chattanooga lakes. So now we are trying to catch up on river fun. One weekend we went downtown for a River Front Nights concert, the next weekend was a big raft up with other Erwin Marina folks and then there was rain. I guess we could have gone and anchored out somewhere in the rain, but it's more fun when the sun is shining and you can play in the water. To make up for that, we went to the movies.
This weekend is forecast to be nice. A couple of my projects are getting close to being completed. There are only about two weeks left before we make the trip up river for football season! I have a spot in the marina where we stayed last year lined up. The Vols are predicted to be a much better team this year so that's very exciting. We're going to be back in the Vol Navy and hopefully celebrating some big wins!! GO BIG ORANGE. We'll be there soon.
