Thanksgiving road trip ~ Part 2

We stopped in ElizabethTown, KY the previous night because I wanted to be sure we didn't miss this! There's an outdoor exhibit of the Forest Giants in the Bernheim Arboretum.  It's like this place doesn't even exist on the map!  There was no signage whatsoever, not even when we got close to the exit!  

Well, here we are!   

Photo op before we go see the Forest Giants!  Graham was being annoyed because it was a bit early for photos.  Teenagers, I tell you!

Charlie contemplating an art piece :-)

There it is, our first Forest Giant across the lake!

This one is named Little Nis:

OMG, it's amazing!

Here's us close-up for scale.  Little Nis is so neat!

One more with Charlie :-)

Check out this tree trunk.  I'm guessing those are from the beavers. Yikes!

I'm so glad the boys are enjoying it so far!  

We're only suppose to spend a short time here, but now we might as well see some other things around the arboretum.  This place must look so pretty during the Fall during the change of season:

We park to go see the Canopy Walk.  What's up with Graham and the stick! And of course, still with the sling on his other arm:

Okay, here we go!

For some reason, I assumed the "walk" would be across/above the trees.  Well, it was - but only to a certain extent:

Onwards to see the Heart of the Forest:

Wow, Tin Man is pretty impressive!

Family we-fie!

Quite the scale, as you can see!

Okay, going to find the other two Forest Giants now.  

Cheeky Charlie!

Here's Mama Giant! Just lounging... like me. LOL!

Check out her hair behind the tree.  Talk about details!

Charlie is quite the "King" of the Forest here :-)

Fun spot for the kids here. I think Graham and Charlie have both outgrown it now:

We've decided to go find the baby, Little Elina.  A bit more of a walk than I anticipated - especially when we still have quite the drive home:

Random art work - pretty cool bat!

Swamp area? This was rather surprising!

You can help them take a photo and it gets posted to a time-lapse:

Here it is: Time lapse BFA-101

It was quite funny how some people did it the opposite direction and they themselves ended up in the time lapse. Ha ha!

We finally got to Little Elina - and it's not very little!

The smallest of the Forest Giants but still quite large in comparison. Do you see Graham?

I tried to get a better photo of the rock formation but couldn't.  Graham actually had his drone and he said it was a big leaf. Come to think of it, he still owes me a photo of it!

Attempting to take a family photo with the timer.  Oops, too late - I'm moving too slow.  LOL!! 😁

There, that's better!

The one other reason to visit this Arboretum was to take some family photos for our Christmas/Holiday card.  I think I accomplished that today. Yay!!

Glad Graham's drone didn't fly away:

We grabbed a quick lunch, bought a few more snacks, and hit the road.  It was probably a good thing we spent a few more hours down south.  The roads were thankfully clean up just a bit more after Saturday's heavy snowfall!

7 hours later (including a slight detour due to traffic), we finally made it home. And boy, did we get some snow!

And I mean a LOT of snow!!  I think it was at least 10"!!

Some shoveling before we get inside. Good thing the boys are older now :-)

Here's what came through on Saturday. Thankfully we didn't have to drive in any of that coming home: 

I love how IL does such a good job cleaning up the street.  Who knew this is how they did it. Very impressive!

A fun few days away from home.  Glad we were all able to be together and arrived home safely. Always nice to sleep in our own bed after a road trip. And can't wait to get my new clubs!!

Thanksgiving road trip (Nov)

We are off on another adventure!  This time to Alabama.  A good friend of mine lives there and actually, he also works for the club manufacturer PXG as a club fitter.  So looking to maybe invest in some new golf clubs??! :-D

We were suppose to leave a day earlier, but Daddy was not feeling well - food poisoning? We still can't figure out what it was!  So I guess I was starting out the drive first. All was well until we had to cross this bridge. So much traffic!

Graham managed to sneak his "Blahaj", which means shark - in one of those vacuum sealed bag. Clever boy, ha!

I think deep down, these boys really do love road trips :-)

Charlie always loved (and needed!) his naps:

And Graham always refused to nap, especially when he has his phone or computer games on-hand:

Thanksgiving Day and thankfully we managed to find a little taco shop in Nashville, TN.

We were actually trying to find some BBQ, but let's say our options were a bit limited with it being a holiday!

These boys are growing up too fast:

And here's them in 2021 - do you see any similarities? Oh yeah, Graham and his sling. Ha!

Okay, driving into Alabama and we're discovering Buc-ee's.  OMG, do you see all these cars that are getting gas? How many gas pumps are there??!

This gas station stop is crazy HUGE!  

Check out this jerky section.  Yikes!

Graham and Charlie wouldn't do it, so Bobby and I took a photo with Buc-ee. LOL!!

Ah, found the boys in the hunting and fishing section. Should have guessed!

OMG, is anyone else seeing these pulled pork sandwiches??

I really should have bought one of those sandwiches.  The next time we stopped at a Buc-ee's, it was so crazy busy that the boys walked in and walked out!

Okay,... wow on these clips. Seriously?!

For dinner, we opted for Cracker Barrel - again, choices being limited on Thanksgiving Day.  Needless to say, after all those fancy meals at Season's 52, this one looked and tasted rather underwhelming. Ha ha!!

But at least we are all together! :-D

Daddy testing his skills.  I think Graham was the only one that ended up with one last tee!

Boys and their usual shenanigans in the Cracker Barrel store!

That night after dinner, we went to see my friend Iain and his family. Finally had a chance to meet their 2 kids as well!

We spotted a very Christmas-y house in the neighborhood, so we thought we'd check it out right before leaving. O. M. G!!

This homeowner had a lot of time on his hands!

Here's a video. This is such a catch song too - LOL!!

The next morning, it's time for a club fitting session!

Hopefully these clubs will help me play better next season!

Okay, looks like Bobby got the boys into Waffle House.  Sheesh!

 

On the drive into Birmingham, we spotted this statue up on a hill.  Figured we'd go check it out!

I think this one is 1/5th of the actual size.  It's interesting how it's been painted!

Okay, here it is.  We just discovered that this statue named Vulcan, is the largest cast iron statue in the WORLD!! Who would have thought!

I'm just glad it's been repaired and reinforced!

View from top of the hill:

Pretty neat spot!

Okay, we are getting close to another Buc-ee's but this was the one that was super busy!

Okay, in and out in a jiffy because there are too many people in the store!

Okay, so no pulled pork sandwiches, so we opt for this place instead. Zaxbys - for some fried chicken - almost like Raising Canes.  Even their dipping sauce was about the same!

Saw the milkshake special before going in:

Of course we had to try it, and looks like it was approved!  It was almost like the butter beer/caramel flavor - pretty tasty for sure with that sugar overload!

Looks like all we do is eat. LOL!

We found this spot with multiple restaurants for dinner - "Social on Main".  Charlie and I went for Asian and Bobby and Graham went with American.  Ha!

There was suppose to be a Spam Burger on the StrEAT Kitchen's menu but totally disappointed when it wasn't!  In any case, the pizza looked good at another table, so we ordered that To-Go for 2nd dinner.  And we devoured it when we got to the hotel :-D

Okay, to be continued...!