You might remember a few months ago when I told about my husband’s fishing trip. He caught a lot of large fish. His fishing trip was fun, restful and enabled him to put several bags of bluegill in the refrigerator. Therein lies the problem. The fish are yummy but the only way I know how to cook them is to fry them. We are trying to eat healthier and fried foods are a no no. Does anyone know how to bake or grill bluegill?
My husband knows how to grill large fish. In fact, grilled salmon is one of his best dishes and one of my favorite foods. Do you have a special recipe that you use to grill salmon? Friends love to be invited to our house when hubby fixes salmon on the grill. He uses a secret concoction of spices along with lemon and it is mouthwatering delicious. It is so good that he should really enter his recipe in the Great American Seafood cook off. He would love to get down and dirty and show his stuff! Wouldn’t that be fun! We could have t-shirts made up that say, “fishermen have skill with the grill”. Seriously, there is no better source of nutrition than seafood from here in the US. You know that it is fresh and delicious when it comes from our nation’s marine fisheries.
Don’t miss the Fifth Annual Great American Seafood Cook-Off Aug 2-3 in New Orleans! Cheer on the great chefs as they show what stuff they are made of. There will be cooking demonstrations and challenges as chefs battle in the culinary challenge of the century.
I just wanted to let my mom and everyone in the family know that Greg made it home from camp. He looks good. He was a camp counselor at a history camp through the college he attends. Inner-urban teenagers were able to attend this wonderful camp. Although it was disorganized at the beginning, things were worked out and they had a wonderful time. They traveled to Springfield, Illinois on a huge charter bus. The air conditioning went out an hour into the trip. Something was wrong with the electrical so they had no movies to watch. That is not good with a huge group of teenagers. Greg said they got them involved in singing. For some reason, that cracks me up.
The bus was fixed and they made it to Springfield where they visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Greg said he enjoyed the visit although the management dropped the ball when making the event interesting. They gave no information about the many statues in the building. There were other things that they could have explained. I thought they could have at least had a brochure that told about Lincoln’s tomb and the other members of the family buried there.
I’m sure that Greg will be telling about his adventurous two weeks at camp after he gets rested up a bit.
I am so glad I started this travel blog. I am keeping track of all the places we visit and so I don’t worry about remembering specific things we did. Blogging led me to a wonderful online site that I use faithfully. Trusted Tours & Attractions online is my guide for travel. I used to keep a box of brochures from places we visited so that I had a reference. While in Tennessee last week, we went white water rafting. I loved how we were treated by all the employees of the rafting business. They were awesome. I only need to check this blog to get information to call them again. I check the Trusted Tours & Attractions online website to find out new things to do. My box contained information for the Metropolitan museum of art, the Cincinnati Zoo and a ton of quilt shops. I avoided that box! It was an unorganized mess.
All my brochures from my trip to Las Vegas last year can be tossed! I have everything written down here in my blog. I talked about seeing Elvis and how he was flirting with Marilyn Monroe. I posted pictures of the beautiful fountain in front of Caesar’s Palace. The water danced to music that made me think of Frank Sinatra. I took so many pictures of the new Wynns hotel and posted them all. Blogging is so much easier than finding brochures. Recounting all these memories makes me want to go back.
Trusted Tours & Attractions online travel guides are full of information for things we have yet to see. I want to check out Hoover Dam and see the Grand Canyon. If it weren’t for Trusted Tours & Attractions online, I would have never known there were Old Town Trolley Tours available in Las Vegas. I also found out another fun thing through Trusted Tours & Attractions online. I can order tickets through Trusted Tours to visit Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. No waiting in line for me! I never vacation without first checking out our destination on the Trusted Tours & Attractions online website.
The newsletter that I receive from Trusted Tours is chocked full of information. You should head right over to the newsletter sign up page at Trusted Tours & Attractions online because, if you sign up now, you might win a $150 iTunes gift card.
We had such a great time while on vacation. I want to describe everything but we did so much that I don’t know where to start! Perhaps the beginning would be good.
When we arrived in Tennessee, it was early in the afternoon. We had planned to get a hotel room and join the family the next day. The thought of our daughter being only 2 hours away changed our minds. We traveled on to our nephew’s home where our daughter had arrived the evening before. She worked the night shift the previous evening and instead of going to bed, she jumped in her truck and hit the road. I know how she felt. I can hardly wait to hit the road when it is vacation time.
We arrived at my nephew’s home and were greeted by his wife and their almost 2 year old. We had a great time getting reacquainted. Myli, the baby, is a bit shy at first but it didn’t take her long to start showing us all of her toys. She had my Aunt Grace reading a book to her in no time. What a cutie.
We had a great time selling our things at the flea market in Knoxville. It was not that far from our cabin in Pigeon Forge but it took an hour to get there. The traffic in Pigeon Forge is horrible. The cars are bumper to bumper as they inch through the main part of town. I don’t know how people live without air conditioning these days. The temperature was in the 90’s but we never really thought about it being miserable. We had the luxury of being in the air conditioning most of the time. If your auto’s air conditioning compressor were to go out, there is a great place to purchase discounted air condition parts. Check out www.discountacparts.com to upgrade your auto air conditioning so that it runs efficiently. You would be amazed how much gas you can save by having a quality upgraded air conditioning system in your car. Discount AC Parts.com has parts for all models of autos so be sure to check them out.
Just wanted to give an update on our trip! We are having a wonderful time here in the Smoky Mountains. Our cabin is very nice although we haven’t been staying here very much. We have been at the flea market, selling our bags. I’ll tell you more about that later…
Hurray! We are on the road. We are south of Indianapolis and have been on the road for about 3 hours. I have taken my AbsoluteCalm and everything is going well. You would think that just being on vacation would be relaxing but it is not. I have so many things racing through my head. I must keep hubby awake so he will stop driving on those noisy bumps along the side of the road. I need to be on the look out for quilt shops because I am sure hubby will want to stop at one. Seriously, I have a zillion things going through my mind. Absolute Calm keeps me relaxed as I think about how much I should price my bags so they will sell at the flea market on Friday. I have never sold bags this way. It is all new to me and a bit stressful. I couldn’t sleep last night for fear of forgetting to pack something. Absolute Calm can help you when you are going through a stressful time in your life. It is a healthy way to calm your body and relax your body’s nerves. It has also helped relax the strained muscle I have in my lower back. Traveling in the car would have been miserable if I hadn’t taken such a helpful product. If you need something to help you relax and enjoy your life, I recommend Absolute Calm. It is helping me enjoy the beginning of our vacation.
We have a pile of things that have to go into the car in the morning. Yep, tomorrow we leave for Tennessee. An interesting site along the way is the Indian mound area. I would love to see this awesome find. The historical value of this site makes it one of interest. Another interesting fact about the area is that Alex and Queen Haley - Grandparents of famed author Alex Haley are buried in the Savannah Cemetery near the mound area. Professional fisherman, Bill Dance, has a cabin located in the area. It must be a great place to do some fishing.
I checked for information about the history of the mounds. About 800 years ago, a town occupied the high Tennessee River Bluff at the eastern edge of the Shiloh Plateau. Archaeologists refer to the society centered at Shiloh as a “chiefdom”. On a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River, six platform mounds surrounded by over three dozen individual house mounds and encircling palisade make up the finest surviving Mississippian Moundbuilder village in the Tennessee Valley. This prehistoric culture, which reached the height of its influence around A. D. 1200, is today interpreted at the Tennessee River Museum.
Survey work in the winter of 1933-34 revealed numerous small, round mounds at the Shiloh site, each about one foot high and ten to twenty feet in diameter, the remains of wattle-and daub houses. These structures had walls of vertical posts interlaced with branches (wattle), which were then coated with a thick layer of clay (daub). Each house had a fireplace in the center of the floor. A palisade wall, also made of wattle and dub, protected the site. The early inclusion of the mounds area within the boundary of the national military park has protected the site form any modern use. Because the Shiloh site has never been disturbed by the plow, the daub of collapsed walls still stands as low rings or mounds. Shiloh is one of the very few places in the eastern United States where remains of prehistoric houses are still visible on the ground’s surface.
I hope we have time to visit this national historic landmark. It sounds well worth the time.
My sister has gone through quite a hassle to get new glasses. She wanted her glasses by the time we left for our vacation this weekend. I don’t think that they will be finished re-doing her lenses in time. I wish I had known about ZenniOptical.com before she bought new glasses. She would probably be a happy camper right now. Zenni doesn’t have a middle man and so you can get great prices on quality glasses. I heard that Fox News had a great story about them. You know if you hear the name Zenni on Fox news, they must be newsworthy. In these times of spending all our hard earned money on fuel, we need to buy the things we need as inexpensively as possible. Check out ZenniOptical.com.
When I went to the nail salon yesterday, I could tell that something was wrong with Julie, the manager of the salon. She was a bit out of sorts. She was at the airport that morning at 6 am but was unable to take her flight. She was so disappointed. She had recently remarried and so her ticket was different than her drivers license. They wouldn’t let her through the security gate.
This is a heads up. Make sure to book your tickets in the name that corresponds with your passport and drivers license. This is something that might be overlooked by persons planning their honeymoon. They book in the name they will have after the marriage. They find that they are not updating their identification documents until later and so they do not match. Keep that in mind when booking your reservations.
