'11/#37 Finding A Balance

In the last blog I talked about the weekend of relief from work. Friends, wood carving, & shopping. The rest of the week was just as good. Most days we didn't even set an alarm clock. We woke & either stayed in or got up to do what we wanted. One whole day was spent on the motorcycles. Mary enjoyed the day but is sure she has made the right decision to give up her bike. While we were out we stopped by the wood carver's & did a little shopping. I won't say how much we spent but it was more than I had planned. Mary told me to get what ever I wanted & I told her that she is done shopping for my birthday & Christmas presents. All I know is the wood chips better start flying! While we were there I introduced Mary to my wood carving instructor. The two of them hit it off at my expense. They had an informal graduation ceremony that you can see here. It was all in good fun!

One day we rode into Gatlinburg for another free Dollywood perk. Ripley's has a first rate aquarium that we wanted to see. It was impressive. Wonderful displays, strange fish, & interactive displays. There were several tanks that could be accessed from below that put you in the middle of all the fish. Of course I had Mary crawl around for those photo ops(check Mary's FB). I also talked here into touching the stingrays. We had taken the kids to Sea World years ago & ....well can you say cluck cluck cluck. This time she "braved up" & I think I actually got the photo. Like the fish tanks there was an access tunnel into the penguin habitat that Mary crawled into. Did I mention that most of the takers on these access were under the age of 13 & shorter than 5 feet. Mary is just a big kid & I love that about her. It helps keep me young.

Well it was back to work for a couple of days & then 5 more days off. I think we have found a balance between work & play. Two days on & 5 days off sounds about right I think. We are starting the 5 day segment & plan on going to Dollywood to check out some of the blue grass bands during Barbeque & Blue Grass weeks. It will be nice to be guests instead of hosts with our discount privileges. I will report back on this later from our home in Pigeon Forge because....

Home is where we park it,

Frank & Mary