Vacation in Florida

After my host family took me to AG-Atlanta, they took me to visit Florida (although I was just in Florida with my first host.) This visit we got to go to the Gulf Coast. It was certainly hot and sunny down in Florida. Here I am being given a WARM welcome.
Julie and I enjoyed a day at the Reddington Beach on the Gulf coast of sunny Florida. Being that it was a weekday in September, we basically had the beach to ourselves.

We went to Florida to visit with my hosts' grandma. She lives in a really nice retirement area where most of the folks only live there in the winter. So basically we had the run of the streets. Playing street hockey was lots of fun. I had a bit of trouble with Molly's skates at first, but I learned pretty quickly.

Look at me go!!!

And, of course, being a retirement community there was a chance to play shuffleboard. Here are Julie and I facing off.



Now it's time for me to leave this host's home. I'm certainly going to miss all these girls here. I've had lots of fun with my host in Tennessee.
Goodbye!
(click on the picture to get a bigger view of us all)

Georgia

We traveled to Georgia and took lots of pictures. However, we are only going to share a few with you here. It was hard to pick which ones to post and write about, but here goes.

First is AG Boutique and Bistro in Atlanta! I can't believe we are here. This is going to be so much fun.

We had lots of fun posing with the various girls in the store. I even got to help my host pick out a Julie for her to adopt into her family. I couldn't believe this girl here....it was ME! So here is a picture of me and my twin me baking some goodies with the new sweet treats set.

After we shopped for like, forever, we finally got to go eat at the Bistro. This is Earhart and I trying to decide what to eat for lunch. Julie ate with us too, she's at the other end of this table.


After we did the fun girl kind of thing (American Girl shopping!) we did some fun stuff for the boys. We went to see expensive imported sports cars. Here are Julie and I as we hang on to the back of an Italian sports car....a Lamborghini.


Ah, this is the life. After a hard day of shopping and browsing, Julie and I got to relax by the pool.

Then we got into the car (again) to continue our trip on to Florida. No car trip is complete without a nice BIG cup of coffee.

Fun things we did

Kailey and I start our morning off with a good exercise routine. Just watch our muscles bulge.


Darcy, Kailey and I played with the pattern blocks.


It was a beautiful day, so I finally got to try out what fishing is all about. I didn't catch anything, and I ended up loosing my bait AND my bobber. It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be.


Now this was relaxing, as long as I hung on tightly and didn't fall off into that dirt below me!


Then we had to go to piano lessons. This is youngest son as he tries to teach me some songs. The piano teacher thought I was just beautiful. Well, of course she did!


Some of us played a board game later in the day. This is me with my new friends, Kailey, Jess, Kaya, Samantha and Darcy.

Downtown Knoxville

This morning as I was taking Earhart for his morning walk, we got to meet the BIG dog who lives at our host's home. He's really friendly, but his size usually scares people. I wasn't too afraid because I had Earhart to protect me.


As we walked around the yard, we realized we hadn't been up in the treehouse yet, so we climbed up and had a look around. We could see really far from there. But not as far as where we would go later in the afternoon!

The Sunsphere!
It started to rain, but we went to visit the Sunsphere anyway. It wasn't good for pictures, so here's a great picture from the Wiki entry where you can read more about this 266 foot tall tower that was built for the 1982 World's Fair that was held in Knoxville. The glass sphere is 74 feet in diameter! And yes, you can go up in it (and we did) and have a wonderful view of the city and the Tennessee River. The glass sphere part has real gold flecks embedded in the glass to give it that permanent golden glow from the outside. The inside has five levels (once you get up to the sphere part!) but you're only allowed on level 3 right now. The other levels are being re-constructed (1982 WAS a long time ago, you know) and a restaurant inside the sphere is supposed to re-open this month. For more technical information you can visit Sunsphere.info.



This is me from the inside looking out. It's kind of hard to see very far in the picture because the camera couldn't see well through the gold tinted glass, but we could. We would have been able to see further if it hadn't been raining. It still was a great view and a little bit scary.


Earhart thought he was on top of the world!


Later we went to the library. Earhart and Toast had to wait outside, because dogs aren't allowed in the library. They look so sad out there, don't they?


I chose a book about Josefina. I just love reading about all my sisters!


Our last stop with to recycle the plastics and a few glass bottles. It was still raining, but I tried to help and stay dry at the same time.

A few more pictures

We started Sunday morning off by going to church.


Then Jess and I played a little Sunday afternoon football.


And climbed the Dogwood tree in the front yard.


We had a birthday party with all those cool Totally Tropical doll sized party wear and treats. It wasn't really anybody's birthday, but we had fun.


Oh, and here's a picture of me at a falls in Dollywood that I forgot to post last time!

Dollywood

Dollywood theme park is a one-of-a-kind Smoky Mountain Family Adventure! Spanning 125 acres and nestled in the lush foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near Gatlinburg, Dollywood is one of the most popular family vacation destinations. Read more about that at their web site Dollywood.com

I just had to stop at this road sign on our way to Dollywood on Saturday. I was confused as to which direction the road we are traveling on was heading.
Can you tell?


We are finally here. Well, actually it's only about a 40 minute drive, but when you're my size, it seems like it takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get anywhere.


I tried this ride (The Timber Tower) but the worker said that I was a bit small and would probably fall out into the water when the tower tilted.
Oh, well. I look pretty cute trying out the seat.

Now, some of these rides are just too frightening. This is the Mystery Mine.
My host family rides everything.
They're pretty much fearless. I just watched.


I tried the seats at the Thunderhead (a wooden roller-coaster) too.
Again, I didn't pass the height requirement.


So I'll just settle for watching the craftsmen at work.
This is Mr. Cal. He's working with leather.


I watched, with fascination, the glass blower making a vase out of really, really REALLY hot sand! How that works, I can never understand.


I got to try to pick out a duck for a prize in the games area.
I didn't win anything, but it was fun to play.


Ah, the Carousel!! Now this was something that I wasn't too small to get on. I did have trouble hanging on to this slick pole when the ride started and the horse began moving up and down.


They have a real steam locomotive at Dollywood that you can take for a 5 mile ride. We didn't go on it because my host was afraid I would get too sooty. She said she usually gets soot in her eyes and on her clothes when she rides. I didn't want to get Nicki's pretty tie-top outfit dirty, so I just posed with the engine.

There are many beautiful trees and flowers in Dollywood. It's very shaded and we had lots of fun there. It certainly was a long, hot day, but I enjoyed it.


I was so exhausted when we left, though, that I fell asleep in the car on the way home. What a day!

Fun Friday

Whew, it's hot here, so Jess let me wear her meet dress today. All I brought was long pants and jackets. Lindsey let me borrow her laptop so I could do my blogging in the morning.


At lunch time, I got to join with the family at the big table. Kaya was kind enough to share her foods with me. All the girls here are very generous.


Later in the day, one of the boys took me out on a real go-kart! That was sooooo exciting! I'm wearing Lindsey's helmet here, to protect my head in case we wrecked. I have a neat bungee cord as a seat belt so I won't go flying off the kart. This certainly was a thrilling ride for me!


He also took me a ride on the front of the motor scooter. That was a bit scary and my dress kept blowing up, but it was fun. Next time I'll put on my pants first!


After riding the kart and scooter for a while, I took a relaxing walk near the pond. Here I am among the beautiful cat tails. I ask my host if this is really where they grow cats, but she said they're just called that. The real cats are inside the house.


Here is Earhart taking a rest with one of the inside cats. Her name is Molly. Which can be confusing sometimes for the 'real' Molly.


As is typical in this family, Friday night is family movie night. I got my own flip-chair and my own bowl of popcorn. We watched some movie called "Kart Racer." It was about racing go-karts, of course! It was pretty good. I had a fun Friday in Tennessee.