a guy and a bee
a collection of random thoughts and ideas from me, her, and sometimes us
Tag Archives: vacation
summer time
not sure about you guys, but summer time is one of my favorite times of the year. it combines two things i really enjoy, the beach and baseball. and although you can enjoy baseball all year around, there is nothing like sitting in the stands of the stadium.
the beach is a place i’ve enjoyed since being a kid and still enjoy as an adult. i just got back from being there over the 4th of july week. as i spent time at the outer banks, i continue enjoy it as a place that keeps me calm and serene. the sun, the surf, the sand, the salt air, i enjoy it all. and who doesn’t love a good tan?
as many others, when i think of america’s pastime, baseball immediately comes to mine. if there was one sport that is my number one, it is definitely baseball. as some might remember, my wife got us a partial game plan for the orioles this year and although the team hasn’t won in awhile, it’s something we enjoy doing together. and it is something i can teach her all i know. having played and umpired since being a young kid, i can say, i know a lot and have seen a lot. from the days of going to memorial stadium as a young kid and seeing stars of the late ’80s and ’90s to being at camden yards for 10-15 games a summer from being a kid to being an adult. this year i have also made it to nationals park for the first time and experienced my first non-baltimore stadium. nice little stadium they have down there in dc, but it’s no oriole park at camden yards. #justsaying. as well, my buddy and i are making our rounds to some of the minor league affiliates. on july 1st, we rode down and caught the shorebirds game and also got our manny machado bobbleheads. we even met @2131andBeyond finally. later this summer, we are going to make it to a game or two at bowie and next week, my wife and i are going to head to aberdeen to see the ironbirds and ripken stadium. we got tickets through my job so they were easy to get a hold of. i’ve wanted to see it since it was built and have driven around it several times, but this will be my first visit inside the stadium. we even went to an outer banks daredevils game as well. they are a summer wood bat league for college kids and are part of the coastal plain league. it’s really a neat experience and as one friend it’s probably like summer catch with freddie prince jr. haha, that’s almost true!
so any way, that’s what i’ve been up to this summer so far. i have some pretty good pictures from the fireworks on the beach the other day and will share those a few from my first visit to the shorebirds stadium once i get them downloaded. i really intend to blog more so look out!
well that was a fun vacation
from atop the great smokeys!
so for the last year or so, my wife and i have been talking about a cross country trip this year and we had settled on a 3 week adventure and she had all the plans put together. after 3 days into the trip, i was having bad anxiety issues and we decided to turn around. we had made it from maryland to elon, nc and then to just out of knoxville, tn where we stayed in seiverville, which is just a few minutes from the great smokey mountains. our next destination was memphis.
weird! wonder works in seiverville
it was a frustrating experience because i thought i had gotten past my anxiety issues and would be fine. apparently not. as i have explained it others, it’s like walking on one leg when you are having anxiety flare ups and for me, the nausea related to it. you can limp around, but you know you aren’t right and you can’t fix it like you hope you would be able to. had i really wanted to lose 10 or 15 pounds by not eating properly, it would have been a good way to do it, but would have only gotten worse and me being miserable wouldn’t been enjoyable for the wife either. so we decided to turn around and went to the Outer Banks instead. having vacationed there all my life and a free place to stay allowed us to get to a place we knew would be okay. after a few days, i was feeling better and we enjoyed a week and a half at the beach. since it was a joint decision to not continue, i don’t feel like it was the wrong decision, but disappointed it’s how it ended.
sunset at the OBX
when we started out, we said we were going to go as far as we could go and that was what we did. ultimately, i am annoyed, frustrated, sad, disappointed, upset, and happy that we tried. i am disappointed for her more than anything because we were supposed to visit her dad in nebraska over this coming weekend for father’s day and that would have been a great time for her to see him since we last saw him in october. he will be out here july so we will at least get to see him soon.
pass and stow
upon returning to maryland from the beach, we took a couple day trips to annapolis and philadelphia to see America’s first Zoo as well as the Liberty Bell. if you haven’t seen the Liberty Bell, it’s smaller than you might expect but still worth a visit!
unfortunately, it’s back to work and telling them the same story. at least someone told me they were happy i was back.
i will post some more pictures of our trip and the fun adventure in the great smokey mountains, the Appalachian trail, gambling in Cherokee country, the weird towns of seiverville and gaitlinburg and more.
how do you travel?
the last couple weekends i have traveled down to my alma mater (Elon University) for some alumni events and it made me wonder, how do others travel? I don’t fly because of control issues so driving is my number one item. I also always over pack. Left last Friday and returned Sunday afternoon and was barely. I easily had 4 options for clothing, 3 pair of shoes, 3 hats, and more. i guess this is a result of me always worrying that if i get stuck somewhere, i’d want to have an extra pair of clothes, not that i couldn’t buy another pair if i got stuck somewhere though.
outside of clothing, we always pack snacks and lots of drinks. i usually eat breakfast in the hotel and avoid the free breakfast, although i always use their milk for my cereal in the morning.
do you have any special quirks when you travel?
one year
This time last year I was rotating jobs and getting married all within the same week. What a way to go about things. Knocking out two big events in 6 days. Well here I am a year later and still in the job and more importantly, still married. It was a crazy year.
From the time we got married until now it’s been one thing after another. We went to another wedding, we made two trips to our alma mater were we serve on an alumni committee, we celebrated her birthday, enjoyed the beach, went to our Homecoming, another wedding, drove to Nebraska, went to a third wedding, ate lunch on the Mississippi River in Mark Twain’s hometown, celebrated the holidays with our family, celebrated my 28th birthday, laughed, cried, smiled, and just kept swimming.
This year, we have some fun plans too and we (read “I”) hope to document it with our cameras so we can show all our family and friends (and readers) what we are up to.
So with that, this Sunday, we will share in the newlywed tradition of eating your cake from last year and toast to an interesting year and exciting years to come. Happy Anniversary B! Love you.
Ps… why is it a tradition to eat freezer burnt cake anyway?
hey there
a guy and a bee 