Anchors A-Weigh

The other day, my wife and I went on a cruise. We went to Progresso and Cozumel, and our third stop was Belize. We actually never went to the mainland of Belize. Instead we choose for one of our "excursions" to go snorkeling at Goff's Caye (pronounced KEY, I've been told).


Goff's Caye turned out to be a small island. When I say small...I mean SMALL. Tiny. It was right off the coral reef, and was surrounded by crystal clear water. The picture attached to this post is Goff's Caye. There was a place to dock a couple of boats and a little cabana with some people selling drinks and snacks out of ice chests. It was a beautiful place.

Goff's Caye is not what this post is about. It's about Larry.

Larry was the "deckhand" on the boat that we took from the cruise ship to the island. He had a brilliant smile, a quiet manner, and a quick laugh. He was less than 18 years old, and weighed a buck 'O five soaking wet. One of Larry's jobs was to help people back into the boat.

You see, we snorkeled from the boat about 300 yards off Goff's Caye. When you finished snorkeling, you swam back to the boat, and got back in. At least that was the general idea.

There was a ladder on the back of the boat. However, one side of it had broken loose from the fiberglass of the boat. So Larry would stand with one foot holding the broken piece of the ladder in place, hanging a rope over the back for each person to pull themselves up. The ladder was so short that only the bottom step was actually in the water. I had to practically float on my back to get my foot up on to it.

Now picture Larry, all 105 lbs of him, trying to hold a rope that I'M pulling on, while keeping the ladder from pulling loose with one of his feet.

After about 10 minutes of me attempting to get in, Larry and I both realized that if I were to pull hard enough to pull myself up onto the ladder, what would actually happen would be the quick extrication of Larry from the boat.

Fortunately, another snorkeler was willing to give me a shove on the derrier to give me the extra boost I needed to get in without pulling Larry out.

Embaressing? Yes.

Funny? Absolutely.

Gaylord Opryland

While in Nashville, we are staying in the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

Here's a nice photo I took from one of the balconies of our hotel. This a view of one of the INTERIOR areas of the hotel.

Music City, USA

Today, my family and I are in Nashville. I'm here for work, but since I had a private hotel room, and the location was close enough to drive, I was basically able to bring the family for free!

Couple of things:

1) We ate dinner at the B.B. King Blues Bar/Restaurant last night, and the food and music was excellent.
2) The reason I am here is because the primary software that I work on is having their yearly convention. Now the cool thing is that the company that I work for was up for the Practice of the Year for large practices (there were also small and medium categories). We had made the finals a few weeks ago, but we didn't know until this morning that...drumroll...we won! Wahoo! It's a great honor, and we were all very excited.
3) My son has been having fun. He's a little worn out, though. A few minutes ago, he said, "Momma, I need a drink." My wife turned, grabbed his cup, turned back to him...and he was already asleep.

From here we are heading to Apple Mountain Resort!

Helen, GA - Mark II

My last post was a small little thing...but it yielded what I think is the funniest comment on my blog to date. Please enjoy:

You know...the pictures of your vacation looked so nice, I really thought I should visit there.
But unfortunately Tonya is working and wouldn't be able to go.
So I said "Tonya, I'm thinking about visiting Helen."
"What?" she said. "Who's Helen?"
"Helen's in Georgia," I said. "Would you be willing to run the store for a few days while I go there?"
"To Georgia?" she said.
"Yeah," I said.
"To visit Helen?" she said.
"Exactly!" I said, happy that she finally understood.

I need a place to stay. For some strange reason she's upset with me.

I have a comment on my blog from an internationally published author!

Helen, GA

So the family and I went to Helen on Monday. (Jeff - did you catch that? I started with "so". And I hyperlinked to your post...)

It was very, very nice. The town is beautiful, the food is great (at least what we had was), and the countryside is amazing. You can float down the river in an innertube (which we didn't do), hike up to see beautiful Ruby Falls (which we did), or take a carriage ride around town (which we did).






Here is a beautiful tree growing on a boulder (Ruby Falls).











Here is one half of the beautiful twin waterfalls of Ruby Falls.












Here is my beautiful wife and son.




It's late. I'm. going. to. bed.

Vacation!!

Since we transplanted to Georgia from Texas a year and half ago, most of our vacation time has been spent going to see family and friends in Texas. I don't mind that at all. That's why I drive 11 - 14 hours to go see them. I love them and miss them.

However, that's not a "vacation". Mostly because when we get back we are pretty worn out from the driving. We've done a few Saturday things since we moved here. We've gone to Stone Mountain, to the Mall of Georgia, and done a little sight-seeing. But, it's always been on the weekend.

Next Monday...I've taken Monday off!! The whole day. As my friend Bob would say: Woohoo!!!

The "fam" and I are going to Helen, Georgia!! We are going to take in the sites, raft down the river, eat some type of German sausage, learn more about the origins of the polka, and enjoy some quality family time.

On the Road Again...

It's been a few days since I blogged last. Mostly because I was on the road. I (and my wife and 2 year old) drove from Atlanta, Georgia, to Sweeny, Texas (southwest of Houston) last Friday afternoon (through Saturday morning). It is roughly a 13 hour drive, mostly on Interstate 10. Boorring!!

My family reunion (the Butler-Hoods) was Saturday morning. About 85 of my closest relatives were there. We had a grand old time. Of course, it was a billion degrees, but hey, I'm used to it.

I also got my mom switched over to a gmail account and ordered her DSL. She was still suffering (even though she didn't know any different) with dial-up. Hopefully, she is reading this now!

I hung out with a couple of my best friends from childhood, and spent a lot of time with family. Actually, most of it was them spending time with my 2 year-old! They can't help it. He's extremely cute and fun.

Then, Wednesday, we drove from Sweeny to Tyler, Texas, which is in the heart of east Texas...it took about 5 hours or so. I am actually doing my first "remote blog" from the computer of the friend we are staying with. (Props to Tiff.)

Tomorrow night is the wedding rehearsal of another friend of mine, and then the wedding is Saturday...which I came out of retirement to perform, by the way. First thing Sunday morning, we are heading back to Atlanta. This time the drive will be about 11 hours. Of course, we lose an hour heading into EST, so it will take 12 hours on the clock. Whew!

What a "relaxing" vacation. :)

Overall, it has been great though.

Now you may have noticed that one of the "labels" or "categories" on this post is "blogging". That's because I thought I would end with this: I missed blogging for those few days I was away from the computer. Who would have thunk it.

(Map created using Google Maps - maps.google.com - try it, you'll like it.)