Charleston Fun

Eesh, I need to get better at this blogging thing. My excuse is that I was trying to juggle two jobs and it was making me crazy. Thankfully, one of those jobs is no more, so I have time to focus on funner things again. :)

A few weekends ago, Paul and I went on a weekend adventure to Charleston, SC. Paul had some nerdy math school thing, where he and the other math teachers at his school did nerdy math games with various students in different locations around South Carolina. On Wednesday, they went to Greenville to do a nerdy math/history tour with those Greenville-centered students. On Thursday, they went to Columbia, and then on Friday they went to Charleston. We decided to make it a fun weekend in Charleston since Paul had to be there anyway. 

We left with our carsick dog on Thursday morning. While Paul did his nerdy math stuff in Columbia, I cleaned up the gallons and gallons of dog barf and drool and walked the dog in a nearby park. Paul was done by 3pm, so then we went off to Charleston from there and crashed in our hotel room. We found out two things on this trip: (1) Charleston is only 4 hours from our home! We are totally going again. :) and (2) There are hotels, like Red Roof Inn, that are pretty classy AND allow dogs for free! That was nice to know. We were going to camp, but we found out that the Red Roof Inn was going to cost the same price as camping, and a hotel sounded more comfortable. We aren't exactly super prepared for camping. For example, last time we went camping, we slept on a foam mattress thing that we found in our camper and after two days, we had huge bruises up and down our hips. Every year we buy more camping supplies, but until we have the right stuff, if a hotel room is going to cost the same as camping, hotel rooms win every time.  :)

On Friday, Paul had to do his final nerdy math thing, so we drove into downtown Charleston together, decided on a meetup place, and then went our separate ways. He had to work from 11-2pm-ish, so I had plenty of time to explore Charleston before we met up. I had already decided to walk up and down The Battery. The Battery is a long stretch of parks in Charleston that borders the ocean on one side and tons and tons of historic and super beautiful mansions on the other side. Here's a picture of one of the multiple fountains and statues located here:

I was drooling at all of the historic mansions. I had totally forgotten that Charleston was originally in love with England (before the Civil War) and they imitated the English with their homes and styles. I felt like I was in an European town because of the way the homes were put together.

I read every single plaque and sign, and soaked in hundreds of years of history. It was really cool. It was also nice to soak in the ocean breeze and the warm sunlight, and end my casual walk with some delicious chocolate gelato. :) Paul and I met by this fantastic fountain, I didn't mind waiting for him since it was so cool:

By the time we met up, we had both walked for many miles and we were sun-burnt and tired. We were GOING to do a historical carriage ride, but we were too tired. There's always next time! We ended the day with a tour of the Old Exchange Building (where historical events such as George Washington's visit and the decision to break from the North during the Civil War took place) and the Dungeon, where American patriots and famous pirates spent their last days. It was pretty nice, but they could have done a better job with the Old Exchange Building information.

On Saturday, we went to two plantations. First was Drayton Plantation, one of only two plantations that were not destroyed by evil Union soldiers during the Civil War. This plantation was kept in perfect form and was fascinating to see:

Can you tell that the Charlestonians were obsessed with England?!? This is a perfect imitation of an English manor from the 1700s. 

We then went to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, which is just down the street. The house tour was both lame and depressing. Anyone who goes here, don't spend the money on the house tour, just go see the free video presentation. I swear the lady who did the house tour just watched the video a few times and quoted it back to us. However, the gardens were amazing. I want to go back later this year when more of the flowers are in bloom. 

After seeing the plantations, we went for a seafood dinner. YUM. There are all-you-can-eat crab legs places all over the place. Also, we ate she-crap soup, which is a famous dish in Charleston and it was SO GOOD. We also split a bucket of shrimp, mussels, clams, and oysters. YUM. And a crab dip appetizer. AMAZING. This is a really good town for seafood. The problem is that most of the restaurants do icky fried seafood. We had to do some research to find the good stuff. :)

We ended our trip on Sunday with some time walking up and down Folly's beach, a local hangout. Achilles loved that long hike! We left for home and made good time. It was a great weekend getaway, and I must say, it is so wonderful living this close to the ocean! Whenever we need a little break from the awesomeness of the mountains and lakes (or just crave fresh seafood), it's nice to know that a beautiful city like Charleston is only 4 hours away. 

We love it down here! Now please come visit. :)

~Paul and Cris

Trek to Mount Dumb

It has been a while since either of us has posted, which is all Cris' fault.  Don't worry, I'm here to remedy this problem in style.  We went home for Christmas this year and loved seeing friends and family, but by the end of the two weeks we were very ready to head back home (that's right, we call SC 'home' now unlike when we lived in Milwaukee).  After two weeks of gray Michigan skies it was nice to finally see our old friend sunny back in SC.
We took advantage of the nicer weather immediately by hiking and fishing as much as possible for a couple weeks.  Then my parents came to visit us for a few days at the end of January.  It had been almost an entire month since they had last seen us so they were naturally eager to hang out with us again.  Come to think of it, it has almost been another month so I expect them to drop by shortly.
I was excited to show my parents how awesome it is living down south with our warmer weather and lots of stuff to do in January.  Sadly, my mom gets frequent hankerings for icicles so they decided to bring cold weather with them.

On the Saturday that they were here, Cris decided to go milk and marry some goats and poke holes in cheese (I think that's what she said, after like 22 years together all her words mush together into cute white noise).  So, it was just my bachelor self and my parents going on a short hike.  It was just like high school except my voice squeaked less and my dad has hairier ears (sorry).  We went to one of my favorite parks by the Chattooga River to do some fly fishing and hiking to see awesome waterfalls (Kings Creek Falls is to the right).  It was pretty cold so there were icicles all over which was neato.  Also, along the path there were patches of what we later learned is 'needle ice'.  Apparently, when the earth is warmer than the air and wet, the water from the ground will seep up and freeze as soon as it hits the air.  It keeps pushing out and freezing until it makes needles of ice (thus the name).  Here is a picture, look at it:

After seeing King's Creek Falls we decided to do some flyfishing.  Chattooga river is pretty big and fast so it takes some pretty good skill to figure out how to get a fly down to the trout in cold weather like this.  I'm a natural flyfisher so I quickly got a fly deep down in a pool where a giant trout grabbed my fly and hooked it around a tree branch.  By that time (my third cast) my hands were freezing and it had started to snow.  I think I probably tied another fly on but I could really feel it, and moved further upstream while it snowed ever harder.  It was beautiful and serene and extremely freakin cold, so I figure my dad felt right at home.  As the avid flyfisher that I am, I found the best spot on the river where all the fish live but unfortunately I had to jump across a couple rocks to get there.  I think I made a bunch of perfect casts but I couldn't feel them, so after a while we decided to call it quits.  I jumped back across the rocks I had used to get to the middle of the river, but this time one of the rocks decided not to be as solid or I had gained weight from all the snow sticking to my shirt.  Either way, my foot found its way into the nice warm (compared to the air) water so I had a wet foot for the rest of the day.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank my parents for not stating any of the obvious things like "that's why you shouldn't wear sandals when fishing in the winter" or "maybe you're too heavy to be stepping on small rocks" or "your older brother wouldn't have fallen in the river".  We warmed up in the car and the rest of the day was nice: we went to Spoonauger Falls and ate hamburgers.
The next week, Cris and I somehow decided that it would be a good idea to climb to the tallest peak in the SC (thus the Mt. Dumb title).  A little background:  neither of us got nearly enough exercise when we lived in Milwaukee due to the weather, ugliness, and lack of motivation.  So, we have been working on slowly building up to longer and longer hikes.  Before Christmas we had gone on a nice six-mile hike and ended it feeling pretty good.  So, the next logical step was to go home and get a little fat over the holidays and then come back and climb a mountain.  The hike to Sassafras Mountain is 10 miles which didn't sound too bad, but I don't think we realized how hard it is to go up and down that much.  There is a 2200 foot elevation change from where we started to the top, but there is also a lot of down and then back up and then back down and then back up and then back down and up again in there so we probably actually hiked about 300 miles.  I'm going to blame our decision making on the formaldehyde that is leeching into us from our camper. Anyways, we struck out in good spirits from the lovely town of Rocky Bottom and immediately began to regret our decision.  The first half-mile was very steep and there were leaves all over that made it a bit treacherous.  After about an hour, we got to a bridge that I optimistically named the halfway point since I was already pretty tired.  Then an hour later we got to a sign that was at the halfway point.  It was really cool to walk along the sides of the mountains and slowly get higher so we could see further and further.  At one point we got to a really awesome spot where others had camped before where I climbed some rocks to see the scenery. This was almost at the top of one mountain so we were thinking that we were almost there.
Then, after we walked over to the next mountain and realized that we still had to get to the next mountain after that, we figured we had misjudged.  I was starting to wonder if we could make it up to the top in time so that we could turn around and make it all the way back to the car before dark.  Spending a night in January in the woods with a grumpy and hungry wife didn't sound fun to me.  So, fastforward one blister, a bag of granola and lots of breaks to catch our breath and we finally made it to the top of Sassafras mountain.  I was proud that I had made it to the top, but I was not excited to hike all the way back down.  It was absolutely gorgeous on the top of the mountain and it was cool to see all the lakes in the distance.  We could even see the part of Lake Keowee where we live.  We rested and ate and drank on the

overlook for quite a while.  It always surprises me how nice the people in SC are.  Several couples walked up to enjoy the view and struck up conversations with us.  My natural reaction after living in Milwaukee is to hide my valuables and look at the cracks in the sidewalk so that the crazy person will leave me alone, but I tried to be friendly.  Once we felt rested and sore, we scraped ourselves off the ground and made the trek back down the mountain. The whole trip took a little over 7 hours and did a good job of deflating my ego.  It turns out I'm not in as good of shape as I was in high school and my muscles don't recover as fast.  It was a great experience with beautiful views and good company, but I think our next few hikes will be less ambitious.  Maybe just a nice walk to the fridge next time.

 Besides these little adventures, not much is happening in our lives.  I already have all my yardwork done for the year and it's only February.  Cris is doing some nannying to make some cash, and my work is going great.  In a few weeks I'll be going on a math field trip for three days all around SC so I might make a blog post about that.  I'm sure all the math nerds will have some hilarious hijinks and puns that I will want to share.  It's also finally time to do some serious fishing and less serious windsurfing.  This coming year is looking like it will potentially be the best year of our life together: a couple of weddings to attend with awesome people, lots of hikes to go on, fish to catch, and driving back and forth to Michigan a little too often.  Stay classy San Diego.

Waterfall Adventure!

This past weekend, Paul and I went hiking to see 2 waterfalls. This is nothing abnormal; in fact, we try to hike to at least one waterfall each weekend. However, this waterfall hike was more...adventurous...than previous hikes. In theory, it was a hike to 2 waterfalls that was pretty close to our trailer and was "only" supposed to be a 30 minute hike. It quickly became clear to us though that this was NOT going to be that simple.

We have a book on South Carolina waterfalls and we are determined to see as many of the waterfalls in that book as possible. The ones we HAVE seen so far from the book had clear directions that did not steer us wrong. So off we went to see these waterfalls. We drove past Walhalla, past Yellow Branch falls, past Issaqueena falls, onto the very familiar Whetstone Road. The directions said: "In 0.7 miles, turn left onto Cassidy Branch Road." Check. Then it said: "Follow the road for 0.9 miles, then turn left onto Rich Mountain Road, which is gravel." So off we drove, and when the speedometer said 2 miles and we had not yet seen the specific road, we turned around in confusion and tried again. In theory, there was a ..."road" at the 0.9 mile spot, but there were no road signs indicating it was what we wanted. We even thought it was just a long driveway. However, there was nothing else that looked "road-like" in the area, so off we went down the gravel "road". The directions then said: "Follow this road for 3.2 miles and turn right onto Cedar Creek Road." Driving on a narrow, bumpy gravel road for 3.2 miles seems like an eternity, especially when you aren't even sure you are in the right place. It was crazy intense. There were no electricity poles, no traffic, no driveways, nothing. There was just this narrow road going up in the mountains with no way to turn around. In 3-ish miles, we saw the first intersection and after some discussion (once again, there were NO road signs to let us know if it was the correct Cedar Creek Road we were looking for), decided that it was probably the correct road. So off we went down this new road, that was even narrower and more bumpy and we just hoped we continued to see no traffic, since I have no idea what would have happened if we met another vehicle head-on. Next on the directions: "Follow this road for 2.5 miles to FS 2658 on the right and park by an earth mound." What? I suppose we should have read the directions before we left our trailer, since I didn't really know what this meant. After what seemed like another eternity going down a bumpy gravel road (at this point, I was feeling a bit car sick), we arrived at the 2.5 mile mark. On the right was a new road, which we assumed was FS 2658. We also assumed we needed to go down that road. However, the directions had some additional information: "this stretch MAY be passable in a 4-wheel drive vehicle." Yikes. We decided to park (there was a vague parking spot at this intersection), and just walk the rest of the way. As we got out of the car, I noticed an old, wooden sign that was in a ditch near the intersection that said "FS 2658", which gave us some confidence that this was actually where we were supposed to be.

So off we started on the hike, and I'm glad we walked down the road instead of driving, since it was hilly and steep and narrow and bumpy and I just KNOW I would have gotten carsick. As we walked in this forest on top of a mountain, we knew we were probably the only people in the area for miles. Our adrenaline was going crazy from the intense car ride and then Paul decided to make it worse by saying: "You know, this seems like the ideal place to see bears." Thanks for helping me calm down, Paul. I worsened the situation by replying: "I bet there's lots of snakes up here, too." So we held hands, made lots of noise and paid close attention to our surroundings. Next on the directions: "Go down FS 2658 to a T intersection. At the intersection, turn right onto FS 2656 at two large granite boulders placed on the roadbed to keep vehicles out." So off we went to the nearest intersection. Of course, it wasn't that easy when we got there. It was more of a 't' intersection than a 'T'. And there were two paths that were blocked by large granite boulders instead of just one. After some more discussion, we chose one of the two paths, and off we went, hoping for the best. At this point, Paul said: "Cris, this is sure one crazy adventure!" I replied, "No, if we make it home safely and in one piece, it was an adventure. Right now it's just scary!" Paul agreed.

Now the directions said: "Pass the first trail to the left and turn left onto the second trail, which is more of a wash than a trail." Okay, now things got really crazy. The leaves were all over the place, making it difficult to see any trails at all. I also don't think many people get out to this waterfall, so the trails all looked small and unused. We passed a "trail" that looked more like a path for deer. "Do you think that was the first trail?" I asked Paul. Paul studied the "trail" for a few minutes and replied: "Hmmm....maybe?" Then we passed another "trail" that looked vaguely like a wash. "Do you think we need to turn here?" I asked Paul. Paul studied the "trail" for a few minutes and replied: "Hmmm...maybe?" So we were just wandering down some abandoned road, not sure where we were and if we were going the right way. Fun stuff! We kept walking to see where the road would go and it turned a corner and we then could hear the waterfall. We also found another trail. This one was steep and covered with leaves, but there were plenty of roots to hold onto, and we could SEE the waterfall at the bottom of that trail. We decided this was probably the correct trail and started heading down. Thank goodness for hiking boots with good traction. With all the leaves, the trail was slippery, and we headed down by hanging onto plenty of tree roots. After the intense hike down the steep path, we were at the base of Cedar Creek Falls, the first of the two waterfalls. Success!

Notice my face is red from all the exercise I had just gotten from hanging on tree roots to get down there. :)

As we chilled at the base of the falls in order to catch our breath and just enjoy the scenery, we contemplated whether or not to go to the next waterfall. We could SEE the next waterfall, since this picture is taken at the middle point of both. On one side was the Cedar Creek Falls, on the other side was the beginning of Blue Hole Falls. We could see the water going over the edge for Blue Hole Falls. The waterfall book described Blue Hole Falls as "this trail is not recommended for the novice hiker because dense growth of rhododendron can make this a challenging hike." Since it was so difficult to get to the Cedar Creek Falls due to the slippery leaves, we weren't sure if we could handle the hike to the Blue Hole Falls. In fact, we could see the "trail" to the next falls: it was basically clinging to the slippery rocks a foot away from the Blue Hole Falls all the way down to the waters below. Yikes.

After some more discussion, we decided we would try. Paul would be the lead (the trail was too narrow to be side-by-side) and I told him that I completely trusted his judgement for the trail. If he ever thought that the trail got too difficult, we would stop and turn around. To start, there were two options for getting to the "trail": we could cross a log that went of the river/falls and climb a steep hillside covered with roots, OR we could take off our shoes and socks and walk across the river/falls and get to a flat surface to begin. We opted to cross the river barefoot. Please realize that where we crossed the river was mere feet before the plunge of the next waterfall. Also, it is November and the water was FREEZING! Paul went first and told me to keep low to the water, since the bottom of the river was slippery. Fortunately, there were sticks and things to hold onto as I crossed the freezing waters.

After we dried off our feet and put our shoes back on, we half-slid down rocks and half-clung to tree roots as we went down the steep "path". It was so intense! It was also, I must admit, tons of fun! :) We were about half-way down the "path" when Paul stopped and surveyed the next part. It was no wider than a balance beam and just as long as one. On the right side of this balance-beam-trail was a steep ascent of slippery rock with no roots to hold, on the left side of this was a steep descent of slippery rock that ended abruptly in a cliff over more rock. The narrow "trail" was covered with leaves as well. Paul decided that it was not safe to continue down the trail. It was disappointing, but we were glad that we made it half-way at least. The half way point ended up right next to the falls and looked like this:

This picture doesn't show the steepness of the rocks between me and the waterfall as well as it should. :)

It was a lovely place to rest and look at the Blue Hole below us:

It's too bad that we couldn't see the falls from the bottom of the mini-lake, but that's okay. Our view was pretty spectacular too. :) After enjoying the views of beautiful blue water and hearing the roar of the powerful waterfall, I noticed that I was starting to get really, really tired. When I mentioned it to Paul, he noticed that he was also getting tired. Our adrenaline was wearing out. It was time to make it back before we ran too low on energy.

This was when we realized that getting down was the easy part. On the way down, while it was terrifying to slide down rocks, we had gravity on our side. Now we were looking at slippery rocks that we had to somehow climb UP. Oops. It was exhausting work, which combined belly-crawling up the rock faces with pulling up our bodies with any nearby tree roots. At one point, I had to push Paul up a rock and when he got to the top, he reached down and practically dragged me up after him.

Then we had to recross the river, and my poor feet hurt from the cold water. "Ow Ow Ow!" I cried while casually hopping from one foot to another on a rock mere feet from the waterfall edge in order to get some feeling in my feet again. Paul showed off by casually walking in the water barefoot and taking his time. Psh. :) We were really struggling to continue the hike at this point. We still had to drag ourselves up the steep path to the abandoned road. That was really hard to do since our energy levels were by then super low. When we made it to the road, I was nodding off and practically sleeping on the path. It took forever to make it back to the vehicle, since we were both about ready to fall asleep. Then we got in the vehicle and started on the gravel roads back to civilization. The bumpiness of the roads woke us up, and then we realized how hungry we were. Thank goodness for leftover burritos at home that just had to be warmed up!

"When I get home, I'm eating THREE burritos!" I told Paul. Paul replied: "I'm going to eat four!" Psh, he always has to show off. :)

Since we made it home safely, I can now say that it was an amazing adventure! We had a lot of fun and have now learned to read directions to waterfalls before leaving to see them. Also, the burritos were amazing. :)

Enjoying Our Time in the Highs and Lows of SC

For the last two weekends, Paul and I have been enjoying the "highs and lows" of South Carolina. What does that mean? Simply that one weekend was spent in the higher mountains in the area and one weekend was spent in the flat marshlands bordering the ocean. :) As always, South Carolina never fails to make us happy and both experiences were amazing.

The first weekend:
*We knew that we wanted to go up to some of the higher mountains in our area when the leaves started changing colors. What better way to truly appreciate the coming of the Fall Season than by looking out at tree-covered mountains bathed in reds, golds, and greens? We tried to go up to Caesar's Head State Park to do this fall-viewing adventure for two weekends in a row and both weekends that plan failed. Both times something came up that made us do other adventures instead. I think that was God's way of saying: 'Don't worry, I'll let you go there when it's perfect!' The weekend we finally got to go to Caesar's Head, the weather was amazing (sunny and warm!) and the leaf colors were the best they could be. It was too beautiful to truly capture in pictures, but here is one of my favorites:

It was the best way to appreciate Fall. I have never had such an amazing Fall experience before. After the views, we went on a hike that we had done in Spring when we were still contemplating moving to Upstate SC. As before, it was a splendid hike full of secret waterfalls and other delights. This time, we went a little bit farther on the trail and scrabbled off-path to see this stunning waterfall:

I think this twisted tree in the picture makes the waterfall even more magical and pretty looking. :) We also intentionally went to Caesar's Head State Park to see our Fall Colors because they have something that goes on every Fall Season called the 'Hawk Watch'. Apparently, during October and November, hawks and some eagles from the north migrate down south and always stop at Caesar's Head for a rest. Some days you can see thousands of hawks in the sky at the same time! So we went and eagerly hoped to see this awesome sight. At first, we saw no hawks. We were bummed and went off on our hike with a bit of disappointment. However, we decided to go back to the overlook for another try after our hike. Again, we were not seeing any hawks. Then I noticed a guy staring off in one direction with some binoculars. We looked in the same direction and BOOM! there were at least 30 hawks in the sky. It was a really cool sight and we left our mountains feeling very satisfied and happy.

The second weekend:
*We went to Hunting Island State Park on Hunting Island near Beaufort and on the ocean. It was a really cool campground and if we had reserved a site earlier, we could have had a tent right next to the ocean! However, there was a hurricane brewing about 300 miles offshore, so it was really windy and the waves were HUGE, so I am kinda glad that our sight wasn't that close to the ocean this time. :) We plan to always camp near the ocean in the fall because it's one of the best times to catch huge shrimp, crabs, and fish. However, with the hurricane making a ruckus, we ended up only catching crabs and we bought fish and shrimp (for a cheap price!) before we left. Oh well! There are always other years. Anyway, Paul had read about how you can cook crabs right on the fire coals, so we gave it a try and it was so much fun (and delicious) that we had crabs on the fire every night! Here's a delicious picture:

This was a great way to eat crab while camping. We also decided to go to an 'all-you-can-eat' crab legs restaurant while we were in town because it was a good price for such an amazing feast. It was awesome. However, by the time we left, we were ready to be done with crab-eating for a while. :) It was a beautiful time on the ocean. The moon was full and bright, the palm trees made the trip seem tropical, and Paul found me some sand dollars on the beach!

We had a relaxing time full of fishing and eating and walking the beaches, and we look forward to going back again some time in the Spring.

South Carolina is still making us pretty happy when it comes to scenery and activities. The only thing that could make our lives happier would be having visitors! We would seriously LOVE to have people visit us! Come thrive in this heavenly paradise with us!

We still look forward to seeing family and friends at Christmas time. Until then, stay classy...

~Cris and Paul

October is Warm, and so is My Heart

Cris is still slacking on her bloggering duties so I guess it's my job again this week.  The weather here has been AMAZING! and I don't use exclamation marks lightly!!  I have gone windsurfing twice this week and I didn't even need a wet suit.  On Monday the wind was super strong (I think surfers would say it was 'off the hizzy' or something like that) so I was moving faster than I've ever gone.  That also means that I fell a lot and have tons of bruises and sore muscles still.  There aren't words to describe how dope (another surfer word as far as I know) it is to ride on top of the water at 20mph while looking at the mountains over a beautiful blue lake.  I would imagine I felt just like the guy in this picture, but more sore:

Cris was totally amazing and helped to carry all my surfing stuff down to the lake both times.

We also went on a hike at Keowee Toxaway State Park which is one of a few free state parks in the SC.  We were planning to go to Caesar's Head, but the weather started going south (which happened to be towards us) so we changed plans.  It was a relatively easy hike compared to some we've been on, but there was still plenty of cool stuff to see.  There were some giant boulders, one of which made a natural bridge over a stream with a waterfall.

There were also a lot of other places where we went off the trail (don't tell anyone) to see other waterfalls.  Cris always looks super sexy in her giant guys hiking boots, so I have a hard time staying on the trail. 

 We have gone on a lot of hikes in the past few months, but there are still a ton that we haven't done yet.  What a great place to live.  Everyone should move down here and buy us land.  

Work is still pretty great.  I'm getting a little sick of all the paperwork (is it still called paperwork if it's on computer?) that I have to do on a daily basis.  I always like to concentrate on what is best for students' learning so the other stuff gets neglected a little bit.  I still can't believe how respectful my students are compared to the past five years.  I haven't heard a single student swear and they all say 'yes sir' and 'have a good day'.  I also haven't heard of or seen any drugs, weapons, or sexual activity.  

Cris is still kickin' butt by volunteering at the coop (not the chicken kind, the two syllable kind) and growing veggies in our 'yard'.  We've been having salads made with fresh grown romaine lettuce and will soon have broccoli and spinach.  She's an amazing cook and pretty decent company, so living in a trailer is still tolerable.  We are going to try our hand at hydroponics soon, so we'll see how that goes.  

We are both looking forward to going home over Christmas and can't wait to see family and friends.  If anyone (except inlaws) is around between Christmas and January 3ish, let us know!

Diving, Thriving, and Living

It has been a busy few weeks for me (Paul).  I was miserable for over a week with the flu and had poison ivy on top of that.  I'm not sure how I got poison ivy in my ear, but I don't recommend it to all of our loyal readers (all three of you).  I'm also not sure how I got the flu, unless it was a computer virus.  I don't even see my students anymore and yet they still transmit all their diseases.  Despite being miserable, I still enjoyed catching up on my video games that have been feeling neglected lately.  So many things that need attention and so little time; my guitar is calling to me right now since she hasn't felt my loving embrace for several days.

I've come to realize that SCUBA diving is awesome.  This past weekend I finished my certification course so I can now go diving all over the place without any annoying instructors telling me to 'put on my goggles BEFORE going under water' or 'take out your regulator (mouthpiece) after surfacing'.  They can be so naggy.  For those of you who don't really know how SCUBA works, you have a vest that you can inflate with air from your tank, a regulator that gives you air from the tank to breath, a backup regulator in case your primary doesn't work, 16 pounds of weights, and a mask with a snorkle and fins.  We also got to wear super-sexy wetsuits.
     This weekend, we went to Lake Jocassee which looks like this:

 It's several hundred feet deep and crystal clear (visibility is usually over 30 feet).  The first day we planned to just go over everything we learned in the pools at around 15 feet of depth.  I got all of my gear set up and sat down to wait for the rest of the class to get ready.  My buddy (you always dive with a buddy in case you run out of air) turned my air on for me and we were surprised to hear a hissing noise coming from where my tank was attached to the regulator.  I naturally assumed it was some sort of snake, but my instructor was nice enough to ease my fears by saying "that's just an O-ring that is going bad".  I stared at him waiting for him to tell me what to do to remedy our little life-threatening problem but he just moved on to another student.  Later he flippantly told me that there is nothing to worry about as long as I monitor how much air I have left.  By this point I was feeling a little nervous, but he seemed to know what he was talking about so I followed him out to deeper water.  As a class, we let the air out of our BC (vest) and sunk slowly to the bottom.  Unfortunately, the result of 9 people coming down on the bottom and kicking our flippers stirred up the water and visibility went down to about 4 feet.  I was feeling okay, I popped my ears and slowed my breathing and was totally ready for all our little exercises.  Then my partner calmly swam over and pointed towards my tank and somehow mimed that there were bubbles coming out.  Sure enough, there was a steady stream of bubbles leaking out of my tank and I could barely see well enough to check how much air I had left.  I was a bit nervous.  Luckily, the instructor only kept us down for about ten minutes and the water cleared a little.  When we got to the surface, I had gone through over 1000 psi of tank pressure and everyone else had gone through less than half that.  The instructor once again told me that I'd be okay, so the rest of the dive consisted of frequently checking my air supply and hoping the O-ring didn't give out in one giant suffocating explosion.  We went through all of our exercises where we let water into our goggles and then used air from our nose to clear it out.  We also pretended to be low on air (I was really good at that by this point) and my buddy had to give me his regulator and help me to the surface.  It was a ton of fun, but I could have done without the nervousness.

On Sunday, we went back to Jocassee for a fun dive and to finalize our certification.  Our first dive was down to about 30 feet, which was by far the deepest I've gone.  On the way down I struggled with equalizing pressure in my ears and blowing out through my nose so that the mask doesn't suck my eyeballs out.  We all made it down safely and followed our instructor to where a sunken boat should have been.  Visibility was much better but when we got to the spot, there was no boat to be found.  We hung out for a while while the instructor looked for the boat and it ended up being about 100 yards further out.  Somebody must have moved it.  It was kinda disappointing to not be able to see that wreck, but the next dive made up for it.  We surfaced and hung out for 10 minutes to let our bodies recover then went back down.  There was a rope to follow to see all the stuff that people had put down there.  We dove down to about 45 feet and then followed the rope to see a cemetery that someone had put there (there aren't really people buried there), a sunken sailboat that we could swim around and look inside, and some skeletons in lawn chairs just chillin'.  It was really cool to float by and see all the fish and how different everything looks underwater.

After the dive I was exhausted and hungry enough to eat Cris' cooking.  We're going back to dive again sometime in the next couple weeks.  The cemetery at the end of the movie 'Deliverance' is underwater somewhere as well as several bigger wrecks, so it should be a ton of fun.

Despite being sick, life here is still totally awesome.  Cris and I went swimming with Achilles again yesterday and the water was still close to 80 degrees.  That's right, warm swimming in October!  Achilles can now keep up with me while swimming for a tennis ball, so I need to either get in better shape or break one of her legs.
Work is also pretty good.  I just got assigned another class with 50 more students.  Now I'm up to 220 students with three classes to prep for.  It's still the least stressful teaching job that I can imagine so I won't complain.
We are planning a long weekend by the coast to catch some shrimp, crabs, and maybe oysters.  My goal is to catch a fish, some shrimp and crabs and then immediately cook them over a campfire.  It should be a lot of fun, and a friend might come along too.  Super exciting.

Busy and Active!

Okay, I just realized that it has been a month since we last posted anything! Time flew by! Seriously, I had no idea it was this much later in the year. :) We have been keeping our weekends nice and busy doing fun activities and I guess we kept putting off writing on a blog. However, at this very moment, Paul is sick and laying on the couch and I am extremely fatigued (I think my body is fighting his sickness), so even though it is a Saturday afternoon, I finally have a moment to sit and write about our activities in the past month.

Since it has been forever, I can't quite remember the order of events, but here are the things we have done for the past four weekends:

1) We went hiking to some minor waterfall (seriously, it was so minor that it wasn't worth taking pictures of it!) and since it was lame, we kept hiking in the mountains until we got tired. We then turned around and walked back down the same path to get back to our vehicle. As we walked, Paul was ahead of me on the path and walked next to a tree. When he passed the tree, his bag brushed the "tree", which turned out to be the biggest snake I have ever seen in the wild! This 4-5 foot snake had been sleeping/resting vertically on the tree within inches of Paul! The snake, now startled, flung itself from the tree...at me! Now, I don't know if the snake was purposely moving towards me or if it was just trying to get away from Paul, but I didn't know if it was poisonous and it just kept coming toward me! I was running backward as fast as I could. Then the snake suddenly ambled lazily into the woods next to the path. It didn't really run away, it just went in the woods and Paul and I stood pretty close to it while looking up the snake in our animal book. It turns out it was an Eastern Racer, which likes to chill out in trees and while aggressive, is not poisonous. WHEW! That was a crazy adventure. After our encounter with the snake, the rest of the hike was full of paranoia looking for more snakes in trees. Seriously, I never knew that snakes could rest on a tree in such a vertical position. I learned something new! Also, it's crazy that the snake decided to rest there between the time we first went by the tree and then when we turned around and came back. Adventure! Wee!

Eastern Racer (snake)

2) We went to Chattooga Belle Farm to pick apples, raspberries, and figs. I found a pamphlet for this farm at our post office and thought it would be fun to pick apples, since we do this every year. I did NOT know that it would be the most beautiful farm I have ever been to! As we picked apples, we stared at the glorious mountains. It was so amazing that we kept stopping after every tree to hold hands and just gape at the glorious natural setting. I can understand why they have weddings there! God's beauty was everywhere!


3) We went on a "Surfin' Safari" and also to a Clemson University football game. Remember when Paul brought me to an awesome food and wine show in Madison? The Surfin' Safari was similar to that. It was a benefit thingy for the Greenville Zoo, and it took place in the Zoo at night. There were almost 60 tables set up throughout the zoo with either wine or food on them for you to sample. It was crazy though, because they gave you a HUGE sample of wine, and you could go back to the tables as much as you wanted. I was ready to be done drinking after 10 tables! Seriously, who can handle more than 6 glasses of wine in one night? NOT this girl! The food was good as well. I wish the animals were more interesting, but really, when it becomes nightfall, you can't see them anymore, so that was kinda disappointing. The food was good, but not comparable to the chef-like quality to the food at the Madison food and wine show. It was still lots of fun! How can endless amounts of food and wine be anything BUT fun?!? Then the next day we went to a Clemson football game. I had never been to a Division One football game, so I was pretty nervous (about the height of the stadium and crowds) and excited. It was awesome! We had a blast. Paul was kind to me and spent a little bit extra money on seats that weren't ridiculously high up. We bought Clemson shirts (I think that officially makes us fit in down here!) and got to witness the longest successful kick in this division (61 yards!). It was a great weekend!

4) We went to Yellow Branch Falls and brought our dog! We were originally going to go to Cedar Creek Falls, but on the way there we missed a road and got stuck going down a narrow gravel road in the wrong direction. In case you didn't know, our dog gets carsick (which is why it took this long to bring her with us). We thought she was better, and maybe she would have made it if we hadn't missed the correct road. Anyway, she barfed in the car and we had to stop and clean it up and walk her around. After cleaning up and realizing the the actual road we had to go on was 6 miles of MORE gravel road (which clearly resulted in a sick dog), I got disheartened and suggested we just go home. We were stopping every few hundred feet to let the dog out because she was about to get sick again. It just wasn't any fun. So we headed back home. We were finally on normal roads again when the dog looked like she was going to be sick again. I hurriedly told Paul to get off the road as soon as he could. He quickly turned into what was called "Yellow Branch Picnic Area". Of course, the dog decided to throw up in the car the moment Paul pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car. *So close!* :( So there we were, cleaning up the car again, and even more discouraged since we still had quite the distance to cover before getting home. That's when we noticed a sign that was mere feet from where we parked: "Yellow Branch Waterfall: 1.4 miles". A miracle! We knew the dog needed some time before trying to go in the car again AND we had wanted to see a waterfall! The only issue was that it was a longer distance than our original waterfall destination, and we had not packed a lunch (the original trip was going to be done by lunch time and we had not planned to stop constantly for the dog). Also, we only had three water bottles. However, we did it anyway with plenty of stops for rest! The dog did a GREAT job. We took her off her leash and she calmly walked the paths in the lead, but did not get so far ahead that we couldn't see her. The waterfall was beautiful and of course, wherever Paul tried to walk, the dog followed! That made for some entertainment (and worry from me). :)

Yellow Branch Falls

Paul captured a salamander!

Achilles - the Majestic Ruler!

So yeah, those are the activities that we have been doing for our weekends. We have been super busy and super happy! :) The downer is that Paul was sick this past week and now has poison ivy (possibly from our Yellow Branch hike) and I might be getting sick as well. Boo! So we have a lazy weekend, but hey, after our last four weekends, I think we can afford a bit of lazy time. :)

~Cris