Off to Arkansas

Today marks the end of my time in Alabama. It's been a great week with lots of fun and relaxation. I'm still not sure where some of the time went but seeing as how this is a vacation I think that's just fine.

I've mostly been just lazing around. The kids love to swim and since the pool is so accessible (back yard) they like to go out there a lot. I don't think I've done this much swimming since I left the condos. On Thursday we went to Point Mallard for 2 hours and had a fun time. It's a pretty small place with only a few different rides but the ones they have are entertaining enough. I think our favorite was this 2 person ride down a tiered but otherwise straight ramp. We got the lady to spin us a couple of times going down and that really makes it feel like you're about to take off as you come off of the humps. The kids really liked the wave pool though the waves weren't very high. I think that was a favorite place when I was a kid but now it seems sort of lame. They have a ride called the toilet bowl where you go through this enclosed tube into a bowl which looks like the one you can throw change into and it will gradually fall into a hole. Maybe if I was a coin it would have been cooler but the bowl part had seams that you could feel on your back and they really didn't have enough water in there. I just kept going around the bowl without really getting to the center so I positioned my body so it would go that way and almost ended up going into the hole backwards. That hole is dangerous; if you don't pitch your body forward you could end up hitting your head. Not my favorite ride.

Danny and I haven't worked much on the shelves but he has gotten them primed and we put some wood filler in to fix a couple of holes/knots. We've also thrown the ball around a good bit which has always been one of my favorite things to do with Danny. Yesterday we smoked a couple of pork shoulder (butt) roasts and had some of one of them for dinner last night. This is by far my favorite thing to eat when I come here although I have had wings twice in the last few days and probably 8 bowls of ice cream (one with each meal). Gotta love vacations!

Last night we went to a baseball game that only went 10 innings but lasted ~4:45. The pace of the game was painfully slow and it was quite toasty warm plus super humid without any cooling breeze to speak of so we just sort of melted in our seats. The only reason we stayed all the way through was to see the fireworks which were done up in a patriotic fashion to commemorate D-Day. I think the song 'and I'm proud to be an American...' is one of my all time favs and I usually get a little teary when it's played. They had a couple of other good patriotic songs and the fireworks show itself was exciting. At the end they had what looked like the world's largest roman candle spewing stuff out everywhere. I think everyone was pretty amazed at that thing. The only problem was we didn't get home until after midnight (!) so I scrapped my 'leave at 8 a.m. plans' and grabbed some extra sleep for my drive today.

This morning it's pack, eat, say goodbye, and then drive another 10 hour stint. Arkadelphia is only 2 states over but it's close to 600 miles! I think I'm going to miss those nice New England state distances :)

D