Trying To Catch Up!

OCEAN ISLE BEACH
okay so, the last two days at my aunts were pretty much just hangin out. tuesday we went to the beach, we drove instead of taking the boat so we went to a farther beach. i got to swallow my fair share of salt water YUCK!! :P my grandparents don't understand that me and my mom can just sit in a room and watch tv and be happy. they think we need to actually be doing something. tuesday night we wanted to go out for a nice dinner, sadly my moms cousin [kirsten], her husband [alan], and my two adorable cousins [nolan and landon] didnt come with us that night. before we went to dinner nolan had stayed at my aunts house with me while his parents and landon went a couple houses down to the house they were stayin at. i helped get him to take a bath [which ended up being like an hour and a half because he likes to play with his bath toys] it was sooo sad because when we had to take nolan back to his parents he got upset because he wanted to stay with me *caring eyes*

it was hard to leave my aunts beautiful house but wednesday we had breakfast than said our goodbyes and were on the road to asheville, north carolina.

ASHEVILLE
the road to asheville was wayyyy too long and very boring. me and my mom slept most of the way. we ended up eating lunch at bojangles in south carolina. it was weird because we had to drive into south carolina then back to north carolina to get to asheville. we got to our cute little condo and had sandwiches for dinner. they were good cuz my mom made them and grilled them. our condo was pretty cool because it was circular. we had a kitchen, dining area, and living room all in one space. then our bathroom was kinda in the middle of the condo. me and my moms room had two full beds, a table with chairs, dresser, and tv. my grandparents room had a queen bed and nice bathroom with tv and stuff. the stay was nice. thursday we spent the whole day in asheville and got to go to this AMAZING mansion called the biltmore mansion. it is the largest privately owned residence in america. its 175,000 square feet. we got to take an amazing tour that took up the first half of the day. it was soooooo cooooool. sadly there was no photography allowed in the mansion but we got some great pics of outside and the gardens [which were huge] i got a bunch of pics in the giant greenhouse. after the mansion there was a lot of controversy on where to eat. badddd experience with some very unhappy people. we ended up eating at 4 at fuddruckers after failure at some places. after that much belated lunch we went back to our condo and pretty much chilled for the evening. my grandfather [yes thats what i call him] picked up long john silvers for dinner around 9:45. me and my mom watched a bunch of Charmed on our whole trip. i love that show :] the next day we woke up early to drive to gatlinburg, tennessee.

GATLINBURG
the trip there was amazing because we went through the smoky mountains which were just gorgeous. the bad part is they had all these little places to stop and take a picture, and my grandfather thought we should stop at EVERY ONE. so our trip took like 2 hours longer cuz we stopped at all like 50 stops. this really frustrated me and my mom. it was pretty...but after a while we got sick of stopping. after much confusion of finding a place to eat we ended up stopping at a mcdonalds in a small town called sylva. after more driving, we made it and settled at our hotel that was right along the river [what river idk]. we went to dinner at this place called bubba gumps shrimp company. omgsh it was amazing. its like the restaurant that "forrest gump set up after bubba died" our waiter was really cool. but before we got in we had to wait like 45 minutes so me and my mom went across the street to some of the shops. i got this AMAZING new belt. its a seat belt for a mustang that it black and rainbow checkered. i love it [and i'm wearing it now] they finally called us in to eat. at the beginning we noticed our waiter had an accent then we finally asked about it and apparently hes from russia. his name was alex and hes only been in the states 2 years. he came here through the foreign exchange program. after a great experience there, my grandparents took the car back to hotel and me and my mom stayed to go around and shop. apparently gatlinburg is like the home of everything ripleys. we only went to the ripleys believe it or not museum which was really cool. after that we went into lots of shops but didnt buy much. i bought some candy from this place that makes all of their own candy and it was sooo good. still got some in my bag. we went on this "ride" called EARTHQUAKE; THE RIDE which ended up being reallllllyy lammeeeeeee. the fun part was this guy that sat behind us who was 18 and messed with us the whole time. he was kinda cute too :P he kept trying to scare us more [which the ride was just pathetic] he definitely made the 6 minute ride worth the money we paid. me and my mom had to walk back to our hotel which was a 30 minute walk. but hey we needed the exercise. when we got back i took a shower then CRASHED.

MEMPHIS
we woke up early this morning [in gatlinburg] and got on the road to memphis. as usual me and my mom slept most of the trip. we had lunch at this place called the loveless cafe. the wait took FOREVER but they were smart and had a bunch of little shops around. i got a guitar pick and me and my mom got their own made peach and watermelon twists [like licorice] after the long wait we had some AMAZING food. i just got a side dish of macaroni, fried okra, fruit, and mashed potatoes and everything was great. plus i tried my moms chicken fried steak and it was the best i've ever had. we were stuffed after that great meal.

after more driving we've made it to memphis. right now we are sitting in our hotel room watching the scorpion king on tv. we hope to go eat soon. i'll update later.

ttfn
:]