Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is a wonderful place to spend a weekend, even in the cold months. You can spend a Saturday in February walking on the beach shells and even a good sized sand dollar can be found.

After you're finished with the beach, You can take a trolley tour of the town, or just follow behind to get a good view of this beautiful city. I've never seen a downtown so nice. I really just wanted to get out and walk around, but on my visit, I had little time to spend. The city was built on a plan, and has about 20 small squares, one every other block in the old part of town. Each square is filled with Live Oaks, some of which are grown with Spanish Moss. Live Oaks live to be very old and get to be rather huge. They are also evergreens, so they will still have their leaves in winter. Many of the squares have their own church, each one different from the last, but all of which are very beautiful. All the homes are also beautiful, with lots of wrought iron and wood. Someone with a little more time than I had might visit one of the forts there, take a trolley tour, and visit the cemetary with the famous statue featured in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". I'm definitely going to have to go back, to really tell you anything about it, but it's a beautiful college city by the coast with many places to eat and some interesting things to do, that should speak for itself.

Salt Mines

My husband and I visited the salt mines near Berchtesgaden while on our honeymoon in Germany in 2005. The reason we chose to do this was because he had gone there as a kid, when he lived in Germany, while his father was stationed there for the U.S. Army. This was an experience I will remember. You go into a building at the entrance to buy your tickets and suit up. After buying your ticket, the boys and girls go into different rooms to "dress out". Basically, what you wear is baggy pants, and baggy shirt, something like the style of karate outfits, but much baggier. Then you get a leather pad, which you belt around you so that it covers your rear.

Once we were all dressed up, we were ready to go. We had to wait a bit for our tour to begin because we had to wait for the trolley. The trolley is a little child size train that has a bench that you must straddle. I suppose needs for personal space vary from culture to culture, but this definitely violated my personal space. It was tolerable though, but you do have to scrunch up with all the other passengers.

So, we all cram together on this car, straddling the seat and crammed front to back But that's OK, because it's like a ride, and the little car takes off down the mine shaft, which is fun and mildly scary. I was ducking my head in moderate concern, and I'm only 5'2''. finally, we arrive at the end of our ride, at the first slide. The slides are the reason we all have leather butts. They are basically double wooden banisters that sit low to the ground. you straddle them (this time with loved ones only) pick up your feet, and take off. Remember being a child when slides were still made of metal? do you remember the dangerously tall slide, with the steep stairs, and you almost lost your stomach at the bottom? This is like that, but taller, faster, and not so hot. The pads protect you from splinters; however, you only ride 2 slides in the mines, so I largely suspect the pads are for the miners' personal amusement.

At the bottom of the slide we realize that this tour isn't in English. The conductor, who is a little intimidating with a gruff voice, is talking only in German. There are however, several wooden soldiers standing about, and one of them looks like a Buckingham palace guard, there is also a British flag over his head. with a speaker. So we go stand by it. This isn't a tourist place that a lot of Americans visit, so the only other people who speak our language are a very nice older Australian couple. So nice in fact, they tell us to come see them when we come Australia. They give us their address and everything, though I had nothing to write it down with. Every now and again through the tour, a speaker would tell us about the mining. At the bottom we rode a little boat across a little lake which was fun. You can do the same thing here in the Southern U.S. at the Lost Sea in South East Tennessee. From the lake it was on to a space violating inclined rail, with two boxes they fit everyone on the tour into. Finally, it was back onto the space violating trolley.

At the end, they gave us very small containers of the salt they make there, and of course, offered to sell us larger amounts. Having already spent our money on other souvenirs, we politely declined. Then we got on to ride back to the surface. Along the way, something went wrong, there were strange rumblings, then the sound of metal bending, then finally, Bang! an explosion, and light up ahead. Of course it was just a joke, and if it was my mine, I couldn't have resisted either. They language can sound harsh, but these people have a good sense of humor.

Even though this isn't something I would have picked out myself to do, I had a great time. I have to give it an A, but I will moderate that to an A- because when seeing a foreign country there are so many new and interesting things to do and see, and this doesn't really qulify as a must do.... but it is a good way to spend a few hours.

Holiday Vacation Locataion

Gatlinburg, Tennesseee is a popular vacation spot in the state, and is quite popular during the winter because of their Christmas lights and shops. Gatlinburg probably exists because it is right next to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, and is also attached to pigeon forge, which has arcades, laser tag, and Dolly Wood. I have been to Gatlinburg on 3 occasions, once passing through, twice to see it. In the summer months, the town is rather busy. There are a lot of pedestrians, and everything is pretty close together, all along one main road, so if you go, you'll want to park somewhere and walk yourself. There's lots to do here.

I love Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. It's full of all sorts of incredible, and rediculous items. There are a few similar museums, including one from the Giuness book of world records. Ripley's Aquarium is also highly entertaining, though not as good as Atlanta's aquarium. It has a long tunnel that goes under their tank, with lots of nurse and saw tooth sharks. Later you will be above the tank, and be able to look out over the water. There is also a nice touch tank with ways and sharks. There is also a space needle here, which is really not worth the cost, as well as a multitude of arcades, and small shops.

I prefer to visit in winter. I hate cold weather, and there are not many places I like to walk around in the cold, but this is one of them. I have never been before Christmas, but I would guess the place is very busy then, but I have found that the months of January and February are relaxed and still Christmasy. There are several advantages and disadvantages to visits at this time.

One the advantages is that there are many fountains in the area, and in the cold winter temperatures, many are frozen or partially frozen into interesting ice sculptures. There aren't a lot of people out, and walking by the creek next to the main drag is actually peaceful. You will easily find a parking spot in one of the lots, and you may be able to park free.

Of course, because it is the slow time of the year, some shops are closed for vacations and such, and all of them close early. There is a large granite ball in front of Ripley's museum, that spins with a thin layer of water: you will have to spin the ball, you will feel compelled to do so, but the water's just as cold as the water in the fountains, and touching it may require a hand transplant...

As a final note, the only restaurant we've actually sat down and eaten at here, was a miserable disappointment, and I'd like to take a moment to caution others. Calhoun's Restaurant claims to have great ribs, which means everyone orders the ribs, which means they cook them in advance, way in advance, and, in my experience, the ribs were semi cold and hard from sitting under a heat lamp. "But I don't want ribs" you say. Well, boycott them anyway, because they are evil and shouldn't be aloud to continue in their wicked wicked trixie ways. There are lots of other places to eat, and large amounts of carnival type foods are available from places that have counters that open right onto the street.

Overall, Gatlinburg is a great place if you live within easy driving range, but probably shouldn't be somewhere you feel like you have to go. The Smokey Mountains are more worth your while, but While you are visiting them, you might find Gatlinburg to be a good break from the great outdoors. I'll give Gatlinburg a B

City of Rocks, New Mexico

The City of Rocks is an interesting place. It is a "city" of monolithic rocks that form streets that wind all over the place. While it does not possess the massively tall formations of other similarly named locations, it does cover a large area. Most of the formations are about one story tall. This would be a great place to spend the whole day, exploring, bouldering, or just having a picnic.

There are some features that make this place unique. These rocks cover a considerably large area, and because there are no full size trees, some pretty interesting views can be found without having to climb too high. In addition to this, because it provides some of the only natural shelter in the area, these rocks have history.

Pioneers enjoyed its shelter, but so too, did Native Americans, and you can see evidence of their presence in round hollows in many of the rocks where grain was ground into flour. And then, there's the formation of these rocks. They represent the long eroded ejecta from a prehistoric volcano.

When we visited, we only had about an hour or so to investigate, so we didn't go too far in or explore too much, but it definitely seems like a great place to spend the whole day. Another bonus: it's free. It's definitely a fun place to visit, whether you intend to play hide and seek, war, do a little bouldering/rock climbing, or try to find the rocks that look like things.

It's value is even greater if you live in the area, as it would definitely require multiple visits to really explore it all. I give this an A.

Ice!

In Nashville, TN there's a little place called Opryland, a hotel with an indoor jungle garden, complete with a mansion on the hill, and a small Venice like town. You can take a boat ride, or go to the spa without setting foot outside. It's a fascinating place.

They like Christmas. In the winter, they put up a lot of lights, decorate the jungle with Christmas scenes and elves, and generally do cool Christmasy type things. They have a Rockettes Christmas show. They also have Ice! It's an indoor exhibit of ice sculptures, and Ice slides. I always thought this meant a room of sculptures, but we finally went in winter 2005, and it's actually better than that. It's a series of "rooms" created entirely of ice. It's 15 degrees, and they give you blue parkas to wear so you don't freeze, but you freeze anyway. The entire room is made of ice in each section. When we went, one room was a living room scene, with floors and wall, fireplace, piano, cat, dog, little girl, little boy, stairs, etc. and its ALL ice, very cool. The ice slides are in the largest room, done up to look like an ice palace (w/clear and painted ice). There were only 4 slides, 2 tall and 2 short. They are not the thrill that I have experience on wooden slides in German salt mines (More on that some other time) but they are fun enough for the kiddies. Other scenes include: a nativity scene, a large angel, a toy factory, Santa and his sleigh (but only Rudolph) a carriage you can climb into and have your picture taken, and a forest scene.

All in all, it's a very interesting time, and great for Christmasy photos. It's not too expensive, considering what it must cost to do and keep cold in Tennessee(about $12 each) but the major drawback for me is that it only takes about 15-20 minutes to walk through. It could probably take longer with kids and a shutterbug in tow, but still falls way short of my expectations in that regard. This is something that's definitely worth doing just to get it out of your system, but you wouldn't want to drive a long distance just for it, and probably won't ever do it twice. I'd give it a B.