Being Toursit in Our Own Area

     So, I made a "bucket list" for the summer. A list of all the fun things that I wanted to do. Most of the things on our "bucket list" are something that we can do on a Saturday night or a Sunday evening. Well, here we are over half way through the summer and we haven't done anything on our list so on Sunday I said that we were going to get a start on the list before we didn't have any time left to do any of it.
      So on Sunday we were tourist in our own area. We went to Santa Claus to check out the Candy Castle! We arrived and they weren't very busy so we thought we have chosen a good time to go, boy were we ever so wrong! We went in and started to check out all they had to offer, and we were there for a whole 5 minutes when out of no where it was packed with real tourists! But all in all it was a great experience.
        When we walked in we were greeted with a wall of "junk" aka little trinkets that all kids love! Then we walked in a little more to see a wall of taffy and flavored popcorn. I had never seen so many varieties of these! Along with a case filled with all types of candies!! It was a sweet tooth heaven! Along another wall was souvenirs: t-shits, hats, ornaments, that sort of stuff. We went up the steps to a little room with other Christmas treasures and decorations. This room lead into a bigger room full of books!! I was in heaven, Brad not so much. They have any and every Christmas story you could think of. This room also had the computer to which you could "chat" with an elf and see if you were on the naughty or nice list. During that holiday season Santa can also be find in this room.
      After we toured the whole building we got in the long line to get the famous frozen hot chocolate. Come to find out the reason they were so busy is because they have the cheapest Holiday World tickets around, so everyone goes there to get there tickets! We got our frozen hot chocolate, and it was amazing!! We plan to go back again for more and maybe take the avalanche challenge. The avalanche challenge is to drink 64 ounces of the frozen hot chocolate! I think we could both handle to do that!  We then went outside to do the touristy thing and take pictures in front of the castle.
       So item number one is checked off the "bucket list"! And I'm pretty sure that the candy castle is a place that we will go back to again and again, if not for any other reason but to get another frozen hot chocolate!!

Santa's Candy Castle

Being touristy and posing in front of the castle!

And a funny photo in front of the castle!

Booked and Ready to Go!!

      As of yesterday our 2011 Vacation is fully booked! I am so excited! I had been dragging my feet on getting everything worked out and booking hotels and just all around making a definite plan. I know, I know, who drags there feet when it comes to a vacation, I am probably the only one that does that. I have known since our last vacation to Iowa and Wisconsin last November that I wanted to vacation to the New England states/East Coast, but it has taken until early June for me to actually put this idea into a reality.
      It was a little bit harder to work this one out because everywhere that you anything on vacationing to the New England states tells you that the best time to go is in the fall when all the trees are turning, and well with Fall being my favorite season I really wanted to hold off until then to go, but with a scheduling conflict at work I wasn't able to make a fall vacation work for us, I was bummed but now I am really excited and ready for it.
      Once I started planning I had a hard time figuring out when to go, a farmer's schedule is so unpredictable and I had to make sure that we didn't plan to be gone at a time when Brad would really be needed at the farm. Once I had a tentative date I finally started mapping out where we were going and what we were going to do, then made a final decision on when we were going to go. I made sure that the dates that I choose were A.) okay for me to be gone, B.) okay for Brad to be gone, and C.) a time that we wouldn't miss out on anything exciting here at home. Once I checked with all those things I decided that August 6th-13th were great day for us to go!
      After I had the dates I started looking into all the other fine details of the trip. This has been one of the hardest vacations to plan out. Most people just pick a place, usually popular and book a hotel for a week and then go, and upon arrival they decide from day to day what they are going to do. In most cases I would do that too, but since I have decided that I want to travel all 50 states I have been working harder trying to squeeze in lots of states at a time. Well this vacation will include stops in ten, yes that is right 10 states! So doing ten states in a week meant that I couldn't be laid back and I had to have a plan, which is right up my alley, I love to plan and know what is going on when. I have a very hard time "flying by the seat of my pants!" So as I have mapped out all the details and figured out how long we can stand to be in a car together I took a leap and booked all the hotels!
       Now that it is all booked I am so excited, I wish that we were leaving tomorrow! So look for a post in the future outlining all the fine details of our 2011 vacation! Hopefully by then I will have the picture uploading figured out and will be able to add some pictures to the blog!

A Good Day to Swim

With record high temps and the need to relax we are over joyed that we have some good friends that have a pool. Even if they live in Haubstadt. Beth and John Angle have a big pool in their back yard and we have been trying to get down to go for a dip in it. With conflicting schedules and just an over all bust summer we felt like we weren't ever going to get there, well we finally were able to work it in to our schedules and went down for a day of swimming, food, family, friends, and fun! We loaded up what seemed like out entire house and headed down to the Angle's. We arrived and jumped right in! What a great feeling! The water was perfect and very relaxing! We swam for a few hours, and then we grilled out and enjoyed some yummy food! After we ate we jumped back in to squeeze in a few more hours of swimming before heading back home. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to do it again! Only next time we are using A LOT more sunscreen! Thanks Beth and John for letting us come down and enjoy your pool!

Dragging Main

   My mom came across the event on facebook called Dragging Main, it was set up by a local resident of Tell City. He stated that he could remember Tell City in the mid/late 80s being a fun place to come of age. Friday and Saturday nights dragging Main Street was kind of like the center of their universe. So they wanted to take this day and relive that time, and maybe show the younger "kids" what a cool place Tell City was to grow up in. Yes, they wanted drag Main one more time. With the windows down, playing cassette tapes really loud (8 track for older folks). Honking their horns at friends, hang out windows and yell at friends setting on the wall at City Hall.
     Well after the event was up for about a week and took off like wildfire, before we knew it there were well over 800 people planning to attend! Not to mention the others that might attend, and the many more that didn't have Facebook and heard it by word of mouth! It was crazy!! I never would have thought that Tell City would have been that "cool" of a place! They got permission from City Hall and the event was a full blown party on Main Street!! A DJ was set up in the front lawn of the court house and was playing hits from all years! 
      After hearing of all the craizness that was going to happen, I asked mom what the "drag" route was. Once I knew it I knew that I had to go and I had to drag main like my parents once did! I would have never imagined how crazy it was going to be. We (me, Brad and Misty and Brad) met up and loaded into Brad Bowman's parent's mustang went to eat at Chicago's Pizza and then we hit up main street. It was crazy! There were people everywhere. Car from the old days, cars from the new days, cars with the windows up and most cars with the windows/tops down. The music was up loud, the horns honked every other minute. Cops directed traffic as we drug main! The Frostop was open and was so busy they ran out of food! There were every bit of 1000 plus people and 100s of cars dragging main. People of all ages came out and watched or drug main. We started at one end did the "drag" to the pool and came back and there were so many people that it took from start to finish almost 2 hours to make the "drag"!
     It was the neatest thing to see. Not something that I ever thought I would see happen in my years. I am so glad to be a part of the event and really hope that the talks about it happening agian every year is true! I would love to be able to drag main time and time again. It brought a new life to Tell City, and we found a lot of shops and cafes that we would love to be able to go back to. Defanitly a Saturday night I will never forget!

 

A Much Needed Update

Wow, it's been quite some time since I've posted. I seem to think I am going to get the hang of the posting stuff, and I am going to post more often. But then I log out and never think of it again. LOL Not a whole lot has been going on in the Wilmes family. We are just living, loving, and laughing through everyday life. We have the house in order, for the most part. We have lots of little projects, with big price tags, that we want to do yet. We will someday get it all done. We are currently planning our yearly vacation. This year we are going up the East Coast, travelling to about 10 states. Getting me much closer to me goal of someday visiting all 50 states! So look for a post about our amazing adventures sometime in August! I am going to try and post more regularly for now on, we will see how it works out.