Reuniting in Tenn & to the Big Apple

A day late and more than a dollar short, we've finally started our trip around the world. On Thursday night we arrived at the Nashville airport for our flight to New York City to find that it had been canceled. Since that was the last flight of the day we were booked on a flight the next morning and sent away. Not the best way to start a trip, but other than losing a day in NYC (and having to unpack and repack again), it wasn't too much of a problem. Andy's parents were kind enough to put us up for another night in their hotel and hotels.com saved the day by refunding our canceled night in NYC (they even ate the costs when the hotel stuck by their cancellation policy!).
After Andy spent a week in Joplin with me, we said good-bye to my family and friends and met up with his family in Russellville, Arkansas. From there we drove across Tennessee though Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville to Sevierville for the Pennington Family Reunion. (Andy's mom's family met there for their every-fifth-year event.) Sevierville is a small town next to Pigeon Forge (home of Dolly Parton) just south of Knoxville that has a Branson, MO feel with a view of the Smoky Mountains.

We had plenty of BBQ along the way and in Knoxville, spent some time on the river walk, took a paddle boat ride, saw the world's fair park and visited the University of Tennessee... that town is orange and white through and through!

In Sevierville we hung out in our condo resort, with a view of the mountains, where we swam and met up for dinners in the evenings, including a dinner show at the Dixie Stampede. During the days the boys visited Bass Pro and did some fishing while the rest of us drove up into the mountains for a picnic lunch and spent some time in the pool. A rafting trip also gave us some relief from the heat and humidity. Since Brooke (Andy's niece) wasn't old enough we went on the lower river (1-2 rapids)... there wasn't too much rough water, but we had a good time!
After the reunion, we headed back to Nashville where we had a fun dinner at the Aquarium restaurant (its huge tank full of fish, sharks, sting-rays and an ugly eel kept us all entertained). We visited the Bell Meade Plantation the next morning where we toured the mansion and learned the history of this prosperous thoroughbred farm. Thanks to our cancelled flight we stayed one more night in Nashville before finally saying good-bye to Andy's family and getting on our way.

Safely home then to NYC

As I'm sure most of you know, Andy and I arrived safely back in the USA. We left Auckland on July 13th and landed in Kansas City on July 13th after about 24 hours of straight travel, but other than slight delays on all our flights it was hassle free. We were thrilled to be home and were excited to sample lots of our favorite foods (we'd been missing Mexican, bbq, turkey sandwiches and Bud/Miller Light beer), see friends and family... and drive on the right side of the road again. This, along with some other things, took a bit of getting used to, but otherwise it was easy to get back into the swing of home. Compared to NZ's generally outrageous prices, we were amazed at how cheap things seemed here... $2-4 beer (instead of $6-8), $5-10 meals (instead of $15-23), $10-30 shirts (instead of $30-90), and $2-3/gallon gas (instead of $5-6) just to name a few. We had to keep reminding ourselves to factor in the exchange rate, tax and tip that we had to pay here, but we were still getting a much better deal!

I (and I say I because Andy and I have been apart for the last few weeks - which has been quite a switch from the past 14 months) have really enjoyed seeing all my friends, spending time with family, getting behind the wheel of my car, shopping (yes, even in Joplin), and just relaxing in the warm weather. It's been awhile since I've been in weather this warm and after months and months of temperate NZ, it's a nice change.

I've been working with my Mom on TJ Formal stuff since I've been home and finally got to see our newly remodeled store. My mom, sister and I also fit in a quick trip to New York City courtesy of one of our prom companies who invited us to an elite showing of their prom line for next year. We, along with a handful of top stores across the country, were the first to see the dresses and were asked to critique them and make suggestions to help shape the final line. Pretty cool. Although we didn't have much time there, I still managed to snap a few pictures of Times Square, Columbia University and the restaurant from Seinfeld!
I'm posting my pictures on Picasa Web Albums now, so you can stop by and see the newest additions then check back as I do some back tracking later on. Thanks for reading!