Lumberjacks and Margaritaville

Last weekend, Caroline and I meet up in Tennessee for a girls weekend! Last time we were in Pigeon Forge we saw adverts for the Lumberjack feud and we figured it had to be done. It was a dinner and a show though honestly the food wasn't that great. But the show more than made up for it. The pre-dinner show was a trio band.

Banjo and guitar

Our lumber jill, dancing.

It just ins't a show without a dancing bear.

I was quite surprised how many people were there considering it isn't anywhere near peak season. There were even a group behind us who had just got married that day. This was their wedding dinner. Not my idea of a good time but each to their own. They seemed to really enjoy it and got pulled up on stage to participate. 

Wedding group

The idea of the show is there are 2 families, the McGraws (our team in red) and the Dawsons (in blue) who are competing for the rights to log the last mountain after the smokies became a national park. So they have a lumberjack competition.

Ready to fight.

They did various activities. All really impressive. And they were very .... athletic! :-)

Chopping down a "tree"

We were encouraged to cheer for our team. And like good sportsmen/women, boo for the other side.

Boo!

They also had a lumber jill on each side who got into the action.

Jill and jack double saw.

Jack and jack double saw

Honestly though my favorite was the lumber dogs. They were just so happy. They came bouncing onto stage each time, so eager to do their job.  Basically they play catch and fetch for a living. The first one was jumping for a stick into water. Flying dogs! And a fetch the "duck".

Flying dog.

Got it!

"Let's go!"

Fetch for a living.

It was also really funny and light. The comic relief was a guy called Cookie who was a little crazy.

Cookie

Don't call a guy with a chainsaw a jerk!

Showing us the chainsaw.

My favorite was one of the cheats. They are supposed to put their hands on the top of the log for one event. But they wrote "top" on the bottom side so his hands were close to the chainsaw. But he got caught. However Derek was then told to put his hands on his bottom. So he did! (Current favorite photo!)

Hands on your bottom!

In action

Derek was my favorite lumberjack. He was so cute! After each win, they gave away a cookie (piece of cut off log) to someone from the winning side who was the most enthusiastic. Derek gave his to the little boy sitting near me who had been going crazy trying to get one. The kid was so happy!

There were also times when I had to cringe. The axes were real. And very close to limbs at times.

Too close for comfort.

The lumber jills also got into the chainsaw action.

Very happy with her chainsaw.

In action

And no one seemed the least bit fazed by heights. At least Cookie had a safety rope.

Cookie being nuts.

The lumberjacks did a "climb" up and down a 60 foot pile. With no safety lines. In about 10 seconds. It was like watching spider man! And coming down was more of a semi-controlled fall. It was amazing (and most of my photos were blurry).

Coming down. At speed.

The finale was the log roll, where 2 lumberjacks get on a log, in water and try to roll the other on off by spinning the logs.

Balancing

It was a best 2 out of 3. The second time, our lumberjack Derek landed funny. One leg either side. :( We think it may have been staged as they had a routine ready. But can you imagine being told that was part of your job!?!?!?

About to do the splits.

Dramatic finish.

The show was great fun and I highly recommend it.
After the show we went for a walk around an area called the Island. The whole place is a little bit over top (a cross between Vegas and Blackpool) but it made for good photos.

Night time display

I wish I could say my choice of hotel was carefully selected, as we were over the road from the lumberjack feud so could walk. But I don't plan that well and it was a complete coincidence. And even better was the fact that there was a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville a minutes walk from the show. 

Margaritaville

We had to wait a bit (as it was packed) but they had a great live band so it was not a problem.

The band

There was also a 72-yr old in tap shoes, just dancing away around the bar. He was very happy just dancing. I hope I am like that at his age. Because if you can't dance like no one is watching then, you never will!

Dancing in tap shoes.

We got a chocolate brownie sundae and of course margaritas, including a sampler selection.

Margaritas.

Enjoying our sampler.

It was a really fun night, though the bar closed at 10pm which was a bit of a disappointment. But still probably for the best. (I was really enjoying those drinks!) 

San Diego

On Friday night, we drove over to San Diego for part of the weekend. We underestimated the traffic a little, but eventually (after some confusion about toll roads), we got to the Air B&B we were staying at. People rent out their spare rooms and it is a lot cheaper than staying in a hotel. We stayed with Peter, who suggested a great Mexican place to eat at in nearby Little Italy. (I have no idea why it was called Little Italy as I never saw anything Italian. ) 

Enjoying Margaritas

Strawberry margarita

The bathroom of the restaurant was cool. I know it's weird taking a photos of a bathroom ceiling but it had loads of little birds on it.

Bird ceiling

 After food, we headed to meet Peter and some of his friends at a great brewery tasting room and then on to a bar. There aren't many open late in this area so it was pretty busy. We ended up playing doubles pool with a group of guys. (We were getting better and even came close to maybe winning at one point.) And it was fine until a group of suits turned up. They just wouldn't get out of the way and were really annoying, at one point jumping the line to play pool. But  other than them, it was a great night out.

Waterfront bar, playing pool

 We got up a bit later than planned Saturday morning (thanks to a few drinks and late night) and spent some time playing with Peter's cat before heading out for breakfast.

Pretty eyes.

 We got the trolley into town instead of attempting to find parking. It was the Gay Pride parade and a lot of the roads were closed or would be later for the parade. (If we had known about it before it would have been fun but we had things booked.)

San Diego downtown

 We had breakfast at a San Diego only chain, the Broken Yolk. It was very nice and they even had a man v's food challenge (which we didn't even think about trying!).

a LOT of food.

We walked through town and over to the marina to go to the USS Midway. They have a statue of the front of the picture taken as WWII ended. I think they called it unconditional surrender but that could be wrong.

40's glam (and me!)

The USS Midway was commissioned 2 weeks after the end of WWII but has been in every major combat between then and dessert storm except the Korean war.

USS Midway

We got discount ticket online so took the tour. You got a headset and audio tour. We managed to do some of it but hadn't left enough time to get through it all. You could easily spend all day there.

Anchor chains

Checking out the sailors bunk (minus the sailor!)

I would get completely lost. Never ending corridors. 

The Midway is an aircraft carrier. Each squad has their own ready room, which they decorate themselves and their own insignia.

Ready room

My favorite insignia

We then went up onto the carrier deck to see the planes which were really cool.

Folding plane

Shocked plane

 My favorite one was a helicopter you could have a look around inside. It was used to rescue people for the ocean. Even better, it was the helicopter, flown by Chuck Smiley, used to collect the astronauts from Apollos 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 after their trips to the moon! And occasionally as Marine One!

Looking out.

Just grinning

 The views across San Diego were really cool. (And the sun came out a little as well, after raining earlier - I am singlehandedly ending California's drought!)

View over San Diego

Back in the hangar we were super lucky and privileged to meet a WWII veteran, who landed on Omaha beach. He was a really sweet guy. As soon as he heard I was English, he launched into a story about after the landing, he was wounded 3 times, so was sent to London to a hospital with some buddies. (Their things would follow later.) There was a pub over the road and they were 18. So of course they went over the road and decided to drink all the beer in London (as he put it).

The next morning they were carried back to the hospital, with extreme hangovers. And he had a tattoo on his arm. He was no memory whatsoever of getting it. And he was been back since. And there is no tattoo parlor anywhere near the hospital. And as they hadn't got their things, they had no money. So he has no clue where he got his free tattoo!

Showing off his tattoo!

After the tour, we had booked a harbor cruise on the advice of some friends. I was a little concerned when we were shown down the dock and asked to wait in front of a questionable "boat".

Our cruise boat?

Then a few more came in. Including this one which a brave/crazy sailor seemed to be trying to pull in.

Heave!

But ours pulled in and we got good seats at the front (and coffee!). The narrator was an ex-Marine so he knew a lot about all the boats. I never realized San Diego was such a military town.
The views over the city were nice. It was a shame the weather wasn't better - we ended up going inside after a while. It was just too cold.

San Diego

Some interesting shaped buildings

Rachel sporting her new patriotic sunglasses.

One thing we wanted to see were the seals.

Sunbathing on the buoy 

Nap time

The last thing we wanted to do was go to Ja Jolla and see the sea lions. However we completely managed to miss the beach they should be on - maybe next time - but found another beach anyway to watch the "sunset" i.e, one light on clouds. We aren't having the best of luck with the weather and sunsets.

La Jolla pier

Surfing

Sunset.

We stopped in La Jolla for some food as we were starving. And found a propped up tree on the way back. Which Rachel had to test.

"Hold me up!"

I got a very large coffee (with extra expresso shot) for the drive home. It was all freeways. I am amazed that more people don't killed themselves or other people. But I finally figured out the rules for the freeway. 

- As long as you aren't going to take out the front or rear end of another car, changing lanes is fine. Closer the better. Wy waste space?

- Checking mirrors and blind spots is ok but not really necessary. 

- Driving close is encouraged. In fact if you can see the whites of their eyes,  perfect!

- It is best to be in the outer lane for as long as possible before realizing you need to take the right exit, whereby making the most of the dramatic lane crossing as possible. 

- There are no fast/slow lanes. Do as you like.

- Beware of the slow/right-hand lane - sometimes it will just disappear off to the right while the rest of the freeway continues elsewhere leaving you very confused. 

- And stay left/right could mean anything from the left/right hand lane to any of the possible 5 lanes you can get in.

It was long drive but I have now done LA traffic, 6+ lanes, in the dark. And not died! I felt accomplished and rather brave! (And very tired!)