Celebrating our Anniversary

Celebrating 12 Glorious Years together (6/23/13)

Hope all of you have had a great couple of weeks since I have been gone.  George and I celebrated our 12th Wedding Anniversary on June 23, 2013... We took a short trip north of where we live to Kentucky to do some hiking,  see some waterfalls --and just have a good time!

We visited the Cumberland Gap area to do some hiking and photography.  We stayed a couple of days at one of our favorite state parks,  Pine Mountain State Park.  While there we did ALOT of hiking and exploring that beautiful area.  Then we spent two nights in Corbin --and visited Cumberland Falls State Park and did a hike at Yahoo Falls which is near Whitley City.

We had a great time --but the highlight for me was seeing the Super Moon and the Moonbow (rainbow at night) at Cumberland Falls.  And of course,  we enjoyed a fabulous buffet dinner at the Cumberland Falls Lodge Restaurant on our anniversary.

Today I will share some pictures from our anniversary dinner --plus a few more of the highlights of this trip.  Above,  you will see a photo of us taken on our anniversary outside of the lodge at Cumberland Falls... Be sure to click on all photos for enlargements.  Hope you enjoy some of our MANY photos from this trip!

This is a photo of the lodge at Cumberland Falls State Park.

Here is a view from our table in the restaurant (taken through a double glass window).

Here is a photo of George at the table getting ready to eat!!!!!  Their Sunday buffets are fabulous (with lots of choices of salad items, meats, veggies, breads, desserts, etc.). 

And here I am getting ready to chow-down... Oink Oink!!!!!!! ha  (By the way,  my roast beef was terrific!)...  Don't you love our Mt. Rushmore shirts?

My Anniversary Gift from George

George gave me another one of his great photos on canvas (I now have 3 of them) for our anniversary.  This one was one of our favorite photos (which he took)  from Pikes Peak last September--showing the snow-covered mountain peaks  and the clouds in the distance.   Pretty,  isn't it? I love it!!!



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HERE ARE SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TIME AT CUMBERLAND FALLS STATE PARK:

Gorgeous Cumberland Falls  (showing off lots of water on 6/21/13)--68 feet high and 125 feet wide (known as the Niagara of the South)

Beautiful rainbow at Cumberland Falls--which we saw the morning of 6/22/13

That glorious full moon (Super Moon) --taken on 6/23/13 right after midnight at an overlook near the state park

Moonbow (Rainbow at night) at Cumberland Falls, KY-taken on 6/22/13 at 11:30 p.m.

We had tried a few years ago to see the Moonbow --but the weather didn't cooperate that year.  This year,  it was perfect.  However,  since it was a Saturday night (6/22/13) in Summer --and since there was a Super Moon,  about 500 million (it seemed) of our best friends joined us at the falls to see the Moonbow.  We did not have a good vantage point due to the people --and were lucky to see the moonbow at all.  However, we found out  that the human eye cannot detect the colors of the rainbow at night.  It looks all white/silver.  But--a good camera CAN..... George set the tripod up (which kept getting kicked by people nearby) --and set it for a two minute exposure.... Even though he is not satisfied with the picture,  I think he did well, under the circumstances.  SO--we left very pleased that we had seen it AT ALL.  The waterfall is out of our view (to the left) --but the spray/mist from the waterfall is what causes the rainbow... We WILL go back sometime --during the off-season, during the week (when there's a full moon), and will go about 2 a.m. Yawn!!!!!!!  SO---next time,  we may get something that looks more like the rainbow photo above (which was taken during the daytime at a good vantage point).....

All in all,  we loved seeing the Moonbow --since we had never seen it before --so there are no complaints from either of us!!!!!!   Can you see what a great anniversary we had?

Us on the Blue Ridge Parkway (6/27/13)

I'll close with a photo of us taken on our 2nd trip during those two weeks.  We took a trip to North Carolina to see George's son and family... AND--on the way there,  we just HAD to check out Craggy Gardens and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The reason I'm enclosing this photo is to show you our new Moonbow t-shirts which we got at Cumberland Falls State Park before leaving that day.  Aren't they pretty ---along with the mountain views behind us in this photo????

Hope you had a great couple of weeks...  I'll begin checking your blogs as soon as I have some free time... IF there are any specific posts you want me to see from these past 2 weeks,  please let me know so that I won't miss them.  Thanks!!!!

Happy July 4th to ALL and God Bless America.  Be sure to check out my Photo Blog  (click HERE)  on Wednesday for a beautiful patriotic photo.  

Hugs to ALL,

Emoticons

Three Very Different Sunrises

SUNRISE on February 14, 2013

As most of you know,  George and I visit  Mt. Nebo State Park in Arkansas at least once a year,  sometimes twice.  We stay in a little cabin on the top of the mountain with a view of the valley below.  One thing we love to do when we are there is to get up early and drive to Sunrise Point and watch the sun come up!!!!!

Today,  I will show you THREE different sunrises on three very different mornings.  One morning,  we experienced some clouds.  Another morning was fog in the valley below, and on another morning,  it was as clear and extremely colorful!!!!   Hope you enjoy seeing our sunrises taken at the same place ---but all very different,  one from the other.   Be sure to click on all photos to see enlargements.

I.  First,  comes the  FOGGY morning  (February 14, 2013)...  There is a bench at Sunrise Point where we can sit and just take in all of that beauty.  The picture above shows the bench ---and also shows the fog in the valley below... It looks like marshmallow cream down there!!!  Anyone got any hot chocolate????  (Hot Chocolate would have tasted good since it was a cold morning.)

Here's a close-up of the FOG below us.  Beautiful,  isn't it?

George took this picture of me sitting on the bench --waiting for that sun to pop up!!!  Except for being COLD (afterall,  it's February),   I loved sitting there gazing at the sky and valley below.

OH MY---Here comes Mr. Sunshine!!!  See it?    Oh Wow!

And here is Mr. Sun--showing all of his glory and majesty...  Anyone who doesn't believe in God has never experienced a sunrise!!!!!!   Awesome!

SUNRISE on February 15, 2013

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II.  Here is another morning that week (February 15, 2013)---with very different --but quite interesting results...  Here comes a morning with lots of CLOUDS around.   See how different it looks????

Clouds do make for a very interesting sky,  don't they?????  Like I said,  it's quite different---but beautiful in its own way.

When we finally got a hole in the clouds,   George got this picture of Mr. Sun ---peering at us through the clouds... Not a typical sunrise --but pretty, nevertheless!!!

SUNRISE on February 12, 2013

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III.  This was the best day for beautiful colors in the sky.   This sunrise was one of the most gorgeous ones I have EVER seen.  Hope you enjoy the photos.  The picture above was what it looked like when we first got there... The town below (Dardanelle, Arkansas) was beginning to wake up!

The sky just got more vivid ---and you can see the reflections on the water below.

Look at all of the colors in the sky...  (And this is not photo-shopped.  It is straight out of the camera!!! All of my photos are, since I seldom touch anything up.)   Amazing,  isn't it!  Thanks be to God for our beautiful world.  If we humans would only learn to take care of it!

Here she comes!!!!!  "You are my sunshine --my only sunshine."  (Don't know why sometimes I think of the sun as being a 'he' and sometimes a 'she'..... ha ha )

Finally,   that glorious sunshine appears and we can begin another day!!!!! WOW!!!

I am so blessed to get to sit on that bench and see those beautiful sunrises.   Our home here in Tennessee is between mountain ranges --so it's hard to ever catch a nice sunrise or sunset from here.   SO---as much as I don't like to get up REALLY EARLY,  seeing a sunrise like this makes it all worthwhile.  Thanks be to God for all of the beauty that surrounds us.

Hope you enjoyed all three mornings of sunrises.   We also saw sunsets (from our cabin) --so that post will come at a later time.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend --and don't forget to get out in nature and do some walking!!!  It's good for all of us!

BLOG BREAK:  We're going to take a couple of weeks off from blogging...  Lots of 'stuff' going on here.  Hope you are enjoying your summer so far.  We should start blogging again on July 1st.  I will be checking email and Facebook --so you can keep up with me that way if you want to.

Hugs,

Emoticons