Knoxville Skateboarding Saturday, February 07, 2009

Today, I ventured out to the Knoxville Skate Park. The park is great and has a few bowls, some stairs, rails and hubbas. It's a perfect mix of street and vert! The temperature got up to 65 today and there were a TON of kids (and 2 old guys) rockin' it out. Check out my Flickr page for more!

After hitting up the skate park, I headed over to The Board Room in fabulous Knox-Vegas. Some good friends of ours opened the shop this past Fall and I'd be willing to put money on it being the best skate shop in Knoxville. Some of the kids that were at the skate park must have knew I was coming because they were playing on the Xbox 360 when I showed up. After teaching them a lesson in s.k.a.t.e, I had them give me lessons in kickflips. I was able to get my board to flip, but just couldn't land it. All in good time. Here are some pics of the kids hitting up a rail in front of The Board Room.

The rest of the photos from the skate session at The Board Room can also be found on my Flickr.

Be a tourist in your own town Monday, November 03, 2008

Saturday, we decided to explore downtown Knoxville by bicycle. We love downtown, but we rarely do "touristy" things. There is this thing called the Sunsphere. It's leftover from when Knoxville hosted the World's Fair in 1982. Too awesome. There's an observation deck, so we went up for a look-see. It was a beautiful fall day, and we needed a break from our ridiculous week, so Erik slapped some new tires on his bike, and we were off. We had never been to the UT gardens (off of Neyland Dr.), it was great. Here's a photo log of our day...

University of Tennessee gardens.

View from a swing in the gardens.

ha ha, I caught the yawn!

Walking towards the Sunsphere.

Observation Deck

Local printing press, Yee Haw Industries shows support for Obama.

I love to pick up the weekly Metro Pulse.

Biking on the campus of UT. Lots of HILLS. I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden, the trees exploded with color this weekend. We thought it was going to be a brown fall. Not so!

Our church is actually in Oak Ridge, but I love the sign! We have loved being a part of this church since January. It's a warm place filled with people who love Jesus and who are constantly seeking out ways to serve others. It's great.

Local Runs Thursday, August 23, 2007

I love finding new places to run. Lately, I've been feeling like I've pretty much exhausted my options in Knoxville for new trails. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon this beautiful road called Melton Lake Drive. It has a running trail (Greenway) that runs along the bank of the Lake for about 3.5 miles. So, you can get a good 7 miler in by running out and back. It's absolutely beautiful! I ran it this morning, pretty early, so some of the thick fog was still hanging around, just on top of the water. Everything was completely still. Even though it's been ridiculously hot here, this morning there was a nice cool breeze coming off of the water.


The cool thing about this Lake is that it's actually a part of the Clinch River, which is one of the best rowing venues in the United States. A "rowing mecca", if you will. The Greenway runs right along the starting point for many of the rowing competitions, and you even get run right under the judges tower. Erik still hasn't run with me here, I need to get him out there! We've been training for a race in Chattanooga which is this weekend.

Fun with Mark Saturday, July 28, 2007

This past weekend, my brother Mark came to visit. We had the best time while he was here, hanging out in Downtown K-town, hiking and engaging in stimulating conversation. The above picture was taken out of the sun-roof of "The Love Boat" while we were driving around Cade's Cove to Abram's Falls. We leisurely hiked the 2.5 mile trail to Abram's Falls, taking pictures and falling in the creek. Mark was videotaping us out in the water and completely slipped off of a rock, which sent him reeling into the water. He had his video camera on the whole time and I'm hoping to get the video to post here. It was hilarious...I mean...I'm glad he was alright. Below is a picture of us at the water's edge near the base of the falls.

We also got to talk a lot about faith and God's purposes in our lives. Mark's growing and vibrant faith is so refreshing, we were encouraged just by talking to him. I'm so thankful to God for the work that He's been doing in Mark's life through his job, his friends and his girlfriend Jess. (Yay for Jess!)

Memorial Day Hike Monday, May 28, 2007

We spent Memorial Day hiking 10 miles on the Appalachian Trail to Charlie’s Bunion. In 1929, this hike was named after Charlie Conner who paused for a rest on the rocks, took off his boots and exposed a bunion or two that rivaled the surrounding stones! His friends promised to get the site named after him! We found Charlie’s Bunion to be one of the most beautiful hikes we’ve done this year.

When one gets a blister while hiking in the Smokies, whatever is one to do? Why, stuff a huge leaf in your shoe, of course! At least, that’s what Erik does...

Speed Blog #4 - Chimney Tops Saturday, October 28, 2006

Saturday was big day. After the race for the cure, Sonya and I went hiking with Renee and Amber in the Smokies. We climbed the Chimney Tops trail and it was incredible. The trail was rediculously strenuous. At times, you had to use your hands to help pull yourself up to the next step. It was worse than climbing the stairs of a skyscraper, but worth every step. Just to be out in such beauty really makes you think about God and how BIG He really is. He created this world for us to enjoy while we are here doing His work...and man, did we enjoy it. Check out some of these pictures...

Rock Island Tuesday, August 15, 2006

A couple of weeks ago we met up with some friends from Harding at a state park called Rock Island. It's here in Tennessee between Nashville and Knoxville. We had so much fun catching up with everyone and exploring the park. It's such a blessing to spend time with these wonderful people!

Look how small Andrew looks compared to the falls!

These crazy guys are sitting UNDER the huge falls.

"Ow, I have water in my eyes!"

There was definitely time for jammin'

Biking the Cove Tuesday, July 18, 2006

This past Saturday, My Mom, Dad and I biked the 11 mile loop of Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountians. It was AMAZING. We had biked it last year, but it was still breath-taking. We were sad Erik couldn't come with us, he had a birthday party to go to for one of his friends from work.

There were butterflies EVERYWHERE. They huddled together in groups along the roads and hiking trails. Most of them were Orange and black, but this blue one was different! After we finished the bike trail, we hiked a little bit and even forged across a fast-moving stream to get to a water fall!

It was an awesome day, full of marveling at the beauty of God's creation. If only it had been a little cooler. I think it was in the upper 80's in the mountains. Then when we got back to town (Knoxville), it was 95 degrees! We stayed hydrated thanks to Erik's Camelbak :)

A Day of Exploring Friday, June 30, 2006

Today, Erik and I decided to go exploring the island. We had read about a beach called "Step Beach", but on all of the local maps it was conspicuously missing! We had an idea of where it might be, so we took a chance and set out to find it. On our bike ride that day, we found a local gal who knew right where it was! This is a picture of me on the steps on the way down to "Step Beach". It turned out to be a lovely place, very calm and beautiful water. We napped on this beach for a few hours today.

After the beach, we set out on our bikes again. We happened upon this amazing bike trail. It went for miles, all through woods and grasslands! If only we had found this earlier in the week, I have a feeling we would have made this a daily ritual. It was so much fun! It's hard to tell in this picture, but Erik is way down at the bottom of a hill after speeding down. This was definitely one of our favorite spots.

Ok, this picture is cool because we set the timer on the camera and in only 10 seconds, Erik ran to the tree, climbed it, then posed! Dude, he must be part monkey.

Dos Beaches Were Cold, Mayn Thursday, June 29, 2006

We spent the morning on the Beach in Madaket. Ate some lunch, ran around, threw sand in Clint's eye...it was a lot of fun. The waves were huge and there were even some people surfing. Here's a terribly-staged slow-motion Baywatch-esque shot for your viewing pleasure. (Is Erik going to throw up?)

On the ride home, Sonya and I hopped off of the bus to tour a little bit of the island on our own. The rest of the crew hit the chocolatier in town...AGAIN!! Sony and I visited the oldest house on the island, which was built in 1686 and belonged to Jethro Coffin. After that we met up with the group and biked it out to the Sankaty Head lighthouse to get some night shots.

We stayed up playing our new favorite game again. Sonya lost the first Farkel and was introduced to the Pen 15 club (you'll have to ask her to explain). Another consequence was for the loser to allow everbody else to slap them in the face with a piece of lettuce. Clint lost that round. We tried our best to bruise him good, but Erik swung and missed - forfeitting his turn. Here's a great action shot of Rachel laying a good one across his cheek. And you'd think she'd have gone easy on him with it being their 4th anniversary and all.

A Night in Town Wednesday, June 28, 2006

We Spent the evening in town shopping and indulging in chocolate covered cranberries! Downtown Nantucket is really neat, with it's cobblestone streets and historic homes and churches.

We ate dinner at "The Tavern" down by the wharf. It's official...Erik now enjoys seafood! Especially Alaskan Halibut. We also grilled some fresh Nantucket Flounder the other night, which he was very fond of. I ended up liking it too, after I doused it in lemon juice. (If you know us, you know that we usuallly HATE seafood!)

As a nice ending to our evening in town, we took a stroll down the piers to see all of the huge boats in the harbour. What a beautiful place!

A Special Visit Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Our friend Tonia Hayes came out to the island today for a visit! She lives in Rhode Island, so she just took the ferry in for the day. We had so much fun catching up and seeing some of the sights in downtown Nantucket. This picture is taken in front of an old church, with one of the most spectacular views of the whole island from the steeple. We climbed all 94 steps up to the top. Here's a view through one of the binoculars...

We ended the evening tonight with our nightly ice cream run to the Sconset Market.  We've been throwing down the Ben & Jerry's every single night!