Happy Holiday

The 4th of July is here and before we start the fireworks I wanted to give a little recap of our wonderful trip.

Here's the view of Indian Creek from the cabin where we stayed.



Here's Cumberland Falls, the second largest waterfall east of the Mississippi River.



Further down this hiking trail we hit Eagle Falls. Later in the week we returned to swim in the pool formed below the falls.



Here are the other two waterfalls we hiked - Dog Slaughter Falls and Yahoo Falls. Yahoo Falls is the highest waterfall in Kentucky, and Dog Slaughter was the most secluded hike we went on. Most people were probably discouraged by the bridge being washed out at the beginning of the trail. The lack of signage probably didn't help either...





We also took a trip to Cumberland Gap, where Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee all meet. We hiked the Tri-State Trail and got a beautiful view from Pinnacle Outlook.





On the way home, we took a little detour and hit the Bourbon Trail. We did a full tour of the Woodford Reserve distillery, which was a lot of fun. The scenery was gorgeous as well, as the distillery is situated in the middle of horse ranch country.

Getting to Kentucky is half the fun

We are enjoying our time in Kentucky...after some roadblocks on Thursday, we finally arrived on Friday morning. Some of the highlights of the drive were seeing the big butter Jesus near Dayton, nearly being swept away by a deluge of rain on I-75 South in northern Kentucky, and hearing 5+ hours of Michael Jackson songs on the radio (RIP).

The highlights of the cabin so far are the views and the peaceful secluded setting. Internet access is a 20-minute drive so this may be it until we get home. Until then, here's the view from the deck....

One foot out the door

Well we're packing the car to leave for our vacation in Kentucky. Some great pics to come next weekend when we return. A quick update on the Summer of Herbie Zwei:

-Underground sprinkling - I may have mastered it after all. The lawn is looking good.
-Vegetable garden - it gets a C+ right now but there's a lot of potential.
-Softball - going to miss tonight's game but may be back for next week. Go Stud Boy!
-School - only the final team project remains. I will be studying financial statement ratios in the car and looking for a Starbucks with wi-fi in central Indiana.
-Beard - he gone. I shaved it all off. When asked, the beard said, "It was just my time. It was just my time."

Until next week, herbie on...

If a picture paints 1,000 words...

I'm not sure if I have time to do a written post that can fully describe how awesome the past week has been. So instead, I'll just share some pictures that convey the herbieness of it all...

A case of the Tuesdays

I didn't quite hit my goal of a Thursday post, so here I am on Tuesday morning. I've got a few much-needed days off work, and we're about to head out camping with some family members for a few days. So let's see, what's new since we last talked, other than the Red Wings blowing a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup finals and losing to the Pens on home ice. I don't want to talk about it anymore, it's giving me a headache.

-I got a tetanus shot because I stepped on a nail at our "cabin". Good times. I learned that you should have a shot every 10 years, or every 5 if you get a puncture wound. Also the bacteria that causes the infection is anaerobic. There's your biology lesson for the day.
-All the walls have been torn down in said cabin - it's starting to look a bit more promising and a lot brighter. More updates and plenty of pictures to come later in the summer.
-I'm about 2/3 done with my summer class (just took another quiz - 20/20 - woo-hoo!). Working on the final exam and group project - both will be done before we take off on vacation in about 10 days.
-BP's bachelor party went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time. Well everyone except my liver. Ouch. The wedding is Saturday and I've already got my tux - can't wait!
-My sprinkling system is almost running again. We were so close on Sunday but a pinhole in the solder foiled my attempts. Looks like it's gonna have to wait until next week...or month....or year. Sorry, grass.
-The Stud Boys sit at 3-1 and have a pivotal doubleheader this Thursday evening.

That's all for now, I'll check in when we get home later in the week. Until then, enjoy summer all you Herbie-ites. Herbie-ans. Herbians.

Thursdays with Herbie

It seems like I blinked and three weeks have passed. We're nearly into full swing in the SOH II. The first week of June brings the last day of school for most (but not for my lovely wife) so we'll consider this a quasi-kickoff.

First, I want to pay respects to the two-time champion of the River Bank Run 5K Speed Division, "Let's Jam". I posted the pic a few weeks back. The team fought an early start, impending rainshowers, and too many faulty timestrips to count (2 out of 9 didn't even register!!!) to capture its second title by a margin of over 9 minutes. Led by a few Chippewas, anchored by a pack of Bulldogs, complemented by a few Eagles, and even managing to mix in some Dutchmen, Let's Jam's victory was a true team effort. The team was 9 strong and most everyone improved upon their time from last year. One notable exception was yours truly, who dropped from 2nd to 4th on the squad, but my excuse is that I'm stil recovering. I think I can use it until the 4th of July, at least.

The goals for next year include a third straight championship, a team time of under 2 hours (we came in at 2:04 this year for comparison), and 6 more innings of postrace whiffle ball. The team has held two official and three unofficial championship celebrations. Just a few more months and the banquet circuit will be done. It's not easy being the top dogs, that's what we keep telling ourselves.

But enough about a race that happened four weeks ago, what else is happening in the Summer of Herbie, Part Deux, you ask. Well it's been quite eventful. Here are a few highlights:

-My Impala (aka the Employee) rolled over 200,000 miles this week. Around 4:30 PM on Wednesday, a little bit southeast of Lyons-Muir, the magical moment happened. I thought confetti would come through the sunroof and the lights would flash....alas, no tickertape parade. A bit of trivia - I've had only 3 cars in my life and one of them managed to reach 300k. Not sure if I see it happening this time around.

-My sister got married this past weekend. The rain stopped just in time for the ceremony, and the sun came out just in time for my reading (coincidence?). The bride looked lovely, the whole family was there, and the reception was a blast. I pulled out dance moves that no one ever knew existed.

-Softball is in full swing and the team is off to a 2-1 start. The Stud Boys might have a chance at the whole thing this year.

-I've managed to run four 5K races already this summer, including a 24:10 performance on Memorial Day. There will be more to come, and my wife keeps telling me about a half-marathon in September. Yikes.

-And finally (for now) I've completed two semesters of grad classes. I have 12 credits complete at Colorado State University towards my master's degree. Very proud of this one and I hope to keep this momentum going with one course this summer.

That's it for now. I don't think I have the time right now for frequent posts so I will try to save them up for once a week, at least for June. After that, who knows where SOH Jr. will take us...

We're back....

Welcome to SOH, Part Deux. Not because Herbie's back or anything like that, but we're here for another go-round. Check in soon for updates, photos and even some reminiscing from summers past. I can't wait. Until next time, here's a pic of the 2009 RB Run 5K Champs. Writeup to follow this weekend.