it started out kinda promising......

i'm feeling a wee bit lazy today, but i promised you a post, didn't i? i can't claim this will be one of my finest, but hopefully it won't leave you saying, "well- there's five minutes of my life i'll never get back."*

i'd love to show you pictures from last week's trip to the bahamas, but my laptop's with SO in charleston, my camera is here with me, and getting the two together for an up/downloading session is unlikely until next week. perhaps, by then i'll finally get the waterslide-induced wedgie (we spent a lot of time at the atlantis resort) fully dug out.

i'm pleased to report that the trip enabled me to cross another item off my list- i've officially been to three foreign countries since my last birthday. unfortunately, i'm still unable to cross off "learn to swim underwater without holding nose" and "find a giant, unoccupied conch shell on the beach", but maybe i can take care of the latter next month, when i cross off "travel all alone to someplace new", "hawaii", and "visit 3 world heritage sites"**.

i hung out with my six year old sidekick and her ten year old brother during the week leading up to the trip to the bahamas. (did i mention this already? i can't remember....) SO came up from charleston a couple of weekends ago, and we took the kids to king's mountain national military park with the hopes of not only getting our national parks passports stamped, but doing a little bit of hiking, as well.

we didn't have time for hiking beyond the battlefield loop, but during the informative video (during which SO fell asleep, though thankfully his snoring didn't disturb any of the other visitors), we learned several important lessons, many courtesy of patrick ferguson, who is buried on the site:

important lesson number one: do not eat green corn.
important lesson number two: if you're going to have more than one girlfriend, it is wise to pick two ladies with the same name. (as one historian in the video pointed out, this way no matter whose ear he was whispering sweet nothings into, he always used the right name.)
important lesson number three: don't tick off one of the aforementioned girlfriends. (one of the ladies, virginia sal, was killed early in the battle while tending to the wounded. the other virginia, whose last name i have been unable to chase down, despite searching for about twenty minutes now, mounted a horse, rode over to the patriots' side, told them about ferguson's bright red checkered shirt, and then rode off into the sunset.)
important lesson number four: red checkered shirts do not make good camouflage. (there's a reason targets are red and white, though i can't help but wonder whether that color combination was proven effective before or after the battle.***

i have visual aids for that trip, too, but until my laptop and my camera can be reunited.........

*brings to mind an old fling i had, come to think of it.......
**i've already got giant's causeway and my latest trip to the grand canyon under my belt, and i think hawaii volcanoes nat'l park would be a good way to round out my list.....or would it make a triangle, since it's a three-item list? hmm.......
***interesting sidenote: according to the article i just linked to, it seems davy crockett's dad fought in the battle of king's mountain. i didn't see it on any of the informative plaques scattered around the park, but to be fair, i only skimmed them.