Hot Local Vacation Spots

Summer is finally in full swing!

With Nashville, and most of the surrounding area recovering from flood damage, my family has been looking for alternative outings on the weekends. The weather is way to beautiful to just sit inside all day. I thought it would be fun to put up a couple of the cheesy (yet so much fun) places we have been this summer.


1. Lost River Cave - Bowling Green, KY
Too much fun. How many people get to say they took a boat ride through a cave? I know I didn't care that the water was only about three feet deep. There are also some pretty hiking trails around the cave.

2. Cooter's Place - Nashville, TN
After driving by Cooter's four times, we realized it wasn't a funny little restaurant to eat at, but rather a museum dedicated to the Dukes of Hazzard. My husband was like a kid in a candy store. I know he'll have a picture of himself standing by the General Lee on Facebook any day now.

While I'm here, I have to give a big shout out to Ft. Campbell for there wonderful fireworks display. We had a blast at the carnival. My only regret is that we missed the parachute team.

Anyone been to any great spots this summer not normally found on the map?

Wake...Fade...Gone

5/5 Books (As Always, Stars Don't Seem Right)

In the last few weeks I've managed to read about ten books. When things get hectic, I bury my head in book just to slow back down. (Sometimes I go a bit overboard once I have started. Like yesterday, in which I read this entire trilogy.) I read Wake and Fade quite a while back, but somehow managed to overlook Gone when it released. Slapping myself in the forehead while at the bookstore when I realized it had been out since February of this year, I came home knowing I had to read it.

Lisa McMann's Wake trilogy, in general, is the coming of age story for a poor city girl trying to figure her life out. Like most things I read, it has a definite paranormal twist to it. Janie, the main character, is a dream-catcher. Since the age of eight, she has been shockingly thrown into others' dreams. This 'ability' is destroying her body and sometimes her ability to make rationale decisions. Through a series of book worthy events, Janie is partnered up with her boyfriend to work as a narc for the local police.

However, the wake trilogy is not your typical teen light read. McMann does a fantastic job exploring some of the more difficult aspects teens today are faced with, and I am not necessarily referring to drugs and sex (though these issues are there, too). The main character is forced to parent her own mother, who lives in her own drunken stupor. Janie is degraded and blamed for everything wrong in the world any time her mother bothers to leave her bedroom, which is normally just to get another drink.

I would recommend these book to anyone. I feel that, while the story may be completely paranormal fiction, a voice of truth pores from the pages. Life is hard sometimes, and tough decisions must be made.