Adventures in Weekend Getaways

Last weekend Kayla and I decided to take our first spontaneous vacation. We've always discussed the possibility of such a trip but never actually found the time or bravado to pull it off. It all started last Friday when Kayla got home from work around 3pm. We didn't feel like sitting around the house for another evening so we began discussing things to do. Our ideas quickly grew from a simple trip to a local park to a full-fledged vacation. By 3:30 we had agreed upon a destination and by 4pm we were in the car driving towards Little Rock, Arkansas. Most of the trip down there was spent discussing how shocked we were that we were actually doing this.

We found a bed and breakfast in downtown Little Rock which was affordable and close to the city. Little did we know that this is what it looked like...

The word "romantic" doesn't even come close to describing it. We felt like Royalty the whole time. Saturday morning we ate breakfast with a couple from England who ate with such elegance that we found ourselves constantly watching them eat and probably made fools out of ourselves in the process.

We began our day by visiting the capitol building. It was really cool to walk around in because we had the entire place to ourselves.

Next we went to the Clinton Presidential Library. The place was huge and we could have spent hours there looking through all the stuff. Whether you like the guy or not, the life of a President is definitely worth exploring. This is a picture of the elaborate library from the outside...

...and this is a recreation of the Oval Office. It's accurate right down to the picture frames on the desk.

The next leg of our journey took us to the Little Rock zoo. Kayla hadn't been to a zoo since she was 10 and her enthusiasm and excitement for seeing these animals seems to have grown exponentially ever since. Even though it was a little on the chilly side, most of the animals were still out and made for a pretty entertaining time. Mom, this first picture is just for you...

Check out the baby in this picture. It was really fun to watch play.

The final part of the trip, and the original intent of the entire adventure, was hiking. Thanks to the recommendation of a friend who now lives in the vicinity, we hiked Pinnacle Mountain just a few miles outside of Little Rock. We began by taking the wrong trail (who could have known that the trail titled "summit trail" takes you to the top and the one titled "base trail" simply took you around the bottom) which ended up taking us all the way around the base of the mountain to the opposite side. From there we caught another trail going to the top. I'm not sure that I can adequately describe the trail which was really more of a massive pile of rocks resulting from numerous rock slides. I would actually consider most of the journey a climb rather than a hike since we were literaly climbing from boulder to boulder for the better part of an hour and a half. My fit little wife was going like it wasn't even a challenge while I was so exhausted that my legs began shaking and I wasn't sure if I'd even make it. I definitely considered the possibility of calling in a helicopter evac but helicopters and I don't get along. This is a picture of what the trail looked like...

Just when I thought we couldn't go any further, we reached the summit and were rewarded with one of the most amazing vistas I have ever seen. The view was absolutely amazing in every direction. I assure you, these pictures don't even come close to doing justice to the real deal. We could have stayed up there for hours just looking around. It was absolutely astounding and provided the perfect end to an amazing 24 hour vacation. Make sure to expand these pictures if you can.

If you look closely in this picture, you can see our car in the parking lot just to the left of my left arm near the pointed section of the rock.

Kayla and I think that this picture almost looks fake...Pinnacle Mountain is interesting in that it is such a sudden and high peak in comparison to its immediate surrounding.

This is a picture of the path we took back down (which also just so happens to be the "easy" trail which we would have taken had the signs not been so confusing)

ATTENTION!!! The decade-old mystery has been solved!
You know how one sock always seems to just mysteriously disappear? Well we've found where they go!
So I walked into the bedroom tonight to find a very strange sight indeed. Do you notice anything strange about this picture?


When you zoom in a little closer, this is what you see...




Yes, that is in fact one of Kayla's socks hanging from the ceiling. She informed me that she was changing clothes earlier and one of her socks seemed to disappear. Well we found it! We're formulating a theory based on a combination of lunar gravitational equilibrium and the inherent spontaneous flight of cotton but the full investigatory report has been classified and thus we sadly may never know the truth.
Just remember, though, next time you think you lost a sock, check the ceiling.

(There was some debate in the Newlywed household as to whether or not this was a blog-worthy event. For an answer to this question, we will rely on our loyal readers to weigh in. Keep in mind, this was the most interesting event to happen to us all day.)

So last night was an adventure to say the least. It all began around 5:30pm when the tornado sirens starting going off. We were quite surprised and turned on the weather only to see a tiny little storm that seemed harmless. We assumed it would all be over in a few minutes. We were wrong. The sirens didn't turn off at all for another 3 1/2 hours. A small but severe storm would pop up around Aurora (southwest of Springfield) and travel straight up highway 60 till it blasted Springfield. The second that the storm passed on by, they would pan back down to Aurora and there would be another identical storm following the exact same path. This honestly happened almost a half dozen times. The storms moved fast and would hit like a freight train. The only variations would be in what part of town experienced the hook echo portion of the storm - sometimes it would be northwest, then southwest, then west central, then it would be northwest again. There were confirmed tornados everywhere and the weather field reporters never had to move at all because each storm came right along the same path as the last. Cory, Ryan, Kayla, and I managed to get enough Cheezies pizza inbetween storms to last us through the national championship game. It was such a surreal experience. It's mid-January, we're watching football on tv, and during commercials we'd flip over to see how close the next tornado was getting. It was almost comical in how natural and relaxed it seemed. Kayla was well prepared for the worst, however, and had an exceptionally well-stocked storm shelter assembled in our bathroom. There were more than a few jokes made about the potential of four of us squeezing into the tub together. Below is a picture of our storm shelter...
There was finally enough of a break between storms for the guys to rush back to their dorms and Kayla and I went to bed. That's when the really interesting part began. Around 3am, Kayla woke me to let me know the sirens were going off again. We turned the TV on just to see the same situation as earlier in the evening. I was bored with it all and tried to go back to sleep. Fortunately, Kayla stayed up to watch it more closely. The weathermen were very earnest for everyone in Springfield to take cover but the rotation was occuring in southeast Springfield near Battlefield mall and thus I felt fine going back to sleep. Then all of a sudden the weatherman reports a confirmed tornado at the intersection of Kansas and Bennett. I realize that you don't know where that is, but let the fact that upon hearing that, I was out of bed and dressed in less than 10 seconds speak for the proximity of that location. Being a male, I obviously rushed to the window rather than the bathroom. There was a faint roar that I first perceived as thunder until I realized that it was constant and therefore must have been wind. Just as I looked outside, a toy car large enough for Titus to ride flipped on its side and started scooting along the concrete on its side. I then looked out into the street light to see the pouring rain blowing nearly due north as opposed to the toys and trees in the courtyard blowing due south. That was enough for me. I'd say that's the most scared I've ever been during a storm. We later heard that a building had been destroyed at Sherman and Chestnut which is located directly north of the baseball stadium. I drove by this morning to take the following pictures...

Amazed at the incredible proximity of this destruction, I did what any good cartographer would do: I rushed to work to create a map of the situation. I just had to let you all know how close this thing really came to us. I'm guessing that a funnel cloud passed within 200 yards of our apartment. Here's the map I created...

Well there it is. That's our story. I told Kayla that most people live their entire lives without being within 200 yards of a tornado. It's exciting now but it sure was scary at the time. I believe the newspaper this morning listed 18 tornados around the Springfield area yesterday and this morning. I think most of all, we were just excited about finally having something to put on our blog.