As Promised: Part II

On the second day of our trip we went to George Washington’s house at Mount Vernon. I had no idea he was as filthy rich as he was, but at one time he had 8,000 acres and just under 400 slaves. The house was situated on the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia, and had an incredible view looking across to Maryland. It also had an assortment of animals, including these sheep, some cows, and man-eating chickens.

Uncle Ted almost became entangled in a fight to the death with a rooster on the farm. Thankfully, no one else was around to witness the four of us running for our lives through the farm yard with the chicken hot on our heels. We escaped unharmed, and now we will think of that stupid bird every time we eat chick wings. Mmmm, make mine with Buffalo sauce.

The water was probably just a little cold, so we just stayed on the bank of the river.


Yeah, this Florida born child was not too thrilled with the freezing temperature, and especially not too excited about the cold ears and runny nose that came with it.


After walking around the area we ventured to the big house. The servant’s quarters alone were bigger than most of the farm houses in Virginia at the time. So George had some money.


The only bad thing about this trip was the herd of middle school kids that arrived in about four school buses. I imagine this place gets its fair share of running and screaming kids every year. The only place I ever got to go on a field trip to was Fort Fizzle. Not quite as exciting.

I think the main house had seven bedrooms or something, but unfortunately no bathrooms. You had to walk about a hundred yards away from the house to the "Necessary" as they called it. Probably not a lot of fun at 2AM when the temperature fell well below freezing.


After checking out the house where all kinds of famous events occurred, we went to the museum and learned all sorts of interesting things we never knew that we never knew about George Washington. In all, I’d give it two thumbs up and say it was worth checking out. Still more photos to come!

Spring Break in D.C. Part I

Well, our trip to the capitol was fantastic and we made it back just fine, even though the drive was very, very long. But it’s good to be home, and now I have to go through all of these pictures to find a few to post. I was going to make a big slideshow, but I really don’t feel like doing that again at the moment. So instead, I’m going to put these pictures up over several posts. So here is Part I of our trip to Obamatown.

I saw this place on the map, and it was just a short drive off the interstate, so we had to stop. Who knew the land of our people was South Carolina. Paul may be the only southern born Sellers, but apparently it’s in his blood.

We stopped at the town hall and I put my name on the ballot to run for mayor in the next election. I’ve gotta be a shoe-in with a name like this. Unfortunately, this vibrant community is home to only a run down market store, this town hall, and a few farm houses. Not exactly a burgeoning metropolis. But if its serenity and humidity you desire, then catch the next train to Sellers, SC!

If you’ve ever driven down 95 in either direction you may have heard of this South of the Border place. Yeah. Driving north there were (seriously) about a hundred billboard signs for this… uh, tourist destination. In some points there were billboards every 100 yards. The shear volume of advertising rivals Coca-Cola, so you’re bound to stop just to see what the heck is going on in this place. Well, don’t. They definitely put more time and creativity into the signs than the place itself. So just keep driving, that is, unless you like spending money on useless garbage you could find at any dollar store. There were some interesting photo opportunities though.

Not sure what a giant gorilla has to do with Mexican themed junk, or why a Mexican themed junk shopping center is located between the North and South Carolina borders, but it’s here anyway.

What's better than a giant gorilla? Well, a giant flamingo of course. Or the giant stereotypical Mexican guy with sombrero and poncho. They had a lot of those.

And there's a couple of them. I should have bought this hat. Too bad it wouldn’t fit in the car. Alright, I’ll actually post some pictures from DC tomorrow.

Break it up, Spring is here...

Spring Break is finally here, and it’s about time. I had a ridiculous ethics test this morning (which was a retake, because I’m naturally an unethical individual and unfit to practice law in any jurisdiction apparently… or maybe I just don’t have the time to memorize 1000 pages of ethics rules that really aren't even the law in many states). But the feeling of relief afterward was pretty incredible. Thankfully, I won’t have to retake it again until August. Actually I should be ok this time though because I answered every question with “(F) Cheat… cheat like crazy.” Tomorrow we’re loading up our stuff, and on Monday heading north. When we get back, the apartment will look pretty empty. All that will be left are broken pieces of furniture (the computer chair arm just broke in half yesterday while I was sitting in it), two beds without frames (it’s easier for Paul to get in and out now), and a bunch of discount appliances and Wal-Mart fine dishware. Yep, we’re living the good life. But when we get back it’s only eight weeks to go. But anyway, we took some photos today, so check it out.

Just lying around with his "Wheels"

Checking out how he looks sporting "The Mason"

Yes, he has been working on the railroad.

Well, well... what do we see in here?

Where's your goofy looking railroad hat, Dad?

Oh man, what will they make me do next? This wasn't in my contract.

Ah ha! Catch me if you can!

Don't hide behind me mom, it's about time you got your photo taken.


Alright, that's enough of this. I'm putting the cap on this thing.

Well, we're heading out early Monday to go to D.C., so hopefully next weekend we'll have loads of good photos to post!

To Atlanta and Back Again

Well we made it home safely from Atlanta last night, but not until around 2AM. It was a long, dark, and rainy drive home, but thankfully we made it safely. Our quick stay in Georgia’s biggest city was pretty exciting overall, and I think we both were relatively impressed with it. Definitely a lot different than Jacksonville, much bigger, and it actually had hills! And it looked like they experience winter up there (kind of) with the leaves actually falling off the trees. It would have been great to hang out for a while, but we made the best of our two days. On Friday we braved the downtown area and pouring rain to see the World of Coca-Cola. I guess it’s kind of annoying that they brag about how many billions of cans of Coke they sell a day, and then they charge you to get in to see how incredible they think they are. I’d still take a Mountain Dew any day. But it actually was really cool, and we got to sample 64 different products they produce world wide! The African drinks were awesome, the Europeans not so much. And everyone got a refreshing, newly bottled Coca-Cola on the way out! So it was worth it.

While I was taking the test and waiting to be interviewed, Becky and Paul went to the Georgia Aquarium, and apparently Paul was a fan. I guess he ran around and told everyone about the fish – as if they couldn’t see them for themselves. They had whale sharks, hammerheads, beluga whales, penguins, otters, spider crabs, screaming children, people with digital cameras, and all sorts of other things for him to gawk and point at. And after four hours, he was spent.

So, unlike my last post concerning the Florida Keys, I give the city of Atlanta two thumbs up. If you haven’t been, you should check it out. Maybe someday we’ll get to go back and stay a while longer. Coming next weekend for the Florida Sellers: Washington, D.C. and an 11 hours drive. So continues our well traveled year of 2009. By the end of the year we may have lived in four states and traveled to half a dozen others. Should be fun!

More Paul TV

I recently realized it's been a long, long time since I posted any videos. I guess we don't take that many, and when we do, I never think to post them. So here are three videos Paul and I made today while Becky was at work. We stopped at the school playground by our apartment and Paul was all about this tunnel. Check out his new found word skills!

Hopefully the quality on these videos is not too bad for you. He's doing pretty good with the whole counting thing now too.

He's getting too old, obviously.

Hope you enjoyed them! I'll try not to take so long putting other videos on here next time.

Now we've seen it all...

Up until last weekend we’d been just about everywhere in this state except the far south (technically we’ve never been to Pensacola, but we’ve been close). So we decided before we leave, as long as we’re this close, we’d better go check it out. It was a long, long, long way down the road, but we made it. Miami was incredible, but extremely crowded. The clear blue water, twisting palm trees, and thousands of high rise condos were everywhere, and it looks pretty much like they show it on TV. Unfortunately, we never made it to Miami Beach. We were there, but with ten thousand cars and twelve parking spaces, there was no stopping and looking to be had. It was pretty much a mess. We weren’t actually able to get out of the car until we got just out of the city and stopped at a state park on Key Biscayne.

Now Key Biscayne would have been very nice, but… by the time I got out of the car, I was ready to drown myself in the disappointingly cold water. You see, apparently the state parks in Florida are still operating in 1956… where people only carry cash. As we left Jacksonville on the interstate I said, “Maybe we should have gotten cash… nah, it won’t matter.” Wrong. I got in line at the toll booth to go into the park, and with 50 cars behind me, I handed the lady my debit card. She looked at me like she didn’t know what a debit card was. We only take cash. What year is this? 2009? I’m sorry, what is cash? Those green things with the heads on them? Who carries those?? So she had to fill out this form while the angry drivers behind me cursed profanities in my direction (then they saw my University of Montana sticker and understood what was going on). So I was angry, and all I wanted to do was stop the car and get out to see the ocean. So let’s just stop in this parking lot. That’ll be five dollars… cash only. Right. Ok, I saw a big aquarium back there, maybe they have an ATM, let’s pull into their parking lot. If you want to park in this lot, it’s eight dollars… in cash. How in the Hell am I supposed to use the ATM in this place if you won’t let me park without paying you in cash first?? I already told every other lady trying to rob me that I don’t have any cash!! And if I had had cash before, you people would have sucked it all out of me by now by charging me to breathe the air in this park!!! So the guy let me into the parking lot to use the ATM machine. And I paid him eight dollars just to use it, because there was absolutely no reason to stay at the aquarium. They wanted $70 to fight through the three thousand screaming kids to see a bunch of stupid dolphins. But it was ok, we did see a light house, and I was able to stop the urge to throw myself over its railing. And I got to see the first toll lady again, which was nice. Because I had to leave the park, come back in, pay her $3 for the first time, pay her $3 for letting me come back in to pay her for the first time, and then I finally got to leave. I won’t be going back.

The second day was much better, even though the anger of the first carried over somewhat. The Keys were kind of disappointing altogether. They haven’t built anything new in 40 years, so if the last time you were there was when Kennedy was president, it looks the same, only dirtier. Key West was definitely worth seeing, but you had to drive 50mph for 150 miles to get to it. Take a plane, or a cruise ship, and save yourself the annoyance of two lane traffic and 50,000 tourists. The Seven Mile Bridge was also impressive, and the palm trees were nice. The Key Lime pie was incredible, and I don’t like Key Lime pie, but I could’ve eaten a whole one. Buy a souvenir in Key West, in Key Largo the same thing is three times the price.

Overall, just go to Destin. The beaches there are ten times as nice and not littered with dead seaweed. And in Destin they might actually have those machines where you swipe your card to pay for things. It’s incredible, you don’t have to carry a thousand one dollar bills to pay the tolls when you go to Destin. Or Jacksonville Beach for that matter. Jax Beach is free. It’s free to park, it’s free to breathe. We don’t have palm trees on the beach, but we also have sand on our beach, not sharp dried up sea garbage. Stupid Florida Keys.

Whatever, I’ll stop whining and you can look at these pictures. At least we got some pictures, and we look happy in them. I guess we’ve both worked in retail stores at some point, so we know how to smile through the rage. And Paul, well, he’s always happy.

Until our next fun filled family adventure!

Gotta Wear Shades...

Another weekend is gone, as is the first month of 2009. Time is flying by faster than we could have imagined. In a few weeks it’ll be spring break, and we’ll be packing stuff up to move north. After that, there won’t be a whole lot left of the Florida Sellers. I added a countdown timer at the bottom of this blog, and at the time of this post, we’ve got just a little over 97 days left. And then what? Separate lives in separate states for two months, photo classes and bar exams, job searching and student loan repayments… it’s going to be a rough second half of this year. Right now it just feels great to drive the tight streets through the palm trees with the windows down out at Atlantic Beach… that’s what we did today anyway. If you can’t tell, I’m going to miss being the Florida Sellers. And I may even miss being a lifelong student… what the heck am I supposed to do in September?? No books to buy? No first day of school?? Let’s just hope I have a first day of work anyway. But enough about that, how about some pictures:

He’s doing alright, gettin’ good grades, the future’s so bright… Paul’s gotta wear shades.


One of our favorite things to do when Becky was pregnant was to walk the Riverwalk downtown. We hadn’t been in quite a while (mostly because it’s littered with unseemly characters), but it was the perfect evening and we knew we could do it before night fell, so we checked it out.



The highlight for Paul was watching the railroad bridge come down and seeing the train cross the river. He’s kind of a big fan of all things with motors and wheels. Trains, planes, and automobiles.



Also, we got to board a real life sail boat! An early 1900’s schooner from Virginia was docked at the Landing downtown and it was free to check out, so we mounted the deck hoisted the main sheets (not really, but we did pose for pictures).

Tomorrow (or technically today) means the start of week five of the semester, and next Saturday we’re headed to the farthest southern point in the continental United States. I’m sure we’ll have more to talk about then.