Last night was our West Coast Trail wrap-up. Wrap-up meaning pot luck dinner, discussion and slide show. What a great group of cooks we have! Everyone brought the dish they signed up for and more. From Barbara's kitchen we had pork tenderloin, sour cream potatoes and roasted vegetables. From Kim's kitchen we enjoyed an incredible cauliflower, broccoli and poppyseed dressing salad, Italian bread and a drop dead delicious homemade German Chocolate cake.

Robin whipped up a yummy blueberry and lemon cake. It was a light, sweet and tart, all at the same time (I had a piece for breakfast after my run this morning...thanks!). Bill prepared an eggplant pasta that was so good, he may have reformed me into an eggplant eater. And Sean arrived with several pans of Chicken Marsalla that he had just pulled out of the oven...yum, yum! We cleansed our palates with Steve's fruit and lots of wine.


From left: Lisa, Sean, Will, Kim, Robin and Bill


From the right: Steve, John, me, Barbara (yes we got the yellow memo), and Sybil

If all this food was not enough, we spent several hours staring at pictures of the West Coast trail on my living room wall as we popped disc after disc into the projector. Most of us still agree that this is not a hike we want to do again!

We also enjoyed pictures from Steve and Sean's trip to The Wind Rivers (a week after our trip). John, Barbara, Will and I (plus several others) took a similar trip in 2003 so we thoroughly enjoyed the pictures. Wind Rivers, by the way, is a trip we WOULD do again!

So now we can put the West Coast Trail behind us and look forward to our future travels. For John and I, this will be the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in just a couple of weeks!

Yeah!! Movies on Market Square is back. Last night John and I grabbed a Tomato Head pizza, set-up our lawn chairs on The Square and kicked back to relax and watch the film "Jaws." "Jaws" is celebrating its 30th year in release.

This was my first viewing of the film. I didn't see it in 1975 because I was still interested in going to the beach and riding the waves. Either my interests have change or I am not so easily frightened cause I couldn't wait to see what I missed! Richard Dreyfuss certainly looked a lot younger in the film...hmmm, guess we all looked a lot younger 30 years ago. Anyway, it was a great night to be outside, watching a flick under the stars!

I have been working on my interim pottery project...pinch pots. A simple concept really, start with a ball of clay and make small pinches until you form a shape, just like in elementary school art class. To do it right, the process can take a bit of time and patience. I thought I would get restless, instead I found it relaxing and challenging. I am proud of my first two pots, rough as they are. As soon as the pots are glazed and baked, I will show you the final product!


Pinch pot 1

Pinch pot 1, view 2

Pinch pot 2

Pinch pot 2, view 2

Today is the last in summer's trilogy of holidays. Labor Day means that fall's cooler temperatures cannot be far off. While a good part of this holiday weekend was spent doing yard work, yesterday John and I spent most of the day playing.


After breakfast at the Atlanta Bread Company in Maryville, we took a late morning hike in the Great Smoky Mountains. This was a stroll really, a short 5-miles to stretch our legs. We started on the Little River trail, circled back on Cucumber Gap and returned to the car on Jake's Creek. Lots of cars in the area but most people had picnic baskets in hand and were looking for a good spot along the river to relax. We saw very few people on the trail.

In the evening, we headed downtown to watch Knoxville's most spectacular fireworks display, aptly named "Boomsday." In previous years, the city held the celebration on the Labor Day Monday meaning many kids were very late getting to bed on a school night. Several years ago the city moved the show to Sunday night providing attendees a day to rest before the school and work week begins.


With attendance in excess of 100,000 people, our city police did not appear to have a good game plan for traffic. Cars, pedestrians and poorly timed traffic signals produced a lot of chaos but people arrived in mass, lined up to buy $4.00 funnel cakes, listen to the bands, hangout and watch an incredible fireworks display. The photo above is the view from the Gay Street Bridge, looking down on Neyland Drive, sight of the event.


As twilight fell, sunset in the city produced its own light show.

Boats of all sizes crowded on the river for front row seats to the show.

At 9:30 pm, the show began! John and I squeezed in the Baptist Hospital parking lot with hundreds of people. By showtime, there was little standing room left. Aside from the hospital building (left in the pictures), we had a great view of everything but the "waterfall" on Henley Street Bridge.


The fireworks came in so many colors and shapes. Each display was more beautiful than the one before.

Some fireworks were shot high into the sky while lower fireworks were launched from the bridge. The mix was spectacular and kept the crowds cheering.

I thought the bows were particularly beautiful.

Wow! A mass of red!

And lots of pastels!
We had a great time at the show and look forward to the 2006 Boomsday celebration!