.: bistan.net :.

We spent this past weekend in Chattanooga, Tennessee. On Friday, we visited Lookout Mountain and rode the Incline Railway and visited Rock City and Ruby Falls.

On Saturday morning, I ran the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Actually, I ran the first half and survived the other half. (I really need to stop skipping my distance runs!)

That evening, we explored downtown Chattanooga and ate at Cheeburger Cheeburger, which was awesome. The kids enjoyed Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, even though it was about 40 degrees outside.

On Sunday, we took Tristan to the Tennessee Aquarium to celebrate his 8th birthday. I can’t believe I have an 8 year old!

Chattanooga is a wonderful city. Although I’ve driven through there a few times, I had never really stopped for a visit. Priceline gave us an awesome deal on a nearly 100 year old historic hotel called the Reed House. Several presidents as well as Al Capone stayed there in the past. And, as icing on the cake, it had an indoor pool, which gave the kids something to do while I recovered from the marathon.

I hope we can go back and spend more time in Chattanooga in the future. Until then, enjoy the pictures:

Two years ago, after my mother died, I found five Super-8 film reels in my parents basement.  After shelving them for a while, I decided to finally do something with them.  I searched the internet for months to find someone who could convert the reels to a digital format at a decent price and found a company in Texas.  I was a little hesitant about shipping the reels to Texas because I had no idea what was on them.  I finally decided that by not knowing the contents of the films, I wouldn’t miss them if they were lost so two weeks ago, off they went.

Today, I received my films back, along with a DVD of the contents, and my portable hard drive that I sent with an AVI of the films.  Even though I really had to pee, I immediately proceeded to watch the movies. I finally discovered what was on them:

• Christmas 1980
• Christmas 1981
• my third birthday (February, 1982)
• my sister’s first birthday (September, 1982)
• my fourth birthday (February, 1983)

The clips also include many other special moments.  What is most important, however, isn’t what is on the video, but rather who is on the video.  All of the videos contain my parents, my grandparents (all of whom are long gone), and other cousins, relatives, and friends.  Many of them I am still connected to via Facebook but several of them are gone.  While watching the clips, I both laughed and cried.  This was the best package that I have ever received from UPS.

Tonight, I shared the clips with my family.  It’s amazing how much my kids resemble my sister and I and how much my sister resembles one of my aunts and how my mother aged to resemble her mother.  What was my uncle thinking wearing those red shoes — even in the 1980s?  And the clothing and hairstyles?  There were several toys in the clips that I held onto and passed on to my kids!

Of course, the clips will be uploaded to YouTube and featured right here.  But not yet.  I’m going to package the clips on a DVD as a Christmas present to my sister and father.  Although neither read this blog, they do occasionally look at YouTube.  I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

On Saturday morning, I woke up early in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia to run the Chickamauga Battlefield Half Marathon.  I thought we were going to some town in the middle of nowhere, but Fort Oglethorpe is actually a surburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee and was pretty well-populated.

The Chickamauga Battlefield is the nation’s oldest military park and the site of the second most significant battle of the civil war (after Gettysburg).  While running the 13.1 miles though the beautiful park, it seems that these monuments are just randomly scattered about, but each one represents a historical site or moment.

The race was one of the best races that I have run so far, both in the organizational and logistical aspects of the event as well as my performance.  The race is small compared to other endurance events.  The field is limited to 1500 runners in both events. The weather was perfect and the amenities were plentiful.  I cut almost 8 minutes off of my best half-marathon time.  Although the race is considered by Runner’s World magazine to be the best marathon for families, my family stayed at the hotel just in case I didn’t finish by check-out time.

Next year, I hope to run the full-marathon.

After finishing the race, I returned to the hotel to celebrate Tristan’s 7th birthday.  I can’t believe I have a seven year old!

To celebrate his birthday on the road, we stopped at Discover Mills mall near Atlanta and met up with my sister and her family.  We played mini-golf and let Tristan crawl around in a hamster ball in a pool.  That seems silly, so I’ve included the video below:

For the first time in a very long time, I forgot to take my camera on the trip.  That’s why this post is mostly text.  After leaving the mall, we shopped for a while, treated Tristan to a birthday dinner, and headed home where the rest was welcome.

This was certainly a baseball weekend! Saturday night was Mercer night with the Macon Pinetoppers.  Sunday we went to the Braves game, part of Kimberlie’s birthday present.  On Sundays, kids are invited onto the field after the game to run the bases.  They get a t-shirt and certificate and it’s free!  On top of all that, it was kid’s day at the game with tons of stuff to do.

Enjoy the photos below:

After returning from the beach, we scrambled to get the house and yard in decent shape so that we could host Mackenzie’s 4th birthday party.  It was a lot of hard work, but she really enjoyed herself.  She was happy to see a couple of her school friends that she hasn’t seen since May.  Enjoy a few pictures from the celebration!