Fun Weekend

What started out as a ho-hum weekend with rain all day Friday turned into a pretty good time.  Linda gave us a call on Friday night and let us know that there was a 5K run planned at the Janney Furnace out in Ohatchee (about 30 minute drive).  Although I did not have much interest in running, we found out that there was a lot of extras happening there.  First, finding out that there was a Confederate Memorial at the Janney Furnace, that there would be a civil war cannon shot off every hour on the hour, and that there was a pumpkin patch were all things that got us interested in taking the drive out there.  We walked around a little bit, took a small train ride, took a hayride, picked out a small pumpkin to take home, watched the sheriffs from Calhoun and Cherokee counties participate in a shooting duel, and felt the loud “boom” of the civil war canon shake the entire place – and we were a good 400 yards away!  A pretty good time indeed.

We left at 8:00am on Sunday morning for the Thai Temple in Atlanta, which was having a celebration that marked the end of a Buddhist holiday that began when we were still in Thailand.  We had never visited a Thai Temple in Atlanta, so we didn’t know what to expect, but the Temple itself was only 5 miles away from where I practice playing Aussie Rules with the Kookaburras in Atlanta.  It was the biggest Thai event that I had ever attended in the U.S. as there had to have been nearly 1000 Thais there walking around.  The Temple did not look like any Thai Temple I had seen before and was simply a small log-cabin building, but the masses of people were mingling about around outside.  There were a few people there selling Thai vegetables, drinks, snacks, and food, but the best part of this event was that it was a pot-luck event where everyone got to eat as much of the food brought in as they wanted.  The food was delicious and I ate way too much.  We also met up with a Thai woman that Jet happened to run into at TJ Max a few weeks ago.  She lives with her American husband and 3 year old daughter in Pell City (about 30 minute drive away).  The Thai woman was only a few years older than us, but her husband was in his mid-40’s.  They were nice people and her husband actually works for the state department and does a lot of international travel – telling me that he has traveled to nearly 180 different countries.  So we had a great time with them and it may give a chance for Jet to have someone else to hang out with that is Thai and lives nearby.