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Weekend Recap
Vacation @ Home

Maybe you have planned out an elaborate vacation. You didn't have much time off, but you knew you needed to get out of town for a while. Also, you may have had your plans fall through. This weekend was a combination of the both.

I haven't left Knoxville since I visited Pittsburgh this summer, with the exception of a few overnight trips with my roommate to pick up cars. So, this weekend, fall break, I decided I was going to pack up, grab my girlfriend and hit the road. Suddenly, I realized it is not very easy to "pick up and go" on a vacation. You need very early reservations for affordable rates, you need lots and lots of money, you need things to do, people to see and time to spend just relaxing. I realized with all of the cost involved in going somewhere for my vacation, I could do the same thing here, more comfortably, for free.

My girlfriend, Lana, and I spent the weekend in Knoxville. We didn't do anything too terribly special, and we probably won't write home about any of our experiences. However, I learned that you really can have a lot of undiscovered fun in your home town.

The weekend started out Friday night when I got off work. Lana and I are very indecisive, so we agreed that I would take the responsibility and initiative to make a plan and execute it. We did exactly that. The moment I got off work, we shot over to a military supply store so I could buy a couple things for work, afterwards, we went to my apartment, I changed, she freshened up and we went out to eat.

If you like Chinese, have a little bit of money and also like being entertained, you'll love Japanese steakhouses. We ventured out to Turkey Creek and ate at Wasabi. Luckily, I had made a reservation or we wouldn't have eaten until morning. After the movie we hit up Starbucks and ran into a friend who used to work at the Starbucks in the library where I work.

Against Lana's wishes, but with the manners I had been taught before and my relentless selflessness (not always a good quality), I invited our friend to join us for a movie. The movie was a surprise to Lana. I had read all of the reviews for the movies out in theatres and stumbled upon an interesting movie on limited release, A History of Violence. The movie was superb and the company even better.

Yesterday, Saturday, we woke up, made breakfast and headed to the mall. After shopping around in there, we decided to get some food, ended up looking in a furniture store for a while and ate a wonderful meal at the Silver Spoon (American Cafe). Afterwards we very predictably headed to the nearest Starbucks for a delicious cup of Cafe Estima coffee.

Today was excellent, we started by going to the sports apparel store to purchase matching Pittsburgh Steelers hats. We then went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch a depressing loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tommy Maddox needs to find another sport.

Next we went to my apartment and sulked in our misery from losing a very hopeful game. I asked Lana if she wanted to eat out or if I should cook. We ended up going to Kroger to buy groceries for a portobello and Parmesan Regiano pizza they had been joking about on a Sex and the City. The pizzas came out wonderful, and I'll post the recipe I created later. After dinner I made a couple caramel lattes with some Blue Mountain coffee from The Fresh Market.

All in all, the weekend was one of the most romantic weekends I've had in my life. I'm sure you don't care, but it was so wonderful, I felt I had to share...

posted by mindtron on Sunday, October 16, 2005

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