Thursday, August 25, 2011

Sayonara Akashi!

Sooooo sad!  We took Akashi back to the airport in Atlanta yesterday...


He had a really, really long day.  4 hour drive to Atlanta, 13 hour flight to Tokyo...


And then 2 more hours to get back to Yokohama!  I'm not sure I could do that anymore!

Bye bye Akashi, come back soon!!


Lovely mountain views on the way back from Atlanta.


The roads are wide open, not long now...


And then there is this...  16 miles from our exit, traffic backed up and we started to crawl.  So much for making great time.  That 16 miles took an hour...  This thing was just ahead of us blocking both lanes, rotten!



Smokies First Pitch

Back to the ballpark!  But this time Akashi is set up to throw the first pitch!

So he practiced...


And practiced...


And practiced some more...


OK, on the field...


Akashi with the two team mascots, Slugger (blue) and his "sister" Diamond (green).


 Checking in with the announcer.


Getting some last minute instructions...


Now for the good news and bad news...  I got a new camera!  With that being said, because it was a new camera...I missed the shot of his first pitch!  Arrrrrggggh!  At least you can hear the crowd going wild afterward.


Smokies at bat


 Making the rounds, glove in hand!


Yahoooo! He caught a foul ball!!


Hanging out in the outfield.


Put him in coach!  He's ready to play!


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Friday Night Lights!

Last night Stu took Akashi, and me to our first High School football game!  High School football didn't make it all the way up to Caribou, Maine...

Cocke County Fighting Cocks against the Claiborne County Bulldogs.




NJROTC Color Guard...


Bring em' in!


They had all the required elements....

Cheerleaders...Check!


Half time entertainment with flag team,


And marching band...check!  And, they won the game 33-0!


Akashi's day was made...We had ordered some sports stuff for him from Amazon and everything arrived yesterday!


These bracelets are supposed to help you keep your balance...hmmmm.  He should be doing pretty good with three!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Whitewater Rafting!!

This afternoon I dropped Stu and Akashi off at Big Creek Expeditions for some whitewater rafting fun!

Stu is right in front with the sunglasses and Akashi is right behind him.














Wednesday, August 17, 2011

WonderWorks!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon running through WonderWorks in Pigeon Forge, what a place (and they give a great military discount)!

This is the story:  WonderWorks began as a top secret research laboratory on a remote island in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.  As legend has it, the world's greatest scientists (led by Professor Wonder) were given the task of creating a man-made tornado and harnessing the power of it.  In their final attempt, a swirling vortex was created.  Something unpredictable happened and the experiment went awry.  The power was so great that the swirling vortex ripped the entire laboratory from its secure location and hurtled it skyward.  WonderWorks was thrown hundreds of miles away and landed upside down in the heart of Pigeon Forge. 


There are over 100 interactive, hands-on exhibits like this one, you use pulleys to pull yourself up.


It makes it a little harder when you get some "help"!  Stu is such a good helper!



 There was a rock wall, but this one was much easier than the last one Akashi did.  He practically ran up this one!




Of course we had to hit this one!


Akashi did great, his fastest pitch was 66 mph!


Everyone got their turn in the space suit.



Akashi did the Spacewalk Challenge, the "world's largest indoor ropes course".



This one is a little hard to see, but it's called the Wonderwall! It creates a 3-dimensional image of your body with over 40,000 pins!
This is Akashi...





 This is the Extreme 360 exhibit...  the faster you pedal the faster you go around!  Akashi was alone in the two seater for this ride.


 The like it so much he went for round two:  For this one Akashi has a passenger, a girl, and he's not too thrilled...


But the look on her face is priceless!