My Birthday- Camping, Rafting, Bamboo, and HDTV!

For my birthday last weekend, I took a camping/rafting trip with 12 of my friends.  We went up to Hot Springs, NC (just outside Asheville).  I don't mind camping in a tent (I actually kind of like it) but I really didn't like the thought of setting up a tent by myself in the dark, so I opted to stay in the cabin.  The first night they messed up our reservation and we ended up in the mack-daddy cabin with 4 bedrooms, kitchen, living room (with TV), and bathroom (with a shower)!  It was awesome.  The second night we were in this:

Believe it or not, there were 6 of us in that tiny thing!  It was basically one room with a small loft area with a double sized sleeping mat, a bunk bed with a twin on top and double on the bottom, a sink and a toilet, and we set up a twin sized cot that took up the rest of the floor space.  It wasn't that bad, but it was tight.

But we were right by the river and right across from our other friends in tent city.

the river

We went white water rafting Saturday afternoon.  I was a little disappointed with the rapids.  They were supposedly class 3, but they were not scary at all.  The scariest thing I experienced that day was when we stopped to jump off this cliff into the river.  I did not want to do it from the get go, but everyone else was and they were all urging me to too.  I got to the top of the cliff and looked over and ummm...no.  It was so much higher from up there and I do not like the feeling of falling so I did not do it.  I got up there on the edge twice, but could not force myself to do it!  I had to endure the embarrassment of walking back down to the river.

We also got to soak in the natural hot springs that night.  It was freaking HOT!  I couldn't stay in the whole time, but maybe some of those natural healing powers in the water did some magic for my aging body!

I also got my bamboo floors installed last week!  Here are some pics:

see that basket?- i take my shoes off when i come home now

Kitchen- and my pets making out?

kitchen again

living room

dining room

Bamboo floors are supposedly harder and more environmentally conscious.  I got the Teragren Synergy Wide Plank Strand bamboo in Chestnut.  So far I am really happy with them!

I also bought my first ever TV.  It is so nice!  It even has Wifi and internet apps like Twitter, Netflix, Facebook, etc. right on the TV!  It's a Vizo 47" LCD HDTV.  Right now on Amazon it is $1,189.99, but I got it for $849 from Amazon a few weeks ago when it was on sale!

that's my twitter feed along the side!

it's big and the picture is so crisp!

I had some issues with the picture just randomly freezing sometimes, but I called customer service and did their "fix" and it hasn't done it since.

Overall it was a wonderful birthday weekend!  I know it all seems a little extravagant and yes, it is.  But you have to realize I have had the same TV for over 12 years (it was almost 20 years old total) and I have wanted the floors since I moved in my townhouse 6 years ago (and my mom paid for those)!  So this was a long time in the making! So please don't judge.

That's all for now!  I'll have some 30 Before 30 List updates and Bookshelf Blog posts coming soon!