Man, it’s been a minute since I’ve written something on here…
It’s been a really busy and somewhat stressful year, let alone November specifically… but that ship has FINALLY sailed.
That’s right! I got married.
And, boy, what a wedding it was.
Things were expected to go a little lopsided there for a minute; people canceled the day-of, our caterer had been flukey the entire time, and we were having early stages of “wardrobe issues.” But in the end, everything worked out…
perfectly.
I was thankful to have so many friends and family pull through for me and my wife, and I really enjoyed my special day.
All-in-all, I’m just glad she got to have her perfect wedding. I know it meant a lot to her.
We had a beautiful wedding, and now I’m finally married to my best friend and high school lover of ten years. Simply amazing, right?
Honeymoon:
Abbigail and I ended up choosing Gatlinburg, Tennessee as our destination for the honeymoon.
We were to stay at an AirBnB in SC and then head out that Sunday morning for a few days.
Our trip was full of whimsical Christmas-like adventure and… lots and lots of walking.
We stayed at an inn on the Gatlinburg Strip, and every day allowed us something new to get into…
Night One:
On our first night in Gatlinburg, we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp, the restaurant most famous from the movie Forrest Gump.
I had only seen the movie a handful of times, but even I managed to spot a good amount of the references laid across the establishment for me and my wife to look over as we ate.
I ordered the grilled salmon, and it was some of the best food I’ve ever had — simply put.
Day One:
The first day in Gatlinburg was dedicated to going to the Ripley’s (Believe it or Not) Aquarium right there on the edge of the strip, a few blocks down from our hotel.
It was my first time going there. I really liked the walkthrough tunnel where sharks can swim over you. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it at first, but I’m glad I did.
We didn’t spend a long time there, just a walkthrough of the aquarium, viewing all the sea life they had on display.
The penguins were really cute, but they didn’t do anything because they were still half asleep.
Day Two:
Our second day was way more eventful.
We ate breakfast at the Pancake Pantry. At first we had to stand in a really long line, but were eventually allowed to skip the whole thing due to only being a party-of-two!
Needless to say, the pancakes and hot chocolate tasted divine that morning.
I managed to find myself on the Gatlinburg SkyLift of all things.
This thing was actually pretty intense. It’s a chair lift on a wire that brings you up the mountain. I almost felt like Leon in RE4!
I had to ride it twice during the day and twice at night, two times of which it stopped mid-air for us to sit there dangling in pitch black darkness and cold air.
I thought I was a goner for sure, but luckily I had my super awesome wife with me to keep me distracted!
The top of the mountain, where you can see the entire town, was awesome though, and proved to be well worth the risk!
Later that day, we attended the Titanic museum, which was really interesting.
They had all sorts of stuff, but what stood out to me the most was just how alike the Grand Staircase and, this room specifically, reminded me of Resident Evil!
Day Three:
We finished off our last day in Tennessee by hitting up a deer farm in the next town over.
It was really therapeutic to finish off the vacation by petting farm animals.
The goats and deer were super cute, nice, adorable, and reminded me of dogs (of all things).
They’re gentle and kind creatures and it was a great experience getting to be so close to them.
I really enjoyed my honeymoon. It went by too fast.
We were so busy with attending our main events, playing mini golf, doing an escape room, and tasting moonshine that I didn’t really get a chance to play Pokémon Scarlet much until I got back home.
In fact, just recently beat Pokémon Scarlet today, so I’ll take some time to talk about it
Pokémon Scarlet was incredible to say the least.
I spent all week looking at my phone while doing activities in Gatlinburg.
People complaining about glitches, easy gameplay, terrible characters…
And to see that, by this time today, I didn’t experience any of that, was an absolute treat for me.
I played in handheld and docked mode and didn’t occur any significant issues in gameplay at all.
I enjoyed all of the characters and their stories and personalities.
I thought the writing and direction were incredible for a Pokémon game.
I especially enjoyed the end-game for sure!
I wanna say this may be the best Pokémon game on Switch.
I ended up liking the sandwich-making gimmick way more than I thought I would. I spent a good bit of time making Ham Sandwiches so that I could get the Normal encounter rate boost in order to farm Chansey to level grind super fast. I ended up getting to level 90 with Ceruledge by the end.
Speaking of Ceruledge, I think I may have found my favorite Pokémon, finally after 9 generations.
One thing about me is that I’ve never had a favorite Pokémon, or a Pokémon I’m soul-bond to.
I usually just choose 6 new regional Pokémon and never reuse old ones.
But there’s just something so cool about Ceruledge that draws me to him.
He’s the spirit of a sword user who seeks revenge for his death, a dual-wielding flame sword ghost type who deals great damage and means BUSINESS.
Such a bad ass Pokémon.
Other Pokémon I loved this gen were Tinkaton, Baxcalibur, Kingambit, Pawmot, and Oinkalogne, who are all heavy hitters in their own right.
Gen IX introduced some of the best Pokémon we’ve ever had, with a genuinely good plot, and some memorable characters.
Anyone who’s on the fence about Pokémon Scarlet or Violet should at least give them a try…
You won’t regret it.
But that’s all I have for right now.
The Callisto Protocol comes out Friday and I’m really excited to take the PS5 version over to my dad’s to play it on his 4K TV.
I hope it isn’t TOO scary, I want it to be even better than the original Dead Space, and I want to clobber some enemies with melee weapons!
I’m so excited!
Are you getting The Callisto Protocol?
I’m just excited for December in general, and now that this weight of stress has been lifted from mine and Abby’s shoulders, we can enjoy a wonderful holiday season…
of survival horror…
