A Zelda Valentine

July 3rd - July 4th, 2014

Valentine's Day came in July for Jason and I this year. Although February 14th is the most appropriate month for this occasion, the state of Georgia had other plans. Georgia went into a state of emergency in February due to ice storms, leaving our plans frozen until July.

Shortly after Valentine's Day ended, the weather returned to normal, but a surprise this big required a day off work for me to arrange it. Therefore, we waited until July 3rd, which was the next available day I could ask off work. In fact, I was able to take the entire week off to plan his surprise. Finally the day had come.

Jason arrived home from work and entered through the garage door. Once inside, Jason immediate saw a sign in front of the door which read: "It's dangerous to go alone, take this with you." A green and brown sword lay beside it. Jason laughed, took the sword, and turned to find his home transformed into a world of Zelda. Our home became decorated with fake wood walls, signs that read "Will Cut Grass for Rupees," an 8-bit fireplace, cuccos, forrests, castles, Gorons, Death Mountain, and every other thing I could think of. He even had a place to go fishing and a shop for a shield, heart pieces, and a mask. I put the video game sound effects on my phone. Whenever he entered the village, lon lon ranch, death mountain, or the lost woods he would hear the appropriate song playing. I also had the shop owner's sound bite..."Oh! Thank You!" Navi's "LISTEN!" was heard regularly, along with every other noise from the game. He loved it! By the end of the game he had a real Master Sword, Shield, zelda bombs/bomb bag, and Slingshot. He already owned a bow and arrow, which he got for Christmas last year. I think my favorite part was the shop or the heart pieces. I hid a heart piece on the roof of our house... he had to go up death mountain (our stairs) and open the window at the top to get it.

Zelda means a lot to us. It's not only the most amazing video game that has ever existed, but it's also the main reason Jason and I started dating. Jason and I are pretty quiet people. Once we knew Zelda was a common interest, we were easily able to talk to each other. Without Zelda, I may never have gotten to know the red-headed bearded man.

Below are some pictures of his Zelda adventure. After fighting off monsters and capturing cuccos, Jason was able to find the dungeon map and master key. Both of these led to Callaway Garden's hotel and lodge, where he would find the last treasure box. Sadly, I accidentally threw away the last piece to his adventure--his valentine. It was so small and I was in such a hurry to get it all done that I threw it out with trash. Oh well, Valentine's day came in July... he can wait a little longer for his gift--a St. Valentine pendent. I picked this as his gift because the first gift he ever got me was a St. Isidore pendent for our first Valentine's day.

I was going to upload the video of his Zelda adventure, but the video was too long and too big a file to upload. Therefore, here are the pictures of Zelda and Callaway:

 These are the Poes which Jason had to defeat by striking them three times with his bow and arrow. He won.

 The guy to the left was blocking our back door, which lead to Hyrule field, the castle, Lon Lon Ranch, and Hyrule Lake.

 This is a close up of the guy guarding our back door.

 This is a picture of the shield Jason was able to buy once finding enough Rupees.

 This is a picture of the Master Sword Jason found after going through the Lost Woods. This is also a picture showing one of two signs in our home. . . this is how Jason obtained a few Rupees.

These are bombs and his bomb bag which he found in a treasure chest. Jason got the treasure chest by defeating the Poes and saving Lon Lon Ranch. He then used these to blow up a massive rock on Death Mountain (the stairs), which earned him another heart piece. 

Here are two pictures of what our home looked like. This is the 8 bit fireplace I made with paint samples and black poster board. We've decided to keep it, even after taking down everything else.

 

 

 The picture above is of the Kokiri Shop I made at our kitchen bar. Jason earned Rupees by cutting grass (made out of paper), breaking pots, and finding treasure chests. He then bought each of these items to complete tasks. 

 Above is a picture of the Kokiri Village. You can see a small pin made of Popsicle sticks on the table. It used to have Cuccos in it; however, they escaped. Jason had two minutes to find them in order to earn 20 rupees. You can see a cucco hiding in the light fixture. Each time he found one, I hit a button which made the sound of a cucco.

This is a picture of the largest Cucco Jason had to find.

There was a lot more to the Zelda games, but I didn't take as many pictures because we had video. Oh well... shame the video wouldn't load on here.

Below are pictures of Callaway Gardens. Our first night in Callaway we went to eat at Aspen Mountain Grill, right outside of Callaway. I had the most amazing nachos and Jason had a burger. So good. It was pretty late once we got there so we didn't have much time to look around Callaway.

The next day we ate our Panera bagels that I brought... had the car packed with luggage before we left so Jason wouldn't know what we were doing. After breakfast we went exploring Callaway. We walked around the discovery center and looked at some exhibits and eventually made our way to the Callaway Cafe. Here are pictures of us at lunch:

We then made our way across the lake and looked as some fish. Soon we found the butterfly house, pioneer cabin, and some trails that displayed some particular flower... can't remember which. It was amazing. Jason had never been to Callaway, except for at Christmas. He had never seen any of it before. Below are pictures of us at the butterfly house:

This is us at the Pioneer Cabin. Side note: the weather was amazing!

 We then made our way to the Chapel. Here are some pictures:

 While taking the picture above... a woman walked over to us with two adorable dogs. They relieved themselves, created quite a stench, and we promptly left. Still cute dogs though. After the chapel, we decided to walk to the vegetable garden... I had never seen that before. Since it was the fourth of July we passed a zillion people grilling out, along with the people setting up the fireworks by the lake. We realized once reaching the lake that we had walked 10 miles already. We were exhausted. But, we made it to the garden! Here are pictures below...

 

 After the gardens, we walked back to our hotel to relax and grab some food... after 12-13 miles of walking, we were super hungry. We made our way to Fox Pizza. Here is a picture:

After dinner we headed for the beach for fireworks. It was amazing. Tons of fireworks! We actually found a spot on the beach to lay down on too! There were a ton of people... we were super lucky.

 

 The moment the fireworks ended, we bolted for our car... again, tons of people. Sadly, we waited in traffic for 45 minutes before we made it to the exit (literally only 30 feet away from where I parked). It was a battle of it's own... we had two people try to hit us in order to get out. They pushed their way through . . . to the point that everyone stopped using the road and started driving over the curbs and grass. It was a zoo. Still, lots of fun nonetheless.

Below are more pictures of us at the hotel goofing off...

The next morning we ate breakfast bars we bought the previous day at a gas station and made our way home. Although only a two day getaway.... felt like a whole vacation. So much fun! Happy Valentine's Day!