Zach and McCall's first trip to Nashville

Zach and McCall had their first (of many I hope) visits to Nashville, Tennessee!

We had so many fun adventures... and many pieces of Nashville I hadn't seen before. So here's some of the highlights.


Friday:
I ran into work after dropping the kids off at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Despite a couple of emergency alarms at work I made it out of the building in time for Jack's BBQ with Zach and Mac followed by a quick shopping trip to Hatch Show Prints to find decor for Zach and McCall's new house! Ok, but the very best part was the 3-for-1 boot store on Broadway. You'll have to wait for the pictures, but the moment we all selected our boots was like the cloudy skies parted and the sun finally broke through and shone down on our boot clad feet!

Ok, ok, yes, there may have been a quick nap before the Haunted Pub Tour. McCall found this tour and it was one of the most fun adventures ever! The tour took us around to Mulligan's, the back room at Buffalo Billiards, and Past Perfect. While we had a couple cocktails the tour guide told us of gruesome murders and deaths around turn of the century Nashville. Woohoo! Then on to Demos' for supper and a well deserved bed time.


Saturday:
Alright a little Saturday sleep-in and then one of my favorite Nashville items: The Loveless Cafe. There was a two hour wait and hopefully it was worth it. Us inter-mountain kids don't get a lot of opportunity for delicious southern food. We didn't get onto the Natchez Trace Parkway until after noon and bypassed Lieper's Fork (the chili cook-off took up the whole town) en route to Franklin.

My favorite new adventure of Nashville was The Patterson House... this super cute - super covert house holds a bar with the yummiest drinks I've ever experienced. The Diablo (a tequila beverage, of course) was my drink of choice - good tequila, blackberry liqueur, a little lime and ginger ale - in a cozy booth great for lounging before a Lewis Copeland evening at The Stage. Saturday nights are my very favorite at The Stage, and so uniquely Nashville that I was thrilled to share the place with Zach and McCall. Em, Casey, Patrick, Becky, and Bill made it out to welcome Zach and Mac to town, which made it even better.


Sunday:
Finally after a good sleep in and the first day of good weather for Mr. and Mrs. A to see the pretty terrain we got out of the apartment for Mafioza's and a quick walk around the Parthenon before taking Zach to the airport :( It was still a little treat to get to know McCall better over the Sunday Paper and Disney Earth. Perfect low key evening after a weekend of trying to fit in as much as possible.

(I'll put up pictures as soon as I can snag them from McCall)

...So when can you come back?

The Red River Gorge Loop

Welcome to your guided tour of the Red River Gorge Geological Area! It's only about an hour southeast of Lexington, located in hilly Eastern Kentucky! The National Natural Landmark, managed by the US Forest Service is awesome for a variety of reasons: Tons of hiking and backpacking, huge natural stone arches, unique plants and animals, archeological sites from early settlements in the region, and tons of rock climbing. The road loops around the gorge offering a tour of the gorge's unique features.

1. Nada Tunnel

The one lane tunnel was created in the early 1900s for use by the logging industry. You still have to wait outside the 900 foot tunnel for opposing traffic to make its way through before driving through.

2. Suspension Bridge

We found this cute suspension bridge back along one of the backpacking trails in the gorge! How adorable, right? There are some strange sites out in Eastern Kentucky... cars abandoned, tires in the river, drinking water from mountain springs instead of plumbing... these little gems are pretty special tucked away in the landscape are pretty sweet.

3. Gladie Historic Site

This site still houses the homestead and barn of a historic settlement in the area. The day we were there some local craftsmen were doing demonstrations of woodworking, firearms, and music from the era when the homestead was thriving.

4. Sky Bridge

Sky Bridge is the best known rock bridge in Geological Area being 75 feet long and 23 feet high. The trail leads over the top of the arch, around the rock and back around underneath arch and along a crazy rock face. Don't the patterns look like fingerprints?

5. Angel Windows

This little stop along the route had some crazy geological features. Eroded cubbies in the rock, striated textures running along the rock surfaces, crumbled rocks, etc, etc. It looks a little bit like parts of it were constructed by Salvador Dali only fewer clocks.

6. Princess Arch

Princess Arch isn't the biggest but it's pretty cool to be able to walk across the top of it.

You can't really tell, but this was taken while I was leaning over the edge of the arch.

Let's take a minute to examine some of the local fungi! Lindsey and I were on a mission to find the most exotic species of mushrooms (or whatever) along the trail. I'm not familiar with all the variety the fungi kingdom has to offer, but here are a few examples. The quarter in the picture is for size reference... you know, in case you want to bust out your "Guide to Kentucky Mushrooms" I felt a little like I was on that episode of Jamie Oliver where he and the truffle hunter travel the English countryside looking for the most delectable specimens. Except we didn't eat anything.

7. Chimney Rock Lookout

The geology in the area makes for some rocky footing! Look Out! The sign made me smile a little bit.

The region is so densely vegetated and the road follows the gullies, this overlook is one of the few places along the gorge loop that you can really see the "Gorge" and get a feel for the basin as a whole. The leaves were a couple weeks away from peak color but there were still some awesome yellows and oranges.

From the overlook we got to check out a group of rock climbers belaying off this rock.

8. Pizza and Rock Climbing

One of the guides to restaurants in the area suggested Miguel's Pizza and Rock Climbing as one of THE places to eat in the region. Truth be told, there's not that much as far as fine dining in Slade, Kentucky but Miguel's was a treat. In addition to the extensive pizza, pasta, salad, rope, and climbing shoes offered, there was also a huge campground out back and the parking lot was filled with license plate - many even from Colorado. I was totally unaware of the region's rock climbing appeal.



A slice of Lindsey and my pepperoni mushroom pizza along with a bottle of delicious Ale-8 (the unofficial beverage of Kentucky) It sure hit the spot!

9. Camping!

For the last night of our trip I was so excited to snag a campsite in Natural Bridge State Park. I checked out the campground map online and surveyed the primitive sites to determine the best one and make the reservations on the web site...


Pretty scenic, right? What the web site didn't show was that our camping spot was just across the creek from a large picnic area hosting a family reunion. So much for a perfect campsite. Oh well.

Despite the less-than-perfect campsite and some *minor* trouble getting the campfire started the weekend was great... as was getting home and recuperating.

Orlando - Part II

Discovery Cove Day! (AKA, Valentine's Day - Carmen and Alli Style)

Nothing says Valentine's like cake and Bud Light


I'll start by saying I had my "excited" face on the ENTIRE day. This park was amazing. Carmen's family met up with us in the morning and Carmen gave us a "backstage" tour of Discovery Cove. She showed us the kitchen where they prepare meals and snacks for all 40 dolphins for the entire day.... a serious endeavor. We got to meet one of the dolphins and take a tour of the aviary. Carmen and grabbed our gear for the rest of the day and went in to the park. Discovery Cove is AMAZING! Everything is included - like our beverages and snacks and my delicious lobster sandwich lunch. We lucked out for weather too. It looked overcast and rain was in the forecast, but when we got out and about the sun was shining and it was in the low 80's. It was the perfect break from dreary Nashville this time of year. I was in awe the whole time... like how many times does one get to pet a baby ant eater?

We put on our wetsuits just in time for feeding in the ray pool. The rays were huge... way bigger than the ones at the North Carolina aquarium. I got a handful of shrimp and the rays came up and sucked them out of my hand. hehe. I'm still trying to figure out my video camera, so still pictures will have to do for now...check out the pic Carmen got of a ray coming in for the kill!

The park recently got a Nurse Shark someone had been keeping as a pet and it had outgrown their home tanks. I got to pet the dermal denticles (see, I didn't forget everything I learned in NC) and give it a piece of fish. The park doesn't have the sharks swimming around out in the snorkel reef with the visitors, but the reef has glass walls that you can snorkel right up to and see the sharks swimming around. Pretty sweet.











Of course the day wouldn't be complete without meeting Carmen's favorite dolphin Capricorn! I'm so jealous that Carmen gets to work in this paradise everyday. It was hard to pick out just a couple dolphin pictures to post because in every one of the photos I have this ridiculously huge grin on my face. It was SUCH a cool treat.

A couple pictures... me and Carmen in our *hot* wetsuits getting ready for sunshiny fun... and a couple of parrots we got to check out in the aviary. The lazy river in the park actually flows through the aviary so you can get out in the jungle with the birds and get back in to resume the float.













The end of the day we were goofing around and trying out our waterproof cameras. I miss Orlando!

Orlando Adventure - Part III

The Epcot Challenge: To make it around the world and stop at each of the eleven countries to get a picture with "locals" in "native garb" from every nationality by the end of the day. We got started a little late on the 15th, and didn't really get into our tour until a little afternoon... so we had LOTS to accomplish!

STOP 1: CANADA!

It took a little deliberation, but we finally decided to start our tour in Carmen's homeland - Canada. And at our first stop we were informed that the "correct" way to tour the world was to start in Mexico - oops. So there we have our lumberjacks and then the pictures of us in our native Canadian head wear :) The picture is goofy, but we were cracking each other up so much "being Canadian" that people asked if they could take their picture with us because they thought we were part of the attraction.

STOP 2: UNITED KINGDOM!

Ok, then off to the UK. We got our employee of the country to pretend he was a rugby player. He told us that in order to be good at rugby, you have to possess some anger. Yikes. While we didn't dress up in authentic English costume, we did eat some delicious fish and chips. Carmen asked if the fish was from the UK... no it turns out, but they fly the batter in special just for Epcot. It's pretty much the real deal.

STOP 3: FRANCE!

The French natives didn't think we were so funny. I think because we didn't want to see their art show. But the city of lights (that's Paris, right?) treated us well and after our brief stop.... we were on our way.

STOP 4: MOROCCO!

Yep, Morocco... we kissed a genie and the local Moroccans LOVED Carmen. They got us dressed up like belly dancers and when we were leaving, they wanted to be facebook friends. Haha. Carmen keeps things lively... it's never boring when she's around.

STOP 5: JAPAN!

Our friend in Japan tied our kimonos with some serious precision. He took about five minutes to tie each of us up before our picture. Japan was always a favorite of Granny and me, so it was pretty cool to be there and think about fun adventures I've been on with Gran.

STOP 6: USA!

The American Adventure had by far, the least exciting local gentleman. And we didn't see any powdered wigs. Oh well. On to...

STOP 7: ITALY!

Carmen's friend Jackie caught up with us. She's so much fun and she remembered some Italian to speak with our new friends. We're well over halfway around the world. Jackie's friend Zucker works for Disney as an animation artist and he got us our tickets for the day. He was such a cool guy, when we met up with him he asked us our favorite Disney characters and sketched them for us. The next day Jackie delivered my picture of Sleeping Beauty! How sweet! A Disney Princess!

STOP 8: GERMANY!

Hmmmm.... Germany got a little weird. We met two other crews on similar world tours! A couple of guys from Argentina taught us some toasts and tried to get us to go out with them later (unfortunately we fell asleep pretty much as soon as we got home)

STOP 9: CHINA!

China! Our stop here was brief because we were on a mission to finish our tour and make it back to China for dinner!

STOP 10: NORWAY!

Norway was the one ride we went on the ENTIRE day. We got a kick out of the viking helmets, but I felt a little jilted that the "Norway" beer was Carlsberg. Seriously? I've been listening to Collapse by Jared Diamond and I've decided to become a viking.

STOP 11: MEXICO!

Alright! All the way to Mexico! Our tour ended at dusk and we'd successfully made it to all eleven countries! The Epcot day was AWESOME!