Yosemite National Park

When planning a trip to Yosemite, make sure you know that there are only a few ways to get in and out of the park, both of which require you to backtrack about thirty miles. The highlights of the trip included seeing two waterfalls, Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls.

Bridalveil Falls

We entered the park on the eastern side and planned to drive through the park and exit on the western side. On our venture out, we decided to stop at the Tuolomne Grove, which houses seven living giant sequoia trees. They are absolutely massive and volume wise are the largest living thing on the planet. Pictures really do not do justice for these 2000 year old trees that have a diameter of 8 feet. Unbelievable. On our walk to and from the trees, we were able to see a mother bear and her cub munching. The cub was really cute, dangling/balancing in a tree.

Cute bear cub

Giant Sequoia Tree Tunnel

On the drive out, we got up to 10,000 feet in elevation and have now coined the new term: “blame it on the elevation change.” We passed two beautiful mountain lakes and the remnants of a forest fire. Overall, the mountain views were breathtaking. Weirdly enough, after exiting the park Jackie got a voicemail from her parents warning us about a child who was killed by a bear in his sleeping bag. Which also happened to be after we decided not to camp, but rather get a hotel at the next closet town. The next closet town with lodging being 3 hours away. On this drive and in the park we saw a lot of different animals: jackrabbits, woodpeckers, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, horses, and other various birds.

Napa Valley Wine Country Tour

You know we are dedicated wine drinkers when we had to wake up at 6AM for our wine tour. We went across the street for a $10 “Deluxe” conti that consisted of toast, muffins, and fruit. The only deluxe part about it, was that we had a laminated menu. We then hailed a cab to the departure location of our tour bus. The tour began by going through the various regions of San Francisco on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. We saw the beautiful Victorian house, the house from Mrs. Doubtfire, and a few other historical buildings. It is extremely foggy in SF in the summer months, while on the Golden Gate Bridge, you couldn’t see anything on either side of you.

We went to four vineyards: V. Sattui Winery, Domaine Chandon, Andretti Winery, and Rutherford Ranch Winery. V. Sattui was our favorite because we got to try about 15 different wines, rather than the five or six at the other vineyards and our wine tender didn’t not charge us for the tasting fee. V.Sattui also had a cute gourmet market where we were able to taste six different cheeses. We even tried and purchased the Swiss Gruyere and an artichoke cream cheese that Rachel Ray raved about on her visit to this vineyard on her show: “$40 a Day.” At Domaine Chandon, which specialized in sparking wines, we got a tour of the winery. We saw the giant vats, and they explained the difference between sparkling wine and still wine and how each are made. At the last vineyard we bought two bottles for ourselves to enjoy that night. While on the bus home, the older couple behind us was all giggly and we found out it was legal to drink on the bus, so we opened up a bottle and started drinking. We also learned a new acronym from this older couple, LDS. Long Distance Shot. When the couple is apart, they call each other to take LDSs. We then took the fairy back over to San Fran, where we were not allowed to drink our own wine, but there was a fully stocked ferry bar. While on the ferry, we saw San Quentin and Alcatraz.

Domaine Chandon Wine Vats

Per our tour guides recommendation, we decided to do dinner at one of the four restaurants that would not charge a corkage fee so we could enjoy our second bottle of wine: Annabelle’s Bar & Bistro. It was absolutely, delicious. We decided to splurge and split desserts and after dinner drinks! They were also delicious. Jackie really, really enjoyed the espresso martini, so much she asked the bartender how to make it.

Disclaimer: this entry makes us sound like heavy drinkers, but I will remind you,

1. this responsibly drinking occurred over a 12 hour period, therefore our hourly drink consumption was not very high
2. we did not operate heavy machinery, and
3. we drank numerous bottles of water throughout the day to stay hydrated.

That San Francisco Treat...

Upon arrival to San Francisco, we realized a few things. 1. It was still extremely cold and windy like Monterey, despite the fact that the sun was out and 2. We were hungry and still had not experience the west coast phenomenon that is In and Out Burger. So we got some fresh, prepared daily, and never frozen burgers (cheese for Lindsay) and fries and then started to explore the city. Our first stop was the Hyde Street Pier to explore three historical boats – kind of crazy conditions they used to have to live with. Our next stop was Ghirardelli square, home of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Manufactory and also home to Kara’s Cupcakes (I took a picture, and potentially have a new business idea…). Jackie and I then decided to get some ice cream. Unfortunately, Ghirardelli only makes ice cream in Chocolate, Vanilla, and Strawberry, so we each had Dreyer’s (for your east cost folks, that is the same as Edy’s…we still have not figured out why it is different on the west coast. Same with Hardees and Carl’s Jr. It is a mystery…). Lindsay was parched and wanted a Dr. Pepper, but unfortunately had to wait in the same line as the ice cream folks. 15 minutes later, her fountain soda was ready…but it was Coke, not Dr. Pepper.

Kara's Cupcakes

Our next stop was Fisherman’s Wharf, which is densely populated with tourists and random street performers…break dancers, men dressed entirely in a silver getup doing the robot, and a woman dressed in the 1920s attire. I was not impressed with the street performer’s skills, but rather thought: “this could be a great pick pocketing opportunity for them: people crowding around and bumping into each other trying to get a glimpse of the break dancers, while one of their friends goes around the crowd pick pocketing.” Jackie thinks that Fisherman’s Wharf was a tourist trap. I would have to agree, there is nothing really to do there, just crappy touristy shops and restaurants. And unfortunately, since we were full from our non-Ghirardelli ice cream, we did not get to taste the “world famous” clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Maybe next time.

After an astonishing five and half hours in the Fisherman’s Wharf region, we headed to our hotel, then headed out to hunt down a sushi place near union square. We got into Union Square, where according to our book was a mecca of sushi/Asian inspired restaurants. We of course could not find one. We asked the valet guys at the Marriot and he directed us a few block in the opposite direction. So we ate at apparently the best sushi restaurant in San Fran.

Although there are many things to do within the city and within a few miles of the city, we decided to stay in and watch a girly pay per view movie, Catch and Release. San Francisco was great. I definitely want to go back to visit again.

Grand Diego (in Jackie's vernacular)

A mix of thoughts on the past few days:

Grand Canyon: Still big. Same as last year but not the same as millions of years ago. Still "Grand" (in Kara's terms). Camping, hiking, and the weather were amazing and added to the experience. Some day, I will make it down and make, mule or no mule.

Las Vegas: Other than the "Young Felon" post, we basically went to the pool and had a great dinner by Mr. Puck, Wolfgang himself, paying ridiculous amounts for drinks and food nonetheless. No one gambled. Except for a small sum by Jackie while Kara and I responsibly waited for our car at valet. We weren't prepared to be driving through another desert near Death Valley, but still managed to make it through the desolate area, even eating Mexican food at a Greek place.

San Diego: After ending our trek through the desert of the SW, we arrived at Coronado, the home of Rachel's generous sister and her two small children. Rachel cooked us an amazing dinner on the grill after we helped her move her furniture to the basement. A grilled dinner and homemade mojitos were amazing; you are a champ at muddling mint under the direction of the Bacardi factory and their commercials. Kara asks: "Please provide us with your recipe via blog comment."

Woke up at 6 am... did I mention that there were two small children? All decide that we are not ready for such bundles of "joy". An amazing breakfast at Mission preceded our departure for our original destination of Monterey. Instead, we wait in traffic around LA and play on the promenade in Santa Monica with Megan, my brother's girlfriend. (Note to Rachel: Funny story between you two and high school softball, will share later) After lunch, shopping, and canceling our "reservations" in Monterey, we travel north on 1, staying south of Santa Barbara after quite an ordeal. Did you know that the entire state of California graduated yesterday?

Monterey: We completed the drive up 1 the next morning, hugging the cliffs by the Pacific, paying ridiculous amounts for gas, communicating with elephant seals, and grabbing lunch before visiting the top aquarium in the country. If you are considering a trip, it would be wise to not attend the aquarium on a weekend in the summer. Once again, screaming children are a-plenty. A late dinner and a stay in an interesting inn topped off the evening. Relatively tame, you might say...

This brings us about up to date with our West Coast travels.

You stay classy, San Diego.

The Grand Canyon is Breathtaking

In my perspective (a little belated but still somewhat valuable), is that the Grand Canyon was breathtaking . . . for multiple reasons . . . .

1. It is 6,000 feet in elevation, duh.
2. I am extremely out of shape when hiking in and out of the G.C.
3. It looks fake, even when you are there. Being there in person still does it no justice.
4. Kara thinks it can be described as a large divot in our country's land (She wants to make sure you know the Grand Canyon is in Arizona, not Colorado and that when she says divot she does not mean it in a negative manner, but rather just that it is a large hole.) Lindsay disagrees very strongly. She is an Environmental Science major and would be happy to comment to whatever questions/concerns you may have on the background of the G.C.

Really, it was an amazing experience. We had a ridiculous time hiking up and down the Grand Canyon. We felt really good after our amateur selves took a small hike down and up the G.C. and then a few more miles along the rim. Seriously, I was pretty impressed with ourselves (well, mostly myself). I never would have made it without Angela's Camelbak. It was an essential piece of my Grand Canyon experience. I even bought a sweat-wicking Nike tank top and Under Armor shorts to go with the highly technical hydration system so that even though I had no idea what I was doing, I still looked good doing it. (Look at our pictures, it's true). Kara and Lindsay were extremely jealous (especially Kara) and they bought one as soon as they could. I'm sure Kara will blog about it later. They spent 2 hours in the car, after the purchase, exploring/obsessing with their new Camelbak purchases.

As I continued to feel good about ourselves and our physical activity, we boarded a bus towards a stop that promised a "breathtaking" view of the sunset. As we were all shoved onto the bus, longing to find the same beautiful 'vista', the bus driver advised all passengers to leave the front seats open for senior citizens. I joked with the ladies sitting in the seats next to us (we took standing spots), that I feel like a senior after all of the hiking we did, she answered with, "Oh yeah, I hiked the whole canyon and back. How far did you go?". . . . . . Immediately, I felt really bad about myself and didn't say anything but words about trying to reconcile the fatal attempt that we made hiking only 1.5 miles down (and then 1.5 miles back). Regardless, it was a humbling experience and we have now set higher standards for ourselves. Hopefully, we plan to come back and hike the entire thing. That usually takes a three day trip. One thing that did make us feel better was that we hiked down and back in less than two hours which is projected to as many as 4 hours. So that was nice. Really, I am just rationalizing.

As a side note, we camped two nights in the Canyon. Kara did surprisingly well and I have been declared the BBQueen by my two traveling companions. Sweet. (Lindsay says to Jackie: "No. You declared yourself the 'BBQueen', Jackie then blushed and laughed embarrassingly, acknowledging the truths to the facts.)

Grand Canyon: Truly a humbling experience.

Young Felon

We're back in action. Lucky for everyone. We are in Las Vegas and on our way out to explore the strip. However, we wanted to blog about an interesting encounter we had at the pool of the Excaliber Hotel (where we are staying).

The three of us are enjoying a relaxing afternoon at the pool when Kara and I decide to take a quick dip. Here is where we are approached by a young man named Josh. He is wearing khaki shorts and has tattoos across his back and forearm. He is also drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade (commonly known as an alcoholic beverage for female drinkers).

He introduces himself as Josh, as I mentioned, and then stands there in the pool with us, staring at us. So we begin to strike up a conversation . . .

Us: "So Josh, where are you from?"

Josh: "Well I'm from New Orleans but did you know all about the underground 's***' in Las Vegas?"

Us: "No. No, we don't."

Josh: "Well you don't know crap. There is tons of underground s*** all over Vegas. (then he explains all of his knowledge about 'Vegas Underground')."

Us: "Oh, so you've been here before?"

Joh: "Nope just got here yesterday. I'm here until my money rolls out, which should take awhile. Oh yeah, I gotta check on my rubber band banks, yo". (Apparently, 'rubber band banks' are the rolls of cash he left in his shoes by his deck chair. Amazing that he knows so much about the city already . . in less than 24 hours)

Us: "You came by yourself? Your job lets you get up and leave for however long you want?"

Josh: "Well I work for Sonic. You know, I had to get background checks and s***. Pretty serious s***." (Sonic referring to the fastfood burger joint)

Us: "What do you do there?" (Kara is trying to keep a straight face).

Josh: "I make drinks. You know, someone asks for a Dr. Pepper and I make it. That's how it goes."

He eventually tells us he's "joking" and he's really a rapper . . . .

Josh: "Yeah I'm a rapper. You know Lil' Smoky?

Us: "No."

Josh: "You know rapper Lil' Bob?"

Us: "No"

(This continues 3 more times, with 3 more rappers)

Josh: "Well, you girls on MySpace?"

Us: "No"

Josh: "Well whatever, I am a rapper".

We then awkwardly left the pool with the excuse we were going to buy drinks and meet our friend. We tried to persuade Lindsay to come meet him but she wouldn't. Unfortunately.


P.S. Young Felon is the rapper name of Josh. It is tattooed on his left forearm. . . . . wooooow. Feel free to check him out on MySpace, apparently he is on there.

New Mexico...

Today we visited the Carlsbad Caverns in SE NM. There are many caves which I have visited, including a few in the US as well as abroad and underwater, but the variety and the size of this place is incredible. An amazing site, and, as we found out, pictures can do it no justice. Digital cameras should specialize in a setting explicitly for underground caves. Kara maintains that her camera does have this setting... Although the names of the natural structures may appear as "Top of the Cross", "Bashful Elephant", "Fairyland", etc. we have decided they would all be better named after the human anatomy.

After three miles of tours, we headed back to the campground for almost as much fun as the caves itself. Turns out that there are multiple uses for our headlamps - spelunking, diverting bugs, grilling, locating beers, morse code, gangsta necklaces, mating rituals, and so forth. (Bugs are attracted to light, what about humans?) Back at the campground, it is not the magnitude of the caves that we notice, but instead the size of people's RVs. Some couples just feel the need to have a semi pulling a large RV pulling a new SUV. Did we tell you that their license plate said Texas? Once again, everything is bigger in Texas - from the tires to the donuts, the trucks to the speed limits.

As we leave our kabin of komfort into a world of real camping in a Texas-sized canyon, bear in mind that you may not be hearing back from us until Las Vegas, yet another time zone away. As is ritual during any crossing of time zones or any form of time traveling, it is necessary to "blame the time change" for any of our faults.

A comment about Jackie's Fanatical Blogging

We finally uploaded my pictures and decided to post some of them for your viewing pleasure. And by we, I mean Jackie. DISCLAIMER: The captions are the work of Jackie and their corniness should not be mistaken as the work of the original post author.

Jackie would also like everyone to know that most of her blogs are a collaborative effort, masterminded, of course, by her. She wanted me to include this so she doesn't sound like some kind of freak. You can be the judge of that...

While I'm here, I will discuss our first and only night in Austin. The time this post is posted says everything about the night. We arrived at approximately 6:30. Checked email, blogged, and got ready. We walked out of our hotel and onto the elusive 6th Street in hopes to find a restaurant for dinner and drinks. We opened the giant, cartoon map of the city provided by our hotel to find our way to the hip restaurants. (Pictures to come...) Since this is our only stop in Texas, we wanted some sort of Tex-Mex food. After turning down a street that appeared to have some hip restaurants and looking very confused, a man who was wearing a black t-shirt with a silver gangsta chain printed on it stopped to ask if we needed help. He suggested a few places on the street where he had the pleasure of eating people's leftovers from. He of course could not comment on the full menus at these restaurants because he had only eaten leftovers. We ended up taking his advice and eating at this cute, hip, and somewhat trendy restaurant named Cuba Libre. We ate (unfortunately, we had no leftovers to offer our gangsta helper) and each had one drink and then headed back to the hotel, to blog, and go to bed before midnight. And if you didn't think it was possible for us to be any lamer, we were able to get in a episode of the National BINGO Night! Jackie wants me to mention the show's random Indian bingo caller, for those of you who watched it last night, well you will know what she means by that.

All in all, we liked Austin and decided it would be a great city to live in...

What our car looks like and our preparedness

What efficient packers we are!!!




Poppa Worrest made sure to literally highlight the important things in the car manual just in case!

The past two days. . . .

Gideon - we wish you a speedy recovery and glad that you are ok.

New Orleans. Everyone should go once and maybe again. We haven't posted about our days in New Orleans because we just don't know where to start. Much to our surprise, New Orleans is filled with substantial and important American history. We discovered this through a $17 Haunted History tour we took last night. It was as much New Orleans history as it was about the famous apparitions that haunt the French Quarter. If anyone has some time in New Orleans, we suggest you take this tour in the beginning of your trip. Our guide Middian was very knowledgeable and pointed out some great places to see but it was too late in our trip to visit them.

Here are some other highlights of New Orleans in list form:

1. Kara's brother Jason and girlfriend, Lisa were also randomly visiting New Orleans the same time we were and were able to show us the sights and sounds of the city. It was fun hanging out and we made them feel old. Yeah, they're old but they hung in with us until the wee hours. We were impressed.

2. We made it to the famous Pat O'Brien's for hurricanes. They were $10 up front and if you physically got up and returned the glass to the bar, you received $3 back. I didn't think it was that good but Lindsay and Kara liked it. We all did compare to the likes of UVA's famous jungle juice consisting of the cheapest vodka you can find and store brand kool-aid mix.

3. We also had drinks called Hand Grenades. I was personally accosted by a life size hand grenade last night who requested my phone number. I didn't want to give it to him, but he was a life size hand grenade. . . . . (no, I didn't give him my number. I just ordered the drinks and then ran down Bourbon Street.)




4. We ended up staying at a hotel where an entire El Salvadorian soccer team was also staying.

5. We quickly reached the letter Z in the Kara sneezing alphabet game. However, we might have lost a few letters on Bourbon Street. We're not sure.

6. Our first night there eventually led us to a bar with a band and dancing. So much dancing. The band played great covers, with the help of Kara and Lindsay's requesting, and we became the Virginia group with occasional shout-outs from the singer. The singer loved them so much he came down and danced with us for a while. I even got to sing in the mic.

7. Lindsay rode a mechanical bull. That's all I need to say about that.

8. I got us lost on the way home going the wrong way down Bourbon Street. Luckily, we ran into a nice man that said "Girls, you walk this way and you will run into nice police officers that will tell you where to go. If you go that way, you will run into guys saying 'Yo baby, how you doin'". Kara does a great impression.

9. There are more test tubes in New Orleans than probably any major hospital. However, the uses of the test tubes may vary.

10. Conti at the Queen and Crescent Hotel - It was a meager offering for our hungry and thirsty selves. There wasn't much food left when we made it. Also, there was a noticeable absence of applications and employees despite one man's repeated attempts to get hired by the hotel three times. No, we are not employees and told you this eleventy times. And we want our juice back. One time he left our breakfast room and walked in through another door and proceeded to ask again about the applications. Same room, same people, no applications. We wondered how someone like him could possibly be without employment.



Our trip to Austin:

1. We passed a town call "Grosse Tete". How would you like to live there?

2. Everything in Texas . . . .

. . . . has the word "cowboy" in it. Examples, Cowboy Honda, Cowboy Restaurant, Cowboy Harley Davidson College (not sure if it's accredited or not).

. . . . is massive. Cars, highways, tumbleweed and apparently cows. (Thanks for the advice, Brav. Luckily, Lindsay has extensive experience with cows. Not sure why since she is a vegetarian. Second thought, maybe that is why).

. . . . is surrounded by big hair. The following picture is an attempt by Kara to achieve big Texas hair. Texas is too hot for her to use a hair dryer so we call this technique "hotel room air conditioner". Kara does want you to know that she used this technique only because there was no hotel room hair dryer. I don't believe her and neither should you.

Random thoughts from the Big-EZ (not me, New Orleans)

I thought after Leslie's and Kara's thorough blogs, I would leave just a few random thoughts, questions, observances. (Also, to appease Gideon. I feel bad since our blog is much more amusing, I figured I could throw them a bone here or there.)

1. Lindsay has the ability to sunburn her left arm while driving.

2. We encountered the Conti Nazi this morning. In approximately 2.5 minutes, she yelled at Kara for pressing the timer start button too many times on the waffle machine, a 73 year-old foreign man for grabbing the hardboiled eggs with his hands and not the tongs, and me for not being able to find the syrup packets that were hidden behind the juice machine. I guess there is no such thing as a free breakfast.

3. Kara has the envious ability to not only sneeze 100 times in one day, but to also sneeze during her sleep. Incredible, but true. She has sneezed so many times now that Lindsay and I started a game. Every time Kara sneezes, we have to say a word that begins with a letter in the alphabet beginning with A and going to Z. We're curious as to how quickly we can get to Z.

4. Please read Rachel's post about Cooter.

5. Turner Field was great. We might try and see as many baseball stadiums as possible on our trip.

6. Brav is right. The blogetition has begun.

7. Apparently, Coca Cola World has gone crazy and created a Dasani "Pure Water" flavored chapstick for a mere $3.50 and that became my sole souvenir from Hotlanta. If curiosity kills the cat, I am one dead kitty.

8. Red Coca Cola beverages produced for foreign nations stains the human skin. Don't try it at home.

9. My theme song choice is amazing. Just listen to it once, close your eyes, bob your head and you are hooked. One suggestion, do this while there is no one else around to get the full effect. Once hooked, listen to it with as many people as possible. It will save lives and promote world peace . . . . eventually.

Adios. Wish us luck in a state with towns that only 11% of the nation's population can pronounce.

Travels to New Orleans

Today is Day 4. We left Atlanta this morning, drove through Bama and M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I, and arrived in New Orleans.

Update on the counts. There are not nearly as many Cracker Barrels in the South--we only saw a few today. Yesterday, we started to keep track of the different license plates we came across (neither Jackie nor Lindsay wanted to talk about this, so they made me...). In the two days, we have already seen about half of of the fifty states. After thorough discussion, we decided that the New England/Northeastern states are going to be the most difficult to get--even though we have already seen Massachusetts and Main. Don't worry, we will keep you posted.

We have had the pleasure of getting gas five times now, and still have not paid more than $3 a gallon--the low $2.79 in Wildwood, GA and the high $2.99 in Mobile, AL. We shall see how long that lasts, but for the time being, be jealous, be very jealous.

The conti today was great. Along with the standard bagels, muffins, donuts, and coffee you see at most contis, the Buckhead Sleep Inn, for $85 a night (with the AAA discount), also had waffles O-Hill style! For those of you unfamiliar with O-Hill, our first year dining hall Observatory Hill, that means "make your own waffles in a cast iron waffle maker." In my expert opinion, I would have to say the Buckhead Sleep Inn waffles lived up the fabulousness that is the O-Hill waffle.

Now, Jackie has been creating a list of things she wants to discuss on the blog, so it is time for me to sign off and leave her to her own devices. Get ready for some really random stuff...!

HOTlanta, GA

We began early today, leaving Nashville and its 1.5 year old roads behind. On to Atlanta! Four hours and fourteen Cracker Barrels later, Kara and Jackie learned something new about me: I love driving and eating bananas. Simultaneously. Its so pleasing and we all should try it.

Today's trip was special because two of us designated our trip theme songs. Mine I knew was right one month ago, after we had known each other a long time. Its title: "I've been everywhere" by Johnny Cash. I hope that you are familiar with this song and understand why it is my choice. Jackie, on the other hand, chose "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield. Does this song give ultimate happiness (like Coca-Cola) to every listener??? Jackie believes so. Kara is yet to choose her song. Let us all give her time and a few better options.

Atlanta brings another time change to the table, as we have already gained an hour in Nashville and lost one on the drive today. This trip we have designated the rule: "Blame the time change". This applies especially if you cannot drive the next day due to intoxication by time change. Its entirely expected. After all, there are four time zones in the US and only 3 of us.

In the ATL, we checked into our hotel, visited the Centennial Olympic Park, and drank 70 different SODAS at the World of Coca-Cola, of which 76 of them tasted like bubblegum, however we kept drinking to get our moneys worth. On the way to Turner Field, erected for the '96 Olympics and since used for the Braves, we met a new friend who conveniently owned 3 tickets to tonight's game vs. the Marlins that he was willing to sell. (See previous comment by Wayne) After a few buckets of beer and baskets of french fries at the only nearby pub, we made it to the second game of the day for the Braves. (Unfortunately, the first loss)

ATL kids playing in the fountains of the Olympic Rings.

Tasting Room at the New World of Coke.

Random picture of a lady carrying a rubber chicken that we spotted outside of the New World of Coke. We are not sure if it was real or just a hallucination after all of the sugar we consumed from the 70 tastings.

Turner Field. Awesome seats.

Us at the game. It was so humid. It was a night game so I don't know why Jackie has her sunglasses.

Cheap rides back to the hotel via the bus, metro, and walking (sadly, without the aid of Judy who had come to our rescue in an earlier torrential downpour today) garnered us the information of the infamous "hand grenade" drinks in New Orleans. Thank you sketchy guy in the metro. May your knowledge of drinking live on.

Be prepared for the post tomorrow.... Its Kara's turn.

Nashville, TN

We are officially in Nashville, Tennessee (Kara wanted to make sure no one would be confused as to what Nashville we were in). Today is Day 2 of our road trip. We traveled 11 hours yesterday to arrive here. Our first big trip was filled with many learning experiences. For instance, the abundance of Cracker Barrel restaurants, blasting zones, and traffic-o's (traffic circles). For your knowledge, there are 25 or 26 Cracker Barrels from Berryville, VA to Franklin, TN.

Upon arrival, we learned the hard way that every road in Nashville is one large circle, oval or any geometric shape you can think of. We have been staying with our friend, Danny Cooper (childhood nickname: Fanny Pooper) along with visiting girlfriend and our good friend, Katherine. We shouldn't have stopped here first because this is probably the nicest place we'll stay all month. It has a continental breakfast, lunch AND dinner (aka supper - southern talk, you know) along with a hot tub, patio and our personal veranda. It's been fab.

Today we were introduced to our new friend, Judy. Judy is four years old and unlike most four-year-olds, Judy only remembers things before she was born. She has been an interesting companion thus far considering Danny's neighborhood is a mere 1.5 years old. Despite her age, she is extremely persistant and is not afraid to tell us we are going the wrong way. Fortunately, she loves to "recalculate" and will continue to be our driving buddy throughout the rest of the trip. She is our GPS system. (Uncle Greg and Aunt Renee - you are welcome to rename Judy when she returns home to you at the end of the month - Thanks again!)

Today we got up extremely early and enjoyed a great "conti" (aka continental breakfast) filled with muffins and Honey Bunches of Oats. We then headed to the Belle Meade Plantation, home to the Jackson and Harding families. Much to our surprise, they have nothing to do with our former presidents, Andrew Jackson and Warren G. Harding (this was confirmed by Angela through her extensive knowledge of the presidents of our great nation . . . this phone call took place after our 45 minute guided tour of the plantation which we still weren't sure if presidents lived there or not). However, the plantation is home to two famous thoroughbreds called "we can't remember" (Lindsay swears it is Bunny Snootspa) and Iriquois. If you really want to know the first one, look it up on the internet. Anyways, their bloodlines can be linked to famous horses including Sea Biscuit, Secretariat, and Street Sense. In addition to the guided tour, our ten dollar fee included the opportunity to take our own picture behind cardboard cutouts of a couple in period dress. Hopefully, we will be able to post these for your enjoyment.

The Plantation was followed up by an amazing southern meal at the Loveless Cafe. It is one place in the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and Kara is not sure why. It is a small cafe and former motel 30 miles south of Nashville, yet every single country star has left a signed picture on the wall of the establishment. It was good nonetheless and also provided an opportunity to take our pictures behind cardboard cutouts of a hillbilly family. If we post those, you can see we had the chance to be all that we can be. I personally favored the dog character. Being short, it was easiest for me to reach.

Next, Judy took us to Cooter's, home of the Dukes of Hazzards Museum across from the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. We didn't stay long at Cooter's, actually we didn't go in at all, and spent our time at the hotel. It was amazing, however, it did not provide any cardboard cutouts for us to take our pictures as the previous attractions had.

Judy then took us to The Grand Ole Opry House and it was closed. We did spend a good hour touring the gift shop. We discovered that Tim McGraw is not a member of the Opry but Dierks Bentley is. . . us country music fans were dumbfounded.

We are off now to enjoy a lovely meal at Chez Cooper and head out for a ghost tour in Downtown Nashville. More to come later on the Nashville nightlife. Our quest is to find a good Lynchburg Lemonade since we did not have time to make it to the Jack Daniel's distillery. Yes, there is Lynchburg, VA but no, Katherine, it is Lynchburg, TN that is the home of Lynchburg Lemonade. (I guess this is where Kara's state distinction is important, so thank you Kara). Signing off. . . .

The following is our first confirmation email from a lodging place that our very own Lindsay Pierce booked. Based on varying tastes in humor, one should at least find the following email moderately to extremely amusing.

Dear Leslie Tearse,

We have you booked in one room, two double beds, for one night. Checking in on June 20, 2007. Thank you for making your reservations with us and we look forward to seeing you.

You will be staying in Border Inn NV/UT at the intersection of Hwy 6 and 50
2 double beds non smoking
$47 a night plus tax
(the room is in its own trailer!)

Gary Perea

Owner/Manager

And the adventure begins. . . . .