Saturday, August 31, 2013
Day 115 - New Orleans to Austin
Well, I'm officially back in Austin. I'm not going to write too much tonight because I'm seriously tired. I'll have a lot more wrap up posts in the coming days. But I wanted to at least document the last official day of the trip. It was a pretty easy drive today, about 8 hours. I arrived at my girl friend's apartment in Austin right around 5 PM. I'm staying here for the next few nights until I can move into my new apartment on Tuesday. I'm glad to be home, but re-entry into normal life will be quite an adjustment.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Day 114 - New Orleans
Well, I guess this is pretty much the end. Today is the last full day of my trip and I'll be heading home to Austin tomorrow. I'm filled with a sense of melancholy, and also anticipation, looking forward to diving back into my life at home. I look forward to the details of getting settled into my new apartment, getting my cats and my wine back. I've missed my couch, my dvr, my bed, the consistency of using the brands of products that I want at home. This trip has been great, and I'll have more to say about my overall impressions later, but for now, I'm pretty exhausted and I'm looking forward to a few days of decompressing and then the fun of moving into my apartment.
Anyway, today. Again today, I didn't want to get out of bed for a while, so I didn't leave the apartment until about 11 AM. I went straight to an early lunch at a bar called Tracey's. They had a special on fried soft shell crab, one of my favorites, so I had to go for that. The bartender, Sarah, was really nice and it's obviously a place where there are regulars and she knows each of their drinks as soon as they walk in the door.
I then went down to Mardi Gras World, where you can take a tour and see lots of Mardi Gras floats and see them being made. Most of the props on the floats are carved out of styrofoam, covered with paper mache and then painted. I took lots of pictures there. I'm not really into the whole Mardi Gras thing, but I do love a well constructed set piece. I have this theory about New Orleans. It's a city you can like, but you can't really love it unless it's a part of your soul. It seems pretty obvious to me that there are people here (and some that have moved away) who have New Orleans in their soul - the music, the culture, the climate. And it will never be a part of my soul. So I like the city, but I'll never love it like they do.
I then went to Longue Vue House and Gardens, another historic house. Not too old though - it was constructed in the early 1940's. But it is absolutely gorgeous. A lot of the rooms were designed around the older furniture, so the interior of the house feels much older than it is. It's very well integrated into the surrounding gardens. I'm kind of weird about gardens. I don't really understand how gardens can be historic. I mean, I understand that the design can be original, but don't the plants die? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. Maintain the plants, replant them as necessary, but then it's like the garden is a reproduction of the original. Just my opinion anyway. But the gardens at Longue Vue were really pretty - lots of ponds and fountains integrated really well.
Last stop of the day was at an oyster bar. I had a half dozen raw oysters and crawfish ettoufee. It was there that it really hit me that this was likely my last stop of the trip. There are a number of plantations that I could stop at tomorrow on the way back to Austin, but I likely won't stop because once I'm done, I'm done. And I'm done. I'm ready to be home.
So tomorrow, I have a drive in front of me. Should take about 7 1/2 hours. I'm staying a few nights with a friend of mine and our big plan is to veg out and relax. I know I'll be doing a lot of reflecting on and processing of this trip.
For the rest of tonight, just relaxing, finishing up the bottle of wine I bought the other night and, if I'm feeling ambitious, a bubble bath.
Anyway, today. Again today, I didn't want to get out of bed for a while, so I didn't leave the apartment until about 11 AM. I went straight to an early lunch at a bar called Tracey's. They had a special on fried soft shell crab, one of my favorites, so I had to go for that. The bartender, Sarah, was really nice and it's obviously a place where there are regulars and she knows each of their drinks as soon as they walk in the door.
I then went down to Mardi Gras World, where you can take a tour and see lots of Mardi Gras floats and see them being made. Most of the props on the floats are carved out of styrofoam, covered with paper mache and then painted. I took lots of pictures there. I'm not really into the whole Mardi Gras thing, but I do love a well constructed set piece. I have this theory about New Orleans. It's a city you can like, but you can't really love it unless it's a part of your soul. It seems pretty obvious to me that there are people here (and some that have moved away) who have New Orleans in their soul - the music, the culture, the climate. And it will never be a part of my soul. So I like the city, but I'll never love it like they do.
I then went to Longue Vue House and Gardens, another historic house. Not too old though - it was constructed in the early 1940's. But it is absolutely gorgeous. A lot of the rooms were designed around the older furniture, so the interior of the house feels much older than it is. It's very well integrated into the surrounding gardens. I'm kind of weird about gardens. I don't really understand how gardens can be historic. I mean, I understand that the design can be original, but don't the plants die? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. Maintain the plants, replant them as necessary, but then it's like the garden is a reproduction of the original. Just my opinion anyway. But the gardens at Longue Vue were really pretty - lots of ponds and fountains integrated really well.
Last stop of the day was at an oyster bar. I had a half dozen raw oysters and crawfish ettoufee. It was there that it really hit me that this was likely my last stop of the trip. There are a number of plantations that I could stop at tomorrow on the way back to Austin, but I likely won't stop because once I'm done, I'm done. And I'm done. I'm ready to be home.
So tomorrow, I have a drive in front of me. Should take about 7 1/2 hours. I'm staying a few nights with a friend of mine and our big plan is to veg out and relax. I know I'll be doing a lot of reflecting on and processing of this trip.
For the rest of tonight, just relaxing, finishing up the bottle of wine I bought the other night and, if I'm feeling ambitious, a bubble bath.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Day 113 - New Orleans
I kept it pretty low key today, didn't even get out of the apartment until about 11. Like I said, I'm burnt out on being a tourist. But it's my first time to New Orleans, so I didn't want to spend the whole day inside. So once I did finally get myself out, I headed down to the French quarter for a volksmarch. This was my last of the trip. Had I started earlier, it probably would have been cool, but c'est la vie. I started the walk by stopping for food at a local joint on royal street. I had the new Orleans sampler, which is a small bowl each of jambalaya, étouffée, and gumbo. The étouffée was my favorite by far.
The walk wound me down through the French quarter, along the waterfront up to the aquarium, up Lafayette street to the super dome, and down through the Tulane campus. Oh, and along bourbon street. The French quarter is super touristy. There are residences scattered throughout there, but it really is geared towards what the tourists' perception of New Orleans is. Especially that last bit of bourbon street was just seedy and slimy. But, in general, it was so much friendlier than I expected it to be. Lots of people randomly said hi to me, and not just the people that were trying to get me to go into their restaurants/bars - local people just walking down the street.
Besides that, the walk was pretty uneventful. It was cool getting to see that portion of the city, but it's obviously not everything that the city is. I have one more day to explore tomorrow, so I think I'm going to check out the garden district. There's a historic house that I'll be checking out as well.
After the walk, I came back to the apartment to relax. The shower for some reason has no hot water, so I talked with the owner and I now have access to two different apartments, one for me to sleep/ hang out in, and another one to go shower in. Good times. It's like I'm back in college.
Found another wine bar for dinner tonight and they have a grilled cheese bar, so I got one of those for dinner. Tomorrow I'm going to try to find an oyster bar for dinner. That'll be a good last dinner for the trip. So weird!!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Day 111 & 112 - Pensacola to New Orleans
We got home last night and I was determined to write a blog post. It got as far as writing the title. So tired. Fell asleep around 9pm. What?!?!
So we started out with a visit to Ed's work. He's a helicopter flight instructor in the Navy, so that meant going to Whiting Field. I had never been on a military base before. He showed me around his offices, briefing rooms, and then down to the hangar with all of the helicopter. I got to sit in one of the helicopters and he attempted to explain to me how everything worked. He did a good job at explaining, but there is so much information that I got lost pretty quickly.
We then went over to the airport where Ed flies his gliders. So his job is flying helicopters and his hobby is flying gliders. True story. I helped him get the glider set up and when the tow plane showed up, we went up for a ride. It was fantastic! So much cooler than riding a roller coaster. I was slightly terrified at first, but it became evident after a bit that we weren't going to plummet quickly to our deaths. Ed said that it was a fantastic day for soaring and we made it all the way up to 4500 feet. Once I got comfortable just hanging out up there, Ed gave me control and I got to fly for a while. Again, I was slightly terrified that I would send us plummeting to our deaths, but Ed said I did really well and, for the most part, I felt like I was in control or the plane. So after tooling around for a while up there, Ed took us down into our landing. Once you land a glider, you have no control of where you're going to stop. That was slightly anxiety inducing for me as well.
So after we moved the glider back into position for the next pilot, we headed down to the Pensacola Naval Air Station, which is not the same as Whiting Field where Ed flies. There are a lot of flight operations down at Pensacola NAS, including the Blue Angels, but what we were down there to see was the Naval Aviation Museum. We spent a while there looking at the various planes and then we went up to the second floor where there is a big exhibit on modern day flight operations on an aircraft carrier, basically exactly what Ed did before his current assignment. We talked about a bunch of the details and then watched a multimedia movie of flight operations - take offs and landings on a ship - complete with wind, shaking effects, and even jet fuel smells. Ed said it was pretty close to reality. It was definitely cool.
We were both exhausted at that point, so back to the apartment for some rest. The plan was to go to a minor league baseball game after dinner, but the game started an hour earlier than I had in my calendar and after dinner, we were still exhausted, so instead of the baseball game, we walked around downtown and had another beers at a local brewery before heading back to the apartment and both of us crashing hard and early.
Now, early in this trip, I had upgraded my phone plan to include more minutes, more data, and hotspot capability. As this trip is winding down, I decided last night was a good opportunity to revert back to my old plan. Well, when I did this, all of a sudden, my phone wasn't getting any signal. Since I still have a couple of drives left and I'm spending a couple of days by myself in New Orleans, I need a phone that works. So on my drive to New Orleans this morning, I stopped at a Verizon store in order to see if they could fix what was going on. But they basically had no idea and ended up putting me on the phone with tech support for over an hour. The manager at the store did eventually get my phone limping - I have a signal, but I don't have any of my usual settings and it doesn't say that I'm connected to the Verizon network, which makes me nervous. But at least it's working. They're also sending me a replacement phone, which I'll get when I get back to Austin on Saturday. So I guess if this had to happen, now's not the worst time for it to occur. Still incredibly frustrating though.
Since I spent almost 2 hours at the Verizon store, I skipped my first planned stop for the day, the History Museum of Mobile. I proceeded on to my one stop in Mississippi. I had to stop in Mississippi at least once because I needed to get real credit for this state. Before I left on this trip, I had been sitting at 46 states that I had visited for a long time - years and years. The 4 I didn't have we're Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, and Hawaii. And yes, I am aware that it's bizarre that I've lived in Austin for 11 years and I've never been to Mississippi, let alone Louisiana, but such is the case. As of this moment, I have now checked them both off my list. So anyway, my one stop in Mississippi was Beauvior, the last home of Jefferson Davis. Another old house, more old furniture. This house was interesting in terms of the layout - to get to the master bedrooms (male and female), and dining rooms (adults and children) one had to go out onto the back porch. They are connected to the front portion of the house only by one corner. It does make sense in that it allows the rooms to have windows on multiple sides and promotes airflow throughout all of the rooms.
After I concluded my visit in Biloxi, it was on to New Orleans. The original plan was for Ed to join me in New Orleans, but he ended up having to work, so I changed my reservation a few weeks ago from a normal hotel to an airbnb reservation where I have a whole apartment to myself. On the drive down, I got a call from the owner that the air conditioning wasn't working in the unit I had rented, so she let me pick between either of the other 2 units she had available, which were both upgrades to what I had selected. So the apartment I'm staying in is great. High, vaulted ceilings, a super comfy bed, and plenty of room for me to stretch out.
I skipped lunch today, so I found a local wine bar for dinner tonight which is where I am now. A glass of wine and a cheese plate make Lisa a happy girl.
I'm kind of itching to get home, but since I've never been to New Orleans, I'm doing my best to embrace being a tourist for 2 more days and savor the bit of time I have left. Lots of logistical details I have to deal with soon and I'm trying to push them out of my mind for now, but they keep creeping in.
Days 108 - 110 - Epcot & Disney World to Pensacola
So I thought I'd try to write a post last night, but goodness gracious, I totally passed out so early, so that didn't quite happen.
I spent the past 2 days with basically the same plan for Epcot - take the water taxi from the hotel over, spend a couple hours in Tomorrowland, and then the afternoon in the World Showcase. That plan held together mostly, except for the total exhaustion that kicked in both days. So, Saturday - I got to Epcot right on time for opening. The water taxi dropped me off at the international gateway - between England and France in the World Showcase. They open the gates there about 7 minutes before the front gate in order to account for the time it takes to walk to Tomorrowland. My original plan said to go to The Seas with Nemo first, but there was a stream of people going towards Soarin', so I thought it'd probably be a good idea to get to Soarin' before it got packed. So I made my way over there, grabbed a FastPass and then hopped on the ride with barely any wait. I then rode Living with the Land, which, as a serious nerd, is honestly one of my favorite attractions - the greenhouses are ridiculously cool.
I then did the Seas with Nemo, which is kind of like the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland, except that it's in a moving clamshell rather than in a submarine. Very very well done. Then it was back to the Land pavilion to see the Circle of Life and ride Soarin' again using my FastPass. We then hit up Journey into Imagination with Figment. Now, my memory of the Figment ride was that it went through the big Spaceship ball, which is where Spaceship Earth now is, but I might be making that memory up. One of my last stops in Tomorrowland for the day was at Captain EO, which is just bizarre. I mean, it's Michael Jackson in some weird 3D musical adventure directed by George Lucas. From 1986. I just didn't get it. I was never really an MJ fan in that time period - I liked his early 90's stuff - Remember the Time, Black/White, etc - but wasn't really into him earlier in the jerry-curl era. Last stop in Tomorrowland was Innoventions West, which has some cool exhibits in it.
From there, the plan was to go all the way up to America in the World Showcase and make my way back down through the Western countries. So to America I went. I checked out the Fife & Drum corps and then an a capella group. I had a lunch reservation in Japan, so I made my way over there, had some sushi and explored Japan for a bit. There wasn't a ton to explore in Morocco, mainly shops. In France, I got a glass of wine while walking around and then went to see Impressions of France, the 18-minute video about France. It was there that the exhaustion kicked in as I struggled to keep my eyes open. I decided at that point that I wasn't going to survive to make it to dinner without a nap. So I hopped on the water taxi to head back to my hotel. 2/3 of the way there, lightning was spotted in the area, so I had to walk the rest of the way back in the rain. I pretty much crashed as soon as I got back to my room. I had a dinner reservation at 6:30, and had I not had it, I wouldn't have gone back to the park. But I did, so around 5:45, I made my way back to the park, walked through England and then went to Le Cellier in Canada for dinner. I wish I had been hungrier - it was SO good. I had a filet over mushroom risotto, which I realize is a pretty classic combination, but oh my goodness was it yummy. Oh, and I also had a beet salad, because, as previously stated, I'm apparently obsessed with beet salads now. After dinner, I watched O, Canada!, the 360 degree movie about Canada. It's been updated since I saw it as a kid. There were parts of it that I distinctly remember, but they've added things, like narration from Martin Short, and my least favorite part - a clip of Joe Carter hitting the home run off of Mitch Williams in the 1993 World Series. I may or may not have strongly objected out loud to the chagrin of those around me. I believe I could be quoted as "No. No. NO. NO NO NO NO!! NO!!! NO!!!!!!"
Last stop of the night was the nighttime fireworks spectacular over the lake - Reflections of Earth. It was very enjoyable. I made it back to my hotel, wrote the previous blog post, and crashed (are you sensing a theme?)
So, yesterday - similar plan - Tomorrowland first then World Showcase. I had cancelled my lunch reservation cause I figured I'd just pick something up - fish and chips sounded really good. First up - Test Track. Single Rider Line came up really big and I got on the ride with basically no wait. I then picked up my FastPass for Mission Space and went over to Innoventions for the Sum of All Thrills. The Sum of All Thrills is one of the most underrated rides at Epcot - it's very slow to load, but really fun - you design your own roller coaster and then get on robot arm and virtually ride your own coaster. How cool is that? There wasn't much wait at Mission Space at this point, so I figured I'd hit up TestTrack once more in order to get a better "value" out of the Fast Pass. Took a few minutes longer to get onto TestTrack this time, but the Single Rider Line still helped. A lot. Then I hit up Mission Space. Now, much has been made of this ride. When first opened, it was so intense that basically everyone threw up. So they made it a little less intense, and people still threw up. Apparently, though, people didn't want it less intense. They were fine with throwing up. It's on a centrifuge so there are G-forces created along with various jostling and whatnot that simulates a space mission. They have created a more tame version that doesn't use the centrifuge. And they warn you - a lot - about using the less intense version if you think you can't handle the more intense. Well, I don't know what all the hullabaloo was about. Yes, there were G-forces, but nothing like that ride we all used to do at the traveling fairs - you know the one where you stand around the side of a circle, it spins, and then tilts, and then the floor drops out. And you can barely raise your arms. I'm not the only one who remembers this ride, right? After I successfully did not throw up at Mission Space, I then hit up Ellen's Universe of Energy, but it went down about halfway through, so we disembarked early.
Anyway, I finished up with Tomorrowland and headed back to the World Showcase. I was super excited about the possibility of fish and chips for lunch, so I picked some up in England and then went up to America. I saw the a cappella group again and then watched American Adventure. It was interesting seeing this after having gone back stage on Friday. Then I made my way around the East side of the World Showcase, drinking a glass of wine in Italy, drinking another glass of wine and buying a caramel apple in Germany, watching Reflections of China in China, riding Maelstrom in Norway, and riding the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico.
It was still early by the time I finished up with all of the countries, so I decided to go back to Ellen's Universe of Energy to get through that completely. Worked out well. I halfway considered going to ride Living with the Land again, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep my eyes open. So once again, I headed back to the hotel and crashed. Hard. At like 6:00. When I woke up at 9:30, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get back to sleep, but I finally did around midnight.
This morning I checked out of my hotel and started making my way toward Pensacola. Now, I had 2 wineries and a mission planned to go to on the way here, but when I got to the first winery, I had no desire to get out of the car, so I kept on driving. Consequently, I got to Pensacola a couple hours before originally planned. I hung out here with my brother for a while and went out for pizza for dinner. Tomorrow he'll show me around where he works and flies.
I spent the past 2 days with basically the same plan for Epcot - take the water taxi from the hotel over, spend a couple hours in Tomorrowland, and then the afternoon in the World Showcase. That plan held together mostly, except for the total exhaustion that kicked in both days. So, Saturday - I got to Epcot right on time for opening. The water taxi dropped me off at the international gateway - between England and France in the World Showcase. They open the gates there about 7 minutes before the front gate in order to account for the time it takes to walk to Tomorrowland. My original plan said to go to The Seas with Nemo first, but there was a stream of people going towards Soarin', so I thought it'd probably be a good idea to get to Soarin' before it got packed. So I made my way over there, grabbed a FastPass and then hopped on the ride with barely any wait. I then rode Living with the Land, which, as a serious nerd, is honestly one of my favorite attractions - the greenhouses are ridiculously cool.
I then did the Seas with Nemo, which is kind of like the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland, except that it's in a moving clamshell rather than in a submarine. Very very well done. Then it was back to the Land pavilion to see the Circle of Life and ride Soarin' again using my FastPass. We then hit up Journey into Imagination with Figment. Now, my memory of the Figment ride was that it went through the big Spaceship ball, which is where Spaceship Earth now is, but I might be making that memory up. One of my last stops in Tomorrowland for the day was at Captain EO, which is just bizarre. I mean, it's Michael Jackson in some weird 3D musical adventure directed by George Lucas. From 1986. I just didn't get it. I was never really an MJ fan in that time period - I liked his early 90's stuff - Remember the Time, Black/White, etc - but wasn't really into him earlier in the jerry-curl era. Last stop in Tomorrowland was Innoventions West, which has some cool exhibits in it.
From there, the plan was to go all the way up to America in the World Showcase and make my way back down through the Western countries. So to America I went. I checked out the Fife & Drum corps and then an a capella group. I had a lunch reservation in Japan, so I made my way over there, had some sushi and explored Japan for a bit. There wasn't a ton to explore in Morocco, mainly shops. In France, I got a glass of wine while walking around and then went to see Impressions of France, the 18-minute video about France. It was there that the exhaustion kicked in as I struggled to keep my eyes open. I decided at that point that I wasn't going to survive to make it to dinner without a nap. So I hopped on the water taxi to head back to my hotel. 2/3 of the way there, lightning was spotted in the area, so I had to walk the rest of the way back in the rain. I pretty much crashed as soon as I got back to my room. I had a dinner reservation at 6:30, and had I not had it, I wouldn't have gone back to the park. But I did, so around 5:45, I made my way back to the park, walked through England and then went to Le Cellier in Canada for dinner. I wish I had been hungrier - it was SO good. I had a filet over mushroom risotto, which I realize is a pretty classic combination, but oh my goodness was it yummy. Oh, and I also had a beet salad, because, as previously stated, I'm apparently obsessed with beet salads now. After dinner, I watched O, Canada!, the 360 degree movie about Canada. It's been updated since I saw it as a kid. There were parts of it that I distinctly remember, but they've added things, like narration from Martin Short, and my least favorite part - a clip of Joe Carter hitting the home run off of Mitch Williams in the 1993 World Series. I may or may not have strongly objected out loud to the chagrin of those around me. I believe I could be quoted as "No. No. NO. NO NO NO NO!! NO!!! NO!!!!!!"
Last stop of the night was the nighttime fireworks spectacular over the lake - Reflections of Earth. It was very enjoyable. I made it back to my hotel, wrote the previous blog post, and crashed (are you sensing a theme?)
So, yesterday - similar plan - Tomorrowland first then World Showcase. I had cancelled my lunch reservation cause I figured I'd just pick something up - fish and chips sounded really good. First up - Test Track. Single Rider Line came up really big and I got on the ride with basically no wait. I then picked up my FastPass for Mission Space and went over to Innoventions for the Sum of All Thrills. The Sum of All Thrills is one of the most underrated rides at Epcot - it's very slow to load, but really fun - you design your own roller coaster and then get on robot arm and virtually ride your own coaster. How cool is that? There wasn't much wait at Mission Space at this point, so I figured I'd hit up TestTrack once more in order to get a better "value" out of the Fast Pass. Took a few minutes longer to get onto TestTrack this time, but the Single Rider Line still helped. A lot. Then I hit up Mission Space. Now, much has been made of this ride. When first opened, it was so intense that basically everyone threw up. So they made it a little less intense, and people still threw up. Apparently, though, people didn't want it less intense. They were fine with throwing up. It's on a centrifuge so there are G-forces created along with various jostling and whatnot that simulates a space mission. They have created a more tame version that doesn't use the centrifuge. And they warn you - a lot - about using the less intense version if you think you can't handle the more intense. Well, I don't know what all the hullabaloo was about. Yes, there were G-forces, but nothing like that ride we all used to do at the traveling fairs - you know the one where you stand around the side of a circle, it spins, and then tilts, and then the floor drops out. And you can barely raise your arms. I'm not the only one who remembers this ride, right? After I successfully did not throw up at Mission Space, I then hit up Ellen's Universe of Energy, but it went down about halfway through, so we disembarked early.
Anyway, I finished up with Tomorrowland and headed back to the World Showcase. I was super excited about the possibility of fish and chips for lunch, so I picked some up in England and then went up to America. I saw the a cappella group again and then watched American Adventure. It was interesting seeing this after having gone back stage on Friday. Then I made my way around the East side of the World Showcase, drinking a glass of wine in Italy, drinking another glass of wine and buying a caramel apple in Germany, watching Reflections of China in China, riding Maelstrom in Norway, and riding the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico.
It was still early by the time I finished up with all of the countries, so I decided to go back to Ellen's Universe of Energy to get through that completely. Worked out well. I halfway considered going to ride Living with the Land again, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep my eyes open. So once again, I headed back to the hotel and crashed. Hard. At like 6:00. When I woke up at 9:30, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get back to sleep, but I finally did around midnight.
This morning I checked out of my hotel and started making my way toward Pensacola. Now, I had 2 wineries and a mission planned to go to on the way here, but when I got to the first winery, I had no desire to get out of the car, so I kept on driving. Consequently, I got to Pensacola a couple hours before originally planned. I hung out here with my brother for a while and went out for pizza for dinner. Tomorrow he'll show me around where he works and flies.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Days 106 & 107 - Disney World
It's been a busy few days here at Disney World - excuse me, Walt Disney World - so I've had absolutely no time for posts. I may not get to finish everything that's happened up til now in this post, but I'll just write what I can now and continue later.
So, lets start with Thursday, my birthday. Eddie and Andrew came over to my hotel and we had breakfast together in one of the restaurants there. We then drove over to the Magic Kingdom (actually, you have to park at the ticket and transportation center and take the monorail up). We arrive at the entrance right when they we starting to open. Somehow we ended up in the slowest security line ever, so I made the executive decision to skip stopping by guest relations for my "It's my Birthday" button until later. We headed straight to Space Mountain, which scared the bejesus out of me as a kid (and in Disneyland, but it was much better this time - the drops aren't too far, and that's what I don't like about roller coasters.
I won't go into details about every ride that we did, but we definitely most everything. A sampling: speedway, tea cups, haunted mansion, Peter pan's flight, it's a small world, big thunder mountain, Swiss family treehouse, buzz lightyear, move it shake it celebrate it street party, celebrate a dream come true parade, Philharmagic, Winnie the pooh, pirates of the Caribbean, monsters inc laugh floor, dream along with Mickey, enchanted tiki room, carousel of progress, under the sea, main street electrical parade, and wishes nighttime spectacular. So, yeah, a lot. Some of the rides are so tame that it's almost not worth riding them - you have to look at it from a story perspective. I could have skipped Peter pan's flight and it's a small world. I also don't like shows with audience interaction or where they spray you with stuff, so I didn't like monsters inc laugh floor. I adore carousel of progress - I bet it was my favorite ride even when I was a kid. I've always been a nerd. We did miss the hall of presidents because of timing, so that was a bummer.
For lunch, we went over to the contemporary resort and went to The Wave...of American Flavors. It was really good. I've been obsessed with 2 things recently - beets and fish. They had a great fish special which was really yummy. I had always wanted to stay at the contemporary resort - I love the monorail going straight through the building. But it was a bit too expensive when it came down to actually staying there on this trip. And, you know, it wasn't as amazing as I remember it being. I mean, the resort is nice, but it's definitely dated. It feels like what contemporary was 30 or 40 years ago, which, let's be honest, is exactly what it is.
The lunch reservation was at 1:00ish, and the dinner reservation we had was at like 6:00 in downtown Disney, at Wolfgang puck's. After that late-ish lunch, we could tell we weren't going to be hungry for dinner in time and getting to downtown Disney and back was going to be a pain, so we changed the reservation until the next night. It was a good plan.
After spending so many hours on our feet, we were exhausted by the time it came to the evening activities. We scouted out a good location for the electrical parade, but it came in the opposite direction from what I expected, so in order for me to not to have a lamp post right in front of me for the whole parade, I ended up kneeling down. For the entire 20 minutes. Two days later and I'm still feeling it. I'm getting to old for crazy stuff like kneeling. The Wishes Nighttime Spectacular was beautiful and I'm glad we hung in there until the end. It was a long, long day and I crashed right when I got back to my hotel.
Yesterday was a day that I was absolutely looking forward to - it was my 7-hour behind-the-scenes tour. So so excited. I met my tour group over in front of Epcot at 8:45. There were 36 of us on the tour. We had a bus and then in most of the locations, we split into 2 groups, each with our own guide. I wish that I had been with the other guide - I think his name was Rick, but Jeanna, my guide, was great too. Before we left on the tour, we had to choose a "bus buddy" to make sure that no one got left behind anywhere. There was only one other single on the tour, so she and I ended up pairing up. And ugh. She had no social skills and insisted on sitting next to me on the bus when there were other full rows open (I think she took the "bus buddy" term literally). At one point, I pulled out my iPad to check something and she was like "what's that device?" Seriously, I don't think she had ever seen an iPad before. I was so confused.
Anyway, despite that, the tour was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures in most of the places, so I'm glad I'll have this record to remember it all. We started with going backstage at Epcot. The World Showcase isn't open until 11, so we got to walk around it a bit before it opened. We went backstage at the American Adventure and got to see them doing practice runs of the show, which they do every night and morning before opening the park. We saw a sample animatronic head and I, of course, asked a ton of questions about the running of the show.
After leaving Epcot, we went over to the costume shop, which is on the backlot of Hollywood Studios. I think this was my favorite stop of the tour. We got to see where the costumes are designed, cut, constructed, and fitted. I found it really interesting to learn about the different types of costumes, based on the category of cast member. There are operational cast members - merchants, ride operators, security, all of that - who get assigned one or more roles. The costumes for these roles are checked out on an as needed basis. You can check out up to 5 complete costumes. You can do the laundry yourself or just drop off the costumes to be laundered and pick up new ones. These costumes are built to fill an inventory and cast members just pick up their size as needed. The second type of cast member is the characters. These cast members are hired to fit the costume. There is one costume size created, based on what the character is, and one of the big criteria for hiring is whether you fit the costume. The third type of cast member is an entertainer. These cast members are hired based on national and international auditions. They are hired one a one-year, equity contract and their costumes are built to fit them. They generally have 2 costumes per performance role and their names are sewn into those costumes. So yeah, super interesting for me, especially since I'm planning on taking some fashion design classes when I get home.
We made one more stop in Hollywood Studios at Tower of Terror. Rick explained to us how the ride operates and told us some really interesting stories about the evolution of the ride. They claim that each experience is randomized in terms of your up and down drops in the tower. In actuality, there are 6 unique sequences. And the main reason that a car needs to be pulled off the track to be serviced? Sanitization after a "protein evacuation." Too funny. Also, after riding the Tower of Terror in Disneyland, I have no desire to ever ride it again.
Next stop was Animal Kingdom, where we got to see the vehicles lined up in their holding warehouse for the Parade. The Animal Kingdom parade is different then the magic kingdom parades in that it's much less formal and more interactive. The floats were pretty cool and we saw them doing some work on a couple of them.
One more stop before lunch - the horticulture shop. We saw them creating topiaries, which was cool. They construct the frame out of steel, stuff it with dirt or moss or something, and then pin the pants on the outside. They are watered from the inside out using a drip irrigation technique. We saw lots of characters in topiary form, including Belle, the Beast, Chip, Cinderella, Prince Charming, and lots more.
Lunch was all-you-can-eat BBQ at the Wilderness Lodge. I think they were trying to be Texan, but they had pork ribs and no beef ribs. Texas fail. The food was still good, even if it wasn't authentic Texas.
The after lunch stops were great too. First up, we went to the Central Garages, which is where all of the rides and cars and such are built, maintained, and repaired. We saw a number of new cars being built for the new Miners ride in Fantasyland as well as a ton of random items from all over the various parks - Space Mountain cars, it's a small world boats, carousel horses, jungle cruise animals, and more. They mainly try to do preventative maintenance, so on a schedule, each unit from a ride is sent to the garage, disassembled, assessed, fixed as needed, reprinted, and put back together. In that way, they manage to prevent the majority of issues before they become problems. It was great to see a huge focus on safety here as well. It's a shop, like any other shop, it just happens to be at Disney. And it seems like the primary focus is worker safety in conjunction with quality work.
Our final stop was the Magic Kingdom. We parked behind Main Street and went down into the Utilidors. Oooooo, ahhhhhh. Yes, the fabled Utilidors. Guess what? They looked like tunnels. Oh, you don't know about the Utilidors? Well, let me fill you in. The story goes that Walt was out in Disneyland and saw a cast member from Frontierland walking through Tomorrowland (or something like that), and thought that was ruining the illusion. So when he started on the plans for Disney World, he added plans for this tunnel system below the Magic Kingdom. The Utilidors are technically on ground level and what appears to be ground level of the Magic Kingdom is actually the 2nd floor. Cool, yes? So we hung out downstairs for a little while - saw a couple characters in full hair and makeup, but only partial costume. That was really cool.
We went upstairs, watched the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Parade and then walked up Main Street with Jeanna pointing out some inside information, like the names and business names on the buildings.
So that pretty much wrapped up the tour. On the bus ride back to Epcot, Rick told us this great story of how he, along with a stage manager on a show he was working years ago made the wishes of 2 dying kids come true. That was pretty special. Definitely something to remember. Maybe I'll get to that story at some point on here. For now, I'm too tired.
After the tour was over, I met up with Andrew and Eddie at a wine bar out at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and then we went to Puck's for dinner. I'm glad we pushed that out a night. We were able to relax, take our time, and really enjoy the experience. I got a beet salad (of course), red snapper, and carrot cake. They just changed over their menu on Wednesday for the first time in about 4 years, so it was cool getting to try the new things on the menu. I was so stuffed by the time we finished that I couldn't finish up my carrot cake and I brought some of it home.
So that's as far as I can get tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll get caught up on both today and tomorrow.
We went upstairs, watched the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Parade and then walked up Main Street with Jeanna pointing out some inside information, like the names and business names on the buildings.
So that pretty much wrapped up the tour. On the bus ride back to Epcot, Rick told us this great story of how he, along with a stage manager on a show he was working years ago made the wishes of 2 dying kids come true. That was pretty special. Definitely something to remember. Maybe I'll get to that story at some point on here. For now, I'm too tired.
After the tour was over, I met up with Andrew and Eddie at a wine bar out at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and then we went to Puck's for dinner. I'm glad we pushed that out a night. We were able to relax, take our time, and really enjoy the experience. I got a beet salad (of course), red snapper, and carrot cake. They just changed over their menu on Wednesday for the first time in about 4 years, so it was cool getting to try the new things on the menu. I was so stuffed by the time we finished that I couldn't finish up my carrot cake and I brought some of it home.
So that's as far as I can get tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll get caught up on both today and tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Day 105 - Savannah to Disney World
I'm running out of steam. I mean, after 105 days on the road, it's not surprising, but today was definitely indicative of it. I had about 6 stops planned between Savannah and here in Disney World, but could only work up the energy to go to 3 of them.
I left Savannah about half an hour later than planned (are you seeing a trend? I am). I did have a couple of stops to make on the way out of town (mainly at CVS in order to pick up a couple random items). So by the time I hit my first scheduled stop, I was already an hour behind schedule. First stop was a chocolate factory/store in Jacksonville - Peterbrooke Chocolatier. I picked up a couple items and then drove over to Beach Road Chicken Dinners, also in Jacksonville. Seriously good fried chicken there. I got also got a half an order of fried gizzards, since I liked them so much at Joe's Gizzard City up in Michigan. These were ok - much chewier than the ones in Michigan. I think they need to be boiled more before frying.
Next stop was another chocolate factory. I could have waited around another half an hour in order to go on a tour, but, seriously, how many times do I need to learn how chocolate is made from cacao plants? I think I'm pretty familiar now. I did buy some butter creams though. I had a winery, the Oldest House Museum, and another winery planned (and at this point, I was back on schedule, so I could have fit them in), but I just couldn't work up the energy or desire to go to any of them. I just wanted to get to my destination. So I kept driving.
However, I did decide to drive down A1A rather than I-95 for what I expected to be a more scenic route. I guess it was. But it wasn't anything like the Pacific Coast Highway. For much of it, I couldn't even see the ocean - it was blocked by houses or a bluff or trees. And then there were the resort towns that I drove through. Eh.
I turned off of A1A onto I-4 towards Orlando. About halfway along that route, torrential downpour. I was pretty impressed with the other drivers though. Everyone slowed down to an appropriate speed, most everyone had their lights on, and a number of people even had on their blinkers - made it much easier to follow the lights of the car in front of me when I couldn't see the lane lines.
So I made it to Walt Disney World without much incident. I checked into my hotel and got settled. And, good god, I had so many questions. I never have questions when checking into my hotel. But there are so many options here and so much logistics, and as simple as Disney likes to think that their processes are, they're a little dated. I mean, I still haven't been able to get a bus route map. I don't think one actually exists. For a planner like me, I don't like to leave transportation details like that up to "figure it out when I need it." So I ended up walking around everywhere and asking all sorts of questions. I also drove over to the Magic Kingdom entrance in order to pick up my actual ticket that I had bought online and was at will call. Didn't want to leave that until the morning. But I think I have it all figured out at this point.
I came to Disney World twice as a kid - once when I was 8 and once when I was 10 (I think), but I haven't been here since. And, obviously, at that age, I wasn't involved in the logistics of our trip. So this is the first time I've had to deal with that. Also, when I was a kid, we stayed at the Polynesian Resort, which is serviced directly by the Monorail. I remember using the Monorail to get basically everywhere. I always wanted to stay at the Contemporary Resort if I ever came back, but, in researching for this trip, it was just too expensive, especially for me staying there by myself. So I ended up staying at the Dolphin, which is on the Disney property, and you get all the benefits of staying at a Disney resort, but it's run by Starwood Hotels. It has a conference center and isn't as "Disney" as the rest of the resorts - I like that - not quite as many children running around everywhere. However, the transportation is a little more complicated. There's a water taxi over to Epcot or Hollywood Studios (although I'm not going to Hollywood Studios while I'm here), and to get to Downtown Disney or the Magic Kingdom, there's a bus, which as I already stated, I can't get the details on. However, I did find out that the $15/day that I'm paying to park my car includes unlimited in and out and parking at any resort, park, or anywhere else within Disney World - I just have to show my room key and there's no additional fee.
One other major point of logistics that I haven't mentioned yet is that I have friends that flew in this evening from Austin and are joining me here at Disney World. They're actually the guys that are wine-sitting for me for the summer. So they flew in from Austin tonight and we originally had plans to meet up for dinner, but their flight was delayed and I was hungry, so we skipped dinner and will just meet up in the morning. They're not staying at the same hotel as I am, but we're planning on spending much of the day together tomorrow. Oh, and it's going to be a seriously long day. Breakfast at 6:30, gates to the Magic Kingdom open at 8, and we're planning on going all day until about 10PM. LONG day. I'm using the same program that I used at Disneyland in order to organize my day and all the attractions I'm planning on hitting. Which brings me to another point. Tomorrow is my birthday. I know this seems like a non-sequitor, but I'll connect it, just give me a second. In Disneyland, I was using my iPhone in order to track my progress against my plan for the day, but I found that was draining the battery, so I switched to my iPad partway through the day and used my iPhone just for email/facebook/etc. Well, I do plan on starting with the plan on my iPad tomorrow, but I've found that my iPhone battery has been dying even quicker recently, so I'm worried it won't last through the day, even if I'm not using it for ride tracking. Add to that that it is typical for facebook to explode on your birthday with notifications every 5 minutes of someone posting on your wall, there's no way it's going to make it. So, for one day only, I'm going to turn off facebook notifications (you thought I was going to say I was going to turn off my phone, didn't you? That's too far for me.). I will do my best not to check facebook every chance I get and so I won't be responding to any birthday messages until late in the day - maybe even not until Friday, depending on how hard I crash tomorrow night.
Oh, on a similar note, I probably won't post on here tomorrow night. After 16 hours in the park, I imagine that writing a blog post is going to be next to impossible. Happy birthday to me!!
I left Savannah about half an hour later than planned (are you seeing a trend? I am). I did have a couple of stops to make on the way out of town (mainly at CVS in order to pick up a couple random items). So by the time I hit my first scheduled stop, I was already an hour behind schedule. First stop was a chocolate factory/store in Jacksonville - Peterbrooke Chocolatier. I picked up a couple items and then drove over to Beach Road Chicken Dinners, also in Jacksonville. Seriously good fried chicken there. I got also got a half an order of fried gizzards, since I liked them so much at Joe's Gizzard City up in Michigan. These were ok - much chewier than the ones in Michigan. I think they need to be boiled more before frying.
Next stop was another chocolate factory. I could have waited around another half an hour in order to go on a tour, but, seriously, how many times do I need to learn how chocolate is made from cacao plants? I think I'm pretty familiar now. I did buy some butter creams though. I had a winery, the Oldest House Museum, and another winery planned (and at this point, I was back on schedule, so I could have fit them in), but I just couldn't work up the energy or desire to go to any of them. I just wanted to get to my destination. So I kept driving.
However, I did decide to drive down A1A rather than I-95 for what I expected to be a more scenic route. I guess it was. But it wasn't anything like the Pacific Coast Highway. For much of it, I couldn't even see the ocean - it was blocked by houses or a bluff or trees. And then there were the resort towns that I drove through. Eh.
I turned off of A1A onto I-4 towards Orlando. About halfway along that route, torrential downpour. I was pretty impressed with the other drivers though. Everyone slowed down to an appropriate speed, most everyone had their lights on, and a number of people even had on their blinkers - made it much easier to follow the lights of the car in front of me when I couldn't see the lane lines.
So I made it to Walt Disney World without much incident. I checked into my hotel and got settled. And, good god, I had so many questions. I never have questions when checking into my hotel. But there are so many options here and so much logistics, and as simple as Disney likes to think that their processes are, they're a little dated. I mean, I still haven't been able to get a bus route map. I don't think one actually exists. For a planner like me, I don't like to leave transportation details like that up to "figure it out when I need it." So I ended up walking around everywhere and asking all sorts of questions. I also drove over to the Magic Kingdom entrance in order to pick up my actual ticket that I had bought online and was at will call. Didn't want to leave that until the morning. But I think I have it all figured out at this point.
I came to Disney World twice as a kid - once when I was 8 and once when I was 10 (I think), but I haven't been here since. And, obviously, at that age, I wasn't involved in the logistics of our trip. So this is the first time I've had to deal with that. Also, when I was a kid, we stayed at the Polynesian Resort, which is serviced directly by the Monorail. I remember using the Monorail to get basically everywhere. I always wanted to stay at the Contemporary Resort if I ever came back, but, in researching for this trip, it was just too expensive, especially for me staying there by myself. So I ended up staying at the Dolphin, which is on the Disney property, and you get all the benefits of staying at a Disney resort, but it's run by Starwood Hotels. It has a conference center and isn't as "Disney" as the rest of the resorts - I like that - not quite as many children running around everywhere. However, the transportation is a little more complicated. There's a water taxi over to Epcot or Hollywood Studios (although I'm not going to Hollywood Studios while I'm here), and to get to Downtown Disney or the Magic Kingdom, there's a bus, which as I already stated, I can't get the details on. However, I did find out that the $15/day that I'm paying to park my car includes unlimited in and out and parking at any resort, park, or anywhere else within Disney World - I just have to show my room key and there's no additional fee.
One other major point of logistics that I haven't mentioned yet is that I have friends that flew in this evening from Austin and are joining me here at Disney World. They're actually the guys that are wine-sitting for me for the summer. So they flew in from Austin tonight and we originally had plans to meet up for dinner, but their flight was delayed and I was hungry, so we skipped dinner and will just meet up in the morning. They're not staying at the same hotel as I am, but we're planning on spending much of the day together tomorrow. Oh, and it's going to be a seriously long day. Breakfast at 6:30, gates to the Magic Kingdom open at 8, and we're planning on going all day until about 10PM. LONG day. I'm using the same program that I used at Disneyland in order to organize my day and all the attractions I'm planning on hitting. Which brings me to another point. Tomorrow is my birthday. I know this seems like a non-sequitor, but I'll connect it, just give me a second. In Disneyland, I was using my iPhone in order to track my progress against my plan for the day, but I found that was draining the battery, so I switched to my iPad partway through the day and used my iPhone just for email/facebook/etc. Well, I do plan on starting with the plan on my iPad tomorrow, but I've found that my iPhone battery has been dying even quicker recently, so I'm worried it won't last through the day, even if I'm not using it for ride tracking. Add to that that it is typical for facebook to explode on your birthday with notifications every 5 minutes of someone posting on your wall, there's no way it's going to make it. So, for one day only, I'm going to turn off facebook notifications (you thought I was going to say I was going to turn off my phone, didn't you? That's too far for me.). I will do my best not to check facebook every chance I get and so I won't be responding to any birthday messages until late in the day - maybe even not until Friday, depending on how hard I crash tomorrow night.
Oh, on a similar note, I probably won't post on here tomorrow night. After 16 hours in the park, I imagine that writing a blog post is going to be next to impossible. Happy birthday to me!!
Day 104 - Savannah
Pop quiz:
Q: How does one survive a 7 mile walk around Savannah in August?
A: With a lot of water and frequent air-conditioning breaks.
I left Hilton Head this morning at 9:30 and drove down to Savannah. I wasn't sure whether I would do a volksmarch or do a trolley tour around town. I left it up to the weather. And when I say that, what I mean is that I left it up to whether it was going to rain or not. Low chance of rain today, so I went with the volksmarch. It was a really good walk, but as previously implied, was a bit warm. I did survive though.
The city is beautiful. I love how it's set up with the squares throughout. At first I thought they were going to be weird and cause traffic issues, but it's so nice having so many mini-parks throughout the city. Each one has its own character. Some really beautiful architecture here too. I went into 2 houses - the Isaiah Davenport House and the Andrew Low House. Isaiah Davenport was an architect and designed and built his house before getting business around town. It's a nice house, but not over the top. And it didn't have pocket doors, which was weird. Andrew Low was the father-in-law of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. His house was built about 20 years after the Davenport house and the house is definitely more upscale. The house also has many more pieces of furniture that are original to the house. The Davenport house doesn't have any original pieces, where the Low House has many.
Savannah very obviously relies heavily on the tourist trade. There are trolleys, carriages, and tour groups everywhere. But the difference between a city like savannah and a city like Las Vegas is that firstly, the tourism is built on actual history, and secondly, I feel valued as a human being, not just a wallet. Call it southern hospitality or whatever, but I like when random people on the street say hello to me without trying to sell me anything.
Q: How does one survive a 7 mile walk around Savannah in August?
A: With a lot of water and frequent air-conditioning breaks.
I left Hilton Head this morning at 9:30 and drove down to Savannah. I wasn't sure whether I would do a volksmarch or do a trolley tour around town. I left it up to the weather. And when I say that, what I mean is that I left it up to whether it was going to rain or not. Low chance of rain today, so I went with the volksmarch. It was a really good walk, but as previously implied, was a bit warm. I did survive though.
The city is beautiful. I love how it's set up with the squares throughout. At first I thought they were going to be weird and cause traffic issues, but it's so nice having so many mini-parks throughout the city. Each one has its own character. Some really beautiful architecture here too. I went into 2 houses - the Isaiah Davenport House and the Andrew Low House. Isaiah Davenport was an architect and designed and built his house before getting business around town. It's a nice house, but not over the top. And it didn't have pocket doors, which was weird. Andrew Low was the father-in-law of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. His house was built about 20 years after the Davenport house and the house is definitely more upscale. The house also has many more pieces of furniture that are original to the house. The Davenport house doesn't have any original pieces, where the Low House has many.
Savannah very obviously relies heavily on the tourist trade. There are trolleys, carriages, and tour groups everywhere. But the difference between a city like savannah and a city like Las Vegas is that firstly, the tourism is built on actual history, and secondly, I feel valued as a human being, not just a wallet. Call it southern hospitality or whatever, but I like when random people on the street say hello to me without trying to sell me anything.
I finished up the walk around 4:45 and drove over to my apartment for the night - another airbnb reservation. After a much needed shower, I was looking for some dinner. After a little Internet research, I decided on the Lowcountry Boil from Bobo's Seafood Market. The place is one of those hole in the wall places that only locals know about. No tables - only to go food. But cheap and good. Check out the picture. It was a total of $8, and that includes tax. 
So much food! Shrimp, potatoes, corn, sausage, there's even a whole crab buried in there. Highly, highly recommend.
So much food! Shrimp, potatoes, corn, sausage, there's even a whole crab buried in there. Highly, highly recommend.
Tomorrow I'm making the drive down to Disney World. Super excited!!!!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Day 103 - Charleston to Hilton Head
Most touring days (as opposed to travel days), I arrive the night before, wake up, tour, and then spend the night in the same place. Today was different. I toured in Charleston all day and then traveled an additional 2 hours in order to get down to Hilton Head. This was a change from my original schedule. I had forgotten that I have family in Hilton Head, so I didn't factor that into my original schedule.
But backing up. Mac, my friend's dad who I stayed with last night took me out to breakfast this morning. I hadn't factored that into my schedule, but I figured it wouldn't make much difference. Wrong. I arrived at the ferry terminal for Fort Sumter at 9:45. It was then that I realized why I had planned to get there at 9:15. The ferry left at 9:30, 12:00, and 2:30. There are additional departures from the Point Pleasant location, but that was a 15 minute drive in the wrong direction. So last minute rearranging of schedule, no big deal.
Original stop #2 was about half a mile away and opened at 10:00. Perfect. So I walked over there. It was the Aiken-Rhett House. The house is different from most other historic homes I've visited because they aren't working to restore it. Rather, they're working to preserve it. There is a distinct difference. It's interesting to see the actual state of the house when the preservation society got a hold of it rather than what happens after the paint is restored and fixtures are replaced, etc. They do an audio tour at the house, which I like and I think is a very smart way to do it. It may be a bit cost prohibitive up front, but I think it ultimately is a smarter way to run these tours. You can get more people through without having to staff tours. They do staff a few docents around the place, so if you have questions, they're there to answer them. Well, during the tour of the house, I noticed that it started raining. Not hard, but definitely steady. So when I was finished, I whipped out my umbrella and decided I could brave the half hour walk back to the Fort Sumter ferry terminal. And then the torrential downpour started. And didn't stop for a while. I ended up walking up and standing on some random residential porch for a while until it let up a bit. A tiny umbrella can only do so much.
So, I made it back to the ferry terminal right around 11:30, bought my ticket, toured the museum and boarded the ferry toward the island where Fort Sumter is located. They started with a "historic talk", which went on too long, and then everyone had time to explore the island. For some reason (well, let's be honest, it's pretty obvious why), I was reminded of a class that I took in college. It was third year and all engineering students were required to take one Technology, Culture, & Communication class. There was a very wide range of the classes you could take - things like "Technology and Music", or "The Technology of News", or "The History of NASA." For some reason (probably because it fit into my schedule), I took "Technology in War and Peace" or something like that. Well, I don't actually have much of an interest in military history, so I quickly realized that I hated the class. Walking around Fort Sumter, I had a bit of the same feeling. I like historical monuments, but military history doesn't cut it much for me. So it wasn't my favorite stop of the entire trip, but it was fine.
After taking the ferry back over to the mainland, I drove down Market Street and went the the Calhoun Mansion. Interesting place. It was built sometime (seriously - I can't be expected remember all these dates), the owner had to sell it cause he lost his money, and then the navy used it during some war (World War I, maybe?) as a hospital. And then it was abandoned for a while during the 60's. And finally someone bought it and restored it. And then the current owner bought it. He still lives there, but it's open for tours. Now, it's another one that's not restored in the classical sense. The walls, the ceilings, the light fixtures - all of that is restored. But the furniture and the decorations? Well, he's done his own thing. And his own thing is apparently antiques - lots and lots of antiques. The place is reminiscent of the Hearst Castle in that there is stuff everywhere and it doesn't all go together. There are themes in some of the rooms, but the themes are like "wildlife" and "religion," so the items in a given room are from a variety of time periods, and a variety of places. Definitely a little bizarre. The house still is pretty amazing though. And I'm sure some people love all of the antiques. I just find it overwhelming and disjointed. Oh, but scenes from The Notebook were filmed at this house, so that was cool. It functioned as Ally's parents' house. Now I want to go back and watch the movie again.
From there, I drove along South Battery, just checking out the pretty houses and then out to Ashley River Road. There were two places back there that I wanted to go and knew I probably wouldn't have time for both. My first choice was Drayton Hall, but they had closed about half an hour before I got there. Oops. So I went to Magnolia Plantation instead, just down the road. Easy enough. The big draw of this place is the gardens. I'm not one for gardens, but they were pretty. If you like gardens, I definitely recommend going. I did take a couple pictures of the lake and whatnot. I think scenes from The Notebook were filmed here as well - definitely should have been. The plantation house is actually the 3rd house on the grounds. The first one was struck by lightning and burnt down in 1811 (see how I am capable of remembering dates?), then the second was burnt down by those damn yankees in 1865. And this one has stood there since. There was a significant expansion in 1918, so you can still see the original portion and the expansion. You know, a lot of people think that most southern plantation mansions are like Tara in Gone with the Wind. They're not. They don't have that huge stairway and huge ballroom. They're nice, but much more like working farm houses. Maybe with a nice big parlor and beautiful dining rooms, but they're not "party" houses like the Newport Mansions are.
I finished up at the Magnolia Plantation and started my drive down to Hilton Head. It was a pretty easy drive expect that the rain showers followed me. I definitely drove through some pretty heavy showers. At one point, it was really weird - I just drove beyond the edge of the shower. One second it was pouring, the next second, nothing. Odd.
So I arrived here around 7 PM, right on time. I'm staying with my dad's cousin and his wife. And it just so happens that their daughter, my second cousin, who is about 2 months older than I am, is here visiting too. So I got to catch up with them and we went out to a local seafood place for dinner. Tomorrow, I'm driving down to Savannah and touring there. I've never been, so it should be interesting.
But backing up. Mac, my friend's dad who I stayed with last night took me out to breakfast this morning. I hadn't factored that into my schedule, but I figured it wouldn't make much difference. Wrong. I arrived at the ferry terminal for Fort Sumter at 9:45. It was then that I realized why I had planned to get there at 9:15. The ferry left at 9:30, 12:00, and 2:30. There are additional departures from the Point Pleasant location, but that was a 15 minute drive in the wrong direction. So last minute rearranging of schedule, no big deal.
Original stop #2 was about half a mile away and opened at 10:00. Perfect. So I walked over there. It was the Aiken-Rhett House. The house is different from most other historic homes I've visited because they aren't working to restore it. Rather, they're working to preserve it. There is a distinct difference. It's interesting to see the actual state of the house when the preservation society got a hold of it rather than what happens after the paint is restored and fixtures are replaced, etc. They do an audio tour at the house, which I like and I think is a very smart way to do it. It may be a bit cost prohibitive up front, but I think it ultimately is a smarter way to run these tours. You can get more people through without having to staff tours. They do staff a few docents around the place, so if you have questions, they're there to answer them. Well, during the tour of the house, I noticed that it started raining. Not hard, but definitely steady. So when I was finished, I whipped out my umbrella and decided I could brave the half hour walk back to the Fort Sumter ferry terminal. And then the torrential downpour started. And didn't stop for a while. I ended up walking up and standing on some random residential porch for a while until it let up a bit. A tiny umbrella can only do so much.
So, I made it back to the ferry terminal right around 11:30, bought my ticket, toured the museum and boarded the ferry toward the island where Fort Sumter is located. They started with a "historic talk", which went on too long, and then everyone had time to explore the island. For some reason (well, let's be honest, it's pretty obvious why), I was reminded of a class that I took in college. It was third year and all engineering students were required to take one Technology, Culture, & Communication class. There was a very wide range of the classes you could take - things like "Technology and Music", or "The Technology of News", or "The History of NASA." For some reason (probably because it fit into my schedule), I took "Technology in War and Peace" or something like that. Well, I don't actually have much of an interest in military history, so I quickly realized that I hated the class. Walking around Fort Sumter, I had a bit of the same feeling. I like historical monuments, but military history doesn't cut it much for me. So it wasn't my favorite stop of the entire trip, but it was fine.
After taking the ferry back over to the mainland, I drove down Market Street and went the the Calhoun Mansion. Interesting place. It was built sometime (seriously - I can't be expected remember all these dates), the owner had to sell it cause he lost his money, and then the navy used it during some war (World War I, maybe?) as a hospital. And then it was abandoned for a while during the 60's. And finally someone bought it and restored it. And then the current owner bought it. He still lives there, but it's open for tours. Now, it's another one that's not restored in the classical sense. The walls, the ceilings, the light fixtures - all of that is restored. But the furniture and the decorations? Well, he's done his own thing. And his own thing is apparently antiques - lots and lots of antiques. The place is reminiscent of the Hearst Castle in that there is stuff everywhere and it doesn't all go together. There are themes in some of the rooms, but the themes are like "wildlife" and "religion," so the items in a given room are from a variety of time periods, and a variety of places. Definitely a little bizarre. The house still is pretty amazing though. And I'm sure some people love all of the antiques. I just find it overwhelming and disjointed. Oh, but scenes from The Notebook were filmed at this house, so that was cool. It functioned as Ally's parents' house. Now I want to go back and watch the movie again.
From there, I drove along South Battery, just checking out the pretty houses and then out to Ashley River Road. There were two places back there that I wanted to go and knew I probably wouldn't have time for both. My first choice was Drayton Hall, but they had closed about half an hour before I got there. Oops. So I went to Magnolia Plantation instead, just down the road. Easy enough. The big draw of this place is the gardens. I'm not one for gardens, but they were pretty. If you like gardens, I definitely recommend going. I did take a couple pictures of the lake and whatnot. I think scenes from The Notebook were filmed here as well - definitely should have been. The plantation house is actually the 3rd house on the grounds. The first one was struck by lightning and burnt down in 1811 (see how I am capable of remembering dates?), then the second was burnt down by those damn yankees in 1865. And this one has stood there since. There was a significant expansion in 1918, so you can still see the original portion and the expansion. You know, a lot of people think that most southern plantation mansions are like Tara in Gone with the Wind. They're not. They don't have that huge stairway and huge ballroom. They're nice, but much more like working farm houses. Maybe with a nice big parlor and beautiful dining rooms, but they're not "party" houses like the Newport Mansions are.
I finished up at the Magnolia Plantation and started my drive down to Hilton Head. It was a pretty easy drive expect that the rain showers followed me. I definitely drove through some pretty heavy showers. At one point, it was really weird - I just drove beyond the edge of the shower. One second it was pouring, the next second, nothing. Odd.
So I arrived here around 7 PM, right on time. I'm staying with my dad's cousin and his wife. And it just so happens that their daughter, my second cousin, who is about 2 months older than I am, is here visiting too. So I got to catch up with them and we went out to a local seafood place for dinner. Tomorrow, I'm driving down to Savannah and touring there. I've never been, so it should be interesting.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Days 101 & 102 - Wilmington, NC to Charleston
I'm getting a little lazy with posting, aren't I? Apparently, I can't be bothered to post 2 days in a row consistently. But I have a good excuse for not posting last night - it's called wine. Lots and lots of wine. But I'll get to that.
So I stayed Friday night with Diana in Wilmington. She had such plans for us for yesterday - the beach, a historic tour, out dancing, all sorts of stuff. But then it rained. And rained and rained and rained. Did I mention torrential downpour? So instead of heading to the beach, we slept in. We finally made it out to a local tavern for an early lunch, with mimosas, so we decided it counted as brunch. In the torrential rain, we walked around downtown briefly before we both called it quits.
We went back to the house, dried off, called a cab and headed for a water-front bar. That's where the wine started. Now, among cruise friends, everyone has things their known for. Diana is known for champagne parties. I'm known for red wine. Oh, and secondarily, we're both known for the other (Diana for red wine, me for champagne parties). On the Halloween cruise last year, our "official" champagne party totaled 37 bottles, and our unofficial, "low-key" champagne party totaled another 19. True story. So when we decided to hit the wine yesterday, we all knew where it was headed.
We went through 2 bottles of wine at the water front bar and then called the cab to take us over to a local tapas-style restaurant. We ate a bunch of food there and got through one more bottle of wine. One of our mutual cruise friends somehow suggested via facebook that we start making phone calls, and we totally jumped on it. We made about 20 phone calls while at the restaurant before both of our phones died. We then took a cab back to Diana's house, charged our phones and made about 10 more calls. I promised a special shout out to Phil for providing us with at least one missing phone number. We didn't get to call everyone we wanted to because we didn't have their numbers. But it sure was fun. Got to talk to a bunch of friends, even briefly.
Since we weren't able to do everything we wanted yesterday, we made up for it by going out to breakfast this morning, which pushed my departure time back 2 hours. I ended up cutting out a vineyard and one historic home I was going to go to, but I still made it to the Boone Hall Plantation. A very well done destination. I took the house tour, then the plantation tour (on a trolley that proceeds around the entire still-working farm), and then the self-guided slavery life tour. Lots of great stuff to see. There were a couple things I missed cause they were closing.
I'm staying tonight with my friend's father in Charleston, SC. After I arrived, we visited for a bit and then went out for dinner - how I missed Greek food!! And then he drove me around Sullivan's Island and the Isle of Palms. Some super neat houses out there. I'm only staying here one night - spending tomorrow in Charleston, but then leaving tomorrow evening to head further south. Hopefully this big rain storm won't derail my plans too badly.
So I stayed Friday night with Diana in Wilmington. She had such plans for us for yesterday - the beach, a historic tour, out dancing, all sorts of stuff. But then it rained. And rained and rained and rained. Did I mention torrential downpour? So instead of heading to the beach, we slept in. We finally made it out to a local tavern for an early lunch, with mimosas, so we decided it counted as brunch. In the torrential rain, we walked around downtown briefly before we both called it quits.
We went back to the house, dried off, called a cab and headed for a water-front bar. That's where the wine started. Now, among cruise friends, everyone has things their known for. Diana is known for champagne parties. I'm known for red wine. Oh, and secondarily, we're both known for the other (Diana for red wine, me for champagne parties). On the Halloween cruise last year, our "official" champagne party totaled 37 bottles, and our unofficial, "low-key" champagne party totaled another 19. True story. So when we decided to hit the wine yesterday, we all knew where it was headed.
We went through 2 bottles of wine at the water front bar and then called the cab to take us over to a local tapas-style restaurant. We ate a bunch of food there and got through one more bottle of wine. One of our mutual cruise friends somehow suggested via facebook that we start making phone calls, and we totally jumped on it. We made about 20 phone calls while at the restaurant before both of our phones died. We then took a cab back to Diana's house, charged our phones and made about 10 more calls. I promised a special shout out to Phil for providing us with at least one missing phone number. We didn't get to call everyone we wanted to because we didn't have their numbers. But it sure was fun. Got to talk to a bunch of friends, even briefly.
Since we weren't able to do everything we wanted yesterday, we made up for it by going out to breakfast this morning, which pushed my departure time back 2 hours. I ended up cutting out a vineyard and one historic home I was going to go to, but I still made it to the Boone Hall Plantation. A very well done destination. I took the house tour, then the plantation tour (on a trolley that proceeds around the entire still-working farm), and then the self-guided slavery life tour. Lots of great stuff to see. There were a couple things I missed cause they were closing.
I'm staying tonight with my friend's father in Charleston, SC. After I arrived, we visited for a bit and then went out for dinner - how I missed Greek food!! And then he drove me around Sullivan's Island and the Isle of Palms. Some super neat houses out there. I'm only staying here one night - spending tomorrow in Charleston, but then leaving tomorrow evening to head further south. Hopefully this big rain storm won't derail my plans too badly.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Day 100 - Asheville to Wilmington, NC
Day 100. Who can believe it. 100 days on the road. I know it's cliche, but in some ways, it feels like forever, and in some ways it feels like yesterday. Mostly, it feels like a really long time. I feel very disconnected from my life back in Austin. I know that it's there - not waiting for me, but continuing while I'm gone. It just feels like I've been experiencing this nomadic lifestyle for so long that a sedentary (that's not really what I mean, but I think you get the point) lifestyle seems so foreign to me. In some ways, I'm looking forward to getting back to a more settled life. But it's going to be weird leaving this all in my past. I'll always keep it with me though.
So around 5:30 this morning, I woke up out of nowhere, overwhelmed with anxiety. About what, I have no idea, but there it was. My heart beating fast, mind racing a mile a minute. After a few minutes, a feeling of nausea and lightheadedness overwhelmed me. Took me a little while, but I breathed through it and after 10 minutes or so, it all passed. So weird - and not fun. I got back to sleep and ended up deciding to sleep in an extra hour in order to calm my body. So I got out of the house about 45 minutes later than planned. I also wanted to get to my final destination earlier than planned, so I skipped my first planned historic site and my first two wineries for the day.
I did end up going to the 3rd winery on my list for the day. I kinda wish that I had skipped it - the wine wasn't good and it was out of my way. I also went to the James K Polk birthplace, which was "eh." It was raining, so they weren't doing tours of the restored home. So I just saw the video about Polk, the museum, and took a picture from outside the restored buildings. I've seen enough historic homes - I can imagine what it was like inside.
The Polk site was just outside of Charlotte and the traffic getting out of the area was a bit of a nightmare. Plus it was raining. But I eventually made it out of there. A bit of a long drive, but I made it to my friend's house in Wilmington around 6:30. We went out to a local wine and olive bar for a wine tasting and then dinner. Lots of wine, a little yummy food. Perfect dinner.
Good day. Oh, I also hit 70,000 miles on my car today. That's total, not just for this trip. I think I'm at about 11,000 for the trip so far. Maybe more. I didn't keep track of what it was when I left.
So around 5:30 this morning, I woke up out of nowhere, overwhelmed with anxiety. About what, I have no idea, but there it was. My heart beating fast, mind racing a mile a minute. After a few minutes, a feeling of nausea and lightheadedness overwhelmed me. Took me a little while, but I breathed through it and after 10 minutes or so, it all passed. So weird - and not fun. I got back to sleep and ended up deciding to sleep in an extra hour in order to calm my body. So I got out of the house about 45 minutes later than planned. I also wanted to get to my final destination earlier than planned, so I skipped my first planned historic site and my first two wineries for the day.
I did end up going to the 3rd winery on my list for the day. I kinda wish that I had skipped it - the wine wasn't good and it was out of my way. I also went to the James K Polk birthplace, which was "eh." It was raining, so they weren't doing tours of the restored home. So I just saw the video about Polk, the museum, and took a picture from outside the restored buildings. I've seen enough historic homes - I can imagine what it was like inside.
The Polk site was just outside of Charlotte and the traffic getting out of the area was a bit of a nightmare. Plus it was raining. But I eventually made it out of there. A bit of a long drive, but I made it to my friend's house in Wilmington around 6:30. We went out to a local wine and olive bar for a wine tasting and then dinner. Lots of wine, a little yummy food. Perfect dinner.
Good day. Oh, I also hit 70,000 miles on my car today. That's total, not just for this trip. I think I'm at about 11,000 for the trip so far. Maybe more. I didn't keep track of what it was when I left.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Days 98 & 99 - Abingdon & Asheville, NC
Somewhat laid back day yesterday - after sleeping in until about noon, Eric showed me around Abingdon and the surrounding area. We drove up to the top of the 2nd highest mountain in Virginia. It was a pretty view. We also drove through Emory & Henry.
I left Abingdon this morning and drove down to Asheville. Only thing on the schedule was to check out the Biltmore Estate. I stayed at the Inn on the Biltmore Estate about 12 years ago for the end-of-summer celebration of my internship program with PricewaterhouseCoopers. But, for some reason, I don't think we ever did a tour of the house. That seems odd to me. Anyway, the estate is still privately owned by the Vanderbilt family, but is open to the public in order to generate the revenue to maintain the house. It's a $59 entrance fee and then an additional $10 for the audio tour. I did do the audio tour and I'm glad I did. There was very little information about each room without it. Now, I had an option to do a Volksmarch around the grounds, but from my research, it seemed pretty strenuous and was all about the gardens and whatnot - not my thing. So I skipped the Volksmarch and just toured on my own.
The house is gorgeous - one of the largest I've visited. And since it's stayed in the family since it was built, all of the furniture is original. Some of the fabrics are reproductions since the originals deteriorated over time. Only a fraction of the rooms are open. Apparently there are about 250 rooms in the mansion, but the tour only takes you past or through about 50 of them. There are some additional guided tours that go to other areas of the house, like the behind-the-scenes-life-of-a-servant tour. But $70 was expensive enough for me.
After I finished my tour of the house, I drove over to the little village that they have created on the estate. Pretty sure that none of that was there 12 years ago. There's a little museum, the wine shop, a bistro, a pub, a creamery, and a little park, in addition to some stuff for kids. It's a cute little area, definitely revenue generating. The museum, wine tasting, and kids activities are included in the price of admission. If you so desire, you can taste up to about 20 wines with your admission. I tried 8. There are an additional 12 or so premium wines that you can taste for an additional fee. I tried 3 - one of them was a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. I absolutely fell in love with Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs out in California.
I visited the museum, which was an interesting history of this branch of the Vanderbilts, and then went over to the pub for a local beer and some fried cheese curds. I hung out there for a while chatting with the bartender for a bit and then finally headed over to my airbnb reservation for the night.
I have this cute little cottage all to myself - 2 bedrooms, one bath, kitchen, laundry facilities, and living room with cable. It's super adorable. But it's cold here at night! It was actually pretty chilly here during the day too - I don't think it ever got above 70 degrees. But I'm looking forward to curling up and sleeping well tonight. Tomorrow I get to see one of my cruise friends!!
I left Abingdon this morning and drove down to Asheville. Only thing on the schedule was to check out the Biltmore Estate. I stayed at the Inn on the Biltmore Estate about 12 years ago for the end-of-summer celebration of my internship program with PricewaterhouseCoopers. But, for some reason, I don't think we ever did a tour of the house. That seems odd to me. Anyway, the estate is still privately owned by the Vanderbilt family, but is open to the public in order to generate the revenue to maintain the house. It's a $59 entrance fee and then an additional $10 for the audio tour. I did do the audio tour and I'm glad I did. There was very little information about each room without it. Now, I had an option to do a Volksmarch around the grounds, but from my research, it seemed pretty strenuous and was all about the gardens and whatnot - not my thing. So I skipped the Volksmarch and just toured on my own.
The house is gorgeous - one of the largest I've visited. And since it's stayed in the family since it was built, all of the furniture is original. Some of the fabrics are reproductions since the originals deteriorated over time. Only a fraction of the rooms are open. Apparently there are about 250 rooms in the mansion, but the tour only takes you past or through about 50 of them. There are some additional guided tours that go to other areas of the house, like the behind-the-scenes-life-of-a-servant tour. But $70 was expensive enough for me.
After I finished my tour of the house, I drove over to the little village that they have created on the estate. Pretty sure that none of that was there 12 years ago. There's a little museum, the wine shop, a bistro, a pub, a creamery, and a little park, in addition to some stuff for kids. It's a cute little area, definitely revenue generating. The museum, wine tasting, and kids activities are included in the price of admission. If you so desire, you can taste up to about 20 wines with your admission. I tried 8. There are an additional 12 or so premium wines that you can taste for an additional fee. I tried 3 - one of them was a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. I absolutely fell in love with Russian River Valley Pinot Noirs out in California.
I visited the museum, which was an interesting history of this branch of the Vanderbilts, and then went over to the pub for a local beer and some fried cheese curds. I hung out there for a while chatting with the bartender for a bit and then finally headed over to my airbnb reservation for the night.
I have this cute little cottage all to myself - 2 bedrooms, one bath, kitchen, laundry facilities, and living room with cable. It's super adorable. But it's cold here at night! It was actually pretty chilly here during the day too - I don't think it ever got above 70 degrees. But I'm looking forward to curling up and sleeping well tonight. Tomorrow I get to see one of my cruise friends!!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Days 96 & 97 - Charlottesville to Abingdon
Not a ton to report over the past couple of days. I slowly made my way down to Abingdon, VA to visit an old friend of mine. On the way down, I hit a total of 6 wineries and went to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. It's not part of the national presidential library system, which is a little weird, but it's definitely totally different than the others. His birthplace is there, but they have no original furniture, just stuff from the time frame. So it basically just seems like another historic house. There's also the attached museum, which has President Wilson's car, an exhibit about World War I trenches, a gallery of President Wilson's first wife's paintings, and an exhibit detailing President Wilson's life in chronological order. So it's not huge. It was fine though, just nothing spectacular.
Stayed at a bed & breakfast in Roanoke last night. My last official B&B on the trip. I'm staying a couple of nights with my friend in Abingdon. I totally crashed when I got here tonight for a 3 hour nap - apparently I was tired. Just hung out for the rest of the night. Good to relax.
Stayed at a bed & breakfast in Roanoke last night. My last official B&B on the trip. I'm staying a couple of nights with my friend in Abingdon. I totally crashed when I got here tonight for a 3 hour nap - apparently I was tired. Just hung out for the rest of the night. Good to relax.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Day 95 - Charlottesville
Charlottesville is one of the spots that I've most been looking forward to on this trip. I haven't been back here for about 10 years. I had a great day revisiting a lot of my favorite places. I encountered a lot of ghosts, some happy, some sad, but all ultimately positive.
I started out with a trip to the Corner. I got a bagel at Bodo's. Bodo's Bagels is a Charlottesville "chain." There are a couple of stores around town. The entire time I attended school here (and the 4 years prior to my attendance), the corner location had a sign on it saying "Coming Soon." So they had the property, but it took them almost 10 years to actually open. It was a long-standing joke that it would never open. So when I went there this morning for a bagel, it was pretty bizarre. I also stopped at Mincer's to buy some UVA gear - I limited myself to a pair of pants, a sweatshirt and a t-shirt. I also used this opportunity to pick up my favorite sandwich at Take-it-Away, smoked turkey and house dressing on french bread. This was the sandwich I ate on graduation day back in 2002. Yes, I remember these things. FYI - my second favorite sandwich from Take-it-Away? Tuna fish and sprouts on french bread. They also sell bags of bread ends and to-go containers of house dressing. This was one of my go-to snacks back in school.
So after I loaded up on food and supplies, I headed over to the start point for the volksmarch. Oh, one note about this particular volksmarch. About a week ago, I emailed President Sullivan (have I mentioned this yet? I can't remember) to let her know that I was coming to town and would be doing the volksmarch - she does volksmarches as well, so that's not completely random. But it was just a simple note to say hi and let her know that I was looking forward to it. And she emailed me back! She said she had just done the walk, and if she was going to be in town, she'd walk it with me, but unfortunately, she'd be out of town today. How great is that? And when I emailed her again after the walk today, she returned my email again within like half an hour. She must get a ton of emails for her job and it was great to know that she took the time out to respond to mine.
Ok, so the volksmarch. I apparently had difficulty reading directions at first and ended up doing the first serpentine pattern basically backwards, but it all worked out. The first section was historic downtown Charlottesville, which I'm a little ashamed to admit that I had never been to before. Then I walked down main street, where I used to go see Carbon Leaf play, and then through the Medical Center. The ghosts started there. My fourth-year boyfriend is, I believe, a resident at the UVA Medical Center, so there was the slimmest of possibilities of maybe, possibly, running into him. So, of course, I had to have one of my patented imaginary conversations with him regarding how our relationship had impacted the rest of my life, etc, etc. Good to think about these things - definitely giving me more to write about.
I walked past the South Lawn extension where my 4th year apartment has been torn down in order to make way for newer buildings. That apartment was so interesting - 7 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, one living room, and a spiral staircase. And yes, this was an apartment. I deviated slightly from the planned course in order to detour through the engineering school. It being a Sunday during the summer, the buildings were all locked, so I couldn't get in to see my old classrooms, but I could still walk through the courtyards. I walked past the steps where my parents took my picture after I graduated, past the spot where a friend of mine told me that the twin towers had collapsed on 9/11, through the courtyard where I received my diploma, past the place where I was loaded into an ambulance after almost passing out due to dehydration, past the loading dock where I was loaded onto another ambulance after falling down a set of stairs and cracking my chin open on the concrete landing.
I walked down past the chemistry building to the new dorms, which have been completely transformed, back past the old dorms, the physics building, and the education school. I went into the building that houses Clark Library, where there is a copy of my 4th year thesis. Again, the library was closed, so I couldn't go home to find it. I walked past the amphitheater where I saw one of my roommates get hypnotized by Tom Deluca and down past Edgar Allen Poe's Range room. I finally made it over to the Rotunda and the Lawn. I sat on the south stairs of the Rotunda, looking over the Lawn as I ate my turkey sandwich.
Side note - I'm currently watching Army Wives and in this episode, one of the women's daughters is moving into college - it happens to be UVA. And this campus that they're walking on is OBVIOUSLY not UVA. What the hell? Seriously - if you choose a Unesco World Heritage Site as the setting for your show, you can't fake that location.
Ok, back to it. The Lawn. One of my great regrets in life is not applying to live on the Lawn during my 4th year. It was partly a logistical issue - leases for off-grounds housing needed to be signed in September for the following year, but applications for the Lawn weren't until January or so. So if I waited to sign a lease in hopes that I'd get accepted, I might have been SOL in terms of housing. And if I applied for the Lawn after having already signed a lease, I'd have to find someone to take over my spot and potentially screwed over my roommates. Living on the Lawn is one of the University's biggest honors. There are 54 rooms where students originally lived when Mr. Jefferson envisioned the University. Distributed among those rooms are 10 pavilions, where staff or faculty members live. They used to also house classrooms, but all of those classrooms have been moved at this point. Some Lawn rooms are designated for specific University leaders - the president of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, etc - and most Lawn rooms are decided via the application process. So I didn't apply partially because of logistics, but most of it was because, at the time, I didn't think I'd get selected. Looking back, I wish so much that I had at least applied. I really think I would have gotten selected. I was a female engineer with a 3.6 GPA and was Tech Director of my student run theatre group at the time, and ended up being Producer my 4th year. I was basically the definition of a student-leader, but I underestimated my worth (as I've done my whole life). There's nothing I can do to go back and change that decision not to apply, but oh, how I wish I could.
I walked down the length of the lawn, to the spot where I stood at commencement. I said hi to Homer - the tradition is that before you graduate, you're supposed to streak the Lawn, starting at the Rotunda, run down to Homer, kiss his rear end, run back up to the Rotunda and look through the key hole to see the statue of Mr. Jefferson. I never did it, and that's one thing I don't regret.
I walked back up the length of the Lawn, passed around the Rotunda and sat on the steps where Rob (that 4th year boyfriend of mine) and I sat when we were either breaking up or getting back together at one point (I can't remember which, it happened so many times).
Oh hey - it's close to the end of the episode and it turns out she wasn't moving into UVA at all, so it makes sense that they don't know what it looked like.
I made a stop in Starbucks on the Corner in order to recharge my phone before walking back to my car at the downtown mall. I passed by a movie theatre where Rob and I went on a date to see Monster's Ball. PS - not a date movie.
So, overall, a great volksmarch. But I still had a couple places that I wanted to check out. I drove over to Beta Bridge. This is a bridge where students (generally) paint whatever message they have on the walls to promote or advertise. After the Virginia Tech massacre, the "Hoos for Hokies" message stayed up there for about 2 weeks, but it usually changes almost daily during the school year. I did paint it once to advertise an FYP show (couldn't tell you which one though). I drove over to Lambeth, my 2nd and 3rd year apartment, and the only housing that I had that is still standing at the University.
Next stop was the University bookstore, which I knew would be a bit of a minefield. I managed to get out of there with only $250 worth of goods, including a wine glass, a camp chair, a couple shirts, a photograph of the Rotunda, and more. I did resist buying a water bottle or a thermos, because, seriously I have enough of them. I also saw a desk where students order their class rings. I never got one, so I asked the girl at the counter about getting one for a previous year. After coming "home" tonight, I looked into it online and I'll definitely be ordering myself one just as soon as I can figure out what size my finger is (I never buy rings for myself).
A couple more stops - the site of my first year dorm, which has been torn down as well and a new, huge, air-conditioned dorm has been built in its place. Then, the Student Activities Building. Ah, the SAB. Where I learned to love theatre, I learned how to lead, and learned about teamwork. Now, I bet I would have learned these things without the SAB, but I wouldn't have learned them without First Year Players. And without the SAB, FYP likely wouldn't have had a performance space, so it stands to reason, that the SAB helped to shape me. It's a hell of a space in which to produce a show, but that's part of its charm. Only the first 3 rows of the audience can actually see anything and the house lights take about 10 minutes to warm up, at which point, it's time to take them back down to half. And we all remember the story about when clothes were hung on the water pipes in the "dressing room" and the weight of them caused the pipes to burst, flooding the building and almost forcing the show to not open. FYP could have lost everything, but the 7 Society stepped in and provided us with the funds for the repairs. (This was before my time, but it's a story of legend now.) Also, the 7 Society? One of UVA's secret societies, but that's a whole other story. If you're interested, you can check out more information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_societies_at_the_University_of_Virginia
And no, I'm not a member of any (not that I could tell you if I was for a few of them).
Final stop of the day was back to the corner to pick up my favorite sandwich from Little Johns: the Nuclear Sub with no cole slaw. Yummers. I ate it back at the house where I'm staying and then relaxed for most of the evening (and apparently took 2 hours to compose this post - I think it's my longest, but it's UVA, so that's to be expected).
So I'm leaving C-ville tomorrow. I'm sad to leave, but I hope to come back more often. I'm vowing now to make it to Reunions in 2017. I've skipped both the 2007 and the 2012 Reunions because I didn't know if any of my friends would be there. But I vow to come back regardless.
I started out with a trip to the Corner. I got a bagel at Bodo's. Bodo's Bagels is a Charlottesville "chain." There are a couple of stores around town. The entire time I attended school here (and the 4 years prior to my attendance), the corner location had a sign on it saying "Coming Soon." So they had the property, but it took them almost 10 years to actually open. It was a long-standing joke that it would never open. So when I went there this morning for a bagel, it was pretty bizarre. I also stopped at Mincer's to buy some UVA gear - I limited myself to a pair of pants, a sweatshirt and a t-shirt. I also used this opportunity to pick up my favorite sandwich at Take-it-Away, smoked turkey and house dressing on french bread. This was the sandwich I ate on graduation day back in 2002. Yes, I remember these things. FYI - my second favorite sandwich from Take-it-Away? Tuna fish and sprouts on french bread. They also sell bags of bread ends and to-go containers of house dressing. This was one of my go-to snacks back in school.
So after I loaded up on food and supplies, I headed over to the start point for the volksmarch. Oh, one note about this particular volksmarch. About a week ago, I emailed President Sullivan (have I mentioned this yet? I can't remember) to let her know that I was coming to town and would be doing the volksmarch - she does volksmarches as well, so that's not completely random. But it was just a simple note to say hi and let her know that I was looking forward to it. And she emailed me back! She said she had just done the walk, and if she was going to be in town, she'd walk it with me, but unfortunately, she'd be out of town today. How great is that? And when I emailed her again after the walk today, she returned my email again within like half an hour. She must get a ton of emails for her job and it was great to know that she took the time out to respond to mine.
Ok, so the volksmarch. I apparently had difficulty reading directions at first and ended up doing the first serpentine pattern basically backwards, but it all worked out. The first section was historic downtown Charlottesville, which I'm a little ashamed to admit that I had never been to before. Then I walked down main street, where I used to go see Carbon Leaf play, and then through the Medical Center. The ghosts started there. My fourth-year boyfriend is, I believe, a resident at the UVA Medical Center, so there was the slimmest of possibilities of maybe, possibly, running into him. So, of course, I had to have one of my patented imaginary conversations with him regarding how our relationship had impacted the rest of my life, etc, etc. Good to think about these things - definitely giving me more to write about.
I walked past the South Lawn extension where my 4th year apartment has been torn down in order to make way for newer buildings. That apartment was so interesting - 7 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, one living room, and a spiral staircase. And yes, this was an apartment. I deviated slightly from the planned course in order to detour through the engineering school. It being a Sunday during the summer, the buildings were all locked, so I couldn't get in to see my old classrooms, but I could still walk through the courtyards. I walked past the steps where my parents took my picture after I graduated, past the spot where a friend of mine told me that the twin towers had collapsed on 9/11, through the courtyard where I received my diploma, past the place where I was loaded into an ambulance after almost passing out due to dehydration, past the loading dock where I was loaded onto another ambulance after falling down a set of stairs and cracking my chin open on the concrete landing.
I walked down past the chemistry building to the new dorms, which have been completely transformed, back past the old dorms, the physics building, and the education school. I went into the building that houses Clark Library, where there is a copy of my 4th year thesis. Again, the library was closed, so I couldn't go home to find it. I walked past the amphitheater where I saw one of my roommates get hypnotized by Tom Deluca and down past Edgar Allen Poe's Range room. I finally made it over to the Rotunda and the Lawn. I sat on the south stairs of the Rotunda, looking over the Lawn as I ate my turkey sandwich.
Side note - I'm currently watching Army Wives and in this episode, one of the women's daughters is moving into college - it happens to be UVA. And this campus that they're walking on is OBVIOUSLY not UVA. What the hell? Seriously - if you choose a Unesco World Heritage Site as the setting for your show, you can't fake that location.
Ok, back to it. The Lawn. One of my great regrets in life is not applying to live on the Lawn during my 4th year. It was partly a logistical issue - leases for off-grounds housing needed to be signed in September for the following year, but applications for the Lawn weren't until January or so. So if I waited to sign a lease in hopes that I'd get accepted, I might have been SOL in terms of housing. And if I applied for the Lawn after having already signed a lease, I'd have to find someone to take over my spot and potentially screwed over my roommates. Living on the Lawn is one of the University's biggest honors. There are 54 rooms where students originally lived when Mr. Jefferson envisioned the University. Distributed among those rooms are 10 pavilions, where staff or faculty members live. They used to also house classrooms, but all of those classrooms have been moved at this point. Some Lawn rooms are designated for specific University leaders - the president of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, etc - and most Lawn rooms are decided via the application process. So I didn't apply partially because of logistics, but most of it was because, at the time, I didn't think I'd get selected. Looking back, I wish so much that I had at least applied. I really think I would have gotten selected. I was a female engineer with a 3.6 GPA and was Tech Director of my student run theatre group at the time, and ended up being Producer my 4th year. I was basically the definition of a student-leader, but I underestimated my worth (as I've done my whole life). There's nothing I can do to go back and change that decision not to apply, but oh, how I wish I could.
I walked down the length of the lawn, to the spot where I stood at commencement. I said hi to Homer - the tradition is that before you graduate, you're supposed to streak the Lawn, starting at the Rotunda, run down to Homer, kiss his rear end, run back up to the Rotunda and look through the key hole to see the statue of Mr. Jefferson. I never did it, and that's one thing I don't regret.
I walked back up the length of the Lawn, passed around the Rotunda and sat on the steps where Rob (that 4th year boyfriend of mine) and I sat when we were either breaking up or getting back together at one point (I can't remember which, it happened so many times).
Oh hey - it's close to the end of the episode and it turns out she wasn't moving into UVA at all, so it makes sense that they don't know what it looked like.
I made a stop in Starbucks on the Corner in order to recharge my phone before walking back to my car at the downtown mall. I passed by a movie theatre where Rob and I went on a date to see Monster's Ball. PS - not a date movie.
So, overall, a great volksmarch. But I still had a couple places that I wanted to check out. I drove over to Beta Bridge. This is a bridge where students (generally) paint whatever message they have on the walls to promote or advertise. After the Virginia Tech massacre, the "Hoos for Hokies" message stayed up there for about 2 weeks, but it usually changes almost daily during the school year. I did paint it once to advertise an FYP show (couldn't tell you which one though). I drove over to Lambeth, my 2nd and 3rd year apartment, and the only housing that I had that is still standing at the University.
Next stop was the University bookstore, which I knew would be a bit of a minefield. I managed to get out of there with only $250 worth of goods, including a wine glass, a camp chair, a couple shirts, a photograph of the Rotunda, and more. I did resist buying a water bottle or a thermos, because, seriously I have enough of them. I also saw a desk where students order their class rings. I never got one, so I asked the girl at the counter about getting one for a previous year. After coming "home" tonight, I looked into it online and I'll definitely be ordering myself one just as soon as I can figure out what size my finger is (I never buy rings for myself).
A couple more stops - the site of my first year dorm, which has been torn down as well and a new, huge, air-conditioned dorm has been built in its place. Then, the Student Activities Building. Ah, the SAB. Where I learned to love theatre, I learned how to lead, and learned about teamwork. Now, I bet I would have learned these things without the SAB, but I wouldn't have learned them without First Year Players. And without the SAB, FYP likely wouldn't have had a performance space, so it stands to reason, that the SAB helped to shape me. It's a hell of a space in which to produce a show, but that's part of its charm. Only the first 3 rows of the audience can actually see anything and the house lights take about 10 minutes to warm up, at which point, it's time to take them back down to half. And we all remember the story about when clothes were hung on the water pipes in the "dressing room" and the weight of them caused the pipes to burst, flooding the building and almost forcing the show to not open. FYP could have lost everything, but the 7 Society stepped in and provided us with the funds for the repairs. (This was before my time, but it's a story of legend now.) Also, the 7 Society? One of UVA's secret societies, but that's a whole other story. If you're interested, you can check out more information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_societies_at_the_University_of_Virginia
And no, I'm not a member of any (not that I could tell you if I was for a few of them).
Final stop of the day was back to the corner to pick up my favorite sandwich from Little Johns: the Nuclear Sub with no cole slaw. Yummers. I ate it back at the house where I'm staying and then relaxed for most of the evening (and apparently took 2 hours to compose this post - I think it's my longest, but it's UVA, so that's to be expected).
So I'm leaving C-ville tomorrow. I'm sad to leave, but I hope to come back more often. I'm vowing now to make it to Reunions in 2017. I've skipped both the 2007 and the 2012 Reunions because I didn't know if any of my friends would be there. But I vow to come back regardless.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Day 94 - Fredericksburg to Charlottesville
I'm sitting in the bar where I celebrated my 21st birthday. There are also other memories from here - the corner booth over there is where I hung out with FYP people. In the booth behind me is where my fourth-year boyfriend and I went on one of our last dates. I'm having flashbacks. So weird.
I'm so surprised and impressed with myself that I managed to stay on schedule today. I had SO much planned, and I made it to all of it, right on schedule. My airbnb host from last night provided me with a bagel for breakfast, which was fantastic. I love me some bagels for breakfast (note to self: Bodo's before I leave c-ville).
First stop was at Fredricksburg and Spotsville National Military Site. This actually encompasses a out 4 different sites, but I only went to the one battle site and cemetery. I did a short walking tour which took me around the civil war battle site, including an original wall, a house that still has lots of bullet holes in the walls, and a cemetery that has many union soldiers, both identified and unidentified, buried in it. It was very sobering to see the markers for the unidentified soldiers. There were so many people killed in that war.
Next stop on the schedule was the James Madison Museum in Orange. It was about an hour drive through torrential rain. The museum was fine. Not a lot of original stuff there, and there were some grammatical errors on the copy, but if you can overlook that, it was a decent small, private museum.
From there, it was over to Montpelier. Now, I don't remember Montpelier being an option of a place to go visit while I was in school, so I had to ask about the history of the place. Turns out that the historical society only acquired it in 2001 from the duPont family, and then they restored it, opening it to the public in 2008. So that explains why it wasn't an option 10 years ago. The house is still in the process of getting completely restored. Many of the rooms were fully decorated with time-period appropriate furniture or reproductions, but not necessarily items that belonged to Madison. They're still in the process of determining if some of the pieces there actually belonged to the Madisons. I didn't know much about the Madisons, so this was a good opportunity for me to learn a lot. It was a good tour, except for the woman who tried to argue with the tour guide, telling him that the Bible is more accurate than carbon dating to determine the age of the earth. I seriously almost punched her. Ok, not really, but I wanted to.
Then it was on to a couple of wineries. The first winery, Horton Cellars, was great. Loved a lot of the wines there. But Barboursville Vineyard was a mob scene. Seriously overwhelmed with people. Decent wines, but I couldn't really concentrate on what I liked because I felt so pressured to just hurry through the tasting process. Wineries need to know that my inclination to buy wine is not just about the wine, but so much about the tasting process and environment.
After the wineries, it was on to one of my most anticipated stops, Monticello. Is it normal to start crying upon seeing it? Cause I almost did. I kept tearing up. Mr. Jefferson has been such a huge figure in my life. I really do owe him the experience of my education. I visited Monticello once in college, probably fall of 2000. Since then, they've built a pretty sizable visitor center and (I think) added a shuttle up to the house. The tour was great. I loved my tour guide and they do well at moving you through the house without feeling pressured from the group behind you. Rather than pushing you through like they did at Mount Vernon, I felt like our tour group was being pulled through based on when the group ahead of us was done in each room. I got a couple great pictures at the house and explored the grounds including Mr. Jefferson's gravesite, where I almost cried again. I checked out the museum shop and found a book entitled "Thomas Jefferson on Wine." My life is now complete. I may not read much, but I definitely bought 2 books, that one and another one about the architectural foundations of the University.
Finally, I came over to St. Maarten's for dinner. Definitely one of my favorite haunts when I was an underhoo (yes, that's a word). Tomorrow I'll be doing the Charlottesville volksmarch and spending a good deal of time on the grounds. Absolutely cannot wait.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Day 93 - DC to Fredricksburg, VA
Oh my goodness. So so tired. I'll try to get as much of this out as possible before crashing.
I drove Charlotte over to Reagan airport first thing this morning. She was picking up a rental car for the next leg of her trip. I said goodbye to her at the airport. It was so great hanging out with her and Julie over the past couple of days.
From there, I drove down to Mount Vernon. I had never been there before - it was interesting, although I do like Monticello better. And it was hot. So so hot. I did a normal admission ticket and added on the audio tour, which gives information on the outlying buildings. The actual house is a tour with 5 or so guides inside to tell the group about the specific rooms. They do kinda push you through though. There's not really a lot of time for questions since the next group is coming up on your heels.
After Mount Vernon, I drove to Mom's Apple Pie in Occoquan, where I bought 4 slices of various types of pie. And yes, I did eat one of them for lunch. It was delicious!
I continued to drive further south, but traffic was absolutely atrocious. Apparently, that's the way all of 95 was today. I went to Potomac Point Winery and tasted some good wines, but they don't ship to Texas either.
Because of the traffic, I was behind schedule, so I skipped a couple of my planned stops, and went straight to the Kenmore Plantation in Fredricksburg. The Kenmore Plantation was owned by George Washington's sister and brother-in-law. The house was fine, but I wasn't a fan of the tour guide. She obviously had a lot of information, but was so random in her delivery about it. In one breath, she'd talk about the plaster ceilings, what got locked in the closet to prevent theft, and how the master of the house was on the local committee to improve security. Plus, my feet hurt and I was exhausted, so there's that.
I'm staying at an airbnb reservation tonight. I found some Thai food for dinner and then folded my laundry that I washed in DC, but didn't get around to folding. And now, I will sleep.
I drove Charlotte over to Reagan airport first thing this morning. She was picking up a rental car for the next leg of her trip. I said goodbye to her at the airport. It was so great hanging out with her and Julie over the past couple of days.
From there, I drove down to Mount Vernon. I had never been there before - it was interesting, although I do like Monticello better. And it was hot. So so hot. I did a normal admission ticket and added on the audio tour, which gives information on the outlying buildings. The actual house is a tour with 5 or so guides inside to tell the group about the specific rooms. They do kinda push you through though. There's not really a lot of time for questions since the next group is coming up on your heels.
After Mount Vernon, I drove to Mom's Apple Pie in Occoquan, where I bought 4 slices of various types of pie. And yes, I did eat one of them for lunch. It was delicious!
I continued to drive further south, but traffic was absolutely atrocious. Apparently, that's the way all of 95 was today. I went to Potomac Point Winery and tasted some good wines, but they don't ship to Texas either.
Because of the traffic, I was behind schedule, so I skipped a couple of my planned stops, and went straight to the Kenmore Plantation in Fredricksburg. The Kenmore Plantation was owned by George Washington's sister and brother-in-law. The house was fine, but I wasn't a fan of the tour guide. She obviously had a lot of information, but was so random in her delivery about it. In one breath, she'd talk about the plaster ceilings, what got locked in the closet to prevent theft, and how the master of the house was on the local committee to improve security. Plus, my feet hurt and I was exhausted, so there's that.
I'm staying at an airbnb reservation tonight. I found some Thai food for dinner and then folded my laundry that I washed in DC, but didn't get around to folding. And now, I will sleep.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Day 92 - Washington DC
I wish I could stay in DC longer. I have more things I want to do and more people I want to see. Unfortunately, my time is up and I have plans to keep.
I slept in a little bit this morning - I was exhausted after yesterday. Charlotte and I drove into the city and walked over to the National Museum of American History. Much of the museum is under renovation, but what is open is really interesting. There's a really interesting idea on food in the US, exhibits about American wars, transportation, and money, and the original flag that inspired the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. Having just been at Fort McHenry, that was cool to see again. I do remember seeing it at some point as a kid, but I don't remember when. It has been moved since then and no longer hangs, but instead has a great display. The last exhibits we saw were my favorites - about the first ladies and the presidency. Love it!!!
We finished up there at 1:15, only 15 minutes behind schedule, and headed over to lunch at the Native American Museum. They have a great cafe there is lots of traditional native american foods. After lunch, we split up for the afternoon and Charlotte explored more of the Smithsonian museums, while I headed over to the Newseum. I got there right around 2:30 and the museum closed at 5:00, so I didn't have a ton of time. I could have spent all day there - so much to see and experience. I loved the Kennedy exhibit, the 9/11 exhibit, and the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs exhibit. There were a couple exhibits that I barely had time to browse through.
By 5:00 when the museum closed, I had about a mile walk back to my car and my feet were killing me. I think I need a new pair of walking shoes - hopefully I can figure out a place to pick up a pair tomorrow. I made it (slowly) back to my car and drove not too far, but further than I was willing to walk. I was so excited to meet my cousin Allison for dinner! I think the last time I saw her was about 2 years ago at our cousin's wedding. We went to Bar Pilar, where we had a couple great beers and some great food - beet salad, calamari, roasted potatoes, and duck confit. It was great catching up with her!
I then had one more appointment, to meet another Allison - my friend Ally from Austin theatre, for drinks. (Please excuse my incorrect punctuation in that last sentence. I'm too tired to go back and figure out what it should be.) We met up for drinks at The Tombs, which is actually underneath 1789, where I went for dinner last night - how funny is that? We didn't stay long - we were both exhausted, but it was fantastic talking with her. She's a congressional intern, which is pretty cool, and we talked a lot about Texas politics. Her mom is really involved back home, so I'm excited to get in contact with her and get involved in some causes in which I really believe sometime this fall. It's a critical time for Texas politics and I definitely feel called to contribute what I can.
The next 2 days I'm going to cover a stretch of ground that I used to cover in 2 hours when driving back and forth to school. So many great things to see here in Virginia!!! Wahoowa.
I slept in a little bit this morning - I was exhausted after yesterday. Charlotte and I drove into the city and walked over to the National Museum of American History. Much of the museum is under renovation, but what is open is really interesting. There's a really interesting idea on food in the US, exhibits about American wars, transportation, and money, and the original flag that inspired the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. Having just been at Fort McHenry, that was cool to see again. I do remember seeing it at some point as a kid, but I don't remember when. It has been moved since then and no longer hangs, but instead has a great display. The last exhibits we saw were my favorites - about the first ladies and the presidency. Love it!!!
We finished up there at 1:15, only 15 minutes behind schedule, and headed over to lunch at the Native American Museum. They have a great cafe there is lots of traditional native american foods. After lunch, we split up for the afternoon and Charlotte explored more of the Smithsonian museums, while I headed over to the Newseum. I got there right around 2:30 and the museum closed at 5:00, so I didn't have a ton of time. I could have spent all day there - so much to see and experience. I loved the Kennedy exhibit, the 9/11 exhibit, and the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs exhibit. There were a couple exhibits that I barely had time to browse through.
By 5:00 when the museum closed, I had about a mile walk back to my car and my feet were killing me. I think I need a new pair of walking shoes - hopefully I can figure out a place to pick up a pair tomorrow. I made it (slowly) back to my car and drove not too far, but further than I was willing to walk. I was so excited to meet my cousin Allison for dinner! I think the last time I saw her was about 2 years ago at our cousin's wedding. We went to Bar Pilar, where we had a couple great beers and some great food - beet salad, calamari, roasted potatoes, and duck confit. It was great catching up with her!
I then had one more appointment, to meet another Allison - my friend Ally from Austin theatre, for drinks. (Please excuse my incorrect punctuation in that last sentence. I'm too tired to go back and figure out what it should be.) We met up for drinks at The Tombs, which is actually underneath 1789, where I went for dinner last night - how funny is that? We didn't stay long - we were both exhausted, but it was fantastic talking with her. She's a congressional intern, which is pretty cool, and we talked a lot about Texas politics. Her mom is really involved back home, so I'm excited to get in contact with her and get involved in some causes in which I really believe sometime this fall. It's a critical time for Texas politics and I definitely feel called to contribute what I can.
The next 2 days I'm going to cover a stretch of ground that I used to cover in 2 hours when driving back and forth to school. So many great things to see here in Virginia!!! Wahoowa.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Day 91 - Washington DC
Today was a good day, a very good day. I'll start at the end for reasons that will become clear imminently. I'm staying tonight with my cruise friend, Julie. She contacted me a couple of days ago to let me know that another cruise friend, Charlotte, from Norway was going to be in town at the same time, so she'd be staying here too. How convenient!
So this morning, I left Baltimore around 8 AM and drove straight down into downtown DC. I met Charlotte at the start point for today's volksmarch. I knew we were going to do the Mall walk, but I wasn't sure if we'd do the 11K option or the 17K option. We ended up doing the 17K option. Including all of the additional little detours we took, we walked a total of almost 13 miles. Wow. Legs were so sore by the time we were done. But we got to see almost everything. In order:
Department of State
Lincoln Monument
Korean War Memorial
Reflecting Pool
World War II Memorial
Washington Monument
Martin Luther King Jr Monument
FDR Monument
Jefferson Monument
Smithsonian Castle
Capitol Reflecting Pool
Capitol
Supreme Court
Union Station
US Navy Memorial
Ford's Theatre
Freedom Plaza
Treasury Building
White House
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
Constitution Pond
Vietnam Memorial
Albert Einstein Memorial
Long day, but really great. It was fun doing the walk with someone else too. Charlotte and I have only been on one cruise together and we didn't hang out together on that cruise all that much. So we had the opportunity today to really get to know each other. It was great.
After we finished up with the walk, we drove to pick up Charlotte's suitcase and then drove past the Pentagon (with an inadvertent detour past Reagan Airport) on our way to Julie's. After much needed clean up, Julie, Charlotte, and I went out to 1789 in Georgetown for a great dinner. Julie had arranged for us to attend a dinner with a local Meetup club. That was quite fun. There were 8 of us total and we had a great meal. I had salmon crudo, a seafood lasagnette, and halibut over lobster farro. Oh, and a peach goat cheesecake for dessert. Everything was great.
Exploring a couple museums tomorrow and then dinner and drinks (separately) with 2 of my favorite people named Allison. :-)
So this morning, I left Baltimore around 8 AM and drove straight down into downtown DC. I met Charlotte at the start point for today's volksmarch. I knew we were going to do the Mall walk, but I wasn't sure if we'd do the 11K option or the 17K option. We ended up doing the 17K option. Including all of the additional little detours we took, we walked a total of almost 13 miles. Wow. Legs were so sore by the time we were done. But we got to see almost everything. In order:
Department of State
Lincoln Monument
Korean War Memorial
Reflecting Pool
World War II Memorial
Washington Monument
Martin Luther King Jr Monument
FDR Monument
Jefferson Monument
Smithsonian Castle
Capitol Reflecting Pool
Capitol
Supreme Court
Union Station
US Navy Memorial
Ford's Theatre
Freedom Plaza
Treasury Building
White House
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
Constitution Pond
Vietnam Memorial
Albert Einstein Memorial
Long day, but really great. It was fun doing the walk with someone else too. Charlotte and I have only been on one cruise together and we didn't hang out together on that cruise all that much. So we had the opportunity today to really get to know each other. It was great.
After we finished up with the walk, we drove to pick up Charlotte's suitcase and then drove past the Pentagon (with an inadvertent detour past Reagan Airport) on our way to Julie's. After much needed clean up, Julie, Charlotte, and I went out to 1789 in Georgetown for a great dinner. Julie had arranged for us to attend a dinner with a local Meetup club. That was quite fun. There were 8 of us total and we had a great meal. I had salmon crudo, a seafood lasagnette, and halibut over lobster farro. Oh, and a peach goat cheesecake for dessert. Everything was great.
Exploring a couple museums tomorrow and then dinner and drinks (separately) with 2 of my favorite people named Allison. :-)
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Day 90 - Baltimore
It took every ounce of willpower I had not to start singing "Good Morning, Baltimore" at the top of my lungs as I headed out this morning. I had to move my car at 8 AM, so I got a bit of an early start. Except that my first activity wasn't scheduled until 10, so I had some time to kill. I successfully killed it at Starbucks. It was pretty drizzly all morning, but it didn't bother me all that much - surprising, no?
First up was a tour of Orioles Park at Camden Yards. This park was the first of the new retro stadiums and is consistently voted among the most beautiful parks in the country, so I had very high expectations. It was good, but not as amazing as I had hoped. It had a similar public area to the Park in the Park that San Diego has. One major drawback is that you can't see the field from the concourses. Citizens Bank Park in Philly - you can always see the field as you're walking through the concourse to find what you want to eat. Our tour guide was really fun, even if his script was totally memorized.
After the ballpark tour, I walked over to the Babe Ruth birthplace and museum. This was his grandparents' house. His parents lived above a saloon, so when it came time for him to be born, Babe's mother didn't want to have him there, so she went to her parents' house. The museum encompasses the original row home as well as the two homes on either side. It's a bit sparse and not incredibly well organized, but they're closing it this fall for a complete remodel, so that'll be good.
I then went to Geppi's Entertainment Museum. Now, I'm not sure as to the origins of this museum, but it's a massive, random collection of entertainment memorabilia. A huge collection of comic books, lots of toys, movie posters, action figures, games, all sorts of stuff. Most everything is displayed chronologically, but there aren't a lot of labels, so it's left to the visitor to discern what is noteworthy and what isn't. My favorite items - a full set of mint-in-box New Kids on the Block dolls. True story.
After I got my fill of museums, I took the Charm City Circulator down to Locust Point. The Charm City Circulator is a network of 4 bus routes that are free. They run approximately every 15 minutes and are in addition to the public bus system. It's an interesting concept. I picked up my volksmarch start information and then made a lunch stop - steamed blue crabs, raw oysters, and a draft Yeungling at LP Steamers. SO good. Seriously - one of my favorite meals of this trip.
The volksmarch was around Fort McHenry and then the additional distances went up around the inner harbor. I only made it for the first 5K and then called it a day - I was exhausted. The fort was really interesting and made me want to learn more about the War of 1812, because, for the life of me, I have no idea why we fought it. Maybe I should learn that.
Came back to the loft when I was done and had a great conversation over a bottle of wine with my hosts.
Another long day tomorrow, so sleep soon.
First up was a tour of Orioles Park at Camden Yards. This park was the first of the new retro stadiums and is consistently voted among the most beautiful parks in the country, so I had very high expectations. It was good, but not as amazing as I had hoped. It had a similar public area to the Park in the Park that San Diego has. One major drawback is that you can't see the field from the concourses. Citizens Bank Park in Philly - you can always see the field as you're walking through the concourse to find what you want to eat. Our tour guide was really fun, even if his script was totally memorized.
After the ballpark tour, I walked over to the Babe Ruth birthplace and museum. This was his grandparents' house. His parents lived above a saloon, so when it came time for him to be born, Babe's mother didn't want to have him there, so she went to her parents' house. The museum encompasses the original row home as well as the two homes on either side. It's a bit sparse and not incredibly well organized, but they're closing it this fall for a complete remodel, so that'll be good.
I then went to Geppi's Entertainment Museum. Now, I'm not sure as to the origins of this museum, but it's a massive, random collection of entertainment memorabilia. A huge collection of comic books, lots of toys, movie posters, action figures, games, all sorts of stuff. Most everything is displayed chronologically, but there aren't a lot of labels, so it's left to the visitor to discern what is noteworthy and what isn't. My favorite items - a full set of mint-in-box New Kids on the Block dolls. True story.
After I got my fill of museums, I took the Charm City Circulator down to Locust Point. The Charm City Circulator is a network of 4 bus routes that are free. They run approximately every 15 minutes and are in addition to the public bus system. It's an interesting concept. I picked up my volksmarch start information and then made a lunch stop - steamed blue crabs, raw oysters, and a draft Yeungling at LP Steamers. SO good. Seriously - one of my favorite meals of this trip.
The volksmarch was around Fort McHenry and then the additional distances went up around the inner harbor. I only made it for the first 5K and then called it a day - I was exhausted. The fort was really interesting and made me want to learn more about the War of 1812, because, for the life of me, I have no idea why we fought it. Maybe I should learn that.
Came back to the loft when I was done and had a great conversation over a bottle of wine with my hosts.
Another long day tomorrow, so sleep soon.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Day 89 - Wilmington, DE to Baltimore
It felt so weird to be back on the road today. After so much unstructured time over the past week and a half, having a schedule today was very odd. I hit some good stuff though. This wasn't a leg that I had originally planned out. I was supposed to stop over in Lancaster in between Wilmington and Baltimore. But when that got cut out, I had to change my plans. So I only planned this leg a couple of days ago. I used to drive down 95 to get to and from college, but never bothered to check out the various sights along the way.
First up was the Hagley museum in Wilmington. It's where the duPont company was started and includes the original homestead of the duPonts. Another interesting historic home. The whole area was very well done. It was a $14 admission fee, but there were a ton of things to see. Lots of stuff around the homestead as well as the workers' homes and factory buildings. There was a bus that took visitors around to the various locations on the property. I ended up spending much longer there than I had originally planned.
I then hit up one winery - Boordy Vineyards in Maryland. I really enjoyed their Pinot Grigio, but they don't ship to Texas. Boo. Oh well.
Last stop was the Hampton National Historic Site. It's another historic mansion, this one from the 18th century and operated by the National Park Service. Now, my planning spreadsheet said that the house was open for tours every day of the week, but apparently, that changed back in April, so it's now open for tours only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. And I wasn't aware of this until I showed up. So I only had the opportunity to walk around the grounds and take pictures.
I headed down into Baltimore and found the place where I'm staying. It's an airbnb reservation - an amazing loft in downtown Baltimore. I have a few really packed days ahead of me, so here's hoping I can fall asleep soon and get some rest!
First up was the Hagley museum in Wilmington. It's where the duPont company was started and includes the original homestead of the duPonts. Another interesting historic home. The whole area was very well done. It was a $14 admission fee, but there were a ton of things to see. Lots of stuff around the homestead as well as the workers' homes and factory buildings. There was a bus that took visitors around to the various locations on the property. I ended up spending much longer there than I had originally planned.
I then hit up one winery - Boordy Vineyards in Maryland. I really enjoyed their Pinot Grigio, but they don't ship to Texas. Boo. Oh well.
Last stop was the Hampton National Historic Site. It's another historic mansion, this one from the 18th century and operated by the National Park Service. Now, my planning spreadsheet said that the house was open for tours every day of the week, but apparently, that changed back in April, so it's now open for tours only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. And I wasn't aware of this until I showed up. So I only had the opportunity to walk around the grounds and take pictures.
I headed down into Baltimore and found the place where I'm staying. It's an airbnb reservation - an amazing loft in downtown Baltimore. I have a few really packed days ahead of me, so here's hoping I can fall asleep soon and get some rest!
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Days 87 & 88 - Wilmington
The big event of yesterday was Connor's funeral. Christie, her 14-month old son, and I headed up about 9:30 am. There was a very large turnout and a surprising number of people I knew, including the guy that had been the janitor at the high school we all attended. It was good to see so many people there. Afterward, we all went over to a reception at a family friend's house. It was a good opportunity to get to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in years and years. Also, my group of best girlfriends from high school was all together for the first time since August of 2009. The four of us were inseparable in high school, but have only managed to get all of us in the same room a handful of times since we graduated. I attached a picture of the four of us at the bottom of this post.
Last night, Christie and I went out for dinner at a great restaurant called Harvest. They are a farm to table restaurant that specializes in entrees that are not only flavorful, but healthy as well. Christie and I have known each other since we were 3 years old. We can and do talk about literally anything.
I slept in this morning, which was wonderful. This afternoon, Christie and family and I went out to a local state park. It was a beautiful day and we made the most of it.
Tonight was another Phillies game with Christie. The 1993 NL championship team was honored, which was perfect for Christie and I. We totally bonded over the '93 team. Many of our favorite players including Jim Eisenreich, Mitch Williams, John Kruk, Kevin Stocker, and especially Darren Daulton were all there. Darren recently underwent brain surgery for a couple of tumors, so it was pretty impressive that he was there. The crowd went nuts for him. The Phils lost again - they're just not doing well this year. I'd so love to see them actually win a game at some point. Some day.
I'm back on the road tomorrow. After this past week of a lot of downtime at my parents' and Christie's, it feels weird to be getting back to a very busy touring schedule. Tomorrow's not too busy, but from there on out, it's pretty darn packed for a while. Let's hope that I'll be able to get enough rest along the way to be able to enjoy it!
Friday, August 2, 2013
Days 82-86 - Philadelphia
So obviously I didn't post anything during the week at my parents' house. This was for a lot of reasons, but primarily because I was in shutdown mode for a large part of my time there. So besides just resting and relaxing a lot, here are the highlights:
Monday, I got the mirror on my car replaced after it got hit by another car up in Newport. My mom and I went down to my aunt's house and went through a bunch of her sewing stuff and fabric. She's trying to downsize and I'm looking to do more sewing, so it worked out for both of us.
Tuesday, my dad and I took a tour of Citizen's Bank Park, where the Phillies play. It was pretty incredible. It was a game day, so we couldn't go into the clubhouses, but we did get down to the field and the dugouts. We also went to the media room, the press box, the TV and radio broadcast booths, the Hall of Fame club, and the Diamond club.
Wednesday, I had breakfast with my best friend from elementary school and her two boys. She and I lived on the same street growing up, so we spent a lot of time together. It was great catching up with her. Wednesday night, my "aunt" and "uncle" came over for dinner. This is a couple that I grew up vacationing with. They have been friends with my parents since long before I was born. And their daughter is the one I stayed with up in Vermont. I really enjoy seeing them whenever I can.
Thursday night, my dad and I went to the Phillies game. It was the night that Brad Lidge retired as a Phillie, so it was pretty special. The Phillies didn't do so well though. They were up 1-0 going into the ninth and then Papelbon blew the save and the Braves scored twice. Then the Phillies loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th with no one out and still managed not to score anyone. Ugh. So disappointing.
Anyway, that's the highlights. I also found out about 2 more people that I know that both died - one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. One was a fellow stage manager that I knew from Austin - she hired me for my first stage management job after I left Dell, so I'm forever grateful to her. The other was a former colleague of my dad's, who became a good family friend. I went to elementary, junior high, and high school with his son. So that makes 3 deaths in a week, and 4 deaths overall on this trip. Pretty sad.
I'm staying tonight with my best friend down in Wilmington, Delaware. Through a quirk of logistics, we're heading back up to within 10 minutes of my parents' house tomorrow morning to go to the funeral of our friend's brother that was killed a week ago, so that will take up the majority of tomorrow.
Monday, I got the mirror on my car replaced after it got hit by another car up in Newport. My mom and I went down to my aunt's house and went through a bunch of her sewing stuff and fabric. She's trying to downsize and I'm looking to do more sewing, so it worked out for both of us.
Tuesday, my dad and I took a tour of Citizen's Bank Park, where the Phillies play. It was pretty incredible. It was a game day, so we couldn't go into the clubhouses, but we did get down to the field and the dugouts. We also went to the media room, the press box, the TV and radio broadcast booths, the Hall of Fame club, and the Diamond club.
Wednesday, I had breakfast with my best friend from elementary school and her two boys. She and I lived on the same street growing up, so we spent a lot of time together. It was great catching up with her. Wednesday night, my "aunt" and "uncle" came over for dinner. This is a couple that I grew up vacationing with. They have been friends with my parents since long before I was born. And their daughter is the one I stayed with up in Vermont. I really enjoy seeing them whenever I can.
Thursday night, my dad and I went to the Phillies game. It was the night that Brad Lidge retired as a Phillie, so it was pretty special. The Phillies didn't do so well though. They were up 1-0 going into the ninth and then Papelbon blew the save and the Braves scored twice. Then the Phillies loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th with no one out and still managed not to score anyone. Ugh. So disappointing.
Anyway, that's the highlights. I also found out about 2 more people that I know that both died - one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. One was a fellow stage manager that I knew from Austin - she hired me for my first stage management job after I left Dell, so I'm forever grateful to her. The other was a former colleague of my dad's, who became a good family friend. I went to elementary, junior high, and high school with his son. So that makes 3 deaths in a week, and 4 deaths overall on this trip. Pretty sad.
I'm staying tonight with my best friend down in Wilmington, Delaware. Through a quirk of logistics, we're heading back up to within 10 minutes of my parents' house tomorrow morning to go to the funeral of our friend's brother that was killed a week ago, so that will take up the majority of tomorrow.
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