Finished up Atlanta, On to Columbia, SC

Hey All! So, we left Atlanta on Friday and moved on to Columbia, SC, which is where the University of South Carolina is located. It's about 10 degrees warmer here than in Atlanta, so that is nice. I've already been to a few parks - Riverfront Park today, which has a long path that runs along the Broad River and the Congaree River. Yesterday, we went to Sesquicentennial State Park, which was really nice as well. We also went out in the Vista on Friday night, but that was kind of weird, apart from the awesome food we ate.

So, Atlanta is a really cool city that I would recommend to anyone for a visit. Also, if you ever get any kind of job there and are if-y about taking it because you don't want to move to Atlanta - you should think again because I would definitely consider living there. Lots of friendly people, cool neighborhoods, good music scene, good food, etc.


Five Points Skyline from our Apartment - we could see all 3 Atlanta Skylines from our balcony.

Let's see, what did I do there. We went to the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, the High Museum of Art, went on the CNN tour, and to the Fernbank Museum of History. I would recommend the Aquarium because it's the largest in the country and they have beluga whales, which are super cool to watch.


Jellies at the Aquarium


Beluga Whale at Aquarium

I also loved the World of Coca-Cola - it was really fun. They have an awesome 4-D movie, a really funny movie in the beginning of the tour thing and you get to taste Coke products from all over the world. I also got to write a story on how I got my Coke shirt, so that was exciting. The High Museum of Art was really good. Definitely a must see - lots of classic pieces and good exhibits. The Fernbank Museum of History was definitely more for kids. They had a nice Sea-shell exhibit, but that's about it! And the CNN tour was surprisingly fun and very informative. Oh, and I got to ride the world's tallest free-standing escalator, so that was an accomplishment.


Me at World of Coke (very refreshing!)


Lebron at World of Coca-Cola - I also got to see him kick some Hawks butt! Go Cavs.

Stone Mountain is also located near Atlanta - it's the largest granite face in the world. You can hike to the top, which we did. And during most months, except February of course, there are gondolas that you can ride up and a laser light show. We didn't get to do either of those things because they were closed in February for maintenance.


On top of Stone Mountain

We also got to see lots of good music. I might have mentioned some of it already, but Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (she's amazingly wonderful and everyone should check them out), the Greyboy Allstars (gotta love that Karl D action) and Mofro (it was my first time seeing them and they were great)! Atlanta was also fun because we got to hang out with other people! I met some peeps on Jam Cruise who are from Atlanta so it was fun to be able to go to shows with them. Oh, and Paul's Restaurant is a really good place to eat in Buckhead if anyone is ever in the area.

Ok, well I will keep you posted on South Carolina. After we leave here, we'll be headed to Knoxville, TN (probably around March 1), then off to Little Rock (probably from March 10 - March 30). Then to Baltimore for the month of April and then to New York City (most likely) for May and June! Yay. So, come visit any of those places if you can. And a side trip to New Orleans in April/May for Jazz Fest. Hope all is well with everyone.

I travel a lot

Hi everyone. So, I've realized that in the past 3 months I've been to a lot of places. Just to give you a little run down from November to the present... Kansas City to Cleveland to Portland back to Kansas City to Memphis to California (Lemoore, Los Angeles, Long Beach) back to Memphis to Atlanta to Jam Cruise (Ft. Lauderdale, Roatan and Cozumel) back to Atlanta to Colorado (El Jebel, Aspen, Breckenridge, Denver) back to Atlanta and the moving on to Little Rock in a week or so. Just thought I'd share. Here are some pics from Cali because I never posted any before.


Candyce and Paul Christmas Morning


Little Paulie after a bath - he's just so cute!


Jacqui, Emily and I in Santa Monica


Me in Venice Beach (love this place)


Palm Trees in Long Beach

So, we haven't done many touristy things in Atlanta yet because we found out you can buy this City Pass for a big discount to do a lot of the things we want to do, but it's only valid for 12 days so we weren't going to purchase it until our last 12 days. But now we think we might be done early, so we might buy it soon. We've eaten some good food (MF Sushi, Thai Palate), we've been to some cool neighborhoods (Little Five Points, Virginia Highlands, Northside) and have seen and will be seeing some good music (Grace Potter two weekends ago, the Greyboy Allstars tonight, the Fiery Furnaces tomorrow, and JJ Grey and Mofro on Saturday). So, Atlanta pics to come soon!

I also went out to Colorado over this past weekend to hang out with some friends for the X-games. It sure is beautiful out there. We've requested to go there for work (to Denver), so we're thinking we will find our way there in June. Also, we're supposed to get our spring schedule late this week. so I will keep you posted. Hope everyone is enjoying themselves. Also, Happy Birthday to Allison and Congratulations to Chris and Whitney! Here are some x-games photos.


Kt and me at the huge Friday night house party!


Beautiful sunset in CO


Ice sculpture in Breckenridge

Here are a few more Graceland pics (with Elvis in them) per Sheila!


Pic of Elvis at Graceland - he was a handsome one!


Jumpsuit worn at a Cleveland performance.

Talk to ya'll soon! Peace and love.

Jam Cruise and Memphis Pics

Hello everyone.

Not as much detail, more pictures. That is my new blog motto. So, Jam Cruise was absolutely incredible. The best time of my life, ever. Great music, great people, great weather, great times. I'm only sad now because I don't think I will be able to go next year. I guess we can't have it all. Or can we? I was bad and didn't take too many pics, but here are some of the incredible five days I had on the MSC Lirica.


Emily and I on the pool deck.


Lauren, Emily, and I in Roatan.


Toots and the Maytals on the Pool Deck.


New friends are what Jam Cruise is all about. That and the best music ever.

So, I don't think I posted any pics of Memphis, so here are some. You've already heard all about it, so I won't tell you anything more!

Sunset on the Mississippi.


I'm going to Graceland, Graceland; In Memphis, Tennessee.


Drying guitars at Gibson Guitar Factory.


Fully loaded Buggie Bug by the river.

Pics of Cali coming soon. Also, we're actually starting to explore Atlanta now, so I'll have more on the ATL soon. (it takes some time to recover from the best time of your life). Enjoy! Oh, and I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year. Peace and love.

Memphis, Cali and going on Jam Cruise!!!!!

Hola. Sorry, I've been really bad about keeping this updated. I hope this finds everyone having a nice holiday season. Memphis was a really fun city. I would recommend it to anyone taking a trip down to the south. I think three days would be good. My recommendations include Graceland, the Rock and Soul Museum, Sun Studio, Memphis BBQ (we went to The BBQ Shop in Midtown, but any of it would be good) and of course, Beale St. We also hit up the National Ornamental Metals Museum, the Gibson Guitar Factory Tour, the National Civil Rights Museum, and the Pink Palace. We've also been really good about going to school - trading off and on between GIS and Spanish.

So, the Elvis people really know how to put on a tour. Graceland was presented in a really nice way with an audio tour. You didn't have to listen to real people tour guides and you got to pick and choose what parts of the house you wanted more details about. It was really cool being able to see his house (not the upstairs though because that's his personal space), the property, his trophy house, cars, and planes. The animal room and downstairs billiards rooms were my favorite rooms. I also really liked the car museum. Oh, and if you go there, be sure to not buy any souvenirs right away because there are lots of different gift shops and some are better than others.

The Rock and Soul museum gave a background on all of the musicians that came out of Memphis, minus Justin Timberlake. They included Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King etc. It also included a lot of info on Sun Studios, Stax Records and Hi Records. There is also the Stax Museum (another music museum in Memphis), but we decided to go to the Rock and Soul Museum because it's located close to Beale St. and is open until 7 every evening. Our visit to Sun Studios was short. We decided not to go on the tour because we had learned so much about it already, so we just took some pics and went to the gift shop. We actually liked the Sun Studios products better at Graceland because they used the original rooster logo that Sam Phillips used versus the guitar logo that is now property of the building.

So, Beale St. is pretty crazy. You can always find full bars, live music, and friendly people. I can't even imagine what it's like in the summer. Some of the bar patios are twice as big as the indoor bars, but they were all closed for the season. So, there is no open container law on Beale St., probably because they close off the streets to cars at 11am every morning and don't open them back up til 6am the following morning. So, we had to be sure to collect that street first thing in the morning. Also, all of the bars are open til 5am on weekends and 3am on weekdays. Our favorite bar ended up being Alfred's on the corner of Beale and 3rd I think. I'd also recommend Rum Boogie Cafe, BB Kings, or Blues City Cafe if you want to hear some Blues and eat some Cajun food.

My favorite bar though was just a block off Beale St. on Peabody Pl. and 2nd St. - The Flying Saucer. It's a chain in the south, but doesn't feel like a chain at all. They serve TONS of different beers and you can join the UFO club. To get your name on a saucer on the wall, you have to drink 200 different beers. We didn't have enough time. We've also gotten really in to Team Trivia and have played it at a couple different locations. Hopefully we can find more in Atlanta too.

Right now I'm out in Lemoore with my mom, sister, and her kids, Candyce and Paul. They are so so so cute and I'm so glad I got to visit for so long. I think my sister and I are going out to a bar in Hanford tonight - it's the closest city to Lemoore, so I'll see how it compares! I leave here on Sunday to go meet Emily in LA for New Years. I have no clue what we're doing, but probably something low key since we've decided to go on Jam Cruise! I cannot wait! We leave January 4 and return January 9 from Atlanta. We'll be flying back to Memphis on January 2 and then driving straight to Atlanta.

That's it for now. Oh, and we saw the ducks at Peabody hotel too - really weird tradition. I'll post pics another time. The connection here is really slow and it would take forever! Again, I hope everyone had a nice holiday and I'll talk to you soon! Peace out.

Its One for the Money, Two for the Show

I'm in Memphis, Now Go, Cat, Go.

I've been here for a few days. We're planning on hitting up all of the Memphis attractions, which encompasses ducks, metal, civil rights, BBQ, Gibson guitars, recording studios, and of course, Elvis. We should be done here right before Christmas, at which time I'll be heading to California to see my momma and sis and her kiddies. I hope everyone is staying warm this December and stay posted for more Memphis tales.

And if anyone has the desire to get out of wherever you happen to be in January and February, I'll be in Hotlanta. Ciao.

p.s. Happy Birthday - there are a lot of you with birthdays right now.

Kansas City

Hi Everyone. I'm in the Kansas City airport right now waiting to board my flight home to Cleveland for Thanksgiving. I'll be home from tonight through Monday and then will be flying to Portland for the next week for an all-team meeting. Should be good times through then.

On our way to KC, we stopped in Columbia, MO, which is where the University of Missouri main campus is located. It was a recommendation by our innkeeper in St. Louis and Google boy. We had a nice lunch in a quaint tea house and then went hiking in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, which had some caves we were able to explore. Cute little town and nice hiking.



So, Kansas City was good. I really had no idea what to expect in almost the exact middle of the country. My favorite area is Westport, which is the "entertainment" district. Basically just a lot of bars and cute shops and restaurants. There's also an art school near by and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, so there are lots of different types of people there as well. Westport is just north of Country Club Plaza, which was built as a shopping district almost 100 years ago using Moorish-type architecture. Nowadays, there are lots of shops you'd see in Beechwood Place, so I was turned off by it at first, thinking it was recently built to look like an older establishment, but now I have much more respect knowing it was built that way a while ago. Also, I'm excited to go back there at night after I get back to KC after our 11-day break because they decorate the whole plaza with over 80 miles of lights. They light them up on Thanksgiving night.

We were able to go to a few museums - the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Toy and Miniature Museum of Kansas City. The actual art museum (Nelson-Atkins) was enjoyable. They have a huge sculpture park with huge birdie statues (as in badminton). We really only strolled through one wing because it was pretty big and getting late. There was also a huge reflecting pond outside, which I really liked. The contemporary museum was very manageable in size, which made it very enjoyable. There was an exhibit on display of Michael Vasquez's work. You should really check out his work if you have time. We saw a sign for the Toy and Miniature museum one day and figured we had to go there. It was actually pretty cool. We really dig the miniatures (which are exact replicas of real-life things - different than a toy) and the doll houses they had on display. Oh, and we went to the National Heritage Museum to learn about the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. I was really just hoping to find copies of the Oregon Trail computer game, but had no such luck.





We've also experienced the two things Kansas City is most known for (at least from what I've picked up on) - BBQ and Jazz. We ate at 2 BBQ restaurants and Gates BBQ is my favorite. You can buy the BBQ sauce at any grocery store. We also now know the difference between a short end and long end of ribs. We went to the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz district and checked out the Jazz Museum there, saw some live Jazz, and ate at the Peachtree, which is an upscale soul food restaurant - delicious is all I have to say!



Emily celebrated her 24th birthday here. We went to breakfast at Waffle House (something she's wanted to do for quite some time) and went out to a nice dinner (thanks to her momma) at Figlio Italian Restaurant on the Plaza. We then saw some live reggae. We also went to Lawrence, KS (recommended by Pam and Katie O.) to see Old Crow Medicine Show. Another good show and a very cute little college town.



Alright, well I think that sums up most of what we did here in KC. I hope to see a lot of people while I'm home for Thanksgiving. But if I don't - hope you have a wonderful holiday! Oh, and I'll have to keep you posted on where I'm going next. Right now I don't know, but should find out when I go to Portland. And below you will find a pic I like to call "Another day on the job".

Leaving St. Louis

Hi all - hope this all finds you doing well. First, I want to say Congratulations to Sheila and Matt on the new addition to their family, Jameson. He was born October 3o. Can't wait to meet him!

The weather is cooling down here as I'm sure it is there as well. We're in Kansas City now, which has proven to be super nice so far. We still haven't settled in to a permanent home (we hope to do that today) but we really like the areas we've been to so far, which have included Country Club Plaza, Westport, and Mission Hills. We're hoping to live in Westport, which is a historical part of town that has turned into the city's main entertainment district.

Until now, we'd been enjoying our last 2 weeks in St. Louis. So far, St. Louis has been my favorite city - Emily's too. We just loved that we were able to get around the majority of the time on our bicycles. We also took a long ride on the Mississippi Riverfront Trail, which was interesting. On one side of the trail is the river and on the other side is heavy industry like car compounds. Lots of weird smells there, but a very nice trail. Our innkeeper, Karen, is huge in the bicycle world in St. Louis, so it was nice to have her around as well. We were able to have her and her husband over for dinner one night - we made tofu and brown rice stuffed peppers and they were delicious. They are just great people and if anyone is ever planning a trip to St. Louis, let me know because their carriage house is great. Oh, and we carved some pretty sweet pumpkins for Halloween.







Halloween weekend was nice. As I'm sure most of you know, I dressed up as a ladybug and Emily was a honey bee (in honor of Sudden Bee Death Syndrome - if you don't know what it is, find out because it's important to be informed!). So, we were 2 bugs in a bug. We volunteered at a Halloween party for autistic children Friday night, which was a lot of fun. I watched over the bouncy house and Emily walked around and filled up candy and mingled with the kids. It was great that we were able to do that. We then went downtown to the Scottrade Center for a show - SYTYCD. We really can't believe we went to that, but it was a lot of fun and the people are really talented! Afterwards, we went down to Laclede's Landing for some dancing ourselves. The next day, we celebrated Halloween in the Central West End (where we live). They have a huge block party and everyone is in costume. It was pretty fun and there were a lot of interesting costumes, but they served Miller Beer, so we weren't too happy about that being in a Budweiser town.





That Sunday, the Browns were in town playing the Rams. I met some Clevelanders the night before and they offered me a ticket for $15, so I took it. I then found out some other friends were in town for the game, so I got to meet up with them as well. We won (after a scary first quarter) and left the Rams at 0-8. Quite a few beers later, I took the Metrolink back home where I met up with Emily and Jacqui and Maureen from Team 2! They were on their way from Boston to Las Vegas and stopped in St. Louis for two nights. We went out to dinner on The Hill one night and met up with some of Maureen's friends the next night. It was great to see them again and nice to know we'll be able to see them again soon in Portland for the All-Team meeting.

On one of our last days in St. Louis, we hit up the City Museum. It is one of the coolest places I have ever been. The founder and designer wanted to make a museum in which people were able to interact with the various elements he used to create an architectural marvel. I really can't even explain it. There are just tons of things to climb on and slides to slide on and caves to explore. It is crazy. There's also a huge outdoor section. We learned that the museum was only opened to adults for the first year and then welcomed kids after that. They celebrated their 10-year anniversary this year. Every Friday and Saturday, they're open until 1am, so it also caters to the late-night bar crowd. It was really hard to capture the size of some of the elements in the museum, but I tried. That night, we went out in Soulard to an Irish bar, McGurk's. I still have to say, if there's anywhere in St. Louis to go meet drunk people (some very obnoxious), it's Soulard.



Our last day in St. Louis was sad. We had to pack and we also went and to check out the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. It is located in our neighborhood and contains the largest collection of mosaics in the world. The cathedral is huge and just so beautiful. I don't have much to compare it to (because I have to admit, I haven't been in many churches), but I can't imagine many places that are as grand. We then stopped for one more bubble tea before heading home. We went to Delmar Loop that night to the Pageant to see Old Crow Medicine Show, a new favorite band of mine. The Pageant is a great venue with lots of places to go. There is an open floor, lower level tiers with tables and bar stools, open space in the back by the long bar, an upstairs balcony with seats and then another open space by the bar there. The show was great too and we're hoping to see them again in Lawrence, Kansas for Emily's birthday weekend!

Alright, sorry these are so long, but by the time I get around to writing, I'm 2 weeks deep with lots of information. Hope you don't mind. I'll let you know how Kansas City pans out soon. Then, I'll be home for a few days for Thanksgiving. Until then, stay warm!