Winter Break Road Trip - Florida part 1

We spent 4 days in Florida's "Treasure Coast" where my grandparents and aunt's family live. Day one the weather was a bit chilly. The rest of the days were great! We hung out at the beach, the pool, did some shopping - general relaxing activities :)



In downtown Stuart

Seafood Omelette and Pigs in a Blanket at the Captain's Galley was aweeeesommmme

Taylor and Dylan hanging on their personal island

Sherri suffering through the "cold" weather on Hutchinson Island

Homemade cotton candy has a surprising large learning curve

Fort Pierce Inlet State Park

Ryan was brave enough to swim in the cold water. I was definitely not.

Observing manatees at the Manatee Observation Center

Winter Break Road Trip Continues

We'll see how this post goes - my internet keeps cutting out and I lose it. No good Charter, no good!

Along with internet issues, this semester started out NUTS. I wasn't expecting that. Between the normal getting back from vacation fun, gathering everything for class, mandatory mock interviews and a case competition I'm beat. This does not bode well for the rest of the semester...

Anyway, back to the trip!  There was a huge backup on I-65 south of Louisville. Gas station rumor was that there was a series of accidents caused by the first one - you know how these things go. After sitting on the highway for an hour we made it to an exit which just so happened to be the home of Ryan's second true love (after Aaron Rodgers of course) Jim Beam, or more specifically Red Stag. They may or may not be common law at this point. The air literally smelled like bourbon, it was unreal. The tours were over but the tasting room was still open! They had a lot of informative signs around the grounds so it wasn't all drinks, there was some learning too. Promise.

We made it into Nashville late and went out to a few bars on Broadway to see some music. It was hard to decide where to go, pretty much everywhere has an act playing. Each one that we decided on was fantastic, we could have spent a few more days there. Definitely a return-to spot!

Day two: drove through Franklin, TN which has a very cute downtown area and nice shops. This classiness was followed up by Time Magazine's number 1 roadside attraction in Cullman, AL: Ave Maria Grotto. Short version is that a monk who lived there made 125 miniatures of various buildings and shrines from around the world, and they were all placed on this hillside for people to visit. Despite the cold, it.was.glorious. Some examples are St. Peter's Square (naturally), the Gardens of Babylon, and the grotto pictured below. It's very easy to get to and highly recommended if you're in the area and amused by this type of thing. They've been maintained very well and the detail is fascinating.

Stopped briefly to see the sun set over Birmingham.

Last stop of the night was Montgomery, AL. The most... interesting/surprising/inspiring? I'm not entirely sure what word to use honestly... thing was just how close MLK's church and the organization of the bus boycott was to the state capitol building. Maybe this is something I was supposed to know but actually seeing it was impressive.

Also sobering was the Civil Rights Memorial. It was designed beautifully with names and dates of those who died during the movement along with important legal events. It was an excellent reminder of what people in this country went through not that long ago. I can't even imagine what life had been like at that time or the courage it took to stand up for their rights.

Day 3 coming soon! (provided my internet holds out)

Roadtrip - Lunch in Louisville

It was originally supposed to be breakfast, which is how I selected Lynn's Paradise Cafe as our destination. (The internet says good things.) Something about the color explosion and giant statue action took all others out of the running no matter what meal of the day was to be had.

I was not disappointed! There was the right amount of bright glitz - not too overwhelming and "everywhere" but still a lot to look at. Plus our table had activities which was amusing enough, but would have been even better with kids. Lunch was good - curry chicken salad and cheesy grit - and the coffees about gave me a heart attack from sugar overload. Delicious!

The rest of Louisville was "eh" which could be accurate or just because it was raining. Hard to tell.

Roadtrip - the beginning

I loaded up my car and was ready to go when wouldn't you know it, my car wouldn't start. A perfect beginning to a week and a half long road trip! Thus, this is the first pic of the trip; the Goodyear at which I had it fixed. It didn't turn out to be anything difficult or serious so it didn't delay us overall. (I was very grateful for that!) Many thanks to Claire for helping me fail at pushing the car from its parking spot to jump it, eventually finding the right neighbor to move their car so we could try and jump it, attempting the jump start though it failed miserably, and hanging out while they fixed it! I hope someone randomly walked by and got a pic of us in the dirt pushing between the car and the restaurant wall. I'll bet it was ridiculously amusing to watch :)

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New York, New York!

In July I took a solo trip to NYC to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met. It.Was.Amazing. But more on that in a bit.

Day one as planned I wandered around Central Park until I could check into the hotel. Unplanned was the 100 degree temperature. Holy moly was it hot! But a really fantastic walk anyway. I'd been to NYC a couple of times before but hadn't spent much time in Central Park. It was enjoyable seeing so many people out having fun for the day!

Day 2 I visited some of the standard sights like Rockefeller Center, Times Square and China Town where I completed NYC goal number 2 - find dim sum! I hadn't had it in ages; as far as I know the closes places to Appleton that serve it are Chicago or Minneapolis, and knew there were quite a few options available. I settled on Vegetarian Dim Sum House because it had good reviews. They were accurate. It was everything I'd hoped for and, as is required, I ordered WAY too much. It's too hard to choose.

Lunch, dinner and snack!



The third and final day was finally Met day! The first order of business was to get in line for the McQueen exhibit. For 2 hours. There were quite a few times that I thought "this had better be worth it." It absolutely was! The downside was that it was very crowded as the space was small for the number of attendees (they didn't allow photos. I should have taken one anyway, it was nuts). Obviously the tight quarters took away from the enjoyment a bit, but the clothing on display was exquisite. Very hard to describe really... photos don't do the pieces justice, especially the black feather ones, and being able to see them in person was an incredible experience. It makes me wish I was able to make, well, anything :) (ok I made some pj pants once that turned out alright-ish)

After the McQueen show I wandered the museum a bit before having to sit on the LaGuardia tarmac for 3 hours then fly home. I found this "aquamanile"/unicorn water vessel that I feel the need to own. If anyone sees one floating around let me know!

I want oneeeeeeee



Harry Potter poster display in the subway!

Expelliarmus!

Yellowstone National Park

Next up on the snowy National Park tour was Yellowstone! The first night we stayed at the Old Faithful Inn which was very cool. We snagged the last available under-$200 room, described as "Old House Room with Shared Bath." Completely accurate. The room was indeed old as it was part of the original building (of which none of my interior pics turned out well, but the internet has a number of good ones if you're curious). While we did have to use a shared bathroom they were very clean and surprisingly not busy for the hotel being full. The room was small but had the same lodge-like character as the main part of the Inn with giant old style locks and window panes, radiator heating and so-on. For those potentially staying there, the room did have a sink at least, and there is a "new" section if you aren't feeling up to sharing a bathroom. You can of course go into all of the hotels to check them out but I really liked staying overnight to really get entrenched in the historical park atmosphere.



Old Faithful Inn

As the name implies we were right next to Old Faithful! (The picture below is not of Old Faithful though, it's one of the nearby geysers. Notice the tiny people and how high they go!) The pathways in the pic are pretty much the mode in the entire park which a) was very slippery when we were on the snow/rain on the newer plastic ones so no wearking Keds everyone and b) really took away from the nature feel of the park. I understand why they have to do this of course, a lot of the attractions are boiling hot springs and you can't go wandering around on them, and it protects the park. But still, it feels more like a museum than a park.

Even though I saw it with my own eyes, I feel like this waterfall picture is fake.

Tower Fall

As with Glacier, some of the roads in Yellowstone were partially closed. Disappointing again, but because the roads are all in loops we were actually able to make it to almost everything we wanted to see. The only part missing was Tower-Roosevelt, and that was closed because of a gigantic rock slide not  because of snow so it was best we weren't stuck in that mess. Here's Kelly making new friends and showing off the snow banks:

Buffalo in the street are hilarious! In low season. I can't imagine how insane the park gets in the summer between family vacations and school tours and all that... Horrifying.

The park was much better than Glacier for seeing animals, though it helped that there were crowds everywhere letting you know one was seen. My ability to spot them is terrible! I would make a lousy hunter.

This is what it looked like every time something was spotted. Yay animals! (A bear in this case.) And not being able to drive anywhere at all because no one will move our of the road for a car! The park police do come by shortly after to break everyone up for "harassing the animals" aka scaring the bejeezus out of them by paping them when they're hanging out in a tree (Guilty!)

Yellowstone did have a ton of really fascinating landscapes between geysers and falls and mud pots, but I have to say that Mammoth Hot Springs was my favorite. The ridiculously white calcium depsoit terraces have the most fantastic shapes. They're beautiful as were the colors in the active springs. I loved how they were sneaking down to the town below. Maybe someday they'll be able to open up a souvenir shop of their own.

Overall I'm very glad I went to Yellowstone though don't feel a need to go again. I am extremely happy that it wasn't anywhere near high season. If it had been I'd probably be writing this post from jail because I ran someone off of the road or something...

Glacier National Park

Over Memorial weekend Kelly and I flew to Montana to visit Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. We weren't sure how it was going to go because the area had been getting a lot of spring snow and that tends to be a problem with mountain passes. Maybe Harry Potter World would have been a better choice afterall? It was all green and fine on the drive up from Helena but sure enough when we got into the mountains - bam! White wins.



Avalanche and hungry bear warnings aside, I wish we would have brought snow shoes with us. The trails would have been a lot of fun! 

As it was, things were a bit difficult. There was a tiny bit of snow still on the ground.

Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed between Trail of the Cedars and Siyeh Bend which was disappointing - apparently 20 feet of snow is too much for their plows, weak sauce - but we were still able to see quite a bit of the park.

We stayed at the Village Inn which is directly on Lake McDonald in Apgar. (It's a tiny spec in the picture below.) It's an older building and I could hear our neighbors a bit, but you can't beat the view. I can't speak to high season, but I definitely recommend it for low!

I was obsessed with the colors in the rocks.

Most of the trails aren't paved, but Trail of the Cedars is done up nicely for those who want a stroll without tree root issues. The weather may not have fully cooperated, but the park was not crowded. I'll sacrifice some not-so-perfect conditions to avoid the headache of high-season any day!

On our way down to Yellowstone we drove through the National Bison Range which is a 20 mile self guided drive through one of the first wildlife refuges in the US. There are quite a few types of animals staying home, home on the range (possibly even playing). When I get a front yard I might have to install an Elk Horn bush like the one at the Visitors Center. Property value adder, no?

Overall I really enjoyed Glacier National Park and would definitely recommend it. If you don't enjoy snow though I'd wait until a little later in the year, May just happened to be when we could go. I'm hoping to get back this summer to get to some of the areas that were closed and see what it's like later in the year.