The Road Trip : Technical Difficulties

in

I see that the gallery isn't showing up in the last post.... I realize these are MAJOR first world problems but, I don't have Internet. I've been going to Starbucks to blog.

It is clearly exam week because Starbucks was FULL of college students on their laptops.

The Internet was sa-low.

I wanted to stay and complete the gallery even though it kept freezing during the upload process. But, I just couldn't.

I was going to be late for my pedicure.

The Road Trip :: Mississippi

in ,

Post Graceland we decided to go due South through Mississippi. We also decided that since we had bee-lined it for Graceland that we earned ourselves some 'back roads time'.

We took Route 1 from Northern Mississippi all the way to Southern Mississippi.  This region is known as the Mississippi Delta.  From here on out I'm going to write The Delta - only to save my little fingers the strain of M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i.  (For the record I practiced for hours in the Hilo YWCA yard after school how to spell that state perfectly.)

Our first night was spent in Clarksdale.  For the record, I don't recommend an overnight in Clarksdale...sorry lovely folks of Clarksdale.

Personally, the highlight of The Delta was Vicksburg.

Vicksburg was full of historic buildings, it sat right on the Mighty Mississippi and most importantly, there was good food to be had.

We dined at Walnut Hill which was an incredibly well preserved older home.  The menu was a little limited but, I always love a place that knows what they make and make it well.  Can we say, 'Fried Green Tomatoes'?  Why yes....yes we can.

The Delta was miles and miles of cotton fields.  I am ashamed to admit that at first I couldn't figure out what their crop was.  I KNOW.  duh.

I kept seeing white stuff and I kept thinking in my head...'so messy'...

We kept commenting on the crops.  I think Canadiaunt and I looked at each other at the exact same time and exclaimed, 'COTTON'!!!!

I ended up becoming fascinated with the cotton and wanted to stop at EVERY SINGLE field I found.  Then, I happened upon a field that still had the plants in them.  (To be fair, Canadiaunt spotted and I whipped the shitty to go back.)

All in all?  Mississippi was a lovely drive.

Of course there's more!

[nggallery id=30]

The Road Trip :: GRACELAND

in , ,

The reason we powered through Kentucky was that we were eager to get to Memphis, Tennessee. After visiting Fallingwater in Pennsylvania I started thinking of other famous homes. Then it dawned on me....

GRACELAND!!!!

I've always found Elvis amazing - seeing his home made his life seem more real.

They've preserved the site beautifully and the attention to detail was amazing.

My favorite parts:

  • Seeing the tiki bar in the Jungle Room. Such class.
  • Elvis in an aloha shirt for Blue Hawaii and realizing I have a dress with the identical print!
  • Peacock stained glass in the formal living room.
  • The pool room beautifully covered in material.
  • TCB. Taking care of business in a FLASH!
  • The mirrored ceiling in the television room - with a FLASH on the wall of course!
  • The jet Lisa Marie with a full size bed that required a belt

I won't go on and on about our time there. Instead I'll share TONS of photos!

Please...enjoy more! There were too many for me to pick a favorite!

[nggallery id=29]

The Road Trip :: Kentucky

in , ,

We sort of blew through Kentucky. We lallygagged through Pennsylvania and felt like we needed to make a little bit of time up.

Our only real stop was in Lexington where we took a walk through the Arboretum.  It was nice to get out of the car and stretch our legs!  We also made a stop in town to take pictures of older homes...you know me!  I love peeking in unsuspecting strangers windows!

Lexington was really pretty.  It was majorly a college town but, that didn't detract at all from it's gracefulness.

As we pulled into town there were people in blue everywhere.  When I say people in blue I mean a lot of people in a lot of blue.  Turns out the University of Kentucky had a basketball game going on.  These people had team spirit!

The Arboretum was clearly a well loved place.  Lots of joggers, lots of kids playing.  We loved it too.  It was right in the middle of town but very quiet.

Lexington had some kick butt older homes.  I mean truly kick butt!

Best part of our drive through Kentucky?  The hot pink sunset for sure!

[nggallery id=28]

Book Confessions

in

I was potty trained with 'the bird book'. I would sit on my parents lap while they got it done in the bathroom and flip through the pages looking at birds. My favorite was The Kingfisher. I've still never seen one in real life but, I can to this day see that page in my head. I still own the original book. I think reading on my iPad is starting to give me tendinitis because its so heavy but I'm still reading on it.

My favorite book ever is The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi . I think there is a 90% chance it's why I ended up at sea for a living. I also think it was my first taste of adventure.

I read the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy....twice. I know, I know!

I had to read Hamlet in high school - and I hated it. I didn't get it, at all. I was a total biatch to my high school teacher. I mean, I was such a biatch that I still feel guilty about it.

My Grandma taught me to read the summer before I went to Kindergarten. She got a copy of The Ugly Duckling - she wrote every word in the book on a piece of paper and then I had to match the words to the ones in the book. That same summer I learned how to tie my shoe laces and skip. I learned to read faster than I learned to skip.

I read copious amounts of trashy romance novels. I mean copious. I have to literally force myself sometimes to take a break from the smut and read quality.

I could spend ALL DAY in Powells in Portland. When I go there now I know that I need to devote at least an afternoon or I'll leave feeling bummed.

I own a lot of books and pay for a storage unit in Hawaii that's climate controlled specifically for those books. It would kill me if they succumbed to the tropics. Some of the books at my family's home have been completely eaten through by termites. It's awful.

In Elementary the Scholastic Book Fair was my favorite. My Mom always let me order something.

In Fifth grade I was on the Newbery Quiz Bowl Team. We made it our mission to read all the Newbery Medal books.

My friend Melissa told me I had to read the book Molokai by Alan Brennert - especially since my Dad had lived in Kalaupapa. She loaned me her copy and I started it that same night. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. I'd never cried like that while reading a book.

Nautie Books makes me really happy. If for no other reason that it forces me to read 'non-smut'. Mostly, I love it because it lets me talk books with friends.

I remember signing up and receiving my first library card at the Downtown Hilo Library. I especially remember signing the back in cursive. Here's some history for ya.

I have a lot of books on my shelf that I've never read...or started to read and couldn't finish. A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez is one of them.

When I graduated from Maine Maritime Academy I didn't split right away and instead stayed for the summer to cruise on The Schooner Bowdoin. My favorite memory of the trip? Sitting in the galley shoulder to shoulder in front of the stove with Captain Chase reading to us from Salt-Water Poems and Ballads by John Masefield. I later found a used copy at Powells. It's hands down one if my most prized possessions.

I'd really like to read Moby Dick. I always get bogged down and set it aside.

When I was in intermediate I really liked reading about The Holocaust.

I read Gone With The Wind in sixth grade. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that wasn't an age appropriate read.

I wrote and illustrated a book in the third grade. I can't really remember what it was about. Something to do with bears coming alive at night. Anyways, on the back 'about the author page' I made stuff up that I thought would make me seem cool. I think I wrote that I really liked to eat green apples....ummm what?

I'm gonna read Anna Karenina this next time at work....even if it kills me...then I'm gonna watch the movie so I can speak intelligently about it.

It really chaps my craw that although I read so often and can identify a grammatically correct sentence I can't write one. I have NO idea where a comma belongs in the pervious sentence. I find it mortifying.

Lastly, I didn't read Novembers Pick, Gone Girl. I feel really, really guilty about it. Twenty pages in I decided I hated it. I am going to do my ultimate best to give it another go.

This post was inspired by Amy. It's nice knowing there are people out there who feel the same way as I do about books.