Welcome to the Music City. Tennessee's capitol and one of the birthplaces of country music, Nashville is a lively town with plenty goin' on. We started our day by heading to the Country Music Hall of Fame and picked up some audio tours to explore the 3-story historical complex. Everything from learning where country got its origins to listening to clips of the first bluegrass and honky-tonk singles, the Country Music Hall of Fame and museum was a pretty jam-packed place with things to do and sights to see. There were plenty of exhibits on the instruments used to make the unique country sound that was heard in the earlier part of the 20th century as well as exhibits highlighting the pop/rock combination that melded its way into the country sound that you hear today on the radio or from your TV screen.
Kelsey was content as there was an entire exhibit dedicated to Taylor Swift and we lost Dad for a long time in the Hank Williams tribute displays. I enjoyed watching old footage of Jerry Lee Lewis and Charles Perkins as "Blue Suede Shoes" played on repeat in the beginning exhibits and a cappella groups such as the "Jordanaires" had a hand in taking the feel of a barber shop quartet and adding a country flare. There were video montages documenting country music's impact on television and other compilations showcasing the impact of country music when the lyrics depicted present day issues and problems. Once again, I made sure to get plenty of photos of the exhibits, one of my favorite being a quartet of squirrels that had been shot by Hank Williams himself and sent to a taxidermist who mounted them to look like a band (a piano playing squirrel, a guitarist, bassist, and drummer). We actually spent about 4 hours touring around the museum and watching the media there. The museum ends with the Country Music Hall of Fame and as we exited the museum there was a live guitarist playing in the common area for a bit.
Since we all split up during the museum itself, we took about 45 minutes to regroup and decided to get a view of the city from above, so we climbed up to the apex of the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Cumberland Bridge and had a quick photo shoot with the Nashville skyline before making our way back to the car and heading out of town. Already 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we were pretty hungry and our eating schedule has been all out of whack this whole trip, so we went to a local restaurant right outside of town known as the "Loveless Cafe." A friend of mine recommended the place and said it had the best soul food in Nashville and he sure was right. Dad cashed in on the blue plate special of "Watermelon Ribs" and Kelsey got a breakfast plate for lunch. I had the famous homemade fried chicken and Mom tried the homemade meatloaf, all of which was absolutely delicious. All the way down to the homemade biscuits with personally crafted jams and preserves. Talk about great food, the Loveless Cafe is one of the best places I've ever eaten when it comes to good ol' fashion southern cuisine. As you can imagine, the Tate Family took our time enjoying ourselves, probably overeating in the process too but the meal was very worthy it.
Following our late lunch, we hopped back in our car and hit the road again for Memphis. In the morning we'll have a flight out of Tennessee and on our way back to good ol' Virginia. We'll be wrapping up the Tate Family Adventure and head back to Harrisonburg for our vacation recovery. Here's an update track list for you to enjoy and we'll be happy to sign copies of our Tate Family Adventure CD's, DVD's, T-Shirts, and other Tate Family Adventure paraphernalia following the trip for a small fee. Cheers.
~Josh
Songs to add to your Ipod:
New Orleans: "New Orleans" ~Kid Rock
Bourbon Street/French Quarter: "Easy Street" ~Annie Soundtrack
Graceland: Insert Any Elvis Song Here
Sun Studios: "I Walk the Line" ~Johnny Cash
Memphis: "Walking in Memphis" ~Bruce Springsteen
Nashville: "Rocky Top" ~Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Country Music Hall of Fame: "Today was a Fairytale" ~Taylor Swift
Monday, August 2, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
The King and I...well...Us.
Welcome back. The past few days have flown by as we're rounding up the Tate Family Adventure and trying to cram in all sorts of last minute attractions and sights while we still have energy left. We started our morning in Memphis with a trip just about a mile down from our hotel to Graceland. After getting tickets, we were pretty quickly shuttled over to the front door of Elvis Presley's estate and able to take an audio tour all throughout his home. Still in 60's and 70's decor, Graceland was ahead of its time with technology, furnishing, and style. Although by today's standards some of the pieces seem ancient, like the giant brown box TV's, it was like taking a step back in time to rock n' roll with the "King" himself and his luxurious lifestyle.
Dad visited here on the original Tate Family Vacation way back in the day when Graceland had just opened up as a museum and American landmark (I'm pretty sure the actual National Lampoon's Vacation was based on this historic first Tate Family trip cross-country) and he informed us that not much changed from his first visit that he could remember. He also said that my grandfather, the legendary "Papa Tate" loved Elvis and Graceland that he took 3 or more rolls of film of the entire place - only to discover that when he left Graceland, he realized in his excitement he never actually remembered to load any film into the camera whatsoever. Therefore, as a tribute to Papa himself I made sure to take at least a few hundred photos of every square inch of the house. I'm sure if you put them all together you might even be able to recreate Graceland in 3D. Your welcome Papa. :-)
The Graceland Mansion isn't anything enormous like you see today on MTV's Cribs or close to the size of a pro football player's house, but for its time it was first class. It came with about 15 acres of property around the house itself which housed stables, a racquetball facility and gym, a shooting range, as well as a few other buildings where business was done for Elvis. At our Graceland visit we were able to see tons of Elvis memorabilia in addition to his personal belongings. For instance, his racquetball court is now turned into an exhibit honoring the King with many of his gold and platinum records and other awards hanging from ceiling to the floor and with his famous jump suits on display while you can watch some of his concerts that play on repeat on monitors around the room. Impressive stuff for sure. We also were able to visit his grave site where the Presley family is all buried and an eternal flame burns to remember the impact that Elvis had on all of his fans and American history itself. I made sure to get tons of pictures of the whole place, and after we left the mansion itself we were able to go visit a number of niche exhibits exploring the other aspects of Elvis' life.
For instance, we saw one display entirely devoted to Elvis' car collection. Everything from his famous pink Cadillac to his own private "pimped" out limousines and sports cars. Elvis was able to wear bling and "pimp out his ride" way before modern day rappers were able to coin the term. Another specialty exhibit highlighted Elvis' sense of style. It had an entire wardrobe that Elvis used to own, from the famous jumpsuits to his silk shirts, to jewel-studded jackets, to even creating his own signature logo. The "TCB lightning bolt" which stood for "Taking Care of Business in a flash." Rings and other jewelry, honorary police badges and colt .45's, and tuxedos were all on display in the exhibit and it was interesting to see just how Elvis created his own persona and image.
We also had the chance to tour Elvis' private planes. The "Lisa Marie" and the "Jetstar" were his way to travel in style as the seats were all custom leather, assorted colors, and the belt buckles and sinks where made with 24 karat gold plate. All of this in combination with the chance to tour Elvis' house made the Graceland experience a full-force insight into the King's life and I definitely think we took advantage and got our money's worth during our visit.
Following Graceland, we took a shuttle down to Sun Studios, which is the place that Elvis first recorded himself singing and was discovered by owner Sam Phillips. Sun Studios was also responsible for discovering legendary artists such as Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many other blues, country, and rock n' roll stars. Seeing some of the old-time recording equipment and listening to the original recordings from some of these artists in the studio was quite a treat and our tour guide was a zany rock n' roller himself who went by the name "El Dorado." Not only did he give us the entire history of how Sun Studios came into existence but was able to paint a picture of what Sun Studios really was like as it evolved from a private business enterprise to a larger record label who signed some of the best artists in music history.
After our exhausting day in Memphis, we packed into our car and headed for Nashville in the evening. It took a few hours to get to downtown Nashville, but we were recharged enough to walk along Broadway street, listen to some live music playing from the various bars and made our way to Rippey's, which was a late night barbecue and ribs place to grab a late dinner. We were able to get a spot out on their upstairs terrace and overlook all of Broadway Avenue while we listened to live music accompanying our meal. It was a nice finish to a long day of site-seeing and gave us the chance to decompress, recap our day, and then get some shuteye before exploring more of Nashville in the morning.
~Josh
Dad visited here on the original Tate Family Vacation way back in the day when Graceland had just opened up as a museum and American landmark (I'm pretty sure the actual National Lampoon's Vacation was based on this historic first Tate Family trip cross-country) and he informed us that not much changed from his first visit that he could remember. He also said that my grandfather, the legendary "Papa Tate" loved Elvis and Graceland that he took 3 or more rolls of film of the entire place - only to discover that when he left Graceland, he realized in his excitement he never actually remembered to load any film into the camera whatsoever. Therefore, as a tribute to Papa himself I made sure to take at least a few hundred photos of every square inch of the house. I'm sure if you put them all together you might even be able to recreate Graceland in 3D. Your welcome Papa. :-)
The Graceland Mansion isn't anything enormous like you see today on MTV's Cribs or close to the size of a pro football player's house, but for its time it was first class. It came with about 15 acres of property around the house itself which housed stables, a racquetball facility and gym, a shooting range, as well as a few other buildings where business was done for Elvis. At our Graceland visit we were able to see tons of Elvis memorabilia in addition to his personal belongings. For instance, his racquetball court is now turned into an exhibit honoring the King with many of his gold and platinum records and other awards hanging from ceiling to the floor and with his famous jump suits on display while you can watch some of his concerts that play on repeat on monitors around the room. Impressive stuff for sure. We also were able to visit his grave site where the Presley family is all buried and an eternal flame burns to remember the impact that Elvis had on all of his fans and American history itself. I made sure to get tons of pictures of the whole place, and after we left the mansion itself we were able to go visit a number of niche exhibits exploring the other aspects of Elvis' life.
For instance, we saw one display entirely devoted to Elvis' car collection. Everything from his famous pink Cadillac to his own private "pimped" out limousines and sports cars. Elvis was able to wear bling and "pimp out his ride" way before modern day rappers were able to coin the term. Another specialty exhibit highlighted Elvis' sense of style. It had an entire wardrobe that Elvis used to own, from the famous jumpsuits to his silk shirts, to jewel-studded jackets, to even creating his own signature logo. The "TCB lightning bolt" which stood for "Taking Care of Business in a flash." Rings and other jewelry, honorary police badges and colt .45's, and tuxedos were all on display in the exhibit and it was interesting to see just how Elvis created his own persona and image.
We also had the chance to tour Elvis' private planes. The "Lisa Marie" and the "Jetstar" were his way to travel in style as the seats were all custom leather, assorted colors, and the belt buckles and sinks where made with 24 karat gold plate. All of this in combination with the chance to tour Elvis' house made the Graceland experience a full-force insight into the King's life and I definitely think we took advantage and got our money's worth during our visit.
Following Graceland, we took a shuttle down to Sun Studios, which is the place that Elvis first recorded himself singing and was discovered by owner Sam Phillips. Sun Studios was also responsible for discovering legendary artists such as Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many other blues, country, and rock n' roll stars. Seeing some of the old-time recording equipment and listening to the original recordings from some of these artists in the studio was quite a treat and our tour guide was a zany rock n' roller himself who went by the name "El Dorado." Not only did he give us the entire history of how Sun Studios came into existence but was able to paint a picture of what Sun Studios really was like as it evolved from a private business enterprise to a larger record label who signed some of the best artists in music history.
After our exhausting day in Memphis, we packed into our car and headed for Nashville in the evening. It took a few hours to get to downtown Nashville, but we were recharged enough to walk along Broadway street, listen to some live music playing from the various bars and made our way to Rippey's, which was a late night barbecue and ribs place to grab a late dinner. We were able to get a spot out on their upstairs terrace and overlook all of Broadway Avenue while we listened to live music accompanying our meal. It was a nice finish to a long day of site-seeing and gave us the chance to decompress, recap our day, and then get some shuteye before exploring more of Nashville in the morning.
~Josh
Friday, July 30, 2010
Do you have change for a French Quarter?
As you can see from our posts and also from our stories, fatigue has taken a course on the Tate Family during our 3-week escapade throughout the country. Our typical 7AM wake-up calls have snoozed until 8 or 9, and we've even missed a few continental breakfasts just for a few extra minutes of rest before our jam-packed days of travel. However, we've survived the travel tiredness and continued forward as much as possible and I don't think it has slowed us down overall.
When we woke up and got checked out of the hotel in New Orleans we walked once again all the way through the French Quarter and down toward the famous French Market to check it out. We stopped off at "Cafe du Monde" which is supposedly the first coffee shop located down in the French Quarter and we all ate breakfast there. They have French donuts known as "beignets" (pronounced ben-yays) that are covered in powdered sugar and quite delicious actually. I got a funny picture of a table of kids with a mountain of these things as they stuffed their faces.
After breakfast we continued through to the French Market which is similar to many other open-air markets you may have seen, such as in Charleston, SC if you've been there. There are plenty of homemade trinkets, crafts, and other assorted goods for sale and we walked the length of the market a few times just browsing all the stuff on each aisle. PS: I'm not sure why at every open-market I've seen some creepy old lady with no teeth trying to sell handmade soap, but either way other than that small factor that creeps me out, the market was legit. We continued back up the street and stopped in various shops along the way to get some air condition and beat the heat until we finally could get back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and board our train. Our afternoon train from New Orleans to Memphis was lengthy and actually rather a rough ride. I don't know what it was about the train we got on, but it was quite the bumpy one. Who knew trains could have turbulence?
Dad and I finished the Star Wars saga on the way to Memphis and Kelsey finished an entire book from cover to cover. Mom caught some shuteye and we were in Memphis by about 10pm and able to get a rent-a-car to our hotel and do some quite-overdue and necessary laundry. We relaxed in the hotel and went to bed pretty late, but planned a full day in Memphis in the morning and were looking forward to spending some quality time in the land of blues, country, and rock 'n roll.
~Josh
When we woke up and got checked out of the hotel in New Orleans we walked once again all the way through the French Quarter and down toward the famous French Market to check it out. We stopped off at "Cafe du Monde" which is supposedly the first coffee shop located down in the French Quarter and we all ate breakfast there. They have French donuts known as "beignets" (pronounced ben-yays) that are covered in powdered sugar and quite delicious actually. I got a funny picture of a table of kids with a mountain of these things as they stuffed their faces.
After breakfast we continued through to the French Market which is similar to many other open-air markets you may have seen, such as in Charleston, SC if you've been there. There are plenty of homemade trinkets, crafts, and other assorted goods for sale and we walked the length of the market a few times just browsing all the stuff on each aisle. PS: I'm not sure why at every open-market I've seen some creepy old lady with no teeth trying to sell handmade soap, but either way other than that small factor that creeps me out, the market was legit. We continued back up the street and stopped in various shops along the way to get some air condition and beat the heat until we finally could get back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and board our train. Our afternoon train from New Orleans to Memphis was lengthy and actually rather a rough ride. I don't know what it was about the train we got on, but it was quite the bumpy one. Who knew trains could have turbulence?
Dad and I finished the Star Wars saga on the way to Memphis and Kelsey finished an entire book from cover to cover. Mom caught some shuteye and we were in Memphis by about 10pm and able to get a rent-a-car to our hotel and do some quite-overdue and necessary laundry. We relaxed in the hotel and went to bed pretty late, but planned a full day in Memphis in the morning and were looking forward to spending some quality time in the land of blues, country, and rock 'n roll.
~Josh
Mom's Musings: 2nd Edition
For those of you requesting more musings from Mom, I come to you from the Amtrak station in San Antonio. It’s almost 10:30, and the rest of my family fails to appreciate the wealth of humanity that inhabits train stations late at night. For me, I’d still rather spend midnight waiting for a train rather than bouncing amongst the clouds in a tuna can contraption. Flying is all about getting there, while train travel is about the journey. (It is here that Jessica and David will retch slightly =)
Much has happened to us since we crossed the Rockies into the West. I prefer to think of it as a life of “incident.” This trip has afforded us laughter, learning, and loads of fun. Each of our days has ended with a “sharing time” of favorites for the last 24 hours. For me, it’s hard to say only one thing because there have been so many large and small. I was surprised at how much I loved California, especially Napa Valley and Sausilito. The landscape was almost magical and I even enjoyed our jaunt through Muir Woods, walking along shaded pathways enjoying the towering Redwoods. Those of you who know me understand that any activity remotely described as “a hike” is not my idea of relaxation or enjoyment. I tend to appreciate the interactions with people and places more than the landscapes. Sitting down to enjoy a shrimp sandwich while watching sailboats on the San Francisco Bay was just about perfect. Yet, the next morning’s journey into Alcatraz made history seem to breathe. San Francisco is one of those destinations that I could visit again because there are so many places near the piers and on the winding streets that intrigued me as we passed by.
After leaving San Francisco, our evening with the Dias family reminded me how much we miss them in the Valley. The conversation over enchiladas never lulled, and I fear our laughter together may have disturbed the neighborhood. I am certainly glad for their proximity to their family, but colleagues with whom we share our passion for teaching and commitment to students are all too rare. It was as if in the middle of our adventure, we were treated to an evening at home. Stephen suggested something about hiking Half Dome in Yosemite, and needless to say, I’m glad there wasn’t time for that venture in our day there. Just looking at it from Glacier Point made me wheeze. I appreciated the cool sprays of the waterfalls, where we were even treated to rainbows in the mist.
Another surprise for me was our time spent in Seattle. The day there at the Space Needle and on the wharf sped by, and I could have spent hours watching the “fishmongers” toss the halibut from man to man. The Puget Sound appears to be so calm and peaceful, a place to linger or catch the ferry. We were blessed with sunshine which I understand is a rarity in Seattle, but the streets seemed so clean and easy to navigate. What could be bad about the town that gave us Starbucks?
Landing in Vegas, I felt assaulted by the heat and the masses. People poured into the airport, casinos and onto the street. While watching the shows at the different hotels is entertaining (no time to catch Donny and Marie), I felt a tremendous sadness at the waste of resources. The town is gorgeous, flashy and fun, but it seems such a guilty pleasure with so much suffering in the world. How are there economic problems when so many people are flushing money into machines? Business is booming in Vegas, but it is certainly the most artificial of the places we have visited. I’m not a gambler, so my return to the Strip would have to be to catch The Lion King or Celine Dion. The gaming tables and the “painted people” just don’t appeal to me as entertainment.
As you can imagine, I was glad to be on the ground in Texas. Again, I was shocked to like Austin and San Antonio so much. In Austin, our gospel brunch was a perfect beginning to our Texas Tour. My “A Team Partner, “ Josh, organized our day. For a history lover, I appreciated the animated tour guide and we even spent two hours in the evening waiting for bats to fly out from under a bridge. Call us crazy, but we can find the hotspots in the town. Josh and I passed the time by sharing “bat puns.” Back in San Antonio, we remembered the Alamo and spent the afternoon and evening on the River Walk. As my colleague and Texan, Dan Horton assured me, we loved it all from the Tex Mex to the boat ride. Contrary to previously shared opinions, I really liked the Alamo and didn’t find it disappointing.
In the final leg of our journey, we will return closer to home. Our short stop in New Orleans and then on to Tennessee. I have to doubt that we’ll find more surprises in each. Even living out of a suitcase for three weeks, I don’t really want the adventure to end. I’m ready to become a historic interpreter somewhere, take up life as a Vegas showgirl (insert laugh here) or become a train conductor. I leave you from somewhere in Louisiana as the train whistle blows to herald our way. Love to you all. Wish you were with us. Next time, we should hire a whole train car for those who are not faint of heart.
Much has happened to us since we crossed the Rockies into the West. I prefer to think of it as a life of “incident.” This trip has afforded us laughter, learning, and loads of fun. Each of our days has ended with a “sharing time” of favorites for the last 24 hours. For me, it’s hard to say only one thing because there have been so many large and small. I was surprised at how much I loved California, especially Napa Valley and Sausilito. The landscape was almost magical and I even enjoyed our jaunt through Muir Woods, walking along shaded pathways enjoying the towering Redwoods. Those of you who know me understand that any activity remotely described as “a hike” is not my idea of relaxation or enjoyment. I tend to appreciate the interactions with people and places more than the landscapes. Sitting down to enjoy a shrimp sandwich while watching sailboats on the San Francisco Bay was just about perfect. Yet, the next morning’s journey into Alcatraz made history seem to breathe. San Francisco is one of those destinations that I could visit again because there are so many places near the piers and on the winding streets that intrigued me as we passed by.
After leaving San Francisco, our evening with the Dias family reminded me how much we miss them in the Valley. The conversation over enchiladas never lulled, and I fear our laughter together may have disturbed the neighborhood. I am certainly glad for their proximity to their family, but colleagues with whom we share our passion for teaching and commitment to students are all too rare. It was as if in the middle of our adventure, we were treated to an evening at home. Stephen suggested something about hiking Half Dome in Yosemite, and needless to say, I’m glad there wasn’t time for that venture in our day there. Just looking at it from Glacier Point made me wheeze. I appreciated the cool sprays of the waterfalls, where we were even treated to rainbows in the mist.
Another surprise for me was our time spent in Seattle. The day there at the Space Needle and on the wharf sped by, and I could have spent hours watching the “fishmongers” toss the halibut from man to man. The Puget Sound appears to be so calm and peaceful, a place to linger or catch the ferry. We were blessed with sunshine which I understand is a rarity in Seattle, but the streets seemed so clean and easy to navigate. What could be bad about the town that gave us Starbucks?
Landing in Vegas, I felt assaulted by the heat and the masses. People poured into the airport, casinos and onto the street. While watching the shows at the different hotels is entertaining (no time to catch Donny and Marie), I felt a tremendous sadness at the waste of resources. The town is gorgeous, flashy and fun, but it seems such a guilty pleasure with so much suffering in the world. How are there economic problems when so many people are flushing money into machines? Business is booming in Vegas, but it is certainly the most artificial of the places we have visited. I’m not a gambler, so my return to the Strip would have to be to catch The Lion King or Celine Dion. The gaming tables and the “painted people” just don’t appeal to me as entertainment.
As you can imagine, I was glad to be on the ground in Texas. Again, I was shocked to like Austin and San Antonio so much. In Austin, our gospel brunch was a perfect beginning to our Texas Tour. My “A Team Partner, “ Josh, organized our day. For a history lover, I appreciated the animated tour guide and we even spent two hours in the evening waiting for bats to fly out from under a bridge. Call us crazy, but we can find the hotspots in the town. Josh and I passed the time by sharing “bat puns.” Back in San Antonio, we remembered the Alamo and spent the afternoon and evening on the River Walk. As my colleague and Texan, Dan Horton assured me, we loved it all from the Tex Mex to the boat ride. Contrary to previously shared opinions, I really liked the Alamo and didn’t find it disappointing.
In the final leg of our journey, we will return closer to home. Our short stop in New Orleans and then on to Tennessee. I have to doubt that we’ll find more surprises in each. Even living out of a suitcase for three weeks, I don’t really want the adventure to end. I’m ready to become a historic interpreter somewhere, take up life as a Vegas showgirl (insert laugh here) or become a train conductor. I leave you from somewhere in Louisiana as the train whistle blows to herald our way. Love to you all. Wish you were with us. Next time, we should hire a whole train car for those who are not faint of heart.
Who Dat? The Big Easy! (Day 18)
Who Dat? The Big Easy!
I never sleep well on trains. If you're planning on traveling the country by train, or become a hobo or one of the boxcar children, account for the fact that you won't sleep well because trains just aren't a place where you can get comfortable. Heading to New Orleans was no exception and I woke up with not only aching and stiff joints, but to the sounds of babies crying, people talking, and the sun in my face through the window. Our scenery from San Antonio to New Orleans wasn't as beautiful as the Rockies or other rolling hills we got accustomed to in our first few train rides but the long ride did allow Dad and I to finish yet another Star Wars movie (we've been trying to complete all six on our trip, kind of just a bonus goal on the side) and by the time you get through a solid 12-15 hours cooped up on a train, you're dying for a shower too. So that's what we did as soon as we made it to our hotel in New Orleans, all cleaned up and stretched out a bit until we were in good enough shape to go exploring.
It was very humid down on the coast, so although we weren't in the 100+ degree heat we've seen before on the trip, it sure felt hot as soon as you left the building. However, as Kelsey has expressed before we have become used to long walks, drives, and covering quite a lot of mileage on this trip and so we trekked from our hotel all the way down the river front of New Orleans and down to a Margaritaville located in the French Quarter. If you're not super familiar with our family whatsoever, we're a bit of Jimmy Buffett fanatics and/or "parrotheads," so this stop was crucial on our family vacation and was still unique to the area too. I got an order of Gator Bites (yes, fried alligator) which were delicious, and as I've heard, do in fact taste like chicken. After dinner we walked back along the Mississippi and enjoyed a lovely and clear evening. A little evening shower during our dinner cleared up the humidity and made for a lovely cool night to spend in New Orleans. We rode a street car/trolley from the downtown area all the way past the residential and greater New Orleans area to pass some time and even got to see a bit of Loyola and Tulane Universities while we were at it too. Unexpected detours always seem to bring up something interesting for us, and our trolley ride was actually pretty cool being that it was totally different than the street cars from San Francisco. In fact, when the street cars are at the end of the line in San Fran, the driver gets out and places the car on a giant circular revolving platform so that the car can be turned around and head back down the street. However, in New Orleans, the driver has steering set up on both ends of the car, and merely switches sides of the car and then walks down the aisle and actually reverses the direction of all the seats so that the car can travel the opposite route. Quite a nifty trick.
Afterward, we checked out the famous Bourbon Street and watched all the drunk people stumble from bar to bar on even a weeknight. I made the family stop in the local "Howl at the Moon" which is a piano bar with great live music and although it was a slow night, the dueling piano gig is always a fun atmosphere. After spending some time exploring the streets we were all pretty exhausted from our traveling and decided to call it a night. Tomorrow's job was to wrap up New Orleans and get back on our last train ride of the trip as we headed toward Memphis, Tennessee! Meet you there!
~Josh
I never sleep well on trains. If you're planning on traveling the country by train, or become a hobo or one of the boxcar children, account for the fact that you won't sleep well because trains just aren't a place where you can get comfortable. Heading to New Orleans was no exception and I woke up with not only aching and stiff joints, but to the sounds of babies crying, people talking, and the sun in my face through the window. Our scenery from San Antonio to New Orleans wasn't as beautiful as the Rockies or other rolling hills we got accustomed to in our first few train rides but the long ride did allow Dad and I to finish yet another Star Wars movie (we've been trying to complete all six on our trip, kind of just a bonus goal on the side) and by the time you get through a solid 12-15 hours cooped up on a train, you're dying for a shower too. So that's what we did as soon as we made it to our hotel in New Orleans, all cleaned up and stretched out a bit until we were in good enough shape to go exploring.
It was very humid down on the coast, so although we weren't in the 100+ degree heat we've seen before on the trip, it sure felt hot as soon as you left the building. However, as Kelsey has expressed before we have become used to long walks, drives, and covering quite a lot of mileage on this trip and so we trekked from our hotel all the way down the river front of New Orleans and down to a Margaritaville located in the French Quarter. If you're not super familiar with our family whatsoever, we're a bit of Jimmy Buffett fanatics and/or "parrotheads," so this stop was crucial on our family vacation and was still unique to the area too. I got an order of Gator Bites (yes, fried alligator) which were delicious, and as I've heard, do in fact taste like chicken. After dinner we walked back along the Mississippi and enjoyed a lovely and clear evening. A little evening shower during our dinner cleared up the humidity and made for a lovely cool night to spend in New Orleans. We rode a street car/trolley from the downtown area all the way past the residential and greater New Orleans area to pass some time and even got to see a bit of Loyola and Tulane Universities while we were at it too. Unexpected detours always seem to bring up something interesting for us, and our trolley ride was actually pretty cool being that it was totally different than the street cars from San Francisco. In fact, when the street cars are at the end of the line in San Fran, the driver gets out and places the car on a giant circular revolving platform so that the car can be turned around and head back down the street. However, in New Orleans, the driver has steering set up on both ends of the car, and merely switches sides of the car and then walks down the aisle and actually reverses the direction of all the seats so that the car can travel the opposite route. Quite a nifty trick.
Afterward, we checked out the famous Bourbon Street and watched all the drunk people stumble from bar to bar on even a weeknight. I made the family stop in the local "Howl at the Moon" which is a piano bar with great live music and although it was a slow night, the dueling piano gig is always a fun atmosphere. After spending some time exploring the streets we were all pretty exhausted from our traveling and decided to call it a night. Tomorrow's job was to wrap up New Orleans and get back on our last train ride of the trip as we headed toward Memphis, Tennessee! Meet you there!
~Josh
Day 17 - Remember the Tates
We continued the Tate Family Adventure back to San Antonio the next morning. We stopped at another famous "Freddy's" for a fast pit stop before heading to downtown historic San Antonio to spend the afternoon hours. San Antonio is famous for a few historic sites, one being the Alamo and the other is known as the River Walk. So we parked and strolled around downtown starting with the Alamo itself.
Now, the Alamo started out as a Spanish mission. These can be found all over the Southern United States from Texas to Florida along the coastal areas. The missions are remnants of the Spanish occupation of the southern states as long ago they used these camps as churches to preach the gospel to the Native Americans that inhabited them first. The Alamo was no exception to this, and the famous image of the Alamo featured in almost every picture seen today is actually of the church itself and its sanctuary. I think most people assume that the Alamo was this "podunk" looking mini-fortress that got overridden because let's be honest it doesn't look like much of a fortified medieval castle or anything, but that's actually due to the fact that the image of the Alamo we have today is merely a fraction of what the garrison used to be like back in the day.
Staying at the Alamo a while was actually an unexpected treat. We spent some time touring around and looking at the artifacts that were excavated from the site after the battle, stood in the long barracks where the last bloody defenses took place, and even watched a video and personal talk with a ranger about the events during the battle at the Alamo too. I personally liked a few of the exhibits featuring David Crockett and the ones featuring general Bowie, a principle leader in the resistance at the Alamo and also made famous for his personal knife. The Bowie Knife. After we left the actual fort area itself, we also went over to check out a full-scale model of the original Alamo with a light show that depicted just how the battle at the Alamo went down. Not bad for an extra $3, not to mention that the show was narrated by Phil Collins. Yes, I can feel it calling in the air tonight, Phil Collins. Turns out he's an "Alamo enthusiast," who knew?
After spending our time at the Alamo, we made it down to the River Walk and took a boat tour throughout the entire area. The River Walk has restaurants, hotels, shops, and other great little places dispersed along small canals, and the boat tour allowed us to travel right along the entire River Walk and see it all. Something interesting about the River Walk is that certain exhibits along it were built for the 1968 World's Fair, for instance towering above the River Walk is the Tower of the Americas. It's a large free-standing tower that looks quite like the Space Needle and rotates around with a revolving restaurant as well. Funny though, it's only the 2nd largest free-standing tower like that in the world. The Space Needle is the third tallest and the biggest one of them all is actually in Las Vegas, the Stratosphere. That was thoroughly interesting to us, since we've actually been to all three on our trip without even planning it!
After our River Walk tour, we took some time to walk around on our own and take some more pictures. The heat was pretty intense though and we were all starving too, so we grabbed a nice tex-mex meal inside a local restaurant along the River Walk itself. We had some downtime, enjoyed some good food and eventually made it back to our vehicle so that we could get a move toward the train station. We boarded an overnight train to New Orleans and said goodbye to the great state of Texas and tried to get some sleep before headin' down to the deep South to explore.
Here's the update track list to follow along to.
Grand Canyon - "Sunrise, Sunset" ~Soundtrack from Fiddler on the Roof
Hoover Dam - "Big Yellow Taxi" ~Joni Mitchell
Austin - "Texas Flood" ~Stevie Ray Vaughn
San Antonio - "China Grove" ~Doobie Brothers
River Walk - "Proud Mary" ~Ike and Tina Turner (The Cover by CCR)
Alamo - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2921198884474947824#
Now, the Alamo started out as a Spanish mission. These can be found all over the Southern United States from Texas to Florida along the coastal areas. The missions are remnants of the Spanish occupation of the southern states as long ago they used these camps as churches to preach the gospel to the Native Americans that inhabited them first. The Alamo was no exception to this, and the famous image of the Alamo featured in almost every picture seen today is actually of the church itself and its sanctuary. I think most people assume that the Alamo was this "podunk" looking mini-fortress that got overridden because let's be honest it doesn't look like much of a fortified medieval castle or anything, but that's actually due to the fact that the image of the Alamo we have today is merely a fraction of what the garrison used to be like back in the day.
Staying at the Alamo a while was actually an unexpected treat. We spent some time touring around and looking at the artifacts that were excavated from the site after the battle, stood in the long barracks where the last bloody defenses took place, and even watched a video and personal talk with a ranger about the events during the battle at the Alamo too. I personally liked a few of the exhibits featuring David Crockett and the ones featuring general Bowie, a principle leader in the resistance at the Alamo and also made famous for his personal knife. The Bowie Knife. After we left the actual fort area itself, we also went over to check out a full-scale model of the original Alamo with a light show that depicted just how the battle at the Alamo went down. Not bad for an extra $3, not to mention that the show was narrated by Phil Collins. Yes, I can feel it calling in the air tonight, Phil Collins. Turns out he's an "Alamo enthusiast," who knew?
After spending our time at the Alamo, we made it down to the River Walk and took a boat tour throughout the entire area. The River Walk has restaurants, hotels, shops, and other great little places dispersed along small canals, and the boat tour allowed us to travel right along the entire River Walk and see it all. Something interesting about the River Walk is that certain exhibits along it were built for the 1968 World's Fair, for instance towering above the River Walk is the Tower of the Americas. It's a large free-standing tower that looks quite like the Space Needle and rotates around with a revolving restaurant as well. Funny though, it's only the 2nd largest free-standing tower like that in the world. The Space Needle is the third tallest and the biggest one of them all is actually in Las Vegas, the Stratosphere. That was thoroughly interesting to us, since we've actually been to all three on our trip without even planning it!
After our River Walk tour, we took some time to walk around on our own and take some more pictures. The heat was pretty intense though and we were all starving too, so we grabbed a nice tex-mex meal inside a local restaurant along the River Walk itself. We had some downtime, enjoyed some good food and eventually made it back to our vehicle so that we could get a move toward the train station. We boarded an overnight train to New Orleans and said goodbye to the great state of Texas and tried to get some sleep before headin' down to the deep South to explore.
Here's the update track list to follow along to.
Grand Canyon - "Sunrise, Sunset" ~Soundtrack from Fiddler on the Roof
Hoover Dam - "Big Yellow Taxi" ~Joni Mitchell
Austin - "Texas Flood" ~Stevie Ray Vaughn
San Antonio - "China Grove" ~Doobie Brothers
River Walk - "Proud Mary" ~Ike and Tina Turner (The Cover by CCR)
Alamo - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2921198884474947824#
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Kelsey's "Corrections" part 2
Howdy from Texas!
First off, I greatly appreciate the positive feedback regarding my post. I’m sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. There are a few reasons.
1. This trip is exhausting. The free time I have I choose to spend sleeping, sorry.
2. As my musical idol Taylor Swift said on her new album release, (Oct. 25, 2010) “You have to live a lot to have a lot to write about”…or something relatively close to that. In her style, I prefer quality over quantity, and needed some material to enlighten you all with. After a week or so with the Tates, you can rest assured I have plenty.
Here goes my view, in list form, as I prefer.
1. Let’s start with the “Soundtrack” of this trip. In the Muir woods I suggested the theme song be “My Name Is” by Eminem. Any rap aficionado knows that the main line is “Hi…my name is…my name is…my name is [insert record spin sound effect] Slim Shady”. Now, the Muir woods were absolutely covered in shade. This is what I remember best about that hour and a half. My thought process when thinking of what song would fit our experience there was “Hmm…shade…shade song…slim shady”. Bam. However, my family shot down this idea with the retort that they didn’t want to explain my simple, yet genius logic. Sorry guys, I know you’re as disappointed as I am.
2. What’s on my mind other than ice cream, Target, or whether I have clean underwear? You guessed it: Dr. Pepper. My favorite beverage. Let me tell you, Dr. Pepper is not a nationally accepted drink. First off, like Chick-fil-A, I am informed that this is a “Southern thing”. (Who knew I was so Southern??) I discover the all-you-can-eat buffet in Vegas has Dr. P and I am thrilled. I have gone without it for days at a time, if you can believe it! So, our waiter Paul heads to the back and brings me back an ice cold glass of heaven. SIKE. It tastes like Dr. Pepper mixed with Root Beer, which if you have never tried such a concoction, is disgusting. Turns out ALL the drinks at this place taste like Root Beer…we’re talking the Mt. Dew, the Pepsi, and the Sierra Mist. How do I know? I asked for them all. Not only was my Dr. Pepper experience quite literally tainted, so was my overall quest for a thirst quencher. P.S. Texas has Dr. Pepper, but it has a weird aftertaste too. After testing around, we discovered it’s consistent throughout the Lonestar State.
3. This brings me to the discussion of everyone’s favorite member of the Tate fam, Tatertot Mom. At the same all-you-can-eat-buffet, Mom was drinking a “Diet Pepsi”. She claimed all of dinner that hers was the only drink that didn’t taste like Root Beer. Mom was a happy camper. When she went up to the buffet we all tried her drink and in fact it was just as Root Beer infused as the rest, if not more. In the same fashion, today she ate half of Dad’s Snicker’s ice cream before realizing it tasted absolutely nothing like the Reeses she had ordered. She then switched with dad and he got the rightful Snickers which Mom had successfully already demolished half of. Point: Give Mom anything, tell her what you want her to think it is, and she’ll believe you. We’re all just as concerned for her going mind as you are.
4. An update on our “teams”. Josh and Mom have dubbed themselves the “A team” and have degradingly referred to Dad and I as the “B team” on numerous occasions. They partake in high fives basically every hour, on the hour, and make remarks like “See that? That was a high five! That was a win! Oooo good one partner! Go Team A!” You can imagine how fast that gets stale. Dad and I would rather be addressed as “Team One” because we are, as you know, Number One. We have a secret handshake that cannot be disclosed on the Internet, for fear Mom and Josh will see. But have no fear World Wide Web, we’re winning the Alphabet Game, and most likely have more points for Best Tours. (Point values still to be awarded and posted)
5. I told you about our dinners where we describe the best parts of our day. This time has been lovingly dubbed “FART”. So naturally we enjoy saying things like “Let’s fart!”, “Who’s gonna fart?” or “Ready to fart?” However, we would NEVER just gain pleasure from silly phrases like this, but like everything with the Tate family, there is a purpose. FART stands for a combination of the beginning of the word favorite and the end of the word part. Aka Fa + rt = fart. Or, if you prefer, “Forum About Road Trip”, with each first letter taking on part of the acronym.
6. As some of you may have seen on Twitter, we weren’t kidding when we said this was no vacation. Folks, we have walked 44 blocks uphill in San Fran, we have driven 7+ hours in one day, and we have all jogged through rainstorms multiple times in a desperate attempt to see all we can and stay on schedule. Most people do not have the grueling determination and sheer will power to survive in such an atmosphere, but I am proud to say we have had no human casualty along the way. (only two pairs of sunglasses) Needless to say this trip has transformed my idea of a “long drive” or a “short walk”. Now, when we stare at a map and see a landmark 10 blocks away we all go “Oh no problem! This beating Texas sun and humid air is nothing for a measly 10 blocks!” The past few days I have woken up and asked Dad how far we have to go and he’ll say “Only about 4 hours” and we’ll shrug and think no big deal. I think it’s safe to say we’re turning superhuman.
7. Lastly, in reference to the music video posted below. While it has entertained many of you, I would like to give you some background info on how it came into existence. We were driving down the Idaho roadway and Josh suggested singing and dancing on the camera, which was no big deal because as I mentioned in my last post, we had done this before. However, right as we started getting into the song and the bass was rocking the rental car, we heard sirens and saw flashing lights. Our hearts stopped. A cop had pulled out behind us. Josh slyly grabbed the cam from the dash and turned off the radio, Dad slowed down 5 miles an hour, Mom gasped as usual when she sees other cars on the highway, and I recessed quickly to the backseat and slipped my seatbelt on. The car was silent as we held our breath. My mind was racing with how I was to explain to the officer that was about to pull us over that we were making a music video…
Then, he passed us. Turns out he was headed for an accident up the road. How anticlimactic huh? Anyways, the moral is you should probably watch for cops, even in Idaho. I’m also sad to say the video YOU saw was actually the second take we did after the cop scare. To see the first you can email me with your credit card number at tatek10@highpoint.edu :-)
We’re on the home stretch! Thanks for your comments and feedback, we all get overly excited to hear from you all. It’s always nice to hear from family, friends, and harmless stalkers as we gallivant across the country. Miss you and see many of you very soon!
Love,
Kelsey
First off, I greatly appreciate the positive feedback regarding my post. I’m sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. There are a few reasons.
1. This trip is exhausting. The free time I have I choose to spend sleeping, sorry.
2. As my musical idol Taylor Swift said on her new album release, (Oct. 25, 2010) “You have to live a lot to have a lot to write about”…or something relatively close to that. In her style, I prefer quality over quantity, and needed some material to enlighten you all with. After a week or so with the Tates, you can rest assured I have plenty.
Here goes my view, in list form, as I prefer.
1. Let’s start with the “Soundtrack” of this trip. In the Muir woods I suggested the theme song be “My Name Is” by Eminem. Any rap aficionado knows that the main line is “Hi…my name is…my name is…my name is [insert record spin sound effect] Slim Shady”. Now, the Muir woods were absolutely covered in shade. This is what I remember best about that hour and a half. My thought process when thinking of what song would fit our experience there was “Hmm…shade…shade song…slim shady”. Bam. However, my family shot down this idea with the retort that they didn’t want to explain my simple, yet genius logic. Sorry guys, I know you’re as disappointed as I am.
2. What’s on my mind other than ice cream, Target, or whether I have clean underwear? You guessed it: Dr. Pepper. My favorite beverage. Let me tell you, Dr. Pepper is not a nationally accepted drink. First off, like Chick-fil-A, I am informed that this is a “Southern thing”. (Who knew I was so Southern??) I discover the all-you-can-eat buffet in Vegas has Dr. P and I am thrilled. I have gone without it for days at a time, if you can believe it! So, our waiter Paul heads to the back and brings me back an ice cold glass of heaven. SIKE. It tastes like Dr. Pepper mixed with Root Beer, which if you have never tried such a concoction, is disgusting. Turns out ALL the drinks at this place taste like Root Beer…we’re talking the Mt. Dew, the Pepsi, and the Sierra Mist. How do I know? I asked for them all. Not only was my Dr. Pepper experience quite literally tainted, so was my overall quest for a thirst quencher. P.S. Texas has Dr. Pepper, but it has a weird aftertaste too. After testing around, we discovered it’s consistent throughout the Lonestar State.
3. This brings me to the discussion of everyone’s favorite member of the Tate fam, Tatertot Mom. At the same all-you-can-eat-buffet, Mom was drinking a “Diet Pepsi”. She claimed all of dinner that hers was the only drink that didn’t taste like Root Beer. Mom was a happy camper. When she went up to the buffet we all tried her drink and in fact it was just as Root Beer infused as the rest, if not more. In the same fashion, today she ate half of Dad’s Snicker’s ice cream before realizing it tasted absolutely nothing like the Reeses she had ordered. She then switched with dad and he got the rightful Snickers which Mom had successfully already demolished half of. Point: Give Mom anything, tell her what you want her to think it is, and she’ll believe you. We’re all just as concerned for her going mind as you are.
4. An update on our “teams”. Josh and Mom have dubbed themselves the “A team” and have degradingly referred to Dad and I as the “B team” on numerous occasions. They partake in high fives basically every hour, on the hour, and make remarks like “See that? That was a high five! That was a win! Oooo good one partner! Go Team A!” You can imagine how fast that gets stale. Dad and I would rather be addressed as “Team One” because we are, as you know, Number One. We have a secret handshake that cannot be disclosed on the Internet, for fear Mom and Josh will see. But have no fear World Wide Web, we’re winning the Alphabet Game, and most likely have more points for Best Tours. (Point values still to be awarded and posted)
5. I told you about our dinners where we describe the best parts of our day. This time has been lovingly dubbed “FART”. So naturally we enjoy saying things like “Let’s fart!”, “Who’s gonna fart?” or “Ready to fart?” However, we would NEVER just gain pleasure from silly phrases like this, but like everything with the Tate family, there is a purpose. FART stands for a combination of the beginning of the word favorite and the end of the word part. Aka Fa + rt = fart. Or, if you prefer, “Forum About Road Trip”, with each first letter taking on part of the acronym.
6. As some of you may have seen on Twitter, we weren’t kidding when we said this was no vacation. Folks, we have walked 44 blocks uphill in San Fran, we have driven 7+ hours in one day, and we have all jogged through rainstorms multiple times in a desperate attempt to see all we can and stay on schedule. Most people do not have the grueling determination and sheer will power to survive in such an atmosphere, but I am proud to say we have had no human casualty along the way. (only two pairs of sunglasses) Needless to say this trip has transformed my idea of a “long drive” or a “short walk”. Now, when we stare at a map and see a landmark 10 blocks away we all go “Oh no problem! This beating Texas sun and humid air is nothing for a measly 10 blocks!” The past few days I have woken up and asked Dad how far we have to go and he’ll say “Only about 4 hours” and we’ll shrug and think no big deal. I think it’s safe to say we’re turning superhuman.
7. Lastly, in reference to the music video posted below. While it has entertained many of you, I would like to give you some background info on how it came into existence. We were driving down the Idaho roadway and Josh suggested singing and dancing on the camera, which was no big deal because as I mentioned in my last post, we had done this before. However, right as we started getting into the song and the bass was rocking the rental car, we heard sirens and saw flashing lights. Our hearts stopped. A cop had pulled out behind us. Josh slyly grabbed the cam from the dash and turned off the radio, Dad slowed down 5 miles an hour, Mom gasped as usual when she sees other cars on the highway, and I recessed quickly to the backseat and slipped my seatbelt on. The car was silent as we held our breath. My mind was racing with how I was to explain to the officer that was about to pull us over that we were making a music video…
Then, he passed us. Turns out he was headed for an accident up the road. How anticlimactic huh? Anyways, the moral is you should probably watch for cops, even in Idaho. I’m also sad to say the video YOU saw was actually the second take we did after the cop scare. To see the first you can email me with your credit card number at tatek10@highpoint.edu :-)
We’re on the home stretch! Thanks for your comments and feedback, we all get overly excited to hear from you all. It’s always nice to hear from family, friends, and harmless stalkers as we gallivant across the country. Miss you and see many of you very soon!
Love,
Kelsey
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Return of the Tates.
Okay, so I realize that we've been behind on blogging, so to compensate for this we're going to hit you with an intense amount to satisfy your immeasurable desire for hearing what the Tate Family is up to these past few days. Let's start at the beginning of day 15, as that's where we left you and see where it takes us from there.
So we left our hotel in Kingsman in the morning to get to Hoover Dam as soon as we could. Turns out we all needed a bit of extra shut eye, so we ended up arriving at the dam just before noon. Ironically, we got to yet another milestone outdoor landmark of our nation and we arrived at the hottest part of the day, but either way we were stopped so we needed to take all the necessary photos to prove it. Despite the heat, we were able to snap a few good shots on the backside of the dam and then drove across it to get to the parking area and visitor center. The only downside about this national landmark is that the Hoover Dam actually is quite the money pit. It costs $7 to park your vehicle in a parking deck built into the canyon walls surrounding the dam, some $32 bucks to go into the welcome center and read about the construction and building process as well as gain access to an observation area, and another like 10 dollars more to go on a tour of the inside of it in addition to the 40 bucks you've already shelled out. PER PERSON (cept for the parking per car)! Wild, and since we're the Tate Family, we decided we'd somehow reroute the system a bit and really only needed to pay to park and we just got all our photos done from the top level of the parking deck. Honestly, I can read about the dam's construction online if I'm really itching to know the exact amount of people died while working for the CCC on the project in the 1930's. Oh well. Needless to say, we still visited the dam gift shop, full of dam novelty items, dam workers, and other dam tourists. All in all - great success! So, we checked the Hoover Dam off our list of things to see and kept moving back to Vegas to get ready for our flight.
We stopped off to grab lunch at a wonderful local Las Vegas specialty: Applebees. It was delicious, as expected and soon after we finished our meal we turned in our rent-a-car and headed for the airport. I'm sure some of you are wondering why I haven't explained much more about Vegas and the subject of gambling. After all that is one of the most popular reasons to visit the dry, hot, and flashy city in Nevada. However, this was a family excursion and the Tate men (or women) didn't particularly have time, nor the desire to devote extra energy into gambling. Therefore we didn't do too much and also didn't really lose or gain any extra dough.
So we waited for our plane after going through security and kicked it at the Vegas airport a while. That gave us a bit of time to blog and catch up, as well as get some photos and other assorted things situated. Honestly, the only downtime we have is waiting for our transportation, other than that the Tate Family is on the move. We flew to San Antonio and were there by 8pm central time. We changed a few time zones from pacific to central, so adjusting was a bit odd as we were all pretty cracked out still from our late night in Vegas a few nights prior. We finally got some grub at a local franchise known as "Freddy's" which is kind of like a "steak and shake" for anyone who's been to one of those, or a mix between a fast-food chain and a 50's diner atmosphere. Regardless, we got some food in us and went back to stay at the Antonian Inn and Suites, probably the sketchiest hotel in Texas, or in America. For instance, Kelsey found a note written on the outside of the hotel window that said "I C U little buddy." Check please? But it's an adventure right? Apparently, and if you had standards before, feel free to lower them with us as you read along. We don't mind!
So day sixteen started out with the Tate Family once again getting a bit more rest than we originally anticipated. Being that we traveled practically the entire day before, and changed some time zones, our sleep was a bit off and when we woke up and finally got out of the hotel, it was probably 9:30 or 10AM. Austin is about an hour or so away from San Antonio so luckily we didn't have to go too far to reach it. We saddled up in our tuna can of a car (we got another ford focus given to us...those are terrible by the way) and hit the ground running as we had quite a list of events to get done throughout the course of the day.
As soon as we got into Austin I took the family to a famous Austin staple. Stubb's BBQ. Austin is known as the live music capital of the world and even Sunday's are no exception. Stubb's BBQ is famous for its Sunday morning all you care to eat "gospel brunch." It's an amazing buffett with everything from fajitas, bbq, chicken, some southern-style cooking with a blend of tex-mex flare and above all else, a live 8-10 person gospel band playing while you eat! It was something completely unique and I think everyone enjoyed the experience overall. We wrapped up brunch and headed to the other side of town to the University of Texas. Located right off of the downtown of Austin, the university is really easy to get to and was a nice place to park and walk around a bit.
We stopped off at the Harry Ransom Center, which is a university owned museum and exhibit center where I wanted to take everyone in the family to see some of the newest pieces that I thought might be interesting. For instance, the museum houses an entire motion-picture exhibit that documents and features all of the vital roles in the movie production process. From the director and production assistants, to actors and editors, the museum has real scripts, letters, storyboards, and even movie props from films over the past century.
One example was a letter from Christopher Plummer (he was the male lead in the Sound of Music) to the director about how "he thought Mr. Von Trapp" should be portrayed. Things like this are the types of information you never hear about when you watch a movie or read about the film-making unless it's a big scene. So we found it very interesting.
Other exhibits were one of the original copies of the Gutenberg Bible (there's only 48 in the world I think), some of the original costumes used in Gone with the Wind, Alfred Hitchcock's original storyboard sketches, many of Robert DeNiro's personal prop collection, and even the film maker's association's prohibited words from the 1920s-30's (pretty hilarious: you couldn't use words like guts, tart, hun, punk, or lousy...).
After visiting the Harry Ransom Center, we walked down to the state capitol building to meet our other tour guide of the day. I booked a walking tour of Austin, and we met up with Ester, our residential tour guide to give us the history and low down on Austin and the greater area too. We walked down the main strip from the capitol and learned all about Texas' history, how it was an independent nation once before, and all of the other countries that have had hands in shaping the Texas that we know today. We also saw some of the unique architecture of the city, as Texas has been influenced by cultures such as Spanish, French, Mexican, and also the Southern culture that developed during the Civil War. Some of the buildings in downtown Austin even still have Victorian-style architecture which also was rather unique and unexpected. Needless to say, our family enjoyed our private tour with Ester and getting a local perspective on what life is currently like in Texas and where their culture came from.
Following our tour, we went and spent some time touring the Texas State Capitol on our own which was a nice inside break from the hot and humid outdoors. We were able to check out the senate chambers, learn a bit about Texas politics (fun fact: each state politician only gets paid $300 a month), and re-hydrate before making the trek back to our vehicle. It started raining pretty hard as we headed back, so after getting pretty soaked and waiting for some of the rain to settle down, we checked into our hotel and all got showers before dinner.
The last activity that I planned for the family was to be down at the famous Congressional Bridge by about sunset to see another one of Austin's unique attractions. Austin is home to one of the nation's largest urban bat populations, and maybe in the world. Each night around twilight 1.5 million Mexican free tail bats swarm out from under the bridge and fly out to hunt for the evening. To try to catch this amazing sight, we went down to the bridge and got a table at a local TGI Fridays to get some good photos. Unfortunately, after the sun began to go down, a majority of the bats didn't fly out all at once like usual as it rained earlier in the day and many of the critters that the bats feed on (mosquitoes for example) come out more frequently after a good rain on the river. However, we did see a good number of bats swarming around the pillars of the bridge after dark and a few stragglers that flew over our heads. So overall, not a complete upset. Following our dinner at TGI Fridays, we called it a night in Austin and got ready to get some shut eye. In the morning we were scheduled to head back to San Antonio to check out the sights and sounds there before catching an overnight train to New Orleans. I'll be sure to post those updates - along with Mom and Kelsey's new blogs (FINALLY) now so that you have plenty to read.
Yee-Haw,
~The Tate Texans
So we left our hotel in Kingsman in the morning to get to Hoover Dam as soon as we could. Turns out we all needed a bit of extra shut eye, so we ended up arriving at the dam just before noon. Ironically, we got to yet another milestone outdoor landmark of our nation and we arrived at the hottest part of the day, but either way we were stopped so we needed to take all the necessary photos to prove it. Despite the heat, we were able to snap a few good shots on the backside of the dam and then drove across it to get to the parking area and visitor center. The only downside about this national landmark is that the Hoover Dam actually is quite the money pit. It costs $7 to park your vehicle in a parking deck built into the canyon walls surrounding the dam, some $32 bucks to go into the welcome center and read about the construction and building process as well as gain access to an observation area, and another like 10 dollars more to go on a tour of the inside of it in addition to the 40 bucks you've already shelled out. PER PERSON (cept for the parking per car)! Wild, and since we're the Tate Family, we decided we'd somehow reroute the system a bit and really only needed to pay to park and we just got all our photos done from the top level of the parking deck. Honestly, I can read about the dam's construction online if I'm really itching to know the exact amount of people died while working for the CCC on the project in the 1930's. Oh well. Needless to say, we still visited the dam gift shop, full of dam novelty items, dam workers, and other dam tourists. All in all - great success! So, we checked the Hoover Dam off our list of things to see and kept moving back to Vegas to get ready for our flight.
We stopped off to grab lunch at a wonderful local Las Vegas specialty: Applebees. It was delicious, as expected and soon after we finished our meal we turned in our rent-a-car and headed for the airport. I'm sure some of you are wondering why I haven't explained much more about Vegas and the subject of gambling. After all that is one of the most popular reasons to visit the dry, hot, and flashy city in Nevada. However, this was a family excursion and the Tate men (or women) didn't particularly have time, nor the desire to devote extra energy into gambling. Therefore we didn't do too much and also didn't really lose or gain any extra dough.
So we waited for our plane after going through security and kicked it at the Vegas airport a while. That gave us a bit of time to blog and catch up, as well as get some photos and other assorted things situated. Honestly, the only downtime we have is waiting for our transportation, other than that the Tate Family is on the move. We flew to San Antonio and were there by 8pm central time. We changed a few time zones from pacific to central, so adjusting was a bit odd as we were all pretty cracked out still from our late night in Vegas a few nights prior. We finally got some grub at a local franchise known as "Freddy's" which is kind of like a "steak and shake" for anyone who's been to one of those, or a mix between a fast-food chain and a 50's diner atmosphere. Regardless, we got some food in us and went back to stay at the Antonian Inn and Suites, probably the sketchiest hotel in Texas, or in America. For instance, Kelsey found a note written on the outside of the hotel window that said "I C U little buddy." Check please? But it's an adventure right? Apparently, and if you had standards before, feel free to lower them with us as you read along. We don't mind!
So day sixteen started out with the Tate Family once again getting a bit more rest than we originally anticipated. Being that we traveled practically the entire day before, and changed some time zones, our sleep was a bit off and when we woke up and finally got out of the hotel, it was probably 9:30 or 10AM. Austin is about an hour or so away from San Antonio so luckily we didn't have to go too far to reach it. We saddled up in our tuna can of a car (we got another ford focus given to us...those are terrible by the way) and hit the ground running as we had quite a list of events to get done throughout the course of the day.
As soon as we got into Austin I took the family to a famous Austin staple. Stubb's BBQ. Austin is known as the live music capital of the world and even Sunday's are no exception. Stubb's BBQ is famous for its Sunday morning all you care to eat "gospel brunch." It's an amazing buffett with everything from fajitas, bbq, chicken, some southern-style cooking with a blend of tex-mex flare and above all else, a live 8-10 person gospel band playing while you eat! It was something completely unique and I think everyone enjoyed the experience overall. We wrapped up brunch and headed to the other side of town to the University of Texas. Located right off of the downtown of Austin, the university is really easy to get to and was a nice place to park and walk around a bit.
We stopped off at the Harry Ransom Center, which is a university owned museum and exhibit center where I wanted to take everyone in the family to see some of the newest pieces that I thought might be interesting. For instance, the museum houses an entire motion-picture exhibit that documents and features all of the vital roles in the movie production process. From the director and production assistants, to actors and editors, the museum has real scripts, letters, storyboards, and even movie props from films over the past century.
One example was a letter from Christopher Plummer (he was the male lead in the Sound of Music) to the director about how "he thought Mr. Von Trapp" should be portrayed. Things like this are the types of information you never hear about when you watch a movie or read about the film-making unless it's a big scene. So we found it very interesting.
Other exhibits were one of the original copies of the Gutenberg Bible (there's only 48 in the world I think), some of the original costumes used in Gone with the Wind, Alfred Hitchcock's original storyboard sketches, many of Robert DeNiro's personal prop collection, and even the film maker's association's prohibited words from the 1920s-30's (pretty hilarious: you couldn't use words like guts, tart, hun, punk, or lousy...).
After visiting the Harry Ransom Center, we walked down to the state capitol building to meet our other tour guide of the day. I booked a walking tour of Austin, and we met up with Ester, our residential tour guide to give us the history and low down on Austin and the greater area too. We walked down the main strip from the capitol and learned all about Texas' history, how it was an independent nation once before, and all of the other countries that have had hands in shaping the Texas that we know today. We also saw some of the unique architecture of the city, as Texas has been influenced by cultures such as Spanish, French, Mexican, and also the Southern culture that developed during the Civil War. Some of the buildings in downtown Austin even still have Victorian-style architecture which also was rather unique and unexpected. Needless to say, our family enjoyed our private tour with Ester and getting a local perspective on what life is currently like in Texas and where their culture came from.
Following our tour, we went and spent some time touring the Texas State Capitol on our own which was a nice inside break from the hot and humid outdoors. We were able to check out the senate chambers, learn a bit about Texas politics (fun fact: each state politician only gets paid $300 a month), and re-hydrate before making the trek back to our vehicle. It started raining pretty hard as we headed back, so after getting pretty soaked and waiting for some of the rain to settle down, we checked into our hotel and all got showers before dinner.
The last activity that I planned for the family was to be down at the famous Congressional Bridge by about sunset to see another one of Austin's unique attractions. Austin is home to one of the nation's largest urban bat populations, and maybe in the world. Each night around twilight 1.5 million Mexican free tail bats swarm out from under the bridge and fly out to hunt for the evening. To try to catch this amazing sight, we went down to the bridge and got a table at a local TGI Fridays to get some good photos. Unfortunately, after the sun began to go down, a majority of the bats didn't fly out all at once like usual as it rained earlier in the day and many of the critters that the bats feed on (mosquitoes for example) come out more frequently after a good rain on the river. However, we did see a good number of bats swarming around the pillars of the bridge after dark and a few stragglers that flew over our heads. So overall, not a complete upset. Following our dinner at TGI Fridays, we called it a night in Austin and got ready to get some shut eye. In the morning we were scheduled to head back to San Antonio to check out the sights and sounds there before catching an overnight train to New Orleans. I'll be sure to post those updates - along with Mom and Kelsey's new blogs (FINALLY) now so that you have plenty to read.
Yee-Haw,
~The Tate Texans
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The Grand Canyon: A.K.A. The World's Most Famous Crack...in the Ground.
Here's the updated playlist for those of you still looking for songs to sing-along to!
Portland: "Jeepers Creepers" ~Louis Armstrong
Seattle: "Hello Seattle" ~Owl City
Space Needle: "Space Jam" ~Quad City DJ's
Las Vegas: "Tumblin' Dice" ~The Rolling Stones
And we're off! Just when you thought we were on our last legs from all this exciting and tiresome travel, we just keep going, and going, and going. We hit the ground runnin' toward the Grand Canyon at about 9 or 10AM and were successfully driving over the Hoover Dam by lunchtime. We didn't stop at the dam on the way through, since we decided we would make the return trip to Vegas tomorrow for our flight to Texas, but it was 107 degrees outside and the sun didn't seem to keep from beating down on us the whole drive into Arizona. We pulled over in the relatively small town of Kingsman to get some lunch at about one o'clock and chose to eat at our family's first "In-n-Out Burger" experience. The menu is simple, the people are friendly, it's just burgers, fresh-cut fries, and drinks. Great Success!
We got some time to just relax during lunch so that Dad could take a break from driving (he's done practically all of it during the trip) and it was nice to be out of our tin can car for a bit. After getting back on the road, we continued east on interstate 40 toward the Grand Canyon. It was weird being on interstate 40 all the way on the other side of the country, as I'm accustomed to taking I-40 in North Carolina to the beach - but that was still pretty cool regardless. Then, it started to rain in the desert which cooled the temperature down to the low 80's or even 70's. After about another hour driving we pulled over to a rest stop to refuel and turns out we were on the historic Route 66! Yes, get your kicks on Route 66 because we stopped in the little highway 66 town of Seligman that housed two "original Route 66 motels," many authentic Route 66 restaurants (one was entitled "The Roadkill Cafe," and other small-town sights. The Tate Family always seems to land ourselves in the middle of nowhere and find something interesting though.
Anyhow, we got to the Grand Canyon by about 6:30PM. We picked up our visitor information and hopped on a free shuttle to the Yaki Point, which I researched to be a less-populated lookout point across the canyon on the Southern Rim. As we pulled up to the top of the canyon, the sky opened up and cleared out across the ridge and we waited for the sun to set for all of our photo-ops. Although there were other tourists around during sunset, it was still a rather tranquil spot and very nice view of the canyon itself and the ravine below. Although we didn't hike the mile down into the canyon, or ride mules along the trails, it was neat to see a beautiful sunset over the Arizona desert with the Grand Canyon in the foreground. A few miles away we could still see the passing storm on the opposite ridge as an occasional lightning bolt would spring from a dark cloud onto the desert sand below. Simply stunning (PS: I wasn't fast enough on the high-speed camera for a nice shot of the lightning, but you'll still see the idea in some of the pictures to come).
After sunset at Yaki Point, we caught the shuttle back to our car and drove another few hours back to Kingsman to crash at our hotel for the night. Tomorrow we are scheduled to stop by Hoover Dam and catch a flight from Vegas out to San Antonio, Texas where we will begin our southern loop of the Tate Family Adventure. Hope you all are still hangin' in there with us and getty-up cowboys as we'll meet ya in the Lone Star State!
~Josh
Portland: "Jeepers Creepers" ~Louis Armstrong
Seattle: "Hello Seattle" ~Owl City
Space Needle: "Space Jam" ~Quad City DJ's
Las Vegas: "Tumblin' Dice" ~The Rolling Stones
And we're off! Just when you thought we were on our last legs from all this exciting and tiresome travel, we just keep going, and going, and going. We hit the ground runnin' toward the Grand Canyon at about 9 or 10AM and were successfully driving over the Hoover Dam by lunchtime. We didn't stop at the dam on the way through, since we decided we would make the return trip to Vegas tomorrow for our flight to Texas, but it was 107 degrees outside and the sun didn't seem to keep from beating down on us the whole drive into Arizona. We pulled over in the relatively small town of Kingsman to get some lunch at about one o'clock and chose to eat at our family's first "In-n-Out Burger" experience. The menu is simple, the people are friendly, it's just burgers, fresh-cut fries, and drinks. Great Success!
We got some time to just relax during lunch so that Dad could take a break from driving (he's done practically all of it during the trip) and it was nice to be out of our tin can car for a bit. After getting back on the road, we continued east on interstate 40 toward the Grand Canyon. It was weird being on interstate 40 all the way on the other side of the country, as I'm accustomed to taking I-40 in North Carolina to the beach - but that was still pretty cool regardless. Then, it started to rain in the desert which cooled the temperature down to the low 80's or even 70's. After about another hour driving we pulled over to a rest stop to refuel and turns out we were on the historic Route 66! Yes, get your kicks on Route 66 because we stopped in the little highway 66 town of Seligman that housed two "original Route 66 motels," many authentic Route 66 restaurants (one was entitled "The Roadkill Cafe," and other small-town sights. The Tate Family always seems to land ourselves in the middle of nowhere and find something interesting though.
Anyhow, we got to the Grand Canyon by about 6:30PM. We picked up our visitor information and hopped on a free shuttle to the Yaki Point, which I researched to be a less-populated lookout point across the canyon on the Southern Rim. As we pulled up to the top of the canyon, the sky opened up and cleared out across the ridge and we waited for the sun to set for all of our photo-ops. Although there were other tourists around during sunset, it was still a rather tranquil spot and very nice view of the canyon itself and the ravine below. Although we didn't hike the mile down into the canyon, or ride mules along the trails, it was neat to see a beautiful sunset over the Arizona desert with the Grand Canyon in the foreground. A few miles away we could still see the passing storm on the opposite ridge as an occasional lightning bolt would spring from a dark cloud onto the desert sand below. Simply stunning (PS: I wasn't fast enough on the high-speed camera for a nice shot of the lightning, but you'll still see the idea in some of the pictures to come).
After sunset at Yaki Point, we caught the shuttle back to our car and drove another few hours back to Kingsman to crash at our hotel for the night. Tomorrow we are scheduled to stop by Hoover Dam and catch a flight from Vegas out to San Antonio, Texas where we will begin our southern loop of the Tate Family Adventure. Hope you all are still hangin' in there with us and getty-up cowboys as we'll meet ya in the Lone Star State!
~Josh
Seattle Space Needle Pic
Here's the lovely complimentary image that the Space Needle provided us, I'm sure you'll think it's as cool as I did.
PS: We added some more photos on the right - they're just a sampler of what came off my still camera, not the nice hi-res ones from Poppa Tate's Cannon.
PS: We added some more photos on the right - they're just a sampler of what came off my still camera, not the nice hi-res ones from Poppa Tate's Cannon.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Hey, you probably get this a lot, but does Ceasar really live here?
So 4AM came a lot sooner than we all anticipated from our hotel beds. Luckily we've run across a good handful of comfy mattresses throughout our adventure and I must say - that does make a difference. However, when you go from sleeping on trains to a hotel room, the expectations aren't too high in the first place. Regardless, this is the Tate Family Adventure and it wouldn't be one if we were in 5-star hotels and had room service and stuff.
Note: In response to all of the comments (ie - Jessica Strickler and a few others) that they wish for me to stop writing the blog and have more input from Kelsey and Momma Tate - please direct all those comments to their personal email accounts or phone numbers via text. I can't help it that the rest of my family is lazy when it comes to blogging and enjoy procrastinating - so for now I guess you're just stuck with me (apologies if necessary).
Anyways, back to the story - so we got a hotel shuttle out to the Seattle airport and boarded our plane to Vegas. I think all four of us got some shut eye on the plane though because Kelsey missed the complementary beverage cart and I got repeatedly woken up by a flight attendant telling me to turn off my Ipod and put my seat in the upright position as we were departing and landing. I guess I must have fallen back asleep in between every single announcement that was made. Yet, we arrived in Sin City by about 10am and picked up a rent-a-car to head onto the strip.
We were staying at a casino/resort/hotel called Circus Circus. If you've never been to Vegas before, all of the hotels and other places to stay seem to have a theme, and in our case it obviously is all circus-related (most are pretty self-explanatory). Therefore we had to bypass all the acrobats, slot machines, and other bars and restaurants as we went to check in for the day. We picked up lunch at a restaurant inside Circus Circus that had a rock 'n roll theme to it, which was neat because for instance all the decorations in the place were famous paintings but altered to be "rock 'n roll." An example of this was Grant Wood's well-known piece of artwork called "American Gothic" (the one with the famer holding a pitchfork with his wife next to him) but instead of a married couple the people were replaced with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from the rock band Kiss. Pretty amusing actually.
After lunch, we were all pretty exhausted from our travel and also lack of sleep, as noted before we've run ourselves down a bit. Therefore, we took a family break and a few of us went down to the pool to cool off in the 100+ degree weather and Kelsey even took a nap in the room for about an hour or so. We all had some time to recharge a bit before heading out later that evening to explore Las Vegas and all it had to offer.
We started our tour (led by Poppa Tate) at the Rio (the Brazilian themed resort) where we cashed in on their deluxe all-you-can-eat buffet. Everything from crab legs and sushi, to tacos, pizza, and gelato were on their menu and of course, as much as you wanted too. So naturally the Tate family definitely got our money's worth and had a nice large and lengthy meal. It was actually pretty nice to try some different foods that you wouldn't get every day as well, so the spread was worth it overall. After our late dinner, we decided to make our way back through the Rio and on the way watched some of their free show that goes on every hour or so. In the Rio they have a "show in the sky" where there are performers doing dance routines on a large center stage, but also on giant flying sets as well. For instance, one of the flying contraptions looked like an old-timey double-decker riverboat, except for the fact that it followed a track in the ceiling overtop the entire casino floor. So we stayed for a while to watch all the dancers, singers, and aerial performers before leaving the Rio and heading to the Vegas strip to check out the other attractions.
Dad took the family on a walking tour of the Vegas strip and casinos through the course of the evening. Since it was already about 9:30pm, we started a bit later than expected but Sin City doesn't seem to mind. People there are out in full force at all hours of the evening and even up until the early hours of the morning too - so we were just more tourists in a big mob of people. We parked our car at the Bellagio and strolled down the strip past it as the jumping fountains played Italian music and a light show went on. We got photos of all the flashing lights and some video of the sights and sounds of Vegas as it's brightly lit up at night and passed plenty of street performers and shows in the process. For instance, we went down to Treasure Island and got to see a full-size gun battle between two pirate ships right in front of us as we stood on the dock of their own harbor. It was massive and highly entertaining. We also saw a light/explosion show in front of the Mirage, as they have a full-size volcano that erupts every hour. All of these exhibits were free entertainment and draw enormous crowds. I thought it was great. Dad also took us through most of the casinos and other famous hotels. We toured the Venetian which has real gondolas just like in Venice that you can ride through the waterways, we saw Caesars' Palace which has a ceiling that looks like the sky outside and changes from night and day as time changes, and we walked through many more along the strip, but to be honest you can get lost in one let alone cover all the ground in each of these places in one night. So before we knew it, it was 2:30am in the morning and we had to get out of there and back to our hotel for the night. We hit the hay and decided to sleep in a little extra as tomorrow we were scheduled to travel into Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and take a trip through the desert!
Catch ya on the flip side,
~Josh
PS: I'll do my best to convince the rest of the family to blog their thoughts. I promise I'm not censoring them, but keep up the feedback! :-)
Note: In response to all of the comments (ie - Jessica Strickler and a few others) that they wish for me to stop writing the blog and have more input from Kelsey and Momma Tate - please direct all those comments to their personal email accounts or phone numbers via text. I can't help it that the rest of my family is lazy when it comes to blogging and enjoy procrastinating - so for now I guess you're just stuck with me (apologies if necessary).
Anyways, back to the story - so we got a hotel shuttle out to the Seattle airport and boarded our plane to Vegas. I think all four of us got some shut eye on the plane though because Kelsey missed the complementary beverage cart and I got repeatedly woken up by a flight attendant telling me to turn off my Ipod and put my seat in the upright position as we were departing and landing. I guess I must have fallen back asleep in between every single announcement that was made. Yet, we arrived in Sin City by about 10am and picked up a rent-a-car to head onto the strip.
We were staying at a casino/resort/hotel called Circus Circus. If you've never been to Vegas before, all of the hotels and other places to stay seem to have a theme, and in our case it obviously is all circus-related (most are pretty self-explanatory). Therefore we had to bypass all the acrobats, slot machines, and other bars and restaurants as we went to check in for the day. We picked up lunch at a restaurant inside Circus Circus that had a rock 'n roll theme to it, which was neat because for instance all the decorations in the place were famous paintings but altered to be "rock 'n roll." An example of this was Grant Wood's well-known piece of artwork called "American Gothic" (the one with the famer holding a pitchfork with his wife next to him) but instead of a married couple the people were replaced with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from the rock band Kiss. Pretty amusing actually.
After lunch, we were all pretty exhausted from our travel and also lack of sleep, as noted before we've run ourselves down a bit. Therefore, we took a family break and a few of us went down to the pool to cool off in the 100+ degree weather and Kelsey even took a nap in the room for about an hour or so. We all had some time to recharge a bit before heading out later that evening to explore Las Vegas and all it had to offer.
We started our tour (led by Poppa Tate) at the Rio (the Brazilian themed resort) where we cashed in on their deluxe all-you-can-eat buffet. Everything from crab legs and sushi, to tacos, pizza, and gelato were on their menu and of course, as much as you wanted too. So naturally the Tate family definitely got our money's worth and had a nice large and lengthy meal. It was actually pretty nice to try some different foods that you wouldn't get every day as well, so the spread was worth it overall. After our late dinner, we decided to make our way back through the Rio and on the way watched some of their free show that goes on every hour or so. In the Rio they have a "show in the sky" where there are performers doing dance routines on a large center stage, but also on giant flying sets as well. For instance, one of the flying contraptions looked like an old-timey double-decker riverboat, except for the fact that it followed a track in the ceiling overtop the entire casino floor. So we stayed for a while to watch all the dancers, singers, and aerial performers before leaving the Rio and heading to the Vegas strip to check out the other attractions.
Dad took the family on a walking tour of the Vegas strip and casinos through the course of the evening. Since it was already about 9:30pm, we started a bit later than expected but Sin City doesn't seem to mind. People there are out in full force at all hours of the evening and even up until the early hours of the morning too - so we were just more tourists in a big mob of people. We parked our car at the Bellagio and strolled down the strip past it as the jumping fountains played Italian music and a light show went on. We got photos of all the flashing lights and some video of the sights and sounds of Vegas as it's brightly lit up at night and passed plenty of street performers and shows in the process. For instance, we went down to Treasure Island and got to see a full-size gun battle between two pirate ships right in front of us as we stood on the dock of their own harbor. It was massive and highly entertaining. We also saw a light/explosion show in front of the Mirage, as they have a full-size volcano that erupts every hour. All of these exhibits were free entertainment and draw enormous crowds. I thought it was great. Dad also took us through most of the casinos and other famous hotels. We toured the Venetian which has real gondolas just like in Venice that you can ride through the waterways, we saw Caesars' Palace which has a ceiling that looks like the sky outside and changes from night and day as time changes, and we walked through many more along the strip, but to be honest you can get lost in one let alone cover all the ground in each of these places in one night. So before we knew it, it was 2:30am in the morning and we had to get out of there and back to our hotel for the night. We hit the hay and decided to sleep in a little extra as tomorrow we were scheduled to travel into Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and take a trip through the desert!
Catch ya on the flip side,
~Josh
PS: I'll do my best to convince the rest of the family to blog their thoughts. I promise I'm not censoring them, but keep up the feedback! :-)
The Tate Family Musical Debut
Here's a teaser to just a fraction of what life is like on the road for the Tates during the epic Tate Family Adventure. We made this little improvisational music video on our way through Idaho when their wasn't much to see. We liked how it turned out and hope you do too! Enjoy!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Sleepless in Seattle
We left our hotel in Portland early in the morning and headed back to the train station to catch our Amtrak to Seattle, Washington. Our train, the Coastal Amtrak line was actually unlike any of the other cars we'd ridden in previously, as it only had one level instead of two and had pods of chairs together with a table in between each set. It was a nice little change of pace from our usual set up and it made for a nice space to use the laptop, watch a bit of a movie and also work on our blog. Mom, Dad, and Kelsey tried to catch some extra "Z's" on the ride as you can tell that we've not been able to have really any specific stationary schedule and getting sleep seems to be a secondary priority to touring all these different places.
When we arrived in Seattle (on time too!) about one or two in the afternoon, we went to our hotel and dropped off our bags. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we just grabbed the cameras and other essentials and headed straight for our first tourist attraction. The hotel that Dad picked out for us was actually just a few blocks away from the famous Seattle Space Needle, so it made for a convenient first stop. After getting tickets and heading up to the area with all the elevators, we got our complimentary family photo (as you will see) and headed up the observation deck where you can wander around the Space Needle some 500+ feet off the ground. Apparently it is very rainy in Seattle on a daily basis, however, our day was filled with gorgeous 70 degree weather and sunshine. You could see out over the entire city perfectly, including a view of Mt. Rainer too. The Puget Sound was beautiful as ships came in and out, and we got a few great photos of our family with the Seattle skyline too.
After spending an hour and some up in the needle, we decided to get a bit of lunch so we went to a small sports cafe a few blocks down. The booths had HD TV's in them, so that was rather nifty that you could watch whatever you liked while you dined. We decided to eat light since we anticipated a larger seafood-filled dinner, and after we interviewed our waitress about where all the hotspots were in Seattle, we checked into our hotel and laced up our walking shoes for a tour of Seattle by foot. Now, Kelsey and Dad have been giving me a hard time this entire trip because as many of you may know, I'm a bit OCD and like to have a decent schedule of what goes on and where we're going. However, Kelsey and I are polar opposites in this regard and she claims that she's a master of "spontaneity" and that I'm incapable of acting on a whim and just making decisions at the last minute. Therefore, in a valiant attempt to be spontaneous I decided not to make many plans for Seattle, but instead just explore the city on foot and see where it took us.
This adventure led us to a nice little trot (nothing like the 44-mile uphill battle from San Fran) down to the waterfront on the sound to get a great view of the water from some of the piers and docks. Since it was about 5 or 6pm, it was a great opportunity to just relax and take in a great view too. We strolled over to Seattle's famous Pike Place Market, which is an enormous farmers market filled with novelty shops, flower vendors, specialty items, and the famous fish stands where men throw whole salmon back and forth at each other over their booths. It was definitely filled with tourists, but it was still a cool atmosphere regardless. We also stopped by the original Starbucks coffee shop so Kelsey could snap a photo there and see it. I have to be honest, it looks no different than any other Starbucks coffee shop, kiosk, or stand that I've ever seen (sorry to disappoint) but I guess if that was on our bucket list we could now cross it off just in case.
After that we spend some more time on the piers and headed down to a local fish joint for dinner. We shared halibut, salmon, and cod, among other sides and tried the best seafood that Seattle has to offer. I must say, I'm a big fan of halibut - it was delicious. And following our dinner, we all got ice cream on the boardwalk, I kicked Kelsey's butt in air hockey down at the local arcade, and we trucked back to our hotel in time to do laundry and re-pack our bags for the airport and get some sleep prior to our 4AM wakeup call. Tomorrow we're heading to Las Vegas and spending most of the day there before going to Arizona and seeing the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. My guess is that the next few days will be filled with way too many quotes from Vegas Vacation, the Hangover, and other miscellaneous Vegas references from popular culture. I'm sure you'll find some of them on facebook or twitter. Anyways - that's all for now, but we're still surviving the Tate Family Adventure, and I hope to get you some quality video footage as soon as possible - so don't touch that dial! (or web browser.)
~Josh
When we arrived in Seattle (on time too!) about one or two in the afternoon, we went to our hotel and dropped off our bags. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we just grabbed the cameras and other essentials and headed straight for our first tourist attraction. The hotel that Dad picked out for us was actually just a few blocks away from the famous Seattle Space Needle, so it made for a convenient first stop. After getting tickets and heading up to the area with all the elevators, we got our complimentary family photo (as you will see) and headed up the observation deck where you can wander around the Space Needle some 500+ feet off the ground. Apparently it is very rainy in Seattle on a daily basis, however, our day was filled with gorgeous 70 degree weather and sunshine. You could see out over the entire city perfectly, including a view of Mt. Rainer too. The Puget Sound was beautiful as ships came in and out, and we got a few great photos of our family with the Seattle skyline too.
After spending an hour and some up in the needle, we decided to get a bit of lunch so we went to a small sports cafe a few blocks down. The booths had HD TV's in them, so that was rather nifty that you could watch whatever you liked while you dined. We decided to eat light since we anticipated a larger seafood-filled dinner, and after we interviewed our waitress about where all the hotspots were in Seattle, we checked into our hotel and laced up our walking shoes for a tour of Seattle by foot. Now, Kelsey and Dad have been giving me a hard time this entire trip because as many of you may know, I'm a bit OCD and like to have a decent schedule of what goes on and where we're going. However, Kelsey and I are polar opposites in this regard and she claims that she's a master of "spontaneity" and that I'm incapable of acting on a whim and just making decisions at the last minute. Therefore, in a valiant attempt to be spontaneous I decided not to make many plans for Seattle, but instead just explore the city on foot and see where it took us.
This adventure led us to a nice little trot (nothing like the 44-mile uphill battle from San Fran) down to the waterfront on the sound to get a great view of the water from some of the piers and docks. Since it was about 5 or 6pm, it was a great opportunity to just relax and take in a great view too. We strolled over to Seattle's famous Pike Place Market, which is an enormous farmers market filled with novelty shops, flower vendors, specialty items, and the famous fish stands where men throw whole salmon back and forth at each other over their booths. It was definitely filled with tourists, but it was still a cool atmosphere regardless. We also stopped by the original Starbucks coffee shop so Kelsey could snap a photo there and see it. I have to be honest, it looks no different than any other Starbucks coffee shop, kiosk, or stand that I've ever seen (sorry to disappoint) but I guess if that was on our bucket list we could now cross it off just in case.
After that we spend some more time on the piers and headed down to a local fish joint for dinner. We shared halibut, salmon, and cod, among other sides and tried the best seafood that Seattle has to offer. I must say, I'm a big fan of halibut - it was delicious. And following our dinner, we all got ice cream on the boardwalk, I kicked Kelsey's butt in air hockey down at the local arcade, and we trucked back to our hotel in time to do laundry and re-pack our bags for the airport and get some sleep prior to our 4AM wakeup call. Tomorrow we're heading to Las Vegas and spending most of the day there before going to Arizona and seeing the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. My guess is that the next few days will be filled with way too many quotes from Vegas Vacation, the Hangover, and other miscellaneous Vegas references from popular culture. I'm sure you'll find some of them on facebook or twitter. Anyways - that's all for now, but we're still surviving the Tate Family Adventure, and I hope to get you some quality video footage as soon as possible - so don't touch that dial! (or web browser.)
~Josh
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Portland - Ho!
Good morning from the Amtrak! We're currently riding at a steady and slow pace and according to the conductor that walked by, we made up some time over the evening hours so that we're almost back on schedule. We'll see how well that actually holds up. The train ride to Portland thus far has been not even close to the scenic views that we had only days prior as we took the train through the Rockies, so I guess you can say we got a bit spoiled on our first train trips compared to now. Northern California was more farmland and spread out than the California image you probably have in your head. It was more like just a few rolling hills and ranch country, just not the western style large cattle ranches and dairy farms we saw in states like Montana, Idaho, or Wyoming.
I didn't get to sleep until about 4AM. With poor internet, a selection of my personal movie collection, and spider solitaire, I really couldn't get comfortable so I stayed up pretty early into the morning hours. Normally the train provides a great opportunity to blog, so I went ahead and updated as much as I could and got the writing portions done, but after a solid amount of time documenting our trip - the family likes to have constant updates too, so I usually wait until they are all up so that I can read it aloud and get some internal feedback before releasing it to all of you lovely readers.
So let's talk about trains. Trains in America are actually pretty full. I think they're used far more than you could imagine they would be, and the people that you encounter along the way are all across the spectrum of interesting and friendly to bizarre and weird. For example, on a few previous trains, our family stumbled across a cohort of Amish folk that took up almost half of a car. That must have been a few families with a whole lot of children because they were all ages for sure. The girls sang hymns in the lounge car while playing cards as the adults read books or knitted. Interesting stuff. We've met contractors, brick masons, and even come across groups of all ethnicities too. Whether they are on their way to a meeting, traveling to see family, or just tourists like us, the train is a lot more sociable than planes seem to be.
Anyways, once we arrived in Portland at Union Station, we took the "Max" which is the light rail system to our hotel. The cool part about the Max transport in Portland, Oregon is that as long as you stay primarily in the downtown region (which is like the first zone of the city) all transportation is free! I didn't do much research on it, but I think it was Portland's way of trying to revitalize their inner-city areas and increase the amount of people that visit there. Needless to say it made a great experience for us, being that we didn't have to pay for any transportation during our stay. When we got to our hotel we threw our stuff down, all got showers, and decided to head out on the town for some grub. Mom picked out a place called Captain Ankeny's Well, which was supposedly a micro-brewery and a place with some good food. Portland isn't exactly famous for any one particular trade or product, other than we think some rose gardens that are located there - so at the pub we all got calzones and pizza. Captain Ankeny serves up an epic homemade calzone that you can create from scratch, so that was a fun little diamond in the rough that we discovered there. Past that, we hopped aboard the Max and headed back to our hotel to catch an early night of rest, since in the morning we would be departing once again by train - but this time headed to Seattle, Washington. I think we'll have more planned there than in our short stay in Portland (probably because Seattle is my city that I planned...cough, cough), but stay tuned for updates as soon as we can! Also, please feel free to provide feedback, email us, or message us on facebook and twitter about what you think of the blog, our trip, or just your daily thoughts. Whenever we do grab some internet or cell service it's great to hear from you all and know we still have an audience out there! Cheers!
~Josh
I didn't get to sleep until about 4AM. With poor internet, a selection of my personal movie collection, and spider solitaire, I really couldn't get comfortable so I stayed up pretty early into the morning hours. Normally the train provides a great opportunity to blog, so I went ahead and updated as much as I could and got the writing portions done, but after a solid amount of time documenting our trip - the family likes to have constant updates too, so I usually wait until they are all up so that I can read it aloud and get some internal feedback before releasing it to all of you lovely readers.
So let's talk about trains. Trains in America are actually pretty full. I think they're used far more than you could imagine they would be, and the people that you encounter along the way are all across the spectrum of interesting and friendly to bizarre and weird. For example, on a few previous trains, our family stumbled across a cohort of Amish folk that took up almost half of a car. That must have been a few families with a whole lot of children because they were all ages for sure. The girls sang hymns in the lounge car while playing cards as the adults read books or knitted. Interesting stuff. We've met contractors, brick masons, and even come across groups of all ethnicities too. Whether they are on their way to a meeting, traveling to see family, or just tourists like us, the train is a lot more sociable than planes seem to be.
Anyways, once we arrived in Portland at Union Station, we took the "Max" which is the light rail system to our hotel. The cool part about the Max transport in Portland, Oregon is that as long as you stay primarily in the downtown region (which is like the first zone of the city) all transportation is free! I didn't do much research on it, but I think it was Portland's way of trying to revitalize their inner-city areas and increase the amount of people that visit there. Needless to say it made a great experience for us, being that we didn't have to pay for any transportation during our stay. When we got to our hotel we threw our stuff down, all got showers, and decided to head out on the town for some grub. Mom picked out a place called Captain Ankeny's Well, which was supposedly a micro-brewery and a place with some good food. Portland isn't exactly famous for any one particular trade or product, other than we think some rose gardens that are located there - so at the pub we all got calzones and pizza. Captain Ankeny serves up an epic homemade calzone that you can create from scratch, so that was a fun little diamond in the rough that we discovered there. Past that, we hopped aboard the Max and headed back to our hotel to catch an early night of rest, since in the morning we would be departing once again by train - but this time headed to Seattle, Washington. I think we'll have more planned there than in our short stay in Portland (probably because Seattle is my city that I planned...cough, cough), but stay tuned for updates as soon as we can! Also, please feel free to provide feedback, email us, or message us on facebook and twitter about what you think of the blog, our trip, or just your daily thoughts. Whenever we do grab some internet or cell service it's great to hear from you all and know we still have an audience out there! Cheers!
~Josh
What a View!
When we got up and left our hotel near Yosemite, we headed straight for the national park. After getting through the gates, we got a parking spot and caught a shuttle bus to one of the most famous landmark's in Yosemite National Park, known as the Mariposa Grove where some of the largest trees on Earth are located. These Sequoia trees are a few thousand years old, sometimes 25 feet in diameter, and seem to tower even over the size of the redwoods that we saw just a few days before. We took a two mile hiking trail to see some of the most famous sequoias in the park including the great giant California Sequoia who had a tunnel built into it in the 1800's and still exists today. Another one of the Sequoia's had a tunnel in it that a car or wagon could drive through but since has fallen to the forest floor due to erosion over time.
Another remarkable thing about the Sequoias and the enormous forest, is that these trees actually thrive off of forest fires, whereas many others of the National Forest trees fear this type of natural disaster. The reason is, when a Fir or Cedar tree is engulfed by forest fire and falls to the forest floor, this creates a very mineral rich soil and clears the lower levels of the woods so that these massive Sequoias can use this new material for their root networks. Otherwise, these other types of trees actually soak up some of the soil around the massive roots for Sequoias and actually smother their living space. So that's your Fun Forest Fact of the day.
Anyhow, after our hike and returning to our vehicle we made some sandwiches for the road and got driving toward Glacier Point which is a mountain high above the Yosemite Valley and supposedly one of the best views of the park that you can get to without taking an entire day hike. There are a few new photos up to your right where you can check out some of these great views over the Valley and of El Capitan, Half Dome, and the other major mountains and peaks that you can climb across from Glacier Point. After our photo shoot at 8,000 feet, we drove back down the mountain and stopped off at Bridal Veil falls, which is a pairing of waterfalls at the lower end of the valley. We got some great photos as the sun was going down and it made for a nice view right at the end of the day. After that we drove straight for Sacramento, as we had a midnight train to catch to take us up the west coast. Our train arrived late at the station, so we didn't board until about 1AM pacific time. Kelsey and I watched a movie and we all tried to get some shuteye as tomorrow afternoon we would be arriving in Portland, Oregon so that we could explore America's Northwest. Check out the photos we've posted and here is your updated playlist for our recent adventures.
Alcatraz - "Jailhouse Rock" ~Elvis
Yosemite National Park - "Waterfalls" ~T.L.C.
Pier 39 - "Under the Boardwalk" ~The Drifters
Another remarkable thing about the Sequoias and the enormous forest, is that these trees actually thrive off of forest fires, whereas many others of the National Forest trees fear this type of natural disaster. The reason is, when a Fir or Cedar tree is engulfed by forest fire and falls to the forest floor, this creates a very mineral rich soil and clears the lower levels of the woods so that these massive Sequoias can use this new material for their root networks. Otherwise, these other types of trees actually soak up some of the soil around the massive roots for Sequoias and actually smother their living space. So that's your Fun Forest Fact of the day.
Anyhow, after our hike and returning to our vehicle we made some sandwiches for the road and got driving toward Glacier Point which is a mountain high above the Yosemite Valley and supposedly one of the best views of the park that you can get to without taking an entire day hike. There are a few new photos up to your right where you can check out some of these great views over the Valley and of El Capitan, Half Dome, and the other major mountains and peaks that you can climb across from Glacier Point. After our photo shoot at 8,000 feet, we drove back down the mountain and stopped off at Bridal Veil falls, which is a pairing of waterfalls at the lower end of the valley. We got some great photos as the sun was going down and it made for a nice view right at the end of the day. After that we drove straight for Sacramento, as we had a midnight train to catch to take us up the west coast. Our train arrived late at the station, so we didn't board until about 1AM pacific time. Kelsey and I watched a movie and we all tried to get some shuteye as tomorrow afternoon we would be arriving in Portland, Oregon so that we could explore America's Northwest. Check out the photos we've posted and here is your updated playlist for our recent adventures.
Alcatraz - "Jailhouse Rock" ~Elvis
Yosemite National Park - "Waterfalls" ~T.L.C.
Pier 39 - "Under the Boardwalk" ~The Drifters
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
San Francisco - It's Nothing Like "Full House."
Waves of exhaustion pour over a family of four as they fight the urge for extra sleep and start their morning routines. It was a foggy day outside the Monarch hotel and a Vietnamese man in a trench coat sold them a parking spot for 20 dollars the day before. Who was this man? What was his motive, will they ever see their car again? 1920's horror film you say? Nope, just day nine on the Tate Family Adventure.
We were up and about by 8AM pacific time and off to explore San Francisco and see what we could see. After walking a number of blocks down from our hotel through downtown, we saw Union Square and passed the famous San Francisco cable cars riding up the hill-filled streets. We caught a street car around the edge of the coast and toward Pier 33 where we were scheduled to depart for a tour of Alcatraz island and spend the early afternoon. Alcatraz happened to be my first attraction/landmark of all the different sights that we've described to you in the previous blog entries, so as you can imagine, I was pretty stoked to finally take the Tate family there. San Francisco was sunny and the temperature was in the 70s-80s but with the wind blowing so much, it must have only been 60 degrees out. Pretty cool and damp, but I guess that's how prisoners must have felt on "the rock."
Once we got on Alcatraz island, we saw an introductory video and then went on an hour long audio tour of the entire jail facility. This went through the entire history of the island, from when it was a military fort during the 1800's to when it became the famous maximum security prison of the early 1900's to its rise in fame as movies and films sensationalized it over time too. Some of America's notorious criminals and gangsters were housed on the rock, from Al Capone, to Machine Gun Kelly, to Robert Stroud (aka the "birdman") and many others. Additionally, the tour took you through the play-by-play of some of the famous escape attempts that took place on Alcatraz. Over the years that the prison was in full use, there were 14 total escape attempts that occurred and to this day there were only four prisoners that have not been officially accounted for, either were not found in the icy cold waters of the San Francisco Bay, or were not recaptured after their escape attempts. All of this was simply fascinating, so I won't bore you with anymore history, but I know that I'll continue to read about some of the inmates stories, as they are remarkable and intriguing too.
After we escaped from the rock around 2pm, we headed down to the famous Pier 39 where San Francisco prides itself in having a wonderful dock-filled area of shops, restaurants, street performers, and of course - us tourists. Our family settled on an awesome restaurant chain known as the "Bubba Gump Shrimp Company." Yes, it's the same "Bubba Gump" from the classic movie "Forrest Gump" and I've surprisingly never eaten at one of the restaurants, although I've always heard great reviews. Needless to say, our family split a shrimp platter and enjoyed our 2-hour break thoroughly. It was nice to get some good quality meals over the past few days as opposed to the grab-and-go routine of our earlier trip. We ended our afternoon on Dad's 44-block hike of San Francisco - count 'em, 44-blocks all mostly uphill to see the city and head back toward our hotel. We worked off the grub that we ate earlier, saw San Fran's famous "Lombard street" which zig-zags and curves in an S-formation all the way down a hillside city block and apparently is the crookedest street in the world. Although the hike was long and tiring, it was a great way to see the city and put a bit of a capstone on our experience there overall.
Once we were back to our rent-a-car, we hit the road and left San Francisco, crossed the bay bridge (which was the one that is 2 levels and collapsed partially in the 1980's earthquake) and headed toward Yosemite where we had booked a hotel for the evening. On the way, however, Kelsey arranged for a stop in Modesto, California to visit a close family friend of ours - Mr. Dias. Now, Mr. Dias and his family used to live in Virginia on the other side of the county a few years ago and came from California when Mr. Dias got a job at our local high school as the Drama teacher. Since my sister and I were both involved with theater, we actually both were taught by Mr. Dias and performed in the musicals and one act shows he directed too. This allowed us to really get to know Mr. Dias and in turn we met his family - Mrs. Dias (Kathy) as well as Caleb and Annalee, his two children. However, the Dias family moved away from VA and back to California the year before Kelsey graduated, and conveniently enough they lived right on the way to Yosemite, so we made a pit stop and had a wonderful meal with the entire Dias family and got to catch up for most of the evening. It was a delightful treat to see familiar faces and spend some downtime with a home-cooked meal (A+ Mr. Dias - he's quite the chef) especially because we've been on the go so much that we haven't really had time to relax.
So anyways, our ninth day of the Tate Family Adventure was crammed with more travel, great eats, and even some familiar faces too. We hope that pace continues and that we don't lose too much steam along the way ourselves. Our plan for tomorrow is tour Yosemite National Park and get our fill once again of landscapes and scenery before leaving California and heading to America's Northwest as we will soon tour Oregon and Washington. Until next time - Ciao!
~Josh
We were up and about by 8AM pacific time and off to explore San Francisco and see what we could see. After walking a number of blocks down from our hotel through downtown, we saw Union Square and passed the famous San Francisco cable cars riding up the hill-filled streets. We caught a street car around the edge of the coast and toward Pier 33 where we were scheduled to depart for a tour of Alcatraz island and spend the early afternoon. Alcatraz happened to be my first attraction/landmark of all the different sights that we've described to you in the previous blog entries, so as you can imagine, I was pretty stoked to finally take the Tate family there. San Francisco was sunny and the temperature was in the 70s-80s but with the wind blowing so much, it must have only been 60 degrees out. Pretty cool and damp, but I guess that's how prisoners must have felt on "the rock."
Once we got on Alcatraz island, we saw an introductory video and then went on an hour long audio tour of the entire jail facility. This went through the entire history of the island, from when it was a military fort during the 1800's to when it became the famous maximum security prison of the early 1900's to its rise in fame as movies and films sensationalized it over time too. Some of America's notorious criminals and gangsters were housed on the rock, from Al Capone, to Machine Gun Kelly, to Robert Stroud (aka the "birdman") and many others. Additionally, the tour took you through the play-by-play of some of the famous escape attempts that took place on Alcatraz. Over the years that the prison was in full use, there were 14 total escape attempts that occurred and to this day there were only four prisoners that have not been officially accounted for, either were not found in the icy cold waters of the San Francisco Bay, or were not recaptured after their escape attempts. All of this was simply fascinating, so I won't bore you with anymore history, but I know that I'll continue to read about some of the inmates stories, as they are remarkable and intriguing too.
After we escaped from the rock around 2pm, we headed down to the famous Pier 39 where San Francisco prides itself in having a wonderful dock-filled area of shops, restaurants, street performers, and of course - us tourists. Our family settled on an awesome restaurant chain known as the "Bubba Gump Shrimp Company." Yes, it's the same "Bubba Gump" from the classic movie "Forrest Gump" and I've surprisingly never eaten at one of the restaurants, although I've always heard great reviews. Needless to say, our family split a shrimp platter and enjoyed our 2-hour break thoroughly. It was nice to get some good quality meals over the past few days as opposed to the grab-and-go routine of our earlier trip. We ended our afternoon on Dad's 44-block hike of San Francisco - count 'em, 44-blocks all mostly uphill to see the city and head back toward our hotel. We worked off the grub that we ate earlier, saw San Fran's famous "Lombard street" which zig-zags and curves in an S-formation all the way down a hillside city block and apparently is the crookedest street in the world. Although the hike was long and tiring, it was a great way to see the city and put a bit of a capstone on our experience there overall.
Once we were back to our rent-a-car, we hit the road and left San Francisco, crossed the bay bridge (which was the one that is 2 levels and collapsed partially in the 1980's earthquake) and headed toward Yosemite where we had booked a hotel for the evening. On the way, however, Kelsey arranged for a stop in Modesto, California to visit a close family friend of ours - Mr. Dias. Now, Mr. Dias and his family used to live in Virginia on the other side of the county a few years ago and came from California when Mr. Dias got a job at our local high school as the Drama teacher. Since my sister and I were both involved with theater, we actually both were taught by Mr. Dias and performed in the musicals and one act shows he directed too. This allowed us to really get to know Mr. Dias and in turn we met his family - Mrs. Dias (Kathy) as well as Caleb and Annalee, his two children. However, the Dias family moved away from VA and back to California the year before Kelsey graduated, and conveniently enough they lived right on the way to Yosemite, so we made a pit stop and had a wonderful meal with the entire Dias family and got to catch up for most of the evening. It was a delightful treat to see familiar faces and spend some downtime with a home-cooked meal (A+ Mr. Dias - he's quite the chef) especially because we've been on the go so much that we haven't really had time to relax.
So anyways, our ninth day of the Tate Family Adventure was crammed with more travel, great eats, and even some familiar faces too. We hope that pace continues and that we don't lose too much steam along the way ourselves. Our plan for tomorrow is tour Yosemite National Park and get our fill once again of landscapes and scenery before leaving California and heading to America's Northwest as we will soon tour Oregon and Washington. Until next time - Ciao!
~Josh
Wines, Dines, and Celebrity Sightings!
We left Sacramento in the early morning to head toward San Francisco. On our way to San Fran though, we were going to take a pit stop in Napa Valley to check out California wine country and see some of the vineyards. Kelsey was the tour guide for Napa and as we were about ten minutes away, she was still googling places on her phone of where to go and what to tour. Turns out, her Google search ran upon the "O'Brien Estate." Rated one of the top 10 best things to do in Napa Valley, the privately owned local winery is operated by Bart O'Brien, a software tycoon and billionaire who decided to get into the wine business for fun. To schedule tours, you have to call his cell phone. So, that's what we did. We called him up about 15 minutes from his house and he invited us over for a tour of the place. When we arrived, we were greeted by our tour guide, Joe, who took us throughout the vineyard explaining the process of making wine from start to finish. Now, since our family is rather uneducated on wine, it made for a truly educational experience as we got to go out into the vineyard and actually try all of the grapes of the different flavors, all at different stages of the process. Our private tour then took us through what happens to wines once they are harvested and how wine is created, and also the difference between blend wines, pure wines, how color is given to the wines and how many people are involved in the wine-making process. Pretty fascinating actually. Fun Fact: there are thousands of different factors that go into what makes a wine have a specific taste. If one vine is shaded by a tree, or affected by a slighting different wind pattern than the vine next to it, taste can be altered. Also, wine color is decided by the skins of the grapes used in them. Who knew?
So needless to say, the Tate family was thoroughly impressed by the O'Brien Estate, so much that Dad even joined their wine club! However, after our photo-ops and spending some more quality time meeting Mr. O'Brien himself, we had to hit the road again. Flash-forward another hour or so and we were approaching San Francisco from the mainland. It was about time for a late lunch, so Dad took us to Sausalito which is a coastal town on the way to San Fran that overlooks the bay. Kelsey whipped out her Google skills once more to find us a restaurant to dine in, and we found the Horizons diner which was a lovely bay-side sit-down place with great seafood and a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate and city. Sausalito reminds me of a small coastal village on the east coast, where the locals are shrimpers or other fishermen and a few gift shops line the main street to catch tourists but also mixed with a bit of Spanish architecture and flare.
After lunch, we took a windy mountain road nearby to stop off at Muir National Park, which is part of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Muir Woods, as it's also known is home to giant redwood trees and wonderful hiking trails. Although our family isn't much into hiking all together, we decided to take a 1-2.5 mile hiking trail up through the forest and check out some of these massive redwoods that tower over the woodland floor below. Some of these trees, well over a few hundred years old are over an entire football field tall (For our British viewers - that'd be American Football...:-))!! We stumbled upon some baby fawns grazing, so I got some great pictures of them next to the trail, and our family had a great time taking photos inside some of these massive trees as well as along the paths and bridges too.
Following our family-time with nature, we headed back to society over the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Francisco! We drove through the city and located our old-timey hotel (it may or may not have survived the famous earthquake of 1906) to check in and get settled. Although the hotel was a little sketchy, by the fact that it had an old school elevator that creaked really bad, and had the door that you opened up to step in it (it felt like a laundry chute) as well as the paper thin walls with all sorts of interesting and scary people living there - things were great :-) You can imagine, in these conditions we also were without internet to let you all know how we were doing too. Yet, after dropping our bags - we decided to find some local grub and just a block down the street was a famous little restaurant known as "Tommy's Joynt." Dad saw this restaurant on the travel channel or something and was dying to go there, so we tagged along and went to check this place out. At Tommy's, you basically order like you're in a high school cafeteria and they slop your food on a plate before you go find a seat somewhere. Except, unlike the mystery meats of our younger years, this food is the west coast version of soul food and quality home cookin'. Mom and I got bbq brisket, Dad conquered the enormous plate of spare ribs. Kelsey (per usual - the skinny one in our family) had a quaint baked potato, but either way - this place was pretty awesome. Lastly, not only did we enjoy some great grub but we had our first family celebrity sighting too! When we walked in the restaurant, mom swears that one of the Wayan Brothers is sitting at the bar across the room from us. The rest of our family, didn't really pay much attention, other than the fact that the guy at the bar had a pretty familiar face - but we couldn't figure out from what. Mom insisted that we all try to find out who he was, so naturally we all went to our phones and tried to race to determine who the mystery man was. To make matters worse, we got seated right beside the guy after getting our food, which made our search more painfully obvious and taking pictures of him way less discrete. Kelsey got one really dark and blurry photo of the guy, but the entire dinner Dad and her eased dropped on the conversation and still couldn't figure out who the man was. Anyhow, to make a long story longer - we found out later that night that we were sitting next to David Alan Grier, who won a Tony Award on Broadway, was on the show "In Living Color," Dancing with the Stars, and is in a bunch of other random films, shows, and things you'd recognize him from - but isn't your A-list celebrity. (He was in Jumanji for example - as the cop) Well, our family was stoked, it doesn't take much to make our evening worthwhile.
We caught some shut eye and that was it for our first night in San Fran, in the morning we were going to see Alcatraz and explore more of the city itself. So - here's the play list you should be updated as well.
Sacramento - "Hotel California" ~The Eagles
Muir Woods - "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" ~Spamalot Soundtrack
Sausalito - "Down by the Bay" ~Raffi
San Francisco - "Come Monday" ~Jimmy Buffett
Napa Valley - "Red, Red Wine" ~UB40
So needless to say, the Tate family was thoroughly impressed by the O'Brien Estate, so much that Dad even joined their wine club! However, after our photo-ops and spending some more quality time meeting Mr. O'Brien himself, we had to hit the road again. Flash-forward another hour or so and we were approaching San Francisco from the mainland. It was about time for a late lunch, so Dad took us to Sausalito which is a coastal town on the way to San Fran that overlooks the bay. Kelsey whipped out her Google skills once more to find us a restaurant to dine in, and we found the Horizons diner which was a lovely bay-side sit-down place with great seafood and a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate and city. Sausalito reminds me of a small coastal village on the east coast, where the locals are shrimpers or other fishermen and a few gift shops line the main street to catch tourists but also mixed with a bit of Spanish architecture and flare.
After lunch, we took a windy mountain road nearby to stop off at Muir National Park, which is part of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Muir Woods, as it's also known is home to giant redwood trees and wonderful hiking trails. Although our family isn't much into hiking all together, we decided to take a 1-2.5 mile hiking trail up through the forest and check out some of these massive redwoods that tower over the woodland floor below. Some of these trees, well over a few hundred years old are over an entire football field tall (For our British viewers - that'd be American Football...:-))!! We stumbled upon some baby fawns grazing, so I got some great pictures of them next to the trail, and our family had a great time taking photos inside some of these massive trees as well as along the paths and bridges too.
Following our family-time with nature, we headed back to society over the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Francisco! We drove through the city and located our old-timey hotel (it may or may not have survived the famous earthquake of 1906) to check in and get settled. Although the hotel was a little sketchy, by the fact that it had an old school elevator that creaked really bad, and had the door that you opened up to step in it (it felt like a laundry chute) as well as the paper thin walls with all sorts of interesting and scary people living there - things were great :-) You can imagine, in these conditions we also were without internet to let you all know how we were doing too. Yet, after dropping our bags - we decided to find some local grub and just a block down the street was a famous little restaurant known as "Tommy's Joynt." Dad saw this restaurant on the travel channel or something and was dying to go there, so we tagged along and went to check this place out. At Tommy's, you basically order like you're in a high school cafeteria and they slop your food on a plate before you go find a seat somewhere. Except, unlike the mystery meats of our younger years, this food is the west coast version of soul food and quality home cookin'. Mom and I got bbq brisket, Dad conquered the enormous plate of spare ribs. Kelsey (per usual - the skinny one in our family) had a quaint baked potato, but either way - this place was pretty awesome. Lastly, not only did we enjoy some great grub but we had our first family celebrity sighting too! When we walked in the restaurant, mom swears that one of the Wayan Brothers is sitting at the bar across the room from us. The rest of our family, didn't really pay much attention, other than the fact that the guy at the bar had a pretty familiar face - but we couldn't figure out from what. Mom insisted that we all try to find out who he was, so naturally we all went to our phones and tried to race to determine who the mystery man was. To make matters worse, we got seated right beside the guy after getting our food, which made our search more painfully obvious and taking pictures of him way less discrete. Kelsey got one really dark and blurry photo of the guy, but the entire dinner Dad and her eased dropped on the conversation and still couldn't figure out who the man was. Anyhow, to make a long story longer - we found out later that night that we were sitting next to David Alan Grier, who won a Tony Award on Broadway, was on the show "In Living Color," Dancing with the Stars, and is in a bunch of other random films, shows, and things you'd recognize him from - but isn't your A-list celebrity. (He was in Jumanji for example - as the cop) Well, our family was stoked, it doesn't take much to make our evening worthwhile.
We caught some shut eye and that was it for our first night in San Fran, in the morning we were going to see Alcatraz and explore more of the city itself. So - here's the play list you should be updated as well.
Sacramento - "Hotel California" ~The Eagles
Muir Woods - "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" ~Spamalot Soundtrack
Sausalito - "Down by the Bay" ~Raffi
San Francisco - "Come Monday" ~Jimmy Buffett
Napa Valley - "Red, Red Wine" ~UB40
Sunday, July 18, 2010
One Week Down.
When we left you last time, we were boarding a train from Salt Lake City, Utah to Sacramento California. This was leg number two out of eight total train trips that we'll take during our adventure, and this one our first overnight one as well. Our train was late by about an hour or so and by the time we got settled it was easily 2am mountain time. Dad and I couldn't sleep, so we watched a movie on my laptop called "the skeleton key." I have to say it was a pretty terrible thriller, but it was somewhat entertaining nonetheless. The only other downside of taking a train overnight and not getting sleeper cars, is that you have to find a way to get "comfortable" enough to actually catch some shut eye. This is a task in and of itself, and take synchronization and precise timing when you have two grown men as big as dad and I trying to find a spot to get cozy enough to actually fall asleep. Anyways, we slept a bit and woke up sometime in the early morning to the Nevada desert passing by and ate a bit of grub before moving around our car.
There wasn't much to see from the train compared to the Denver one we took the Rockies, so this train ride was pretty dull other than the people we met along the way. We kept busy by talking to some families, also heading to Sacramento, playing Phase 10 which is our family's favorite card game, and we even had a bit of commentary, as the conductor of the train explained a few of the rare historic landmarks we saw along the way. One of which was the first interstate road to reach from coast to coast. It was called the Lincoln highway and looks almost the size of a sidewalk by today's standards.
Anyways, we got to Sacramento by about 3:30pm pacific time and were exhausted. Without getting any great sleep, we decided that we needed to do a few essential things. 1) laundry: since all of our clothes were running out and we still have two weeks left of our trip. and 2) relax a bit! Therefore, Dad and I jumped in the pool and chilled under the Sacramento sun as it was 104 degrees outside. What a great time to have access to a pool. We later went to old downtown Sacramento to a restaurant called "Fat City," and picked up some dinner and recapped our day. Old Sacramento resembles an old western-style town with an old-timey train station running through it, so it was very "Fival goes West," which I enjoyed. Then we headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime for since tomorrow we were going toward some of the Golden Coast's main attractions in the morning.
Now I know we're behind a bit - but here's the updated playlist to accompany our list of Tate Family attractions and landmarks.
Yellowstone - "Up Around the Bend" ~Creedence Clearwater Revival
Salt Lake City - "ESPN Theme Music from the World Cup" ~Lisle Moore
(A well-known Salt Lake City Composer)
Miscellaneous - "Come on and Ride the Train" ~ Quad City DJ's
There wasn't much to see from the train compared to the Denver one we took the Rockies, so this train ride was pretty dull other than the people we met along the way. We kept busy by talking to some families, also heading to Sacramento, playing Phase 10 which is our family's favorite card game, and we even had a bit of commentary, as the conductor of the train explained a few of the rare historic landmarks we saw along the way. One of which was the first interstate road to reach from coast to coast. It was called the Lincoln highway and looks almost the size of a sidewalk by today's standards.
Anyways, we got to Sacramento by about 3:30pm pacific time and were exhausted. Without getting any great sleep, we decided that we needed to do a few essential things. 1) laundry: since all of our clothes were running out and we still have two weeks left of our trip. and 2) relax a bit! Therefore, Dad and I jumped in the pool and chilled under the Sacramento sun as it was 104 degrees outside. What a great time to have access to a pool. We later went to old downtown Sacramento to a restaurant called "Fat City," and picked up some dinner and recapped our day. Old Sacramento resembles an old western-style town with an old-timey train station running through it, so it was very "Fival goes West," which I enjoyed. Then we headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime for since tomorrow we were going toward some of the Golden Coast's main attractions in the morning.
Now I know we're behind a bit - but here's the updated playlist to accompany our list of Tate Family attractions and landmarks.
Yellowstone - "Up Around the Bend" ~Creedence Clearwater Revival
Salt Lake City - "ESPN Theme Music from the World Cup" ~Lisle Moore
(A well-known Salt Lake City Composer)
Miscellaneous - "Come on and Ride the Train" ~ Quad City DJ's
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Kelsey's "Corrections" - Day 6 cont.
So my little sister decided that only "one side of the story" was being told about how our adventure was happening. Therefore, she wrote in a blog entry for Day 6 as well. Here ya go!!!
Hello there devout followers! As much as I know you enjoy reading Josh’s unabridged history book version of our trip, and mom’s segment that resembled an extended Christmas card of good cheer, I thought maybe you might be interested in what really goes down on a daily basis on this great adventure. Your burning question is about to be answered: What is it REALLY like to be a Tate? Lemme tell you.
1. Let’s start out by dousing all the rumors about how ghetto this trip is. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some moments where we act like the Clampet clan and take pictures posed as statues we’re at, buy nailclippers (Dad) and moisturizer (Mom) at drugstores because they can’t live without them, or steal every bottle of shampoo, conditioner, and bar of soap from each hotel. However, there are plenty of times that certain members of the family (cough Josh cough) like to pretend we’re living on rations and are on a budget of 50 cents. Exhibit A: At McDonalds the other day, Josh “made his own” Big Mac out of a double cheeseburger and some special sauce that he “asked for”. Instead of paying an extra 25 cents to get a real one, he wanted to prove to us he could survive on the bare minimum. Also, there have been plenty of allegations about how we’re near death in various picture locations, let it be known this was by the COMPLETE CHOICE of the individual with the camera to jump out of the car while it’s still moving and risk death jumping in front of cars and near bison bigger than our car. I have been living a normal, safe life and viewing these wonders from the safety of the car window.
2. This brings me to the point of our eating situation. Today I was informed that there are no Chick-fil-As in the West. I’ve been mourning in the cramped corner of the car (between a book bag, camera bag, and Cheez-Its) that I call home for the past 30 minutes.
3. We have been passing the time like champs. On the train ride the other day we entertained a man nearby us with a game of Phase 10. He didn’t play, but observed our family engage in America’s favorite card game, and told us we were, and I quote a “riot”. Dad didn’t figure out how to play the game until Phase 6, and Josh came back from behind for the win. Papa Bill was quoted because “the worm did turn”. Besides cards, we are also playing the ongoing Alphabet Game. We split into teams based on wit and intelligence, (which is clearly why Dad and I are grouped together, being the intellectuals of the family) and so far it’s an even battle. This is because we never established rules. The “point” is to find something we see that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Dad began with “American Indian” as his “A”. However, Josh and Mom tried to pull things like “A: Apex, B: Belief, and C: Car” which as I’m sure you can all tell are generic, not physical objects, or boring. They claim they’re playing a different version of the game then us; either way we’re all happy because we all think we’re winning. So far, so good.
4. We’re currently driving through Yellowstone. Let me share my two cents on wildlife. I don’t really enjoy taking photos of buffalo. Why you ask? They’re one of God’s creatures after all! Well, when the bison is two football fields away and a quarter of it is visible behind the brush it is grazing on and 20 cars are parked on the side of the road trying to capture the side of the buffalo’s leg that they can see, I become very bored, very quickly. Yet, I am proud to report we have stopped at every single last animal we have even thought we have seen. (Mom has a tendency to think rocks are animals.) I do enjoy the scenic overlooks a lot though—complete with waterfalls, canyons, rivers, and the Rockies, so I promise I’m not too miserable! ;)
5. Now you didn’t hear much about the train. Just mom’s description of the picture perfect sights outside our window. Let me tell you what really happened. It was a 14 hour train ride. Count ‘em, FOURTEEN hours. I spent much of this time playing Solitaire on my iPod which I’m sad to say I am not getting any better at. Mom read a lot, surprise surprise. Josh and Dad watched two Star Wars movies back-to-back. There was basically no air conditioning, (which you know Dad loved) and the bathrooms are smaller than on airplanes. But it was nice to be able to walk around, which I certainly can’t do inside this rental car. Heck, I can barely keep my circulation as Josh and Dad continue to throw things back here they are through with—used tissues, camera lenses, half-eaten banana muffins from the hotel’s continental breakfast, etc.
6. Our rental cars have XM radio, which is cool. We’ve been listening to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville as you would expect. Josh and I were apprehensive about whether we’d have enough music to make it all the way across the country, so this new-fangled radio thing is exciting. While listening to Josh’s iPod the other day we did a rendition of “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night”, as all of us wore sunglasses and danced/flailed about (complete with spirit fingers) with Josh’s video camera recording it all from the dashboard. But don’t worry, we were going through Wyoming so there was no one else on the road and that method was completely safe. This song was followed by “Ain’t No Mountain”, which included numerous hand signals at the Rockies and rivers outside our window during the chorus. (Copies of these music videos are available at our discretion or for a small fee)
7. Lastly, to include some sort of sentiment in this post for all you sap-lovers (shoutout at David Slackerhouse), we have a tradition where every night at dinner (provided we have dinner) we all go around and say highlights, and sometimes lowlights, of the day. It’s been really fun and keeps us nostalgic throughout this grand tour. Some highlights recently have included: Seeing the same Boy Scout troop in South Dakota and again three days later in Yellowstone, the beauty of Bear Lake, seeing jackalopes galore, seeing how much progress has been made on Crazy Horse since the last cross country trip in the 1970’s, and the incredible tour of Deadwood that was engaging, hysterical, and still informative.
Lowlights include: Rude people who push in front of me in the middle of the reenactment after I’ve been sitting for an hour in preparation, off-key singing by other train passengers, and car rides that last forever when we’re already exhausted. But those are really lame things to complain about when, as hopefully you can tell, we’re having a great time!
That’s it for me, for now. If you liked this blog better than the other posts, feel free to comment. If not, just keep it to yourself and don’t lower my self esteem anymore than it already is by Josh on a daily basis (after all I do keep getting called the special moose!) We miss most of you and send love from the road as always.
Kelsey
Hello there devout followers! As much as I know you enjoy reading Josh’s unabridged history book version of our trip, and mom’s segment that resembled an extended Christmas card of good cheer, I thought maybe you might be interested in what really goes down on a daily basis on this great adventure. Your burning question is about to be answered: What is it REALLY like to be a Tate? Lemme tell you.
1. Let’s start out by dousing all the rumors about how ghetto this trip is. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some moments where we act like the Clampet clan and take pictures posed as statues we’re at, buy nailclippers (Dad) and moisturizer (Mom) at drugstores because they can’t live without them, or steal every bottle of shampoo, conditioner, and bar of soap from each hotel. However, there are plenty of times that certain members of the family (cough Josh cough) like to pretend we’re living on rations and are on a budget of 50 cents. Exhibit A: At McDonalds the other day, Josh “made his own” Big Mac out of a double cheeseburger and some special sauce that he “asked for”. Instead of paying an extra 25 cents to get a real one, he wanted to prove to us he could survive on the bare minimum. Also, there have been plenty of allegations about how we’re near death in various picture locations, let it be known this was by the COMPLETE CHOICE of the individual with the camera to jump out of the car while it’s still moving and risk death jumping in front of cars and near bison bigger than our car. I have been living a normal, safe life and viewing these wonders from the safety of the car window.
2. This brings me to the point of our eating situation. Today I was informed that there are no Chick-fil-As in the West. I’ve been mourning in the cramped corner of the car (between a book bag, camera bag, and Cheez-Its) that I call home for the past 30 minutes.
3. We have been passing the time like champs. On the train ride the other day we entertained a man nearby us with a game of Phase 10. He didn’t play, but observed our family engage in America’s favorite card game, and told us we were, and I quote a “riot”. Dad didn’t figure out how to play the game until Phase 6, and Josh came back from behind for the win. Papa Bill was quoted because “the worm did turn”. Besides cards, we are also playing the ongoing Alphabet Game. We split into teams based on wit and intelligence, (which is clearly why Dad and I are grouped together, being the intellectuals of the family) and so far it’s an even battle. This is because we never established rules. The “point” is to find something we see that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Dad began with “American Indian” as his “A”. However, Josh and Mom tried to pull things like “A: Apex, B: Belief, and C: Car” which as I’m sure you can all tell are generic, not physical objects, or boring. They claim they’re playing a different version of the game then us; either way we’re all happy because we all think we’re winning. So far, so good.
4. We’re currently driving through Yellowstone. Let me share my two cents on wildlife. I don’t really enjoy taking photos of buffalo. Why you ask? They’re one of God’s creatures after all! Well, when the bison is two football fields away and a quarter of it is visible behind the brush it is grazing on and 20 cars are parked on the side of the road trying to capture the side of the buffalo’s leg that they can see, I become very bored, very quickly. Yet, I am proud to report we have stopped at every single last animal we have even thought we have seen. (Mom has a tendency to think rocks are animals.) I do enjoy the scenic overlooks a lot though—complete with waterfalls, canyons, rivers, and the Rockies, so I promise I’m not too miserable! ;)
5. Now you didn’t hear much about the train. Just mom’s description of the picture perfect sights outside our window. Let me tell you what really happened. It was a 14 hour train ride. Count ‘em, FOURTEEN hours. I spent much of this time playing Solitaire on my iPod which I’m sad to say I am not getting any better at. Mom read a lot, surprise surprise. Josh and Dad watched two Star Wars movies back-to-back. There was basically no air conditioning, (which you know Dad loved) and the bathrooms are smaller than on airplanes. But it was nice to be able to walk around, which I certainly can’t do inside this rental car. Heck, I can barely keep my circulation as Josh and Dad continue to throw things back here they are through with—used tissues, camera lenses, half-eaten banana muffins from the hotel’s continental breakfast, etc.
6. Our rental cars have XM radio, which is cool. We’ve been listening to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville as you would expect. Josh and I were apprehensive about whether we’d have enough music to make it all the way across the country, so this new-fangled radio thing is exciting. While listening to Josh’s iPod the other day we did a rendition of “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night”, as all of us wore sunglasses and danced/flailed about (complete with spirit fingers) with Josh’s video camera recording it all from the dashboard. But don’t worry, we were going through Wyoming so there was no one else on the road and that method was completely safe. This song was followed by “Ain’t No Mountain”, which included numerous hand signals at the Rockies and rivers outside our window during the chorus. (Copies of these music videos are available at our discretion or for a small fee)
7. Lastly, to include some sort of sentiment in this post for all you sap-lovers (shoutout at David Slackerhouse), we have a tradition where every night at dinner (provided we have dinner) we all go around and say highlights, and sometimes lowlights, of the day. It’s been really fun and keeps us nostalgic throughout this grand tour. Some highlights recently have included: Seeing the same Boy Scout troop in South Dakota and again three days later in Yellowstone, the beauty of Bear Lake, seeing jackalopes galore, seeing how much progress has been made on Crazy Horse since the last cross country trip in the 1970’s, and the incredible tour of Deadwood that was engaging, hysterical, and still informative.
Lowlights include: Rude people who push in front of me in the middle of the reenactment after I’ve been sitting for an hour in preparation, off-key singing by other train passengers, and car rides that last forever when we’re already exhausted. But those are really lame things to complain about when, as hopefully you can tell, we’re having a great time!
That’s it for me, for now. If you liked this blog better than the other posts, feel free to comment. If not, just keep it to yourself and don’t lower my self esteem anymore than it already is by Josh on a daily basis (after all I do keep getting called the special moose!) We miss most of you and send love from the road as always.
Kelsey
Day 6 - The War is On.
Someone once said "War is Hell." I'm not sure about the Hell part, but they've never been on the Tate Family Adventure either. At approximately 9:00am mountain time this morning, the first shots were fired on a gruesome battlefield. I wondered how long it would take for our family to begin the feud, and we surprisingly lasted about five full days before the first blows were delivered. It all started in playful banter of course, as throughout the week my sister and I have traded remarks, mocked each other, and most of the time in our family - it's no holds bars, anyone is fair game for a sly remark or sarcastic comment, but today things went too far.
I was in the bathroom, nothing unusual as I had finished my typical morning routine. However, my family decided that it was time to hit the road and as I've expressed before, we are a family of Darwinists, survival of the fittest, and when it's time to pack up and leave. It's go time. I apparently missed the boat this morning by minutes, but that wasn't without a price. My sister conveniently unzipped my suitcase, which was already pre-packed from the night before, and due to my rush, I was unaware when I went to head out the door. Now, not all of my belongings fell out or anything, as I have cat-like reflexes and was able to recover myself. However, now that we've moved from verbal assault to complete action, I'm glad to know that I have free-reign to plan my next attack accordingly. Although we're not a military family, when it comes to planning and strategizing the best way to get on each other's nerves, members of the Tate Family are masters of deception and sabotage. I assure you it's only a matter of time before a revengeful strike will smite my younger counterpart.
Regardless, onto our day. The Lodge at Big Sky was a nice resort spot with a great view of some of the Rockies as they slope down from Canada and through the Montana skyline. We got an extra hour of sleep or so today which made us all feel a bit better about our full day of travel and we started that travel in our car as we embarked for Yellowstone and the greater national park. On our way, we saw a grizzly bear grazing by a stream and took a few pictures, and stopped to grab lunch supplies upon entering the park too.
Our trek around Yellowstone was at a rather slow pace. Without being able to go above about 45mph it was a stop and go experience as we traveled around the outer loop road and past the Mammoth Hot Springs and water falls in the northern portion of the park. We stopped a few occasions for wildlife too. I got some great close-up shots of a grizzly bear mother and her two cubs as well as an eight foot tall bull elk with at least 10-points on its massive antlers. Other than that, the day was spent mostly from our rent-a-car as we saw sights, snapped some photos, and moved on our way. We made an executive decision to skip past Old Faithful since we'd already seen some other geysers and hot springs and also had about another six hour drive ahead of us toward Salt Lake once we actually got out of the park itself. Therefore, we hit the road and got moving south. Taking a different route, we're going through Idaho's fields and farms, small town America, and passing plenty of livestock on the way. We should be arriving back in Utah around 11pm tonight, and are to get on an overnight train to Sacramento, California by tomorrow afternoon. We'll see what lies ahead for us in California, as I haven't even got a chance to showcase my own attractions and cities on our route. We also will be tallying up points and provide you with an update on who's tours have been the most spectacular, and who might be voted off in next week's episode. But really, don't put it past us. :-)
~Josh
I was in the bathroom, nothing unusual as I had finished my typical morning routine. However, my family decided that it was time to hit the road and as I've expressed before, we are a family of Darwinists, survival of the fittest, and when it's time to pack up and leave. It's go time. I apparently missed the boat this morning by minutes, but that wasn't without a price. My sister conveniently unzipped my suitcase, which was already pre-packed from the night before, and due to my rush, I was unaware when I went to head out the door. Now, not all of my belongings fell out or anything, as I have cat-like reflexes and was able to recover myself. However, now that we've moved from verbal assault to complete action, I'm glad to know that I have free-reign to plan my next attack accordingly. Although we're not a military family, when it comes to planning and strategizing the best way to get on each other's nerves, members of the Tate Family are masters of deception and sabotage. I assure you it's only a matter of time before a revengeful strike will smite my younger counterpart.
Regardless, onto our day. The Lodge at Big Sky was a nice resort spot with a great view of some of the Rockies as they slope down from Canada and through the Montana skyline. We got an extra hour of sleep or so today which made us all feel a bit better about our full day of travel and we started that travel in our car as we embarked for Yellowstone and the greater national park. On our way, we saw a grizzly bear grazing by a stream and took a few pictures, and stopped to grab lunch supplies upon entering the park too.
Our trek around Yellowstone was at a rather slow pace. Without being able to go above about 45mph it was a stop and go experience as we traveled around the outer loop road and past the Mammoth Hot Springs and water falls in the northern portion of the park. We stopped a few occasions for wildlife too. I got some great close-up shots of a grizzly bear mother and her two cubs as well as an eight foot tall bull elk with at least 10-points on its massive antlers. Other than that, the day was spent mostly from our rent-a-car as we saw sights, snapped some photos, and moved on our way. We made an executive decision to skip past Old Faithful since we'd already seen some other geysers and hot springs and also had about another six hour drive ahead of us toward Salt Lake once we actually got out of the park itself. Therefore, we hit the road and got moving south. Taking a different route, we're going through Idaho's fields and farms, small town America, and passing plenty of livestock on the way. We should be arriving back in Utah around 11pm tonight, and are to get on an overnight train to Sacramento, California by tomorrow afternoon. We'll see what lies ahead for us in California, as I haven't even got a chance to showcase my own attractions and cities on our route. We also will be tallying up points and provide you with an update on who's tours have been the most spectacular, and who might be voted off in next week's episode. But really, don't put it past us. :-)
~Josh
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Kelsey: The Special Moose
After our long and extensive train ride from Colorado to Utah, we quickly picked up a rent-a-car on Wednesday morning in Salt Lake and headed north for Idaho. What's in Idaho you ask? Well, not a lot. But, we did see some pretty cool sights out the window as we went through a few of the natural forests located on the way there. As we went through Cache National forest, we weaved through canyons and said goodbye to the Appalachian-style mountains near Salt Lake and followed babbling brooks, log-cabin houses and fisherman galore. Not too shabby. After a few hours on the road, a miracle occurred. Poppa Tate decided that we were allowed to stop the wagon and restock our provisions! A miracle indeed. So, the Tate family jumped out of our clown car and sprinted for the local supermarket as we filled up on all the necessary essentials. No, I'm not talking about firewood, propane for a grill, or even anything related to camping materials. I'm referring to Doritos, granola bars, a case of water, a few sodas, and pre-made sandwiches. Yes, apparently that's all you need in life to survive, a few chips and a bit of agua to make it through. Needless to say, we were content.
After getting into the bulk of Idaho, we stopped at Bear Lake. This is a gorgeous stop in the Southeastern side of the state where the water changes colors from turquoise to dark blue, just like in the Caribbean. A nice overlook spot was where we took our family photo and where Kelsey and I acted like bears (a Kelsey Tate edit). Then we jumped back in the car to drive through small towns named "St. Charles," "Paris," and "Bloomington" just to name a few. Each of these towns had populations of less than 300, so Idaho's pretty spread out and small. We even passed an "original stop" (Montpellier) on the Oregon Trail, pretty sweet huh?
Anyways, after we get through Idaho, we cross back into Wyoming (that state goes on forever), and continued north until we reached the Jackson Wyoming and the Grand Tetons National Park. Jackson is a very unique and cool western town. It's definitely geared up for tourism and skiing in the winter time, but in the summer there are really interesting little shops, everything is rustic and made from wood like old fashion general stores and there are even archways made completely out of elks horns! After passing through Jackson, we pulled over at the visitor center at the Grand Tetons National Park to pick up a map and a park pass and while we were in the gift shop we ran into family friend Amy Gardner! She recently got married, and I must apologize I've forgotten her married name, but even so - it's wild that we run into to people we know all the way on the Western side of the country! So, we caught up with Amy for a while and then we took some photos in the welcome center. This included a photo in which I held up full-size moose antlers on my sister's head. The only problem was, I think we had two "left" antlers and thus one of the horns is rather upside down so it makes Kelsey look a bit, well let's just say that's how we got our title for today's blog: Kelsey: The Special Moose. After that, we got the low down on all the cool spots to see along our travels north, and headed through the National Park on a wonderful little wilderness drive.
We stopped off in a few different spots along the way through the park as we saw beautiful overlooks and sights. Jenny Lake was one particular spot in which you could see a lovely lake view set against the backdrop of the entire Teton ridge. Snow's still on the mountain peaks even in July and it makes for a great photographic moments. One photo, which I'll upload later I've entitled "Stoic Mother." You can just guess what that looks like for now, but I assure you, it's quite a deep and an introspective photo. I'm sure it will inspire you all. Ha. Anyways, a few more stops included driving up Signal Mountain (approx. 8,000ft elevation) to look at a panoramic view of the entire valley below the Tetons. Afterwards, we booked it through the rest of the park, and headed for the south entrance to Yellowstone.
It was getting later in the evening, and Yellowstone National Park is a pretty big place, but we gassed it and tried to make up some time. We came up from the south and into the national park, headed along the eastern end of the "grand loop" and straight for a known and promising wildlife viewing area in Hayden Valley. On our way there, you basically drive through mountainous and scenic roads, and every so often you will come across and handful of cars parked along the side of the road. Usually this means that there's something worth seeing, and so we pull over just like anyone does to check things out. The first one of these stops, we saw an enormous male bull elk (that is the correct term :-)) sitting in the shaded area resting as the sun was going down. I got a few good pictures and jumped back in the car, as mosquitoes began to attack me in the process. Our next quick stop actually was only about 20 minutes later and as we drove our car around a turn, I saw from my passenger window the gigantic face of a bison staring at me. Well other than yelling and causing Dad to almost wreck the lovely rent-a-car, I got my composure and jumped out about 20 yards down further and ran back up the road to the wooded area to see two adult bison grazing by the side of the road. I got photos from about 15 feet away, so other than risking my life (I don't think you're supposed to be that close), and dodging traffic too (nothing new - see an earlier post about Mt. Rushmore tunnels) we got a few good shots of wildlife for the family album.
Following that experience, we later saw more bison, elk, and even some hot springs and a mud volcano. Those were all exciting, other than the hot springs smelling horribly like way too many smoke bombs or a pit of sulfur. As dark approached quickly, I did grab a few great photos of another full grown male bull elk, and a herd of female elks grazing too. So hopefully those will all turn out well. By night, we headed out the western side of the park and drove toward Big Sky, Montana to stay in our hotel for the evening. Our nightly accommodations, known as "The Lodge at Big Sky" is actually a hunting/skiing lodge part of the larger Big Sky Ski Resort. I've never been in a lodge before that I can think of, but I have to say it was pretty nice and I enjoyed it. A worthy continental breakfast too, so once again, I was pleased. Well, that about wraps it up for yesterday. We're now fully caught up on the blogging, and today's adventure includes a more thorough trip through Yellowstone and heading back toward Utah to catch the train overnight to Sacramento California. As Phantom Planet would say, "California, here we come!"
~Josh
After getting into the bulk of Idaho, we stopped at Bear Lake. This is a gorgeous stop in the Southeastern side of the state where the water changes colors from turquoise to dark blue, just like in the Caribbean. A nice overlook spot was where we took our family photo and where Kelsey and I acted like bears (a Kelsey Tate edit). Then we jumped back in the car to drive through small towns named "St. Charles," "Paris," and "Bloomington" just to name a few. Each of these towns had populations of less than 300, so Idaho's pretty spread out and small. We even passed an "original stop" (Montpellier) on the Oregon Trail, pretty sweet huh?
Anyways, after we get through Idaho, we cross back into Wyoming (that state goes on forever), and continued north until we reached the Jackson Wyoming and the Grand Tetons National Park. Jackson is a very unique and cool western town. It's definitely geared up for tourism and skiing in the winter time, but in the summer there are really interesting little shops, everything is rustic and made from wood like old fashion general stores and there are even archways made completely out of elks horns! After passing through Jackson, we pulled over at the visitor center at the Grand Tetons National Park to pick up a map and a park pass and while we were in the gift shop we ran into family friend Amy Gardner! She recently got married, and I must apologize I've forgotten her married name, but even so - it's wild that we run into to people we know all the way on the Western side of the country! So, we caught up with Amy for a while and then we took some photos in the welcome center. This included a photo in which I held up full-size moose antlers on my sister's head. The only problem was, I think we had two "left" antlers and thus one of the horns is rather upside down so it makes Kelsey look a bit, well let's just say that's how we got our title for today's blog: Kelsey: The Special Moose. After that, we got the low down on all the cool spots to see along our travels north, and headed through the National Park on a wonderful little wilderness drive.
We stopped off in a few different spots along the way through the park as we saw beautiful overlooks and sights. Jenny Lake was one particular spot in which you could see a lovely lake view set against the backdrop of the entire Teton ridge. Snow's still on the mountain peaks even in July and it makes for a great photographic moments. One photo, which I'll upload later I've entitled "Stoic Mother." You can just guess what that looks like for now, but I assure you, it's quite a deep and an introspective photo. I'm sure it will inspire you all. Ha. Anyways, a few more stops included driving up Signal Mountain (approx. 8,000ft elevation) to look at a panoramic view of the entire valley below the Tetons. Afterwards, we booked it through the rest of the park, and headed for the south entrance to Yellowstone.
It was getting later in the evening, and Yellowstone National Park is a pretty big place, but we gassed it and tried to make up some time. We came up from the south and into the national park, headed along the eastern end of the "grand loop" and straight for a known and promising wildlife viewing area in Hayden Valley. On our way there, you basically drive through mountainous and scenic roads, and every so often you will come across and handful of cars parked along the side of the road. Usually this means that there's something worth seeing, and so we pull over just like anyone does to check things out. The first one of these stops, we saw an enormous male bull elk (that is the correct term :-)) sitting in the shaded area resting as the sun was going down. I got a few good pictures and jumped back in the car, as mosquitoes began to attack me in the process. Our next quick stop actually was only about 20 minutes later and as we drove our car around a turn, I saw from my passenger window the gigantic face of a bison staring at me. Well other than yelling and causing Dad to almost wreck the lovely rent-a-car, I got my composure and jumped out about 20 yards down further and ran back up the road to the wooded area to see two adult bison grazing by the side of the road. I got photos from about 15 feet away, so other than risking my life (I don't think you're supposed to be that close), and dodging traffic too (nothing new - see an earlier post about Mt. Rushmore tunnels) we got a few good shots of wildlife for the family album.
Following that experience, we later saw more bison, elk, and even some hot springs and a mud volcano. Those were all exciting, other than the hot springs smelling horribly like way too many smoke bombs or a pit of sulfur. As dark approached quickly, I did grab a few great photos of another full grown male bull elk, and a herd of female elks grazing too. So hopefully those will all turn out well. By night, we headed out the western side of the park and drove toward Big Sky, Montana to stay in our hotel for the evening. Our nightly accommodations, known as "The Lodge at Big Sky" is actually a hunting/skiing lodge part of the larger Big Sky Ski Resort. I've never been in a lodge before that I can think of, but I have to say it was pretty nice and I enjoyed it. A worthy continental breakfast too, so once again, I was pleased. Well, that about wraps it up for yesterday. We're now fully caught up on the blogging, and today's adventure includes a more thorough trip through Yellowstone and heading back toward Utah to catch the train overnight to Sacramento California. As Phantom Planet would say, "California, here we come!"
~Josh
Come on Ride the Train!
Hey Everyone,
So as requested, we finally got a sampler platter of our photos up on the sidebar to the right. Please check out the slide show and hopefully the visuals I've been explaining will make a bit more sense. I'll try to keep updating and adding new slide shows in the next few days.
Day 4 was filled with a long train ride from Denver, CO to Salt Lake City, Utah. The almost 15 hour ride was scenic, entertaining, and actually a lot of fun. Not as bad as you might imagine, so if you're considering train travel whatsoever, I say give it a shot! Since I didn't have a full blog entry prepared from our train ride, I'm introducing a new segment that Momma Tate has begun for our viral reality show. Her posts are going to be known as "Musings from Momma Tate." Enjoy! ~Josh
"Musings from Momma Tate" - Day 4
As the sun sets somewhere over Utah, I am thoughtfully watching the horizon from aboard the California Zephyr. Though my blogging will not have Josh’s voice, as my father would say, “I just want you to know some of what I’m thinking.” Day 4 of our adventure has been spent traveling by train from Denver to Salt Lake, and I can hardly believe all that we’ve seen in done over the last three days. I’ve watched the horizon change so dramatically from the vantage point of our plane seats, to the back seat of our rental car and now from the window above the train track. It’s not as though I’ve never traveled anywhere before. My good fortune has been to see America and across the pond, yet this journey has already been filled with so many blessings and laughter. I never knew that Nebraska is subdivided into miles of squares, visible from the sky like a toddler’s jigsaw puzzle. Between Nebraska and Colorado, we were intrigued by the hundreds of circular shapes that dotted the landscape like alien crop circles. This strange practice explains a lot about some of our friends from out here in the heartland. I need an explanation upon my return home from some educated mid-westerner.
People are kinder on trains than on planes. They smile and let people pass dozens of times with a “pardon me,” while the airports are filled with armies of people who don’t seem to trust each other too much, so they look down or huddle with their luggage. In the airport, all sense of good breeding seems lost when they make me hold my arms over my head barefoot while they scan me for nail clippers. I know why, but a woman my age needs more moisturizer than fits in the one quart baggie…at least for three weeks. On the train we can sleep, watch movies, wander into the observation car, read, take pictures and stroll to the dining car like in a 1950’s Bing Crosby film. We’re sharing our train car with about 20 Amish folk from teenagers to the community elders. Plain and Fancy gentlemen, we have identified the married men by their beards. I keep wanting to say “yah” when they ask to pass by.
Over the past few days, I’ve had many moments that were “aha” and “haha.” We were as touristy as humanly possible at Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Yet, there is something humbling about standing at the base of those monuments and marveling at man’s resourcefulness and talents. Along with that awe-inspiring diligence required to complete both projects is the lump-in-the-throat natural beauty of God’s creation. The trees tower over us one moment as we climb the mountainous terrain, and in the next second, fog and sun trade places over the top of the craggy peaks. You can’t take enough pictures of it because it is so wondrous. In Wyoming and South Dakota, herds of deer were interspersed with herds of cattle, both seeming to appreciate the space of the other. An antelope stood proudly by the side of the highway one moment and in the next, a powerful mountain rose out of the landscape. Today, I have watched the Rockies give way to the painted cliffs of Utah, followed the Colorado River as it hosted rafters beside us and listened to the train whistle announce our arrival into each new town.
As for “haha” moments, we have made sure that our friend “Flat Jessica” has had numerous photo ops…she has hung out at the airport in Omaha (very Americana), hung onto Crazy Horse’s arm, rocked out with some Presidents and rode the train (much more quietly than her real-life counterpart). We have ridden a jackalope, impersonated Native Americans In multiple places (Kelsey is still tan from her beach trips), met Wild Bill Hikock, laughed at the best Deadwood tour guide ever, taken a “rollercoaster ride” with a Canadian Indian driver, visited an olde west saloon, posed for pictures in the most ridiculous ways possible. We are entertaining ourselves at every stop.
As I hope you can tell, I am counting the blessings of this journey so far. What a gift it has been. I so appreciate the tireless efforts of those folk who traveled this nation in a wagon, those who labored to create the railroad passes and those who had dreams that they wished to realize regardless of the sacrifice. This has been a truly sentimental journey so far and I know as I have always known how truly lucky I am—family and friends who care and pray for us even as we are apart. Kelsey mentioned last night how truly remarkable it was to think that the stars rising over us had risen over so many of you just hours before. We wish that we were sharing these moments, like the stars, with you.
So as requested, we finally got a sampler platter of our photos up on the sidebar to the right. Please check out the slide show and hopefully the visuals I've been explaining will make a bit more sense. I'll try to keep updating and adding new slide shows in the next few days.
Day 4 was filled with a long train ride from Denver, CO to Salt Lake City, Utah. The almost 15 hour ride was scenic, entertaining, and actually a lot of fun. Not as bad as you might imagine, so if you're considering train travel whatsoever, I say give it a shot! Since I didn't have a full blog entry prepared from our train ride, I'm introducing a new segment that Momma Tate has begun for our viral reality show. Her posts are going to be known as "Musings from Momma Tate." Enjoy! ~Josh
"Musings from Momma Tate" - Day 4
As the sun sets somewhere over Utah, I am thoughtfully watching the horizon from aboard the California Zephyr. Though my blogging will not have Josh’s voice, as my father would say, “I just want you to know some of what I’m thinking.” Day 4 of our adventure has been spent traveling by train from Denver to Salt Lake, and I can hardly believe all that we’ve seen in done over the last three days. I’ve watched the horizon change so dramatically from the vantage point of our plane seats, to the back seat of our rental car and now from the window above the train track. It’s not as though I’ve never traveled anywhere before. My good fortune has been to see America and across the pond, yet this journey has already been filled with so many blessings and laughter. I never knew that Nebraska is subdivided into miles of squares, visible from the sky like a toddler’s jigsaw puzzle. Between Nebraska and Colorado, we were intrigued by the hundreds of circular shapes that dotted the landscape like alien crop circles. This strange practice explains a lot about some of our friends from out here in the heartland. I need an explanation upon my return home from some educated mid-westerner.
People are kinder on trains than on planes. They smile and let people pass dozens of times with a “pardon me,” while the airports are filled with armies of people who don’t seem to trust each other too much, so they look down or huddle with their luggage. In the airport, all sense of good breeding seems lost when they make me hold my arms over my head barefoot while they scan me for nail clippers. I know why, but a woman my age needs more moisturizer than fits in the one quart baggie…at least for three weeks. On the train we can sleep, watch movies, wander into the observation car, read, take pictures and stroll to the dining car like in a 1950’s Bing Crosby film. We’re sharing our train car with about 20 Amish folk from teenagers to the community elders. Plain and Fancy gentlemen, we have identified the married men by their beards. I keep wanting to say “yah” when they ask to pass by.
Over the past few days, I’ve had many moments that were “aha” and “haha.” We were as touristy as humanly possible at Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Yet, there is something humbling about standing at the base of those monuments and marveling at man’s resourcefulness and talents. Along with that awe-inspiring diligence required to complete both projects is the lump-in-the-throat natural beauty of God’s creation. The trees tower over us one moment as we climb the mountainous terrain, and in the next second, fog and sun trade places over the top of the craggy peaks. You can’t take enough pictures of it because it is so wondrous. In Wyoming and South Dakota, herds of deer were interspersed with herds of cattle, both seeming to appreciate the space of the other. An antelope stood proudly by the side of the highway one moment and in the next, a powerful mountain rose out of the landscape. Today, I have watched the Rockies give way to the painted cliffs of Utah, followed the Colorado River as it hosted rafters beside us and listened to the train whistle announce our arrival into each new town.
As for “haha” moments, we have made sure that our friend “Flat Jessica” has had numerous photo ops…she has hung out at the airport in Omaha (very Americana), hung onto Crazy Horse’s arm, rocked out with some Presidents and rode the train (much more quietly than her real-life counterpart). We have ridden a jackalope, impersonated Native Americans In multiple places (Kelsey is still tan from her beach trips), met Wild Bill Hikock, laughed at the best Deadwood tour guide ever, taken a “rollercoaster ride” with a Canadian Indian driver, visited an olde west saloon, posed for pictures in the most ridiculous ways possible. We are entertaining ourselves at every stop.
As I hope you can tell, I am counting the blessings of this journey so far. What a gift it has been. I so appreciate the tireless efforts of those folk who traveled this nation in a wagon, those who labored to create the railroad passes and those who had dreams that they wished to realize regardless of the sacrifice. This has been a truly sentimental journey so far and I know as I have always known how truly lucky I am—family and friends who care and pray for us even as we are apart. Kelsey mentioned last night how truly remarkable it was to think that the stars rising over us had risen over so many of you just hours before. We wish that we were sharing these moments, like the stars, with you.
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