Memphis & Graceland

OK, next stop Memphis. Obviously the main attraction here was Elvis so we went straight over to Graceland as soon as we got to town. The weather had suddenly got pretty warm. Well warmer than I have been in for a long time.

We grabbed a ticket to check out Graceland and then we got on the mini bus that took you across the road to the house. I'm pretty sure they employ some special people at Graceland because the greeter we got was not quite right. He spoke really slowly and paused between words and at one stage he looked at me and winked. But the whole thing was in super slow motion with a few twitches in between and although its hard for me to explain to you now, I'm sure no one that was there will ever forget it. Christian is still winking at me like that at least twice a day.

Anyway, it was an audio tour of the house. The rooms have all been kept as they were when Elvis was living there. He purchased the house in 1957 when he was 22 years old. It cost him $100,000.

This is the TV room. It had three TVs because Elvis had heard that one of the presidents used to watch all three news channels at once so he didn't miss anything, so he wanted to do the same.

This is one of the games rooms. And yes, that's fabric on the roof.

They also have a section dedicated to Elvis' cars. Here's his famous pink Cadillac.

He was also into toys like all boys are and he loved racing round the property is his golf carts. Here's some of them...

And, what self respecting superstar wouldn't have their own private plane. Here's a pic of the Lisa Marie. He had a smaller plane too, but this one had a bedroom, dining room and several smaller rooms.

And at some point Elvis' body was moved to Graceland and he is now buried there with his mother, father and grandmother. There is also a memorial there to his stillborn twin brother Jesse. And all the flowers you see were sent my Elvis fan clubs etc. Apparently they arrive almost everyday.

That night after Graceland we went off to Beale Street which is the main street in Memphis. There was a bit of a bikie gathering and the atmosphere was awesome. Not like angry bikies, but more like bike enthusiasts.

Also, we saw the cops riding around on these things. haha. How embarassing!

After wandering up up down Beale Street we went to check out the local speciality, bar-b-q pork. Here's a platter we got with pulled pork, pork ribs, some chicken and sides. Yes, it was tasty.

Honky Tonk City

Well it's about time I got around to posting something I suppose so here goes.

We stopped over in Nashville for a night and took the opportunity to do some sightseeing and visit some of the Honky-Tonks.

Oh but before I start on that, did you know that Nashville has a full sized replica of the Parthenon? Seriously. They use it as an art gallery. It was built for some Tennessee Centennial Exhibition in 1897. The locals liked it so it stayed, cool huh?

This is a local specialty called Honky-Tonk Lemonade. It's basically a Long Island Iced teas, minus the tequila but with blue curcao and maybe some vodka or something.

Anyways, the reason I've put up a photo of a cocktail is that it was they way we started off our night in Nashville. We decided a tour was the way to go. A bus and driver picked us up from the hotel, drove us past a few historic sites and down the main drag, bought us a drink, gave us a dinner voucher and let us loose until pick-up time. Fun, fun, fun!!

The next place we stopped in was the Wild Horse Saloon. it just so happpened that the night we were there was the night a reaity TV show called 'Can you Duet' was being filmed. Think of it as Australian Idol, but with two country singers. It was pretty cool to watch an act or two and see behind the scenes of a show taping.

We also got dinner at the saloon. I went for some Southern soul food: Catfish with coleslaw, fries and hush-puppies. Hush-puppies are like deep fried dumpling: delicious!!

Well, that's enough of the photos. After dinner we went to a bar across the street with some terrible karaoke, and then Coyote Ugly which was a cheesy movie cash in, but somewhat amusing.

The night ticks on and I must away.

N

The Great Smoky Mountains

Eek, been super busy. Here's a quick update.

The next stop after Virginia was Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I'd organised another awesome cabin. This time we had a spa in each room as well as a big one on the deck. Here's a pic from the outside of the cabin.

And here's one of inside.

The first day we were there it absolutely poured with rain so we couldn't head out into the park. That wasn't a problem though because the area that we stayed was the most touristy place in the world. So off we went to mini golf which we had the choice of about 10 just on one street. We chose one and the woman working there said it was really hard. I got a hole in one on the first hole which probably tells you how hard it was. Not very!!!

The next day we knew we had a clear morning so we got up early and went out into the park. I'd been chatting to a guy in a hiking shop the day before and he'd recommended a 'fun' hike for us to do. So off we went to the Chimney Tops Trail and I laughed as I saw the sign for 2-3 hours of hiking. The first half was really quick and easy but it suddenly got quite steep and the next thing you know we're all struggling a bit. Neil who put away several beers the night before nearly had a spew. And Nate went to urinate in the bushes and fell over on the way back and ended up with a muddy bum. All fairly amusing.

Anyway, here's a pic of me at the start of the hike...

And here's Calli at the top. Apparently you need to climb to the top of those rocks to see the view but it had been raining and it wasn't safe so that was as far as we went.

After that we were going to go for another hike but it started raining and we were fairly unprepared so we went for the scenic drive instead. Here's a few pics from the Roaring Forks Scenic Drive. These are some old houses from when people used to live in the mountains. Here's a picture of one of the houses and also some storage shed they had.

Virginia

So once the sun had come out we jumped in the van and started the journey to Virginia. It's only a couple of hours from DC but it seems a complete world away.

First things first. Wine! The reason I added Virginia to the itinerary is because it's wine country. They haven't been making wine for long (since about the seventies) but there is quite a lot of it now. We saw Prince Michel winery before we got to our accommodation but decided to stop as we were thirsty.

They had quite a few wines on the tasting list but as I was driving the bus I only sampled a couple. They also had this delicious frozen peach Bellini mix which was amazing! But we just bought a few bottles of riesling and we were on our way.

We went to check in to the accommodation at the Lydia Mountain General Store. We were all fairly amused when I asked the guy working there what time they closed and he replied..."we usually close at 7 but I might stay open later coz it's pretty". Ok, so you have to imagine that in a Virginian accent but it was fairly humourous, as were all the people asking "where are y'all from" and commenting "y'all aren't from around here are you?".

Ok so this is a pic of the gang (minus Calli) at the cabin... (please note the rocking chairs on the porch)

And here's a picture of the view...

Calli had done camp America before so she introduced us to S'mores. Basically they are a roasted marshmallow and some chocolate sandwich between two Graham Crackers (which taste like granita biscuits). Here's a pic of our attempt.


The next day I had organised a wine tour so we went around to 4 of the local wineries to sample their wines. The first one we went to was Barboursville and it turned out to be the best of the four, but as usual we didn't buy anything at the first winery. haha. Here's a picture of Christian and I sampling some of their wine.

As I was planning the trip I'd found a website listing crazy things to see in America. Anyway, only a few were on our route but this one was worth the detour. It's in Natural Bridge Virginia and it's called Foam Henge (yes, Foam). And just for comparison I've included one of the real thing. I'm sure you can tell which is which just based on the colour of the sky. haha

The Nation's Capital

Ok, next stop, Washington DC...

I had got myself a cold in New York and was fairly miserable on the 5 hour bus journey down to DC. Once we got to DC the first stop was to pick up the van. It's a Ford E-350, a 12 seater passenger van more commonly known as a mini bus!

Here's a picture of the beast.

It was wet and cold for the 2 days we were in DC and if you look at the photos on Flickr you can see how bad the visibility was. We still managed to check out all the main tourist spots and also had a look at a couple of the Smithsonian museums. Here's a picture on Nathanael with Abe. It was actually quite an impressive statue.

We went to a quiz night on our last night there at the Varsity Grill. It was quite funny as ALL the questions were about America and my knowledge of all the states and every president to ever serve was slightly lacking. That said, we didn't lose. haha.

Anyway, the next day the sun came out!

Nate and the boys had been eyeing up the local frisbee golf course so we jumped in the bus and head down there for an early morning game. Here's a pre-game shot.

We also saw a ground hog which was pretty exciting. We tried to get some photos but he wasn't really that keen. He was cute though:)

New York, New York!

Ok, just a quick one to say we've started our American adventure. Had a great flight on BA and arrived at JFK after about 7 hours from London. Worst airport ever. Waited ages to get through the passport check and were fairly annoyed by the time we got out. All was not lost though...we were in New York!

Once we got on the train to Manhattan a guy got on with a cart and did some magic tricks. All really good and he even pulled a rabbit out of a hat! Not to mention the dove!! We were so impressed that we gave him a dollar. I asked him the rabbits name and he said it didn't have one but that we could name it. So we called him Peter:) Here's a pic of Peter and the magician.

Our first day we just walked around to soak it all in. We walked all the way down Broadway from 103rd to about 14th. It was a pretty long walk but we got to see heaps. We couldn't resist making a stop at M&M world which was just full of merchandise and M&Ms in every possible colour.

That night we went to a gig on the lower East side. We saw Angus and Julia stone who are two Aussies that have been over here supporting an American artist. They were great and the venue was really small so i got to stand about a metre from the stage which is a good thing when you're five foot tall.

When we got back to the hostel and the rest of the gang had arrived. Alaskan airlines didn't put Neil's bag on the flight and the rest of them were delayed hours in Toronto so it was a bit of a fail all round. Anyway we went to bed and got up early for a big day of sight seeing.

So in the morning we went off to check out the statue of liberty and Ellis island. Here's a pic of Neil with Miss Liberty. And as you can see the weather was fantastic.

After that we decided to take advantage of the clear day and head up the Rockefeller Centre. Here's a pic of the view over to the Empire State Building.

The next day we went to check out Ground Zero and then wasted time lining up to get tickets for a show but when we got there we couldn't justify the $120 USD. That's a lot with the crap exchange rate! After that we then spent most of the day wandering through Central Park. Here's a pic of one of the friendly locals.

Anyway, Nate wanted me to include a picture of his Philly Cheesesteak, so here it is. It was very tasty. If you've never heard of it before then wikipedia can explain it to you:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesesteak

Also had to inlcude a picture of the Snuggie. We saw an advert for this and couldn't believe it existed. It's a blanket with sleeves! I love America already. Here is a pic of Christian with a Snuggie at ToysRus. He is seriously going to buy one. haha. It says on the box that you can wear it to sporting events and on aeroplanes! I'm sure I'll be posting a pic of Chrizb wearing one soon enough.

Brighton (and Hove)

OK, so our last UK trip was to the seaside. Hooray for pebble beaches! My cousin lives down in Hove so we went for a weekend to visit. We waited until the end of March in the hope that the weather would be a bit nicer and the sun definitely came out on Saturday but you can tell by the clothes and the very ominous looking clouds that it was not exactly summery yet. Not to mention the large balls of ice that fell from the sky later that afternoon.

We walked from Richard's house along the seafront down to Brighton. We grabbed a gelato along the way (hey we are at the beach right?) and then we stopped in a penny arcade which had a huge selection of vintage arcade games. You actually had to swap your cash for old pennies so you could play them. It was really cool. I couldn't resist the fortune teller woman like in the movie Big. Anyway, here's a picture of Richard with my fortune. You probably can't read it but the last line warned me to "be wary of men with beards". haha

Next we moved on to the doughnut for a few photos. What Nathanael is pointing at is actually a hole in the shape of Australia.

After taking some pictures of crazy British people laying on the beach in their winter clothes we moved on to Brighton Pier.

We then proceeded to waste money on those 20 cent like machines. Only these ones took 2p or 10p coins. Nate and Richard also had a go at killing some zombies and then it was time for Dolphin Derby! Richard had told me about this one before we got down there so I was looking forward to it. Basically you all sit in front of the game and roll balls into different holes which are worth different points (does that make sense?). The higher points make your dolphin move further.

Anyway, I was concentrating so hard on the first go but going really slowly because I didn't know what I was doing. Next thing you know, I look up and Flipper Dipper (my dolphin) is winning!! Anyway, here's a pic of me and the shark that I won.

Nate managed to get himself a yoyo. Unfortunately he wasn't skilled enough to win dolphin derby like some people. haha

On Sunday Richard took us up to a very windy Devil's Dyke. Here's a picture of Nate looking out over the South Downs (or maybe he's looking at the North Downs?). Either way it was very picturesque and I got to see heaps of gypsies on the way up there so that made my day as I've been waiting to see gypsies for ages.

After that there was just time for a proper Sunday lunch complete with delicious chocolate bread and butter pudding that I probably shouldn't have eaten. It was tasty though.