Road Trip: Nashville

Nashville is a city I'm really starting to love, though honestly, I haven't seen that much of it. This past weekend was Parent's Weekend, so Roland and I hit the road Friday in the hopes of seeing Kyle, at least for a little while. We did see him in the afternoon, and then took him and his friend, William out for a great dinner.

Saturday, we knew Kyle would be sleeping late, so we found a great little neighborhood coffee shop, Sky Blue Coffee & Bistro, then after wandering around downtown a bit, we finally found the Ryman Auditorium & Museum. This was really for Roland who discovered that you could record your own CD, and in particular, one of his favorite songs, King of the Road. Once I can figure it out, I'll try to put in here, and you can hear him. He sounds pretty good, but one can really only hear that song so many times.

He's keeping his day job.

We managed to connect with Kyle at lunchtime... notice a theme? Then it was shopping because the poor boy only has 3 pairs of pants, and winter is coming. You gotta know that college boys just don't do laundry that often. Then if it's Saturday in the fall, that means college football, so it was back to the hotel room to watch the UGA-LSU game. We had to leave before it was over (turned out to be a good thing for these Bulldog fans) so that we could head to the Vanderbilt-Ole Miss game. Had a great time, but by the 4th quarter we had had enough.

We love college football. Didn't love this game.

Here's that food theme again... Sunday morning we picked Kyle up at his dorm for brunch, and then the grocery store for snacks for his room. And that was it. Had a great time, and it was nice to see him in his environment. The semester is going great for him, and we're thrilled.

Yep, we really did see the boy. Here's proof.

Road Trip: Stone Mountain, Georgia

Yesterday's road trip wasn't so much of a trip, as Stone Mountain is only about 25 minutes from our house, but somehow, in the 4 years of living in Atlanta, we've never made it there. Of course, as you can see by the picture, our destination was really the Yellow Daisy Festival. It's a huge craft festival with over 500 vendors from around the country, and it was high time we checked it out.

I was not disappointed. There won't be any pictures of the festival though (other than the one you see above) because posted ALL over were signs that pictures were not allowed. Obviously to protect the artists, which I totally understand. But I digress. The usual food was there in abundance, but we arrived after lunch, and a bottle of water was all that was purchased. What will power!

So. How were the crafts you ask? Well, it certainly ran the gamut, but suffice it to say, if you can make it, it was there. Several "repeat" booths, with vendors making virtually the same thing. Lots of hair bows, dog clothes, and picture mats that spelled something. Several booths with prints of original art and photographs. My favorite is always the pottery and we were not disappointed. I only bought one thing, a lovely pottery dish from a fellow Etsian and all around sweet girl, Charity. Another Etsy team member of mine told me to look her up and say "hi", and I was so glad that I did. Both of us were in agreement that we never would have believed that you could truly make good friends on the internet, yet that's exactly what happened. I seem to have subjects for several more posts, so I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, as is our usual fashion, Roland and I zoomed through the festival, probably making it through the whole thing in record time. I did manage to snap a couple of photos of the actual "stone mountain" which is the namesake of this park. The first is the mountain, and the second is an upclose of the carving of three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Hey, what can I say? It's the south.

(see the guy on the right in the white shirt... it's Roland!)

Next month (or maybe in November), I'm planning to hike to the top of the mountain with a friend of mine. It's apparently a pretty easy hike, no real "mountain climbing"! I'll let you know!

Road Trip: Lexington, Kentucky

We hit the road for Labor Day weekend, heading north on I-75 to Lexington. Tomorrow is Laura's birthday, so we wanted to celebrate with her. It's always fun to watch anyone open their presents! We left Saturday morning and missed the dreaded holiday traffic, making it to our hotel in time to watch the UGA-OSU football game. When Laura and Thomas got home from the UK game in Cincinnati, we joined them at their apartment to watch the end of the game. Not the outcome we were hoping though.

Lexington, Kentucky is the horse capital of the world apparently, so Sunday morning after a fabulous breakfast at Alfalfa, we went in search of horses. They have plenty at the Kentucky Horse Park! Here's some:

A birthday dinner was in order, and Lexington delivered up a delicious one at Jonathon's at Gratz Park. It was delightful on the patio! The birthday girl and her fiance:

Walking back to our hotel, we saw the beautiful, twinkly blue lights in true Big Blue University of Kentucky spirit! So, as long as UK is not playing UGA, I can say it... Go Cats!

Labor Day traffic wasn't too horrible on the drive home. We look forward to our next trip!

Road Trip -- Watkinsville

Yesterday was a gorgeous, hot day, and perfect for a little adventure. I had read about a pottery exhibition nearby, and convinced Roland that instead of hanging around the house, we needed to get out. I was just about over my empty nest depression!

Lunchtime saw us heading east toward Watkinsville, a little town just south of Athens. Quite a different drive this Saturday than in recent years when a September Saturday would see us all in red and black, ready to cheer on the Bulldogs. But I digress. Lunch was at a newish sub shop called Submarina, in a strip shopping center on Sugarloaf Parkway. The GPS was on the fritz, due to some unexpected falling off the window last weekend, but how hard can it be to find the Oconee County Arts Foundation building in Watkinsville.

Turns out, a bit harder than expected, but Roland's trusty Nokia phone with GPS got us there! There was 2 parts to this pottery exhibition, called Perspectives 2009: Georgia Pottery Invitational. The first we ventured into was this white building that indicated we would find a giant pottery sale!

Those people on the left were watching a pottery making demonstration. Inside, we found several aisles of treasures!

After roaming the aisles for awhile, and seeing lots of lovely pottery in different styles and techniques, but not buying anything, Roland discovered part 2. Turns out, there was a gallery exhibition as well in another, better airconditioned building. I don't have any pictures of that, but the same artists were represented, but the gallery appeared to show their best pieces. Some of those were for sale, but some were not.

All this pottery viewing left us quite thirsty, and since we were so close, we headed north about 8 miles into Athens. Seemed quite strange not to have anyone to visit (see post about daughter's graduation), but Athens does have a special place in our hearts anyway.

We stopped here, at The Grill, for a milkshake and a root beer float before heading back to Atlanta. Heading home after that, we decided more road trips will definitely be in our future (and not just trips to see football games)!