Blog Title Regrets?

The reason I named my blog "Feathers in My Hair" is because I loved the various fascinators that English people wore at weddings.  It was a random thing I thought about when I had to choose a name for my blog.  I thought it was cute.  I thought it was whimsical.  Now, I'm just like, "Why????"  Apparently, literal feathers in your hair is all the rage right now.  Just one or a few long feathers serving as a strand of your hair.  I don't know what I think.  All I know is that I much prefer the visual of having random feathers just sticking out the top of your head.  Just my opinion.  If you're going to be silly, go all out!  To me, having a feather strand or two that ALMOST blends in with the rest of your hair is right there on the verge of taking yourself too seriously.  I'd rather have the feather factor be all up in my face rather than realizing later that "Wait, you have a feather in your hair!"  Own the feathers, put more in, let them shine!

P.S.  No regrets.  "Feathers in My Hair" is what it is.

Thank you, thank you very much...

     I finally was able to go and visit my nephew in Tennessee this summer.  He lives in a small town in between Memphis and Nashville.  The views on our road trip were just beautiful.  I can't wait to schedule another trip and visit the Great Smoky Mountains.  An amazing part of the trip was the fact that my nephew had no idea that we were visiting.  We drove to his tiny town, watching nothing but fields of corn and silos whiz by.  We pulled up and he comes out and just stares at the car until he realizes that it's us!

   He took us immediately over to his horses, except that they weren't there just yet.  They called them over and they came running up from the meadow and forest.  All five of them!  It's funny...my half Puerto-Rican nephew is a cowboy in Tennessee.  He seemed happy and content with this way of life, no matter if I could never imagine myself living in a similar environment.
    We ended up taking him to Memphis for two days.  We visited Graceland first.  It was funny imagining this grand estate, but the actual mansion is not that big.  But I guess back then it was considered a big house (he only paid $100,000 for it!).  We were given a tour of the inside of the house, as well as the surrounding grounds and additional exhibits.  I always knew Elvis was the King, but seeing all of his records, awards, and posters/memorabilia was just mind-boggling.  After the tour, we saw the gravesite and took pictures.  Another thing that perplexed me was the proximity of the estate to the main road.  There are also neighborhoods on the other side of the fence.  Can you imagine living in a house with a backyard that runs up against Graceland?
     After Graceland, we headed over to our hotel in downtown Memphis.  Right across from the hotel there was Mud Island River Park, which had a mini Mississippi river you could wade in.  It was actually really cool and made to size as it ran through all of the states that it cuts through.  It all ended with a huge swampy pond in New Orleans that led out to a small lake where my nephew and I rode paddle boats.  After that we headed over to Beale Street and some of the other sites in Memphis.

    The next morning we went to the National Civil Rights Museum, which is adjacent to the Lorraine Motel, the site where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  It was very emotional to go through the tour and see the actual hotel room where Dr. King stayed.  The entire tour was intense and I am so glad to say that my nephew payed really close attention to all of the exhibits.  I was a little scared that it would be a waste of money and he wouldn't want to go in, but he really was standing there digesting all of the information.  After the tour, we headed over to the Memphis Zoo where it was ridiculously hot.

Johnny Cash!

     It was sad taking him back home after our adventures in Memphis, but I truly believe that he had a great time.  When we took him back home, he took me on a ride on his go-kart into the woods!  It was kind of scary but cool to go through the woods and then land in an open field with dragonflies buzzing by as we drove.  It was a wonderful trip, a long overdue trip, but I am so happy I got to see him.  I know he was sad when we left but I just hope that he could focus on the positive and be glad that we got to have fun with him while we were up there.  I miss him already :)

The city where my nephew lived is in between Memphis and Nashville, and that's a long stretch of driving.  We wanted to take him to Nashville with us but it would have been too much driving back and forth.  So as we made our way to Florida, we stopped in Nashville for a day.  It just happened to be the Country Music Awards Fest, but it was so much fun!  We did a trolley tour and saw all of the main sights:  the state capitol, the Parthenon, Music Row, and the Country Music Hall of Fame among others.

So it was nice to meet you Tennessee!  We'll meet again soon!

HOTlanta!

Oh, summer vacations always go by so fast!  This summer I had the chance to go to several places.  I first started of by going to Atlanta with one of my good friends, Mandy.  Here are a few pics of the places we hit on our trip to HOTlanta (definitely not an exaggeration...)

We visited the top of Kennesaw Mountain.  It was pretty hazy so the views of Atlanta weren't the best.  It was a really nice hike though.

RANDOM ALERT!  We visited the Cabbage Patch Hospital!  It was just too unbelievable to pass up.  I had to see a Cabbage Patch being born, and we did!  Mother Cabbage was dilated ten leaves! lol.  I was amazed at how all Cabbage Patch babies pretty much always have that distinctive smell.  I'm pretty sure my own still has that smell (wherever she is - in the attic maybe...)

We visited this small northern Georgia town of Helen, which basically was Epcot Germany x1000.  We went tubing down the mountain river and saw lots of interesting sites, including a dog floating down on his own tube, as well as a baby sporting a real mullet. Really...

Random alert again!  GOATS ON A ROOF!  This was so much fun.  It basically is just this roadside attraction where you can feed goats.  I sat on this bike and wheeled a cup of food up to the goats on the roof (they could come up and down as they pleased).  It was odd, but cute!

I had a great time in Atlanta, and I could talk about visiting the Georgia Aquarium, or Olympic Centennial Park or Coca-Cola headquarters....but, I must leave you with this pic of....milkshakes?!  These aren't just regular milkshakes, folks.  These are liquid nitrogen milkshakes from Top Chef All-Star's winner Richard Blaise's burger restaurant, Flip!  Delicious!  What you see here are the Strawberry Shortcake and some kind of toasted marshmallow milkshake.  They were super light and creamy.  Yum! Cheers to Atlanta!