My Bloggable Day

Nashville to Charleston to Savannah

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Bec

Getting to the tail end now! Check out this map:

A lot of driving

Nashville, Tennessee

We left Memphis for Nashville, where we took up temporary residence in a party hostel just a hop skip and a jump from Broadway:

Broadway, for those who don’t know, is:

That’s right

On our first day we wandered up and down Broadway and to the area where all the new and old recording studios are. The most exciting was RCA, where Elvis, Roy Orbison and Dolly Parton all recorded hits.

Roy Orbison’s guitar was on one side:

I don’t think it’s to scale…

And Elvis’ on the other:

That night we danced up a storm in bars along Broadway with excellent people from the hostel.

On our second day, after getting a decent sleep in, we drove out to a plantation called Andrew Jackson’s Hermitude. Because it belonged to the late General (and President Andrew Jackson), who apparently lived or touched everywhere in the South at some point. Remember his giant statue in Jackson Square in New Orleans?

Anyway, Hermitude was his fave and where he retired to after serving as seventh President of the United States way back in the 1800s.

Hermitude

Jacko, for all his esteemed work in the military and other ‘good points’, was a huge fan of having slaves and at one point had 150 living at Hermitude. Some worked on the cotton fields, others in the home etc. Some people think that it’s ok because Andrew Jackson was ‘a good slave owner’ but as the audio tour at Hermitage points out, there really is no such thing.

We took a tour through the house with excellent, informative and engaging guides. Andrew Jackson married his wife Rachel while she was technically still married to someone else, a tidbit that was unsuccessfully played down during Jackson’s campaign for the Whitehouse. Rachel was so nervous about the gossip and bitchiness of the Washington DC socialites that she declared she would never go there. Rachel got her wish. She died, probably from a heart attack, before Jackson’s inauguration. He was heartbroken and never remarried.

Rachel’s garden is one of the highlights of the grounds:

Andrew and Rachel are buried together in the corner.

Nearby is the grave of a slave called Alfred, known also as Uncle Alfred (although calling slaves ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty’ is a contentious issue). Alfred lived at Hermitude his entire life, continuing on when slavery ended to become the first tour guide. When Hermitude got into some financial strife and had an estate sale, Alfred bought some of the furniture from the house. There are excellent photos of him in his modest cabin with a huge, fancy four poster bed in the corner.

Rachel’s garden is still well maintained and there are bees and butterflies buzzing around.

That night a big group of us went out again, this time to east Nashville for less honky tonk more indie rock. We tried bush-wackers (Nashville’s signature drink) and met locals, including a couple called Rebecca and Andrew!

We drove out of Nashville and spent a couple of nights recuperating in the Great Smoky Mountains.

We took a short hike and on our way out of the park saw a mama black bear with her cub. So cute! Onwards to Charleston.

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the epitome of southern charm. It’s clean and pretty and the people are impeccably dressed, very friendly and helpful.

We spent a day wandering around, admiring the candy coloured buildings.

Reminds me of London

Rainbow Row

My favourite

Pink

This street is known as rainbow row

We had a delicious and inexpensive lunch at the Brown Dog Deli. All the salads, sandwiches and wraps on their menu look amazing. I took a very long time choosing.

I had sweet iced tea. I wished it was being poured from a jug on a porch by a local, but whatever.

Andrew had a pulled pork sandwich:

With a side macaroni

And I had a Reuben sandwich, not very Southern.

Sweet potato salad

We grabbed two choc chip cookies to go and decided to eat them by the water.

Thankfully the water wasn’t too far away.

It was definitely in the top 3 cookies I’ve ever had. Gooey and chocolatey and delicious.

“Hurry up and take the photo so I can eat this”

It poured as we made our way out of Charleston. But we stopped by the Angel Oak tree anyway, as it came highly recommended.

Pretty

Savannah, Georgia

I have to admit we didn’t really nail Savannah. I really enjoyed it, but we were kind of tired and trying to save money so we didn’t do all the things. It also rained most of the time.

But we did explore the streets from the main square up to Forsyth Park, which was lovely.

Love that Spanish Moss hanging from the Trees

The fountain

We strolled along and saw a couple get married, buskers, kids playing and dogs trotting happily along.

We drove out of Savannah to our final state, Florida!

Posted in Travel | Tagged America, Charleston, Nashville, Road Trip, Savannah, Tennessee, Travel, USA | 6 Comments

Memphis, Tennessee

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Bec

So after New Orleans we drove to Jackson, Mississippi for one night. I guess we did so only in order to say we’ve been to Mississippi. There was really nothing to Jackson (sorry).

After Jackson we drove on to Memphis, Tennessee. On our first night we had an amazing BBQ dinner at Jim Neely’s Interstate BBQ, but I forgot my camera, so did it ever really happen? I guess we’ll never know. (it happened)

The next morning we headed out to Graceland to see where the King himself lived.

This is me out front:

And this is what happens when you get strangers to take photos of you:

They cut off half the house but include a decent chunk of the driveway… nice

We were armed with iPads for the audio tour, which had a 360 degree view of the room we were in… I guess in case we didn’t want to look up from our screens?!

Sweet living room

We were herded like cattle through the downstairs, wedged between hundreds of middle aged white Americans.

The TV room, complete with creepy monkey

The pool room

The jungle room

The back of the house

Elvis’ signature costumes

It was really interesting to learn about Elvis’ movie career, his time in the military and then his nerves ahead of the big ‘come back’ in the 1970s. The tour really mentioned nothing about his death or any illness ahead of it. It was really sad hearing his iconic music and seeing all the stuff from his heyday, before walking past his grave.

It was quite expensive; $37 each plus $10 to park across the street?! So I found that annoying. Especially when we had to wait half an hour at the end to get a bus 200m from the house back to the car. But I guess you really can’t go to Memphis and not see Graceland.

The Heartbreak Hotel restaurant, we didn’t eat here

For lunch we opted for an authentic fried chicken experience at The Four Way, a Memphis institution since 1946.

We both had fried white meat, Andrew got corn and slaw on the side and I got macaroni and cheese and mashed potato and gravy (hello carbs!).

Look at that smile

We were not disappointed.

Doesn’t the mash and gravy look like ice cream and topping?!

After lunch we headed into the city to check out downtown Memphis.

A visit to the Civil Rights Museum is an absolute must. It chronicles the lives and struggles of African Americans since the beginning of slavery, through segregation in the 1950s/60s to the current era. It was really well presented and informative.

The 1955-1966 Montgomery Bus Boycotts exhibition

The 1960s student sit-ins exhibition

The museum is housed in the old Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jnr was assassinated. The second half of the museum, dedicated to the life and death of MLK Jnr, is located across the street were they believe the fatal shot was fired from. Pretty sad stuff.

That evening we headed to Beale Street to take in some live blues.

We went to a few places but spent most of the night at BB King’s Blues Club. Coincidentally it was the late BB King’s birthday, so his family were all there with a giant cake.

We watched a couple of awesome bands and were keen to stay but (and I realise this sounds totally lame) we were completely freezing in there. The aircon in the south/south east of America is so intense. I’m really not a fan of air conditioning at the best of times, so I’ve been extremely uncomfortable whenever I’ve forgotten to take a jacket with me, you know, in the middle of summer!

Anyway. Memphis, such an awesome city. So great to spend time somewhere with an awesome music scene again.

Posted in Travel | Tagged America, Road Trip, Tennessee, Travel, USA | 5 Comments

Alligators, swamps and bayous

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Bec

It poured with rain on our first day in New Orleans. But you can’t very well go all the way down to the south without seeing a swamp can you? So I put on my non-existent wet weather gear (note to self: buy raincoat) and we jumped on a tour to the Honey Island Swamp, about 45 minutes from New Orleans.

We got on a boat (sadly not an air boat) on the Old Pearl River and took off in search of gators. Alligators.

About a second later we sped past a head:

See the gator poking its head out of the water near the log? Exciting!

We pulled up and our ~~tour guide~~ swamp captain threw some bait out to entice the gators. What kind of bait, you ask?

Marshmallows

Seriously. I guess because they float?! It wasn’t long until we had our first little hungry gator.

“You called?”

They came right up to the boat so we got a good look at these prehistoric weirdos:

Ewww

This one unfortunately had a bit of a chunk missing from its mouth.

According to our guide alligators have iron clad stomachs and can digest entire tortoises. So marshmallows are a breeze.

On we forged

Another contender!

To get the gators to leap majestically in the air, our guide enticed them with hotdogs. The bait was apparently the menu from a child’s birthday party.

Thanks Andrew for this photo

We passed the local swamp village. Before Hurricane Katrina there were 25 families living along the river, only seven returned afterwards. One house was completely lifted off its foundation and washed up in a bayou (a small outlet of the river) about a mile away. It was used as a fishing shack for a little while.

These guys are aware of the reality show Swamp People and unsurprisingly, aren’t fans. Our guide said the producers somehow find the most toothless, slack jawed people around to take part, which reflects poorly on real (fully toothed) swamp people. Reality TV misrepresenting people?! Never!

We went down a bayou and it was really picturesque. Kind of like the bayou scenes in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, have you seen it? I only watched it recently (after we went on this swamp tour) and I constantly have the song Down the Bayou in my head.

Because it’s the end of alligator hunting season, there were fewer around and all of the really big guys were gone. This lady was the largest we saw:

“Mmmm marshmallow”

Chomp

After about two hours of swamp life we headed back to dry-ish land.

Such a fun afternoon.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Alligator, Louisiana, Road Trip, Swamp, Tour, Travel, USA | 6 Comments

New Orleans: the French Quarter and beyond

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Bec

I could have spent about two more ~~days~~ months just walking around the French Quarter admiring the houses and snapping far too many photos. I actually tripped multiple times while we were there because I wasn’t looking where I was going, embarrassing.

Jackson Square is kind of the heart of the French Quarter, with a big statue of old General J on his horse right in the middle. The big church behind the square is St Louis Cathedral, it dates back to the 1700s but the current structure is from 1850.

The inside is remarkably quiet, especially given there is usually a string of loud jazz musicians blowing their instruments right outside the doors.

It’s also quite pretty.

The church burned down in the 1788 fire that destroyed a lot of the city. In 1909 a dynamite bomb was let off inside the church, blowing out the windows and damaging art.

Artists sell their work along the back fence of the church’s garden.

Are you ready for a few thousand house visuals?

Hanging fern game strong

SAMSUNG CSC

Love the colourful facades.

Old & new

On the other side of Jackson Square (not the church side) is a road, then Cafe du monde where you get those amazing beignets and behind that is the Mississippi River.

We watched the Natchez steamboat take off for its sunset stroll.

And admired the pink sky.

City Park is outside the French Quarter and well worth a visit. There is modern art sculpture garden that is really cool, especially if you prefer to be outdoors.

To get there we walked from our hostel in Mid City along Bayou Saint John. (a bayou is a marshy outlet of a lake or a river). The area is very old and very pretty.

Next to the bayou is an 18th century Creole colonial country home called Pitot House.

It was built in 1790 and named after the first ‘American’ mayor of the house, James Pitot (who was actually French).

Eventually we made it to City Park (after I chose and re-chose my future house).

It’s modern art at its finest.

modern art = ‘I could do that’ + ‘yeah but you didn’t’

This cute dog id actually a werewolf

These ‘Love’ sculptures are the Starbucks of the art world, they are everywhere

arty

On our final morning we took a tour of Saint Louis Cemetery 1. It’s one of the cemeteries with the famous above ground crypts created because of New Orleans’ shallow water table (dig 4 feet down and you hit water, not great for burying bodies!).

When I was little I remember my sister telling me about a place were they don’t bury the bodies and I freaked out! Well this is the place. It’s been around since 1789.

Generations of families enter the vaults when they die. A body must be left untouched for a year and a day before the vault can be opened, so it can get tricky if there is more than one death within a year.

After a year all that’s left is ash (it gets pretty hot in there!), so there is plenty of room for everyone.

The vaults are in various states, some crumbling and others immaculate. There was a problem with vandalism so the Roman Catholic Diocese of New Orleans closed the cemetery to the general public. You can only go with a tour group now.

This pyramid vault belongs to actor Nicholas Cage.

Yes really

If you’re a fan of Easy Rider you might recognise this:

Peter Fonda sat in the statue’s lap during the acid trip scene.

It’s estimated that 100,000 people are ‘buried’ in Saint Louis 1.

It’s well worth the trip. We went with Free Tours By Foot, the kind of tour where you pay what you want at the end. We also did their French Quarter tour and it was also excellent.

One tour I don’t recommend is the New Orleans ghost tour. I wish I could remember which company we went with! I’ve tried Google but there are a million of them. We were just so underwhelmed, it cost $25 and it was ‘the only tour to go inside a haunted building’ which was a room above a restaurant. Lame.

Wow that was a long post! I just loved New Orleans. Put it on the top of your list if you haven’t been!

Posted in Art, Travel | Tagged America, Art, Louisiana, New Orleans, Road Trip, Travel, USA | 4 Comments

New Orleans: the music

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Bec

It’s hard to imagine dancing to the dull beat from a DJ’s speakers and enjoying it after the amazing live music we experienced in New Orleans… That is no doubt the most wanky sentence I’ve written on this blog but it’s true. The music was pervasive and intoxicating. It was kind of weird to turn a corner onto a quite street. The musicians there were so talented and playing music seemed like breathing to them; easy, natural and necessary to live.

You don’t even have to step foot inside a venue to experience incredible jazz, blues, rock or blue grass. There is a musician on just about every corner.

These guys were in front of Jackson Square, playing in the rain:

Loveable tunes like ‘Life is a cabaret’ and ‘When the Saints go marching in’.

This group were jamming together making the most unimaginable noise I’ve ever heard (still not sure if it was good or bad):

LOUD.

And this solo trumpeter was seriously talented:

Two days in a row we stumbled across Yes M’aam on Royal Street:

They are a country/blues band and spoke to my soul. I will never be half as cool as the girl on the washboard with the cigarette hanging from her mouth. Check out their facebook and look them up if you’re in NOLA.

So, the most famous street in New Orleans is Bourbon Street. It’s the one with the balconies where guys throw beaded necklaces to girls who flash their boobs during Mardi Gras. The one that is tacky and full of tourists clutching neon cocktails, where the bars blast Pit Bull or Kesha.

Promise me you won’t go there?

Ok, you can go there once to see it but then leave. The place you need to go is Frenchmen Street. It’s outside the French Quarter in the 7th ward or the Faubourg Marigny neighbourhood.

There is plenty of street music there.

And every single bar along the street has the most amazing live music you will every experience.

Maison was my favourite.

Big Easy Ballers at Maison

On the second night we went there a band called Musical Expression started their set with Beyonce. Enough said.

Musical Expression

Cafe Negril had a reggae band on the night we were there and I’m not sure I’ve ever danced so much in my life. We also loved Bamboulas, the band we saw there had a drummer with no hands. Seriously. And he was amazing.

If you need further convincing to go to Frenchmen Street (which I’m sure you don’t), there is also a really cool night market open Thursday through Monday.

New Orleans and regional artists sell art, jewellery and other crafty items.

I don’t think I’ve ever loved a street so much. Sitting in a gutter there eating jerk chicken at 3am with my boyfriend after dancing up a storm is one of my favourite memories of all time.

I can’t wait to go back.

Posted in Travel | Tagged America, Music, New Orleans, Road Trip, Travel, USA | 3 Comments

New Orleans: the food

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Bec

New Orleans quickly and dramatically elbowed its way to the top of my list of all time greatest cities in the world, ever. I immediately loved everything about it; the rich and complicated history, the Spanish architecture, the friendly and resilient locals, the convenient cable cars, the city parks and the damn good music on every corner. Oh and the food.

The food.

The food will send your taste buds into a tailspin, whether its a giant and satisfying Po’ Boy, zesty cajun shrimp, a creole gumbo, deep fried alligator or a fluffy french beignet doused in powdered sugar. We don’t usually eat out every day (budget restraints) but we loosened the reigns for New Orleans. Below is everything we ate and loved.

Jackson Square

Royal House

On our first evening in New Orleans we were wandering around the French Quarter, starving after a day of driving, when we came across Royal House. To be honest we were exhausted and in a bit of ‘anything will do’ mood when we took a seat on the balcony. Thankfully our gamble paid off and we were not disappointed.

Across the street is the oldest and one of the most expensive restaurants in New Orleans, Antoine’s. The place has been around for 170 years! Impressive.

What is this face?

Here’s a tip, if you check-in on Yelp you get a free appetiser. We chose the spinach dip.

For main course I had blackened shrimp and jambalaya; a classic New Orleans rice dish with chicken and andouille sausage sautéed with peppers and onions topped with shrimp.

It was amazing.

Andrew had an alligator Po Boy. The story goes that in 1929 a restaurant in New Orleans began providing free sandwiches to the streetcar conductors who went on strike for 4 months. The strikers were jokingly referred to as ‘poor boys’ and soon the sandwich took on the same name, eventually shortened to Po’ Boys. There are hundreds of kinds of Po Boys, with beef, ham or friend seafood inside.

Carbs!

The alligator tasted exactly like popcorn chicken.

Sitting on that balcony, watching the world go by below us and catching the odd few notes from a busker somewhere nearby was very relaxing. An excellent start.

Cafe du Monde

The original Cafe du Monde opened in the French Market in 1862 and is famous for its beignets. A beignet is a square piece of dough, fried and covered in powdered sugar. Beignets were brought to New Orleans by the Acadians, French colonists who settled in the Acadia region of Canada. The word ‘Cajun’ originates from ‘les Acadians’.

It’s customary to have beignets with a cafe au lait (coffee with milk).

They aren’t conservative with the sugar

They are amazingly doughy and sweet and yummy.

Cafe du Monde is always packed with tourists, but so worth it. It’s open 24 hours.

Napoleon House

Napoleon House was recommended to me by our walking tour guide and boy am I glad we followed it up. The place just oozes history; the building dates back to 1797 and was named so because it was intended as a residence for Napoleon Bonaparte after his exile. The plan to smuggle Napoleon to Louisiana was apparently thwarted by his death in 1821.

The building’s first occupant was the mayor of New Orleans. The bar and restaurant have existed there since about the end of Prohibition.

The inside is absolutely charming, with pictures (many of Napoleon) dotting the crusty walls and scrubbed wooden tables welcoming the hungry and thirsty.

The place is renowned for its Pimms cups, which I find strange as England failed miserably at taking New Orleans. I ordered the seasonal Pimms cup and it was delicious.

The prices were so good, that I think we got ahead of ourselves by ordering the cheese platter. After all the place had a French name, but it was still America cheese which I find pretty bland.

The cheese was pretty tasteless, but at least it looked good

Main course was far superior, I had seafood gumbo:

Delicious

And Andrew ordered half an Italian muffaletta, a huge sandwich with two kinds of meat and three kinds of cheese and olive tapenade.

Yes that is *half* a sandwich

The waiters, who were all delightfully surly, didn’t rush us out the door at all which was strange given the massive line the was starting to form at the door.

We sat there and people watched, ordering more drinks like the jerks we are.

The bill for two beers, a Pimms cup, a glass of wine, a cheese plate, seafood gumbo, a half muffeletta and an espresso came to $56. Crazy!

Mike’s Cajun Pub & Grub

On our final evening we took a ghost tour (not at all worth $25 each, sadly) and went to grab an easy dinner beforehand. We ended up at Mike’s Cajun Pub & Grub outside the French Quarter.

You could get as many wings as you like for 50 cents. I love happy hour.

Wings with buffalo sauce and blue cheese sauce

We also shared a Po’ Boy, because I hadn’t tried one yet.

Cochon De Lait: roast pork, fries, hot sauce, pickles & gravy between French bread

It definitely lived up to expectation. It was game day so we watched the Saints lose to Arizona.

Sunset in the French Quarter

The food alone is a good enough reason to travel to New Orleans. But there are so many more, next up; the music!

Posted in Travel | Tagged America, New Orleans, Road Trip, Travel, USA | 6 Comments

Adventures in Austin, Texas

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Bec

Austin is one of the coolest cities in the US. It has an incredible music and arts scene, great food and is chock full of students (usually a good marker of a progressive place). It’s also known as the least conservative place in Texas, but it’s still very much part of the Lone Star State!

See? A giant Texas star

On our first night we headed out to Sixth Street, the main bar strip, with a bunch of Aussies from our hostel. Such a fun night. Again I have no photos!

Austin is the capitol of Texas, so we got to see another one of these:

Have seen the same building in Olympia, Boise & Salt Lake City!

Only this one is bigger than all the others (including the Capitol in Washington DC apparently) because, you know, it’s Texas. The inside is different of course.

Pretty

The roof

As you can see we weren’t the only ones there

After a wander through the Capitol and a quick look at a museum we didn’t know you are meant to perchase tickets for (awkward) we grabbed the car and drove 30 minutes of out town to Driftwood, Texas.

Why Driftwood? Well about a year ago Andrew and I were watching an episode of Man vs Food when we learnt of a BBQ place called The Salt Lick. We vowed we would make it there.

The Salt Lick has been around since 1967 and is one of the few places that still cooks meat on an open oak wood fire. Their brisket is cooked in a closed smoker for 17 hours and then put on the open fire for 4-6 hours. The ribs are done for about 3 hours. All this results in the most delicious, smokey, tender, sticky/sweet meat you have ever tasted.

This is where they do the final smoking:

We got there at about 2pm and were completely starving having had a strategically small breakfast. We had a bit of a wait ahead of us so we grabbed some popcorn in the courtyard to tide us over.

Kind of unnecessary given the food to come…

We ordered ‘Family Style’ all you can eat brisket, sausage, pork ribs, potato salad, cole slaw and beans. Here is an awful photo of me that serves only to show how excited I was:

Foooooood

Seriously, look at this plate of meat:

Sides, I tried not to fill up on these

We managed 1.5 plates of meat and took the rest home.

Our second meat plate, even bigger than the first

We were stuffed full to the brim, but convinced we wouldn’t be back at BBQ place in the middle of Texas again any time soon we split a slice of pecan pie. Topped with a giant scoop of ice cream.

So. Damn. Good.

I was painfully full. But it was completely worth it!

A cactus in a boot #Texas

Thank you Salt Lick, you were everything I dreamt of.

That night we went to check out Austin’s famous bats. About two million bats live under a bridge in the middle of the city. Bizarre. Every night around sunset the bats fly out from underneath the bridge to go and eat bugs. People line the bridge and flock the the river banks to get a good spot.

You spend ages looking at the sky wondering what (if anything) is happening, and then:

They are really tiny and fly really erratically. So strange!

Sunset

The next day we went to check out some of Austin’s street art. It wasn’t hard to find.

A mural of the city

A mural of Texas

Graffiti Park at Castle Hills (Hope Outdoor Gallery) is a three story art project. I can’t find any information on what used to be there but it looks like the bare bones of an old building, covered in graffiti.

There is a pretty good view from the top level:

Looking out over Austin

On the walk back to the hostel we noticed a cute old BBQ place.

The inside walls were blackened and smokey from over 70 years of barbecuing.

Seriously authentic

The menu was delightfully simple.

Despite having gorged ourselves the day before we decided to share a mixed (chopped brisket and sausage) sandwich.

It was glorious. We also had RC colas, which apparently are a southern thing? I’d never heard of them.

❤

That night we went out with more hostel people to Rainey Street, which is far more low key (no bucking bull machines!) and cool than Sixth Street. We saw some goose bump inducing live jazz and ended up sampling Whataburger at 3am. Good times.

As far as I’m concerned Austin is an absolute must-see. Have you been?

Posted in Travel | Tagged America, Austin, Road Trip, Texas, Travel, USA | 3 Comments

Arriving in Texas

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Bec

So I’m only just over a week behind ‘real time’ in terms of blogging our trip, but we’ve done so much stuff lately that I feel like I have some serious catching up to do. As someone who leans towards procrastination, this is kind of a nightmare… But as I am currently holed up in a gross motel in Jackson, Mississippi, I can see no better time than the present to tell you about Texas.

I had been pretty darn tootin’ excited to get to Texas; the accents, the BBQ, ranches, the music and the fact that everything is just bigger (or so popular culture has led me to believe).

The first thing we saw when we pulled off the highway at a place called Amarillo was Cadillac Ranch:

It’s an art installation, a row of 10 Cadillacs stuck in nose-dive position and covered in graffiti. They’ve been there since 1974 and there are plenty of cans of spray paint lying around if you feel artistically inclined.

Years and years and layers and layers of paint have made for a weird, bubbly texture all over the cars, especially the tires.

I am not in the least bit patriotic, so I have no idea why I did this:

Weird

We spent an uneventful evening in Amarillo and then drove to Dallas.

A word about the roads in Texas, I think whoever designed them must have been inspired by a bowl of spaghetti. There are a million roads and about half a million exits winding around in different directions, a lot of which aren’t numbered. Google maps was no help whatsoever, but after a few false freeway exits and inevitable re-entries we made it to our hostel between Dallas and Fort Worth. There are no hostels in Dallas itself?!

That evening we had an impromptu night out with a bunch of dudes from our hostel (I was literally the only gal staying there) at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth. Billy Bob’s is a giant honky tonk nightclub. How giant? Well it has room for 6,000 people and 20 bar stations. Things really are bigger in Texas. Unfortunately I have no photos to show you! I always forget to take photos when we are out at night.

Later the next day after some recovery time we made it into downtown Dallas. We went straight to Dealey Plaza to take in some history. The cross on the road marks the spot where President John F Kennedy was fatally wounded by a gun shot in 1963.

There were people running onto the road during a break in traffic to take pouty selfies with the cross. So bizarre. There were also JFK assassination conspiracy theorists selling their DVDs and pamphlets and a big sign pointing to the grassy knoll:

Some people believe a shot was fired from the grassy knoll

The whole area was a very strange kind of tourist attraction.

The former Texas Book Depository; Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots from the 6th floor

After wandering around outside we headed up to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. They have preserved the crime scene up there and added a comprehensive exhibit and timeline of the JFK assassination. It was incredibly well done and incredibly moving.

The view from the 6th floor to where the President’s motorcade was

We wandered around downtown afterwards but there didn’t seem to be much going on, the football was on so I think everyone was either at the game or watching it.

The next day we braved the roads again and drove to Austin.

Posted in Travel | Tagged America, Dallas, Road Trip, Texas, USA | 2 Comments

5 things to love about Santa Fe, New Mexico

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Bec

I really knew nothing about New Mexico before we arrived, except that Breaking Bad was filmed and set in Albuquerque. While unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop in the city now best known for crystal meth and Walter White, we did get to check out Santa Fe. It was fantastic. An absolute hidden gem. Here are 5 things to love about the place:

The architecture

Santa Fe has a very interesting and complex history involving Spanish, Mexican and Native American roots. As a result there is a fascinating mix of architecture, but adobe style mostly dominates. Adobe architecture is characterised by mud bricks and flat roofs with exposed wooden vigas (beams).

I love it. Looks completely unlike the buildings at home.

The city is laid out in a Spanish style, with the streets radiating out from a central plaza.

Art is everywhere

Santa Fe (population less than 70,000) is home to over 200 art galleries. 200! But it doesn’t stop there, you don’t even have to go inside a gallery to see art:

We went inside just one gallery, Blue Rain, and saw some incredible works by Erin Currier:

And others:

Around the corner is the impressive Sante Fe Performing Arts Centre and Burro Alley:

Where you can hang with the resident burro (donkey).

Not even the state capitol building is immune, it’s pretty much just a giant gallery (what politicians?):

Bison head made from trash

It feels like you’ve been transported to Europe

If the adobe architecture isn’t enough to transport you to a small village in colonial Spain, how about this:

Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi.

A statue of the first Native American Saint

Seriously. It was kind of weird, I didn’t feel like we were in America at all!

Until I saw the odd reminder, like this delightful yellow fire hydrant:

❤

Chiles

Chiles (which seem to be a combination between a chilli and a capsicum, please tell me if I’m wrong!) are New Mexico’s pride and joy, although they are a pretty big deal throughout the south west. Adrienne made us delicious breakfast burritos with green chiles when we were in Tucson.

They come in various colours and feature heavily on menus, make an appearance on the state sign (did you notice on the photo at the top of this post?!) and dried chiles hang everywhere.

Out the front of shops, from porches, at hotels, everywhere.

Cute

Great street food

Another food related reason to love Santa Fe can be found in the city’s central plaza, where the intoxicating scent of chargrilled corn will reach your nostrils faster than your feet can carry you to the stand. Street food!

Hot dogs, burritos, fajitas, corn, sno cones and other delights can be found very cheaply around the square. We went here:

So adorable, how could we not?

And had an incredible pork tamale each.

Have you been? I definitely recommend squeezing Santa Fe into your next trip if you can manage it. I wished we had been there for longer.

Posted in Art, Travel | Tagged America, Art, New Mexico, Road Trip, Santa Fe, Travel, USA | 2 Comments

Tucson, Arizona

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Bec

As I’m sure you can imagine it was kind of tough to leave Malibu, but the weather had soured a bit and we were really excited to get back on the road again to visit more relatives.

We thought we’d ease back into things with just a casual 8 hour drive.

Totally kidding, can you see how far this is?!

Our next stop was Tucson, Arizona, to visit Andrew’s second cousin (? Actually I’m not even sure if they are technically related!) Jason and his wife Adrienne.

Back into Arizona!

It was a very long drive and just as we were getting into Tucson we encountered an amazing lightning storm. We managed to dodge the rain, which came later, and had an incredible home cooked meal involving green chiles (which are a big thing in the south west) as we caught up with Jason and Adrienne, the talented chef.

The next morning the four of us went for a hike in a nearby state park that was absolutely packed with giant saguaro cactuses. I have somewhat of a cactus obsession (I think it started in Palm Springs), so naturally I took a million photos.

The heavy rainfall from the night before created a system of babbling creeks and waterways that we had to navigate along the way, it was so much fun.

Mastering the creek crossings

The rain also brought out Southern Arizona’s cutest critter, the desert tortoise:

So adorable!

I didn’t even know desert tortoises were a thing and we got to see a baby one; too good!

Meanwhile here’s a photo of Andrew and I next to a saguaro for scale:

Nuts

Some more cactus visuals:

Fun fact: you can say either ‘cactuses’ or ‘cacti’ as the plural of ‘cactus’. The latter is latin, the former is English.

An almost perfect cactus

Oh and there were plenty of other spiky things closer to the ground, ready to stab an unsuspecting walker.

That evening Jason and Adrienne took us out to a fun Mexican place called Blanco. They had amazing margaritas and other cocktails.

❤

I had prawn tacos for main course, there is corn in that little bowl that will knock your socks off. Luckily I wasn’t wearing socks.

Delicious

On the way home we caught an incredible sunset:

Can you see all the cactuses on the hill? They are everywhere!

Arty

It was so beautiful. I wish we could have stayed longer, Tucson was really awesome and completely unlike anywhere we had been. I’m so envious Jason and Adrienne get to live there all the time! Thanks so much for having us. And thanks again to Andrew, for having so many excellent relatives.

Posted in Travel | Tagged America, Arizona, Road Trip, Travel, Tucson, USA | 6 Comments