Birthday weekend in Clarksville, TN

To continue our 3 weekend travel streak, we met my parents in Tennessee for my 26th birthday. I have driven through Clarksville on my way to my parents house in South Carolina, but I had never stopped and explored this city. First impression: its bigger than it looks!

Friday was my actual 26th birthday, so I took the day off work and spent the morning cleaning up the apartment and renewing my drivers license.

By the way, here's to another GORGEOUS license picture :)

I'm glad that the bouncer at one of the places we went in Memphis last weekend said something about my license expiring soon or I would have completely forgotten about it.

We ended up leaving our apartment a little before 11am, and drove separate vehicles so that we could drop Micah's off at his parents' for his dad to look at his brake pads and replace them. We stopped in Salem to eat a birthday lunch at our favorite restaurant, Sakura. I invited Luke and he met us and we spent the next hour eating and talking. Then we stopped by to drop off his car and we made the three hour drive to Tennessee. 

I drove most of the way, which was surprising for me. Usually Micah drives when we go somewhere but since it was my car, I felt like I should drive some. My parents made it to Clarksville on Thursday. Since they brought their greyhound, Heidi, we stayed at the La Quinta, which is a pet friendly hotel. 

It is very nice! Our room is clean, the staff is wonderful, and the hotel, itself, is very nice. The breakfast is complimentary and they have a mixture of cereal, waffles, and hot food (scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, etc.) We got into Clarksville around 5:30pm, dropped off our things at the room and went to Rafferty's for dinner. I had never been to a Rafferty's before, they have burgers, sandwiches, soups, salads, etc. I got the house salad and a cup of black bean soup. At the end of our meal, I got a free scoop of ice cream for my birthday and we went back to the hotel and spent some time talking and catching up.

I slept really terribly the first night. Micah and I watched most of the Great and Powerful Oz, which was what was playing on TV that night. I don't think the movie had anything to do with me sleeping poorly, but for some reason I did.

Saturday morning I got up and had breakfast downstairs in the hotel lobby with my parents and by the time we were finished, Micah was up and we got ready to head to BeachHaven winery for a tour of the facility. It was very interesting! I had never toured a winery before and we learned about grapes and their process of making wines.

At the last end of the tour we got to see all of their barrels that were carved by a delightful 93 year old man. He makes them for the winery for all of their special events and then the winery stains and seals them and keeps them as decorations.

We were even able to get a decent picture of all four of us at the end of the tour! 

From BeachHaven Winery, we stopped back at the hotel and checked on Heidi and went to Outback Steakhouse for lunch. I was still wearing my birthday ribbon from yesterday and I got a free cupcake from Outback after our lunch. 

We were most excited to do the Escape Room, which mom had booked for us at 1:30pm. We did the Brother's Keeper room and without giving away any of their secrets, I can honestly say it was so much fun! Frustrating, but fun! I think if we had about 15 more minutes we would have escaped, we had one of the two final numbers we needed but in the end, we were caught and didn't save our friend Vlad. 

From Excape Games, we headed back towards the hotel to the glow in the dark mini golf course. D&D Blacklight Mini-Golf was located a few buildings down from our hotel. We could have walked there but since we were on our way back anyways, we just stopped in. What makes this glow in the dark course unique is that they give you the option to put on 3D glasses. Micah wore his most of the time, and I wore mine for a couple of holes. I will say though, I wore the 3D glasses on the first hole and I got a hole-in- one! But after that, my winning streak was over.

After the 18th hole, you turn in your putter and golfball and they have a basket with flourescent markers that you can go sign their wall with. There was also a sign that said "climb other people at your own risk". I imagine they put that up because there was writing on the ceiling and people were standing on shoulders in order to do so. We were not that exciting, and we found a place on the regular wall to write our names.

That evening we went to the mall in search of new shoes for Micah, since his were falling apart. We did find some, but we had to order them because the store didn't have his size. We walked around for a little while longer and ended the evening by picking up a pizza from Old Chicago Pizza and ate it together in the lobby. The pizza was good, but it was soggy. The crust wasn't thick enough to support all of the toppings they put on, so it was hard to eat without a fork because everything was falling off. We all went to bed pretty early that night, and there wasn't anything on TV so Micah indulged me and let me watch Ghost Adventures.

It was a short trip, as we left the next morning after breakfast, but I had a wonderful time. I'm so glad that I have parents that are willing to travel and want to do fun things together even though we live 700 miles apart. I look forward to our next adventure together, the four of us!

26: Another year older

I'm a few days late, but.. I'm officially 26. Where is my life going? I am already mid-twenties on the back half of my way to 30. WHAT?!

So originally, I was going to try to do something fun like, 26 things you might not know about me, or 26 random facts about me- something along that line- but.. I couldn't come up with that many things about myself. Plus, we have been travelling and I'm not always the best at time management since I hit the ground running every day. (Sometimes, literally running- since I'm training for my next race)

I think it's worth also mentioning that as of two days ago, this blog is exactly a year old. I've had fun doing this for the past year, and for now, I think I'd like to continue with it. That might change in the future, but I feel like this is a good outlet for me to record our trips and I have had several people tell me that they enjoy reading about our adventures. Thanks for the encouragment!

Alright, without furter ado, let's see if I can come up with 26 things about myself to tell you.

1. I like the smell of skunk! - call me crazy, but I think it smells good. I wouldn't want a skunk candle, or perfume or anything, but it doesn't bother me when we pass one that has been hit on the highway.

2. From the time I was a child, I was fascinated with space. When I was a high school senior, I was accepted into (and received several scholarships for) an engineering school in Missouri where I seriously contemplated going into Aeronautical Engineering and trying to pursue a career working for NASA. I still toy with the idea sometimes..in my dreams

3. I've been to 8 foreign countries, 10 if you count switching flights in Canada and taking a train across Belgium to get to the Netherlands.

4. I love flowers. I think it would be very cool to have my own flower garden and sell bouquets on the side as a hobby.

5. Purple is my favorite color.

6. Blue is a close second

7. Growing up, my grandmother was my rock, the one who made me who I am today. She taught me to cook, how to clean and iron clothes, disciplined me when I needed it, and helped me with anything she could. I still keep a picture of her and me in my kitchen today. It makes me feel like she is there with me, helping me cook, and laughing when I don't use the measuring cups and just dump the ingredients in the palm of my hand and say "that's about right"

8. My best friend and I were inseparable growing up. My mom (and my best friend's mom, Linda) called the two of us girls "Caligula and Nero" or "Rufus and Doofus"..I was doofus.. thanks, Mom. We even looked at getting me bunk beds for my room because Callie was over so much.

9. Callie and I also had our own written language that we wrote notes to eachother in grade school in. Even if we dropped them or on several occasions when the teacher took them away, we knew that no one could read them except for us. I still have that sheet where we wrote down our symbols for each letter and made our own alphabet. Looking back, I wish we would have taken the time to learn something useful today, like the Russian alphabet or something. How cool would it be to have taught ourselves Russian in the 4th grade?

10. I have been seriously considering volunteering to be the assistant girls tennis coach at a school near our current city.

11. I like the smell of printed paper. Maps, books, new magazines...and especially those brochures that gas stations and rest areas have about the different tourist attractions in the area

12. I've come to really enjoy running. This has developed within the last year when I started training for my first half marathon. I have always hated running, and I chose to do the half-marathon to prove to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to. Now that I have a solid base under me, running is actually soothing after a long or stressful day.

13. I have a (somewhat) irrational fear of trains.

14. I hate bell peppers. Green, yellow, red, blue with pink polka-dots...I HATE them. They taste like dirty socks and I will pick them out and off anything that has them in it.

15. I love children and can't wait to someday have my own

16. I have worn the same toe ring on my second toe since I was 8 years old. In fact, it doesn't come off. My foot has grown, and my toe has a permanent indentation where it has grown around the ring. It doesn't hurt or cut off circulation, so as far as I'm concerned, it will be there when I die.

17. I have a fear of flying. This has developed over the last few years and has gotten worse. We had a very turbulent flight our last visit to Hawaii, and I swore I would never go back over that stretch of ocean again. I had a panic attack coming back home from my parents' this last time. My love for travel will always win out, but I'm going to have to do something to cope with flying. I've got a world to see!!

18. I love ice cream. You want the key to my heart? Bring me ice cream.

19. I love writing. I am even throwing a few ideas around in my head to write a children's book

20. My favorite US city is Charleston, SC. I love everything about it. The hospitality, the food, the cleanliness, the horse-drawn carriages.. it is simply enchanting.

21. I love to cook. Not all of the recipes I try out are winners, but my husband is always encouraging and when I do make something good, it makes me feel accomplished.

22. My shoes size is 8.5 but I have to buy 9's most of the time because many shoe brands don't carry half sizes.

23. I hate shopping. I buy my clothes online when I can, and usually will wear my clothes until they have holes or rip. And after that I will wear them around the house...

24. I love baseball! (And I'm super excited for Cardinals baseball season to start in a few weeks!)

25. I believe in vacations, and days off. Yes, I understand having to work and pay bills and responsibility.. But it floors me that people let their work vacation time go to waste.  You're getting PAID TO NOT GO TO WORK! ..take advantage of that! I will never be so immersed in a job that I don't take time to make memories with my family.

26. I believe in love. There are still good people out there and there are happy marriages. I am so fortunate to have both.

Memphis: More to do! (Part 1)

It's Saturday morning and I've managed to sleep until 7:55am. Micah is to my right on the couch and Luke is on the other cot to my left. We set our alarms for 8am (darn my internal clock and being 5 minutes fast). In leiu of going out for breakfast, we decided to make it ourselves with Drew's groceries. I made breakfast sausage, scrambled eggs with cheese, and biscuits. Drew neglected to tell me that his stove was gas, so it scared me when I went to turn it on.

After we all ate, we headed off to the Pink Palace Museum, which opened at 9am. I saw this museum online and it was described as a "Memphis history/history of the south" museum. Instantly, I was interested. I love history, and this was someplace that none of us had been to. The price was a little steep, at $12.75/per adult, but it was two floors and I figured, why not try it out. The first floor was filled with prehistoric fossils and animal skeletons. They had everything from a dog and cat to a hummingbird. The hummingbird was really neat to see, actually.

They  also had dinosaurs and a rock/geology section. I was beginning to worry, after about an hour we had been through the entire first floor and I was thinking to myself... "Oh no..when it said history museum, I was expecting to see artifacts from like, 1920, not a bunch of fossils from the Mississippi river.." I also thought the boys would be mad at me for picking a boring museum, since the theme of the weekend was "do whatever Kim says".. not that I usually mind being treated like a queen, but you know. We go up the stairs to start on the second floor and...it totally redeemed this visit for me!

Memphis history! Display cases filled with 1900's artifacts, just what I was expecting. They had a section of pottery, most likely from Native Americans, from there it went into "pioneers" with a log cabin and tools and guns they would have used. We wandered into an exhibit that had the first Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Memphis, circa 1908 (I believe) that had the shelves stocked and everything.

I don't think I could bring myself to eat "lunch tongue"...

We also walked through an old Pharmacy with a certificate on the wall from 1898. 

They had an exhibit on World War 1 and 2 medicine, and as we wandered around to the other side of the museum, we came across a weather exhibit where we could build our own volcano and watch it erupt, jump next to a seismograph machine that measures earthquakes, and sit in an art exhibit that had projection screens in the round and you felt like you were sitting through a tornado. They had clouds on the ceiling that made thunder and light up like lightning as well :)

As you come out of the weather exhibit, you can go into the mansion that is connected to the museum for even more exhibits. This one exhibit wing has a kitchen from 1930, which I took a picture of this chicken dish because my grandmother had one that we put peppermint candies in. 

They also had apparrel from the 30's-50's, more World War 2 weapons and military uniforms, and taxidermied animals in the main foyer of the mansion. 

We ended up walking around this place for nearly 3 hours, and as we were leaving, I saw that it was tradition for everyone to pu their museum access stickers on the banner outside, so we all contributed our stickers and Drew was able to put his at the very top thanks to Luke. (I'm a little jealous)

We headed down to Beale St. after leaving the museum and went into A. Schwab's. I loved this place last time, it's a three story store with everything from Memphis trinkets on the bottom floor to voodoo spells on the thrid floor. They also have a fun soda shop in it, and I got a Peach Float. (For free!) They had two new employees working at the shop that day and they were so flustered about being slow and having to look up how to make everything that she told us that all four of our drinks were on the house. So we left her a tip in just about the amount of what they would have cost.

After leaving Beale St., we decided to get some lunch at Drew's favorite BBQ place, Central BBQ. The line was out the door, so we decided to eat at Drew's apartment and went to the take-out window to order ordered our pulled pork sandwiches and mac&cheese side. For Micah and I both, it ended up being like $13. Can't beat the price, and the food was AMAZING! I was told that if I didn't let them put coleslaw on it, I was the devil, so eventhough I don't like coleslaw, it was still a good burger. You don't actually taste the coleslaw, it just gives the sandwich a little crunch.

Our chosen brewery tour at High Cotton Brewing Co. wasn't until 3pm, so we got some time to sit at Drew's and let our food settle. We had an adventure ending up at High Cotton. Luke wanted to do a brewery tour this weekend, so I had researched four local places. We tried to do the Wiseacre Brewery tour, but it's only offered at noon on Saturdays and the tour was full when I went to get us tickets on their website. So, we were going to try the Pyramid Vodka factory. I called the number on their website and no one answered. Not even an answering machine. So, no to that as well. So even though it was third on my list, I'm glad we went here. The tour itself is $12 and is only offered at 3pm on Saturday. They don't have a tour limit, so the four of us got tickets by walking into the Brewery at 2:40pm.

The actual tour itself, is about 15 minutes long and the brewmaster just tells you the basics about beer. Most of the people in our tour had been on brewery tours before (which was something the brewmaster asked) so he didn't go into great detail. At the start of the tour, everyone gets a glass with about half a cup of beer in it to take with you on the tour. The best part is that you get to keep the glass :) I didn't drink mine, but if you're a beer lover, this is a great tour because you get to sample four of their beers, each "sample" ends up being about half a glass full, and if you stay and "chat" after the tour is over, the brewmaster brought out a keg and let you have some of that as well.

I just went because I enjoy seeing how things are made and I got a free drinking glass with the Brewery's name on it. 

We walked to Midtown and ate at Memphis Pizza Cafe for dinner and were going to sit and listen to live music at Lafayette's, but we decided against it for standing room only and walked the 3/4 mile back to Drew's apartment where the guys played Rocket League the rest of the evening.

Sunday morning we skipped breakfast and headed to the Peabody hotel to watch the duck march at 11am. This time, I actually got to see the ducks jump into the fountain! 

We ate at Huey's for lunch and the tradition at Huey's is that you shoot your sandwich toothpick into the ceiling. Turns out, I am really bad at this game. Mine richocheted off the ceiling and sailed behind the bar...but Micah and Luke got their to stick! 

We ended our Memphis trip on a sweet note at La Michoacana, a Mexican ice cream shop.

We got popsicles! Mine was watermelon and Micah's was Mango-Chile. I can't speak for Micah, but mine was delicious.

I feel like we could have packed more into our schedule for the weekend, but I'm glad we didn't. We made memories together with friends and had a nice weekend away. Thanks Drew for letting us eat your groceries and use your water to shower!

Until next time: Memphis, thanks for a great weekend.

Memphis: Schweinehaus and the Rec Room

Last year, we made our first roadtrip to Memphis, Tennessee to visit a friend of mine that I have had since I was 4 years old. We had such a good time (no doubt that we would) that we came back again this year.

I tried to organize the boys by making a spreadsheet of things that we haven't done, and also some places that Drew hasn't been. While we did end up doing the things on the spreadsheet, I didn't have time to really pack our schedule full with activities like we did last time.

We left our apartment on Friday afternoon. I worked a half-day and my husband had class until noon. So Luke warmed up our leftover taco meat from the night before and we had lunch before we left. The drive from our apartment to Memphis is around 4.5 hours, and we got here around 5:30pm.

Drew lives in the Midtown section of Memphis, and I remembered last time seeing a German place called Schwinehaus that we didn't have time to go to. I wasn't sure what to expect. Did I need to brush up on my German? Get my taste buds ready for some schnitzel and sauerkraut?

The inside of the building looked like a genuine beer hall, with the long wooden tables and benches.

 The menus were in English, and I ordered a burger. My husband and Drew both got a chicken sandwich and Luke got a Reuben. All three of these dishes were amazing. Even the French fries were good. Not too salty, and fried just right so they weren't hard or soggy. 

From Schweinehaus, we headed over to a fairly new business called the Rec Room. 

This place was neat. A very cool business idea, as I had never been anywhere like it. You walk up and the building doors are garage doors that they have up during business hours. They have two security guards that check your ID at the door and then an outside area with tables and a large wooden Jenga set. Naturally we took advantage of that and played two games. 

Drew and I versus Luke and Micah. We ended up tying. Drew and I won the first match and then ended up losing a very intense second match.  The game stakes get higher the more rivalry you have :) also, they're a bunch of engineers so they were trying to figure out the weight distribution and patterns, etc. They're nerds, but I love them :) 

Inside the building was a 90's kid's dream come true. They had vintage arcade games, pinball machines, fooseball and ping pong tables and- what we came for- the video game "rooms". 

They had six lanes set up with projectors and couches that you could rent by the hour and okay ANY game console. They had everything from Atari to PlayStation 4.  When our turn came, we chose the Nintendo 64, and our first game choice was.. MarioKart! 

The game was a tiny bit pixel-y, but you can't expect to put an old game system on a big projector and expect HD. You can change game rentals every 30 minutes, so for our second choice, we got Super Smash Bros. and I got my butt kicked every round. If you get hungry (or thirsty) they do have a full bar with bar food choices. (Pizza, pretzels, chips and salsa, other finger-foods) The group next to us ordered a pizza that looked and smelled heavenly. And it made it very nice that they dont allow anyone under 21 in. I like children, but sometimes I like to be the kid too, even at 25. 

I didn't see how much the rental actually was, their website probably does though. Very neat place. We went on a Friday night and were able to get a rental with only a 30 min wait. And with arcade games and Jenga to keep you occupied, that time goes by like nothing. 

Oh, Spring

I can not believe we are halfway through March! This year is flying by and I feel like I've not accomplished enough for it to be mid-march already. I turn 26 in two weeks! ...that's crazy. What's even crazier is that we won't get a weekend at home again until mid April. I wouldn't change our busy lives for anything, but I have come to treasure those weekends with no plans.

Last weekend was spent with Luke in Decatur, where I attended my first St. Patrick's day parade, (luckily I had packed a green jacket without even realizing it was St. pats) and got to die running a windy, hilly trail following Luke, who is a full foot taller than me and my little legs couldn't keep up. But we made fried chicken strips after the run and Luke grilled out for us that night.


This coming weekend we are roadtripping back to Memphis to see Drew and see what sorts of mischief we can find. I'm sure between Drew, Luke, Micah, and Me, we can find plenty :) Then the weekend after next (by birthday weekend!) we are meeting my parents in a different part of Tennessee to spend some quality time together in a cabin on our side of the mountains. I'm not sure what we are going to do, but I did find a glow in the dark 3D miniature golf course close to where we will be....

This Thursday (2 days from now) we..well, Luke, is hosting family dinner night at our apartment. We are planning on tacos and even though we don't have enough seating for all 9 of us, I'm still grateful that we get together and spend time together as cousins/siblings. And I'm even more grateful that they make me feel part of it since its all my husband's family.
However, because we are hosting...I've still got A LOT of cleaning to do :) and taco meat to make. And I should probably find our folding chairs.

I dont have a good picture of us yet where you can actually see the difference, but Micah has lost 18lbs and has started to notice his clothes being loose- and I am at 9lbs..not really noticing anything yet other than I feel a little better and I know I'm drinking more water. We are going to hit our 20/10lb goals this weekend..but with all of the delicious food of Memphis..eh, we'll see.

Something that was really important to us about doing this weight loss was that we dont have to give up everything that's not "healthy" for us. We are more focused on eating LESS and watching our calorie intake. I refuse to go to the BBQ capital and not eat that deliciousness. So far, its been working and we have eaten pizza, and all of the other "forbidden" foods and been fine. We are using the app called Lifesum to count our calories and if you have Google Fit, it will import your daily steps into the app and tell you how many calories you've burned as well.

I've written two more pieces that I've submitted for viewing, but I'm not holding my breath that I'll get lucky enough to get published again..but it would be VERY exciting to make this hobby of mine into something more.

In other news:

I found this beauty at Goodwill for $24.
It still had the little silica tabs in it and is brand new without the tags. I was pretty proud of my find. I believe, after looking around online that this goes for $300 new. So $24 fits my price range nearly perfectly.

I also realized my true life's calling is to be a men's high fashion hair stylist. Clearly, I should just quit my day job now. Right? 🙄😉 :) Thanks Luke, for letting me do...whatever I want :) and if you actually read this, I will buy you a Sushi dinner as payment for posting this picture.

No update post is complete without a picture of my cat being his dorky self, so until next time, here ya go!