Coming back to Charleston

Kristal and I left from Memphis bright an early on Wednesday to get ready for the 12 hour long haul to Charleston, SC, where I spent much of my youth.  We got in around 7 and saw my buddy Jason who has been a close family friend since I was 7 years old. It was great to catch up with him and find out how his family is doing.  After grabbing some dinner and watching Minute to Win It, we went to a bar on the marina called Salty Mikes.  We had a good time there; it was a nice location right on the lake front.

This morning we went to the Jason's parents place for brunch, and again it was great to catch up. I haven't seen them in about 6 or 7 years, so it was nice to share some stories with them. They will be family friends for life.  From there, I took Kristal down to Kiawah Island to show her my old house. She didn't seem too impressed with it lol. I then showed her the new hotel on the island called the Sanctuary.  It was reallllly nice with an awesome pool that had a pillar shooting waterfalls of water from each side. After enjoying some of the warm Atlantic Ocean water on the extremely smooth sand, we packed up and headed over to Porter Gaud to check out my the school I went to from 1st grade to 9th. Not much had changed outside of a new weight room and some movements in department locations. After driving around downtown for a bit, it was time to hit Mt. Pleasant to see my buddy John.

We got to his place and watched some of The Dark Knight. That movie never gets old. After catching up with his parents for a bit, we went to Poe's for some good burgers. It's called Poe's because Edgar Allen Poe spent some time in Charleston and was inspired to write "The Gold Bug." From there, we swung into downtown to see a few buddies of mine from school.  We came back to John's and caught most of the first episode of Hard Knocks. I had never seen the show before since I don't have HBO, but it was really entertaining and I'm gonna do my best to find the episodes somewhere.

Well this ends our journey of the South.  Now its time to head to the North East, where its only going to be 85 degrees everyday! Thanks for reading. 

Hunka Hunka Burning Love...For Elvis

Kristal and I got into Memphis about 7 o clock yesterday. We crashed in our friend's Sky's parents house, which is ridiculously nice. After eating quesadillas, we decided to just stay in for the night, enjoy the pool, and get ready for our big day tomorrow. Today was the kick off of the annual Elvis Week, and it started with a nice tiny reception in the Medical Hospital in Downtown Memphis. After grabbing some punch, cheese, and cake, we headed downtown for a quick view of things down there. We heard a lot about Beale Street, but were disappointed to see that it is for pedestrians only. We had pre-bought our Graceland tickets and didn't have time to stop in to check out it. But from our brief view, it looks like a good time. From there, we headed down to the famous Graceland Estate, where Elvis's mansion, planes, and cars are.

Kristal and I arrived and we headed straight to his mansion. In my opinion, it's still a pretty awesome house by today's standards, so it must have been something special back then. The house cost 100,000 dollars, and Elvis bought it at the ripe ole age of 22. Certainly makes me feel like I've done a lot in my time lol. The house was decorated quite interestingly. From the dark red kitchen, to the bright green carpeting and roof of his jungle room (that's right I said jungle room) everything was as flashy as Elvis was in real life. We got to see his basement, his pool room, his 8 billion gold and platinum records, and several of the jump suits that he wore on stage for several of his concerts. We also saw several outfits and scenes from his numerous movies. I had no idea that he had starred in so many films (31 in all!). I thought he only had small roles in like 3 or 4. After touring the house, we got to see his grave site, where he is buried next to his parents and grandmother - who oddly enough outlived them all! After the tour of the house, it was time to hit the rest of the grounds.

After grabbing some lunch, our first stop was the car museum. There, we saw just a small slice of Elvis's notoriously bright cars, the top one being his Pink Cadillac, which was his mother's favorite. We also saw a couple of his motorcycles, as well as the car that he drove into Graceland for the last time the day that he died. We then went into "Sincerely Elvis", which was a showcase of all his film work. There it showed brief summaries of several of his films, as well as some funny side stories, like Elvis giving a young co star a white Mustang for her to remember her first film. Kristal then grabbed some souvenirs from the gift shop before we made our final stop, Elvis's airplanes.

Private jets always make me jealous. They are just absurdly nice and compared to coach it is about as big a difference as you can imagine. The plane was full of couches, private bars, and TV's, and was finished by Elvis's own bedroom in the back of the aircraft. This plane was named the Lisa Marie in honor of his only daughter with Priscella. After that, we were given a brief look into his smaller private plane, and that was it for our time with Elvis! After coming home and napping, we went out with Sky's parents to Corky's BBQ, where Kristal and I both got pork sandwiches with fries. Delishhhh. Tonight we are resting up and getting ready for the long haul to Charleston. We both wish we could spend some more time here, but the show must go on, and I'm really excited to see some old friends and familiar places in Charleston. Thanks for reading.

Just for fun - Sky's dog Jack!

Why is Everything Closed in Nashville!!!

So today we went into Nashville to check out the Grand Ole Opry house, but upon arrival, we found out that the whole estate is closed down until October due to the massive flooding they received in May. After checking out some brochures in the Radison, we decided to go to a banjo factory to see how those joyful instruments are made. The best part is, it was right next door! But of course, it too was also closed temporarily because of the floods. Lame!!!

So we decide to go to 21st street as recommended by a friend of ours. It was a pretty cool area, but sadly, only about a couple of blocks long. From there, we head over to Vanderbilt to check out their school. After going through the massive medical school on campus, we got hungry and decided to head to downtown to get Jack's BBQ. Finally, we found a few things that were open! We ended up getting identical meals of pork shoulder sandwiches and mac and cheese.   They were pretty solid but we have had better BBQ on the trip so far. Here's hoping Memphis lives up to its name and tops all of that.

From there, Kristal and I hit up a famous record store, and take a peek inside the Ryman Auditorium, where Johnny Cash and June Carter once played. We decided to not pay the 17 bucks to take a tour, and we were on our way back to Bowling Green. So in case you couldn't tell, don't come to Nashville on a Sunday!!

After that, we had some down time before our bro joined us for Buffalo Wild Wings. There we got some honey bbq boneless wings, a chicken parmesan flat bread pizza, and then some sweet bbq wings. Delish. We also played some good ole trivia. I dominated the sports IQ section, and then Kristal and Colin split two "Wild Trivia" games. 

After dinner, my bro showed me an interesting documentary about competitive donkey kong playing, called  The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.  For anyone who remotely loves video games, I would highly recommend it.   Next up, we checked out Kick Ass on Blu Ray. So epiccccc! Love hit girl.  And now we are watching Eurotrip. Its TBS edited, but still freakin awesome. And that brings an end to our time in Bowling Green. Tomorrow we head down to Memphis for Elvis Week!!! We are pretty stoked. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading.

Stepping into the Past

For anyone who says America doesn’t have history the way Europe does, I recommend they come to New Orleans. I have been to a few cities on the East, but none of them felt like they had preserved their history as well as New Orleans, especially the French Quarter. I can’t imagine how amazing this city was before Katrina hit, because I was already impressed as is.

We started our last full day in “Nawlins” at Café Du Monde – famous for their Biegnets (fried dough covered in powdered sugar) and coffee. It was packed! I can’t imagine the line/wait on a Saturday when everyone comes out for brunch. The beignets were delicious, but very very messy! I’m glad KT warned me not to wear black, otherwise I would have looked even worse.

Once we cleaned ourselves off a bit, we did a walking tour that was in my Lonely Planet: USA & Canada on a Shoestring book. We walked around the French Quarter learning about the history and trying to survive the humidity. After walking by the old house of William Faulkner, the oldest surviving French Colonial Building, Ursaline Covenant, and more, we headed to the St. Louis Cemetary.

Because the watertable is so high in New Orleans, bodies don’t stay buried for long. Early settlers realized this after a few storms starting making the bodies resurface. So, they started making above ground cemetaries with vaults & masoleums. The only other cemetery I’ve been in like this was in France and architecturally they are very similar. A huge difference to me though was the skyline in the back. In Europe, it was like stepping into the past, but here it was nice to see the juxtaposition of the old and new.

After the cemetery it was too hot to keep sightseeing, so we just went back to Kenny’s place and played Mario Kart until the gang was ready to hit Bourbon Street for our last hurrah. Of course, just as we step outside a huge thunder/lightning storm starts. We waited it out and luckily it was all over after about 30 minutes. I’m so not used to rain like that! It came out of nowhere and just started pouring!

Bourbon St. was crazy and so much fun. It’s just bars and clubs for blocks down this one street. It was pretty busy, but definitely wasn’t packed since it’s the off season and it had just rained. I can only imagine how insane it gets during Mardi Gras and Spring Break.

After we got some drinks, including a Hand Grenade, we headed over to Frenchmen, which is a less touristy version of Bourbon. This street was even busier! I guess since there aren’t many tourists out now, it would make sense that the local bar area would be more lively. We wandered around there and eventually headed back. Overall, it was a great night and definitely a highlight of the trip.

New Orleans is so far my favorite city we’ve been to, but we have so much left it’ll be hard to stay at the top. The French Quarter was beautiful and quaint. While it’s a tourist attraction, it never felt like it was maintained for that purpose. I think I would have loved NOLA even more if it weren’t for that darn humidity! We usually could only hand a few hours of sightseeing before we had to head back to take a cold shower and bask in some air conditioning.

Today consisted of a 9 hour drive from NOLA to Bowling Green, Kentucky. We passed through Mississppi (where I was born!), Alabama, and Tennessee. That's 5 states in one day! We’re visiting KT’s brother for a couple days before we head over to Elvis Week in Memphis, TN. Apparently, there are usually around 100,000 people there for the event! It’s going to be madness, but I’m really looking forward to it.

Visiting Old Memories

Today was one of the few days on this trip where I will be reminiscing about the old days.  Today I took Kristal back to my old neighborhood where I showed her my old house and then we walked over to my high school.  It was great to see how the school had changed but for the most part to see how the school had stayed the same. A lot of the faculty had much turnover after Katrina, but it was great to see the librian that I knew, good ole Mr. Prescott, and share a few minutes with him to catch up on old times.  I showed Kristal all around the school, including the state trophies that I had a hand in winning in Tennis my Sophomore-Senior years. 

After that, we tried to head over to a great po-boy place called Domilise's, but it just so happens that it is closed this week while the owners are on vacation. Lame! So we ended up going to Popeyes because I wanted to make sure that Kristal could see how big a difference there was between New Orleans Popeyes and Los Angeles Popeyes.  We got some good old fried chicken, and oh my god the biscuits were even better then I remember. I think we might go back and grab some for the next part of the journey.  

After that, we went over to the Convention Center to go see Mardi Gras World. This is a warehouse where they build all of the floats that are going to be in the Parades comeMardi Gras. We got tons of pictures of all kinds of floats and decorations. From King Kong to Drew Brees to Pikachu. You name it: this place probably makes it or something close to it.  Its really an awesome place and a must see for anyone who comes to New Orleans and can't make it for Mardi Gras season.

We came back and chilled at Kenny's place for awhile, enjoying the awesome AC.  We got dinner at a popular local place, where I got a shrimp po-boy and Kristal got a BBQ beef po-boy.  It took her almost 5 minutes before she was able to bite into the actual sandwich, as she had to eat all of the stuff that fell out of it and find a way to wrap the sandwich up so that it didn't slip out of her hands. After that, we went to a local bar for trivia, where the categories included 80's TV, Revenge of the Nerds, Candy, and Horror Movies. We didn't fare too well but it was fun overall. After some Mario Kart, we finished up the night.

I'm pretty excited for tomorrow. I'm taking Kristal down to the French Quarter where we will grab lunch and the famous beignets at Cafe Du Monde.  After that, we plan on hitting up Bourbon street with Kenny and Katie as our last hoorah to the city of New Orleans. Thanks for reading.

We're in the NOLA, Baby!

Today was another long driving day. We left Austin bright and early at 8am and then headed to New Orleans as fast as possible to ensure we got a taste of the nightlife tonight. The drive was uneventful, full of green pastures, waterways, and even some marshes. We finally succumbed to fast food and got Chick-Fil-A for lunch, partly because it's delicious, but mainly because we didn't want to waste any time at a sitdown place and searching around on Yelp.

After just under 9 hours, we drove to the outskirts of New Orleans and found KT's friend's place. While Kenny was still at work, we decided to kill an hour at the nearby Race Track. The first thing I noticed once we left the car was the wall of humidity that hit. This is going to be a constant annoyance, but I'm sure it'll be worth trekking out anyway to see all the sites.

KT lost $4 while I wandered around the floor. It was a new experience to be in such a large crowd and have KT be one of only 4 white people; I didn't realize how large the black population was around New Orleans until now.

Soon after losing his money, KT got a call from Kenny saying he was back and we were ready to set up shop for the next 3 nights at his place. We headed out to dinner with Kenny, his girlfriend Katie, and a couple more of KT's friend's from high school. We ate at a local favorite restaurant with $3 beer served in goblets and lots of New Orleans/Italian food. I don't know if I'm going to enjoy most of New Orleans food since it all includes sausage, shrimp, or crawfish. But, I'll try some Gumbo and Po'Boys and see what works!

After dinner we went to a bar walking distance from their house. You had to buzz to get in to this place because of a drunk stabbing a year or so back. Also, this bar was founded by the son of the director of the movie "Ray." It had a great atmosphere and a popular mens' restroom thanks to all the vintage playboys lining the wall. 

Tomorrow we're going to visit Tulane, see the Mardi Gras floats at Mardi Gras World, and see KT's high school and old house. Check for an update tomorrow!

Sleeping Near the Enemy

Everyone knows that I'm a Trojan through and through, and everyone also knows that football is basically my life in the fall. So it pained me in a way to visit the campus of UT Austin. And it also pains me to say that it is a pretty cool campus.  I was very impressed that the football stadium is literally in the heart of the campus.  With most colleges, you are lucky if they are the walking distance that the Coliseum is, and if you suck, you stadium is a good 30 minute drive away. (Yes I'm looking at you, Bruins.) The main tower also looked quite impressive, though it was 5 bucks to take it to the top to visit the site of one of the worst shootings in US history.   We also stopped by the communications building and the graduate studies building, and overall, Kristal and I both agree that it is quite a nice campus. An unexpected highlight was the turtle pool filled with at least 25 turtles of all sizes and ages.

We also decided to swing by the state capitol building, where the tall dome is a fixture of the downtown Austin skyline.  The inside is rather impressive, but not much different then the inside of the LA supreme courthouse. It was cool to see the pictures of the former governors, except for the certain governor that was in power in the last 1990's.  Overall, it was a cool bit of architecture, and something that was interesting to bear witness to.

Tonight, we were lazy and just walked to a close sports bar. We got some pretty good food. Kristal got a chicken club and I got a blackened chicken sandwich.  After that, we played Big Buck Hunter, a game that was originally introduced to us by my cousin Shannon. We unintentionally played about 6-8 games on the night, and I won all of them for the most part. Though Kristal gave me a good sweat on the last one. 

Tomorrow we are hitting up one of our most anticipated spots, my old home New Orleans.  I'm  excited to see my old stomping grounds, and to give Kristal a taste of real Cajun food. And to show her that famous party street. Thanks for reading guys.