Photos from Day 2 of the Vacation. :-)

                                            (Ghost or smudge? I'm gonna go with ghost. Its just more fun that way.)

Do you know the way to San Jose? (Day 2)

Day two found us in San Francisco for most of the day as well. When morning rolled around we checked out of our hotel, but when they offered to hold our car and luggage for us until 6 p.m. we took them up on the offer and hit the town. I treated Mom to a Mother's Day dinner at Johnny Rockets where the waiter flirted shamelessly with me (*insert eye flutter here*), but to no avail. I left him the 15% tip but nothing more. Last thing I need is a California boy hanging on my arm. :-P

Regardless we decided to check things out a bit. We talked to the Conceirge at the hotel to ask about directions to places and bus schedules and all that. Ten minutes later and with a map in our hands with all kinds of squiggly marks I did not understand, I looked at Mom and said, "Ummm...we are getting a tour." I was not attempting that wild mess! So that is exactly what we did. A motorized trolley tour. Not a real trolley which is sad, but it did the job all the same.

We went all over San Francisco and saw the sights from the safety of a vehicle driven by someone other than myself. This someone being a man from Russia named Igor. That was fun. Imagine this...sitting at the back of the trolley, listening to Igor tell us about the city in his thick Russian accent while simultaneously listening to the French couple beside you, the British family in front of you, and the Alabama couple behind you. I really only understood the Alabama folks. I mean, I understood the others (except when the one couple spoke only French), but I can just understand that Southern dialect a lot better than the others.

We saw the Golden Gate bridge, the "Painted Ladies", and all that jazz. I took pictures. I'll post them in another blog because I don't have them with me at the moment.

After the tour was finished, Mom and I packed up and headed South. A couple of hours later and we were in San Jose taking a tour of the Sarah Winchester Mystery House. No photos of the inside because that was against the rules, but I took some in the garden out back. One photo may or may not contain the image of a "ghost". Now, I don't know what ya'll believe or don't believe, but I'm gonna just go with it being a ghost. Even if its not, its just more fun to think it is. So I will forever tell people that I took a picture of a ghost at the Winchester mansion. :-)

The house itself was beautiful. It was a little weird, but not creepy. It was quirky is all. I loved it there. I wish I had more time to explore and the tour was worth the money so if you ever have the chance, then you should take it. It was really neat.

From San Jose we went South and then East. Passing by the garlic fields of Gilroy, California (you can imagine the smell of that) and the oil fields of Bakersfield. I didn't have time to stop at the Buck Owens place while there, but there was a lot I didn't get to do on the trip. I'll just save all those things for another time. We spent Saturday night in some random California town near the Nevada border anticipating a Sunday spend in Las Vegas! :-)

Leaving on a jet plane...(Day 1)

So I spent day one of my vacation with absolutly no sleep for 24 hours or so. I had to work until midnight on Thursday night and had to leave at four in the morning Friday. So there simply was no time for sleep. Not with driving home from work, last minute packing, and all that.

I caught my plane to San Francisco from Cincinnatti and all went well. Jacob was right, the take off and landing were the most fun but I did get a few nice pictures from the window of the five hour flight. Flying is a nice way to put things into perspective...it gives you a bird's eye view of the world (or God's view, if you would rather look at it like that). I still prefer to drive, but flying has its advantages.

We landed at the San Francisco International Airport and picked up the rental car then drove towards Haight-Ashbury. Ahhh...Haight-Ashbury, that famous hippie hangout. Now its just a place for teenagers to hang out and tourist to get t-shirts, photos, and smoking gear from the head shops. We just drove through it. No pictures or anything. I mean, it was an interesting place and I really wanted to stop and get some Ben & Jerry's and have a look around, but I couldn't find parking. We drove around for what seemed like forever and looked down every street for parking but none was to be found. This was my first lesson about San Francisco...parking is scarce. As in virtually nonexistant.

Lesson number two is that traffic is horrendous. Never in my life have I ever experienced traffic like that. Cars, buses, cabs, and trolley cars everywhere. Riding right on your butt too. And R-U-D-E. Now granted I'm from a one stoplight town and not very used to city drivers, but this was ridiculous. Maybe it was rush hour, maybe it was Friday, maybe it was just something in the air, I don't know, but never in my life have I ever seen such rude drivers. In truth, a lot of the people in San Francisco were a bit rude. Not mean...most were quite nice, but not friendly. I'm from the South, ya'll. I like friendly people. I hate to judge the whole city based on a bad day, but just from that one bad day, I don't have a lot of good things to say about San Francisco.

What I will say is that it is an absolutely beautiful city. The homes, the businesses, the landscape...all of it is beautiful. Its windy too. And chilly...at least in May. I wore a skirt too, so you can only imagine. And no flowers in my hair because my hair was blowing all over the place (sorry Thing Two and Kayla). We stayed on Fisherman's Wharf and so we spent quite a bit of time on Pier 39. We saw the sea lions, the street performers, the boats, the trollies, and all that jazz. I took pictures, I bought souveniers. Typical tourist stuff and even for the off season (May is the tail end of California's version of Winter), there were quite a few tourists.

That night we went on a tour of Alcatraz. Now THAT was more up my alley, especially being a History major and loving historic sites. Alcatraz was beautiful, even if it was a former prison. The view from Alcatraz was nice as well, especially as the sun began to set.

Mom and I finished up our first night in California back at the hotel trying to recover from jetlag. Otherwise it was a nice day, even if it was a bit disappointing.

Guess Who's Baaaack?!

So I am officially back home after my trip out West.

Nine days spent exploring California, Nevada, and Arizona. I am EXHAUSTED.

I promise lots of photos and stories, but not right now. Right now I'm going to put this gloomy Kentucky weather to good use and take a nap while the rain pours down.

Thanks to all those that kept in contact with me via Facebook and text and random phone calls. Hope all those that asked for post cards got them from their desired locations. And especially thank you for all the prayers...especially after the car accident (don't worry, I have photos from that as well...should make for an interesting scrapbook of the vacation, huh?).

So until the next blog (I'll do a series of them, one for each day, so as not to miss anything to leave out too many photos), here are my thoughts on each state:

Nevada: Fun, but I wouldn't want to live there.
Arizona: Beautiful and I could definitely see myself living there one day.
California: Meh...it had its good points and its bad points. I'm not much of a city chick, but I like the ocean, so I'd say...its a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Let the Count Down Begin!!!

Only four more days of work, my friends and I'm outta here! California here I come!!!

Originally the plan was that I would drive cross country in my little car named, Maisy. Buuuuut...well, things got complicated. I have nine days total for vacation and it would take most of that time just to drive to California and back, which doesn't really leave me any time to stop and experience things. So I decided to fly. With flying comes a rental car...hotels...meals on the road (rather than out of my cooler if I drove), and quite frankly, I can't afford that on my own. Sooooo...my trusty travel buddy (i.e. my Mom)  is going with me.

I'm sure that it will be super fun, even if its not cross country driving. Plus as an added bonus, this will be my first time on a plane. I'm a little nervous but as long as I stay away from crash statistics and things of that nature, I do okay with it. :-)

So in case you are curious, here is what we have planned thus far...

I work Thursday night until Midnight and our plane leaves Friday morning from an airport roughly two hours away from home, so that means, I'm gonna be traveling on very little sleep...and that's not even factoring in jet lag. Anyway, Friday morning will find us boarding our flight (my first one ever!!!) around 9 a.m. in Cincinnatti (got the tickets there because it was cheaper for roundtrip and it was nonstop). We'll land in San Francisco, California around 11 a.m. their time. From there we are picking up the rental car and heading to the Haight-Ashbury district for a little icecream at Ben & Jerry's and to take a gander at all the hippie history. After that we will head to Fisherman's Wharf where we'll check into our hotel room (and pay ridiculous amounts of money for parking! Ugh!) and then go play. Or well, we'll go see the sites, so I guess that counts as playing. As of yet, what we do is kind of up in the air. I'm too busy with work and finals to plan too many details at the moment. All I know for sure is that we have two spots reserved for a tour of Alcatraz around 6 p.m. that evening. :-)

Saturday we are heading South to San Jose where we are going to tour the Sarah Winchester Mansion. We are going to keep heading South but we're gonna try to do it along that beautiful coastal highway, Highway 1, so that we can see some great scenery (or I've heard its great). We'll spend the night along the road somewhere, possibly Bakersfield, since I'm a Buck Owens fan. ;-)

Sunday is reserved for L.A. site seeing. Look out Beverly Hills, because you are about to get some bonafide hillbillies in your midst. :-) Sunday night will be spend in Las Vegas, Nevada!!! Woo Hoo!!! Already got our room reserved at the Stratosphere and can't wait to take some pictures of Vegas from way up on top of the hotel. :-D

Monday we will be stopping at Hoover Dam and then continuing on to the Grand Canyon. Something my Mom has always wanted to see and is extremely excited about! Monday evening we are heading to Tombstone, Arizona and will probably do a little site seeing down there on Tuesday before heading back to California. I fully intend to stop at Disneyland while I'm out there, so maybe that will be Wednesday's activities. But honestly, that is all I have planned so far. The plane back home doesn't leave until Friday night at 11 p.m., so we will have a few days in California to do what we want even after getting some of the major sites taken care of.

Should be an adventure! I can't wait!

On the Road Again...

When I was a little girl, I used to run away from home...A LOT. I guess I averaged once a week (maybe more in the summer time). I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I have a feeling it had something to do with everything and everyone being completely unfair to my six-year-old self. Or at least, in my mind that is how things were. :-)

I never got far mind you. For some reason I thought there was a Greyhound bus station in the middle of McKee. I had never seen it, but I was sure it was there. If only I could make it the roughly ten miles from my home in Gray Hawk to the bustling city of McKee, then I would be set. I was pretty sure that they would just let me ride the bus for free, seeing as how I was only six and wouldn't take up much space. Just in case though, I always packed provisions. These provisions being a pack of saltines, a Little Golden Book, some change from my piggy bank, and an umbrella...all neatly stored away in my zip up Snoopy suitcase.

So where does a six-year-old from a VERY small town in Eastern Kentucky want to go when she runs away from home???? California of course!

I'm still not quite sure what I thought was out there, but I'm fairly certain it involved a set of really rich, childless parents that would shower me with attention and gifts and obviously appreciate what I was really worth. You know how kids are...

Anyway, I never made it to California. Actually, I never made it past the woods behind my house. I always got that far and decided that it really wasn't worth the effort it would take to travel all that way and besides, I was out of crackers and getting hungry again. :-)

Earlier this year my friend Cilla and I decided we would take a road trip to California. I was in the early stages of planning it all out when we decided that it couldn't be done...at least not how we had it planned. We both wanted to see very different things and go very different places and it just frankly, wasn't going to work out. Our trip would take at least two weeks instead of the one week we had decided on. So instead, we decided to go to Montana and Wyoming.

But something just didn't feel right about it. Not to me anyway. I love Cilla and I would follow her anywhere. She's great on a road trip. And it wasn't that my heart was just so set on California that I couldn't possibly go anywhere else. It just didn't feel right.

I've got a problem with telling people to trust their instincts and then I do the exact opposite of that myself. I listen way too much to the advice of others. Even advice that I asked for or that has the best of intentions. Someone told me last year that I needed to stop going to others for so much guidance and look within myself and that eventually it would work out to where I was right where I needed to be, right when I needed to be there. 

The lady that told me that was a genius by the way. I've been following her advice ever since. ;-)

Seriously though, it does seem that when I follow my gut, when I listen to my own head and heart, then things have a way of working themselves out. Call it Fate...call in Karma...call it God...call it whatever you want, it just is what it is.

And what it is, is telling me that my vacation this year doesn't need to be spent in Montana or Wyoming. My vacation, in fact, doesn't need to be spent with anyone but myself. Yup, just wittle ol' me.

So come May (I've already put in for my week's worth of vacation time), I'm heading out to destinations unknown. I have a trip planned, don't get me wrong. I kinda know where I'm going. I have a primary destination in mind. But for me, its not about the destination, its about the journey.

In a few short weeks I'll hit the road. All by myself. For an entire week. Its both exciting and scary. Its both brave and foolish. So basically, it suits me pretty well. :-)

In the meantime, all that's really left to do is break the news to my Father, who has no idea of my plan. Originally I wasn't going to tell anyone, I was just going to head out and call from the road, never revealing my location until I made it safely back home in a week. But...I felt kinda guilty doing my folks like that. So I finally told my Mom and this weekend I'll tell my Dad (no sense in making him worry those extra days). 

And don't worry...when I get back there will be plenty of photos and blogs (and hopefully a video or two) from the road. Even if I take my journey on my own, that doesn't mean I'm not willing to share it later on. :-)

John Prine

I'll put a picture up here soon to go with this blog, I promise, but right now I don't have time for it. Sadly, I also don't have an actual picture from the show (I was worried they would stop me at the door and not let me bring my camera inside the venue). I did, however, want to blog a wee bit about my experience at my most recent music show. This show being a John Prine concert in Chattanooga, Tennessee.


There are a few things that made this particular show a great deal more special than other shows I've been too. See, I come from a musical family. There are lots of folks from the Nunn clan that either play musical instruments, sing, or at least have music around them quite often. Some of my earliest memories are of music with my family, whether it was singing along to the radio, attending bluegrass festivals, or on the rare occassion, making our own music videos to popular songs at the time.

I'll never forget once when I was quite small, my Mom, Dad, Aunt Ida, and a couple of cousins, acting out the song "It's My Birthday" for me in our living room. You know the song, right? "Its my birthday and I'll cry if I want too..." Anyway, I had a record (that's right, an actual vinyl record) of The Chipmunks (yeah I know, I know) singing that song (actually it was probably the Chipettes, but I'm pretty sure the album was supposed to be primarily The Chipmunks...and I'm also pretty sure I still have it lying around in my closet somewhere). Anyway, they all got together and actually performed the song in the living room. Acted out the parts and everything. It was one of my best memories from childhood. :-)

My Dad used to play music to me on the guitar at night when I was small. He's not the best musician in the world, but he knows his stuff all the same. So my lullaby at night was often times "Wildwood Flower", sometimes he sang the words and sometimes he just played the melody, but to this day when I hear the song, I think of him and of that memory.

Which brings me to the John Prine concert. My Dad and I used to listen to WMMT on the radio while we milked cows. WMMT (if you aren't already aware of this wonderful radio station) comes out of Whitesburg, Kentucky and from my beloved Appalshop studios. WMMT is my absolute, all-time favorite radio station. You really can't get any better than that. Anyway, WMMT plays a lot of John Prine songs and so several years ago I bought one of his albums and fell in love with the songs. The lyrics...the melodies...all of it.

Circumstances being what they were though, I didn't really have the time or money to go to one of his shows. So I never bothered looking. Earlier this year however, I happened to hear one of his songs on the radio and it reminded me that I would like to see him live. So I looked it up and the closest show I could get (and one that wasn't on a work night) was at the Tivoli Theater in Chattanooga, TN. So without a second thought I ordered two tickets and then called my Dad to tell him not to make any plans for that night.

Last night was the show.

We drove the four hours South to Chattanooga. I fell in love with the city in just one night. It wasn't too big and it wasn't too small. I loved the way the streets were laid out. Which I guess is an odd thing to love about a city, but if you take into consideration that I was the one driving, then you will understand. The Tivoli was beautiful inside and out. My only real complaint was that the seats were really uncomfortable.

The place was packed and what was really funny about the entire thing, was that just by looking at people you could tell they were there for the concert. I don't know how to describe it other than to say that. They just looked like John Prine fans. Well, except for me I guess. I kinda looked like a priss, but it was completely unintentional. Most of the folks there were probably in their fifties or sixties. Some of them were what I would classify as "old hippies." The dude that sat next to us was wearing tye dye and smelt a LOT like he'd been visiting with his old friend Mary Jane right before coming to the show (if you know what I mean). But all in all, everyone was pretty laid back and seemed to be really excited about being there.

Leon Redbone opened up for Prine. He was amazing as well. Live jazz and blues are great and when you couple them with an old fashioned theater it made me feel like I had stepped back in time. It was awesome.

There were jokes and stories told and sing-a-longs with the audience. Prine performed all his hits and even closed out with "Paradise" which was nice. Of course I couldn't leave without a concert t-shirt...and a new CD. :-)

In may Old Crow Medicine Show is gonna be there and I would love to go back for that, but I have to work. Oh well...another time. :-) Next up...Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers in July!!! Gonna be sweet!

Anyway, I have to say, even though it was 8 hours on the road (four down and four back), I'm really glad I bought those tickets. Not just because I got to see John Prine in concert, but because it was a nice night out with my Dad. It was something that he would have never done on his own and I think it was a good experience for him and a good memory for me. :-)