Vacation Recap

First, a side note... I don't really get the whole "uploading photos" thing on blogger... I can't figure out how to put them up so that they show up in the right order... and it's making me bonkers! I apologize for the photos being out of order... If any of you happen to know how to upload lots of photos using this system (or how to rearrange them when composing an entry) let me know :)

On the plane flight, I was able to knit knit knit knit knit.... and got LOTS of my Guernsey knitted.. about 5" of the boring stockinette (in the round) was done on the flight there, and I did about 3 on the way back - I'm getting close to being ready for the armhole increasing - the gussets that must be made....

Here are some highlights (and photos) from the vacation:

The trip went like this: - Flew into St. Louis for a few days, then drove to Indiana and stayed a night with my mom - we drove into the woods of Kentucky for an afternoon and had lunch with an old family friend on their property (which is literally JUST property; there's no buildings on it; we had to drive through 3 or 4 fields just to get to the place we were going to eat at!) - following that, we went to Murfreesboro, TN (south of Nashville) for a night at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast) - the next day we drove to Louisville, KY and stayed 2 nights with my sister, followed by driving back to my Mom's house in Indiana for a night, then a family reunion in Indiana, and back to Louisville for one last night before flying home via Cincinnati... it was a great trip full of driving (over 1100 miles in the rental car!) and lots of photos - sorry that the photos are out of order!

Look closely - in the puddle here (this is a drained out lake at the property in the middle of KY) - there's a 6' long snake down there swimming! - you might need to click on the photo to see the monster.... ick! - we didn't go down there...

During the visit to the property (in the middle of nowhere) we walked about 1/2 mile in the woods - literally in the middle of wilderness - for a city boy it was a great experience - except for the chigger bites I got on my ankle!

After that trip, we drove south to Tennessee and stayed at the Byrn Roberts Inn in Murfreesboro... what a wonderful night we had there. The house was built in the early 1900's at a cost of $35,000.

Beautiful beautiful (and on a corner lot!) - on historic Main Street in Murfreesboro. If you have a chance to stay the night, I highly recommend it!

The front parlor

The main staircase

The fireplace in our room - (there was even a fireplace in the bathroom!)
The innkeepers left nothing out - they had a candle there for us in the room ready to burn (with their logo on it) - amazing soaps... a manicure set ready for use, postcards with images of our room and of the inn (stamped even!) - there was a convenience center with sodas, ice, juice, water, etc. and candy and snacks - all complimentary - an exercise room, movies and DVDs for use (the list goes on and on)- and the best part of all - the bed was soooo comfortable!

The only negative I could say is that the shower didn't have great water pressure - but what do you want from a house that's over 100 years old - it was clean and relaxing... and honestly, none of the showers we took when in the south had great water pressure... so it might even be a regional thing...

The trip was awesome from beginning to end... Going back to the beginning, we started by flying into St. Louis, MO and met with Gregg's friend Chuck - we stayed 2 nights at his house (which is really cool; he lives in a beautiful area which I think is a suburb of St. Louis) - and he's very creative...





Chuck collects things. He is in love with old rustic and unloved items almost as much as I am. He has old photos of people he doesn't know hanging on his walls (just like me) and when he finds something, he collects it. He has collected (recently) old hand held mirrors, antique oscillating fans, and my favorite: shoe forms! He had a huge bin of them in addition to this installation he had made over the bed in the Master Bedroom:

what a creative guy! - and I was inspired...

We went to an old barn somewhere in St. Louis and it was just filled with all kinds of neat things - including old carding tools, spinning wheels, winding and drying racks, etc. Plus lots and lots of old furniture, boxes, metal buckets, and even license plates! I had a great time digging through this place - we bought a few old license plates from MO. and it was here that I decided that I want an old plate from each of the 50 states - I plan on arranging them on boards and hanging them in some sort of installation. My immediate idea is (was) to use it as a headboard in a guest room at some point... but step one is to get all the plates I will need...

We went to the top of the St. Louis Arch - in the tiny tiny pods that you're hoisted in... it's fun but a little scary - at the top you're 630' above the ground... neato!

The view from the top is amazing - it's worth the visit and definitely a once in a lifetime experience...

We were exhausted when we got home - it was almost 11PM on Sunday night - and I had to work the next day - AND we were used to a different time zone so it felt 3 hours later than it was...

We shipped lots of stuff back home from the trip - and it should arrive on Friday - maybe in the next post I'll try to show you some of the goodies that we found :)