A Time For Everything

 

Image Courtesy of Austin Pride.

It's official! I've attended my very first Pride Parade and I had a blast. The whole weekend was so much fun.

I met one of my oldest and dearest friends down in Austin and not only did we attend the Pride Parade, but we did some whirlwind sightseeing as well.

Weekend started Friday (08/09) with dinner at a local sub shop. Shout out to ThunderCloud Subs and their delicious sandwiches. I had the Lady Bird sub--chicken salad with avocado, bacon, and jalapenos--and it was fantastic. Highly recommend.

After dinner, Donny and I scoped out the launch point of our bat watching cruise, which we located easily, but then we had a couple of hours to kill. Rather than go back to the hotel, we walked along the Ann and Roy Butler Trail on the south side of Lady Bird Lake aka the Colorado River aka Town Lake, stopping often so I could give the knees and the hips a breather.

The bat watching cruise itself was also fantastic. Another shout out-- this time to Lone Star Riverboat for bat watching and comedy show. Captain DJ piloted the boat and Captain Mike was our tour guide. He was a font of knowledge of both the skyline and the bats and was very funny. Donny and I had a fantastic time and we got one of the best bat excursions of the season, according to Mike.

Not only did we see bats, but we also got a lightning show as weather sort of circled the city as the cruise was coming to an end. Overall, it was a fantastic evening.

Donny and me!

Here's one column of bats taking off...

We saw five or six of these curly-cuing columns at least.

And all of the bats are female!!

And here's the video:

They eat mosquitoes and moths and tend to fly downriver to the farms to dine. But they do keep the mosquito population along the river in check.

Saturday dawned sunny and warm...it's August in Texas, so duh. :0) We found a Target to buy bottled water for Saturday night's parade along with a few other things I decided I needed.

Then we did some sight-seeing. First we visited the LBJ Presidential Library and that was suuuuper interesting. I wasn't sure how to feel bout the man, but I think I like him and I certainly appreciate all the things he did to facilitate Civil Rights.

After lunch, we then went to see the Neill-Cochran House Museum. The house was lovely. Smaller than I expected from a footprint perspective, but the rooms were large with high ceilings as well as  airy with very tall windows and wide doors. Aside from having to dust the high corners, living in a house like that would be amazing. Every window had a pair of dark green shutters. Both floors had four rooms, two on each side with the wide foyer / hall / staircase in the middle.

The upstairs hall was big enough to be used as shared living space and there was a large door or set of doors that opened onto a balcony. That must have been a lovely spot to sit in the shade of both the overhanging roof and the tall trees.

The real draw of this place was the authentic slave quarters on the property. It, too, was a two story structure although not as tall as the house. It was maybe twelve feet square and had a square hole in the ceiling of the first floor with a rudimentary ladder for those sleeping on the second floor. * I * would have struggled to shimmy through that hole. In one corner downstairs there was a -- I don't even know what to call it -- it was like a small brick oven at the base for the fire and over that was a large metal basin for heating water. it had a chimney to carry the smoke up and out and provide no doubt limited heat to the upstairs.

Very eye opening and sad, quite frankly. Our nation was built on the backs of the slaves we dragged from their homeland, and we treated them like shit.

*sigh*

So after that we went back to the hotel and chatted for a bit before attempting naps in advance of the parade. I slept a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped.

By a quirk of luck, our hotel was situated at the launching off point of the parade. It was on a corner and one of the streets was where the floats and other parade procession organizations.

We walked two blocks west and took our spot at the base of the Texas Capitol building.

But the parade itself was amazing. I had so much fun seeing all the floats and organizations supporting the LGBTQ community. My only beef was that I felt it lasted a little too long...probably an hour and half. At the hour mark I was ready to be done. Maybe that's just me. Maybe was because I was standing the whole time.

My favorite group was a group of Middle-Eastern men--I have no idea what organization or business they were representing--but it was so very cool to see these men who'd have dealt with a fate I hate to imagine in their home country--dancing and singing and celebrating this part of themselves without fear of judgement or reprisal.

Anyway, a fun time was had by all. Donny and I will do this again--thinking about Denver next June.

Here are a few pictures:

Catch you in two weeks!

 

I'll be home again early this afternoon from the Gateway to the West aka St. Louis, Missouri. Had a wonderful time driving through Oklahoma and Missouri, in the city itself, and at my conference. More on all of that to come.

St. Louis is the home of the Arch (see above), the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions (who defeated my Dallas Stars on their way), toasted ravioli (see below), and boatload of history. Did you know that St. Louis was originally a French settlement?? I didn't, but I'm intrigued. I'll read up on that more later.

Had toasted ravioli at the Riverboat Cafe and it was good, fine. Tasty. Very much like a cheese stick, if you ask me, just in a different shape. :0)

 

Now that the conference is over, I can look ahead to the rest of the year and to next year in earnest. More on all of that as well.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend. Have a great week.

...aside from just generally being on vacation for a week+ were:


1. I got to eat ice cream everyday. Most days it was soft serve, but one day the soft serve machine was frozen and so I checked out the actual ice cream station and discovered coconut ice cream!! They didn't have it out every day, but I checked. :0)

2. Eating English muffins (with butter and strawberry jelly) and bacon and fresh pineapple every day for breakfast. :0)

3. Spending some quality time with DH. :0)

As I mentioned, I'd never been to New Orleans, so I was excited to visit the city, specifically and especially the French Quarter.

Here are a few fun pictures of my visit:





And what (first or any(?)) visit is complete without a visit to Cafe DuMonde for beignets??

DH and I woke ridiculously early our first full day in NOLA and made the stop at about 4am. Probably a good thing, because all the pictures I've seen of this place during they day--it's packed. So it worked out.


More pictures to come.

Hope you're having a great week.

That's a phrase that might be familiar to John Denver fans...and one you can't help having when faced with the amazing beauty of the Rocky Mountains.

I've been in Denver since last Wednesday for a reader/writer conference--there will be more about that later--but I had a chance to sight see yesterday, and how could I not take it, because who knows when I'll make it back here. So!!

My first foray out was actually on Thursday evening when I was able to attend a Colorado Avalanche game, because, well, hockey, so yeah. It was a fun time even though the home team did end up losing.

But yesterday...first stop the Red Rocks Amphitheater which is about ten miles west of Denver proper. Some very notable greats have played in concert here, including Ella Fitzgerald, the Beatles, and David Bowie.



The amphitheater is just there below where I'm standing and there were a lot of folks in exercise attire jogging back and forth or going up and down the stepped seating. A dog barked from way down at stage level and as you can imagine the acoustics were amazing.

Next stop was Boulder's Pearl Street Mall...several blocks of indie shops and restaurants. My companions and I walked it and enjoyed a fantastic lunch and conversation along the way.



After that, we trekked out to the Flatirons and hiked up to a small summit at around 7K feet and had the most spectacular view of the Rockies.



There was snow in the last couple of weeks so the higher peaks had snow. So so gorgeous!!

Headed home today...conference impressions coming later in the week.

Watching TV can teach you things and take you places.

As I mentioned several posts ago, I finally discovered the BBC's Sherlock--a contemporary remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective.

One of the location shoots took place at 23 & 24 Leinster Gardens, Bayswater, London and was referred to as the Lie of Leinster Gardens. I Google-searched this to see if was true and sure enough! (Click the address for a bit more detail.)


So basically it's a facade bridging two sections of five-story terraced housing, but there's no actual home behind the two addresses. The underground train system used random open spaces to keep the tunnels free from smoke and for the old steam engines to vent their steam...

Click here to see more images of the back side of the "house." There's also more info via this link.

I wonder if there are any such anomalys here in the States.

I promised pics and so pics you shall have.

First of all, roomie and I stayed at the San Antonio Riverwalk. We were given a room on the 16th floor, facing west (the side with the balconies!).


Interesting bit of trivia--the Riverwalk sits on the site of the historic Fairmount Hotel, which now resides one block west and three blocks south. The relocation of the Fairmount was recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest structure moved on wheels.

Since I was only a few blocks away from one of the greatest historic sites in our nation, I walked over to see The Alamo. I didn't go in and do the tour or anything, but I saw it and took the requisite pictures.

This is the iconic image everyone expects and thinks of when one mentions The Alamo, but the fort itself was a much larger thing.

Here's a model of the actual fort in brass. The structure in the above pic looks to be located in the middle-ish of the outpost.


I have a lot more pictures of buildings (of the architecture), but I won't bore you with them here. If you're interested, you can view them here at my Shutterfly.

I started walking the River Walk first, and thought I was only going to take a short walk to the Alamo. Then I got side-tracked by the buildings! I went back for the 30-minute guided boat tour and learned some interesting things about San Antonio. It was quite a lovely ride.

I wished I have gotten to actually walk more of the River Walk. Unfortunately, after my detour to the Alamo and the other architecture, my left leg was hurting. I went back to the hotel to rest it and wasn't able to get back to the River Walk when there wasn't a horde of other tourists impeding my pace.


This waterfall is not only lovely, but serves to keep the water from stagnating here on this end of the River Walk.

The following two photos are two of the very few I took while on the boat tour. My particular boat ended up at capacity and it was hard to move, much less turn around with camera in hand and elbows akimbo.

The Rivercenter Mall sits at one end of the tour....


A couple of the bridges also serve as locks, so that the river can be controlled during heavy rains.

And there you have it--a few highlights of my trip to San Antonio...

Back to Music City we go!

After my trip through the Ryman and on the Studio B Tour, I found myself back at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. I was ready to meander through it. It carries a couple of special exhibits as well as its general ones. Specials included costumes and things from Carrie Underwood's Blown Away Tour as well as The Bakersfield Sound. The Hall of Fame and Museum is also constructing an addition which will include a Reba McEntire presentation.


Walking through was like a trip down memory lane, and I was re-introduced to artists I hadn't thought of or heard in years. The whole time I kept thinking how much my dad and my younger daughter would have enjoyed the whole thing.

The best part, of course, was the actual Hall of Fame the rotunda on the front left of the building. Round because no one is better or worse than any other. Three music staffs (the set of five lines on which notes are arranged) line the walls and the plaques are hung randomly. Most recent Hall of Famers includes Kenny Rogers, Bobby Bare, and "Cowboy" Jack Clement.


After the museum, I crossed the street to the Music City Walk of Fame.



And after that, I trudged back to the parking garage to go back to the hotel to get ready for my  anniversary dinner aboard the General Jackson Riverboat. I don't have too many pictures from the evening because it was my anniversary and I just wanted to enjoy the meal and the show and the view of downtown Nashville from the Cumberland River. The Heart of Tennessee, A Musical Journey was fantastic and I was familiar with just about every song they sang. It was fabulous. All pics are also on Shutterfly--use the link above.


And we're not through yet! But Saturday's trek is for another day. I hope I'm not boring you all too much. But it was such a neat trip, I can't help but share.

So after tramping around downtown Nashville for five/six hours last Thursday and taking close to a hundred pictures, I needed to decide what was on the agenda for Friday.

As I mentioned Wednesday, my options included the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere and the Belle Meade Plantation right up the road from the hotel, among tons of other options. I mean, there were tons of Civil War markers all over the place and I'm a history buff too.

What I ultimately decided to do was go back downtown and tour the Ryman Auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. At first I hadn't planned to do either. But something just got in my head or my heart (I think it was my daddy.) and I realized that I couldn't visit Nashville for the very first time and *not* go see these places up close and personal. Even though I'd walked by them and taken pictures of the outsides just the day before. I had to go inside them. And I'm SOOOOO glad I did.

I credit my love of country music to both my parents. To my mom who just always had the radio on, exposing me to it. That's just what we listened to in the years when music becomes an important part of kid's life: junior high and high school. And to my dad who loved music so very much and exposed to me to real records and many different musical genres.

A few highlights of the Ryman:



After the Ryman, I headed over to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. But first--I took the Studio B Tour...

Oh my gosh! I'm so so so glad I did. Another wonderful treat. Our tour guide was rather cute, too!



Anyway, Music Row, contrary to my original belief is not in downtown. It's really a pair of residential side streets that look mostly like a regular neighborhood. Except, of course, for all the signs in the front yards.


Young Randy, the tour guide, shared a few anecdotes with the group that I'm going to share with you.

First: The hit song "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton is not your traditional love song. She wrote it for Porter Wagoner as a thank you for the opportunity he gave her to be on his show, which was the launching point of her career. Because she wanted to go out on her own, she was "fired" from his show. As a way to show no hard feelings, she wrote and performed this song for Porter.

Second: Don Gibson wrote his two biggest hits (Oh, Lonesome Me and I Can't Stop Loving You) after his wife up and left him. He continued to send her roses on their anniversary thanking her.

Third: Elvis Presley, who recorded over half his hits in Studio B, was A) responsible for making Studio B famous--he preferred it over Studio A, and B) requested or made arrangements for light fixtures that held four different colored light bulbs. He liked to set the mood while recording songs.



In fact, if you listen closely at the end of an original recording of Are You Lonesome Tonight? you can hear a thud.  To set the mood, the lights ended up being turned completely off and Elvis hit his head on the microphone.




For the rest of my pictures of the Ryman Auditorium and the Studio B Tour, visit my Shutterfly Share page.

And there's still more to come! I hope you'll stay tuned.