Summer Vacation - Paris

This summer we took a whirlwind trip, flying from Chicago to London, took a train to Pairs, flew to Prague, took a bus to Wroclaw, Poland, then a train to Rydultowy, Poland and finally flew from Poland to Chicago, connecting in London and Reykjavik. Got all that?  haha, well we got a great deal on airfare and managed to visit family and friends en route.  The reason for our trip was that our friends, Mikki and Brian got married in Prague!  Yay!  So we decided that while we were in Europe anyway, we'd pack in as much as we could.

Here are the highlights from Paris.  We stayed in the Latin Quarter at the Hotel du College de France, which was perfect for us.  I LOVE that neighborhood, and we had an awesome time exploring the various shops and restaurants in the maze of streets there and in the St Germain neighborhood (though St Germain has become a bit too built up compared to when I was there 10 years ago).

Eiffel Tower


Love locks on the bridge by Notre Dame


Rue Mouffetard in the morning before the cheese shop had even finished opening!


The original "Paul" bakery/cafe


The Louvre (spent a whole day there and still didn't see it all!)


Parisian version of fish and chips at Louis Vin Restaurant for lunch




Galleries Lafayette (reminded me of the dome at French Lick/West Baden, Indiana)


And this fun statue

Smoky Mountain Adventure and Nashville Honky Tonks

After picking up Andrea & Mike at the airport in Knoxville, we started our grand adventure in Tennessee's Smokey Mountains. We stayed in a great cabin at the Oak Haven Resort in Sevierville, just outside of the more well-known Gatlinburg, TN. We had a gorgeous spot up in the hills, overlooking the countryside with a huge wrap-around porch.

Since we were all tired from traveling, we spent our first night checking out the local wineries and having a barbeque at the cabin. Tennessee is definitely not France or Napa Valley, nor is it trying to be. They like their wine sweet and fruity. All four of us generally like dry wines, so this was a challenge. Our first stop was at the Hillside Winery, where they are generous with the pour and completely up front about the style of wine they have. It is sweet and strong and seems like the kind of thing you'd get in the backwoods of Tennessee. Which is fine, because that's where we were!

Next we went to the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge. We actually didn't have the wine there because the woman serving it was rude. But we did buy some apple turnovers for breakfast (and they were delicious).



The next day we got up early for some ziplining, which I blogged about before. But after that, we made a quick stop for lunch before heading off for some whitewater rafting with Smoky Mountain Outdoors. After the ziplining experience, I was a little nervous even though I'd been rafting a bunch before in high school. But our trusty guide, Big Steve, kept us afloat even over class 4 rapids. It was awesome, and again, smelled so delicious out in the fresh mountain air! That night we went into Gatlinburg for dinner.



The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast, then headed off for Nashville. We mad a pit stop for lunch and to visit this pink elephant.


Since none of us had been to Nashville before, we decided going on a group tour would be a good idea. So we hopped on the camouflage bus and had a Redneck Tour of Nashville. It's definitely not a family-oriented tour, but we had some laughs and got a feel for the city and its history. Here we are with our guides, Tater and Merlene.


This was also most of our first time in the south, and we were curious to see what the plantations looked like. We went to Andrew Jackson's home, "the Hermitage" and to Belle Meade Plantation, where they bred racehorses (all Kentucky Derby racehorses can be traced to one horse at this plantation!). Both plantations had lots of slaves, and while it's nice in the old homes, walking through the pretty grounds is a little creepy, knowing that people were enslaved there. We were able to take a peek inside slave quarters, but none were set up with period furniture so it was a little hard to get a sense of what life was really like inside. Now they just look like rustic cabins.


One of my favorite sites was the Cheekwood gardens, which was the home of the Cheek Family, who built their fortune off their ownership of the Maxwell House coffee brand. Today the grounds are open to the public (for a fee). The house, at 33,000 square feet, has been partially converted to an art museum. There's even a Japanese garden, and several water features.


This little Italian style grotto is up by the house


Finally, at night, we enjoyed the Honky Tonks of Broadway. We had two favorites: The Stage and Layla's Bluegrass Inn. Layla's had some crazy rockabilly/bluegrass music and was a lot of fun! We saw Brandon Giles there, who was absolutely a phenomenal performer - like a Jerry Lee Lewis reincarnation. For more popular country and rock music, we enjoyed The Stage (recommended by my childhood friend's little sister). The best part is that it is free to go to any of these shows! If you like the music, you can tip the band however much you want - they'll have someone come around with a big tip jar. It's really a great way to see live music!

Here we are at the Stage. I was kind of surprised at how many country songs I know the lyrics to!



I am so glad we got to do this trip all together. It was just what we needed for a little getaway. We are really blessed to have such great friends!

Asheville, NC

I'm finally getting around to blogging about our May trip to Asheville, NC and Tennessee. Our plan was to meet up with our friends, Andrea & Mike in Tennessee and check out the Smoky Mountains and Nashville over a week. I really wanted to see the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC while we were out that way, but it was just going to be too much to pack into our group trip. So, Paul and I drove down a couple days earlier so we could add that in.

It's a 12 hour drive to Asheville, so we didn't get there until late in the day. I'd been wanting to see the Biltmore Estate for as long as I can remember. I'd seen pictures of it and thought it would be a wonderful place to have a fairytale wedding. The house was built by George Vanderbilt, when we was in his mid-20s, in the late 1800s. Shortly after building it, he found a wife.

A bit about Asheville. It's a college town and feels to me a lot like a college town in western Massachusetts, maybe Northampton. But it's got a funny mix of foodie culture, mountain culture, elegant venues and backwoods BBQs. I saw their McDonalds featured on a TV show once, and just had to see it because they have a piano inside and it's all fancy like.



But we didn't eat there. Instead, we ate at Luella's Bar-B-Que. It was sooo good! Here we are on our way in.


The next morning, we got up, had breakfast and headed off for our Biltmore day.


We started out in the 125,000 acre gardens before it got too hot out. They were designed by the famous landscape architect, Fredrick Law Olmsted. The land had been used as farmland, and they actually planted all the trees you see there (yes, millions of them). There are beautiful formal gardens (including a French style garden that they call the Italian garden) and some wooded areas with windy paths (something Olmsted was all about - straight lines are for barbarians or something). But WOW were they awesome gardens - and what a VIEW!




Oh how I'd love if this was my back yard! (as long as someone else took care of it, of course)


After seeing the house (no pictures allowed inside, of course, because they want to sell you pictures they take of you), we went to the winery for a wine tasting. Apparently when one of the Vanderbilts passed away, the estate was divided among different heirs, and one got the house and the other got the dairy - which was soon converted to a winery.

There's also an inn on the grounds where you can stay in luxury. While the inn wasn't in our budget, we did squeeze in afternoon tea at the Library in the inn. We have a view of the mansion (in the right window, in the background) and the grounds, and of course, super delicious tea and accompaniments.


The next morning we drove off to pick up Andrea & Mike in Knoxville, TN. On our way to the airport, we took a detour through the Blue Ridge Parkway.


One thing I have to say about the area is just how good the air smelled! It was like breathing in piney-freshness. I was happy to just stand there and sniff!

Navy Ball in French Lick

This weekend Paul and I were invited to the Navy Ball for Crane Naval Base, held at the French Lick Springs Hotel, about an hour and a half drive south from us. What the heck were we doing at a Naval Ball, you ask? Well, as part of Paul's job, he's supposed to hobnob with area businesses, and Crane Naval Base employs a lot of subcontractors and local small businesses. For me, it was a great excuse to get dressed up for a ball and have a much needed mini-vacation! Since I doubt many of our friends will ever have the chance to head out to French Lick, I'll give a bit of history about it.



French Lick Springs is an old hotel that used to be a therapeutic getaway for wealthy people to go bathe in and drink the spring water that flows out of the ground there. There's actually two hotels - one in West Baden, called the Carlsbad of America, a National Historic Landmark known for it's impressive round atrium. We actually stopped at the real Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary) in the Czech Republic on our honeymoon. Pretty much the only similarity I noticed was that both places have springs. Beyond that, Karlovy Vary is a fancy, built-up city with lots of shopping and charming restaurants. It's also home to Becherovka, a delicious Czech herbal liqueur. French Lick and West Baden, on the other hand, outside of the hotels, have Denny's and a CVS and windy back roads. There is the French Lick Winery that makes sweet regional wines, though I can't say we were inspired to bring any home. The hotels had become quite dilapidated over the years, and several years ago Bill & Gayle Cook, owners of the local Cook Medical company, donated over $500 million to renovate the hotels. So they're pretty darn nice now!

We tried to get into the West Baden Hotel to check out the dome, but it was closed for a private event until Sunday afternoon.


But, the French Lick Springs Hotel has its own nice features. Here's the casino:


And the renovated lobby


And the Grand Colonnade Restaurant, which is probably the fanciest buffet setting I've ever seen


Here's the back courtyard.




And, of course, the "World Famous Pluto Spring" itself. I was glad I had been to Karlovy Vary so that I knew that the rotten egg smell was supposed to be there from the sulfurous spring water.


And in case you were wondering for what reason someone would partake of rotten egg-smelling water, here's Paul posing with the promotional message, "America's Greatest Laxative"


As for the Ball itself... I loved the floral arrangements - they had little LED lights in them so they glowed as it got dark


It started out with the important people being announced and going to the head table. These included high-up officers of the Navy, and people like the Lieutenant Governor. Here's the flag procession which preceded the National Anthem


After a bunch of speeches by a few different high-ups about this celebration of the Navy's birthday and a recounting of the many humanitarian efforts put on by the Navy (eg, medical care in Haiti, Pakistan, etc following natural disasters, among other things), they had a special ceremony for Prisoners of War. It was a really moving event. They had a table set up with one chair, and said how it was to represent that that the POWs are alone. Then they lit a candle to symbolize the strength of our POWs to stand up to their oppressors, and a red rose to symbolize the family waiting for them, and so forth. It really makes you stop and think about the sacrifices our armed services are making right now for our country. At the end of the speeches, they had the official cake cutting. I believe they had the newest Navy member present a sword to the most senior member, and together they cut the cake. (You can see the table-for-one on the right side of the picture)


Here we are at the table


After dinner, they had a live band and dancing. Before we turned in for the night, we hit up the casino with the $5 credits they gave us at the front desk when we checked in. We each got a free t-shirt and headed in for the slots. I wound up with a cool $3.75 in my pocket that I didn't have when I went in there, so that was pretty nice. I won't disclose Paul's outcome.


As we left the next morning, I noticed a high roller was visiting the casino. Check out that detail work!


Finally, here's a few scenes from our drive back to Bloomington.
This is where your grain get stored before it gets packed and put on grocery store shelves or fed to animals.


There are a lot of falling-down old barns around Indiana

Many people in Southern Indiana have farm animals


Here's a farm in Loogootee (which is where we got our former puppy, Rewley)


And we made a quick stop in Amish Country


They're great bakers - we got a huge thing of cinnamon buns - yum!


Just watch out for buggies!

Cruising the Atlantic

Well, it's a couple months later (yikes! how'd that happen?) and so I thought it's about time to write a little something about our cruise back from England. We had 11 days on the Norwegian Jewel from Dover to New York City, calling at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, Iceland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New York City. It was a really great way to travel gradually back to the US, and cost about the same as flying.

In total, we had six full days at sea, and most of the time we were traveling on rough seas (9-12 foot waves). I got pretty seasick on the first sea day after Lerwick, but I gave in and took seasickness medication the rest of the time we were at sea, and felt much better. Taking a big cruise ship across the ocean is like being on a giant floating hotel - something like 15 stories high. So, even though the waves were pretty high, the worst you got was a little spray in your face on deck 7. Often the doors to the decks were blocked due to wind, but you could still go out for a walk, which you need to do after all the food you eat!

Most of the time, the rain followed us from England, but we did have some nice sunshine on a few occasions.

Here we are leaving Dover, with the white cliffs behind us:

From Transatlantic Cruise

And here's Lerwick, Shetland Islands where we're on an old fort. Paul's having some fun with the cannon.

From Transatlantic Cruise

And here's a neat old castle in Scalloway, Shetland Islands

From Transatlantic Cruise

And of course, the highlight of the Shetland Islands, the Shetland Pony

From Transatlantic Cruise

And to honor those Vikings of the past, Paul tried to mimic one of them at a gift shop.

From Transatlantic Cruise

After a day at sea, we arrived at Reykjavik Iceland. It was pretty rainy out, and we didn't want to book an expensive tour through the cruise, so we decided to go horseback riding. Iceland is home to some fancy breed of horses that are unique to Iceland. They don't let other horses mix with them, and they're supposed to be very rugged. Because it was cold and rainy and we were in Iceland, we were given some special outfits to wear while riding the ponies - a full-body snowsuit of sorts and a screaming orange jacket. Hey, everyone was doing it!

From Transatlantic Cruise

We did have a little sunshine on the deck on the two sea days across the atlantic. Here I am enjoying the pool deck in the sunshine. They had to empty the water and tie down the deck chairs due to rough seas, but that didn't stop us from standing there long enough for a photo!

From Transatlantic Cruise

Next was Newfoundland, where one of Paul's favorite bands is from (Great Big Sea), and the home of the Newfoundland dog. They are such gentle, friendly dogs despite being the size of a small bear!

From Transatlantic Cruise

Here's Cape Spear, the easternmost point in North America. They are actually 30 minutes ahead of standard time in eastern Canada. By this point, I was armed with an Icelandic wool scarf, but it was still cold!

From Transatlantic Cruise

I just like this picture of me and the lighthouse.

From Transatlantic Cruise

And here's Paul at a little fishing village called Qidi Vidi in Newfoundland

From Transatlantic Cruise

Traveling from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia was really great. The weather was gorgeous and in that particular region, there a tons of whales, dolphins and porpoises. We saw a school of whales go by, and we had some dolphins/porpoises follow the ship (there was a lot of debate on which kind they were). The dolphins/porpoises love to play in the wake of the ship, and try to keep up with it. It was great seeing their little free show! See if you can spot them in this picture (taken from deck 14):

From Transatlantic Cruise

In Nova Scotia, we signed up for a bus tour with the cruise. It was pretty easy that way, and we got to see a few different little towns.

Here I am standing next to a whale jaw. I still remember when some marine biologist brought one in to show my elementary school. It was still fun to see this time.

From Transatlantic Cruise

And here's an obligatory lighthouse picture (we saw a bunch of these)

From Transatlantic Cruise

And finally, we arrived on American soil. Only, getting off the ship wasn't that simple. The ship next to ours had a bomb threat, so there were a ton of fire trucks, etc on the pier. It caused about a two hour delay to debarkation, which was annoying but at least it was only a threat. Nothing says "welcome to the USA" like a NYC bomb threat!

Here's my last picture on the ship, sporting my medeConnect hat. Just a little shout-out to all my former colleagues in the UK. And, appropriately, the rain followed us to shore as well (but thankfully we missed a hurricane by a couple hours).

From Transatlantic Cruise