Tag: History

“Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues…” Mark Cohn

On By HanneIn TravelLeave a comment

Oh man…

For as much as I bitch and moan about the ridiculous heat, high humidity and sketchy liquor stores down dirty side streets because you can’t buy wine at a grocery store – I really love this place.

I know I mostly get the ‘tourist’ view of life in Memphis. While poverty is a big issue here, there is enough police

This place should be hoppin' with tourists and locals alike!
This place should be hoppin’ with tourists and locals alike!

presence that the general area around Beale st. feels very safe. You’re not completely sheltered from the homeless, but even turning them down when they request a few bucks, they wish you a blessed day. It’s sad to walk along main st. It’s tucked between tall, old buildings and the combination of those buildings and some trees keeps the pedestrian area pretty shaded. There are a few bars, cafes dotted along the way, but the majority of the shop fronts are closed, boarded up and unused. There is a trolly (that I didn’t see) that runs down the center of the street and no cars can drive down. It’s a fantastic space and greatly reminds me of Strøget in Copenhagen. But with Beale st. getting the majority of the tourism, no one really ventures a few blocks over. It seems like it’s a vicious cycle, money is needed to get the cafes, shops off the ground, but it’s also needed to keep them going. And it would be hard to pull tourists off historic Beale st., so attracting locals would be their number one draw. But with poverty levels nearly twice that of Seattle (28.3% vs. 15% – for 2012) I don’t know where they would start. That one day, when I win the mega millions… you know what city I’ll be adopting.

But other than the heat/humidity, I have had a fantastic time. The locals that I’ve talked to have found it amusing at my dislike of the heat, saying, “honey, our summer weather hasn’t really started yet.” Which I find horrible funny that 92F (and the app saying it feels like 102F) isn’t summer weather – that’s a damn heat-wave! Apparently once it hits 100F the electric company won’t switch of your electricity even if you haven’t paid, so you can keep cool and survive the summer months.

Hotel staff have been exceptional (even granting me super late check out so I don’t have to wait half a day at the airport with my suitcase). I’ve been able to catch up on some much needed sleep (10-12 hours a night) and they’ve let me be with my ‘privacy please’ sign hanging on my door. I heard the house-keeping lady across the hall and requested an extra roll of TP – we chatted for a couple of minutes and I returned to my room with a smile on my face. Everyone is just so friendly! This is my fourth stay in the past five years, and although staying across the street at the Peabody has become more and more affordable (only a $20 difference last year when I booked), I still choose to stay here at the Holiday Inn. I called to make my reservation and they knocked a big chunk off the nightly cost (enough that staying four nights was the same as what I would have paid staying three if I had booked online). Plus, you can’t see the big Peabody sign from your window if you’re staying there.

Mississippi river: too thick to drink, too thin to plow
Mississippi river: too thick to drink, too thin to plow

Yesterday I took a 90 minute riverboat trip aboard the Island Queen. We sailed down and back up a small section of the Mississippi river. The tour guide was funny and shared lots of interesting information about the river, Memphis and Mark Twain. There wasn’t much to see – you don’t go very far, and the Arkansas side is pretty much all trees, but it was a welcome break from the heat (the inside had A/C) and the tour guide made it worth it. I know there are longer cruises you can go on and I’ve now set my sights on one day sailing from St. Louis to New Orleans on an 8 day cruise. It’s pretty pricey ($4000+), but I imagine it would be a great time.

 

I guess it’s time to close down, finish packing and head to the airport.

Memphis… until next time.

 

 

 

Thursday Thrills

On By HanneIn History, Thursday Thrills2 Comments

One of my 30 before 30 items is to spend a day exploring a local (Washington) town I’ve never been too. But there are also many areas in and around Seattle that I’ve never really explored. After walking one kid to the bus stop earlier this week, the little guy I watch was pretty adamant about going buh-bye. It was a pretty nice morning, with quite a bit of blue sky which is always nice (and fairly infrequent at times) in a place like Seattle. So we loaded up and circled through our favorite Starbucks for a latte and specialty ice water (because water from a starbucks cup is ten times better than the water in your own water bottle when you’re two), and then head out. I was aimed for Fremont, a fun artsy area, when I decided to swing out toward Wallingford first. It’s a cute little neighborhood and while I’ve driven up and down N 45th St. more times that I can count, I’ve never been inside the Wallingford Center that advertises ‘Life’s Necessities & Little Luxuries’.

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An old school building from 1904, this places oozes charm before you even head inside. The kiddo was excited to go inside and look around. We were greeted with a big display of cupcakes at Trophy Cupcake. But before he could do more than point at all the nummies, he spotted a train table in the middle of the ‘hallway’ at the north end. The place was pretty empty at it was just opening, but after a looky–lou around, there are a lot of open spaces available for rent. I get the feeling that most people come here for specific reasons – the pharmacy, the old Tweedy & Popp hardware store, etc. – rather than just to browse. It’s too bad, really. I think they could do a lot with this building to build up visitors to the area. I still have yet to explore the other stores on the street (there is a fun sock shop, but they weren’t open yet).  The kiddo is pretty good about keeping his hands to himself as we looked through a couple of the shops and then headed outside.

photo 33We circled the building and spent some time watching a small fountain that had a pink carnation bud floating around. The water was icy-cold so it was easy to convince the kid to keep his fingers out. We then walked up the street a bit, but a majority of the shops don’t open until 11 (and we were about 20 minutes shy of open).  Overall, it’s a lovely little area. Some of the shops outside the center look a little run down, but certainly worth a revisit once everything is open. And we’ll certainly return for a tasty cupcake sooner rather than later. Trophy has converted a couple of the old classrooms into a fun seating area.

The top floor has been converted into studio apartments. Google doesn’t provide many images of the way it once was, but more than anything I’d love to see the way the studios are set up. A building like this is as close to ‘old history’ as we have in Seattle. #historynerdsunite

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” -Theodore Roosevelt

On By HanneIn Travel, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I had two very long drives to take me from Louisville, KY to Medora, ND. I spent a night in Eau Claire, WI, but with a ten hour drive on either side, I didn’t do much but grab a bite to eat, pour a glass of wine and curl into one of the more comfortable of the ‘cheaper’ hotels.

The drive through North Dakota was fairly uneventful – for once the skies were friendly enough. It was pretty much flat grass/farm land the whole way through, though as I approached the National Park area, you could see where the prairie gave way to the bad lands. I arrived around dinner time, checked in and headed to one of the three restaurants in town for a quick dinner. I’ve had my handy-dandy radar app within reach at all times and could see a storm front was headed in. I decided to get to bed early and save the park for the following day. I was in the middle of the interwebs (facebook, twitter, email, etc) when the thunder and lightning rolled in.

IMG_1663The following morning I grabbed a quick breakfast and headed for the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I hit the visitor center/gift shop first. I little lacking in the gift shop department, but lots of information, and a wonderful video to give a little insight to what the park was when Roosevelt himself spent time in the area and eventually set the land aside. His first cabin was out behind the center and I got to tour it. My reading about his life has paid off though, there was an elderly couple that had some questions but the guide wanted them to wait until the end – sadly they could stay. I asked what questions they had, and they were curious about his life after his first wife, Alice, died. I was able to tell them about his second wife (and childhood sweetheart) and the rest of his children. I’m pretty sure I earned my Jr. Ranger Badge for that one. Right?

I have a few more books about Roosevelt on my shelf to read. I haven’t gotten far IMG_7193into his politics (though on New Years Day he opened the white house to shake hands with every single visitor that wanted to greet him in the new year), but I do know that he set aside roughly 150MILLION acres of land that are now listed as national parks, reserves, etc. That’s pretty awesome.

It was when he came to North Dakota to hunt Bison. Took him three weeks to find one because numbers went from 60million to just over 500. He didn’t want future generations to be without. Ironically, he was one of the last people to kill a bison before he started to work to save them.

I overheard another couple talk about seeing the wild horses not far from the road, so I was eager to head out and possibly get some photos. Apparently it wasn’t meant to be. The first time I circled the park (around 11am by the time I’d seen the cabin, visitors center and gift shop), I didn’t see any sign of the wild ponies. Lots of Bison (a little too close for comfort), about a billion prairie dogs and several kinds of birds, but no horses. The loop is about 40 miles and I took about 2.5 hours to drive it.

Back in Medora I grabbed a quick lunch to go and spent some time in my hotel room uploading photos before exploring Medora (and by exploring I meant checking out all three gift shops) and then headed back to the park in the early evening to circle again in hopes of finding the horses. And I found them! Waaaaay in the distance. I could just barely make them out in the distance with my camera zoom – not even worth taking a photo. I was disappointed, but at the same time – I found them!

The weather was quickly changing again, so I headed back to my hotel for the night. I wanted to get a good nights sleep, and with a last minute decision to drive the park one last time before heading out, I couldn’t sleep in.

Before leaving Medora completely behind, I circled the park one last time in search of the wild horses, and found them! They were still much further that I would’ve preferred. Unlike the Bison, they don’t just stand in the middle of the road and make you wait. But it was great to see them.

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It was a leisurely 415 miles along highway 200 from Medora, ND to Great Falls, MT. There were a few small towns along the way, but there were also several long stretches with absolutely nothing. Halfway there I could see a storm approaching, both via my radar app and the large, dark cloud in the distance. I got a bit of rain and saw a few flashes to the south, but managed to skirt around it before it became anything worth writing home about. Thinking I was done with the mess of weather, I put my phone app away and settled into the last half. Everything was going well until the clouds started changing again. I would later learn there was another Tornado warning, but my most immediate concern was the lightning strikes that I could see on either side of my car. The rain was coming down sideways and I had to slow to about 35mph. It lasted for about an hour before I popped out the other side of the storm to blue skies and fairly sunny weather. I made it to my hotel, grabbed dinner nearby and collapsed into a bed that I don’t remember – I was that tired. Well, I mean, it was my own hotel bed… not just any random bed. That’d be awkward.