This is another test to see if. Mobile blogger is working, the first one didn't work :(

Southern States Road Trip Day 3: Huntsville and Lynchburg

I'm writing the day after because once we got home and got settled it was pretty late.

We started Wednesday in Huntsville, AL. It was really warm, I was a little disappointed in weather.com, our supposed "hottest" day was actually the coolest and our "cool" day was the warmest...go figure.

We went to the Davidson Space Center where they just opened an exhibit of the Saturn V rocket. They had a model outside, which was gigantic, and a real un-used rocket inside. It was spectacularly huge, it was hard to capture in the photos, definitely a must see! We also toured the rocket park and original museum. The rest of the space center just needs a bit of an update and it could be really cool.

Saturn V rocket, trying to get perspective on how big it was!

Models of the space shuttle Pathfinder and the Saturn V rocket

We then drove for about an hour to Lynchburg, TN to the Jack Daniel's Distillery, after an amazing lunch of McDonalds! That part of TN is really pretty and the distillery sits in a really beautiful "holler," as they call it. We took the (free) tour and learned all about the history of the area and Jack himself. The distilling process was really similar to the bourbon tours we've seen, but they run their still through 10' of charcoal which they say gives it it's smoothness. They also barrel age the whiskey, like bourbon.

4 stages of whiskey, the clear stuff is 140 proof!

The top of the 10' charcoal process, we took a whiff of this stuff (140 proof), pretty strong!!

The distillery is in Moore county which is a dry county so they were not allowed to give any tastings, but we did buy a commemorative bottle, they were only allowed to sell this.

We drove home after the whiskey tour, with a quick stop to get a stamp at a civil war battle ground in Murphreesboro, TN. It was a lot of driving but a fun day overall. Now it's back to reality until I leave for my audition at FSU with my good friend Jon, hopefully more to post then!

Southern States Road Trip Day 2: Little Rock and Memphis

Looking back on today, it seems like we've been up forever! We started today in Little Rock, AR and went to Little Rock Central High School, one of the first schools to desegregate which caused an uprising in the city, and country for that matter. It was really eerie to think that so much violence and anger could have happened in this tiny little neighborhood. The visitors center was neat and had a ton of good information. I didn't know too many details surrounding the event so I spent a lot of time reading all of the information. I wrote down several book titles in the gift shop to check out b/c I didn't feel completely satisfied with the entire story, maybe because it was so unbelievable. The Gov of AR at the time sounds completely crazy, he even canceled school for an entire year so as not to have his schools forcibly integrated....crazy!!

Front of Little Rock Central High School (still a public HS)

Little Rock Nine sculpture outside the Arkansas State Capitol

We drove to the state capitol to take pictures of the "Little Rock Nine" statues and then headed to the Clinton Library. It is a very unique building that overlooked the river. It was a neat museum and had a lot of cool artifacts from his presidency. He had his daily itineraries for each day he was in office. It was neat to look and see what he was doing on election day in 1996 and inauguration day in 1997 and my birthday. He also had many great letters from famous people and some neat gifts from foreign leaders. Overall it was a neat museum, but would have been cool to see some stuff from his life before he was president. (I know I use the word "neat" way too much, but I'm too tired to go back and edit at this point....)

Outside the Clinton Library

We drove back to Memphis with the intention of going to the Gibson factory but the tour was sold out. We were a little bummed, but realized that all of the workers are off by that tour so we wouldn't have seen anyone making guitars anyway. We killed time (waiting for BBQ) by walking around Beale Street and visiting the Peabody Hotel.

The ducks at the Peabody were cute. We didn't stay to watch them do their walk, but we did watch them while they were in the fountain and went on the roof to see where they lived when not in the fountain. We were there an hour before their walk and at 45min before the place was starting to fill up with people, good thing we had BBQ plans or we would've been in a huge crowd after a while. The Peabody is super nice and even has Francis Scott Key's piano! I thought it was neat because it looked like the piano my family had when I was growing up.

Francis Scott Key's piano

We ate BBQ at Rendezvous BBQ and had two full slabs of ribs, yes two! It was the only meal we'd eaten today (except for our banana and cracker lunch on the road) so we were really hungry. We also ate BBQ Chicken nachos, which were really good!

Our first slab of ribs at Rendezvous BBQ

We are now in Huntsville, AL spending the night and will head home tomorrow, after seeing some space stuff, of course. I was going to leave you with a cute video of ducks, but this internet is excruciatingly slow so maybe tomorrow...

Southern States Road Trip Day 1: Memphis

It's spring break for me, so we decided to take a little road trip to get some states checked off of Ryan's list. I have all of the states we're going to already, but we're seeing some neat things so I don't mind.

We got up super early and got to Memphis around 10:30am central time. We first went to the Civil Rights Museum which is where MLK was assassinated. It was a pretty big museum with lots of new information about the history of civil rights in the U.S. The hotel portion was really interesting and haunting. I was disappointed the room was reconstructed, I had it in my mind that it was original from the day he was shot. We also got to go across the street to see the boarding house where the shooter was located.

Outside the hotel where MLK was shot

We ate lunch next, Ryan's job is to blog about the food today (it was AMAZING). We finally got to eat at the burger place Ryan had been talking about since we met. Then on to Graceland.

As we were walking in, I felt like the biggest tourist ever but was quickly sucked into the Elvis experience and ended up having a really good time. We went b/c we thought we should, but it was really cool and definitely exceeded our expectations. The house was awesome, very Elvis, and looked like it did when he lived there. We also went to the car museum, the army exhibit and went through his airplanes. He lived a very extravagant lifestyle and it was really cool to be able to see that in person. We got our usual magnets and small token Elvis items and ended up spending about 3 hours there. It's a little expensive, but very unique and fun, well worth it I think.

Outside Graceland (pronounced Grace-lund)

One of my favorite shots from inside the Mansion

We ate dinner at Gus's chicken (again Ryan will blog) but I just need to say everyone has to go there! I was literally speechless during one point during dinner b/c the chicken was THAT good, seriously.

The most amazing piece of chicken in the history of man, ever.

We drove a couple of hours to Little Rock, AR (a new state for Ryan) and are spending the night here to do LRCHS and the Clinton Library tomorrow, then back to Memphis! Day one was a success I would say. I'll post all the pics once we get back.

A Sad Farewell.....

We got into Rothenburg, Germany just before dinner last night. We had a quick orientation meeting and then checked into our hotels and had dinner. We were left to explore the city for the rest of the evening and then our final staff meeting to figure out how we were going to get these kids home.

I spent the evening taking the Night Watchman tour. This was really intersting, it was just a man who dressed up as a traditional Watchman who used to roam the wall of the city throughout the night keeping the town safe. He knew a ton of history about the city and explained how daily life worked in a walled medieval city. It was really cool to see how well preserved the town was and understand what life was like when the town was first thriving.

town square

The next day was almost entirely our own, with the exception of our final concert. I spent most of it with my new friends, Josh and Melissa Toppass. We did a lot of souvenier shopping and walking the cobblestone streets. Rothenburg is the home of Kathe Wolfhardt, which is a hugh manufacturerer of handmade Christmas decorations. She had a store on every street corner and I think we went into almost everyone. We wrapped up our free time at a German sidewalk restaurant where we ate Bratwurst and German potatoes. It was delicious!

We had our final concert in the town square, just after the town clock did it's thing, demonstrating the town story of the mayor drinking a ton of wine in order to save the city. Only in Germany, I think!

the famous clock reenacting how the town was saved

I went back to the hotel to finish packing and then we ate dinner and the entire group got together for our final celebration together. Some of the buses performed sketches of their interpretations of the trip and we went over the details of tomorrow so everyone was on the same page.

walking on the wall around Rothenburg

one of the main streets from atop the wall

the other side of Rothenburg from outside the wall

I am a bit nervous about tomorrow because we have one hour to depart our gigantic plane, go through customs, recheck our luggage and instruments, and get to another terminal to board our next plane (which was going to Minneapolis!!). We will be cutting it close but we have forewarned the kids and so far when we have important situations like this, my kids have stuck close to me and we've always managed to survive.

As my time here ends, I am very thankful for the expereince and of course all the friends I have made on staff. It has been a great group to work with and it was fun to spend the last night reminiscing with some of my closest new friends. We do say that we are excited to return without 3oo high school students, but they have made the trip good as well. I can't wait to get home and share this with Ryan and my family and friends.

Dachau

It was another early morning and the weather was really dreary and rainy. It was appropriate since we were visiting Dachau today. We took the Autobahn through Munich and got to Dachau before lunch.

We got a little lost trying to find the entrance because nothing was really marked so we ended up being soaked before we even got inside. Once we were in I went into the museum, which was an old building that housed the hospital, kitchens and armament factory. They had a movie about what happened at Dachau and lots of informative displays. I didn't have much time to look around inside because I wanted to see the housing areas and the crematorium.

They actually destroyed all the housing after the prisoners were liberated so they recreated two buildings to replicate what they had to live in. It was really mind blowing because they fit 500 people into each section of these houses (I think there were three sections in each...). All that is left of the original housing are the footprints of the foundations.

I made it to the crematorium which is at the opposite end and outside the fences surrounding Dachau. If my information is correct, they never used the "showers" at Dachau, even though they were built. Even seeing them, knowing they weren't really used, was still very sobering and completely unbelievable.

We then got back onto the bus for the rest of our trip to Rothenburg, my mind was definitely on what I had seen today, I am glad to have had that experience.

The area where they would line up the prisoners many times a day

The old building which now houses the museum

Inside one of the housing buildings, the bunks were three high

Part of the trench surrounding Dachau, also a guard tower

The main gate of Dachau "Work Makes you Free"

Hot Day in a Floating City

Happy Birthday Dr. Speck! We woke up insanely early this morning in order to get some good time in Venice. It was about a 5 hour bus ride to Venice but most of us slept the whole time. We got to Venice around 11am and had a quick lunch before jumping on a ferry over to the actual city.

We were really overwhelmed by the heat, we had not really dealt with heat at all during the trip so it was especially tough to deal with. We took a walking tour of the city led by a tour guide which was interesting. We stuck to the back streets to keep in the shade and avoid crowds and got to see how real Venetians lived. We also got to see the church where Vivaldi was baptized, I get real excited to see places like that, where famous composers had once been. We then went to St. Marks Cathedral where other composers like Monteverdi and Gabrielli had once performed, very cool. The Cathedral itself was so great, very dark and had these amazing mosaics that looked like paintings they were so good. Even the floors were covered with mosaics, our guide says the church floods several times a year, even just a few days ago. I can’t believe it was still in that good of shape after all that abuse.

The church where Vivaldi was baptized

St. Mark's Cathedral

We ended our tour at the Murano glass factory, which I guess is a big deal even though I had never heard of it before. We got to see one of the master glass blowers create a vase (which he proceeded to destroy when we left) and also saw their showroom. The glass was beautiful but expensive, as you can imagine.

a canal with a gondola

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets of Venice, eating some pizza and of course having gelato. The architecture was beautiful throughout the city and it was always mind boggling to thing that we were standing on stilts and this whole city was floating, it is a shame that it is also slowly sinking. I really liked Venice, although it did sort of smell like urine at times and there were a ton of people in a small amount of space. It was definitely nice to get back to our small, open Austrian town.

some canal boats lined up along the water

leaving Venice, neat sky!

Tomorrow we’re finally off to Germany, my most anticipated part of the trip. I have always wanted to go to Germany. On our way to Rothenburg we’re going to stop at Dachau, that will be interesting to see for sure.

My first encounter with Mozart....

We got into Seefeld, Austria in the early evening last night. It was nice because we got to explore the town a bit and not have to rush off to bed. I spent the evening hearing the choir sing at St. Oswalt’s church, a church where a miracle occurred. It was an interesting story of a knight who came into the church and demanded to take the wafer during communion, which I guess is usually reserved for the priest. The priest finally gave into his demands and when the knight took the wafer it became bloody and his feet sank into the ground and his hand melted the stone altar. The priest got the wafer out of his mouth and the knight was so overcome by this experience he dedicated his life to becoming a priest. We got to see the altar and floor where this happened after the choir sang in the church. The choir sounded amazing in this space and the church was absolutely beautiful.

The choir singing in St. Oswalt's

Where the knight's foot sank into the ground

Today we drove to Innsbruck, which was home to the ’64 and ’76 Olympics. We first went to the ski jump which was on top of a mountain overlooking the Inn Valley. It was so neat to see and there were ski jumpers practicing while we were there so we got to see them go off the jump! They designed the jump to be usable year around with a special turf they would wash down with water in between jumps. It was really cool to see and also to hear those jumpers.

Can you see the ski jumper?

Next we drove down to the Wilten Basilica, which was visited by the Pope. It was so amazing to see, it was decorated in the Rococo style and was so overwhelmingly ornate and beautiful. There were lots of pinks and golds with cherubs and very detailed paintings on the ceilings. It was really remarkable and was even better because the choir got to sing a few pieces while we were there. The acoustics of those old churches are absolutely amazing and was a really great experience.

After that we drove to the Altstadt or “old city” to do some shopping. We saw a house where Mozart and his father lived and played a concert for the King, that was really cool. You wouldn’t even know it unless you saw the tiny plaque above one of the outdoor cafes. That is one things I noticed about Innsbruck, they do not really get into publicizing the cool things about their city. I was looking for some neat Olympic things, but couldn’t really find anything…..you wouldn’t even know they hosted one if someone didn’t tell you.

Where Mozart once stayed with his father in Innsbruck

We went back to Seefeld and had time to do some more shopping and eat lunch before our concert. Our concert was a challenge for myself and the kids. It rained up until our time to perform and the sun came out in full force during the concert. It was impossible to see and the heat was intense. We were lucky to still be dry because it began to pour and lightning real bad right after we locked up the trailer. The rain was welcome because it cooled everything off pretty good, just in time to see another Alp Horn concert. I think I’ll become like Dr. DeZeeuw and her bagpipes, only I’ll play the Alp Horn.

An Alp Horn concert in Seefeld (my new obsession!)

The weekend is obviously a big party time for the Austrians because the streets were filled with people who were dressed up and several DJs were out there, along with a million street vendors selling various food and drink. The Supremes were to perform but were going on too late, we had a 4am wake up the next day so an early bedtime was in the plans. When we woke up today, there were definitely still people out drinking in the streets, definitely more fun than I can handle!

I love Switzerland!

Today was another long but pretty relaxing day in Switzerland. We had the morning free to do as we wished so myself and Paul and Frederick went walking about the town. It was pretty brisk outside, but that has been the theme of the trip. I guess we’ve gotten really lucky with the weather, I’m definitely using my long sleeved items. We found a post office and got some postcards mailed and then were on a mission to find some cuckoo clocks for some people. We knew there was a specific toy store in town that would ship them home for free, the problem was we didn’t know where it was. We wondered around for quite a while and finally stopped at the tourism office and they gave us some more bad directions. We finally found the store but were disappointed in the selection so we didn’t end up getting any clocks.

After a hurried lunch we drove to Montreux to visit the Castle of Chillon which sits on Lake Geneva. Our tour guide was great, but I realized how much I don’t know about Swiss history. The castle was used for many things over the centuries, a prison, toll booth, home to royalty. It was probably made famous mostly because of Lord Byron’s poem The Prisoner of Chillon. I didn’t buy a copy of it but will probably check it out at the library when I get home. It was an interesting place, for some reason I always like to see old prisons and places where they tortured people.

one end of the Castle of Chillon

where Lord Byron carved his name into a pillar

We took a long walk along Lake Geneva to get to the city of Montreux. It was really crowded there because the Montreux Jazz festival was going on. Paul Simon was playing that night but we were not going to be able to stay. I did pick up a show lineup guide and a couple of souvenirs and noticed that the KU Jazz Ensemble I is playing there in a couple of days, pretty neat!

breathtaking Lake Geneva while walking to Montreaux

We got back to the hotel right at dinner and had an excellent meal provided by our hotel owners. It is a very quaint and hospitable setting, definitely a memorable experience. After dinner the band and choir gave a concert down at the town tent. It was really chilly, which was good for the horn section as we tend to play insanely sharp….we actually sounded ok! The Swiss audience was unbelievable, they clapped along to just about everything and gave us two encores. They were really fun to play for and such an excited audience. Dr. Speck made a joke and said they would clap to just about anything, even “Music for Prague”…I thought that was especially funny! He also said he would play just about anything they wanted because they loved everything so much.

Our time in Switzerland has ended and everyone has been threatening to “lose” their passports so they could stay….we actually did have a lost passport scare, but it was resolved thank goodness! Tomorrow we stop in Lichtenstein and then on to Austria, finally to some German speaking country!

sunrise view from my hotel room on my last morning in Switzerland

What can I say about my favorite day?

So today’s entry may last forever because it has been by far my most favorite day on the tour. We woke up early, any day that starts with a look at the Alps has to be a great day. We drove a couple of hours and took a train up to a little ski town called Zermatt, which is a the base of the Matterhorn. We got to do some shopping there and even sampled some pastries from one of the many bakeries. I didn’t buy too much b/c it definitely had ski town prices on everything. It was an adorable town though, complete with very old buildings and cobblestone streets. It was nice b/c you can only access the town via train so there were no cars to deal with.

Looking up a small street in beautiful Zermatt

We finally took a cog train up to the where we could see the Matterhorn. It, as everything in Switzerland has been, was an amazing sight. I know we were still pretty far away from the mountain itself, but it was huge and covered in snow. It was the most clear day so we could see the entire mountain. I guess we got lucky b/c I was told it is only clear only about 18-20 days a year, so I’d say we got really lucky! We ate lunch at the mountain top restaurant and got to take some time to really enjoy and take in our surroundings. I cannot say enough about how wonderful that experience was.

Me with a St. Bernard next to the Matterhorn


The beautiful Matterhorn

We ended the day with a fondue party at the city tent and some presentations of traditional Swiss celebration, complete with Alp horns, dancing, polka band, and yodeling (think European Vacation where Clark gets into the fight…just to stick with the theme of the blog). I actually got to play the Alp horn in front of about 500 people, they asked 2 teachers from the group to come up and play the Star Spangled Banner and I volunteered b/c I knew it would be a lot like playing the Horn. I totally killed the guy and beat the teacher from New Mexico, it was a great time….I knew those Horn skills would come in handy someday!

Showing off my mad horn skills on the Alp Horn

It was such a great day, I am sure I am leaving things out. Switzerland is a must for everyone who loves the mountains and this kind of culture. Tomorrow is our last full day here, which is sad, we’re heading to Montreux to visit the Castle of Chillion and walk around Lake Geneva. The Montreux Jazz Festival is going on at the same time too so hopefully we’ll get to listen to some good music too, Paul Simon is playing tonight, but we will miss him unfortunately.