It was cold on the taxi, despite being summertime, so the girls cuddle up with Daddy.
Victoria and Bella were so in love with Micheal Patrick; they fought to sit by him. He is such an amazing kid- at 18 months he was carrying on great conversations with everyone. And did I mention he's a cutie pie.
We had an amazing trip, filled with everything from a ritzy Fairfield Hotel :) to at least 3 episodes of bugs scaring the beegeebees out of Victoria, and maybe me on one of those occasions.
The brief intinary of 10 states, starting from Frisco, TX-
Little Rock, AR- old capital, new capital, Le Petit Roche, Farmer's Market, bridge, & playground
Memphis, TN- Graceland, Beale Street, stayed in Germantown and girls went swimming
Shiloh, TN- battlefield (bug incident #1- giant bugs in their restroom made for an interesting and funny time, but traumatic visit for Victoria)
Nashville, TN- ate at White Castle (not as good as I remember from childhood), Parthenon (AMAZING!), Country Music Hall of Fame, Ft. Nashbrough, walking tour of downtown, TN capital, Ft. Negley and short hike, tried to see Grand Ol'e Opry, but saw Gaylord Opryland instead, ate at Bob Evans- great food for a family stop. (All in all, Nashville was my favorite city- very family oriantated with lots of activities and music- fun atmosphere with impressive buildings and history.)
Momoth Caves, KY- Fun facts- longest cave system in the world, 392 miles, so far, got its name from a reporter in the 1800s because it was a "mamoth" (large, something to see) of a cave, was discovered by a hunter in the 1700s when his prey went to die in the cave. By far the neatest cave I have gone to- decended 250 feet below ground with stairs squeezing into small spaces- it had the AWE factor- got to see cave crickets and rats. Bug incident #2- after the tour, on the bus ride back to our car, Victoria saw a Daddy Long Legs on her seat and started screaming bloody murder! Our hero, the Ranger, picked it up with his bare hands and threw it out the window. On the road again, ate at Big Bubba's BBQ- great corn pancakes, pulled BBQ, fried green tomatoes, saw the sun set on Kentucky- beautiful, drove past Louiville's neat city with lighted skycrappers and many bridges into Seymour Indiana and stayed the night at a great hotel the Fairfield Marriott, let kids go swimming in morning.
Indianapolis, IN- horrible time finding parking in downtown (not a visitor friendly place), IN state capital, Civil War Monument, ate at Rock Bottom Brewery, Eiteljorg Museum- American Indians & Western Art, WWII Memorial, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, passed through Peoria, IL (wanted to stay the night there, but they were all booked), stayed in Galesburg, IL (got the last 2 hotel rooms in the hotel)
Bettendorf, IA- tour of the Quad cities (Bettendorf and Davenport, IA & Moline and Rock Island IL), stayed at Sandy's house and visited with relatives, Children's Museum, fed ducks and Canadian geese on Mississippi River, Iowa visitor center with sceneic overview of Bald Eagle sanctuary, Antique, Archeology- home of American Pickers,German restraunt on the river, Channel Cat Water Taxi tour of Quad cities, Isle of Capri, Bug incident # 3 - the whole time we were in Iowa, little Chad flies were everywhere- I mean everywhere! It made the girls a little jittery. Appearently, they only come out for a week, then all die. (What is up with us and bugs?)
Traveled home in 2 days (was going to be 3, but we were all growing tired and wanted to sleep in our own beds again.) Went through Des Moines, IA, Missouri, Kansas City, KS, Witchita KS (once again, wanted to stop here for the night, but all the rooms were full), stopped in Blackfeld KS at a nice Best Western, traveled through Oklahoma City, OK to our Texas home!
10 states in 9 days (was going to be 10 days, but exhaustion wore us out :)
TX-AR-TN-KY-IN-IL-IA-MO-KS-OK
Thank you Mrs. Stacey and Frisco Swim for helping Victoria and Bella become swimmers. This is the first year that I can officially say they can "swim on their own" (not saying, I'll let them, but if they fell in, I know they could swim to the side.) Stacey was an amazing teacher- knew when to encourage, when to push harder and how to get a kid to laugh and love swimming. I actually learned a lot myself about technique. They went from being timid around the water and relying on floaties to actually swimming on their own. Hurray! I can't wait to take them to our community pool.
