Elvis Lives

I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Graceland.
And. . . here I am, standing in front of the gate to Elvis' house.
When Elvis was touring, I never went to see him and that makes me a bit sad.
Nevertheless, I have his records (yes, records) and saw many of his movies!
He is truly the King of Rock and Roll.
How kewl is this?

There is not one inch of empty space on this wall but visitors continue to "write" their messages.

We were here!!!!!!

Me. . . with Elvis!

The lobby of the hotel we stayed in while visiting Memphis! Even our room had Elvis photos on the walls, so I could say, "I slept with Elvis" right?

Okay. . . Elvis Fans! Tell me what TCB means!

We got to go inside the "Lisa Marie"!!!! OMG, what a beautiful plane, inside and outside.

One of the rooms inside his house.

The front of our hotel.

I love this guitar-shaped pool. Our room was behind the umbrella!

On this roadtrip, I was able to cross off so many things on my bucket list--visiting Graceland was one of them. Elvis was truly "one of a kind" and there will never be anybody like him--ever!

Grand Ole Opry

I'm not into country music really but I do like some songs sung by country/western singers!
During our roadtrip, I put Nashville on the schedule because I wanted to see the Grand Ole Opry.
In my mind, I have always envisioned the Grand Ole Opry as something like an old western type building made of barn wood and all.
Was I in for a surprise!!!!! (Can you spot me?)

I did check their schedule to see who was playing on the night we were in Nashville but I didn't know who any of them were so we didn't go inside the Grand Ole Opry itself.

If you have never been to the Grand Ole Opry and love country music, you will surely want to visit this beautiful place.

The gift shop was awesome! I bought a beautiful T-shirt, a CD of "Gospel Favorites from the Grand Ole Opry, Live," and whole slew of Grand Ole Opry stuff. I had so much fun in that gift shop.

And you know me, right? It's all about the gift shop!

Sunsets!

I love taking photos of the sky and sunsets in particular. Sometimes, you only have a few minutes (sometimes only seconds) to take a really nice sky/sunset photo.
In a wink of an eye, the beautiful colors or rays of a sunset are gone so if you see it, you better be ready to take it.

One of my favorites! We were visiting some friends who live by this beautiful lake in Minnesota and I walked down to the water to take this shot. Within seconds, it was gone!

Here's two photos taken within minutes of each other and you can see the difference in cloud formations and where the sun is positioned--both gorgeous!

I took a whole slew of beautiful sunset photos during our roadtrip and each one takes my breath away!

I am so lucky that I can see and enjoy the beauty of our wonderful United States!

Mall of America

The Mall of America is HUGE! It's 4 floors and each floor is miles and miles long!!!!
We were there for about 4 days, so basically we tried to cover one floor per day!
There are stores in the Mall of America that I've never seen anyplace else (at least under one big roof).

We went to see District 9 while at the mall--it's a weird movie in a good way I guess! :} Zip enjoyed it more than I did.

How cute is this? Mickey ears entrance!!!!

Love this ad--jewelry and donuts--a GREAT combination!

Love how they stacked the books!

Que cute-ums!

One of my favorite stores!!!! Love Brighton!!! Have you seen their new jewelry stuff--the mix and match beads--oh my gosh! LOVE IT.

If you ever get the chance to visit this mall, wear VERY comfortable shoes, bring ALL your credit cards, and be ready to have some fun! I know I did.

Farm Flowers!

So this back at the farm once again!
Here you see the "birthing barn" and the flower and veggie garden! Love these Black-Eye Susan flowers (at least I think that's what they are!).

And if you look really really close in the photo below, you'll see, once again, that it's plagued by a WEED that seems to "pop up" out of nowhere--gosh darn it all!!!!

I LOVE these pink flowers! A favorite color combo of mine too--pink and green!!!!

And. . . yes. . . I'm gonna write to the dairy farm and see if they can do something about getting rid of that one darn weed that nearly ruined my photo of the sunflowers! :/

TMI

Sometimes too much information is just too much information.

Bodies, The Exhibition, was in San Antonio a while back and Zipper wanted to go but I would rather watch paint dry than go see real (dead) human bodies.

It's just TMI (too much information).

Sooooooo, here we are at the Mall of America and guess what's there? Yep, Bodies, The Exhibition. And, yes, we went.

I looked at everything except for a few things that really grossed me out. I had the opportunity to hold a human brain and kidney but I declined.

What I did find fascinating was how these bodies and organs were preserved--a process called polymer preservation.

If Bodies, The Exhibition, comes to your city--go see it but don't eat a big meal before you go!

Twin City Grill

What's wonderful about traveling over 8,000 miles on a roadtrip, seeing wonderous sights along the way, is being able to visit friends along the way.
Here I am with fellow angel and friend, Rita W., who lives near the Mall of America (MOA)! She met Zip and I for dinner one night at the Twin City Grill (in the MOA) and was so so sweet to bring my very own copy of the new TAC fall supplement called Avenue! Yahoooooooo! Thank you so much, Rita!!!!!!!


The food at the Twin City Grill was very very yummilious. We had a great time yakking, eating, and looking through the new Avenue!

See those curvy wooden benches? We were waiting for Rita on that bench facing not toward the restaurant but at this one shop that sold sports-related stuff. While sitting there, I spotted a T-shirt in that shop that I HAD to buy! Tune in again soon and see the T-shirt I bought. If you know anything about the Green Bay Packers football team, you will love this T-shirt!!!

Double Diary You!

Just wanted to share this "just born" photo!
Is this face cute or what? The mama cow eventually licked this little guy clean. As we first entered the "birthing barn," this is what we saw. Two cows waiting to give birth.

Here's Zipper in the entrance of the dairy farm! :} The props in this place were awesome!

I really enjoyed visiting the dairy farm and learning all about where and how milk, cheese, yogurt comes from! A real eye opener to a "nonfarming type person"!

Hot in Seattle!

We live in Texas! Hot Texas. There's two seasons in Texas--hot and hotter. One of the things we were looking forward to while on our long roadtrip was some cooler weather!
So what do you think we found in Seattle?????

Nope, not cool weather!
As you can see from the headlines of The Seattle Times, all we had for the 5 days we were there was hot hot hot weather!
And we found out. . . there's not that many businesses with air conditioning! Most restaurants and businesses near Pike Place have no air conditioning--uggggggg. Lots of open windows and ceiling fans, which would be GREAT if the weather was nice and cool and breezy but it wasn't.
It was HOT, no breeze, and rather humid.
And of course, we walked to most attractions or took the monorail--oh my gosh, it was like taking a bath in your clothes.

I never thought I would ever say this--TAKE ME BACK TO SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS!!!!!!
At least in San Antonio nearly EVERYTHING has air conditioning.

Home improvement stores were doing a "bang up" job because they were selling window air conditioning units like hot cakes! The weather in Seattle didn't cool down until AFTER we boarded our cruise ship for Alaska--GREAT, JUST GREAT!!!!!!