Category: Capitol Building
State Forty-Nine

State Forty-Nine

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Hey Guys! I realize that Colorado was actually the thirty-eighth state to be ratified but, for us, it’s the forty-ninth state we’ve been to! We only spent a week in the Denver area, but we crammed so much into that one week that I’m going to break it up into two different posts.

The Colorado State Capitol Building will be the last SCB we visit for a while. It’s SCB number forty-eight for us even though Colorado is state number forty-nine on our map. If you’ve been with us for a while, you might remember that we missed the Alaska SCB. Planning didn’t work out…it would have cost way more than we wanted to spend for us to lay eyes on a building. So, we skipped it and went on a day cruise instead.

On the first floor of the Colorado SCB the “Women’s Gold” wall hanging celebrates all of the achievements of women in Colorado through its first one hundred years of statehood. The maker of this quilt had a little help though…she had 3,500 people put at least one stitch in the wall hanging.

Colorado Rose Onyx marble from Beulah, CO is so rare that all of the known reserves were used to build the SCB. So, if you ever want to see it in person, you’ll have to visit the Colorado State Capitol Building.

Around the dome is the Colorado “Hall of Fame”. There are sixteen stained glass windows depicting individuals who helped with the growth and development of Colorado.

During the tour, we were able to go up into the dome and out on the little walkway around the dome. Check out that view! Those are the Rocky Mountains in the distance.

Between the third floor of the SCB and the dome, there’s a museum. It’s not a huge museum, but it’s packed with a ton of information about Colorado and the SCB.

They call Denver the “Mile High City” because the SCB sits exactly one mile above sea level.

There are three “mile high” markers on the steps of the SCB. The first one was put on the 15th step in 1909.  After the brass cap was stolen seven times within thirty-eight years the “mile high” was etched into the step itself.  In 1969, some students at the University of Colorado remeasured and found that the first measurement was off a bit and a brass cap was installed on the 18th step. In 2003, measurements were taken again and they found that the “mile high” marker was still off…so, another brass cap was installed on the 13th step. You can see all three steps in the picture above.

The exterior cast iron dome was recently restored and covered in more than sixty-five ounces of pure gold.

While we were in the area, we took the time to go visit Buffalo Bill’s grave and museum.

William F. Cody was born in 1846 on a farm in Iowa. Throughout his life, he embraced the Old West and did everything from herding cattle to riding on the Pony Express to scouting for the Army, but it was his time as a buffalo hunter that scored him the name “Buffalo Bill”. In 1872, Buffalo Bill joined a theater production that would one day become Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.

William Cody was buried on Lookout Mountain in 1917 where he loved the view of the Rocky Mountains.

Not far from where Buffalo Bill is buried, is Genesse Mountain Park where you can see Denver’s buffalo herd. There are a couple of overlooks and a few hiking trails you can use to catch a glimpse of them.

On our last day in town, we snuck in a visit to Dinosaur Ridge.

We missed the tour by like…five minutes. So, we opted to walk it. Well, actually, we walked one part, drove to the other parking lot then walked the other part. We probably ended up walking more this way, but the rain was threatening so we tried to stick close-ish to the car.

Dinosaur Ridge is world famous for its dinosaur tracks and bones. Kind of cool to walk where the dinos once walked.

Dinosaur Ridge is known for the world’s first stegosaurus discovery. While you walk the trail, you can touch actual dinosaur fossils.

It’s called a dinosaur bulge. It’s where a big dino…maybe a brontosaur…steps in soft ground like a river bed or mud and it creates this bulge shape as the ground hardens. We’ve been to 49 states, but this is the first time we’ve taken the time to visit a dinosaur site. I can promise you…it won’t be our last. My little science nerds were in paleontology heaven.

Let’s talk foodies! Y’all know we like our burgers! Check out this jalapeno popper burger. Yum-oh!!

Stay tuned for Denver Part Two!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Cheyenne, WY

Cheyenne, WY

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Hey Guys!! We made it to Wyoming! These weekly jumps are wearing us out!! We’ve had three weeks in a row of jumping states and long drive days. Moving so fast makes our travels seem kind of like a blur. We start the whole…which-state-did-we-do-that-in thing. It’s no bueno.

Utah sent us off with a spectacular sunrise. We also spent some in the morning keeping track of a big semi-truck that kept swerving all over the road. I think he needed a nap. He was swerving so bad we didn’t want to try and pass him…and honestly, we didn’t want him behind us. He’d speed up and slow down and was just all over the road.

It didn’t take us long to reach Wyoming. Unfortunately, the sign was in a bad spot to stop so I had to snap a picture on the go.

Our long drive to Cheyenne was filled with looonnggg stretches of road like the one above. We saw so many antelope. I think we found the land where the antelope play. We really wanted to see some deer playing with the antelope and maybe a buffalo roaming around. *wink, wink*

Our reason for staying in Cheyenne was to visit the State Capitol Building. Guys, it was closed! Completely closed! It won’t reopen until sometime in 2019. What the hey-diddly!!! They’re completely remodeling it. Y’all may or may not know, but I have a book that I collect stamps from each State Capitol Building…stamps you can only get in the SCB. It’s not a sticker stamp. It’s an ink stamp. *sigh*

Plan B. We went to the State Museum which is right across the street from the SCB and hoped that the stamp had been moved there during the SCB remodel. We lucked out and the stamp had been moved to the museum. The museum was small, but filled to the brim with information about Wyoming. This was the boys’ favorite exhibit. There was info about everything from Wyoming topography to Wyoming natural resources to the state’s history and lore.

Jerl was pretty excited to learn that the NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center was located in Cheyenne. There was a small visitor center with some hands on exhibits. I have four boys who were in nerdom heaven. We were able to take a tour of the facilities. I heard lots of numbers and names of things fly around. It all went over my head. All I can tell you is that you’re looking at a very, very, super-dee-duper fast computer. The little lights were flashy and it really was impressive.

If you’re ever in Cheyenne look for the big boots. They’re all over the place and are all decorated differently based on where they’re located.

We were surprised by how small town Cheyenne felt. We saw so many antelope all over the place. I don’t think there was a single time we went out that we didn’t see antelope. Wyoming really is the place of wide open places where the deer and the antelope play.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Park City, UT

Park City, UT

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Hey Guys!! We made it to Utah! This trip, our stay in Utah was only one week, but we have plans to spend about a month and a half exploring more of Utah next year.

We stayed at an RV park in Park City, UT. It wasn’t a terribly long drive day for us, but it was super hot and it was pretty much a constant climb up hills the entire way. Our home-on-wheels started to protest the heat and having to work so hard when we were about twenty minutes away from our RV park in Park City. Luckily, we were right by a chain-up area where we could pull off. We unhooked the toad and I drove the rest of the way in the 4Runner while Jerl drove the RV.

The boys were super excited to have a pool to play in all week. We had the pool and the hot tub all to our selves the entire time. We didn’t mind. The water in the pool was pretty cold…even though the day temps were warm, the nights would dip pretty cold. Nicholas was really cold one day when he got out of the pool and it took us a good five minutes to talk him into getting into the hot tub with us to warm up. He kept saying he was too cold for the hot tub! Ha! Kids…

We had access to a great hiking trail right outside the RV park. We love to walk in the evenings. Some RV parks are good for it and some aren’t. It’s always nice to find a park where we can easily get some walking miles in.

We were close to Salt Lake City so we went to visit the Utah State Capitol Building. I love all of the columns. And Guys, check out that dome! I love the clouds and all of the seagulls painted on it. So pretty! All of that Georgia marble is gorgeous. And the huge skylight… love it!

I don’t know what this animal is supposed to be. It looks like a Pegasus with pink wings combined with a seahorse. Whatever it is, it’s stinkin’ cute. Even though the Utah SCB wasn’t one of the biggest ones we’ve seen…even though it wasn’t super ornate… the whole building was impressive with it’s attention to details.

We wanted to lay eyes on the Great Salt Lake. I did a little looking and found Antelope Island State Park which sits in the Great Salt Lake. We headed over for a little looky-loo one afternoon. From my research I knew the best place to see the island’s bison herd was over at the Historic Fielding Garr Ranch so we headed that way. We hadn’t gotten very far into the park when we spotted our first bison. They were everywhere! Some were in groups, some were out solo or in pairs.

Down the road from the bison we ran into these curious prong horn antelope. They were right by the road. I didn’t have to use zoom at all to get that shot. We stopped for a minute, then drove on when they started to get a little antsy with the paparazzi sticking a camera in their face. Aren’t the gorgeous though?! We were really surprised by how awesome this little island was. At forty-two square miles, Antelope Island is the largest of ten islands that sit in the Great Salt Lake.

The Historic Fielding Garr Ranch is where the majority of the bison herd hangs out. It was closed when we got there (after 5pm), but we were still able to walk around and look. Fielding Garr Ranch was established in 1848 and is one of the oldest working ranches in the Western US. In 1893, twelve American Bison were brought to Fielding Garr Ranch. Those twelve eventually became one of the biggest and oldest bison herds in the US. Today, the number of bison fluctuates between 500 and 700 bison depending on how many calves were born and how many bison were culled, sent to other herds, or died of natural causes. If you’re in the area, every October the Great Bison Roundup takes place where they gather up all of the bison on the island and do a health check to decide about culling or moving of the bison. We’d love to go check out the roundup some year!

After we got our fill of bison…honestly, can that ever happen…we drove to the other side of the island to do a short hike out to Lady Finger Point. We were loosing the sun at this point so we couldn’t do much hiking. We got out to the point just in time for a pretty spectacular sunset. We took our time looking around then headed back to the car before we lost all light.

We found a great burger place called Proper Burger. Check out that burger! Yup, those are fries on the burger. You can’t see it but there was also an egg on the burger with those fries and bacon. You should check it out if you’re in the Salt Lake area.

I didn’t really see any pretties during our week in Utah. It was toward the end of summer and still really hot and dry. I did catch this thistle just as it was starting to open up. I love the symmetry of it along with the colors.

We really enjoyed our week in Utah. It was short and went fast, but it was a great first trip to the state. We’re hoping to spend all of next September (2019) and part of October exploring a few of Utah’s National Parks!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Boise, ID

Boise, ID

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Hey Guys! The next three weeks are going to fly by for us! We are officially on our way to Florida for the winter. We’re making some big jumps with the next three states so we can spend some time back in Missouri and Texas before hunkering down in the Sunshine State for the cold winter months.

After two very long drive days we finally made it to Idaho!! When we first started this nomad life thing, we did really long drive days all the time. It was just part of the life since we were trying to jump our way out of Tornado Alley during tornado season. After we got back from Alaska where we had a week of twelve to fourteen hour drive days through Canada to get back to the lower 48…well, we decided those long drive days weren’t working for us anymore and I started planning shorter drive days. So, the two really long drive days to get to Boise, Idaho had us…I don’t know if reminiscing is really the right word…more like dredging up how we felt about all of those super long drive days we used to have.

We were only in Idaho for one week, but we crammed us much in as we could! Our first stop was the State Capitol Building. I loved all of the marble used in the Idaho SCB. We, actually, ended up visiting the Idaho SCB twice. The first time we went the stamp I need for my State Capitol book was locked up. We didn’t get to take a guided tour, but we were able to poke around on our own.

Y’all know I love a great staircase. This is one of the main staircases in the Idaho SCB and is made of marble! We enjoyed the Idaho State Capitol Building. There are a few things I tend to look for at SCBs and a great dome is pretty much at the top of my list. The Idaho SCB’s dome is simple, but beautiful. It’s an apt description for the entire building. Simple. Great colors. And Beautiful.

We always look for different things to do in each area we visit so when we found out about the old Idaho State Penitentiary, we planned a day to go explore it. We were lucky enough to get there right before a tour started.

Before it was an Idaho State Penitentiary, it was an Idaho Territorial Prison. The building in the picture above used to be the kitchen. It burned when some inmates started a riot over…bacon. The Great Bacon Riot of 1973. That should totally be a book. Or a movie.

We got to take a look in the cells of the isolation building called Siberia. No heat, no AC, no bathroom…it earned it’s name when some of the inmates froze to death while serving time there.

According to the docent, there are parts of the old prison known to be haunted. The cell in the picture above is one of those areas that more than one person has claimed to experience something paranormal while near it. We were allowed into several of the cells in this area, but this cell was locked tight. Are you interested in a ghost story? Well, according to the docent, each year during Halloween the old penitentiary holds a haunted prison. It’s like a haunted house. They hire actors and local college kids to help in the haunted prison. One of the girls hired started screaming for someone to let her out of the cell about an hour into her shift. The others thought it was part of her act, so they didn’t go investigate. By the time her shift was over, she was curled up in the corner crying. She claims that there was a thick shadow that kept following her around the cell and crowding her. Several other actors throughout the years have had similar stories about that same cell.

The Idaho Territorial Prison was built in 1870. In 1872 it was turned into the Idaho State Penitentiary and was open until 1973 when they opened a new State Penitentiary that was bigger.  In the over 100 years the Old Idaho State Penitentiary was running, it received over 13,000 prisoners. Only 213 of those inmates were women. Back when the prison was first opened, they had the women and men inmates in the same facility. Our docent kept all of the stories she told us to PG, but she did hint at more than a few…unsavory things that happened during the lifetime of the prison. I think the experience was eye opening for the boys. We all hear about prison, we see it on televisions and in the movies, but to actually walk the halls and see the cells of a real prison and to hear real stories about real people who were in those cells and halls…it’s different. It’s real.

We found an overlook of More’s Creek. It was a gorgeous day! We’d just spent several weeks in smoky areas of Oregon and Washington without seeing a blue sky so you can imagine that this amazingly blue sky was a very welcome sight.

We found the old Diversion Dam. Back in the late 1800s the Territory of Idaho built the Diversion Dam to help with farming. We were going to walk down this cute boardwalk until we noticed all of the spiderwebs. There were so many webs! So. Many!! And most of their residents were home. I wanted to kill them all with fire, but we didn’t think Idaho would appreciate that. So we drove on.

Let’s talk foodies! We found a pizza place that landed firmly on our top five list. Nicholas will tell you all about it in a Pizza Street post, but I will say this…the spinach artichoke dip with those little bread bites…I could have easily eaten my weight in them. I might have done just that. Maybe.

We also found a…well, a fry place that serves their fries with a side of burger. Seriously. The Boise Fry Company had so many different kinds of fries! Different types of potatoes are offered in different cuts of fries. My faves were the little po’ balls. Little scoops of mashed potatoes deep fried…it was like little balls of deep fried heaven. The potatoes available change seasonally and the cuts offered per potato change daily. And…check out all of the different kinds of dips! You didn’t really think a place that specializes in fries would only offer ketchup, did you? We had to try all of the dips and several of the shakers. They ranged from savory to sweet. We would have totally eaten at this place again! It was a fun find.

We were pleasantly surprised by the top-notch foodies offered in Boise. We definitely didn’t go hungry.

It was hot and toward the end of a dry summer when we were in Boise so there weren’t many pretties. We saw quite a few of these flowers along the roads though. The bees were thoroughly enjoying them!

We enjoyed Boise, ID more than we thought we would. We have plans to go back to Idaho next year to do some more exploring!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
Salem, OR

Salem, OR

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Hey Guys! We spent one week in Salem, OR exploring the area.

When we left Central Point we were surrounded by wildfires. The RV park was filling with smoke, it was extremely hot and dry, and Guys…we were just so ready to head north to try and get away from it all. When we started out to our next spot, we headed up I-5 and the smoke started getting worse. We got a little worried it would get too thick to drive through, but as we got up out of the valley, the smoke cleared and it turned into a beautiful day.

One of the things we always love to see is what each state looks like…topography, agriculture, different architectural styles…sometimes it surprises us. Like Oregon. We saw so many huge hay fields. Hay as far as the eye could see! It was all mowed down and ready for harvesting, but it still looked really neat. And dry. It’s no wonder why Oregon is a fire hazard every summer.

The main reason we spent time in Salem was to visit the State Capitol Building. Right from the start, I liked this one. Most of the SCBs look something like the National one in DC so it’s nice when we find one that’s different. I wasn’t expecting a dome, but check this one out! I love the patriotic theme of it. The Oregon SCB wasn’t flashy and it wasn’t huge. It didn’t have every square inch covered in decoration but, there were some very nice murals and they used marble from all over the country. It was very tasteful and simplistic. What decorations there were all had meaning.

We added our Oregon sticker! The map is looking kind of full! It’ll be a month before we get to add the Idaho sticker as we start making our way south for the winter.

We heard about a Silver Falls State Park a few weeks before we got to the Salem area. It wasn’t too far from where we were staying so we went to check it out. The most popular trail there is the Trail of Ten Falls. It’s a ten mile trail that takes you by ten falls.

The day we went it was over 100 degrees. It was so so hot. With no breeze. We decided we’d check out two of the falls, but it was just too uncomfortable to try to do all ten miles. We did see some of the local wildlife. This guy wasn’t interested in us at all, he was trying to find place to cool off.

This area of Oregon was shaped by lava flows. Some geologists think there were around eight different lava flows layered up one on top of another in the Silver Falls SP area. Some layered up to as much as 600 feet thick. One of the coolest things about this SP is that the trail actually goes behind some of the waterfalls! Not only was it neat to walk behind a waterfall and look through it…the cooling mist coming off of the waterfall was very welcome. We might have lingered longer than necessary. Ha!

Foodies! Some friends of ours (waves at the McConnels) told us about a BBQ place in the area so we went to check it out. It was so good! Check out that tray full of food! Yum!

It’s getting harder to find pretties…this summer season has been so hot and dry the flowers are either all dried up or too far away to get a decent picture of.

We enjoyed the Salem area more than we thought we would! We would totally visit the area again…during cooler weather.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018
San Francisco Area Part One

San Francisco Area Part One

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Hey Guys! We spent two weeks in the San Francisco area. We crammed so much into those two weeks that I’ve decided to break up this area into two separate posts. I could easily do four posts…we saw that much…but I’ll cram it all into two to save some time. The RV park we were staying in was in the town of Vacaville and it was in a great location for exploring the area without being right in middle of the San Francisco crowds all the time.

We went to five National Park Units while we were in the San Francisco area. Five! We missed a few…they either weren’t open or we didn’t plan far enough ahead and we missed out on tickets. Y’all know how far out we plan our travels so the fact that we missed out on tickets…sigh…should tell you how fast tickets are snatched up at popular parks.

 John Muir is known as the “Father of the National Parks” and the “Patron Saint of the American Wilderness”. He devoted most of his life to preserving the wild places that he loved so much. We’re big fans of John Muir and what his perseverance to save the wild spaces did for future generations. All over our Country, in the many National Park Units we’ve visited we’ve heard his name spoken with a kind of reverence. It is because of him, that we have National Parks. We visited Muir National Historic Site in Martinz, CA one afternoon. It was just as thrilling to us to walk in John Muir’s home as it was for us to walk through the home of Abraham Lincoln or Lyndon B. Johnson or well, any of the other great homes we’ve visited during our travels across the US.

Muir spent quite a bit of his time in solitude as he explored and studied nature. Around the time John was turning forty, some of his friends started to urge him to return to society. Upon his return, a friend of his introduced him to his future wife, Louisa Strentzel. Louisa was the daughter of Dr. Strenzel who owned a 2,600 acre fruit orchard. Muir and Dr. Strentzel went into business together and within five years, Muir had earned enough money to keep his family living well for the rest of their lives. Muir spent the next ten years working on the orchard. He was a devoted husband and father to his two daughters, but his heart was still yearning for the wild places. Louisa encouraged him to go back to the mountains for some respite. He went. Sometimes he would go alone and other times he would take his daughters.

Muir called it his “scribble den”. This is the room where John Muir wrote most of his books and published articles. He would worry about the wording of his books and articles in his determination to make others see how important the preservation of wilderness is. Many of his journals helped in the preservation of National Parks even after his death in 1914.

Muir Woods National Monument was established in 1908. When John Muir found out that they’d named this park after him he said, “This is the best tree lover’s monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world.”

Muir Woods National Monument was our first glimpse of the coastal redwoods. The coastal redwoods are in the same family as the giant sequoia trees we fell in love with while we were exploring Sequoia National Park. Coastal redwoods are known as the tallest living things on Earth. In Muir Woods, there’s a tree that reaches up to 258 feet above the forest floor. To give you some perspective…that is about the height of a 23 story building. These giant trees need the moderate temperatures and fog that the northern California coast provides them with in order to survive.

Muir Woods National Monument is a little tricky to get to. You have to make prior arrangements to either claim one of the few parking spots at the park or to get a ticket with a shuttle bus. We chose to take the first shuttle bus of the day in hopes of avoiding the mass of people. This park gets over a million visitors a year. Our plan worked. We were leaving when the park started to feel crowded. We had a great morning walking through the giants…listening to their stories…and marveling at their height. And freezing. We weren’t prepared for how cold it was!

In December of 1941 everything changed for America. Men were sent to fight in the war which left a gaping hole in the American workforce. To fill that hole, the government turned to the women left behind. Around six million women joined the workforce during the war. Rosie the Riveter/ World War II Home Front National Historic Park tells the story of the American workforce during World War II. Women and other minority groups answered the call to help their Country by joining the workforce. It wasn’t easy for them. Many of these women had never worked outside of their home before. They weren’t accepted or welcomed by the men left in the factories.

I didn’t really know what to expect at this NPS Unit. We arrived late in the day and was rushed to get through it all. I could have easily spent hours here reading all of the memories. I hope to revisit this one again someday.

We finally made it to the California State Capitol Building in Sacramento! I’m going to be totally honest with you. I’m behind on writing posts…it’s been almost two months since we were at the California SCB and while I do love this dome…it’s really all I remember about the building itself…other than an awful lot of pink. Don’t get me wrong…it’s a lovely building. We took a guided tour and our docent was very enthusiastic about how big and powerful California has always been. This was pointed out numerous times. It was also admitted that the reason this SCB looks so much like the National Capital Building is because the plans for the NCB somehow fell into the hands of the California SCB planners…so yeah, there’s that too. It was for sure, the oddest docent led tour we’ve ever had of a SCB.

The day we went there was a parade and several protests. We didn’t’ stick around for any of it. Crowds aren’t really our thing. At all.

There was a really nice rose garden! So many different colors of roses! There were also some other really pretty flowers on the SCB’s grounds. It really was a very pretty campus.

We found a really good old fashioned diner in Martinez, CA while we were visiting the John Muir National Historic Site. Great burgers and milk shakes!

Stay tuned for part two of our San Francisco area adventures!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018

Little Rock, AR

Little Rock, AR

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Hey Guys! Are you ready for the second part of our Arkansas adventures?

The main reason we were in the Little Rock area was to visit the Arkansas State Capitol Building. Y’all know about our rule of visiting the SCB before we can put the state sticker on our map…so we try to make it to the SCB once we get to a new state as soon as we can. Sometimes that’s the first day and sometimes we’ll be in a state for a month before we can get to the Capitol Building.

We enjoyed the Arkansas SCB. It has a lovely dome! There’s something to be said for clean lines and modest decorations. It had not one, but two of these fantastic staircases.

Both of the House and Senate Chambers were locked. We didn’t get to go inside, but I did snap the picture above (right) through the window. I do love stained glass domes! And check out these big brass doors in the picture on the left! I had Alex stand in front of them so you could get a better perspective of their size.

I would have to say the best part of the Arkansas SCB for us was the State Treasury room where they let us hold half a million dollars!! Guys!! Wow!! Have you ever touched so much money at once? We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hold the money ourselves. We each got to hold the stack of money while the tour guide (I’m so bad with names) told us a bit about the history of the safe. He also gave the boys some perspective on how much money it takes to go to college and raise a kid. I think they were pretty surprised. We asked if he’d ever had anyone try to take off with the money. He said he hadn’t, but they do school fieldtrips there and he had one kid refuse to give the money back to him. I would like to have seen that conversation.

The other place we really wanted to visit in Little Rock is the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. One of the things we really love about being nomads is the ability to take the boys to places where our Country’s history actually happened. We feel like it makes a bigger impact to see it in person rather than just reading about it in some book.

We weren’t alive in May of 1957. We’d, of course, learned about what happened at the Little Rock Central High School during that turbulent time, but we hadn’t learned much about it with the watered down version that’s taught in schools. We really didn’t know anything. The Visitor Center laid it out really well. There’s so much information you could spend the better part of a day reading though it all and watching the videos. I’d never heard them called “the Little Rock Nine”, never thought about how brave they must have been, how hard they had to work to stay in school while so many wanted to find reasons to kick them out, and how they were representing an entire group of people. The whole world was watching these nine high school kids…just waiting to see if they failed or succeeded. That’s a lot of pressure. Reading about each of their stories was eye opening for all of us.

The Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site includes the Visitor Center, this gas station where protests took place, and the High School itself.  The high school is still a working school so the only way to tour it is on a Ranger led tour. We, unfortunately, didn’t get to go on one. I would have liked to, but timing didn’t work out.

We made a quick stop at The Old Mill Park which is a re-creation of an 1880s water-powered grist mill. You might recognize it from the opening scenes of “Gone With The Wind”. It was a busy little park! You can go into the mill and look around. The Old Mill Park is dedicated to the memory of the Arkansas pioneers. The park is nestled at the end of a finger of Lake Number Two.

If you’ve followed us for long, you know that we love our burgers. We found a great foodie spot called Big Orange. The burger above (on the right) is the Farmer’s Burger with a fried egg, bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and aioli. It must have been good because it didn’t last long! I had the Smashed Avocado Burger with avocado, pepper salad, Havarti cheese, lettuce, tomato, and garlic aioli! It was delicious! Those fries you see in the background are the State Fair Fries which include chili, cheese dip, two different kinds of shredded cheese, pickled jalapenos, fresh jalapenos and red onion. They were totally not on my diet and I didn’t care at all…they were definitely worth it!

Pretties! There were tons of them! I’m sure I took way more pictures of pretties than I needed to.

That’s all for Arkansas! See y’all down the road!

This is the last post for the #minieasternloop2017

Nashville

Nashville

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Hey Guys!! Welcome to the land of boots, Tennessee Hot Chicken, and country music!

We were a little worried about the park we stayed in during our stay in the Nashville area. When you look at it on the Googles you can see that it has railroad tracks on one side and highways on two sides (it’s shaped like a triangle). In my mind I had us lying awake all night listening to the sound of trains or traffic. We ended up by one of the highways which was a blessing. The train tracks were busy. We didn’t really notice the train noise where we were, but the spots right beside the tracks…I’m guessing they didn’t get a whole lot of sleep. It was a busy park and we were all crammed in. I managed to snap the picture above while we were in between neighbors.

We made it to our 41st State Capitol Building in our 42nd state! Bonus points to anyone who can tell me why the numbers don’t match up!

The Tennessee SCB was small, didn’t have a dome, and was dark. It was hard to get good pictures of anything. The bottom floor was painted in dark browns and the lighting was dim. You can see it in the right picture above. I know I’m shooting toward a bright door…but seriously guys, this is what it was like walking through it. I love this spiral staircase in the library in the left picture!

Tennessee is only the second SCB out of 41 that had a wonderful balcony we could actually go out on! I love it when we find something different in a SCB!

Nashville has several great murals! We only sought out two of them and there was a line at both to get photos. What a great idea to have an interactive murals! Nicholas volunteered to be my assistant for both murals. He’s a pretty good photo buddy.

We stopped by the Grand Ole Opry one afternoon to check it out. We didn’t get to do a tour or stay for a show, but we did get to look at the building and hit the gift shop! I went to the Grand Ole Opry about thirty years ago with my parents. I can’t believe how much the area has changed! It was during that first visit that I had my first Goo Goo Cluster. We had to get a few Goo Goo Clusters while we were in the gift shop…purely for nostalgia… *wink, wink*

Nashville is known as the “Athens of the South” so they decided to build a replica of the Parthenon for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Inside the Nashville Parthenon stands a 41’10” tall Athena. To give you a little size perspective, Nike who is standing in Athena’s right hand and is 6’4″. We got there right when the building was opening and were lucky enough to get some shots in before the mass of people made it up to the statue.

I love the tile work on the outside! The building underwent a major renovation in 1920 and reopened to the public in 1931.

We, of course, found some foodies! Nashville is a big foodie town. Our first foodie find was at a place called The Pharmacy Burger Parlor. We waited an hour to get into this place…but check out that burger! This Stroganoff Burger is solidly in my top five burgers. The mushroom stroganoff béchamel sauce was ah-mazing!! My eyes might have just rolled to the back of my head when I first tasted it.

We would never have found Pepperfire Hot Chicken if our waiter at The Pharmacy hadn’t suggested it. I didn’t even know that Tennessee Hot Chicken was a thing…but let me tell you…we know now and we are fans! So, what you’re looking at in the right picture above is a deep fried grilled cheese sandwich with two Pepperfire chicken strips on top of it. Guys…we loved this place so much we ate here twice in one week. Alex and Nicholas both loved the chicken and waffles meal known as the AppleFire (in the left picture). Now, don’t worry, if you’re not into spice, Pepperfire offers a Southern style aka no heat option. There are seven different levels of heat. I got the mild and it was plenty spicy. We were told to go down a level from what you can usually handle. I think that was sound advice. I can handle some heat and my mild was just right.

I found some pretties! The ones above were in the RV park we stayed in. There was an entire row of these beauties ranging in color from purple to this light pink.

We really enjoyed our time in Nashville, TN. The city reminded us a little of Austin, TX. They both have that laid-back, foodie, hip vibe. We don’t usually care for the state capitol city, but I have no doubt we’ll revisit Nashville!

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017

Frankfort, KY

Frankfort, KY

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Hey Guys!! We made it to Kentucky!!

We spent a week in the Frankfort area at a cute little RV park called Elkhorn Campground. We didn’t get a pull-through, but that’s the only complaint I have about this campground. We scored a spot with some shade, the park was nicely kept up and the owners were super nice!

My favorite thing about this area is all of the horse farms! Love!! We didn’t get to visit any this time due to lack of time…but we’ve already decided (for various reasons) that Kentucky will be a regularly visited state once we’re done with the #50statetour!

We came to the Frankfort area to visit the State Capitol Building…and some distilleries that happen to be in the area.

The Kentucky SCB is one of the smaller ones we’ve been in. I love this staircase. Long clean lines made of marble…it just works for me. You can stand at one end of the building and see all the way to the other end. It’s that small. But look how gorgeous it is! Notice that you can see the staircase in both above pictures!

And Guys… the dome changes colors! What, what?!? Ohhh…be amazed!! I mean it. Be amazed. A color changing dome was a first for us…and y’all know how many of these SCBs we’ve been to. It’s a beautiful dome all on its own, but when you add the color change…it’s the cherry on top.

We did go into the House and Senate Chambers. They weren’t anything to write home about. Simple. Clean. Classic. Does the job.

We went to find Daniel Boone’s grave and stumbled upon this magnificent view of the SCB with the nearby river.

We did make it to Daniel Boone’s grave. It’s got a great view. We’ve heard a lot about Boone and his life this past year as we were heading down the East Coast. We heard about him in Texas… he had a pretty big role in our Country’s history.

We had planned on hitting a couple of distilleries while we were in the area…because you know, it is Bourbon Country. 😉 We found out right before we went to our first tour that there’s an entire Kentucky Bourbon Trail!! And, if you complete the whole tour you get a free shirt! Challenge excepted!!

One of my favorite parts of a distillery tour is getting to go into the rick house. I love the sight of all of those barrels neatly stacked up! It speaks to the little organizer OCD girl that I am. You can see them through the windows in the left picture above. We didn’t get to go into the rick houses on all of the tours, but we got to go in a few of them.

Did you know: All of the distilleries conduct experiments. Bourbon experiments. If you look closely, you can find a barrel or two of the experimental bourbon as you walk through the rick houses. In the above left picture, I wanted to show you how big the rick houses really are.

We learned something new at each distillery. They each have their own start up stories and histories. Every distillery has their own way of doing things and spin on the grains they use. We find that kind of thing interesting.

To be bourbon it has to be made of at least 51% corn. Each distillery has its own unique twist on what that other 49% is. Different grains grown in different areas under different circumstances. Even the water used is taken into consideration. It’s actually all very scientific.

All of the tours come with a tasting. All of the distilleries have their own take on this too. Woodford Reserve is our favorite distillery so far! We loved everything about it. Setting, tour, buildings we saw, and tasting!

Bourbon balls…supposedly, Rebecca Ruth is the inventor of the bourbon ball. She still has a store around so we went to check it out. The Rebecca Ruth store makes the candy for several surrounding distilleries. She’s certainly proud of her chocolates…they were super pricey for what you get. We got a box of mixed bourbon candies to try and honestly Guys, they were just ok for us. Especially after we tried some of the other candies around that she doesn’t make. When we tried the bourbon balls from Woodford Reserve, well…we realized how mediocre the other candies had been. The bourbon balls from Woodford Reserve weren’t just good…they were…eyes-roll-in-the-back-of-your-head good! Like…that-was-so-good-we-need-to-go-buy-the-biggest-box-they-have good! (And we did) We liked them. Just a little. ;-P

The boys weren’t left out of the tastings. They got different things at each. Apple juice, root beer, chocolates. They didn’t’ mind. Plus, all three of them area science nerds and they all loved the chemistry that goes into making the “perfect” bourbon.
We did get a few souvenirs. Just a few. I mean…who knows when we’ll be back in the area.

We saw some cute souvenirs we would have liked to have but didn’t get them since we don’t have a place to set them out. It’ll be an excuse to go back and visit again! We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Frankfort area and look forward to visiting again!!

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017

Our Last Week In Michigan

Our Last Week In Michigan

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Hey Guys!! We spent one week in Grass Lake, MI. Don’t know where that is? It’s about 45 minutes south of Lansing.

The RV park we stayed at was decent. It was a basic park.

The best part about the RV park was the fishing pond. You didn’t need a fishing pole to catch a fish…a net would’ve been enough. The fish swarmed to us every time we walked out on the dock. The boys took some bread down and had a good time feeding them! We didn’t do much during this week. We took the time to enjoy the good weather and catch up on some school/work.

We did make it to the Michigan State Capitol Building.

Look at that dome!

Both the House and Senate Chambers were pretty much the same. The only differences being the color scheme and the size of the room. The House Chamber is pretty much always bigger.

I loved the ceiling in both Chambers. They had these stained glass state seals…something we’d not seen before.

Michigan didn’t have much money when they were building their SCB.

Throughout the SCB you can see this texturing in place of more expensive marbles and woods. I’ll be honest, the lack of a lot of marble and carved wood didn’t diminish the fine artistry of this building. I love the more earthy tones mixed with the blues that dominated the color palette of this SCB. There are tons of small details that, if you look for, you’ll enjoy about the Michigan SCB!

We found a great BBQ place in Lansing called Meats BBQ! This place is a carnivore’s dream! Don’t worry, though…there are some vegetarian options…sodas. Alex got the Meat Mountain (right picture). It was a huge conglomeration of garlic mashed potatoes, smoked beef brisket, bacon gravy, and spicy creamed corn. I stole a few bites…it was really good!!

That’s really it for this stop, guys! I’ll share with you some of the pretties I found around the RV park during our daily walks! We had some beautiful weather while we were there!

We really enjoyed our time in Michigan. When you see Michigan on the news it always seems to be bad stuff. Drugs, poverty, gangs, violence. We didn’t see any of that. I would absolutely encourage you to visit Michigan! There is something for everyone…outdoor explorations, shopping, foodies! We will definitely be back!!!

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017