Turns out it is really hot in the South.

Turns out all the kids are taking pictures on their cellular devices these days.  Weird.  So here's my iPhone round-up for the last week!

Parthenon - Nashville

Centennial Park - Nashville

A $7 (!!!!!!) pitcher at the best, most disgusting dive bar ever.  It's called the Springwater and it is right near the Parthenon in Nashville.

They have super classy art there.

The Feathered Hat by Jean McLane

This was the only photo I could (illegally) take inside the Cheekwood manor and museum.

Cheekwood Sculpture Trail animals.

Cheekwood - Nashville

One Line Horizontal Floating Twenty Feet by George Rickey

Cheekwood - Nashville

We dragged Crews to the only vegan restaurant in Nashville.  It was pretty delicious, and they had chocolate chip cookie sandwiches!

Crews' mom is a hilarious and talented cross-stitcher.

This was at the Alabama Welcome Center.  Very welcoming, no?

The outside of Le Pavillion Hotel in New Orleans.

I finally got my Cafe du Monde beignets! Yum.

On Saturday I went up and down Magazine Street.  I really loved this building.

Way cool van.

This was the view from our hotel room window in New Orleans.  Pretty super and dome-like.

Oh hey, I'm just Nicolas Cage, hanging out on the wall of an abandoned building in New Orleans.

On Sunday night we ate at a sushi restaurant that served mango sorbet inside a frozen mango.  It was magnificent.

Lamps in the French Quarter.

We passed a huge band on a street corner in the French Corner.  They were great!

Yes, those chips are "Spicy Cajun Crawtators" flavored.

The Texas Welcome Center had a great swamp walk thing, complete with this large alligator snapping turtle statue.

Texas Welcome Center

More Texas Welcome Center.

We are now in Austin, staying with Terry and Kathy Sonnenstine, old family friends of Eric's.  They are wonderful hosts with a beautiful home and this gorgeous pool in the back.  It is a welcome way to spend a 99 degree day!

Amazing.

More to come about New Orleans and Austin in the next few days!

"I Thought Those Lost People Had Yankee Plates"

Hey everyone!  We're officially in the South.  Yikers.

 We left Chicago (and this adorable dude) Monday morning, on our way to Nashville, Tennessee to see Eric's old middle school friend Matt "Gus" Crews.

 We wanted to take a picture in front of every state sign we passed, but this one was on a terrifyingly busy bridge, so we did the best we could do.

Why yes, that does say "Cox's Smoker's Outlet".  We also passed by a "Bacon Creek Road".  Only in Kentucky.

NOOOO!!! WHY!?!?! We would have stopped if you warned us before hand!

On Tuesday evening Crews took us to Centennial Park and the Parthenon replica for a nice picnic.  I still haven't figured out why Nashville wanted a Parthenon replica, but it's kinda neat all the same.

Crews wins Greece! Or something!

Smoking on the steps of both the real and fake Parthenon is probably not allowed.  Whoops.

We also fed a bunch of super greedy squirrels.

On Wednesday I went to Cheekwood, a large estate that has botanical gardens and a small museum.  It was really beautiful, and I took a shitload of pictures.  Deal.

Grrr.

He will mess you up.

Cheekwood had a Treehouse outdoor exhibit that unfortunately officially opens this weekend, so not all of the tree houses were completely finished.  I got to see a few though, they were great!  Each was created and built by a different artist and company and all of them were inspired by a work of literature.

This one was called "Up and Down Again: A Hobbit's Tale".  It had a slide!

 

This one was called The Giver.

A pair of sphinxes are at the entrance to one of the gardens.

This was the only photo of an indoor work of art that I could take as it was housed in a different place than the rest of the museum.  The museum is the Cheekwood estate, which has old decor and some more modern art as well.  The Cheek family made their money after the Civil War processing and selling coffee to a famous hotel called the Maxwell House, which evolved into a brand years later.  Also, those jerks wouldn't let me take pictures inside.

Cheekwood Prime Matter, by Eric Orr

Cheekwood offers a mile long sculpture trail on the grounds as well, with 15 unique sculptures along the way. 

Girdled Figure, by Tom Czarnopys

This one was my favorite.  It was made of bronze.

Glass Bridge, by Siah Armajani

 

As you come around a corner you are greeted with this crazy lady.  This sculpture was freaking huge, at least 10 feet tall.

Crawling Lady Hare by Sophie Ryder

 

She's coming for you.

Tree Poem, by John Scott

This was a lot prettier than my photos make it out to be, and the texture was really cool.

An herb garden.

Later than day Crews shaved the rest of Eric's hair off.  They now look like twins and it is kind of weird.

Last night Crews took us to the Gaylord Opryland Resort.  It is huge and gorgeous, with multiple giant conservatory type rooms holding shops and restaurants.  Crews said that the water flowing through the indoor streams and waterfalls have water from every lake in the U.S.

As we were leaving, this giant palm leaf literally almost fell on Crews' head, so he took it home.