Thanksgiving break part 1.
A week has passed since I last saw Macomb. It's been a good week, a week well deserved and highly appreciated. Thanksgiving break is something of a luxury last had in high school, a week of in November for traveling and relaxing. We spent the first part of it (saturday to tuesday) on the road and the rest of the week up until today in Chicago. These are the details:
The Roadtrip
The plan was to see as much as possible in as little time as possible, it worked out pretty well. We set out to see St Louis (again), Memphis, Nashville, and Indianapolis. A trip which would require 20h in the car, driving over 1000 miles in 6 states (Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennesee, Kentucky, and Indiana) and gas for a total of $140 (I know, it's ridiculous).
"The Gang" consisted of Mikolaj, Cécile, Marie, and Yours Truly. This is definitely a trip I will remember from this year, it exceeded every expectation I had.
St Louis
Since three of us already had been to St Louis we skipped the things we had already done. Cécile got to see the arc at a distance and she's to young to go to the Budweiser factory anyway. So we did something more suited for a child ofv her age. We went to the St Louis Zoo. It's supposed to be one of Americas biggest Zoos, from what I've heard. It really had a lot of animals but it was kind of disturbing to see the spaces they were in, waaaaaay to small in most cases. They fitted a tiger, a jaguar, a leopard, a snow leopard and two lions into the area skansen has for it's mooses. Even so, a zoo is always a zoo and per definition always fun, even for the more adult audience in the group.
Before that we went to city hall and saw an exhibition about St Louis' black population and the way their life had changed over the year. There was also a small art exhibition and a small "development of St Louis" exhibition which we saw before the zoo and the highlight of our trip in St Louis, the NHL game between St Louis Blues and New York Islanders. We went out and bought tickets at the Scottsdale Center before we went to the Zoo, it turned out to be an excellent idea. We had looked at tickets for $40 which would seat us at the worst seats in the arena, highest up, furthest away, probably behind a huge pillar and next to a sweat-smelling lepper. However, those seats were sold out when we got there so the girl in the booth informed us that they had lowered the price on some other seats to meet every size of wallets. The new lowest price was $50. Fine, we'll take it, how far up will will we be? Not to far is the right answer. The seats she sold us had originially been $120 and they were on the 10th row from the ice, over the players entrance, basically some of the best seats in the arena. Success. Do I have to say that I was as happy as a catholic priest at a kindergarden. Oh, and I bought a hand, weird - maybe, hilarious - yes. St Louis won with 4-1, the fourth goal a tech nical delicacy.
Memphis and Graceland
After a 4 hour drive we arrived to Memphis and Grace land, the home of Elvis Presley, the man, the myth, the king. The house itself was a lot smaller than I expected but it was nice, a three story villa with pretty much custom everything. We bought the second biggest package which gave us a tour of the house, a tour of all his cars (read toys), his military adventure, his movie career and a small clothing exhibition. It was awesome. The man had a small army of buggies, cars, motorcycles etc. He also had his own stable and raquetball court. Elvis was buried at a cemetary but later moved to Graceland for security reasons where he now lies with his mother, father and grandmother.
The rest of the night was spent watching the peabody ducks, and listening to blues. The peabody ducks are ducks that live on top of one of the hotels and are trained to march to and from their days occupation, the fountain in the hotel lobby. At 9 every morning and at 5 in the afternoon the hotel rolls out the red carpet so that the ducks can perform "the march of the peabody ducks." Incredibly retarded but pretty funny, apparently they have been doing it since the 1920s, even though a duck are only allowed to do it for three months before retiring to a natural habitat.
Nashville
Nashville was probably the biggest surprise during the week. I didn't have very high expectations and had heard very little about the city, add to that that our only " must see" was the country music museum and hall of fame, not overly exciting. But boy was I wrong. The city is a blast, it has a vibe, a pulse, a feeling to it which is just amazing. It is one of the places I would have nothing against visiting again, so much better than Memphis which was pretty worn down. Nashville was all fun, even the country music museum and hall of fame turned out to be very enjoyable. I had no idea how little I knew about country music and its stars. Or the lifestyle of the ones performing, it was.... refreshing.
After the country /.../ museum we went to the tourist info rmation to see what else there was to do. The question was not what can we do, it was what do we want to do. This was the first night the group didn't do the same thing. We warmed up the same way though, at Tottsies, a famou s honky tonk (a small bar on the main street with live country music). The girls had had enough of NHL-hockey (I didn't know it was possible) so they went to a "tribute to Elvis concert" and Mikolaj and I went to our second game in three days, this time it was the Nashville Predators against the Detroit Red Wings. When I found out the red wings were playing there wasn't an option. It's basically the swedish national team playing in red. Unfortunately, they lost 3-1 but we weren't to sad. We sat far from the ice but had a good overview, the guys behind us was completely crazy but funny so we ended up talking to him a lot and I got to take a picture with the mascot. It was l e g e n d a r y. Unfortunately, I dont have that picture right now, so I'll post it in the next update. I have other pictures though.
Indianapolis
The last day of our road trip was basically only driving, 7 hours or so. It took us through Indianapolis where we mad a small pit-stop for lunch and last minute "gift to whoever welcomed us for thanksgiving" shopping, the Snyders in my case. Indianapolis, the little we saw, seemed like a pretty cool city, fairly modern with a decent amount of memorial cites. Hopefully I'll go back there soon for a Colts (american football) game. We'll see about that, I have to convince DJ first.
We arrived to Chicago during the afternoon and I think we'll pick up there next time I find the energy to write, hopefully soon cause that post will probably be of equal length.
Take care.
"The Gang" consisted of Mikolaj, Cécile, Marie, and Yours Truly. This is definitely a trip I will remember from this year, it exceeded every expectation I had.
St Louis
Since three of us already had been to St Louis we skipped the things we had already done. Cécile got to see the arc at a distance and she's to young to go to the Budweiser factory anyway. So we did something more suited for a child ofv her age. We went to the St Louis Zoo. It's supposed to be one of Americas biggest Zoos, from what I've heard. It really had a lot of animals but it was kind of disturbing to see the spaces they were in, waaaaaay to small in most cases. They fitted a tiger, a jaguar, a leopard, a snow leopard and two lions into the area skansen has for it's mooses. Even so, a zoo is always a zoo and per definition always fun, even for the more adult audience in the group.
Before that we went to city hall and saw an exhibition about St Louis' black population and the way their life had changed over the year. There was also a small art exhibition and a small "development of St Louis" exhibition which we saw before the zoo and the highlight of our trip in St Louis, the NHL game between St Louis Blues and New York Islanders. We went out and bought tickets at the Scottsdale Center before we went to the Zoo, it turned out to be an excellent idea. We had looked at tickets for $40 which would seat us at the worst seats in the arena, highest up, furthest away, probably behind a huge pillar and next to a sweat-smelling lepper. However, those seats were sold out when we got there so the girl in the booth informed us that they had lowered the price on some other seats to meet every size of wallets. The new lowest price was $50. Fine, we'll take it, how far up will will we be? Not to far is the right answer. The seats she sold us had originially been $120 and they were on the 10th row from the ice, over the players entrance, basically some of the best seats in the arena. Success. Do I have to say that I was as happy as a catholic priest at a kindergarden. Oh, and I bought a hand, weird - maybe, hilarious - yes. St Louis won with 4-1, the fourth goal a tech nical delicacy.
Memphis and Graceland
After a 4 hour drive we arrived to Memphis and Grace land, the home of Elvis Presley, the man, the myth, the king. The house itself was a lot smaller than I expected but it was nice, a three story villa with pretty much custom everything. We bought the second biggest package which gave us a tour of the house, a tour of all his cars (read toys), his military adventure, his movie career and a small clothing exhibition. It was awesome. The man had a small army of buggies, cars, motorcycles etc. He also had his own stable and raquetball court. Elvis was buried at a cemetary but later moved to Graceland for security reasons where he now lies with his mother, father and grandmother.
The rest of the night was spent watching the peabody ducks, and listening to blues. The peabody ducks are ducks that live on top of one of the hotels and are trained to march to and from their days occupation, the fountain in the hotel lobby. At 9 every morning and at 5 in the afternoon the hotel rolls out the red carpet so that the ducks can perform "the march of the peabody ducks." Incredibly retarded but pretty funny, apparently they have been doing it since the 1920s, even though a duck are only allowed to do it for three months before retiring to a natural habitat.
Nashville
Nashville was probably the biggest surprise during the week. I didn't have very high expectations and had heard very little about the city, add to that that our only " must see" was the country music museum and hall of fame, not overly exciting. But boy was I wrong. The city is a blast, it has a vibe, a pulse, a feeling to it which is just amazing. It is one of the places I would have nothing against visiting again, so much better than Memphis which was pretty worn down. Nashville was all fun, even the country music museum and hall of fame turned out to be very enjoyable. I had no idea how little I knew about country music and its stars. Or the lifestyle of the ones performing, it was.... refreshing.
After the country /.../ museum we went to the tourist info rmation to see what else there was to do. The question was not what can we do, it was what do we want to do. This was the first night the group didn't do the same thing. We warmed up the same way though, at Tottsies, a famou s honky tonk (a small bar on the main street with live country music). The girls had had enough of NHL-hockey (I didn't know it was possible) so they went to a "tribute to Elvis concert" and Mikolaj and I went to our second game in three days, this time it was the Nashville Predators against the Detroit Red Wings. When I found out the red wings were playing there wasn't an option. It's basically the swedish national team playing in red. Unfortunately, they lost 3-1 but we weren't to sad. We sat far from the ice but had a good overview, the guys behind us was completely crazy but funny so we ended up talking to him a lot and I got to take a picture with the mascot. It was l e g e n d a r y. Unfortunately, I dont have that picture right now, so I'll post it in the next update. I have other pictures though.
Indianapolis
The last day of our road trip was basically only driving, 7 hours or so. It took us through Indianapolis where we mad a small pit-stop for lunch and last minute "gift to whoever welcomed us for thanksgiving" shopping, the Snyders in my case. Indianapolis, the little we saw, seemed like a pretty cool city, fairly modern with a decent amount of memorial cites. Hopefully I'll go back there soon for a Colts (american football) game. We'll see about that, I have to convince DJ first.
We arrived to Chicago during the afternoon and I think we'll pick up there next time I find the energy to write, hopefully soon cause that post will probably be of equal length.
Take care.
Kommentarer
Postat av: Marina
That's my boy! I like.... hope all is well, it sure sounds as if it is!
Postat av: Gabby
Lät ju inte fel det där, nu har du även spräckt lite av mina fördomar mot de där städerna. Fast jag blev mest exalterad över att se namnet Colts =) Du måste gå!
Postat av: Fia
Jaaa, tack :) Det är så skönt! Eller det är väl inte skönt än om jag ska vara ärlig, håller mest tyst och knaprar små piller som är bra :) Idag ska jag dock ta mig ner till centrum för att se något annat än väggarna i mamma och pappas lägenhet! Kommer du hem nått över jul eller?? Saknar ju dig här borta! Hoppas allt är toppen iallafall! Puss
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