Dixieland Delight

For Koby's birthday his parents surprised him (us - the perks of being married!) with a trip to Tennessee. It was fun, relaxing, and we are so grateful! It was up to us to decide where we'd go on our little vacation, so we planned the trip to include the following:

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE We knew we wanted to sample some delicious Memphis barbeque (a bi-product of watching the Food Network 24/7) and I wanted to see Graceland. (If you don't know it, I love Elvis. My first cd was his #1 hits.) So we stayed in Memphis at the historic Peabody Hotel for two nights and visited as many restaurants as we possibly could, stuffing our faces in the true style of the King himself. Included also in the pictures is the 'bump' - AND Koby felt the baby kick for the first time on Monday... exciting for him and gratifying for me (he finally believes me!)










SHILOH, TENNESSEE After our second night's stay in Memphis, we woke up and had a fabulous lunch at Automatic Slim's and then drove to Shiloh, where we visited the Shiloh National Military Park. Koby served as my patient tour guide. It was a beautiful and peaceful place - the photos we took there don't really do it justice.









JACKSON, TENNESSE When we'd finished at Shiloh, we drove on to Jackson, Tennessee where we had reservations to stay at Peaceful Oaks Bed and Breakfast. Koby was extremely skeptical about my insistence that we stay at a B&B, fully expecting a room in a little old lady's house where he imagined the beds to be "lacy and squeaky". He's totally a believer now. The downstairs floor where we stayed was perfect - unlimited coffee and tea, satellite tv, snacks and a full kitchen... comfortable, lace-free beds and books, movies and games to peruse. Oh yeah, and a fishing hole, a sinfully good breakfast and a sweet owner named Johnnie Sampson who is one of those people who becomes a friend in minutes. It was perfection. For dinner that night we drove into the small town of Medina to eat at a local family diner where they had TWENTY ONE FLAVORS OF SOFT-SERVE ICE CREAM. I was sold on this advertisement alone (and I chose Blackberry).









This is the letter we wrote for Johnnie before we left. I made sure to include the fact (and picture) that I caught more fish than Koby!

LYNCHBURG, TENNESSEE The next morning we drove quite a ways to visit Lynchburg, home of the Jack Daniel Distillery. It was surprisingly interesting to learn about the history of the distillery and how the whiskey is made. Things I didn't know: making whiskey SMELLS bad and the difference in the 'quality' of the whiskey is mostly the effect of where it is matured. It's pretty impressive that every bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey is made in the distillery we saw in a small town smack dab in the middle of a dry county.






Our trip ended in Nashville, although by the time we got there we were both happy to crash in the hotel room and missed out on any St. Patrick's day nightlife downtown. What a great Spring Break! And we still have the weekend to enjoy.