The Trip Home
The trip home was over 13.5 hours long, so we broke it up with a few stops along the way. First up was the Corvette Museum. Here they had about 75 Corvettes on display, ranging from old to new.

Some of the Corvettes on display

Ryan with a Corvette

Kristy with a pink Corvette

The next stop was Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. This is the world's longest cave system, with more than 365 miles explored, with the next closest rival a third of its size.

This is the entry to the cave

Us leaving the cave - if you squint you can see us!

We done a short self guided tour through the caves. The largest room we got to explore was over 1 acre in size (with the largest room in the caves being 2 acres). There is evidence of human existence in the caves as far back as 4000 years ago, where they would chip of bits of the stone (no one knows why yet). It was re-discovered in the late 1790's and has been used for many things including a tuberculosis hospital and as a source of gun powder ingredients. The photos inside the cave didn't turn out particularly well though.

Home of The King

After briefly stopping at the Grand Ole Opry, we drove another 3 hours to Memphis, Tennessee - home of Elvis Presley and Gracelands, which was our first stop.

In front of Gracelands

We got to tour through his house, better known as Gracelands. Although you are not allowed in his upstairs bedroom, or upstairs at all out of respect, he had some cool rooms and they were all decorated 'out there'. There was the Jungle Room, where green shag pile carpet lined the walls, floor and ceiling, and the TV room, which was bright yellow and blue.

The lounge room with stained glass with peacocks on them. The piano is one of 3 in the house.

The entertainment room

The Jungle room - all the wild animal sculptures are from Hawaii. Notice the green shag pile carpet?!

You saw all this awards he had won over the years, along with a huge collection of costumes and outfits.

Elvis' favourite car - a pink Cadillac

Ryan with another car

Some of the many costumes

We got to look at his private jets (custom made with 24c gold seat belts, beds, bars, etc) and also got a few photos of Heartbreak Hotel.

That's Heartbreak Hotel in the background

Before checking in to our hotel, we visited Sun Studios, where some very famous artists have recorded their records, including Elvis' very first record, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis.

We also saw the world's 3rd largest pyramid, which is an entertainment venue in Memphis.










The outskirts of Memphis are very very seedy, and we were starting to wonder where all the action was, until we reached Beale Street, the most famous street in Memphis. Here we had our photos taken with an Elvis statue near the Orpheum and walked the Musical Walk of Fame. Beale street was fantastic. Like Nashville, the street was lined with heaps of bars and pubs, however blues and soul music was coming from every street corner and bar. Of course we sampled some bars while walking around the street, taking it all in. There were thousands of people all filling the entire street. We had dinner at a nice restaurant and there was a funky blues band playing. For dinner we had gumbo (Southern soup), spicy Memphis wings (and they were very spicy!), alligator and some mushroom poppers. Yummo!

Us with the Elvis statue

You cant visit the South with out trying their Mint Julep drink. So, on the way home we stopped at a bar (and ran in to Elvis!) and sampled one. It's made from Bourbon, lemonade and fresh mint. It was terrible!

Ryan with his big ass beer!

Kristy and Elvis - in case you were wondering Kristy is licking his nipple

This is Beale street - the tall building is only like the face of the building, the back of it has been demolished and is now a beer garden. This building used to be an old brothel!

These are only some of our photos - we have so many more, but cant put them all up!

Country Music Capital
After our Bourbon Trail trip, we drove another 3 hours south to Nashville Tennessee - the worlds country music capital. We went to the Parthenon - a real life size replica of the building in Greece. We then went for a drive through town stopping at the State Capitol Building which overlooks Bicentennial Mall.

The Parthenon

We dropped our car at the hotel, and walked in to town where all the action was happening. Nashville is awesome! There is live country music blasting from every bar and saloon (yes saloon!), and there are stacks of bars lining the streets! There were people in cowboy boots and hats, souvenir shops and more bars!! We spent the afternoon walking around the streets, stopping in at bars and souvenir shops along the way. Our final destination was the Wildhorse Saloon. We drank beer and cocktails while watching people learning how to line dance, and ate some more good 'ol Southern food. Ryan had about 2 kilos of meat for dinner, including ribs, beef and pulled pork - a Southern favourite. Their bathrooms were really cool too - they had the people in there that help you wash your hands! Of course you are supposed to tip them for their assistance.

Some shops and bars in downtown Nashville

A boot shop

Every one down south eats biscuits and gravy for brekkie. Its like a salty scone, with a gravy with bits of sausage in it. This is Ryan trying one.

The next morning, we drove to the Grand Ole Opry - a famous performance house.

Down South Y'all

This weekend we spent the Memorial Day Long Weekend down in Kentucky and Tennessee. We didn't stop once the whole weekend and we had an absolute blast! The Southern states are awesome and so is the food.

Friday afternoon we drove 7 hours and spent the night in Louisville, Kentucky. After checking in, we found Joe's Crab Shack - a restaurant by the river. The restaurant was nice and we had our first sampling of Southern food - a craw fish (like mini lobsters) stew with rice. It was nice, but spicy. We were enjoying our meal when all of a sudden the room went dark and a disco ball lit up the room. The entire staff jumped up on any vacant seat they could find and started doing the Macerina - that was an interesting sight to see!

We spent the rest of the night walking around the river front and down town Louisville.

There was a funny chicken park in Louisville

Sun setting on the river in Louisville

The next morning we went to the worlds most famous horse racing track - Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby is held. We were lucky enough to score a free tour through the grounds by a staff member! Apparently on Derby day the track fits in up to 150,000 people!

Us with a statue of the first ever Kentucky Derby winner and his horse


Churchill Down race track

We then went to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Here we got to see the world famous baseball bats in production and even got a mini slugger ourselves!

Show us your slugger! Ryan with his Louisville Slugger

Kristy in front of the 120 foot Louisville Slugger

Next up we followed the Bourbon Trail through central Kentucky, where 90% of the worlds bourbon is made. The trail takes you to bourbon companies such as Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, Makers Mark and some other ones. Since we were restricted for time, we went to Jim Beam followed by a smaller distillery called Heavens Hill.

At Jim Beam, we watched a video on how bourbon is made, saw the 9 story sheds the aged the bourbon in and got to tour the property that the Beams owned and lived on. Finally we got to sample one of their bourbons. Not our favourite drink.

Ryan with a statue of Booker Noe, Jim Beams grandson who now runs the distillery

This is one of the 9 story buildings the the bourbon is distilled in. There is black mould growing all over the building, which is just from the air, but it makes the buildings look super cool

A Reasonably Relaxing Weekend

Well, to some extent our weekend was some what relaxing, although we did manage to squeeze in a 4 hour return drive on Saturday and a 6 hour (return) drive in on Sunday.

Friday afternoon we had a few drinks at a bar with Ryan's boss and some of his work mates - not sure what the occasion was, just an excuse to have a few drinks! We sampled some traditional American appetisers - mushroom poppers and jalapeno & cheese poppers - all battered and deep fried, then dipped in ranch dressing!

After ducking home for dinner (and a quick skateboard around the estate), we headed over to Luis' (from Ryan's work) house for a few more drinks, before heading to a bar down town.

Saturday morning we hit the local golf course, with Tarun and Luis for 9 holes - wasn't that a sight to see! Considering Ryan has only played a handful of games in his lifetime, and Kristy has never ever played. We didn't even bother to keep score, although Ryan had a really good second round, getting the ball in the hole after 4 shots, and not all Kristy's hits were air swings - in fact the ball even went reasonable distances when she hit it!

In our golf buggy - we almost rolled it a couple of times!

Kristy with a hunk of grass dug up from her golf swing

Ryan lining up a shot

After golf, it was back to our place for a barbie. The BBQ we used had no hot plate though, only a grill like element, which made it really hard to cook on!

The 4 of us then drove 2hrs North to Buffalo for the afternoon, where Luis was to give us a guided tour. We started off with a coffee in an area like Beaumont Street, then had a look at the neo-Gothic post office building, a bank with a dome made out of 14,000 24 carat gold leafs, the building where the 'Buffalo Wing' originated, as well as a local bar! There were Buffalo Sabres (ice hockey) fans everywhere - the ice hockey grand final (in Buffalo) had just finished. Buffalo lost.

The bank with a 24 carat gold dome

Ryan, Tarun and Luis in Buffalo

The old neo-Gothic post office building

We then drove a bit further in town for dinner at a yummy Thai/Vietnamese restaurant.

Sunday morning we drove 3 hours East to Northern Central Pennsylvania (PA) to the PA Grand Canyon. We stopped for lunch in a quiet little gas lantern lit town not far from the canyon at an old school diner. We each ordered a roast chicken meal. What we got instead was chicken and mashed potato absolutely smothered in a white gravy sauce, with a side bowl of mixed veggies floating in butter! Sounds nice doest it?

The PA Grand Canyon is behind us. Ryan is becoming a master at taking our own photos!

Another shot of the Canyon

We then drove around the canyon - it was pretty, nothing like the Grand Canyon in Arizona though! This canyon was like a big valley with a river running through the middle, and is covered in trees.

The Windy City - Day 2

Today we walked down to Millennium Park.

The Wrigley Building - a really cool building in Chicago - check out the bridge joining the buildings near the top.

Here we saw the famous 'bean' - a massive silver bean shape object that reflects the Chicago buildings (and made you look like a dwarf when you looked in it!).

Kristy in front of the bean

The 2 of us waving at our reflection!

We then caught a train around 'The Loop' (down town). The train is elevated above the ground.

The elevated train

We got off at Sears Tower - the tallest building in the USA. We were a bit towered out, so we decided not to go up.

We continued walking down to the south side of town to Grant Park and had a look at Buckingham Fountain - one of the largest fountains in the world, before making our way to the aquarium.

In front of Buckingham Fountain

We watched some dolphin shows and got to see some cool animals like the beluga whales, sea otters, sea lions and of course dolphins, fish and sharks.

The dolphin show

Sea Lion

We grabbed some lunch and left. It took us a bit longer to get home due to heavy traffic through road works, and arrived home just before midnight.

The Windy City - Day 1

After a late night, we left for Chicago just before 5am Saturday morning. It took us just over 6.5 hours to get there. Kristy finally managed to have a sleep in the car (has been having difficulties doing so) and of course Ryan slept for nearly 2 hours of the trip!

The windy city wasn't really that windy.

First up we headed for Navy Pier - a touristy wharf with a Ferris Wheel, shops, restaurants and boat cruises. We strolled the wharf for a while, then jumped on the Ferris Wheel for a (really nice) birds-eye view of the city.

View from the Ferris Wheel

Kristy (on Ferris Wheel) with Chicago cityscape in the background

Chicago is famous for its awesome architecture, so next up we went for a walk through town admiring the buildings (there are so many tall ones that they block the sun, so it does tend to get a little chilly). In particular we looked at the Wrigley Building, Trump Towers (still in construction), Tribune Tower (which had bits of rock and building material embedded in it from places all over the world such as the Egyptian Pyramids, temples in Cambodia and the Taj Mahal) and the Water Tower (apparently this was the only building downtown to survive a massive fire back in 1871).

We then caught the bus uptown to Lincoln Park (wonder if that's where the band got its name from??) and to the Lincoln Park Zoo - which was free to get in to!!!! Bargain! We spent the afternoon here and we have so many cute photos, but cant put them all on (obviously), so here are a couple of our favourites:

Ryno with the Rhino - apparently there are only between 2000-3000 rhino's left in the world

Kristy with the lions

This is our favourite - the giraffe poking his tongue out!

After catching the bus back downtown, we went up the John Hancock Centre, a 1127ft tall building. We caught the elevator up to the 94Th floor for 360 degree views of the city.

We got to wash the windows of the Hancock Building

The view from the 94Th floor observation deck

By now we were starving, so we had some Italian for dinner, washed down with a litre of wine, and were passed out in bed by 830pm.