Author: Seb

Nashville, TN

Nashville is now my favourite city. We spent 4 nights directly opposite Vanderbilt University (where one or both of my children will study). It was a jam packed few days that I’ll summarise below. Keeping up with this blog is turning out to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated!

We couldn’t decided which museum to go to. I’m a bit of a country fan but no means a die hard. I know much more about classic rock so we decided that the Musicians Hall of Fame would be a good compromise. What actually sealed the deal was finding a good deal on Groupon! It was a great museum that transcended genres and eras. It also had a lot of material about producers and the production of famous albums. There exhibits dedicated to Cash and Hendrix complete with some amazing outfits. All in all, I rate it.

Next we walked up and down Broadway with all the Honky Tonks. Seems like every country artist owns one. There was Kid Rock’s, Alan Jackson’s and Florida Georgia Line’s to name a few. The street is filled with music pouring out of the bars, all live of course. Even at 11am it’s pumping. Not at all dirty or seedy though. Thankfully the kids had a bit of nap so we were able to enjoy a cheeky roof top beer. I’m looking forward to comparing Broadway to Vegas, I feel Nashville will win.

The next day we went to the Johnny Cash museum. Despite Hanika’s impression I am not the world’s biggest Cash fan. I am, however, a big fan. The museum was great and featured a walk through of his life from his upbringing on the farm to his last music video “Hurt” and everything in between. There was lots of memorabilia and quite a lot about his collaborations including as part of “The Highwaymen”. At the end of the museum there was a man who seemed to be in his late 60’s shaking hands with everyone. Turns out it was Johnny’s youngest brother. I made a quick exit without shaking hands.

That night we went to a show at The Grand Ole Opry and left the kids at home with a babysitter. The Opry is one of the most famous music venues in the world. It continues a live radio show, syndicated all over the world. The show had 4 music groups each playing 3-4 songs and a comedian called Henry Cho. Before I talk about the music you have to check out Henry. He was absolutely hilarious. I would have considered the night a success if he was the only act. The venue was packed and we secured last minute nose bleed seats. I didn’t know any of the groups except for Charlie Daniels, of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” fame. All the music was great including a bluegrass band and a newer pop/country group from Scotland. We finished the night by having a drink at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. It’s absolutely massive! When you walk in there’s a tropical atrium complete with water features. We had an over priced beer and dessert and pretended like we belonged before heading back to the kids for a dose of reality.

We asked our Uber driver where we HAD to each and she suggested Hatty B’s. It’s a famous (apparently) fried chicken joint, and the original location was just down the road! We walked down and it was PACKED. We arrived with two prams and two hungry children. We finally found a place to sit but by then the order line was out the door and down the street. We settled for getting Uber Eats and eating a home. I’m not a fried chicken connoisseur but it was ok. Perhaps it would have been better without the 20 minutes sitting in someone’s car? It certainly wouldn’t have been worth putting the kids through waiting in the tiny restaurant.

Overall a very busy few days in a great city. I’m hoping that one of brothers/friends will consider having their bucks party here. If not, I’ll just wait till I send the boys here for university!

Our next main stop is NOLA with small break in Jackson and Birmingham.

Pensacola, FL

We spent 3 nights in Pensacola on our way to Miami.

Pensacola is a military city on the west side of the panhandle. Naturally we went to the Naval Aviation Museum. As with all good museums, entry was free! They had a wide selection of aircraft on display including an F-14. I tried my hand at a flight simulator that pitched and rolled a full 360 degrees! It was actually a lot of fun despite not being able to engage in a dog fight. Hanika wasn’t game after watching me do multiple barrel rolls.

Otherwise the rest of the time was spent relaxing at the beach. It was Ollie’s first time on sand and he seems to love it. Moose was keen to run in despite the water not being “warm”. I was surprised with how white the beach was. I also hate sand.

Next we drove to Tallahassee.

Overall Update

We’re still alive!

Logistically things are going well. The van is holding up although is absolutely filthy. We managed to set up the EZ Pass toll for the northeastern states. This was a huge money saver. Hertz will forward you the toll costs, plus charges you $6 USD for every day you use a toll! The pass costs $20 and the actual toll charges are less. We had a bit of trouble setting it up because the car had previously been registered to a different transponder. EZ Pass refused to release the plates and Hertz said there was nothing we could do. Turns out it doesn’t matter which car is registered to the tag as long as it’s still a “passenger vehicle”. Once we got to Florida we bought a different transponder without issue.

We’ve managed to lose a few things along the way. A whole grocery bag with Ollie’s coat, our Nanopresso coffee machine and other stuff went missing in Appalachia. Hanika has been suffering through pots of Folger’s in the morning. Last week we lost my travel adapter that’s come around the world countless times through Africa, Turkey, Europe. 4 weeks with the family is all it took to get rid of it.

We’ve also managed to gain a lot of things! The van doors barely close every time we set off. We’ve got 2 massive bags that are carrying clothes we haven’t used yet. We’ve been blessed with excellent weather the whole way so haven’t needed jackets etc. I’m hoping they’ll come in use when we get to California!

The kids are travelling better than expected. Both seem happy enough to be sleeping in a new place every couple of nights. Ollie’s settled into his portacrib thanks to ACB! We’ve got the right balance of hours on the road when we drive. Late checkins are difficult to deal with but somewhat inevitable. Pensacola had a 5pm check in!

Our latest conundrum is what to do between Vegas and San Fransisco. We need to get over the mountains and I’d love to see Sequoia/Yosemite. Unfortunately it’ll be mid December and road closures are unpredictable. Plus some roads require tire chains which invalidate your rental car insurance. No doubt we’ll take the risk of we need to!

Birmingham, AL

We spent 2 nights in Birmingham as a stop between Nashville and NOLA. We chose Birmingham for its rich history. We arrived very early after making good time getting out of Nashville.

Our first stop was the Southern Museum of Flight. It was reasonably sized with some fantastic aircraft including the A-12, the precursor to the S-71. It had a whole section dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African American squadron in WW2. They also had lots of low fidelity simulators which kept me and Moose busy.

After we checked into our hotel. It was an “Extended Stay” chain. Situated on the main highway, sandwiched between better looking hotels but next to a Walmart. The check in was smooth and it was at the front desk that you “ordered” your ammenities. I booked the hotel because it had a kitchen. Upon reading the reviews it was clear that it was empty! At the front I got plates, bowls and cutlery… for 2! Even though we were clearly 4! Alas, it was a decent size room, didn’t smell like smoke and was dirty cheap. Plus it had free breakfast. And by breakfast they mean a pot of coffee, some Nature Ways bars and some dirty packaged muffins. Still, really cheap!

The next day we hit up the farmer’s market, finally one worth going to! Also the first one we went on a weekend. It had tons of local fresh produce, meat and treats. We bought dinner including fresh pasta, Shiitake mushrooms, smoked pork sausages and multicoloured peppers. The Shiitake mushroom stall also had logs for sale that you could just harvest the mushrooms off. The multicoloured peppers were a bit of a dud. Turns out small purple and yellow peppers are more bitter than green ones! Moose was unimpressed.

After the market we went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. This was a free entry because Hanika scored us memberships to the Winnipeg Art Gallery which offered reciprocal entry. The museum was fantastic. It was an honest and confronting testament to the brutality of racism that existed/exists in the US and especially the South. It’s easy to forget that MLK, sit ins and the Freedom Riders happened only 50 years ago. Of course there we parts dedicated to MLK, Rosa Parks and prominent Black businessman AG Gaston. The museum in Montgomery AL came highly recommended but we didn’t make it there.

It was a short stay in Alabama but we saw a lot. We packed up and headed for Jackson MS.

Bluff City, TN

We spent 3 nights in Bluff City on our way to Nashville. Why? Not a clue! Bluff city isn’t known for anything. It was only marginally bigger than Chester VT which didn’t pretend to be a city. It had one gas station, one diner, no grocery store and two sets of lights.

It was close to Bristol, a 3 city complex spanning Tennessee and Virginia. For those of you not familiar with it, Bristol is famous for the fastest short track in NASCAR. It’s a 160 000 seat track situated in a town of 27 000!

Just our luck that on our second day there was a race on! Not NASCAR but big rig racing. I’m not sure if there’s anything quite as American as this. The day started with an open track and a meet the drivers event. Moose was unimpressed and repeatedly stated that “Lightening McQueen is faster”. Then there was the typical salute to the troops and first responders followed by a moving rendition of the Star Spangled Banner complete with $50 worth of fireworks. To really immerse myself in the moment I got a Bud and nachos with liquid cheese.

The racing was alright, no crashes though. The stadium was woefully empty, perhaps only 2000 people. More people were filing in when we left (after the heats).

The following day we went to the Bristol Caverns. They’re a naturally formed cave system discovered by accident in the 1920’s. I’ve never been into caves before so this was quite impressive. The tour was quite good and the guide seemed knowledgable about the stalagmite formations.

Clearly this is Honest Abe

The next day we made the big drive to Nashville which is my new favourite city.

Lynchburg, VA

We spent two nights in Lynchburg, VA to break up the drive from DC to Nashville. It was a random choice made by looking at google maps and a suitable place on AirBnB.

It was our first introduction to the real South, though not quite as intense as I had prepared for. A few Trump signs, a lot of Baptist churches and Liberty University. I didn’t see an Confederate flags though.

We wandered around downtown and went to the community market. Unfortunately, most of the stalls were closed midweek. We did find a nice little coffee roaster run by a Canadian expat, Grains of Sense Coffee Roastery. Adequately caffeinated we set off down a walking trail to Percival’s island, home of a disused rail yard for a picnic lunch. We had dinner back down at the river at a delicious pub.

Our travel days have been spread out. We’ve decided it’s not worth spending just one night somewhere, so the new minimum is two. It’s worked well so far and it gives us a full day to wander and explore and tire the kids out.

We drove out via the Smokie’s to Bluff City TN.

Washington

We spent 4 nights in DC, our longest stop of the trip so far. We stayed a bit north along a metro line (not as far as Maryland) in an AirBNB.

We expected a few days of rain so we spent the first day wandering from the Whitehouse down the Mall to the Washington monument and through the memorials dedicated to various famous people/presidents.

If you’ve been to DC you’ll know the Whitehouse is a bit of a let down, regardless of who occupies it. It’s not a very big building and it’s multiple fences to keep people away. I guess it’s Canada’s/Britain’s fault for burning the first one down. We went to the Washington monument but missed the day’s tickets to get to the top. It didn’t stop Moose from dancing in front of it!

The rest of the monuments were fantastic. We saw the Lincoln, MLK, FDR and Jefferson monuments. My favourite was probably the Vietnam Memorial with its haunting sculptures.

On the way home we stopped off at the local grocery store called “Save a lot”. It really highlighted the lack of access to fresh and nutritious food even in a large metropolitan area.

The next day we had a lazy morning before setting off to museums. Hanika went to the Newseum with Ollie and I took Moose to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Neither of the kids were that impressed so we both dashed through without being able to take much in. We met up with an old friend of mine for a BBQ dinner.

Our last day was equally lazy. I took the kids to a park so Hanika could relax and she returned the favour by letting me go to the Air and Space museum by myself. There are two sites, one in DC and one in Virginia.

The downtown centre is much smaller and under a lot of construction. Still, they had a version of the Apollo lunar lander used to prepare the astronauts, a life size Hubble and a full size Apollo/Soyuz docking.

We headed out via Arlington National Cemetery. Unfortunately Moose spat the dummy so I took him back to the car and saw nothing. Our last stop was the Air and Space museum in Virginia. It’s connected to Dulles Airport so is both massive and able to take planes directly from the tarmac. Not only planes but also Discovery, the space shuttle! It was an overwhelming sight. So far, a highlight of the trip for me. It also had an SR-71, the Enola Gay and a Concorde.

The next destination is Nashville with two stops in Virginia and Tennessee to break up the drive.

Philadelphia

We decided to stay 2 nights in Philadelphia to break up the drive from NYC to DC. Originally I had booked us in a Motel 6 just outside Philly. Our experience in NYC made me cancel that and get an Air BNB instead!

We had an uneventful drive out of NYC after picking up some Hungarian baked goods and delicious coffees. We arrived to our Air BNB in South Philly and settled in. Now, I don’t know much about Philadelphia apart from what’s sung in the Fresh Prince theme song. I can only surmise that he didn’t sing about South Philly is because no one leaves! It’s certainly a gritty area and a quick Reddit search confirmed Hanika’s suspicions. On street parking wasn’t possible so I ended up finding an overpass to park under, 2km away, at night. Good thing I had clanging beer bottles to alert everyone to my presence! In all honesty though I’ve felt less safe in Joburg and Winnipeg.

Our full day was spent wandering around the historic downtown. We had Philly Cheesesteaks for lunch which were great despite not being from Gino’s. It’s a beautiful city full of history and beautiful buildings. I’d suggest a few days to soak it all in. On recommendation of Cathy in Ottawa we went to the Mutter Museum at the Philadelphia College of Physicians. It has an extraordinary collection of pathology specimens including Einsteins’s brain! Moose was oddly taken by the congenital deformities section. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures.

The next day we left to DC with a stop in Lancaster to visit an Amish farm. Moose had a blast petting and feeding all the animals. We grabbed some smoked ribs for dinner and set off for DC.

New York

We arrived from Boston in the afternoon to spend 3 nights in NYC.

For those who don’t know I’ve tried to work out a reasonable budget for this trip. Well, boy was I feeling smug when I found NY accommodation at 80$ a night within walking distance of Central Park! Now imagine my disappointment, and that of Hanika, when we walked into what can only be described as a closet. Let me paint a picture for you. The building and surrounding neighbourhood were fine. There was 24 hour reception which I thought sounded good. The room… dear God the room. Below is a video showing the room.

In front of the chest of drawers was the sink (not located in the bathroom). There was barely enough room to move let alone have kids roaming! Not quite sure what I was expecting. On the bright side the bathroom was spotless. I can’t say the same for the rest of the building. I think it functioned as a long term hostel for being doing it tough. There were signs about for case managers to assist their clients. There were shared “kitchens” with signs warning not to brush teeth in the sink but instead to use the shared bathrooms. Again, we had the ensuite so we were fortunate.

The location was convenient too. It wasn’t the downtown NY experience that Hanika was looking forward to but it was a grittier, more real NY experience of West Harlem. We were 3 blocks from a subway stop, 2 blocks from the grocery store and only 3 blocks from parking.

I decided to book parking ahead of time online. It almost as much as the hotel to valet park the car. Sounds fancy but what it means is once the car goes in you don’t have access to it until you take it out days later. It was still a great idea.

Anyways, after settling in we went for a walk in search of an authentic meal. I got the brisket and Hanika had a burger (not so unique to NY). We ordered enough for left overs the next day which was great.

The following day we did the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We reserved tickets ahead of time which meant we jumped the queue for security. If you don’t know, which I didn’t, you have to clear airport like screening to get on the ferry to go to the island and again to enter the statue! Our reserved tickets allowed us to bypass the security line to get in the boat which probably saved us 30 minutes, well worth it. We paid to get to the pedestal of the statute which gave a nice view of the city. The crown had sold old and in peak season needs to be booked months ahead of time. The whole trip takes 4-5 hours and we raced through Ellis Island unfortunately. We wandered back up via the 9/11 Memorial pools.

That night we got another babysitter and headed out to dinner with more McGill friends. The poor sitter was accustomed to tiny NY properties so wasn’t too shocked with our “hotel” room.

The next day we wandered around Times Square before catching up with Martin and walking the High Line Park. It’s a disused elevated freight rail track. It was a bloody hot day, 35 degrees in October! Moose gave up for most of it so I ended up carrying him and a backpack on my sweaty shoulders. We stopped for lunch at the Chelsea Markets for a NY bagel. We spent the afternoon in Central park before catching up with friends again for a pizza dinner.

As usual we didn’t spend enough time in one place and the next day we headed to Philadelphia.

Boston

We set off from Chester to Boston for 3 nights. On the way we stopped at AT&T (see last post) and Springfield MA.

The Dr Seuss museum is located at the Springfield Museums. They’re a member of the Association of Science-Technology Museums so that meant our Montreal Science Museum card got us in for free! Nothing better than saving $60 before lunch! The museum was small but good. As to be expected it was highly interactive. They had a floor that was furnished with his furniture to remake his studio and living room, complete with both Emmys.

We arrived in Boston (Forest Hill) and checked into our Air BNB. It was a lovely 3rd story suite with 1 bedroom, full kitchen, futon for Moose and off street parking for the van. I headed out to meet up for dinner with Arun who I met during orientation at McGill and have remained close to ever since.

The following day we headed out to to explore the harbour side. We stopped off at the Boston Tea Party Museum for a dry scone and sub par coffee (should have tried the tea!). Next we went to the highly recommended Boston Children’s Museum. I know there are only so many things that can keep a young child entertained but I must say that this was almost a repeat of the Ottawa museum! Moose didn’t seem to care though and had lots of fun running around.

That night we got a babysitter (another online agency) and I took Hanika to Legal Seafood. I ordered what turned out to be an platter clearly meant to feed a family! It did come with a appetiser of chunky clam chowder though. Hanika still isn’t sold on clams though.

The next day was slightly less productive. We made a late start after our traditional Sunday morning pancakes. After we wandered around the harbour and caught up with Arun and his family for a drink. Moose had a go on the carousel and was insistent on riding the grasshopper.

The highlight of the trip from Hanika, as far as I can tell, was finding coffee that was finally up to par with Australian standards! Clue, it wasn’t Dunkin Donuts.

We made good time packing up and set off for NYC.