Hot-lanta was a bit cold this weekend...

 Just to back track a little... two weekends ago I house sat for my friends that live up here. I did, basically, a whole lot-a-nothing. I enjoyed relaxing, watching movies and finally getting some reliable cell phone and internet signal. I "skyped" with Katherine and Coralie (two of my roommates from PT school). We had a great time catching up on everything. Miss you guys!

So onto this past weekend...

I drove down to Atlanta for the weekend. Quiet a few of my friends have relocated to this area so we had a mini reunion. We went to brunch at Murphy's a really cute restaurant in the area.
Later that afternoon we took a tour of the Sweetwater Brewery. This is a local brewery that only sells their beer around the southeast due to the fact that the beer is unpasteurized and should not be used more then 90 days after it is bottled. I really did not learn a whole lot from the tour, unfortunately, cause you could barely hear the guy talking. There were a TON of people. I had no idea it was that popular.

thought the beer conveyor belt on the ceiling was funny.

These sliding doors opened up into "beer heaven" (basically the industrial fridge where cases upon cases of beer are held.)

"The Dank Tank". They make limited edition brews in this special tank only a few times a year.

Had a great time catching up and visiting with my friends!

A wintery wonderland at the Biltmore

Friday, I left work early to get on my way to Asheville, NC before the freezing weather and possibly snow hit which seems to be an inevitable occurrence every time I have something planned on the weekends. Plus as you are driving from TN into NC you have to cross through the Great Smoky mountains (what the locals call "the gorge".) I knew this area usually gets dangerous when the temp goes below freezing and the rain water turns to ice on the road. Even though I left early I got about half way through the gorge and the rain turned to snow. It wasn't too bad to drive in, though, since it was new snow and had not had time to accumulate on the ground or turn to ice.

Once I arrived in Asheville area I met up with my friend from PT school, Danielle, and we went to her friend's house who was nice enough to let us stay there for the weekend.
The next morning as we left the house the roads were looking good. Of course, we could not have known that the snow would be coming down twice as thick when we arrived at the Biltmore, and the long winding road to the parking lot from the road was a beautiful, but slick. We made it safe and sound and were lucky enough to have made it in and we were touring the house before they had to close the road for a while due to someone getting stuck.
The house was beautiful! It was HUGE. But that should go without saying since it is the largest privately owned residence in the country.
Some facts:
It boasts 250 rooms!
384 doors
35 bedrooms
65 fireplaces
43 bathrooms
a 70,000 gallon indoor swimming pool with electric lights under the water (unheard of in that time)
a bowling alley
the same person who designed the gardens for the Biltmore also designed Central Park (Frederick Law Olmsted)
many examples of one of a kind paintings and tapestry's 
and my personal favorite a two story library with over 10,000 books! It was magnificent. 

After touring the house we went to the Conservatory where some of the plants for the gardens are grown. It was nice and warm in there. Then we drove around the grounds and over to Antler Village.

Antler Village is where the old dairy used to be. Now it serves as a little town with a restaurant, winery, creamery and a couple other little shops. The creamery makes ice cream from the cows on the Biltmore Estate. These cows are known for producing milk with a higher fat content. Therefore, the ice cream is much richer and tastier. I only had a sample, but it was so rich that just a spoonful was enough! Danielle and I also did the complementary wine tasting and bought one of the Biltmore's Limited Edition white wines.
Later that evening we braved the weather to go out in downtown Asheville. I was really cool and we ate dinner at an all organic restaurant Tupelo Honey. Very cool atmosphere and the food was great.
As if the bite of ice cream wasn't tempting enough we then went over to the "Chocolate Lounge." This was an awesome chocolate/coffee shop. They had a band playing folk music and an assortment of chocolate that was to die for! Truffles, chocolate mousse, chocolate cake... well I couldn't resist the house specialty, the dark chocolate liquid truffle.

WOW! Literally, the best thing I have ever tasted. It was the thickest cup of hot chocolate you can imagine and it really tasted like a truffle. Don't worry it was only a 4 oz glass and I couldn't even finish half. (But I did take the rest home and stick it in the frige for later. Hopefully, it will last.)
The ride back home was relatively uneventful except for one incident in the gorge where the person in front of me swerved off the road and into a pile of snow to avoid hitting the person in front of him when we came upon an icy spot.
However, that was nothing compared to the snow fall we had last night. We got about 8 inches and I could not get out of the driveway. Thankfully, one of Mrs. Richey's friends who has a FWD truck was able to take me in. Tomorrow may be a different story though.

Christmas at home

On the 21st of December, the day before my birthday, I was lucky enough to fly home and spend a week with all the people I love most in the whole wide world!
Christmas was packed full of family and friends and fulling myself full of togetherness, so I could make it through another couple of months without running completely dry again. I loved playing the guitar for my family and singing Christmas songs all day. I love my new Kindle (thanks Mom and Dad). I loved that I got an unexpected visit from my two youngest cousins and my uncle Jim. I loved everything about my time in FL!

I promise now that the holidays are over I am going to try to get back into my habit of writing my blog each week.
This weekend I am going to the Biltmore Estate with my friend from PT school, Danielle. Super excited! I am sure the gardens are not that pretty this time of year, but the house will still be amazing!

Happy New Year!!

Music City USA!

On December 10th my friends from FL flew into Nashville and I drove out to meet them. We spent the weekend doing everything a good tourist should do in Nashville! It was great. The weather, while we were there, was good, but it got a little hairy the last day. I'll go into that more later.
We stayed in a hotel that was right in downtown which made it easy to walk almost everywhere we needed to go. The first night we walked around downtown which is full of historic bars where famous country singers first debuted. "The Stage" was our first stop. There was a cool band playing and a guy who showed us how to two-step. Then we headed over to a piano bar. I am always so amazed at how talented the performers are. They have to have all kinds of songs memorized, play them on the piano, and be funny and entertaining all at the same time! The best part though was when Jen got called up on stage to do the hokey pokey for her birthday. That was pretty funny.

The next day we went to the go check out the Grand Ole Opry House which we could not get into, so we just looked around outside. Right next door is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel which is the coolest hotel I have ever seen (outside of Las Vegas). It was decorated for Christmas with huge trees and wreaths. There were stores, and streets, gardens and skywalks around the hotel. The interesting thing, though, was that the rooms had balconys that overlooked the inside of the hotel. I bet at night it would be beautiful in there with all the Christmas lights.

The Blue Collar Comedy tour was next on our list of outings. This was probably the funniest part of the trip. We got on a school bus that had underwear hanging from the ceiling and well... lets just say it was a red neck heaven. They took us on a tour of the city telling us all kinds of interesting facts about the many recording studios, the country music hall of fame, and the downtown area all the while turning us into certified red necks. 

 That evening we stopped by Tooties one of the famous old bars where it is said Willy Nelson played when he was first starting out. The story behind this bar was pretty cool. Apparently, Tootise, the owner, was kind to artists who were just starting or were down on their luck by putting an IOU in a box when she knew they couldn't pay. As time went on artists started to come back to the bar as they got more popular and pay off all of the IOU's in her box so she would not lose any money. 

There is an alley behind all the bars in downtown and on the other side of the alley is the Ryman Auditorium where the Grand Ole Opry was held for years before it moved the current location (The Grand Ole Opry House). The alley behind the bars was the hang out for the stars of the Grand Ole Opry before or after their sets. According to the stories many singers spent lots of time crossing the alley between Tootise's and the backstage entrance to the Ryman on performance nights. When the Opry radio show moved locations the Ryman was forgotten and was going to be demolished. Thankfully, some people decided to come in and restore this historic sight. Now, the Opry show moves back to the Ryman each year for Christmas since the Rockettes are performing at the Grand Ole Opry House. We had tickets to see the Opry at the Ryman on Saturday night. It was an interesting experience. I had no idea that The Grand Ole Opry is a radio show that has been playing every weekend for 85 years. (Where have I been?) Anyway, I had never heard of most of the acts that performed, but they were all good. One thing that was interesting was the commercials. They are performed live by the announcer and we had to sit through listening to the commercials after every song. It was funny. In my opinion, the best act that we saw that evening was Low Anthem. They are an up in coming band who was recently discovered by Emmylou Harris (the same person who was influential in saving the Ryman.) They had a very cool sound and they harmonize so well. I loved it! 

the alley

Emmylou Harris (on left)

The Low Anthem

On Sunday we spent the day visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame, RCA studio, and did a backstage tour of the Ryman. All of which were extremely interesting and there was way too much to mention all of it, but I thought the coolest part was getting to step inside the recording studio soundstage at the RCA studio B where many famous singers from Elvis to Dolly Parton recorded their songs. They even had the original piano that was played in all the songs that were recorded in the studio. Elvis offered to buy this piano many times claiming it had the best sound, but RCA would not sell it to him. He, apparently, would come in and play it before his sessions to get in the mood to record his songs. Everyone was allowed to sit down and actually play the piano if they wanted to. Wish I had retained something from my piano lessons...

Country Music Hall of Fame

The backstage tour of the Ryman was also packed with fun facts about the artists that performed there and the history behind the building itself. It was originally built as a church and many great revivals were held there. Like many places it did not have air conditioning before its restoration so they would hand out fans to the audience. One artist noted how she couldn't look out into the audience very often because all the fans going made her dizzy. We got our picture opportunity up on stage. I can only imagine what it would be like to sing on that stage. Amazing!

Great weekend! Lots to see and do in Nashville and if you are a country music fan it is definitely a must see.

To get back to what I mentioned at the beginning of the post. The weather was great while in Nashville, but as I was driving back to Knoxville I had to drive over what is called "the plateau" during the worst snow storm in a while to hit TN. (Of course, doesn't it figure.) Let me tell you, it was probably the most stressful and scary thing I have ever been through in my entire life. I never want to do that again. Thankfully, I had a guardian angle watching over me and I made it home safe.

I think it may be a white Christmas.

It has been snowing everyday here. I woke up this morning to 19 degree weather. brrrr! The snow usually melts as soon as it hits the ground, but today it finally stuck for a little while.

my car windshield

the puddle around the mail boxes is ice.

Work is pretty hectic with 40-50 patients on the physical therapy case load and only 4 people on our PT team (2 PTs and 2 PTAs). The PTAs are not able to write most of the paperwork so the other PT, Heather, and I are trying to meet productivity and do all the paperwork for our patients (which in this setting is insane).

There is a lot more going on at this facility than the last one I worked in. We have all kinds of equipment and resources, but with all that cool stuff comes the busyness. I am not complaining, though, I really like all the people I work with and the patients, and staying busy usually helps the day go by faster. Except for this week which can't go by fast enough because this weekend I am taking a trip to Nashville with a few of my friends from Florida. Can't wait! You will have to check back for that story. I am sure I will have a ton of pics. I know we will pack everything we can into this one little weekend!