You know that feeling you get when you've settled in your seat, turned off all portable electronic devices and are half listening to the flight attendant race through the message about thingies that fall down from the overhead compartments in case of an unexpected change in cabin pressure...and those yellow thingies that they claim will hold you up in case of a water evacuation?
Ahh, now you remember!
He was quite the character, I'm told.
So here's a view of his plantation:
And his wife's garden, which of course I found very interesting.....
(pssst... I guess there was a huge scandal their whole married life because it seems that when Mr. Jackson married his wife-ahem-she wasn't legally divorced)
Of course-you probably can't see it-but this is the Grand Ol Opry House. We drove by and said "howdee." 
After that visit and just driving around town (Tennessee is BEAUTIFUL), we met up with our boy for the first time in two years at the temple.
Grand tour of the mission office.
Freeway view of downtown Nashville, TN. It's a really interesting skyline.
One of the sites we visited (which I had ever heard of) was a replica of the Parthenon that was constructed for the Nashville centennial celebration (in 1897-or thereabouts). Nashville is reaaallly old. They decided after about 50 years that it needed to be rebuilt since the original was made of plaster. So here it is in all its rebuilt glory:
Does this photo give an idea of how huge this place is? (my man on the left and my boy on the right-awww-missionary companions-where's your white shirt TL???)
Ok-this was kinda creepy. It's a giant statue of Athena with Nike in her hand. To give a perspective-Nike is SIX FEET TALL! When I first walked into this area, I didn't even notice the statue at first, I was looking at some sculptures, so when I turned around and saw it-I freaked out. I guess I am not very cultured.......
We drove through the prestigious Vanderbuilt University, across the street from the park where the Parthenon stands. (and a big thanks to the guy who was honking at us from behind while I took this photo).And of course since Nashville is Music City USA, how could we miss a chat with the guys and their BFF....
Elvis, baby.
Back to the crazy weather again.
Tues morning it was snowing, and freezing all day.
Wednesday it was warm, Thursday was warm.
Early Friday morning at 3 am, I awoke to screaming wind, crashing rain and hail, and flashing lightening and pounding thunder. It scared the liver out of me! I thought-oh great-we are flying in this weather in a few hours. I had visions of tornados flying around outside. But as soon as it started....it was over....when I got home, I found out that there had been tornados just a few miles south of where we had been visiting....in the afternoon.
I told Steve that even the thunder sounds different in Nashville.
He says, "it's because it has a southern accent, mom."
Ok-y'all.
We stayed in the Glorietta Bay Inn, which is the 100 year old summer mansion of the sugar baron, John Spreckels. Our room was on the top far left (just showing part of the room). We ate our breakfast every morning on the patio.
The main foyer and staircase leading up to the guest rooms.
Our room, tiny but charming. We had turn down service every night with yummy homemade cookies.
The tiny terrace with a porch swing-so enjoyable in the evenings. If you look real hard, you can see the roof of the Hotel Del Coronado in the background.
We rented "the ugliest car" ever, according to TL, I think his term was "butt-ugly." (sorry Ford Flex owners) It was comfortable but strange looking-a mini van wanna be SUV.
This was a really fun coincidence. We were strolling through Old Town and happened to see a large group of people dressed up in period costumes with a sign that said "Mormon Battalion." It so happened that the Mormon Battalion had arrived exactly the day earlier 163 years ago. These folks WALKED across the country, from Iowa to California following the original route as a reinactment group. The amazing thing was, these people lived in my sister's stake in Michigan and knew her! They started in July of 2008 and had just arrived the day before, Jan 29, 2009. They were doing some firesides that day and then heading up to LA where they were going to be "mustered out" like the original battalion. VERRY cool.
It was so fun, so perfect-the kids behaved themselves, for the most part except the one kid who busted out the window in the garage since they had locked themselves out of the house at 12:30 AM!!! (sheesh)
Me and the good hubby, TL, are headed off this afternoon for a little R&R in San Diego. It seems we are having an Anniversary manana.........33 years! 
People, people everywhere.....lots and lots of people...
Narrow streets, I loved the narrow streets. I don't want to live there, but they were fascinating!
The cobblestone streets and sidewalks. How on earth the women walk around with their European pointy toed shoes and spiky heels, I will never know....I love 'em but it's mighty hard to walk on them.
Your local produce store. Most of the shopping is small specialty shops. Lots of jewelry, shoe shoes, tiny clothing stores, everything you need, even a store that looked like a mini Target. These fruit stands were all over Funchal....
Interestingly enough, the supermarkets were located in basements wherever we went. You could smell them before you got to them....ugh...nice fishy fishy...
Clothes hanging outside windows...I think I have a dozen photos of these. I was obsessed with illustrating the fact that the people hang out their freshly washed clothes outside these dirty, old buildings....
the requisite satellite dish!
Everyone drives tiny cars. We saw lots of Smart Cars...
Because there is no parking....and we saw lots of very creative parking....
Your local AM/PM/7-eleven/QuickTrip/Circle K
Woah-look at the price of GAS! No....wait........that's per liter!
We saw lots of cranes, parked in truly bizaare places, one in a tiny narrow street that probably would have had our state Industrial Commission in hysterics...an accident just waiting to happen.
Lisbon had a lot of graffiti. We were very surprised and disappointed to see so much in this beautiful historic city. But it seemed like around every other corner....
There were beautiful fountains....
And plazas with large sculptures of historic figures...
And incredible architecture..
My feet in the Tagus River........I really didn't want to take my shoes off because the color of the water was pretty close to pea green soup....plus we only had about 15 minutes to take shots of the river and Belem Tower.....but my shoes did get wet!
My feet in the Atlantic....well, sort of. We had some people behind the camera hollering about how some missionaries on their mission in the Canary Islands had gotten swept off into the ocean, so I was very cautious....it was quite rough-the north side of Madeira. 
Yummy salad, kind of like a waldorf salad, apples, walnuts....mayo...
National soup of Madeira.....veggies, golden color.....very bland but yummy with some salt.
Fried codfish on sweet potato bread. The codfish I could pass on, but that bread was YUMMY!
