sightseeing – Page 6 – thosecoolkims

Tennessee Super Kitschfest! – Day 1, Arriving in Nashville

Oh, Nashville – we’ve only just arrived, and we heart you already. We got into town at about 6pm, and immediately hit up downtown to get a taste of the city. We knew it was gonna be kitschy, but you know what else it is? Full of heart! Whether its the people singing their hearts out at karaoke, the peeps who own the most amazing (real!) record shops I’ve seen, or the folks working at the boot store, these people love their city. It’s contagious.

So maybe you say Nashville’s not for you ’cause you don’t dig on country music. Well, the truth is trying to categorize country music as one genre is a major fail. I don’t dig on Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks or Faith Hill either — but I love me some Pasty, Loretta, Hank and Willie! Nashville is full of nostalgia and big time homages to Country Music legends of yesteryear. Ernest Tubb record shop had us in awe — its an amazing place, and there are so many signed pics of celebrities in there that I could’ve stayed all day. When we found Ernest Tubbs, this was exactly what we had in mind when planning our trip here. Pardon the crappy picture, but there was no way I could pass up a photo with a real authentic autograph by Patsy Cline herself. This place was a great place to hit up to get us acclimated to Nashville right off the bat! (Oh, and thanks to Ernest Tubb’s, we just might have found tix to a Tammy Wynette tribute show on Tuesday when we get back – YES!)

We are loving all the awesome signage and kitschy cowboy shops too. Even though Ruby looks cute in a cowboy hat, I don’t think we’re ready to commit – but is it bad I kinda want a pair of boots? We had a chance to window shop at several great shops on Broadway … here are a few highlights:

And then of course, the three of us had to take over the Grand Ole Opry …

We’re headed out to Pigeon Forge in the morning (Dollywood awaits!), but we’ll be back in awesome Nashville on Tuesday. Until then, Music City!

See all pics from the day here:

Tennessee – Day 1

Super-Kitschfest 2012!

We are headed off for Tennessee to have the most over-the-top vacation to date — we’re headed to Dollywood, Graceland + Nashville! Yep, all those things and more in one vacation … we can’t wait! Less than 48 hours, and we’ll be arriving in Nashville…

Stay tuned … we’ll be blogging along the way (we think!), just like the good ol’ days. Bring on the BBQ, Patsy Cline Impersonators and the Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches!

My Second Father’s Day!

Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m a dad. And it feels surreal that Father’s Day, a holiday that I’d observed all my life to honor my dad, is now MY holiday. So what did we do on MY holiday? We had fun. LOTS of it.

Everyone knows that I live and breathe cars, but a lesser known fact about me is that I love to use alternate forms of transportation whenever I get the chance. I also love to eat. So, what did we do as a family for Father’s Day? Well, we did both – and LOTS of it too!

We started off the day with an epic (for us) family bike ride (there’s our first alternate transportation for the day). We had recently gotten a bike seat for little Ruby, who now pines for any chance she can get to go on a bike ride. Carrie did some research to find the best breakfast burrito (my favorite breakfast food by far) within biking distance. A joint called Golden Eagle seemed to have some serious cred, so that was our destination.

As you can see, I loved it…but Ruby, a big fan of tortillas herself, wasn’t going to leave without getting a bite for herself.

No doubt, it was a tasty burrito. Big and tasty. And fortunately, all that biking took the guilt out of eating such a decadent burrito.

After riding home, it was time for the next leg of our epic Father’s Day. For a long time, we’ve wanted to get a ride on the Long Beach Aqualink, which is a fairly large catamaran that transports passengers along the city’s coastline. It’s actually part of Long Beach Transit and costs a paltry five bucks for a really great 35 minute ride from Alamitos Bay to Shoreline Village. Our second form of alternate transportation of the day, then!

Some awesome shots of the ride, including this awesome one of Carrie’s feet in a very Wes Anderson-like composition:

We had every intention of riding the boat back to Alamitos Bay, but a few minutes after getting off the boat and walking through Shoreline Village, it was quickly apparent Ruby wasn’t feeling well. Yep, Ruby had gotten seasick! So, we picked up our third form of alternate transportation in the form of the Passport bus. Ruby was into it. She insisted on getting her own seat.

We thought about calling it a day after this already epic journey. Most sane parents would have. But we decided to press on. After all, I also happened to be lucky enough to be testing a 2012 Chrysler 300C that weekend – one of my favorite cars at the moment and in my possession!

Thanks to a recent episode of No Reservations about the food scene in Penang, I’d been craving Mee Goreng, a spicy fried noodle dish popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. And one of the few places to get it around here is at Singapore’s Banana Leaf at the Farmer’s Market on Third and Fairfax in Los Angeles. So, after everything we had already done, we got in the 300C (our fourth and final – and face it, the most awesome – form of transportation that day) and headed up to LA for some deliciousness.

What a great day. I think I like this Father’s Day business a lot. Thanks Tiger and Ruby for making it such a great day!

1st Trip to Disneyland!

Guess who finally made it to Disneyland? That’s right, we took Ruby to the Happiest Place on Earth had a blast on her very 1st visit. Thank goodness, ’cause we were getting some serious heat from the grandparents. :) Even better, Ed + I got Annual Passes, so we’ll be going back quite frequently. Especially with everybody on my side of the family being so into Disneyland, Ruby will undoubtedly get to know the Magic Kingdom very well. We hope she ends up loving it as much as we do.

We headed straight over to our favorite ride at Disneyland – It’s a Small World. We both got a little misty thinking about how many times we’d been on the ride, how much we love it (and all of its beautiful eye candy by Mary Blair!), and how this would be Ruby’s 1st ride ever! Once we walked up to the line, she couldn’t stop staring at the facade, and I couldn’t even get her to turn around for a photo op! Then she got really into watching the boats and waving to all of the people.She was a little tentative at first once we got inside, but then enjoyed all the sights and waving hello to all the kids inside!

I love this pic of her and Daddy:

We also cruised over to ToonTown and met Mickey…

But what Ruby really seemed to love most was watching the River Belle in Frontierland and checking out the ducks!

Mommy + Daddy also had to make a quick stop on Main Street to pick up a Corn Dog. We’re not quite sure why Corn Dogs at Disneyland are so good, but they are – and we hadn’t had one in over 2 years!

We saw a few more things and wrapped up the day by getting Ruby her own set of Mouse Ears. Of course, we wanted the old school ones!

The next day, we decided to go back and check out the scene at the California Adventures Park. We had fun there too on all of the little kiddie rides, but what Ruby loved most was the carousel!

We’re really looking forward to many more visits!

The Aquarium is always better with friends

We spent a super fun day at the aquarium with The Cahns – Ruby’s friend Olive, and her very cool parents, Kim + Andrew. It was really crowded, but it was still fun to watch these girls have so much fun!