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Category Archives: road trip
Chattanooga Adventure
Chattanooga is a great city! Julie, Crissy, and I left Brasstown one Saturday in January and followed the Ocoee River west through TN and ended up in Chattanooga – our super-fun destination for a Julie b-day celebration! Chattanooga is just two hours west of Murphy. Upon arrival, we went to the south side of the city to check into our lodging – a fantastic upscale hostel called the Crash Pad. Julie’s friend, Dan owns the Crash Pad, so we got the grand tour and first class treatment. The Crash Pad caters to outdoors adventurers especially rock climbers so there were young hotties in abundance on the premises.
After getting settled in we headed over the Champy’s an eatery dedicated to sipping 40z and fried chicken. Amazingly enough we read the local paper and found out there was a squaredance in the basement of a local bar – what are the chances of that?! Te Claw had booked the night and Jennifer (who I met at Dare to Be Square in Riner) was calling. The band was from Vermont and the were called something like the Apocalyptians or something like that. They wore animal skin hats and drove in an ambulance. The dance was such a treat!
After the dance we headed over to a fancy schmancy cocktail bar called the Easy Bistro. It was in the old Coca Cola Bottling Factory building. I had a $12 cocktail called the billionaire which had bourbon and absinthe among other things. It was yummy, but left me hankering for a sidecar, which I might call the Cory Marie signature drink… if you don’t count the Shirley Temple.
The next day we had a decadent brunch at the Knitting Factory and then took a wonderful walk to the Coolidge Park Carousel, across the pedestrian bridge, to the art museum and around downtown. Chattanooga has a 1/4 mile pedestrian bridge crossing the river… It’s the width of a car bridge. So many folks were out and about on Sunday on the bridge. I thought it was very cool city planning to allocate the space for pedestrians. The bridge ended at the art museum – Chattanooga has a lot of great public art. By the Crash Pad, there were murals everywhere. It is also a city with great graphic design sensibilities – many businesses had beautiful logos!
All in all Chattanooga is alright by me. I loved it and Julie and Crissy were great tour guides! I can’t wait to spend more time there!
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- I’m packing plaid in Chattanooga yo!
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- The Pedestrian Bridge over the river
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- Ped Bridge
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- Crissy the water nymph
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- Julie and the Driftwood Horse
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- Art Museum
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- Ped Bridge
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- Coolidge Park Carousel
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- Champy’s
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- Champy’s
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- Mural
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- Mural
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- City walking with Julie and Crissy.
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- Old Train Station
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- Julie at Sunset
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- The Crash Pad
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- Chatta-choo-choo
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- City Bike Rental Program!
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- Crissy and Julie
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- Crash Pad
Posted in appalachia, outta town, road trip, Uncategorized
Tagged chattanooga, julie
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Middleton
I was looking through old drafts and I found this unpublished gem from Spring 2011. My mom visited me and we went on a road trip to Charleston and Savannah. We spent a day outside of Charleston touring a plantation called Middleton. Nice memories & we got some great shots…
My quintessential “old south” photo
Statue Master!
Me & Mom at Middleton
Overdose of Moss
The rebuilt house
Posted in garden, outta town, road trip, super adventure 2011
Tagged middleton, moss, plantation
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Ireland Photos
Celtic Cross by the Rock of Cashel
Tynan's Bridge House Bar, Kilkenny
Cory Marie in the Upper Lake at Glendalough
I just uploaded my Ireland photos to my Flickr account. Check out my July 2012 Ireland set!
Pinckney Island
Birdies, which kind are they?
One of our stops on the Carolina Coast was Pinckney Island, a wild bird refuge within a network of barrier islands outside of Charleston in Beaufort County. The only island open to people is Pinckney and there is a long trail that winds through the coastal marshland and forest. Mom and I had a lovely walk and saw lots of birds and 100s of tiny crabs. We had a nice picnic and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery.
Trusty Prius in the Pincknery parking lot
Me on the edge of the island
Posted in outta town, road trip, super adventure 2011
Tagged beaufort, birds, road trip, south carolina, wildlife
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Pulling Strings
Cory Marie plays in the garden at historic Middleton Plantation in Charleston. Photo by my mama, Ruth Podielski
Charleston & the Low Country
After the kitschy seaside experience of Myrtle beach, Mom and I hit the road in search of some old southern charm, history, and most importantly Spanish moss. We high-tailed it down the Carolina coast, first stop: Charleston!
bicycling down by the waterfront
The city of Charleston was gorgeous and fancy with old buildings, tons of wrought iron and big oak trees. Mom and I walked around the town and had a nice dinner at a decadent little restaurant with a patio courtyard. Both Charleston and Savannah reminded me of New Orleans, without the dirt, vomit, and nightlife.
How decadent it was to have a whole store dedicated to selling honey:
Honey store in Charleston
This park below is on the waterfront and you can see Ft. Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War (aka “the War of Northern Aggression”) occurred.
waterfront park
Our first stop outside of Charleston was a charming historic town was the town of Beaufort, SC. Beaufort is the second-oldest city in South Carolina; Charleston being the first. Beaufort was a small, sleepy town with wonderful oak lined streets, with a little bit of a tropical feeling.
Beaufort, SC
Posted in outta town, road trip, super adventure 2011
Tagged charleston, honey, moss, south carolina
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Momtime in Myrtle Beach
In mid-April, my mom came to visit me in North Carolina. Her bestie Barbara has a house near Chapel Hill, so I met my mom at the Raleigh airport and we spent two lovely weeks together. The first week we stayed at Barbara’s house and then we took a trip out to the coast to see Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Savannah and everything in between. I love my mom so much, she is the raddest mom and so fun to travel with!
Here are some photos of us at Myrtle Beach:
Me on the Beach
Mom on the Beach
Myrtle Beach is seaside resort town for people to come vacation. There are so many golf courses and beach front seaside high rise hotels. It has a little bit of a Vegas vibe, meets Coney Island, meets Venice Beach. There are a lot of pawn shops and seaside crab shacks. On a side note, Myrtle Beach is also the home of the dance the Shag.
The most striking thing I noticed about Myrtle beach was the numerous epic miniature golf courses. I spotted at least 15 of these wonderfully over-the-top family fun centers all themed differently with hugh dramatic waterfalls, volcanos, and life-sized props. Some themes included: Bermuda Triangle (pictured below), dinosaurs, pirates, and Atlantis. They were all so impressive in a Las Vegas hotel facade kind of way. I wish I had taken more photos, but I was driving at the time.
Bermuda Triangle Epic Mini-Golf
I also spotted a huge amount of Malibu Dream Girl swimwear. My former workplace sells mainly to Florida and the East Coast, so I had never seen seaside shops with all our swimwear. It was neat to see design I created in massive amounts on the walls.
Malibu Dream Girl on the Walls of Myrtle Beach Seaside Shop
More updates coming from the mom/daughter adventure in following entries….
Posted in outta town, road trip, super adventure 2011
Tagged beach, miniature golf, mom, myrtle beach, swimwear
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Mean Streets
Something is telling me not to turn down this road…
devil's highway?
But if I ever decide to be a witchy old crone, this street would be perfect…
one way to keep people away
Splendor in the Atlanta Grass
Pondering Mucha
Rex and I went to the High Museum in Atlanta to see the Toulouse Latrec & Friends poster show (friends included Mucha, Degas, etc.) and the Bresson Retrospective. It was a perfect show for us to go see together: I love poster art and make posters, and Rex is a super talented B&W photographer. Going to see good art shows is very inspirational for me, I want to make more art.
It was a lovely day topped off with a picnic by the museum. I am glad I found a friend who is as passionate about art and cinema as I. We can geek out together about Diane Arbus and Delicatessen, plus he’s pretty cute too 
Splendor in the Atlanta Grass
Picnic with Rex outside the High
Posted in road trip, super adventure 2011
Tagged atlanta, bresson, high museum, mucha, posters, rex, toulouse latrec
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Off to the Derby!
Mint Julep #3
Remember that scene in Mary Poppins where they all jump into Bert’s chalk painting and turn into countryside dandies frolicking about, ending in a horse race? Well, I was hoping that the Kentucky Derby would be a little like that, but from the Infield perspective, Mary Poppins was nowhere to be found.
I loved the experience, the fashion was great, as were the mint juleps, but being in the Infield at the Kentucky Derby is like being lost in a sea of frat boys dressed as dandies and sorority girls dressed as Designing Women… and everyone is getting wasted. You can barely see the racetrack at all and everything is Disneyland prices. I enjoyed seeing all the hats and crazy outfits, but if I were gonna do the Derby again, I would most certainly find a richie rich to get me a nice seat in the grandstands to actually be able to see the horse races.
cory marie & rex in the infield with mint julep #2
tunnel from the infield
Animal Kingdom was this year’s winner. My horse pick, Comma to the Top, didn’t place, so I was happy that I spent all my betting money on over-priced liquor. All in all it was quite an adventure and crazy intense experience. The fashion and people watching was incredible. I posted a separate blog about the candid shots of Derby goers.
Mint Julep #???
I enjoyed reading Hunter S. Thompson’s essay about the Derby, although there was far less vomit involved in my experience. I recommend reading it before you go to the Derby.
Next pour moi? Nascar, perhaps?