All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Southern Road Trip 2018

Southern Road Trip: Two Nights in Savannah

1 Comment

Part 1 here.

I’d never been to Savannah, even though it’s not terribly far from where I grew up. As a native South Carolinian, I’m going to admit a little secret: we looked down on Georgia. In fact, when I told a friend of mine (who grew up in Charleston) I was going to Savannah, she said, incredulously, WHY?

Well, I’d heard it was pretty cool. Evidently The Book (that’s how they say it in Savannah) helped things a bit too—that’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. That book brought tourists in, by the busload. And the city has grown and prospered because of it. Also, Savannah is just plain beautiful, or at least it was in pictures, so I added it to the itinerary.

Everybody online said you have to stay in the historic district of Savannah, and if you do, you can walk everywhere, so I decided to splurge for a hotel there. We got a room for two nights at the 17hundred90 Inn. Supposedly the Inn is haunted, but the haunted room cost a bit extra so I decided to pass.

Anyway, we headed to Savannah from Macon. It naturally took longer than I’d expected (like most of the driving on this trip…I don’t know if it was the truck, or construction, or the heat, but everything took longer.) We got into town and were starving, so we stopped for lunch at the Collins Quarter. It was a perfect lunch.

IMG_0818 (2)

IMG_0819 (2)

We split two dishes, and this is one of them: Smashed Avocado Toast. Yes, we are pretend millennials, ruining the world with our avocado toast.

38

After lunch we went to check into the hotel. This was easy enough, but was a little bit of a THING. There was a whole bit with a guy named Grumpy who took us up to the room on the third floor, but wouldn’t let me carry any of the bags, which meant that Louie had to carry more because of it. In any case, we parked the truck behind the hotel and left it there until we departed several days later, which was really nice. The hotel only charged $10 extra for parking, and included free breakfast each morning (though not until 8:30 which meant one day we couldn’t do it.)

13

The hotel is full of antiques, and each room is unique. We were in the “annex” which was across the street from the main building. I though the hotel was great and would stay there again. One warning: there isn’t anybody on duty overnight! But we didn’t have any issues, and if you were staying in your own home or an airbnb you wouldn’t expect 24 hour service either.14

After we checked in, we headed out to explore. Savannah is super walkable, and I didn’t realize until we started walking that it was even smaller than I’d realized. You really can just walk about anywhere in 10 minutes, maybe 15. (In the Historic District, that is.)

9

Savannah is laid out on a grid with this little “squares” every few blocks. Each square is really just a little park, and it means there is tons of shade and green space. It’s very cute!

16

Like any good old city, there are cemeteries. Savannah is really known for Bonaventure Cemetery, but we didn’t make it there—it’s outside of the historic district and we didn’t make it out of the area.

We walked along the River next, which is a bit more “trash touristy” if you know what I mean. We popped into a place Louie remembered going before and getting a bucket of cheap oysters, and decided to repeat his memory.

18

Like most memories, it wasn’t quite as good as he remembered, but we had fun trying to shuck the oysters and eating them!

We had dinner reservations at a restaurant called Husk, so at point we headed there. It was amazing! I loved the vibe, and the food was just delicious. It was southern food, but with a focus on fresh, local ingredients (not just deep fried and covered in gravy).

20

My shrimp and grits.21

Louie’s fish dish. I forgot what it was, but he complimented the server on the cocoa krispies.

22

For dessert we split a frozen grasshopper. Yummy!

The next day we did a bunch of stuff (you read this blog for the quality, Edward Abbey-like writing, correct?) We started with a bike tour with Savannah Bike Tours. It ended up being a private tour with just Louie and I and the guide, a wonderful guy named Dee. He took us all over the historic district and gave us all kinds of great information.

2430

It will not surprise you that I picked the purple bike.

273126

28Above: the actual house from Midnight (I think I’m right on this!).

Then we got an ice cream snack at Leopold’s and then went to visit the Owens-Thomas House, which Dee said was his favorite house tour. The ticket for the House also normally included two more museums, the Telfair Academy and the Jepson Center, but the Telfair Academy was closed for the week while we were there, so we got a slight discount. We took a guided tour (I believe that’s the only way to see the house) and learned about the people who lived in the house and the enslaved people who worked for those people.

I will just say: a lot of our trip involved learning about enslaved people, but more as a side note the important, historical rich white people. Well, they got rich because THEY OWNED OTHER PEOPLE AND THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS OKAY. In Charleston, we went to a former plantation tour which skimmed over the rich white people and really talked about the enslaved people (and yes, that’s the word you use today) and their descendants, and it felt so much better, like we weren’t pretending anymore. I am ashamed of the history of my country, and I think we need to really consider how to reconcile our history of using unpaid enslaved people as labor and then to never make that right, with our current issues with poverty and race relations. It’s a huge mess, and seeing these fancy beautiful houses is fun, but it just feels like a façade, covering up a very ugly history.

That being said (said poorly, but said), the house was pretty neat. It had some unique architectural features, such as a bridge on the second floor connecting two parts of the floor. My picture of that didn’t turn out well so I can’t share, but you can just go visit.

33

We went for lunch after that, to Soho South Café. I had a fried green tomato sandwich!

We visited the Jepson Center after that, and looked at art in an air-conditioned building for awhile.

3637

We had dinner reservations at the Grey, but we ended up eating elsewhere. I got angry…I had a little bit of breakdown involving the fact that too many of their vegetable dishes had meat in them. I know it’s the south, but something about it just set me off. I think it was because they divided their menu into four categories, one of which was dirt, which supposedly meant veggies, but then 3 of the 5 had meat in them, and the other two were both rice based dishes, and I just couldn’t. It kind of ruined our evening, but that’s how things go sometime. We ate dinner at Garibaldi’s instead, which felt like eating on the Hill, and I think they had chicken broth in their mussels (which was super weird, frankly, and unnecessary) and the whole thing feels a little funny to write about.

We also stopped at a few random coffee shops: we had a mediocre breakfast at Blends Coffee, but fantastic cappucino and coffee. We had fine coffee at Savannah Coffee Roasters, though a bit acidic for me. And we had a lovely breakfast at our hotel the second morning, with coffee, juice, fruit, yogurt, and these fun egg things which I would love to have on hand for a daily breakfast.

And that’s Savannah! It was a great little city to visit, with marvelous architecture, squares, and good food. 

Random thoughts

Just Checking In

1 Comment

You guys. Transitions are HARD. Remember a few months ago when I was all, oh hey, it’s summer, isn’t this great, but why isn’t anybody calling me for stuff? Now I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m so tired and I’m running around and everybody is calling and emailing me except for the people I’m waiting to hear from, and I’ve had rehearsal every night till 10…it’s pretty invigorating though!

I’m trying to stay organized and up on things, and while I’ve let a few things slip unintentionally, I think I’m getting a grip on everything that I need to do. There is definitely something to the idea that the more you have to do, the more scheduled and organized you have to be, the more you get done. I’ve practiced more this past week that I did any one week during the summer, and that’s definitely not because I have more time: it’s because I have less time and I know it needs to get done.

The academic year gives a nice ebb and flow to life though. This was Louie’s first week of classes (he is a lecturer at the college), and he’s been crazy busy getting everything going…but you know there’s only so many weeks (15 or so) of this, and then it’s a break for a bit. It keeps you sane, but keeps life interesting. Or at least that’s what we tell ourselves.

I’m working pretty much straight through the month of September, and then October will give me a little breather. I’m still not sure how this will all work…this week I’ve been pushing through knowing that I have Sunday and Monday  off (LABOR DABOR) and then that’s it, no more days off for the foreseeable future. You’ll hear about it too, for sure! But I’m loving the Evita show so far, and it’s good to see my students again and I’m getting them ready for festivals and recitals and teaching them vibrato and theory and other things I’d been sort of trying to ignore…basically I’m starting the school year full speed ahead WHILE trying to pace myself. I realize that actually might not make any sense, but it does to me. In other words, I feel energized.

So since I’m not blogging about our trip to SC, I will at least mention the cats. CATS.

IMG_1121

(This picture makes me see how much we really should consider redoing the stairs to the basement, but…there are bigger house issues.)

When I got the mail after the trip, there was a notice from the City Health Department/Animal Control. They wanted $50 to register Muriel! It seems that if you give your pet a rabies shot but they aren’t spayed or neutered they want $50 from you. If you have had your pet spayed or neutered you only owe $4 which has already been paid by the vet. It’s a good idea—it encourages people to spay or neuter their pets, BUT it also seems to me that it discourages people who haven’t done so from getting their pets rabies shots. I then found out that Miles had received the same letter at the home he first lived! Even though they received their rabies shots three months or so apart, the city must only check these things every once in awhile. No worries, both little guys are spayed and neutered now.

IMG_1137

Muriel DOES fit into my lunch bag. It’s a large lunch bag, so it’s not terribly surprising that she fits. Now there is probably cat fur all over though!

IMG_1141

One of the things that Louie and I always say about Muriel is that she is a very stereotypical CAT. All the cat things you think of, she does them. She’s adorable and predictable like that. I think she must have read a book on how to be a cat and followed it to the letter. She is helping Miles better understand how cats are to behave.

In any case: that’s where I am today. I have 2 rehearsals ahead of me, and then tomorrow I’m teaching in the morning and have a wedding/cocktail hour in the afternoon that is a bit of a drive so it takes up a good portion of time. And then two days off—planning on a movie/dinner thing with friends, hopefully a bike ride, and who knows what else…probably watching OITNB and Ozark, house cleaning, some cooking, relaxing, and that’s about it Smile

Southern Road Trip 2018, Travel

Southern Road Trip: Macon “We have mounds too”

This year Louie and I decided to do a road trip around Georgia and South Carolina. Our main reason was to give him the opportunity to get rid of a sailboat he’d had sitting around for various personal reasons. Then I thought, well, we can visit my parents, and I thought Charleston would be fun, then added Savannah, and then the beach, and visiting my friend April in Atlanta, and there you have it: another great road trip! This one was hot and buggy and had a lot of great food, compared to our typical summer trips, but it was nice. (Next year we want to go west, and preferably north.)

So the first step was towing the boat to Macon, Georgia. As always, we work too much, and were too busy leading up to the trip. The day before we were to leave, Louie realized that the tires on the boat trailer just weren’t going to cut it, so instead of setting off first thing in the morning to Macon, he had to go to Wentzville to get new boat trailer tires first! Not a great start (oh, and did I mention it was pouring rain), but necessary.

But we did finally get on the road, around 10 am, I believe. It was still raining, but I’ll tell you, it’s easier to load up a truck for a road trip than a Corolla. It’s harder to drive, and I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t drive…I probably should have driven the truck after we dumped the trailer, but I was afraid of wrecking it, and I really didn’t want to drive it with the towing. Louie did a fantastic job driving the whole way, and I just sat there looking pretty.

IMG_0798

Louie, inspecting the boat after a few hours of driving. Various parts kept flapping around.

IMG_0799

So we ended up having a very long day—google told us it was 9 hours to Macon, but it took 12 plus a few stops, and we lost an hour, so we didn’t get in until after midnight. I will say I did a lovely job packing avocado egg salad sandwiches for us to eat, so we were able to eat good food along the way without having to stop at McDonald’s or Taco Bell.

The next day we did some sightseeing around Macon with Louie’s relatives (basically). We went to the Ocmulgee National Monument, which is Macon’s version of the Cahokia Mounds. (Side note: everybody we met in Georgia and parts of South Carolina,  after visiting Macon, seemed to have spent some portion of their lives living in Macon…the Macon folks are proud of their hometown! It was a nice place, and probably better to live in than visit, I suppose, though evidently they no longer have a symphony orchestra so that’s less interesting to me Winking smile).

IMG_0812

It was a VERY hot day, which set the tone for the trip. The South in August…I wouldn’t have expected anything different.  Anyway, that’s the visitor’s center which has a very informative museum.

IMG_6914

I have naturally already forgotten it all. This is Louie posing in front of a hut of sorts. I presume this was a reconstruction.

IMG_6915

Unlike Cahokia, at Ocmulgee you get to go inside a mound. This one even had air conditioning! This was behind glass—a recent development, I was told.

IMG_6917

That’s the outside of the mound you can go in! Who would believe there is a whole room under there? Also much cooler and out of the sun (even before the Native Americans put air conditioning in).

IMG_6918

We found this lawn mower really interesting—it’s like a roomba but for lawn mowers. Much safer than going up steep hills on a riding mower, I guess!

IMG_6920

You can see downtown Macon from the top of another mound, the Great Temple Mound. You can also see the Visitor’s Center from there. (One of my favorite things to do at the Cahokia Mounds is to loudly exclaim that the reason the mounds were built was to see the Arch. I actually did this once and people looked at me with horror, and it was a proud moment.)

IMG_6921

This is Louie, out standing in a field. It’s a field on top of a large mound though, so that’s even more impressive.

IMG_0813

Okay, sorry, enough not funny jokes!

After the mounds we had a unofficial driving tour of downtown Macon and then went back to the house to clean up before dinner. We had dinner at a restaurant called Brasserie Circa, which was very tasty—the bread especially was good. During dinner there was a HUGE storm that came through, and there were lots of tree branches down in the neighborhood. The next morning Louie had some paperwork to deal with with the boat and trailer, but after that, we were on our way, heading to Savannah next…and that’s a blog post for another day.

So that was Macon! Short but sweet. It was nice to see Louie’s people there, to see the town, and to drop off the boat. It is hard to transition into vacation mode for us but Macon was a good start.

Random thoughts

Rainy Day

2 Comments

Hi readers! I’m back home, I survived my two week vacation, and I’m back teaching and trying to get ready for an insane September.

The trip was really neat. It was different than some of our vacations the past few summers but was really fun. I thought about blogging the other day but instead I organized all my photos and ended up ordering a photo book online instead. So I’ll get to that soon. I’ll just tell you the highlights involve staying in a teepee and cheese grits!

IMG_1082

IMG_0915

Being back home has its advantages, of course. The cats, easy access to a variety of bathrooms…

I’ve been working hard finalized my teaching schedule for my private students and at Lindenwood. Wash U is still a crap shoot—classes start Monday and I know nothing about my students yet, so who knows how that will work. I have a 5 week run of Evita starting on Tuesday night (1 week rehearsing, 4 weeks of performances) and I’m kind of in denial about how busy I’ll be. I think it’ll be okay: things are always worse looking at them in advance than just doing them. And I’m looking forward to playing the show—I think it’ll be loads of fun and I am working with some excellent colleagues (and I’m not just saying that in case they are reading this, haha!).

It was also nice visiting my parents and my hometown of Clinton, South Carolina. People are always shocked that I grew up in the South, probably because I have no discernable accent and I don’t dye my hair blonde. But I grew up in a town of about 8000 people, in rural South Carolina.

Anyway. I’m off to do a few computer tasks, work out, run a couple of errands, practice, and then teach for 3 1/2 hours. Not a bad day!

Random thoughts, Travel

Treat Yourself

4 Comments

4 more students and then WOO HOO I’m on vacation for two weeks. Often I say that my vacation is well deserved, but I had so many actual days off over the summer I’m not sure that’s true. Then again, many people have two days off every 7 and still think they deserve vacations…(or maybe they don’t, but you know what, they do!) so…a well-deserved vacation!

I’ve got today off. Louie is out of town over the weekend, so I finished the opera performance last night, then stayed up late finishing a book. (The Visitors by Sally Beauman, which makes me want to visit Egypt and also makes one feel odd about colonialism). I thought I’d sleep in today, and didn’t set an alarm, and woke up at 7:45 am. Which is earlier than I sometimes even get up normally.

Some people tell you that when you have kids you won’t be able to sleep in anymore. I’m here to tell you that it seems to just happen as you age. I used to sleep past 10 am no problem, and sometimes even until noon. I would never wake up before 10 am without an alarm! And now, it’s a struggle to stay asleep past 8, even when I can or even when I need more sleep. The older I get, I realize so many of the things that people tell you about having kids are simply about aging.

But I digress. You know me, I’m preparing for a trip, so I’m reviewing my lists and checking stuff off. This is how I cope. Other things on the docket for today: work out, read as much as possible. I’m taking the day off from violin practice to recover from the opera, and besides, I’m about to go out of town…(arguably one should practice more because of that, but I am not going to make that argument.)

I had a busy week until a few days ago. I had quite a lot of students this week and a couple of interesting gigs, which went really well. On Friday though, I only had a performance at night and a couple of lessons to teach, so I ended up meeting one of my Wash U students for lunch and getting a pedicure. My student is actually no longer my student because she graduated and is headed off to grad school in another city. I had wanted to take her out for lunch in May, but I canceled our appointment back then due to being completely overwhelmed and finally got around to rescheduling. It was great to see her and I know she’s going to do well in grad school. I was going to put a picture of us here but it just keeps being upside down and won’t be correct, so go to instagram if you want to see the picture.

IMG_0772

I also got a pedicure. This is my treat yourself thing to do about once a month (or less, really) in the summer.

IMG_0782

A pit selfie! I played four performances of Nabucco with Union Avenue Opera. It was a very energetic opera, and I really liked the conductor.

IMG_0785

I got the cats a water fountain. Muriel at least seems to like it. I’m not sure if Miles has tried it out yet.

IMG_0787

I’d say Miles is adjusting well to being an indoor kitty.

I feel pretty good about things right now. I’m relaxed, I’m as caught up as I need to be for work. I have mostly accomplished as much as I’m going to accomplish this summer, and I’m okay with that. I’m fairly ready for the fall semester to begin. I’ve got an incredibly busy September because I’m playing a musical show at the Rep and there are 28 performances, plus a week of rehearsals and a few student shows and preview shows too. It should be fun and I’m working with some of my favorite colleagues, but it is going to be a tough month to get through, since we also have a quartet concert and I’ll have my college students starting up. I know I can handle it, but I’m not sure quite how it will work out. So being relaxed now is probably a good thing, because in one month I’ll be really busy.

Another thing I do want to try to do (after September, I think) is try to get more viola playing work. I don’t plan to stop being a violinist ever, but I want to do more with the viola, so I need to work on moving that part of my career forward.

Lots to do! But not right now. Later. After vacation. I just downloaded a bunch of new books onto my kindle (the library is AMAZING) and so I’m going to read and drink coffee now.

Deep Thoughts, Travel

One more week

1 Comment

One week left of summer work, then it’s off on a vacation…and then it’s fall. I know it’s not TECHNICALLY fall, but school will have started for the kids, and that means it’s fall. This fall is going to be busy as usual, and I think September is going to be the hardest, so wish me luck.

IMG_0749

Until then! I’m trying to get as many things in place as possible. The good news is we’ve settled on a concrete company for the front stairs. And I’ve finished with all my bank switches. There are a few more things that need to be done around the house, but I think I reached all my first tier goals for the summer. The stretch goals would involve getting a giant tree bush trimmed, but quick internet research tells me that this isn’t a good time of year to trim stuff and that that winter is better. I should also research to see what the difference between a tree and a bush is, because if I’m going to find somebody to come out to work on this monstrosity I should be able to describe it. It is a living creature that has taken over the entire space between my house and the driveway, and is probably 20 feet tall and as wide. I don’t even know. Louie used to be able to trim it but he got behind and now it’s becoming a monster. Home ownership is NO JOKE.

I got off track there, however.

IMG_0758

It’s been an odd week. I have millions of thoughts involving an article from the Washington Post regarding my teacher from graduate school. The #metoo movement is powerful, strong, and shows no signs of stopping. I have nothing to report in regards to him, and when I think of things involving my own #metoo stories, he doesn’t really factor in…I also learned so much from him, and I loved studying with him, and I found him very charming and…oh it’s just all so complicated, sad, and awful all around.

One of the things that we are doing on this trip is towing a sailboat down to Georgia. Louie has a sailboat in his possession from a series of complicated events, and we are finally giving it to somebody who will use it more. (Zero is the amount I’ve used it, and he has used it I believe once since I’ve known him). This is exciting, because they say the two happiest days in a boat owner’s life is the day they get the boat and the day they get rid of the boat. Towing a sailboat is no small feat though—I don’t think I’ll be very comfortable driving the truck, but after we get rid of the sailboat then I may need to drive a pickup truck for some period of time. I’ve driven a Uhaul and a 15 passenger van at points in my life, but lately all I’ve been driving are compact cars! The other nice thing about getting rid of the boat is that we’ll have more yard room. We would technically like to start a garden but feel overwhelmed by how to do that (and while, we’d love to HAVE a garden and eat the vegetables and stuff from it, we aren’t sure if we really have the time to dedicate to it.) Do any of you garden? Mom, want to come help organize a garden for us?

My timehop app reminded me that today was the two year anniversary of the time the bear attacked the car in Colorado. If you are a new or occasional reader, you might say WHAT? Read here.

IMG_0759

We’ve had some good summer adventures! We are already looking ahead to next summer, though more in a brainstorming way. I do love planning trips, and I like to think I’m getting better at it. I also like to think I’m getting better at organizing my life and being relaxed and calm, and I’m not sure those things are true, but…life is a work in progress.

I’ve got some fun and interesting stuff happening this week! Over the weekend I was playing Nabucco with Union Avenue Opera and we have two more performances next weekend. In between I’m playing for a mass at St Francis de Sales—it’s something I’ve done before once but is pretty unusual: it’s a mass where new priests are ordained. I’m not Catholic but it’s still a very interesting and unique thing to witness. Then I’m playing a little concert with some colleagues at a retirement home, which is always nice though I’m not always so popular at these places. In between all that I still have 22 students scheduled, so I won’t be lacking things to do.

Last note: who is enjoying this cooler weather in St Louis? I know I am! I wish it would hang around.