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April 2008
Run for the Roses in Louisville
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m not a huge fan of watching things race round in circles (sorry NASCAR), and I learned long ago that I’ll never get rich based on my gambling prowess. Even so, I have to admit that I love the annual Run for the Roses at the Kentucky Derby.
Growing up, my family kept horses on our small farm, and I was your typical horse-obsessed girl. Horse posters graced the walls of my room long before Rick Springfield earned the honor, and I imagined Churchill Downs was a majestic castle in some mystical place called Kentucky. Needless to say, I felt the enormity of the occasion when my family took its first trip to Louisville to visit some distant relatives.
Back then, I had no idea that the Kentucky Derby meant anything other than beautiful horses and colorfully-clad jockeys racing for a place in the winner’s circle. It wasn’t until college and then my years in Washington that I understood the Derby was much more than a horse race. It was a major event with a proud, long-standing tradition.
In addition to the horses and the bets, Derby-goers are surrounded by mint juleps in cold Derby glasses; hundreds of elegant and funny hats; good ol’ Southern seersucker suits; all sorts of big wigs and celebrities; as well as many fashion dos and fashion don’ts. In DC, Kentuckians who couldn’t make it home for the race would throw their own Derby Day parties to mark the occasion, complete with potent mint juleps and outrageous attire.
The 134th running of the Derby is this Saturday, and events surrounding the race are going on all week. Unless you procured tickets and lodgings well in advance, you won’t likely be able to stay in Louisville or watch the horses from the grandstand seats. But you can arrive early for general admission, enjoy the races and still soak up every bit of the Derby Day atmosphere.
Tell us about your Kentucky Derby travels. What makes a trip to Louisville or the Derby special? What are the best Derby festival events to attend? Any tips on the best places to stay while you’re in town? How do you make the most of the event? If you’re Derby bound this weekend, feel free to check back next week with your stories from this year’s races.
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What kind of spring fest draws you out of town?
Are you heading to any of these festivals?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With Spring in full swing and May just round the corner, metro Atlantans have just a few weeks to (comfortably) appreciate the beauty of our region before the South’s sweltering heat settles in for the summer. To make it easy for us to get out and enjoy, it seems that just about every Southern town and city will be throwing some kind of festival between now and the end of June.
Some of these are your general arts and crafts-type festivals, where you can stroll the streets, get a taste of the local arts scene, hear new music and perhaps take in a fair. Others celebrate local homes and gardens or traditions like storytelling and musical heritage. Still others revolve around one of our region’s favorite pastimes - eating barbecue, eating catfish, eating crawfish, eating Vidalia onions…well, you get the idea. Even music fans who shudder at the dollar-to-euro and dollar-to-pound conversions can take in their own Glastonbury-style fun in Tennessee at Bonnaroo in June.
One festival that I wish I could get to this weekend is Oxford, Mississippi’s Double Decker Arts Festival. If we didn’t already have 96-hours of activities scheduled for this 48-hour weekend, I would be heading west this Friday afternoon. Oxford is a charming town, and I haven’t been back for a visit since our friends moved away from there years ago.
Sadly, this weekend’s crazy schedule will also prevent our family from making it to the Vidalia Onion Festival in Vidalia, Ga. to celebrate the harvest of our official state vegetable. But the festival season is in top gear and we are already looking ahead to the next few weekends’ worth of festival options.
Check out these sites for upcoming festivals in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama.
Then tell us…Will be skipping town for one of these festivals over the next few weeks? Have you been to any of these in the past? What’s your favorite spring festival in the Southeast?
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A capital tour in our nation’s capital
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Because we worked on Capitol Hill, friends often seek our advice when it comes to making the most of a trip to Washington, DC. In the past few weeks, we have had three such inquiries. DC, it seems, is on a lot of our friends’ minds at the moment. When’s the best time to go? Where to stay? How to get tickets to major attractions?
Each season has its upsides -colorful autumn leaves against the white marble buildings; the Capitol blanketed by winter snow; spring cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin; fireworks lighting up the Mall on July 4th. And each season has its downsides - crowds; heat; humidity; piles of dirty snow blocking limited parking spaces.
But I have to say that my favorite time to visit DC is right now - election season. I know… it’s always election season in Washington, but the city seems more alive and exciting during a presidential election year - even if the candidates themselves are off in North Carolina, Indiana or Pennsylvania.
With that said, here are a few tips for planning a trip to DC.
Contact your Senators and Representative as soon as you know your trip dates to set up Capitol tours, White House tour tickets, Washington Monument tix, and House and Senate gallery passes. Offices get a limited number of these tickets to hand out on a first-come basis, so the earlier you call, the better. Try to get gallery passes on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, which are the busier legislative days.
Ask the constituent services staffer about a Capitol Dome tour. These are rare, because you must have a Member of Congress take you personally, but it’s always worth asking about. A tour takes you up many, many stairs to the breathtaking (and vertigo-inducing) top of the Capitol Dome - inside and out.
Many of the best sites in DC are free and require no tickets of any kind — including most in the neighborhood of the Mall like the Smithsonian museums, the Lincoln, Jefferson, and the war memorials. You can walk or pay to ride one of the tour trolleys.
Eat a casual dinner atop the Washington Hotel terrace for great views of the city.
Take a drive through the “rest of DC”, and see where the Vice President lives, Embassy Row, the National Cathedral, the National Zoo and many smaller memorials and cool neighborhoods.
Don’t sleep in the District. Hotel prices can be much higher there. Find a hotel in Virginia or Maryland near a Metro station. We stay just across the Potomac in Crystal City, Va. The Metro is a good way to navigate the city, and it beats finding a parking space.
What are your tips for taking in our nation’s capital? Do you have a favorite place to stay? A favorite thing to see? How far do you stray from the District itself when you visit, and how long do you feel you need to fully explore the area?
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Would you consider a small town vacation?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every so often, I have a Madison moment. When I was in school in Athens, I would hop in my car and drive south on US 441 to Madison, Ga. - often dragging my roommate or my future husband along for the ride.
There, I would walk through downtown, visit the elementary school my father attended (it’s now a museum) and gawk at the beautiful architecture. They would nod as I pointed out the lovely Presbyterian Church on South Main Street. They patiently waited while I stepped into the newspaper office where the publisher still remembered my grandparents and called my father by a nickname he hadn’t used in 50 years.
My father grew up in several small Georgia towns, including Madison, and he managed to “swing by” as many of these little locales on just about every family car trip we took when I was a child. Often we had to veer sharply off of anything that even resembled a path to indulge my dad’s strolls down memory lane. Ever been to Millen, Ga.? (You’ll find it between Augusta and Statesboro.) But Madison is not far off the beaten path. It’s just off of I-20, right before you hit Lake Oconee - which is probably why we visited it most.
A lot has changed in Madison since those family car trips and college getaways. But so much of its charm has remained the same. Today, I still look to Madison when I feel the need to retreat to a smaller, slower-paced place with minimal stress and traffic. I’m not alone. Many people love this small town, and tourism there is growing.
All of this has made me wonder… what makes a small town a good travel destination? What do you look for when you pick a hamlet over a bustling city? Is it a return to nature? An embrace of your roots? A welcome escape from stress?
What makes some small towns stand out above the thousands of others that dot our highways and byways? Finally, where are some of your favorite small town getaways and what are their particular attractions? We welcome names of local inns, eateries and places to see (or avoid).
If you’re interested in a small town road trip, check out this site for some cool and quirky destinations throughout the South.
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Got the Memphis Blues?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Memphis. Most people I know either love this city in the southwest corner of Tennessee or they hate it. I’m one who loves it. I realize the city might have its problems, but the romance of the Mighty Mississippi, those soulful Blues and mouthwatering barbecue always prove too much for me to resist. My last few trips, however, have been work related, and I’m itching to go back for a proper visit.
As our kids are growing older, we have begun to throw a little history into the mix when we take our family trips. Memphis will be one of those educational tours we take this summer, in part because we want them to experience the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum is housed at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago.
If you’re able to pick up and go this week, the museum and the city of Memphis will be hosting many events to mark the anniversary of Dr. King’s death on April 4, 1968. Of course, our own city of Atlanta will be hosting similar programs too. You can check out event schedules in both Memphis and Atlanta here.
While the Civil Rights Museum sets a serious tone, Memphis has a lot to offer a wide range of visitors. Music fans — and Elvis fans in particular — can tour Elvis’ Graceland home, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Sun Studio, where Presley, B.B. King, Johnny Cash and many others got their start. There’s also the famous Beale Street, a big tourist and entertainment spot to catch live music during your visit.
If you can handle the crowds, check out the Memphis in May International Festival, held throughout the month of May and featuring lots of music and some of the best barbecue you will ever eat at the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.
Then there’s Peabody Hotel, with its famous marching ducks and the Pink Palace, which you can visit any time. The palace is a pink marble mansion built by the man who created the grocery store chain I thought was so cool when I was a child - the Piggly Wiggly. It now houses a planetarium, a museum and an IMAX theater.
So, what’s your favorite place to visit when you hit Memphis? Is it a “been there once, seen it” type of place for you, or does the city call out to you for another visit?
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