sunshine on my shoulders

It isn't shining today, but it's semi-officially summertime (post Memorial Day), and time to get crackin on some 101 list items. To begin: This month's atypical food of choice is papaya. As for the give-up food, I'm really struggling with this one...I was still on vacay for two days of June and, aside from candy, ate every kind of food I possibly could...so do I give up candy for a second month in a row? And if so, does Watermelon Bubblicious count as candy? Cuz I just had some of that. I could do 'no eating after 7:00pm'...unless it's my actual dinner. See last night I ate some wheat thins and had a bowl of cereal around 9:00pm, but that was my dinner...so we'll just go that route. I like it!

Now, things to cross off: not much. But I DID take trip! First off, I know I said a "surprise" trip, but this was along the lines of a surprise as I didn't know I'd be tagging along until John and I broke up and I was no longer going to Arizona. THUS, we'll call it a surprise. Here is a quick list of everything I did because I know you wanna know:

Indiana:
-Lunch and shopping in Broad Ripple area of Indianapolis

Kentucky:
Louisville-
-4th St. Live and dinner Makers Mark Lounge in Louisville, KY
-Louisville Slugger factory tour (free mini bat included!)
-Tour of the Ohio River on the Belle of Louisville steamboat (classic country lunch of fried chicken and all the fixins included!)
-Stop at the Jim Beam distillery
Horse Cave/Cave City-
-Kentucky Down Under (Australian zoo where you get to pet kangaroos, emu, and sheep of various kinds!)
-Tour of Mammoth Cave with dinner at the most excellent Mammoth Cave Hotel restaurant: the Travertine...HIGHLY recommend)

Tennessee:
Nashville-
-Tour of the Belle Meade Plantation
-Very short tour of the Cheekwood Gardens
-Dinner at Sunset Grill with drinks at Dan McGuinness's
-The Parthenon! Or rather a replica of the Parthenon to scale and everything!
-Breakfast at the famous Loveless Cafe
Memphis-
-Lunch at the Commissary: real Tennessee BBQ!
-Drinks at Flying Saucer (where you drink 200 different beers in order to get your name engraved on a plate and put up on the wall)
-Dinner at Blues City Cafe on Beale St. complete with free show: Gary Hardy and the Memphis Two
-Tour of both Stax and Sun Studios
-Shopping on Beale St. with lunch at Rum Boogie Cafe, the best restaurant in Memphis in my opinion. Two words: Gator Gumbo.
-Mud Island: a mini replica of the southern half of the Mississippi River (I believe from about the Ohio River area down to the Gulf of Mexico)

Missouri:
St. Louis-
-Custard at Ted Drewes
-The fact that our hotel room was on the 9th floor and we had a balcony facing the Mississippi, and more importantly the GIANT ARCH
-Dinner at Charlie Gitto's
-Arch tour
-Courthouse tour: Dred Scott trial
-St. Louis Zoo (free!!!)
-Dinner at Chuy Arzola's: the best fajitas and margaritas in the world
-Drinks at Laclede's Landing (Morgan Street Brewery)

Voila! It was a truly amazing road trip...I haven't packed that much into a trip ever...not even on my road trip out east back in 2001! Plus it was nice to spend some quality time with the fam ;) We all cracked each other up like you wouldn't believe. I probably haven't laughed that hard and often in quite some time :D

Alright, so one giant item is now crossed off the list.....with still many more to go.
Things in the works:
-INKYTNMO scrapbook
-Pilates 30 Day Challenge: 19 more sessions to go!
-Organize linen closet
-Jazz in the Park and the East Town Market open this week!
-along with the old 'to-do' items like soundtracks/hipster geocache, box purse sitch, donating blood and finishing up He's Scared...(and starting my Floyd Collins bio). So I've got quite a bit on my plate! Hopefully now that I'm back, I can stop wasting all my time. Ok not wasting, just spend it more efficiently?