There was a quilt show in Anderson the weekend I got back from Nashville.  Dawn and I went down and looked around - wow!!!!  They have an annual competition - each year with a different theme.  This year, the theme was California State Parks.  See if you recognize the parks for these:

And then there were the rest of the quilts on display - some of my favorites:

Book Club is next week - the book is The Glass Castle, so.....we are getting castle bookmarks (if I get off my but and get them done!)  I did this one and gave it to Kandis - now to make 6 or 7 more!

I don't know if Jasper is patient, or stubborn.  She was in her favorite spot - the couch - and Alli wanted to take a nap.  They compromised.

I tried to get a picture of Alli eating her birthday cake last night but I couldn't get her to look at me, except when she gave me 'that' look. She was enjoying her cake and and ice cream too much.

When we went to check into our hotel for the conference (with me dragging both my suitcase and Steve's, since he went to drop the rental car off), Candace and I found that our hotel was under construction.  Steve had dropped us off by what used to be the front door.  During construction, access to the hotel was limited to through the Valet Parking area, which is on the opposite side of the hotel from where Steve dropped us off.  What that means it that #1, I had to haul two fairly heavy suitcases through a construction zone around the hotel to get in, and then, #2, the lobby of the hotel was now reduced to two people working in the valet's quarters.....with no air conditioning.....with two conferences trying to check in at once.  Talk about crazy!  

Then, once we checked in, we headed to the elevators.  I was on the 14th floor (out of 28 floors).  There were only 4 small elevators working.  Remember, there were two conferences checking in.  The elevators only held 6-7 people without luggage.  It wasn't pretty.  Add insult to injury - my key didn't work in the door, so.......back to the elevators I went, hauling both suitcases, and then to the lobby.  I will admit the staff was great.  They actually reset my key, and then grabbed a master key and came up with me (helping with one of the suitcases) to make sure the key worked.  At least I wouldn't have had to haul the suitcases back down and up to get a new key!  Luckily (for the staff) my second key worked.  The entire stay was like this - slow or full elevators, constant construction (my room smelled like fresh paint - they were painting right next to me, and the bathroom fixtures were put in on my third day there - I hadn't noticed that they were missing, really!)  We tended to use the stair instead of the elevators (remember - I'm on the 14th floor - it almost killed me!!!)

The construction was supposed to be completed long before our conference, but looking at the work, it will still be quite a while before it is done.  It will be a beautiful remodel - eventually!  The hotel staff were great though - not their fault things weren't done.  The manager even threw in a few things for us to make up for everything.  Cardinal held a reception for us - which is normal.  But is usually just down in the conference rooms.  This year, the hotel sent us up to the Pinnacle Room - the top of the hotel, which was a revolving room.  Too cool!  

Here's a few pictures from the top of the world:

This is the state capital building:

The last day of the conference, the material being covered didn't apply to either myself or to Donna, so we took the opportunity to walk down to the Bicentennial Mall Park - which took us past the State Capital. 

They had a map of Tennessee with the rivers, counties, towns, etc. drawn in the concrete.

And a really cool wall and fountain display commemorating the rivers of Tennessee

They also had a wall down the entire park that was a linear presentation of the history of Tennessee, and a WWII memorial:

The view of the mall park from the steps up to the Capital:

And....one last picture (I think) from the trip - this is 'my gang' hanging out at the reception (from left to right - Candace, Steve Donna and me).

More pictures from Tennessee!  On Monday, after our hike around the lake Sunday night, Steve and I went tot he Lane Auto Museum in Nashville.  We spent 3 hours wandering around - and later found out we missed a whole building - we could have stayed there forever!  It was a cool car museum - it had a lot of European cars, and had a lot of 'specialty' cars - one section was devoted to 3 wheel cars, and they had some cars that were the original hybrids - pedal or gas, depending on what was available.  These were manufactured directly after WWII, and gasoline was in short supply.  I'm not a huge car buff, but there was a lot of history included (especially since many were from Europe, and many were from the years surrounding the wars there) so I was quite happy to follow around after Steve as he drooled over the cars.

That afternoon, we went out to Parsons, TN - the town where Cardinal (the computer program that we use at work) had their offices.  Parsons has a population of around 7,000, and they have just put in their 2nd stop light.  When you think of the company that maintains, fixes, improves, etc. the computer program that I rely on to manage almost $1 billion in loans, you don't usually think of their offices as being in a strip mall, but that's where is is.  Calling it a strip mall is overstating it as well, but it really was much smaller than I envisioned it to be.  They have around 20 employees in the three offices of the strip that they use, and they have another facility in Des Moines, IA.  That facility houses the computer equipment.  I have met some of the people from Cardinal before, but it was nice to see their facility.  I talked Steve into trying a BBQ place for dinner that night, once we got back to Brentwood - yumm!!! 

Tuesday, we met up with Candace from the bank and she went on our explorations with us.  We went to the town of Franklin and visited the Carnton House, which was used as a field hospital after the Battle of Franklin.  It was probably used during the battle, too, but the battle only lasted 4 hours, so the majority of the work was afterwards.  For being such a pivotal battle (it kept Nashville from being retaken by the South, which would have prolonged the war) it sure was short and bloody.  Over 40,000 troops, and over 10,000 killed, wounded, or captured (and 7,500 of those were confederate soldiers).  The house was maintained 'in the family' for many years, but eventually was sold.  At one time, it was used as a barn for hay storage.  That was when it was bought by the historical society that runs it now.  They did a beautiful job restoring it using quite a bit of the family furniture, etc. that was donated (or loaned) by the remaining family.  This is the front of the house.

The original house that was built on the property butted up against the brick side of the 'big house'.  It was destroyed by a tornado - leaving the big house and the smoke house relatively untouched.  Strange!

Here's the back side of the house.

The slave quarters - these quarter were for the 'house' slaves, and were built of brick, enabling them to last longer.  The original spring house on the property was pretty well destroyed in the 2010 floods, and none of the other wooden structures on the property lasted until today.

Here you can see the smoke house, and between the two buildings, you can see the foundation of the first house that was built on the property.

The family also donated land for the cemetery for the confederate soldiers killed in the battle - over 1,700 men were buried here - and if I remember correctly, only over 1,000 were identified.  They men were originally buried in shallow graves out in the field - but.....that didn't work to well the next year - some of the graves were a bit too shallow.  The bodies were exhumed and reburied (which explains why so many couldn't be identified.).  Those that were identified were buried by state - the taller monuments denote the state.

After our visit at Carnton House, we went in to Franklin to the battle site.  The major battle was in the backyard of the Carter House, where the Confederates broke through the line of Federal troops.  This brick building was the smoke house, and you can see the bullet damage on the back of it.

This was the office building on the plantation, and it holds the dubious honor of having the most bullet holes from the civil war.

There was also a very nice kitten that came out to play with us - he was the friendliest thing!

This was the main house - lots of bullet holes here too.

The family were under house arrest by the Federal troops, and spent the time of the battle in the cellar, along with another family from across the street.  Around 25 people were in one room of the cellar during one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war.  When they emerged, not only did they find their property pretty well destroyed and bodies everywhere, but their son was wounded in the battle (they didn't know he was anywhere around the area).  He died later the next day from his wounds in the battle in the house he was born in.  Such a sad time in our history.

I'm baaaack!  I feel like I've been gone forever.....the last time I posted was 4/18.  Since then, it's been a whirlwind around here.  I have a ton of photos from Tennessee to share as well.  (Editing them took more time than I thought it would! I was definitely trigger happy.)

Steve and I took off about 5:30 a.m. Easter morning for Nashville - a nice, uneventful drive and flight (thank goodness!).  We took off out of Sacramento, had a brief layover in Denver without changing planes, and then landed in Nashville at 4:30 p.m.  Steve had rented a car and had made hotel arrangements in Brentwood (slightly south of Nashville), so we were off pretty much as soon as we got in.  Steve brought his GPS from home, and I had my Maps app on my phone, so we were good to go anywhere!  (Okay - once, his GPS sent us on three rights to make a left, but it worked!)  

The hotel was decent - not fancy, but clean and the people were very friendly.  It was an Extended Stay hotel - my room had a refrigerator, range, pots and pans, plates, everything you needed to stay for a while, and it was $49 a night.  I didn't even make coffee in the room though - they had a grab-and-go breakfast downstairs that had good coffee, so....why make my own?  (Room coffee just never tastes as good as 'real' coffee.

The dogwoods were in full bloom, as were a lot of other trees, shrubs and flowers (and I thought I might leave my allergies at home - not a chance!)  This one was at our hotel - I don't think I've ever seen one so full.

After we go checked in and unpacked, we decided we needed to walk a bit - that plane ride was uneventful, and I, for one, was stiff from sitting all day!  I checked my Maps app for "Things to do" in our area, and found a park close by that sounded interesting.  Radnor Lake State Natural Park was the first state park of Tennessee.  The lake was created in 1914 to provide water for steam engines for the Nashville and Louisville railroads, and to provide water for the cattle being shipped.  It was turned into a park after it was no longer needed for the water, and has a little over 3 miles of walking trail around the lake.

The trail starts off in a wooded area with a little creek flowing through it.

The trail leads up to the dam  - seen here below...

The lake is famous for the wildlife.  We saw, in just that two mile walk, geese, turtles, ducks, deer, two beavers and a bird that I have no idea what it is (pictured later).

Wildflowers were also blooming everywhere - these covered whole hillsides.

See my picture of a beaver?  In the photo above, there is one swimming in the pond formed behind their dam (my resolution wasn't clear enough to zoom in on it - what can I say, I left the 'good' camera in the car and had to use the camera on the phone - silly me!), and the one below has the ripples of his dive.  I wasn't ever able to time the photo to get his picture.

The sun was setting as we finished the walk around the lake.

Check out the beaver tree!

Here's my little yellow bird....in the center of the photo

And his close-up.....

After our walk, we found some dinner at a Cracker Barrel, and headed home to the hotel.  Starting the day at 4:30 a.m. pacific time, and ending at 9:30 p.m. central time is exhausting!!!