Been on vacation part 2

Because Richard is in stage 5 of Alzheimer's, about the only way we can travel anymore is if someone goes with us or we take tours with groups. For a variety of reasons, the tour groups seem to be working out best. They're fun, cost-effective, and I don't have to drive or organize anything except our suitcases! I can ride and knit (again). The only problem is that there's very little time to go off on your own so I've missed yarn shops in several places but that's the way it goes!

We just last week went to Nashville and thru St. Louis, Memphis, and Little Rock. We had a tour of St. Louis—beautiful city they've really invested a lot of money into themselves. Lots of public art, sports arenas, other tour attractions, and food. We had dinner at the Bevo, a German restaurant built as a windmill--been there a while I think. Our hotel was across the street from the Arches. I opted not to ride to the top but enjoyed looking at them from below.








In Nashville, we had a tour of the city, visited the Ryman Auditorium (see previous post), the Country Music Hall of Fame, had a dinner tour on a riverboat on the Cumberland River,





attended the Grand Ole Opry (I was almost disappointed Friday night show is a little lame compared to The Saturday night show), the Hermitage which was in reality a plantation.



We ate and walked and ate some more. We hurried up and waited, hurried up and waited and so on....




Saturday morning we headed to Memphis for lunch in a blues café, a Rock and Roll tour of Memphis, and some shopping. Same day on to Little Rock and the Crowne Plaza Hotel which was fabulous. Talk about customer service-they were really amazing. Home on Sunday.

Richard did really well until about the 5th. day and it seems that he'd had enough. He didn't get ugly just confused; the (organized) chaos gets to him. Too much stimulation confuses him and he becomes unable to manage even silverware. So we spent some time in our room or just quietly walking around to settle his brain. It just shuts down when confused. He had a good time and enjoyed all the music of which there was a lot.
Did I mention the Coyote Ugly Café? And the pictures on the bar? And the waitress draped all over him?
























That would be (pleasingly plump ha!!) me on the left....



I finished my Lady Eleanor made with Noro Silk Garden. You just can't beat Noro for colors but there seems to be a lot of knots in the balls of yarn. At least that was my experience. But it's wonderful otherwise and I plan to use it again and maybe again! I love the shawl. It was just perfect on the Riverboat. Just a smidgeon of cool in the air on the water and it gave exactly the right amount of warmth! More pix of it on Ravelry under Autoharpgirl.


That's Richard on the right.

The colors don't show up too well. It's bright and beautiful. Color #87

Well okay for now. If you haven't read it see the previous post detailing my "debut" at the Ryman Theatre.....