There are two things for which the area I’m from in Tennessee is universally known: Jack Daniel’s and Bonnaroo. However, just five miles down the road from my actual home is the man more revered in my house than Jack himself: George Dickel. And up until last week, I had never stepped foot on the [...]
Photo Friday: Nashville, Tennessee
December 24, 2010 By 25 Comments
On Christmas Eve last year, SVV and I bopped around Nashville, tackling a few of the tourist attractions for my latest book and finally giving him a chance to check out some of our state’s most historic sites. But the place I was most excited to share was the Opryland Hotel. Growing up, Opryland was [...]
It’s Football Time in Tennessee!
September 6, 2010 By 13 Comments
When I decided to transfer schools just for my journalism classes—Sewanee was liberal arts and, thus, had no specific majors as such—and wound up at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, I hemmed and hawed and hemmed some more. Practically everyone I know from my hometown goes there (there were 30 alone from my graduating [...]
How to Throw a Backyard Wedding
August 30, 2010 By 21 Comments
What’s that you say? You thought my talk of all things wedding was over? Not just! (In my defense, I hate being that girl who’s still going on and on about her wedding three months after the fact, but you guys keeping asking! And I like to give the people what they want.) Because, you [...]
Photo Friday: Jonesborough, Tennessee
August 6, 2010 By 20 Comments
It’s sad how you can live in a state most of your life and never explore half of its eccentricities, beauty and quirks. This is my relationship with Jonesborough: a missed connection—until now. In fact, I didn’t even know the lovely town existed until I wrote my Tennessee Curiosities book last winter and included the [...]
Not Just Your Average Wedding
June 23, 2010 By 24 Comments
No, we’re not talking about my wedding again. (That will come in due time when we get the proofs back from the photographer!) Rather, SVV and I flew a bazillion hours back from Taiwan starting Thursday to make it to my good friend Lahla’s wedding in East Tennessee on Saturday. Because who would have wanted [...]
Photo Friday: Lynchburg, Tennessee
June 4, 2010 By 9 Comments
In anticipation of my two-and-a-half weeks back in Tennessee at the end of the month—and getting to show SVV’s parents the ropes in their foray into Southern culture—I dipped into my archives and found these photos of the great town of Lynchburg. Now, most people around the world have heard of Lynchburg for one reason: [...]
We Are Nashville
May 4, 2010 By 8 Comments
Apologies for a minor blog hiatus (see: LA for work, wedding in 17 days, house guest through Saturday). I hate to go more than a few days without posting, and as my home, Tennessee, and all of its people have been weighing heavily on my mind since Saturday, I’d thought I’d share with you this [...]
Photo Friday: Sewanee, Tennessee
October 30, 2009 By 16 Comments
Before there was the University of Tennessee, there was Sewanee. There’s no denying it’s one of the prettiest places in Tennessee. Or the country, rather. What other college campus has a dining hall that looks like this? (Also referred to as Phallic Palace, with good reason.) Has Gothic architecture like this around every corner? A [...]
Song of the South
October 12, 2009 By 20 Comments
Even though she lives a solid 5,470 miles from me in Copenhagen, Helle Harbo is the friend who has likely visited me the most in the more than four years that we’ve been friends. Blame it on the mandatory six weeks of vacation time a year every Dane is required to take. Whatever it is, [...]
