Everything You Need to Know About Going to a Concert at Ascend Amphitheater
From Americana rock to jazz pop, we’ve seen it all at Ascend, one of our favorite Nashville venues.
Vance Joy. Norah Jones. Odessa.
Kimbra. Lucius. Young the Giant.
Brandi Carlile! St. Vincent!
Ascend is Nashville’s premiere outdoor venue. It’s downtown (like on the riverfront) and there’s a blend of lawn seating and actual seating. While they have just changed their bag policy (and have been truly so rude about implementing it without so much as a heads up or email via TicketMaster etc to upcoming visitors… I digress), I have generally had good experiences there. We’ve learned some things over the years of our shows at Ascend, so I’m sharing them with you!
Where to Eat and Drink
I would describe all these restaurants as $$ (not cheap, not totally spendy). That’s to be expected for the area. You’re in the heart of a city so expect to pay a little extra for your pre-show cocktail.
For a casual bite: Liberty Common
A cute French bistro meets American cafe style menu with Aperol spritzes and oysters. Their happy hour is actually excellent.
For a large group: Bakersfield
As a Californian, the town of Bakersfield does not elicit fondness or an association of authentic Mexican food, but this place does know what they’re doing. Their guac and margaritas are not messing around. If you’re going with a group of 6 or more, they do a house selections menu for $18 per person.
For a date night: Calacas
Jackson took me here recently on a date night and it was so yummy! We enjoyed the Día de los Muertos vibe. While we’d say skip the ceviche, definitely try the pork pibil tomale and the chingon carnitas.
For Southern cuisine: Martin’s
If you’re from out of town and hungering for some genuine Southern barbecue, we recommend Martin’s. It’s a solid joint with a few different offerings, though you can’t go wrong with pulled pork, fried pickle chips, or a half rack of ribs.
What to Wear
When people from home (California) ask me about the weather at home (Nashville) in the summer, I have come to terms with describing it as “similar to what I imagine it feels like to be inside a giant mouth.” Ew. But TRUE. The humidity. Feeling that outdoors is giving you a shower after you already showered and put on make up and dry clothes. Peeling your thighs off of plastic chairs and carrying their indent with you for an hour. It’s a mess. But it’s non-optional, so we deal with it. K? K.
That said, if you’re seeing a show any time between May and September, prepare to sweat. Ascend’s dress code is casual. I like wearing something long and flowy (protection from the itchy grass, breeze, comfort) or something short and strappy (limited fabric, breathing room for my arms). That bug spray in your friend. Wear comfy sandals so that you can pop them off once you’re to your lawn seats. Remember that you’ll want to be comfortable sitting on the ground, so wear something you can move around in decently.
What to Bring (and NOT Bring)
Ascend has joined many other arenas in implementing a clear bag policy. It helps speed up the entrance line and makes safety checks easier (so I get it, but next time you implement a policy, at least alert people: ugh). While you technically can still bring in a tiny clutch, I find it’s best just to set up a clear back and leave it in the closet so it’s always ready to go. Camille and I split this two pack from Amazon and spent $9 each on a bag dedicated for outings like this.
Here’s what you can put in there:
Cell phone - duh.
Credit and/or debit card - inside Ascend is cashless—which I think should be illegal and is discriminatory, but I’ll save that rant for another day. For now, you’ve been warned.
Mini deodorant - you’ll thank me when you want an extra swipe because the Outside Mouth is too sweltering.
Empty Water Bottle - you can bring in one full and sealed plastic water bottle (sure, but the environment, ja feel?) or an empty aluminum or plastic water bottle to fill up near the bathrooms once you’re inside. If you want to get specific, you’re allowed “up to 1 gallon in a factory sealed or empty reusable water bottle. All reusable water bottles must be plastic or aluminum, no glass allowed, or ones with a camel-back straw.”
Food - you can bring your own food with you! This is amazing and so rare. Pack your picnic, making sure that you remove any branded packaging and everything is in a clear container. The deets: food must be “in a clear plastic container or 1-gallon ziplock bag. No food with any bones or that would need the use of utensils. No commercial branding names/ branding so please put any food into a separate clear bag/container to store your food.”
Deck of Cards - if you’re waiting between sets or you get there early to stake out a good lawn spot, having a little game with you is handy.
Handkerchief - we keep these handy for when you need a last minute tissue, napkin, or sweat absorber.
Old Quilt - this doesn’t have to fit in the bag (thank goodness). We find that a large old quilt is the comfiest to sit on, gives you large surface area, and can easily be doubled in case the grass is wet without losing much seating space. If you don’t have one, swing by Good Will and wash one you find thoroughly.
Do NOT bring:
Umbrella - it will get confiscated and you will be sad. Not that I know that from personal experience…
Aerosols - bug spray, hair spray, dry shampoo: leave them at home. Bug spray your legs and arms before you leave home or bring one with a pump-style top.
Lawn chairs - you can rent them there for $10!
Any outside beverage that isn’t water. Sorry.
Animals (except service animals) - leave your pets at home. This is not the time and place.
What to Eat and Drink Once Inside
Ascend has a pretty fair selection of food.For local food, you’ve got Daddy’s Dogs, Ben & Jerry’s, and different food trucks each show. They also have in-house entree offerings from cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders, hot chicken, Impossible meat cheesesteaks as well as side snacks like nachos, pretzels, candy, and popcorn.
For drinks, expect to find canned wine (red, white, and pink), a couple different beers, and some cocktails. Drinks are ungodly expensive IMHO. Jackson paid $32 for a large seltzer and a tall boy of beer. YIKES. We say pregame and just pretend it’s a college throwback vibe.
Are you the designated driver for your group? I have good news for you! You get free fountain sodas. Just go to the Guest Services tent right inside the main gate and someone will get you a voucher.
Where to Park
Option 1: Don’t drive in the first place. Take a Lyft! This is what we do pretty much every time we come downtown. When we come with friends, they drive to our place in East and we take one ride share together. (It was actually a factor in choosing the location of our house). We recently had a horrible experience with Uber and have always loved Lyft as well as have some friends who have had good experiences working for Lyft. There are designated drop off and pick up zones for ride shares so check your app to know where those are. We always order the Lyft ride 2 songs before we think it’s the end of the show. We typically don’t mind missing the last bit of the encore unless it’s someone we are huge fans of (read: Brandi Carlile). Beating the rush a little bit helps. But it’s also for sure the time to pay that extra surge charge or the up-fee for having your car come directly to you. Trust us.
Option 2: Reasonably priced garages. I used to work downtown and can attest that you’ll rarely get the $11 parking ticket for an expired meter so I never pay them. If you can find a street spot, this is for sure your best move. If you’re heading downtown—I was about to say “on a weekend” but really every day is some tourist’s weekend in Nashville—then it’s worth knowing a few of the best garages to park in.
Library Garage: 151 6th Ave N, Nashville, TN 37219
Their hourly rate is $6 BUT their daily max rate is $20. If you park after 5 pm or on weekends, then it’s a $10 max for up to 12 hours. If you’re a Nashvillian with a library card, you can park for free for 90 minutes any time and then it’s just $3 per half hour after that.
Metro Courthouse / Public Square Park Garage: 101 James Robertson Pkwy, Nashville, TN
Their hourly rate is $8 BUT their daily max rate is $20. If you park after 5 pm or on weekends, then it’s just $5. Find yourself downtown frequently for work or live somewhere downtown where parking is tough? Night-only parking is $100/month.
4th and Commerce Garage: 147 4th Ave N, Nashville, TN 37219
Their hourly rate is $10 BUT their daily max rate is only $25. If you park after 4 pm, the max rate is $15 and if you park after 6 pm or on a weekend, then it’s just $10! Truly a steal.
Bonus: Getting Great Tickets for Cheap
Ok this really feels like sharing some insider secrets. We have seen many shows at Ascend for free. Yep. We’ve been gifted tickets here or there by loving friends.
But our number one trick? DoMore615.
Register for an account and pay only $3 to cover your first 3 months of membership. If you like it after that, they’ll charge you just $5 a month. What does membership get you, you ask? At least one pair of free tickets to an upcoming Nashville event (live music, sports, plays, and more) each month. You’ll get an email asking if you want to keep the tickets, release them back to others in the pool, or gift them to a friend. Typically, tickets get your name on the list somewhere or stash a pair for you at will call. It’s a great way to have what my family calls “planned spontaneity” because the events on offer are between one week and 2 months out and you can opt in rather than having to search from scratch by yourself. Then, just plan a fun date night or GNO around the event you got tickets to! We’ve been to the Ryman, Ascend, writer’s rounds, and Bridgestone through the DoMore615 program.
Don’t forget to take at least as many silly photos as you do cute ones. Blessings upon your Ascend-sion!
xo,
em
Summertime in Seattle
If you’ve been to—or even just heard of—Seattle, you’ve probably gotten an earful about the weather. Drizzly and grey. Yes yes yes. It’s all true. But the other weather fact? Seattle in the summer is a playground of sunshine and water. It’s the place to be: temperate, bright, relatively bug-free. It is a common refrain that Seattlites don’t travel during the summer because it’s the season they really moved to Seattle for.
After my mom’s wedding in late May, we were able to head north to Seattle for a few days (and then to Portland, but more on that later) to visit our friends Kata and Barrett. Kata and I have been friends as long as we’ve been alive. Her mom Marit was my mom Courtney’s resident advisor at Seattle Pacific University back in the ‘80s and they became close friends. I was born in Seattle and got to spend my first few years near Kata and her family, growing together.
When my family moved to California, I was too little to remember much of the transition. But I do remember being away from Kata. We visited often then and throughout the years. Kata and I became official pen pals in elementary school (you know, after we could actually write) and we’ve exchanged letters regularly since then. We would fly to visit one another in high school and college times—and now we get to make it a priority since we’re adults. Kata is pure joy, an infusion of oxygen into my life, equal parts sassy, brilliant, and compassionate. She is a rare find.
Kata married Barrett on a crisp fall day in 2017. Their love is awesome and we’ve learned so much getting to be in our own marriage alongside them. What a gift it is to journey with friends through such meaningful experiences. Barrett and Jackson became friends by default, but really would have hit it off on their own, without any of our help. They’re both zany engineering types who love cats, traveling, games, beer—I mean, the list really does go on.
We were delighted to catch both Kata and Barrett this time (covid and work has made it difficult to wrangle all four of our schedules). We got to stay in their darling new home with a water view on one side and forest on the other. Jackson fell in love with Spicy Cat (see the beast below). We played games. We grilled salmon (as one does in the PNW) and enjoyed Paper Planes (the current Karrett signature cocktail). We sat out on their giant deck and chipped away at the summer daylight with conversation and laughter.
Barrett even took time to teach Jackson how to drive stick shift! J did pretty well: no grinding of the clutch, no stalling, and he handled a crowded intersection and a sharp turn with ease. And Barrett didn’t dig a panic hole into the floorboards with his feet like my mom always seemed to be doing when I was first learning to drive.
This visit, we didn’t do many classically Seattle things in the tourist sense. But we did experience our best version of Seattle: visiting dear friends and enjoying grilled veggies with a side of curious questions. Till next time, Karrett!
xo,
em
MomMom’s Bach Bash
For my mom’s bachelorette weekend, we took a trip with just us “Grager Girls” to Scottsdale, Arizona. I’ve never met a trip I didn’t love to plan almost as much as I loved to go on. So, we set off for the sunshine and enjoyed a pool day, a spa day, hiking, and so many incredible meals and drinks. I won’t give all the deets here (I’ll save that for another time with what we would recommend and skip next time) but here are some photos from a great fiancé finale!
Our 3 Favorite Camping Spots within 2 hours of Nashville
There’s a growing list of why we love camping:
cooking your food in the wilderness
sitting in a hammock for hours on end
ruminating on big ideas by the fire
taking in the whispery light of morning
snuggling with a puppy on your lap and a beer in your hand
hanging out with friends far from distractions
We could go on and on. Camping has been a grad-student-budget-friendly way for us to feel like we’re getting to travel a bit. Since we pack everything into the car, we are pretty versatile in terms of the kinds of sites we use. Sometimes we go full boondock or even ditch the car and walk in a bit with a tent. For the most part, we try to find sites away from the big RVs and campers and opt for something more primitive. We give strong preference to places that have a scenic drive, good local hiking routes, and interesting terrain.
We’ve camped our from Tennessee to California and back, up and down the coast. We’ve camped in the Rocky Mountains at -13 degrees; we’ve camped in July in a heat wave of 101 in Nashville. (Not that we’d recommend either, but it’s possible). Having to bring all your stuff with you reminds you how much stuff you have (and probably don’t need). We’ve camped with groups of friends for birthdays. We’ve camped just us—no other souls—in the desert. We’ve gotten so see so much of this country and meet so many folks through our adventures. If you’re interested in starting your own camping adventure, but not ready to convert one of your cars into a camper, then here are a few of our favorite places near Nashville that we’d recommend trying out. We saved the best for last.
Evado Travel
3. Fall Creek Falls Campgrounds
This is one of the more popular sites in Tennessee and for good reason—it’s got all the amenities you need and is only 45 minutes from Virgin Falls. If you’re not into camping, they’ve also got lodge rooms and cabins for rent in the area.
RoverPass
2. Cedar Creek Campground
With views of Old Hickory Lake, settle in for a restful weekend at Cedar Creek. Snag one of the lake-front campgrounds and enjoy the other offerings: showers, swimming, boating, fishing, ADA accessible sites, bbq pits, and a playground. There are electrical hook ups and even a washing facility if you’ve been camping for a bit and need to do some laundry. Only 40 minutes outside Nashville (30 from east!), Cedar Creek is a great option.
1. Merriweather Lewis National Monument Campground
I truly debated whether or not to share this one. Because it’s my absolute favorite and I’m selfish like that. Alas, I gave in to my better angels and opted to reveal this gem. Merriweather Lewis’ place of death (spooky) is just off the Natchez Trace. Right around here is my most favoritest gold star diamond camping spot. It’s not crowded. It’s free. It’s 90 minutes from Nashville. It’s a beautiful drive to get there. It’s near several hiking trails and waterfalls. It’s ADA accessible. It has real bathrooms. And trash cans. And fire pits. I MEAN. C’mon. Just do me a favor and don’t spoil it for anyone else, k? K. Bring your own firewood (we may have learned this one the hard way).
Waikiki
In November 2019, we visited Hawaii for the International Conference on Social Justice and Education at U Hawaii put on by Kevin Kumashiro. Not only was the location beautiful, but the conference was warm and encouraging as well as diverse. (I highly recommend selecting your conferences based on the quality of the topic and the quality of the location).
Jackson had not yet been to the Hawaiian Islands while I, on the other hand, have spent a bit of time hopping between them over the years.
We brought our film camera and spent the week retreating from the chill of Nashville to soak up the heat of the sun in Waikiki.
We tried Burmese food. We lunched at the Royal Hawaiian. We sat in lounge chairs and read until we ran out of pages and mai tais. We went out with friends and filled our bellies with modern Hawaiian fusion cuisine. We floated above the ocean, parasailing. We spent our evenings watching the sunset at the beach and listening to live jazz.
Now it feels like a world ago. The idea of getting on a plane with ease and disembarking to a tropical world are distant. But we can reminisce.
My Reading Haven
This is my safe place. It’s the most Californian-in-Tennessee thing I do. My days are split between reading and writing at this phase of my grad work and it really helps my brain to differentiate between ideas and tasks when I am in different environments for those activities. Once a week, I take my reading and memo-ing to a little spot off Percy Priest Lake. I set up my giant towel on the sand, chair in the water, and bust out my stack of papers and highlighters alongside some snacks and bevies. It’s a safe haven. Looking at the water keeps me calm. Putting my feet in the water keeps me cool. Having my papers binder clipped keeps them collected.
My beach boy is learning not to fear the water. He does better when there’s someone with him in the waves and when it’s not a cliff edge like a pool. We know he loves the beach so I’m hoping to convert him to the harsh realities of settling for a lake. We can all dream, can’t we?
Serious offer: if you’re in the Nashville area and you want to do some reading and lake hanging with me, let me know! I’d love to have a buddy.
xo
em
Tennessee Summer Treats
Jackson offered me a choice: we could either go on a date in the morning on Friday or in the evening. And no, they weren’t the same plans. And no, I couldn’t pick both because he has to save some date ideas for later, greedy girl.
I picked the morning date.
Then I picked in the morning!
Be ready at 7 he said. And wear close toed shoes.
Jackson took us to the new Frothy Monkey in East where Post East used to be (RIP but also thank you for the wine glasses and drink dispensers at that one yard sale. I’ll always remember you). They’re still working out some kinks service knowledge wise, but the food is tasty as ever.
With our quinoa bowl and oatmeal in tow, we hopped back into the car. We winded our way through the Southern countryside, passing farms and small homesteads and the occasional bait-tackle-beer-breakfast stores.
We were first to arrive at Kelly’s Berry Farm.
This tender acreage off the pike past Lebanon was bursting with berries. We arrived at the tail end of strawberry season, "so you’re really going to have to look,” the farmhand warned us. But we struck rich in blueberry season and even gathered first fruits from the thornless blackberry bushes.
We decided to pick in the order that would leave our backs stretched out properly by the end. These are the kinds of things you have to think of when you’re nearly 30 and no one warned you that joints start yelling at 26 these days. Strawberries low to the ground, hiding in the shade of the plant’s large leaves. Blackberries from knee to waist height. Blueberries raining down from above my head.
Up next: sharing all the ways we used the berries. We gathered 6 pounds of strawberries, 4 pounds of blackberries, and 10 pounds of blueberries. Yup.
We highly recommend Kelly’s Berry Farm whose products are also available at farmers markets throughout Nashville.
xo
em
Visiting Scratch Brewing
Scratch Brewing.
A point of interest on any beer mecca map. I won’t wax poetic because I don’t know it like Jackson does. You can read his blog for that.
Instead I’ll say I was along for the ride this time (as I often am when it comes to breweries) and I enjoyed it. Jackson prefers to find brewers who are doing something different in their process. It might be in the way that collect ingredients (Scratch forages!), collaborate with folks, or build community partnerships. Whatever that ‘it’ factor is for him in choosing breweries to visit, he’s a good bloodhound. We haven’t found a flop yet.
But I know Scratch is special to him. Even amongst all the Belgian breweries and fantastic places we’ve been in California. Scratch gathers their ingredients from exactly where they are. They forage for local chanterelles and pick up discarded tree barks. I have a true imagination for food but with beer, I wouldn’t know where to start when it comes to adding mushrooms. (Can you tell the Chanterelle Biere de Garde was my favorite?).
Even in the semi-cold (note that we kept our coats on) and in the covid (outside and distanced and less brewer-customer chit-chat than normal), we enjoyed being in their space in Ava, Illinois. We planned to camp nearby so we could take our time and bask in the freckles of light coming through the changing leaves.
While we sipped, I found myself impressed with the layout of Scratch. It doesn’t look planned. The buildings unfold in an organic way, as though their structures were foraged, found at a certain time and place and put to use for creating more possibilities. It’s not exactly rustic (a word that makes me cringe when applied to weddings) but it certainly is homey. It feels like a place that’s authentic, not trying to hard, only wearing mascara and chapstick. It’s got on its favorite jeans and it doesn’t think twice about wearing the comfortable shoes.
We tried four from the menu and we brought a couple of bombers back to share with friends.
And we’re heading back to Scratch soon! Now that the weather is nice enough for us to shed our coats and the trees to have shed and regrown new leaves, it feels like we’re due for a visit at this haven.
We are always looking for recommendations on where we should travel in the Southeast (ok, and beyond with the camper). Hit us up if you have ideas!
xo,
em
My First Taste of Colorado
In seventh grade, my friend Leanne and I wrote boyfriend lists. These, of course, were the lists of qualifications a man would have to have to be our boyfriend. Drink deeply of the toxic sexuality culture that told us girls had to be interested in boys and people could meet expectations and there was one person for each other! Mmmmm smells like the empathy in the pages of Shameless (Nadia, we will forever be grateful).
Here’s a snippet of my list: Love Jesus. Loves me. (yes, in that order)—yes that part was written down!— Musical. Skier (not snowboarder). Looks good in a tux.
I’ve only pulled out that list since to laugh at it. Some things I anticipated: Jackson loves the hell out of me. Truly. And he looks f***ing incredible in a tux. He’s musical enough that if we produce children, they’re unlikely to be tone deaf (ok that’s an understatement - he’s actually surprisingly musical). He has a curiosity about God and God’s world that goes beyond my 12-year-old conviction that he should LOVE JESUS. I mean. Yeah. What can I say? I married the man of my dreams? Isn’t that rude to say? Well. Too late.
But folks! This was a momentous occasion! Jackson had visited Colorado and I had only dreamed of it for, I dunno, two decades. And of course I’ve been skiing since I could walk and Jackson had never clicked on those two flat boards and felt the freedom of flying down the mountain. He had snowboarded a handful of times (which I grew up calling ‘The Dark Side’ in a very admonishing Jedi voice). But he hadn’t really skied. Or at least we had never been skiing together.
Potato, in his apres wear
This was now a high-stakes trip. Jackson decided he would give skis a chance and I agreed he could swap to snowboarding if he hated them. When I asked if he wanted to sign up for lessons, he said, “well, I was hoping your roster wasn’t already full!” So this was to be, as we like to call it, a marriage-tester. Ya know, one of those things where you can so clearly see the possible endings at the beginning of the road, and you do it anyway like a choose your own adventure with one of several potential prewritten finales.
We got to see my dear friend from college, Haley, and her husband Jordan, who bailed us out when our non-sub-zero windshield wiper fluid froze in the tank. (We could not see. Why does non-sub-zero even exist?) Then, we arrived in Breckenridge with a few friends from our Nashville pod (we played it safe, y’all), got fitted for our rentals, unpacked our things into the cabin, and popped into the hot tub to plan how we’d use the freshly powdered hills the next two days. Because availability of ski passes (even with an Epic pass, as we found out) was difficult to come by, we decided to all ski Breck the first day and then Jackson and I would take off to try A Basin the second, which came highly recommended by our Colorado-ski-pro friends and neighbors, the Orners.
We had an EXCELLENT time! I was relieved and happy. Jackson started off stronger than we could have hoped on skis and by the end of day one was confidently cruising down a blue and green on his own. We ended the first day tired but content to have spent it with some great friends and on some great hills. I got to bomb down a couple black diamonds at the end of the day and found myself riding with a woman in her forties who was on the hill with her family and had been released by her husband to go do a couple ‘real runs’ while the rest of the fam did blues. We were both ecstatic and free women, flying and carving and feeling our thighs burn from underused muscles reawakened.
Jackson has officially caught the skiing bug. He was planning our next ski trip on the way back to the cabin, day two. Safe to say this marriage-tester had a happy ending and my inner twelve-year-old is cackling with gluttonous satisfaction like she knows she shouldn’t be.
Please, don’t pretend to be surprised that we stopped for celebratory beers. And Potato. That kid. He never can get enough pets: when you have one hand for beer, you have one hand for uninterrupted puppy pets, no?
After we packed up the cabin and our friends went on to ski another hill or return to the working world, we kicked off our winter road trip (yes I know I’m way, way overdue for sharing photos and memories from that but just deal, ok?)
More on the rest of the road trip later!
xo
em
The Reimers Love The Hillyers
Meet the Hillyers! They’re some of our closest friends. Sunee and I became close friends in fourth grade and we’ve stayed that way since. From TP-ing at sleepovers to planning weddings and baby showers, we’ve experienced a lot of life together. The Hillyers have been in Seattle for the last while and they’re on a new adventure — moving back to the Bay Area — right before their little dude Jude turns one. (How is he already a year old?! *cries*). Their move back to my mom’s hood means we’ll hopefully get to see them more.
AND they are moving specifically to be ingrained in the city of San Francisco, equipping the global church in everyday discipleship. (Check out their link and support them, would ya?!). Adam and Sunee are two folks whose hearts are full of hope in a hard world, who are fervent believers in compassion and listening to one another, who walk out what it means to love their neighbors. Jackson and I are excited to see what this new chapter holds for the Hillyers.
We got the chance to visit them and meet Jude in August. Pandemic restrictions meant we couldn’t go to restaurants or see the city like we normally would have done, but Sunee and Adam took us blueberry picking and picnicking by the lake. We walked around the harbor, snapped some photos, and generally just cooed over Jude. With all the blueberries we picked (and there were many), we made blueberry crumble, blueberry pancakes, blueberry margaritas, and blueberry margaritas. We ate fresh caught salmon and grilled veggies and laughed until the sun extinguished.
The embrace of an old friend, a good friend, is like nothing else. They’re the family we choose.
xo
em
Big Sur in the Summer
In August, we hopped on our first flight in the brave, new covid world. Our inspiration? Getting to meet the beautiful baby Jude.
In August, we hopped on our first flight in the brave, new covid world. Our inspiration? Getting to meet the beautiful baby Jude. My dear friend Sunee Hillyer had her first baby right before the start of quarantine and it’s been hard to watch him grow for months from a distance.
SO we made arrangements. With the Hillyers in Seattle, we thought we’d maximize our west coast time by seeing my mom in the Bay Area and eventually making it to see my Grampa (the lovely Vince) in the LA area. Since Grampa is at higher risk of contracting covid, we wanted to put 14 days between our visit to other folks and to see him, which we managed by renting a deep-cleaned car up north and driving leisurely down the coast.
THE COLORS, Y’ALL.
The curves and the textures and the sound of wind whipping through the brush and rushing up the rocks.
It was pure delight. There was a moment when the clouds manifested in the shape of waves. I mean. WHAT.
Hope this sunshine brightened your day a bit.
xo
em
6,386 Miles. Off We Go!
August 2020. We winded down the twists of the Pacific Coast Highway, the ocean lapping at the sandy edge of California.
August 2020. We winded down the twists of the Pacific Coast Highway, the ocean lapping at the sandy edge of California. Three days before, we’d driven south through the Redwoods, putting some time and distance between our plane flight to Seattle (masked and middle seat empty) before we’d visit family in the Bay Area. There, staring at those shaggy-barked giants, we talked about how we wished we could stay for longer than a day. By the times we’d reached Big Sur, the bee in my bonnet was buzzy enough to provoke me to say, “What if we turned our car into a camper?”
Classic Emma. Another wild idea that I’d have to save for another day.
To my surprise, Jackson nodded slowly, then turned to me and said, “I think we should do that. It’s kind of out there, but since we’re still social distancing, we could take it out, be in the woods, reading and writing for school and for our own stuff. I’m down.”
October 2020. We took the 2x4s that had been in the wall in our new house that we hired Chris Crowder Construction (highly recommend) to remove. I channeled my childhood afternoons spent drawing elaborate plans for impossible forts and drew some mock-ups for the build. A few trips to Lowe’s later, and we had a saw, plywood, and bolts to secure our structure to the car. See our conversion (and a few of our restful days) in October in the video below!
Fast-forward to Thanksgiving. We’d been in full isolation and trying to assess what our holiday season would look like this year given the spikes of COVID across the nation. We knew we didn’t want to fly. But driving would be kind of nuts, right? How would we do it without exposing ourselves to other people? And how long would it take? Could we figure out a way to see Grampa in Southern California on the way to see Mom in Northern California? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
December 2020. Let’s start with the gratitude we have for our friends watching our plants and home - y’all rock!
We’re all packed up (a photo of that later) and hitting the road! We’ll have intermittent service, but we’ll do our best to post an occasional update. If you’ve got any favorite road trip things—car games, radio stations, podcasts, albums, audiobooks, stops we hadn’t considered, tips and tricks—drop us a comment! With over 116 hours in the car ahead of us, you might just be saving our sanity.
The twelve national parks we plan to hit:
Rocky Mountain
Arches
Canyonlands
Bryce
Zion
Sequoia
Kings Canyon
Yosemite
Joshua Tree
Grand Canyon
Petrified Forest
Hot Springs
Catch you on the flip side, folks!
xo,
em (and jacks and tato)
Goodbye, wallpaper. Hello, paint!
When wallpaper is too expensive but you still want a pop of color and pattern in a space, painting is the way to go.