Maryland

On Thursday, October 17th, Cody and I drove 16 hours straight from Winter Haven, FL to North East, MD. That's right. We stayed in a small town named "North East". They're real original up there in Maryland. We made this trip for the wedding of one of my best friends from college and figured while we were there we would knock out a couple of states for our Bucket List goal to visit all 50 together. 

After a solid night of sleep in our hotel in North East, we woke up to a beautiful sunny day and made the hour and a half drive back down into Baltimore to explore the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine.

Fort McHenry was the site where Francis Scott Key penned the words to our National Anthem during the War of 1812 after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy. We really enjoyed our visit. The grounds of Fort McHenry are beautiful and the exhibits are informative and interesting. We got to see parts of the original crossbeam (which wasn't excavated till the late 1950s) that supported the broad stripes and bright stars through the harrowing night of battle. They actually have original cannonballs that were fired on the fort  by the British which was cool to see, and everyone working and volunteering at the fort was so knowledgeable and friendly. 

~gigantic monument of Orpheus dedicated to Francis Scott Key and the soldiers of the fort~

~sneaking a smooch behind the armory~

After we worked up a hearty appetite hiking all over Fort McHenry, we went down the street to L.P. Steamers for Maryland crab cakes and crab chowder before making the hour and a half drive back up to North East to get ready for the wedding.

Friday night was all about celebrating Karsch (which I will continue to call her even though her name has legally changed) and her groom.

10/18/19

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early, got checked our of our hotel, and drove all the way down to Assateague Island to see some wild ponies.

When I was in grade school, Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry was one of my favorite books and I have always wanted to go to Assateague Island to see the wild ponies. After about an hour of hiking around, I wasn't sure we would see any. But then we stumbled upon a couple...then a couple more...then several all grazing together!

Can you spot the two wild ponies behind us?

They were beautiful and didn't seem to mind our presence at all. I felt like I could go right up to one and pet it, but we were given strict instructions by park rangers and in writing to keep a schoolbus length between us and them so I grudgingly followed orders and let them have their space. I didn't get to see a whole herd of them racing down the beach, but I really enjoyed our day on Assateague Island.

That evening, we stayed in Delaware (the other state we checked off on this trip) so I'll be posting about that next week. Have a Happy Valentines Weekend with whoever you love!

Maryland : done.

Have you visited Assateague Island or Fort McHenry? What is a historical site that we cannot miss in our quest to #SeeAll50? 

Oklahoma

Back in May of last year (I know what you're thinking: She's so on top of her blogging game. Thanks. I know.) we took a quick 4-day trip to the middle of the USA to see my amazing litter sister graduate from her flight training at Vance Air Force Base and receive her wings. 

If right now you're thinking, "Man, I'll never know anyone that cool or that pretty or that talented"...well, you're right. 

We flew into OKC on Thursday, May 30th and drove about an hour and a half to Clinton, OK to visit the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. The sky in Oklahoma is big, the land is flat, and the roads are next to empty. You feel like you can see for miles and I loved driving there. We found the museum, and it's one of the cutest little spots I've ever seen.

We spent as long as we wanted going through the exhibits, and it was just as much fun as it was interesting and educational. I would definitely recommend a stop here if you're passing through and looking for something quick and fun to do.

As you make your way through the museum, the exhibits are set up by decades from the 20s to the 70s and it is retro and nostalgic and pure Americana.

Right next door to the museum, you can take a peek into this shoebox soda shop which popped up all along the Mother Road during the 50s and 60s. 

After we finished exploring the museum and buying all our Route 66 souvenirs, we stopped for lunch at a Braum's Ice Cream & Dairy Store (which I had never heard of but apparently there are almost 300 of them throughout Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas), and I had one of the biggest burgers I've ever eaten.

After we filled our bellies, we hit the road again to drive the 2 hours to Enid where my sister lives.

My mommy-in-law got to do this state with us!

The rest of the weekend was all about family and celebrating my awesome sister. And one of the craziest things ever is that the other guy in her class getting his wings was a boy I used to babysit when he was little. (Yes, I feel old, but also could not be any prouder.)

I mean, look at those two. Come on.

Oklahoma gets a bad rep for being boring, having nothing to do, and being in the middle of nowhere. A total flyover state and other such nonsense. But it will always be one of the most special states we've visited because we got to see my sister get her wings which is something she's been working towards for years. We're Vance Proud and we loved being in Enid, America.

Oklahoma : done.

2020 Book List

Yesterday I took a little time to reflect on what I read and what didn't work for my reading life in 2019. Last year I read a lot of slow books and didn't give myself the freedom to change things up with familiar re-reads like I usually do. Because of that, I continually lost momentum and a lot of the books I read (even the great ones) seemed to drag. 

But it's a fresh new year and I've created a fresh new list. Cody and I spent the morning pulling books off the shelves to read in 2020, and I'm excited to tackle my 2020 list. (I think Cody may share his list on the blog this week and he might even contribute some guest posts this year. Keep your fingers crossed.) 

In the meantime, here are the books I hope to read this year. As always, if you are interested in reading any of these with me, shoot me a message and I'll be happy to let you know when I start the book so we can read it together and discuss it. Here we go!

Lies Women Believe : Nancy Leigh DeMoss

This Momentary Marriage : John Piper

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World : Joanna Weaver

John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit : James Traub

Andrew Jackson : H.W. Brands

The Passions of Andrew Jackson : Andrew Burstein

The Four Loves : C.S. Lewis

The Diary of a Young Girl : Anne Frank

All's Well that Ends Well : William Shakespeare

Cymbeline : William Shakespeare

David Copperfield : Charles Dickens

Gone With the Wind : Margaret Mitchell

Middlemarch : George Eliot

The Age of Innocence : Edith Wharton

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall : Anne Brontë

Something Wicked this Way Comes : Ray Bradbury

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass : Lewis Carroll

A Little Princess : Frances Hodgson Burnett

Ballet Shoes : Noel Streatfeild 

All the Light We Cannot See : Anthony Doerr

Hum If You Don't Know the Words : Bianca Marais

See any of your absolute favorites there? You may have noticed that David Copperfield, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and All the Light We Cannot See got carried over from last year's list, and I finally decided to ditch the Unger biography of John Quincy Adams in favor of James Traub's. I'm secretly hoping to make it through a third president this year to make up for only reading one last year, but we'll see how it goes. My list consists of 21 books and I'll be shooting for a total of 24 in 2020. Let's go!

Happy New Year & Happy Reading!

What are you planning to read this year? Do you make a book list for yourself? Are you interested in reading any of the books from my 2020 list along with me?

Let's Bust a Recap : 2019

2019 is almost history, and it's time for the yearly roundup of my reading successes and failures. If you don't mind, I'm going to reflect for just a bit and then we'll get down to what I actually read. 

2019 was my fifth year creating an annual book list for myself, and this year I structured it quite a bit differently than I have in the past. Instead of just making a straightforward list to work through, I decided to incorporate Modern Mrs. Darcy's Annual Reading Challenge, and I also put a bunch of random titles (not from my list) in a little jar to pull throughout the year.

I kindof bombed. I only completed 6 of the 12 categories for the reading challenge (one of those categories being "three books by the same author"), and I pretty much ignored the jar altogether only pulling one slip from it all year.

To sum up: 

from my Base List I read: 10/14

from the Reading Challenge I read: 8/12

from the jar I read: 1 book

So what I've learned is: reading challenges and mystery jars just aren't for me. While I was the one who chose all of the books to read for the challenge and to put in the jar and I was initially excited about both ideas, they completely fizzled for me. I ended up feeling obligated to draw from the jar whenever I needed a pick me up and when I finally did draw one (halfway through the year) it wasn't a pick-me-up kinda book. I didn't buck my own system and re-read something just because I wanted to until October. Y'all. That's not how I operate. I've done a comfortable re-read right out of the gate every other year of making these book lists and you better believe that's how I intend to start 2020. After the amazing reading year I had in 2018, 2019 felt very slow and long and like there were a lot of slumps. 

Long story long: 2019 wasn't my greatest reading year, but I learned a lot about myself and the way that I like to read, and that will definitely help me as we move into the next decade. All said, I ended up reading 32 books this year and that ain't bad. Here's what they were.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling : completed 1/11

Finally decided to join the rest of the known universe in reading about The Boy Who Lived. 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling : completed 1/19

This book turned out to be my second favorite of the series. 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling : completed 1/29

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling : completed 2/12

I couldn't put this one down, but the ending was very upsetting for me. Also, Rowling can really write an ending. I was always up way too late finishing these books even if the book had initially been slow for me.

As You Like It by William Shakespeare : completed 2/18

Really weird to read this in the midst of the Harry Potter series. Not my favorite of Shakespeare's comedies. 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling : completed 3/11

The book that wouldn't end.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling : completed 3/23

Did not even want to finish the series when I got to the end of this one. Ugh.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling : completed 3/30

Best book. Would have started over again immediately. Will definitely read all seven again.

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis : completed 4/19

Not what I was expecting, but I still appreciated it. Par for the course with Lewis.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline : completed 4/23

Some hard content but great payoff.

Sisterchicks on the Loose! by Robin Jones Gunn : completed 4/29

Always a pleasure.

The Last Founding Father by Harlow Giles Unger : completed 5/23

Worst presidential biography I've read to date. By a longshot. 

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier : completed 6/26

The one book I read out of the jar!

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis : completed 6/30

My Bedtime Anytime Storybook by V. Gilbert Beers (read aloud) : completed 7/25

Not great.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein : completed 7/29

Worst book I read this year, by far.

Humility by C.J. Mahaney : completed 7/31

King Lear by William Shakespeare : completed 9/1

No recap on this one yet (haven't decided if I'm still going to try to eke one out or not) but the best bit of name calling I've seen from Shakespeare yet. I really enjoyed my Shakespearean tragedy this year.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas : completed 9/30

No recap of this yet either. (My blogging definitely fell off this year. I blame the Instagram.) Four months well spent.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi : completed 10/24

The one book not pictured because a friend lent it to me.

Clouds by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 10/28

Finally got over my mental block and just read something I wanted to! Definite turning point in the year.

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul : completed 10/29

Again, no recap for this one yet. This one was weighty and so good.

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 11/12

My husband and I have been talking about reading these aloud together for a long time and we finally dove in. The best!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 11/15

It's just always a good idea to visit Narnia.

Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery (re-read) : completed 11/18

Needed this on my birthday weekend.

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 11/19

The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (read aloud) : completed 11/30

So lovely. 

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 12/15

We watched the most recent movie adaptation after reading this and I have to say, after really hitting a homerun with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe adaptation, Disney really struck out with Prince Caspian. 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith : completed 12/21

Another one I haven't recapped. I enjoyed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn but not as much as I expected to. It was good, but not a new favorite or anything. *shrugs*

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read; read aloud) : completed 12/26

I started reading this one aloud to my nieces last year, and today I started Farmer Boy aloud with my oldest niece. My mother read these books to me and my siblings and it's really sweet reading them with my nieces. 

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers : completed 12/28

Overall, this was a helpful devotional, but I will say there were some days I didn't agree with what Oswald was saying and some days that just seemed to go over my head. Definitely a devotional worth re-visiting in the future. 

Becoming Us by Robin Jones Gunn : completed 12/28

This was the first Robin Jones Gunn novel I have ever been hesitant to read and the first one in several years I didn't preorder as soon as that option was open to me. My sweet husband got it for me for my birthday and when I read it, I discovered I had nothing to be worried about it. Robin Jones Gunn never disappoints.

So there you have it. I'd love to know if you're interested in recaps on any of the ones I haven't gotten around to writing about yet. I want to get back into a better blogging rhythm next year. This year I was definitely trying to figure out the blogging/Instagram balance and I'm not sure if I've found it yet, but I plan to keep working on it. In the meantime, I'd love to hear about what you read in 2019 and what works and doesn't work for you as a reader. Thanks for sticking with me!

Happy New Year & Keep Reading the Best Books First!

Kentucky

The state we took off for the day after we got home from Hawaii was Kentucky for the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby! Odd sequence of events? Maybe. But in truth, this trip to Kentucky was planned long before the Hawaii trip came into being. We decided several years ago to attend the Kentucky Derby the same month as our seventh wedding anniversary (Lucky #7!) and we purchased our tickets well in advance of even considering a two-week cruise to the islands.

So after only one night in our own cozy bed, we hit the road for the 14 hour roadtrip to the Gold Vault Inn in Radcliff, Kentucky. 

Where we promptly crashed. We decided to let our jet-lagged, road-weary bodies take it easy all day on Friday at the hotel. We had the huge indoor pool and hot tub to ourselves. We made a couple last-minute Wal*Mart runs for things like rain ponchos (weather forecasts predicted a muddy Derby day) and ate at the lunch buffet at the Pizza Hut next door to our hotel.

Saturday morning we rose with the sun, dressed to the nines, and donned our big hats then made the 45 minute drive from Radcliff to Louisville and Churchill Downs. 

(Note my cute dress and hat paired with sensible footwear because no way was I spending a 12-hour day trekking around in heels or sandals.) We spent the first few hours of the day exploring Churchill Downs then staked out a good bench. I'll tell you something: Churchill Downs on Derby day is possibly the best people-watching venue I've ever experienced in my life. We literally saw it all, from people in cutoff jeans and ratty tank tops, to celebrities being escorted by security to their private boxes, to Miss America in her dress made out of real red roses. We watched people cheer in excitement when their horses won or curse and tear their betting slips in half when their horses lost. By the end of the day, the terminal was littered with torn betting slips. I nursed my mint julep (because you have to drink a mint julep at the Kentucky Derby) and watched people for hours. 

When the big race (the 12th race of the day) finally came, we placed our bets and waited with bated breath through the National Anthem and all the other preliminary stuff that comes with each race. Y'all, I kid you not when I tell you I watched and researched these horses for the full year leading up to this race. I was pulling for Game Winner and Cody liked Improbable. 

~yes, I pinned my button to my fancy hat~

We lost. Improbable came in 4th and Game Winner was right behind him in 5th. But it was a record-setting Derby and when people say it's the greatest two minutes in sports, they're right. My heart was pounding and adrenaline was at an all-time high. Maximum Security crossed the finish line first but ended up being disqualified making him the first horse in Derby history to be removed from first place for an on-track infraction and leaving Country House (the long shot with 65-1 odds) the big winner. 

We trekked back to our car in the mud with the other 150,000+ people that showed up for the big day. When we made it back to the Gold Vault Inn, I promptly threw my shoes away (there was no salvaging them after all that mud) and Cody and I got a good night of sleep before checking out in the morning to make the 14 hour drive back home. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but one I'll never forget.

Kentucky : done. 

Have you ever been to the Kentucky Derby? What's the most exciting sporting event you've ever witnessed?