We are spending the next three days exploring the Nashville and Louisville area down south, and one of our first stops today was down in Lynchburg, Tennessee, where the Jack Daniel Distillery is. I’ve never been much of a whiskey person; I can appreciate it in well mixed and shaken cocktails, but I’ve never been able to fully appreciate it slowly sipped in a wide mouthed glass. Tequila has always been my liquor of choice, to the disgust of others. 🙂 Anyone who can’t appreciate a good margarita cannot be my friend.

Another reason travel is an amazing thing is that it exposes you to things you never really thought you cared for or liked. The Jack Daniel Distillery tour, thorough and scenic (complete with limestone caves — and free!) ended with a tasting of three different types of whiskey (carefully measured into one-third ounce servings to prevent any unneeded inebriation). I learned that the proper way to taste whiskey is to breathe it in with your mouth open, not closed like most of us would do. A whiskey tasting requires you to actually taste — and swallow. You can’t properly taste a whiskey and spit it out. After smelling the whiskey the “proper” way and tasting all three, I started to realize that I actually could learn to appreciate and like whiskey, neat in a glass. Maybe there are things we all like that we just never give ourselves the chance to learn to like — that is a tragedy because it only narrows our view of the world. We don’t live forever, so why should we limit our already limited life?

I’ve probably lived in major metropolitan areas for too long because I always feel a little bit strange when I go to smaller towns in areas like the Midwest or the South, where it’s almost the norm to never see areas full of people walking and getting to places. Most people will drive, few people walk anywhere unless it’s from their car to a store front or office. Even in what was supposed to be the entertainment district by Riverfront Park in Montgomery, there were very few people on a Friday night. At 6pm on a Friday night in downtown Montgomery, we were the only two people walking its streets.

A friend of mine who is from Arkansas spent most of the last year in the Bay Area and has just come back to Little Rock. She said she also experienced a bit of a shock when she came back to Arkansas to wander around its streets and malls to find just a handful of people walking here and there. It became normal to her when she was living in the San Jose area to see hoards of people everywhere. But it wasn’t that normal before that.

The funniest thing about our visit to Montgomery was that the one time we saw a lot of people that entire weekend was actually at the Montgomery Center for the Performing Arts, where the center was divided into two sections: one half was a gun and hunting show; the other half was a five-hour-long evangelical Christian Sunday service. People were happily shuffling between the two and making conversation with everyone around them. Talk about a culture shock.

When people think of the South (or at least, assuming they know where the South actually is), I think Mississippi is undoubtedly one of the first states that would come to mind. Sadly, it is also one of the first states that comes to mind when we think of the highest crime rates, highest poverty levels, and also lowest life expectancy. Because of all the above, it also tends to be the state that people make jokes about when it comes to the last state they’d want to live in. Honestly, as someone who grew up in California and now lives in New York, I’ve never heard of any famous tourist spot in Mississippi that would have drawn me there.

We crossed the state line west today to visit the Gulf Coast National Seashore in Mississippi, which is in Ocean Springs, and also ate at a delicious and cozy seafood spot there. Friends of mine who live in Arkansas told me that Mississippi is actually a really popular place to visit for those in the South who want to travel, but not too far, and have great beaches and fresh seafood from the Gulf Coast. I never would have even thought about this before our visit. The fried oysters and shrimp were some of the best we’ve ever had, and of course at a price point that was more than reasonable and even borderline cheap for seafood. The hospitality overall was very warm, especially by the host, who commented on how pretty I was and told Chris, “Don’t let her go!” It seems like whenever I am in the South, I tend to get complimented more on my appearance. I’m guessing it’s because as an Asian, I’m more of an exotic novelty there.

Chris decided that we hadn’t traveled enough this summer (anyone who knows us knows this is definitely not true, as we are reveling in wanderlust…or suffering from it, take your pick), so this weekend, he has decided to whisk me off on a trip that I did not know about — to Alabama! We are staying in Montgomery, the capital (and the birthplace of the Civil Rights movement) and plan on crossing the border west to Mississippi to see what “the South’s warmest welcome” state has to offer.

One of our first stops today was at the First White House of the Confederacy. which was the first home of the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, and his family for just five months before the Confederate capital moved to Richmond, Virginia. The tour was free, half guided and half self-guided. Our guide during the first half was very friendly and asked where we were from. We told him we were visiting from New York City, and he exclaimed, “Oh, Yankees!” I started laughing because I’ve never, ever been called a Yankee before. And then it suddenly hit me: people in the South probably still, to this day, call people in the North Yankees. It’s as though we are from another country, with our different perceptions, ways of thinking, education, culture, and of course, accents. Unfortunately, he did not pick up on any Aussie twang of Chris’s.

Today, we visited Île d’Orléans, which is a beautiful (and relatively large!) island just a few miles outside of Quebec City. It is an idyllic island originally colonized by the French that is covered in lavender fields, fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, and wineries. One of the most interesting things about it was the widespread presence of cassis, or black currant. Chris was in heaven.

The first winery/confection shop we visited specialized in all things cassis – jams, syrups, candy, and wine and liqueur. We were given a free wine tasting of at least four different types of cassis wine ranging from light to cognac-like (creme de cassis). It was as though Chris was being transported to his childhood days of drinking Ribena, except this experience was much more suited for adults given the alcohol content of these sample sips. I originally thought that maybe it was just this one shop that made black currant products, but in every subsequent shop or winery we visited, they all had black currant items. That black currant flavor is so distinct and delicious, yet it’s such a shame we can’t check any baggage and bring this creme de cassis back with us. It’s the kind of liquid that you just want to keep drinking and drinking, not just for its pure taste, but also for its incredible mouth-feel that is one part syrupy and another part soft and velvety. I can feel my mouth watering as I type this now.

We’re back in Canada again after nearly a year, but this time, we’re visiting Quebec City and Montreal. It’s kind of sad when I think about it; I’ve been wanting to visit Montreal since college, when I was in the Boston area studying and knew that Montreal was just a (very long) bus ride away. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any friends who were that excited by the idea of visiting this city with me (well, it was probably college cheapness that trumped that desire). I was obviously never going to visit with my family, so it took being with Chris to come to Canada my first time (last year in Toronto to visit Ben), and this second time. And as an added bonus, we’re visiting Quebec City, too.

Quebec City doesn’t seem to have the international notoriety that Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver have, but it certainly has its charm and beauty that make it a unique place. It’s one of the oldest European settlements in North America, and a lot of the buildings have supposedly retained their general feel from 16th century when it was founded. Its skyline is gorgeous particularly because of the Chateau Frontenac, which is actually a Fairmont hotel now. Who would have ever thought that a hotel would dominate the skyline of a city as beautiful as Quebec City? It seems so odd and definitely is not something I would assume.

I think Pittsburgh gets a bad rap. I know we’ve only spent a short weekend here, but it’s a far nicer place than anyone has ever told me about. I know three people who are from this area, and all of them have said that Pittsburgh isn’t really worth a visit. I don’t think I would travel across the world to see Pittsburgh, but I do think it’s worth a trip if you are within an hour flight or a few hours’ drive. The city’s buildings in the main part of town actually make up a gorgeous skyline that can be seen from the Duquesne Incline that we took this morning. One of the largest fountains in the United States is right at Point State Park fountain, which is along the river and at the end of the shiny new series of buildings that line the river. The river has so many bridges that go over it that I lost count. Even though it’s an urban area, it was a great getaway from New York.

I initially thought it would be tiring to take another trip the weekend after coming back from Brazil, but now, I’m actually really happy we decided to do this. Today, we spent our day crossing the Pennsylvania border to West Virginia to visit Morgantown, went hiking in the Coopers Rock State Forest in WV and saw hidden “Rock City” rock formations, toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater residence, took a peek at Cucumber Falls (it was a bit sad to see this after Iguazu, but still pretty and calming nonetheless), and ended the evening in the Strip District in Pittsburgh enjoying hipster cocktails and tapas.

Ever since I first studied art history in my Advanced Placement Art History course in high school when I was 15, I’ve been completely enamored with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. While we have visited Taliesin, Taliesin West, and of course his gorgeous Guggenheim Museum right here in New York, I don’t think anything compares with how stunning Fallingwater is in terms of how it is integrated into its natural environment — directly above a waterfall! The building itself is heavily made of stones and concrete in a design that really mimics the nature around it, and you can see this from the interior and exterior. It’s even more mind-boggling that this house was actually a place that real people resided in. It’s literally as though they lived in a work of art. Actually seeing it in person and hearing about the Kaufmann family and what their life was like was one of the biggest highlights of this trip. However, I will say that Frank Lloyd Wright’s anal side definitely got to me in that I had to leave my small purse in our car for the entire tour, as they do not allow purses over three inches wide or any large bags or cameras onto the property. I get that this is a master work, but being anal about an inch extra of my purse is kind of bordering insane.

As long as we are living in New York, I never want to stay in New York City for Independence Day ever again. The crowds and the wait times to see sub-par fireworks is pretty ridiculous. In New York, you have to wait for almost everything that is even remotely good, and the older I get, the less and less exciting that sounds to me.

Last Fourth of July, we were in Charleston and originally arrived at the park about four hours before the fireworks were slated to begin, and there was no one except people there sun-bathing and wandering around to wander around, not to stake out their fireworks viewing spot, so we left and came back. This year, we are spending the long holiday weekend in the Pittsburgh area and saw the fireworks along the Allegheny River here. We arrived about an hour before the fireworks were to begin, and we got a perfect spot right along the river between two of the bridges — no insane wait time, and no ridiculous crowds pushing us from all sides. According to an article I read, Pittsburgh was rated one of the top ten places to see Independence Day fireworks (not sure what their source was, though). After watching it tonight, I was really impressed and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a good length, had a large variety of different types of fireworks, colors, and effects, and they even provided an introduction and background music that blared all along the river. They even started on time at 9:35pm! It was so nice to not wait that long, have enough space, and just enjoy the fireworks. This is when I really appreciate being in other parts of the country (or even world) on this nation’s birthday.

Sao Paulo, despite being the most populous city in Brazil, always seems to get slighted because of the glamour and glitz that is Rio de Janeiro. Rio’s gorgeous beaches, urban jungle (with an actual jungle in the middle of it), and relaxed Carioca ways seem to attract more tourists than Sao Paulo. I had a number of people tell me prior to leaving for this trip that they were excited for the Rio and Iguazu Falls portions, but much less so about the Sao Paulo end. That makes me pretty sad because despite our short time in Sao Paulo, I really enjoyed our time here and only wish we had more time to explore its many facets.

The most striking thing during our short visit to Sao Paulo was by far the number of incredible street art murals we saw all over the city – during our (like New York-priced, sadly – we weren’t lied to by Cariocas when they told us that cabs were expensive in Sao Paulo!) cab rides and our strolls. Some appear more like glorified graffiti, some are caricatures of famous celebrities around the globe (with what appear to be political or challenging questions scribbled in Portuguese), others look like they took painstaking efforts and several dozen different colors (and hours) to produce. The last place where I remember constantly seeing street art was in Philadelphia, but because Sao Paulo is obviously far larger (and felt more spread out) than Philly, it was almost overwhelming. It was almost similar to how I felt when we were at Iguazu — when you thought you had seen the best, you walked a few more feet and realized… you hadn’t seen the best yet and were constantly being impressed and having the last sight out done.

I guess as I have thought more about it, the one word that constantly reappears when I think of our time in Brazil is “overwhelming.” It was so overwhelming in some of the most positive ways.