Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area, Fall Hollow, Keg Springs, and Amber Falls

On October 23, 2010, we went hiking with friends at Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area near Hohenwald. It was an unseasonably hot day, with temperatures climbing to near 80 degrees, but the fall foliage was at near-peak for Tennessee autumn. The trail was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves, so each step filled the air with loud crunching sounds. We took the 3-mile moderate loop and stopped to take pictures every thirty seconds or so. I quickly learned to cheat by using a photo filter on my camera to enhance the fall colors.

Once we finished the loop, we drove a couple miles to Fall Hollow, where we took the steep trail down about a quarter mile or so and enjoyed the small waterfalls.

Afterward, we felt hungry, so we drove into Hohenwald and ate at Junkyard Dog Steakhouse. I got the chicken parmesan, which was a disappointment; everyone else got steak and loved it.  

We then drove to Keg Springs Winery, where we encountered a black pony in the middle of the road, regarding us serenely. Desira and I got out of the car and shooed him back toward the pasture. When we got up to the winery building, we informed them that their pony was out, and they waved their hands nonchalantly. “He always stays out,” one woman drawled. “It’s fine.” This annoyed me. He could have been hit on the road.

We did a tasting; the wines were all decent. We bought a blackberry wine, a peach wine, and the Crusade, a semi-sweet red which, due to its Concord origins, reminded me of my favorite wine on the planet, the Highland Manor Sunset red table wine. We didn’t deign to stop and listen to the live bluegrass music out on the patio.

Now slightly buzzing from all the wine we’d tasted, we headed out to Amber Falls Winery. This place had an immediately classier feel. The tasting room was packed with people. We tried all the semi-drys and the sweets, and ended up purchasing the three-grape red Ruby Trillium, the dark rosé Cottage Rose, and the spicy red Piquant Rouge, which is a limited edition with flavors of pepper. We hung around while the entertainment on their patio played Celtic violin, but as it degenerated into bluegrass, we left.

Filled with wine and food, with three and a half miles of moderate to strenuous hiking behind us, everyone but the driver nodded off on the hour and a half drive back home.

Philadelphia: Radicchio Café

For lunch on our penultimate day in Philadelphia, we brought a bottle of Chaddsford Sangri-La Sangria to the Radicchio Café. This was our first experience bringing our own bottle to a BYOB restaurant. We sat outside and popped our bottle of wine while we ate an appetizer of Focaccia Caprese, which was a divine twist on tricolore salad by adding focaccia and prosciutto. The wine was a bold, sweet red with a robust fragrance of cloves.

The breeze had the merest autumn bite in it, but the wine warmed us up as we soaked in the feel of the city. All too soon, our meals arrived. I had the Linguine Pomodoro, which was excellent after I added some crushed red pepper. He had the Paccheri Bolognese, which he said was terrific.

We finished the wine and headed off to our next destination. It was a quiet moment in the shade breaking up the bustling of a hectic day.

Philadelphia: Christ Church and Christ Church Burial Ground

On our first day in Philadelphia, we landed, parked, ate, and headed straight for Christ Church. Christ Church, founded in 1695, is called “The Nation's Church” due to the famous Revolutionary-era leaders who worshiped here, including George Washington, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. It is the first parish of the Anglican Church in Pennsylvania and is also the birthplace of the American Episcopal Church.

Here we are sitting in the pew that Washington and Adams shared.

We got a brief tour by a gentleman who was very proud of the living history: the pulpit, the baptismal font that had been in use for at least a century, the pews where famous people sat and not-so-famous people still sit every Sunday. He informed us that walking on a grave inside a church is a way to honor the memory of the deceased.

Golden mid-afternoon sunshine poured through the original lead glass windows, dappled by the leaves of the old sycamore in the courtyard.

We then walked a couple blocks to the 291-year-old Christ Church Burial Ground. This cemetery is the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Me at Franklin's grave:

Other famous and interesting people who were buried here can be found here.

The high brick walls blocked out the hubbub of downtown Philadelphia and encouraged a reverent silence as we walked among the graves, crunching fallen leaves.

Tennessee: Jeff’s Quarry

On July 25, 2010, we went scuba diving with the Parrot Island Divers at Jeff’s Quarry, a private property quarry in Christiana, Tennessee. It was a broiling day with a heat advisory (heat index well above 100 degrees) so a perfect day for diving.

We hadn’t been diving since Bonaire in March, so we were anxious to get into the water. We dove twice on a single tank of air. The thermocline was around 10-15 feet; however, I had slight congestion from allergies and experienced sharp head and ear pain if I dove past 10 feet anyway. Note to self: add Sudafed to dive kit.

However, I’m the one who rode a bike through the Valley of the Kings while throwing up, so I didn’t let a little headache get in my way!

The water was bright green and the visibility was less than 10 feet. But it felt like diving in bathwater and the fish were large and friendly, especially the bluegill sunfish. Between dives, we sat in the water and chatted with other divers and got sunburned.

It was a great day.

Philadelphia: Rum Bar

We traveled to Philadelphia October 8 – 13, 2010. On Saturday night, we ran out of daytime activities and wandered to Village Whiskey, a speakeasy-type bar with great, but pricey, cocktails. We each had two, but in preservation of our wallets, we decided to leave in the hopes we could find a pub with better prices.

Just around the corner was what became our favorite place in Philly: Rum Bar. The music was quiet, the bar was packed, and the drinks were good and well priced. We sat at the bar, though that is not usually my favorite place, because there was no seating to be had.

Soon we began talking to the bartenders, Zack, Katie, and Vena. We talked with two girls about the pitfalls of Facebook and Twitter and sympathized with the girl next to me, Kris, over having a bad date. The drinks kept coming and I got friendlier and friendlier. Antics and hilarity ensued.

I had the elusive great bar experience. I've never had so much fun at a bar. I think the main reason—other than the fun people, of course—was the fact that I could actually hear them talking. In Nashville, bars are LOUD. You have to scream in each other’s ears to be heard, so I usually give up trying to interact. But here, we talked and laughed easily.

Despite the fact that Sunday I felt absolutely TERRIBLE on my hiking and canoe trips, we actually returned on Tuesday night to toast off our last night in Philly. We had a blast and were greeted like old friends.

I want to go back to Philly just so I can go to the Rum Bar!  

Bonaire: Old Blue

Old Blue was a peaceful dive site, one of our favorites. We parked our trucks, geared up, and entered the water down a sandy, coral rubble beach. The reef was just a few feet from the entry, and a few rocks might have been problematic if there had been much surf. However, it was peaceful and lovely on both of our dives there. We dove there on day 1 (75 feet for 36 minutes) and again on day 3 (97 feet for 40 minutes – you can tell we learned to conserve air while there).

We saw our first of many puffer fish at Old Blue. He was huge!

We then got our second sighting of macro life. A large barracuda loomed suddenly on the reef before us and watched us warily. He didn’t seem keen on allowing us near a particular section of reef. We stayed politely away. I have a special love for barracudas, because one of the first times I went snorkeling, I saw one and tried to get near it – in other words, chased it. It was bigger than I was.

We were excited to see a pack of yellowtail tuna moving along against the current. Something about their grim faces and determined pace made me think of a small platoon of marching soldiers.

Lastly, we were excited to spot a lizard fish. They are very well camouflaged and sit very still, so we were lucky to see them. This photo makes it look very obvious, but it blended right in among the rest of the rubble.

Bonaire: Frogfish- and Seahorse-Hunting

Bonaire is called a diver’s paradise because there isn’t much else to do on the island but eat and dive. We exhausted all the touristy shops in its capital city, Kralendijk, in just over an hour. Though cruise ships dropped off hordes of tourists daily, there wasn’t much for them to do unless they were divers.

It was fun to sit and observe the three types of people on Bonaire. The locals were often poor and talked loudly in their bright native Papiamentu tongue, spattered with English and Dutch. The “boat people,” as we came to call the cruisers, were clean, well-fed and groomed, and decked in a strange assortment of swimwear and gaudy jewelry. The divers, however, were the largest group, who held a sunburned, grimy air and instantly recognized each other by their habit of constantly checking their watches (monitoring surface interval times).

Divers were always friendly with each other, and even upon chance meetings shared great finds with each other. We were given precise instructions to find an orange seahorse at one dive site by a wiry, leathery man at a restaurant who overheard me saying to my dive buddy David that I’d kill to see one.

Regrettably, we followed his instructions and spent an entire dive—almost a full hour—searching the surrounding reef for the tiny creature, to no avail. I’ll have to wait for my first seahorse encounter.

We were also told about a frogfish off the beach of our hotel. We again followed specific instructions and spent a whole dive searching for the elusive, well camouflaged frogfish, with no luck. But the frogfish was one of David’s ultimate goals to see, so we dove the site again.

After 15 minutes of searching, I spotted it—a well-hidden yellow frogfish had moved onto a bit of green coral and revealed itself. I did a happy dance underwater and was hailed as the frogfish-finding champion for the rest of the trip.

Bonaire: Oil Slick

We dove the inaptly named Oil Slick dive site in Bonaire twice: once on day 1 and again on day 2. I’m not sure why it’s called Oil Slick, because it’s a beautiful dive site with turquoise water and skittering crabs welcoming you to the site. You park, gear up, and giant stride off the cliff into the water, where it's a very short surface swim to the buoy marking the beginning of the reef.

Oil Slick ended up being one of my favorite dives in Bonaire, even though I don’t have much to say about it. The spot was peaceful and the reef was beautiful, though I’m told it was torn up a bit from a recent hurricane.

We saw the first of hundreds of spotted eels.

In all, Oil Slick was a great, relaxing dive site. My two dives there were 41 minutes at 84 feet, and 34 minutes at 90 feet.