Category:Travel
Taking that trip to Tennessee in the spring all started when I said wanted to visit the Jack Daniel’s distillery someday. That someday turned into very soon. And early this year, that very soon turned into this year.
We took a day trip from Nashville to Lynchburg to visit the Jack Daniel’s distillery. We choose their Taste of Lynchburg tour. It’s a 3 hour tour that starts with lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Restaurant. No, strike that, it starts with delicious lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s. I will not forget their recipe for candied apples.
The tour continues through the town square of Lynchburg, TN and past the cemetery where Jack Daniel and other members of the Daniel family are buried. Then on to the Jack Daniel’s distillery itself.
You are welcomed at a little museum that tells the story of Jack Daniel, Lynchburg and the distillery before you embareque on walking tour through the distillery. The process of make Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey is pretty much the same as any other distilled drink. But it is particularly nice to see the purification process through charcoal and how they treat the barrels to get the typical taste of Jack Daniel’s.
The tour ends at one of the more than 90 barrel houses for a tasting of their finest whiskeys. And after that, you can rest content in a rocking chair under the porch of their welcome house.
Doctor King was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15, 1929 in this house at 501 Auburn Avenue, about a block from the church where his father was a minister. The National Park Services are preserving the house and its surroundings as a National Historic Site. I had been there years ago and I remembered I was impressed. So it was way up high on my list of places to see in beautiful Atlanta.
Doctor King would be in the frontline of the American civil rights movement all his life. In 1963 he organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, AL and a march on Washington where he delivered his famous I Have A Dream speech. In ’64 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Price. In 1965 he helped organize the Selma to Montgomery marches, beautifully depicted in the Oscar-winning movie Selma directed by Ava DuVernay.
He was so important to the civil rights movement in the US that is birthday is in fact a legal holiday in the US.
In April 1968 he traveled to Memphis, TN to support the city’s sanitation workers who had gone on strike in protest against poor pay and dangerous working conditions. On April 4th, 1968 he was assassinated by James Earl Ray on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. An event that inspired U2 to write Pride (In The Name Of Love). So I obviously had to have the song in my travel soundtrack.
After his death he was laid to rest at the Martin Luther King National Historic Site in Atlanta, GA. Later, his wife, Coretta Scott King was buried right beside him.
I had planned to write a daily blog post about my trip to Tenneessee, but oh boy, how I have failed. Even 3 months after being back home, I still have a couple of photos to process. But hey, I look at this way: taking this long to go through my photos keeps the memories alive. And there are plenty of nice memories.
The Johnny Cash Museum on 3rd Ave in Nashville, TN surely was one of them. I liked Johnny Cash’s music but got really sucked into it after seeing the 2005 biopic Walk the Line with Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon playing the role of June Carter. So the Johnny Cash Museum was a must-see place for me while I was in Nashville.
I have totally fallen in love with Nashville! They call it the Music City and I love music. Nashville is obviously the heart of country music. But there so much more. Music streams from every bar and restaurant in the city. Bands playing the honky-tonks on Nashville’s Broadway compete for your attention day and night. Sometimes they even play too loud to have a normal conversation over dinner. But they add to the atmosphere of the city. It is cool to stroll up and down Broadway on a Saturday night, look at the party people, have a drink and listen to the bands wailing under the bright neon lights of the all the bars they play.
There’s more than just waterfalls in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. In fact it is probably more known for its wildlife. The park is home to coyotes, deer, turkeys, elk and most notably for the approximately 1600 black bears that live in those mountains. We had the chances to meet 2 of them. Kinda cool to watch a bear climb up a tree to feed.
And it is also known for its scenic views of the mountains, often covered in a little haze—hence the name Smoky Mountians—that gives the Smokies a beautiful blue glow on sunny days. And even on overcast days, when the sky is dark and gloomy, the views are magnificent.
I could have spent at least a few more days in the Smokies enjoying the views, the hikes and the wildlife. But we had a few more plans, so I guess I will have to save that for another year.
Great Smoky Mountain National Park, on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee encompasses 2114km2 making it one of the biggest national parks in the US. It is home to about 1600 black bears which everyone wants to see. It is also known for its many waterfalls. Too many to visit in just 3 days. We picked Grotto Falls and Lynn Camp Prong Cascades to hike to.
Lynn Camp Prong Cascades is just a short hike but to get a good shot, you need to climb some rocks and dangle over the river.
You reach Grotto Falls after a steep 2km hike; you need to climb 585 feet. If you’re untrained like me, it is quite the climb. But it is well worthwhile. A person can actually pass behind the Grotto Falls. And you can setup for a pretty cool photo behind the falls.
But, you know, there is cool little falls all over the park. Often they are just off the paved road. We came across this very photogenic fall driving along the Little River on our way to Cades Cove. To be honest, I may just like this little unnamed fall the best.
When the weather is nice, Stone Mountain Park is a great place to be and to make some photographs.
At the heart of the park, there is gigantic quartz monzonite dome of about 251 m above the surrounding area. On its north face, there is a bas-relief that depicts three Confederate figures during the American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis. It is said to be the largest bas-relief in the world.
But scenes around the park are awesome too. I set up for a long exposure at their covered bridge and the old gristmill at the park.
And while I was working on the long exposure photos, my buddy Luc shot this amazing photo of the lake at Stone Mountain Park.
We arrived in Atlanta, GA with no issues. Smooth fight with Delta.
Atlanta is home to the headquarters of CNN and Coca-Cola. And what do you do on a rainy day? Right! You take the tour at CNN and Coca-Cola World.
At CNN we goofed around, posing as news anchors. They wouldn’t have us though. We lacked relevant experience apparently.
Visiting Coca-Cola World is just a lot of fun: trying to unravel the secret recipe of Coca-Cola. And I think I know what it is. When you see all the promo materials Coke produced over time, I think the true secret to their success is being a famous household name.
Atlanta is our 1st stop on the music part of the trip: we got to see Faith Hill & Tim McGraw on their Soul2Soul tour at the Philips Arena. Really awesome show.
I love Antwerp! It’s one of my favorite cities in the world. And that’s because it has a perfect mix old and new architecture, it has cool bars and nice restaurants. And it has cool museums. The MAS, Museum aan de Stroom, is one of those. Opened 2011, amidst some controversy about the design, it stands 10 stories high in an area of the city that is in full expansion. And from its rooftop you’ll have a great view over Antwerp.
Why are so many people picking on the quality of iPhone photos, and of any smartphone for that matter? Everybody says the photos are just not good enough for print or to show them on large format. Well, let’s talk about that for a minute…
I bought my 1st digital camera back in 2001. I took it with me on vacation to Hawaii and shot this photo of the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor with it.
The Olympus E-10 that I had back then, had a 3.7 megapixel sensor. Compact Flash cards cost a fortune. So I shot in what was called HiRes JPEG on that trip to get the most out of my memory card. Effectively, this photo is 1600 x 1200 pixels (that is a mere 1.83 megapixel).
This photo is hanging on a wall in my office, printed at 60cm x 40cm (23.6″ x 15.7″) behind plexiglass. After 15 years, I still love it. And I can promise you I will not take it down from my office wall anytime soon.
If you look real close at the print, it is grainy and a little soft. The people on deck of the USS Arizona Memorial are nothing more than multi-colored blobs. And you can see some grain in the clouds too. But when you look at it from the right viewing distance, it is a stunning photo that brings back quite a few memories.
Now consider this: my iPhone 7 has a 12MP camera, plenty of memory, shoots RAW and I can edit my photos in Lightroom Mobile right on my phone. So why should it produce photos that are inferior to that 15 year old photo I like so much?
Well, it doesn’t! The other day, I was in Antwerp attempting a long exposure shot of the new Port House, the Antwep Port Authority HQ designed by architect Zaha Hadid.
While waiting on the sun to set, I flipped out my iPhone and shot and edited this photo of the building in Lightroom Mobile. On my iPhone! Guess what? It holds up to that 15 year old photo of the USS Arizona Memorial. And if that one was good enough to print at 60cm x 40cm, the iPhone photo should be good enough for print too.