Graceland

Since we heard we were going to Memphis and studying music and it's influence on history, we've all been begging Joe if we could go to Graceland. Not take a tour and spend the day, but just to see it. Joe, our leader is great...


He gave in and let us off the bus to take a few pictures, but when we found out that we could actually walk up to the house, we all we just so excited.






One of the coolest parts was the meditation garden. Now, today that is so popular, but to think Elvis had one years ago, was pretty cool.



It's sad to think that we lost a performer so amazing as him, so young.


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Location:Graceland, TN

Day 2 - National Civil Rights & Rock & Soul Museum

History is just amazing! To be able to walk in the footsteps of the greats like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is truly a powerful moment.


Today we spent the first half of the day at the National Civil Rights Museum.


This museum is actually at the Lorraine Hotel, where Dr. King was assassinated. They've made it so you can actually see into rooms 307 - where Dr. King Held a lot of his meetings when he was in Memphis and 306, where he stayed that last day.



The museum itself took us back in time to the 1600s and the origins of slavery and transported us through time to the present day. The interesting part for me was all of the connections I was able to make to last years trip to Alabama to study the Civil Rights Movement. When our amazing tour guide took us on our journey, I was right back on last years trip when we walked the Pettis Bridge; but at the same time, Ryan let us in on little known facts that helped round out the stories and deepen our knowledge.

As always, there is some sort of drama throughout the day... Today it happened at our restaurant The Happy Mexican! They really weren't prepared for a group as large as ours, so lunch that was supposed to take about 45 mins, ended up taking 1 1/2 hours which through off our schedule. This impacted our afternoon.

After lunch we headed to the Rock and Soul Museum. It was a great place to chill, learn some music history, and listen to some great tunes! Throughout the tour you had a listening device where you'd input the exhibit number and it would tell you'll all about it. Then you could listen to the popular music of the time period. I just wish we had extra time to explore.

Well I'm ready to call it a night. I'll add more tomorrow while we're on the bus! Night all!





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Location:S 2nd St,Memphis,United States

Day 1 - The Flights & Memphis, TN

Today started off with a short bus ride to Bradley where it seemed like minutes to get there since we were all catching up and chatting away about the summers events so far. That is the great part about this program, the Teaching American History Grant, we're all from all around the state and get to have these amazing experiences together. When else am I going to say I've been to Idaho or Washington state. These trips give teachers a chance to experience the history they will be teaching about in their classrooms.
The first flight to Charlotte, NC was uneventful, except for the fact that the woman checking me in at the gate, forgot to give me my tickets. She gave me my baggage check ticket, but no tickets.... So when I went to start the security process, the guy looked at me like I was an idiot.... "Where are your tickets Ms.?" Me - "I just gave them to you". Security guy - "Ms. This is your baggage claim ticket, not your boarding passes!". Me - "Oh! Guess I need to get those..." When I get back to the ticketing area, the woman goes, I can't believe I let you leave without your tickets... Then again, I also love how I didn't even check. I just took what she gave them to me and I left! It's all good though!
The flight itself was smooth sailing all the way. Here are some great pics from my window seat
What was interesting however, was that although I was set with my seat on the first flight, the second flight was over sold... How does one do that... There are only so many seats on a plane. How do you sell more than you have? Somehow that can't be legal! After about 30 mins of waiting and wondering... Hmmm will I make it on the flight... It all worked out in the end! I made it on the flight. Yay!!!
Once we got our luggage, we got on the bus and headed to our first sight - Mudd Island Park and River Museum on the Mississippi River. We took a pretty cool monorail ride over the river to get to the museum. The great part of this adventure was how they made a scale model of the Mississippi River and all of the states it runs through. It was also an elevated model, so you see not only it's depth, but how wide it was in places too!




Inside the museum we learned a lot about the history of the river and what changes the area has seen over the years. One of my favorite parts of the museum was the steam boat replica. We got to go on board and walk through the boat. It just all seemed so real. They even made sections of the boat slope downward, so you felt as if the boat was actually moving. Our pictures are fun too!!!



The rest of the night we had on our own, after we checked into our elegant hotel! This place is gorgeous!!!! We felt like royalty just walking into the Peabody Hotel. And of course I loved the live music that a gentleman in a tux was playing in the lobby......!
We did dinner at a BBQ place that had such a cool vibe! We had some of the local cuisine which was amazing. Our waiter even shared with us a lot of the history of the neighborhood, like where we were was down the street from where Dr. King was assassinated.
From there we headed down to Beale Street which is like a milder version of Bourbon Street. It is a really cool artsy area.



Well that's all for now! I'm falling asleep as I write, so I'm calling it a night!
Night all!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:S 2nd St,Memphis,United States

Summer of Steph 2012 Tour Begins

What a difference a year makes! Like everyone, there are lots of ups and downs, but 2011 - 2012 (Yes, I'm a teacher so I talk about things in terms of school years) had many more ups than downs.

Over the year I've realized just how strong I am and that I can make it through anything that is thrown in front of me. I've made sure that the things that I do, fulfill me. I'm not doing things anymore to make other people happy, I'm putting me first, which was something that was very hard for to do. Not everyone liked it, but you know what... Too bad for them. I need to take care of me.

I also had the great opportunity to go back on stage in two different shows. Again it was filled with amazing people and great experiences. I wouldn't have traded the time I put into Legally Blonde or Burlesque 2.0 for anything in the world.

My new world tour begins... This year I'll be hitting Tennessee, Mississippi, Lousiana, and both Upstate New York and New York City. Check back for updates on our crazy history adventure with the Teaching American History Crew!

Pictures from Day 12 & Graduation!

Hey All,

Sorry last night's entry was so short!  I was exhausted!  Here are some fun pictures from throughout the day!

Here's one of breakfast!  The pancakes were amazing!

Here's one of Jenee and I!  She's awesome!  I'm so going to miss her!

John before Cardio Disco Jam

We were the dancing trio - Kim, me, John, and Kim!  We hit every dance class and hit it hard!  It was amazing!  One of the guests whose been at the Ridge for 6 weeks actually came up to me and said that he thought I was the best dancer that's been here in all the time he's been here and that he loved to watch me dance.  Wow!  Talk about an ego boost!  I loved it!  As always... when I'm on the dance floor, I dance like it's my job!  Oh yeah... we put on a show too.... in between part of the class the three of us broke out into Dancing Queen... it was HYSTERICAL!  You would have been so proud Jen!

Here's me and John in Cardio Disco Jam!

Day 12 - Graduation

Hey all,

Ok... so here's the short, short version for today.  We just got back from the movies!  A great time was had by all!  Graduation was fun tonight!  Lots of great memories that will last a lifetime from BLR!  Today was a day filled with knee issues... and dancing!  I love the combination of the two.  There are tons of pics to post, but I'll get to it during our break in the day tomorrow!  My new dress was a complete and total hit!  Lots of compliments by all! :)

Have a good night!

Day 11 - How can it be day 11 already???

Well this experience has truly flown by.  I can't believe my time here, at the Biggest Loser Ranch and the Summer of Steph, is almost through.  Graduation night is tomorrow... and then I have a late flight out Sunday night.  Man... the time has flown!  I had waited so long for this journey to begin, and now it's about to come to an end.  It's kinda hard to imagine what my life would have been like without all of this.  I'm so fortunate to have been able to experience such wonderful things in these last 6 weeks.  From the people that I have met to the things I've seen, I don't think I'll ever be the same.  I feel like I've changed, not only physically over these last 6 weeks, but it's been an emotional battle too.  I've learned that I can handle anything that is put in my path, I'm a hell of a lot stronger than I ever thought, and I know who I am now... and no one can change that.  Wow.... that's a mouthful!  I'm onto bigger and better things...

Today was a hard day.  From the hike to the classes... to the longstanding battle with my knee... it was full of ups and downs.

The day started off with 6 am Stretch with Terri! I just love how relaxed you feel in there and the difference it makes with your ability to get through the day.  Next, we were onto breakfast, which was great!  An egg sandwich!  It was just what you needed to eat before a hike!  It fills you up, and you have a lot of energy to get through the hike!  Today's hike was Regan Ranch.  It was a wonderful hike full of high elevations.  I loved the views and it was great that we had cool weather throughout most of it!  It really made it easier to complete.    The one thing however, when you are sweating your butt off while working out... and your in a t-shirt and shorts... it makes it very hard to warm up.  I came back and was freezing.  It wasn't until after stretch that I finally warmed up!  I even wore a sweatshirt through most of stretch... I was still cold!

From stretch, we went to hear Sam Poueu, a trainer here at BLR and past season 9 contestant on the Biggest Loser speak at a Q&A during lunch.  Sam is truly amazing with everything he's been through in his life and just his Biggest Loser Story... We truly loved every minute of his talk.  It was inspiring.  A few of us even had tears in our eyes.  He's just so sweet!  Of course we had to get pictures with him afterwards too...

From there, we had some break time, so we hung outside for awhile and then all headed back to our rooms.  By this time... my knee was killing me... and I was truly debating whether or not goto class.  My roommate Kim kept telling me, just make sure it's worth it... make sure you're not going to do any more damage by going.  I sat... and thought... and had an inner battle within myself.  I don't want to give up... so I figured... you know what.  I'm not going to.  I'm going to work through the pain... and that's what I did.

We had Ursula for pool.  It was a great class that flew by.  There were only a few of us in the pool, so we got through everything really quickly.  From there we had Ball Works with Cam!  I love this class!  It's centers that you work through.  They're always fun and Cam dances through the class... I love it!  I was truly feeling pretty good.  There wasn't alot I could do there that would hurt my knee!  Score!  The final class of today was Treading with Sam.  What I loved most about this class, I felt like I was back on the field with Coach Parker and the O-line of the Crush... the way Sam was calling out what we had to do... we all had to repeat it... I don't know, it just felt like football practice.  He killed us, but we all loved every single minute.  We felt powerful... we felt like we could tackle world... It was such a great high!  I loved it!

Dinner tonight was pretty good.  We always love chicken.  Dessert... yeah... that was another thing.  We all took one bite... and YUCK.  This is the first time I think we actually complained about the food.  We got Craig to try it... and he agreed.  At least we knew we weren't crazy!

The night ended with me talking to Mom & Dad... Robyn...  After that I had a long chat with one of the trainers - Kareen.  She asked about my story and what got me here.  The cool part is, through pictures on Facebook, you can really see how much I've changed since the beginning of the year.  When I look back at that picture of Regina and I... I can't even see me... It's soo weird. But it's always great to hear from others their thoughts on your story.

I headed back to my room, iced my knees and caught up with Muscles on Skype.   I can't tell you how much talking to you can even make the knee pain not feel as bad!  Thanks for making me smile!  And for the record... Sam's got nothing on you... There, I said it! :P

Night All!