planes, trains, and automobiles...literally

Let's go MAVS!

i've been back from this trip for a few weeks now, but i feel like i'm just now feeling able to breathe. going to florida for one week, coming back for a week, then going back out of town for ten more days felt like one thing: i was back on tour.

in dallas mase and i walked around a little bit in the cold, and i actually sat and edited falling stars on the grassy knoll...for reals. sarah didn't know i was in dallas, much less walking around where jfk was shot when she called me to go over some edits...and i didn't tell her:) i wanted to work on it. plus, i'm rereading 11/22/63 by stephen king right now, and i felt kind of inspired at that moment. i can't believe i've been to dallas that many times (on tour mostly) and never saw any of that history, but ah well. i made up for lost time. 

X-marks the spot JFK was killed. 

6th floor...no thank you. 

One of the nicest people you could ever meet.

We heart trains. On the way to the airport to go to LAX

why did we go to santa monica? my husband still can't believe i made him move from santa monica back to 4-seasoned tennessee. i mean, he can, but he misses it badly. so we stayed two buildings down from where we lived right on ocean avenue next to the pier. for me, honestly, i got goosebumps (not the best kind) at first. the hotel was absolutely amazing. no complaints there. i just have memories of santa monica that entailed missing my home sweet nashville so much while i dwelled there that i wrote a novel about nashville. literally walked around the third street promenade, some of the coolest shops, some of the best weather, and all i wanted was a randomly freezing day in march (like we had today).

Our hotel: The Shore. 

Up and at 'em. 

Mason's happy place. 

Down by the pier. 

We lived right across from here. 

it wasn't lost on me at all that it rained 4 out of the 5 days we were in santa monica. they had just had the worst drought in 30 years until the day we got there and it pourrrrred. cats and dogs doesn't do it justice. i don't know if you have ever been to cali when it rains or tennessee when it actually snows...but they are the same: no one knows what to do. anyway, my goosebumps about being there again (my second time since we moved in october 2011) went away completely and i enjoyed myself. i knew nashville was in my future again, and i reminded myself that i was supposed to be on vacation.

we ate at our favorite sushi spot 3 times that week. and it wasn't enough. we walked around in the rain (i brought us umbrellas because i planned for the wet attack). it was great. we drank lots of coffee, worked out, walked around all the outdoor malls that usually would be crawling with tourists...empty because of the rain. all in all, i had a marvelous time.

On the way to Palo Alto. 

Getting serious...

why did we go to san fran? mason loves basketball--a love i have since acquired because of his intense love--so he wanted to take a day trip to stanford to watch a game. that was all good and well until we got to sfo airport and i dropped my phone in the bathroom...fell right out of my pocket and smack! cracked the screen in a million places. i wrote a post on instagram about it:

I totally looked like an overzealous student. 

Cutest boy ever. 

tangent:
the broken tooth story was from 2010 when i was on tour for a few months. i had had sinus surgery before the tour started and i think my immune system was down for the entire duration on the tour because things kept happening. i lost my voice, got acute bronchitis, had to get a shot of cortisone at the el paso emergency room, got super nauseous from antibiotics while i was crossing the golden gate bridge on my way into san fran. so i was in my bunk on the bus and missed the whole thing. anyway, the next morning, i had a radio visit. i felt great for the first time in about a month or so. my label head and i went to mcdonald's so i could get some basically bread hamburgers (this is before i married a restauranteur, don't judge me). i was finally hungry, and i took it as a good sign. the key here is that they were soft hamburgers. the bread got stuck in my teeth or something, so i tried to un-stick it (not a word). and i felt something sharp. yep. it was my tooth and half of it was gone! it wasn't in the very front thank goodness, but it wasn't in the way back. and remember, i was a singer. i opened my mouth super wide for those high notes...and i had a show that night. the next day was our biggest date on the tour: LA. i couldn't believe it. anyway, i did the shows, all was well (except i was very self-conscious) and i flew home on easter the day after the la show for an emergency root canal before resuming in denver. 

Finally I can see it! 

ok, so back to san fran in 2014. breaking my screen seemed funny, and by that i mean not funny. but what could i do? we were still in vacation! suck it up, ashlyne. i did. we ate more sushi. went to bed early, and took the train to palo alto the next morning where i found a perfectly good iPhone repair shop--seemed like the best place to find one since it's where all the tech businesses are anyway! we walked around all day on campus in amazement. gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. we ate at the student center, bought some sweatshirts like total tourists, and went to the game. there, we figured out that stanford was playing colorado. wellll, one of my oldest friends from my dance competition years in nashville, jenni...her dad was the athletic director at CU...so he was there! of all places! i haven't seen him in forever. probably a decade. and CU won at the last second, but i was excited for mr. george.

San Fran from our rental car on the way to Napa. 

why napa? why not? i'd never been. the last time mason had gone was when he was in middle school, so he couldn't come close to appreciating anything other than the landscape. napa, the whole feel of the place in general, it was my favorite part of the trip. it was serene, quiet, inviting...more like the south in ways, which was probably why i felt at home. i definitely could hear myself think more, which was helpful since i was trying to write.

According to my dad: Mecca. 

Happy to be in serene Napa. 

Opus One.

now you know why. and the ultimate why to the whole trip is that mason is breaking ground on 2 more locations for his restaurant (jonathansgrille.com) next month and late this summer, so the chances of us taking anymore trips is pretty slim for a long while.

It was a good trip.