our favorite city was unexpectedly cold for our visit. we had to pile on whatever we had in our suitcases for the first day! the highlight was taking sage to the disneyland of little girls' dreams: american girl place. she was blown away one matching outfit and doll accessory at a time.

we couldn't decide on just one backdrop for our traditional shoulders photo...so many to choose from.

50 hours

13 states

hours of music and two audiobooks later, 

we made it from north carolina to washington.

we decided we would probably never do it again, so why not drive across the country as we move (eventually) to the bay area?

after an epically long move day, we headed out of durham much later than we'd anticipated. the little girls thankfully slept soundly and we arrived in louisville, kentucky at 3:00 am. 

but this city! the brioche french toast with bourbon whipped cream at harvest didn't disappoint. neither did the oversized golden replica of michelangelo's david standing tall downtown. and i should mention sage is very into making up her own poses these days.


we set off for the louisville slugger museum, where we toured the factory and tested out some major league baseball bats. we stopped by the batting cages on our way out and i...am not so great at hitting a baseball anymore.


sage was mostly just thrilled with her mini louisville slugger, compliments of the tour.

our last stop in louisville was the muhammad ali center. boxing is pretty low on my list of interests, but nate insisted we check this place out. i was pleasantly surprised–the museum is so well done. we did some virtual boxing and speed training, and i learned that george foreman was actually an athlete, not just the face of the grill (am i the last one to figure this out?!). 

we drove across the bridge to indiana and stopped in zionsville to visit friends (and meet their new baby!), then continued on to our beloved chicago.