Travels to Knoxville, Tennessee to meet family!

Although I've mostly stayed home this holiday, I did make a quick trip down to Knoxville last week-end to meet up with my mother and sister from S.C. We had a wonderful 20 hours or so together and exchanged gifts and caught up on family news as well as family history. Unfortunately, a huge winter storm blew up and we both came through quite a bit of snow...luckily it was mostly on the ground.

This picture is of my 84 y.o. mother, Tumpy who is still going strong.  I took 5 or 6 short videos of her telling me some of our family history.  I can never keep all the great-grandparents straight!   Stay tuned for more travels!

Back from Sarasota and Siesta Key!

Wow! I had a great vacation in Florida and got a great time and read an entire huge novel!! I'm so happy and feeling rested and excited about the rest of the year! If you ever want to go to a gorgeous beach that has nearly perfect weather year-round, I highly recommend Siesta Key, Florida and the Siesta Key Suites! Check it out!

Chantdoc cooling off in the mountains

Wow! I thought I had already posted about my trip to Lake Junaluska, but guess I didnt. It's been over three weeks since I met my mother and two oldest daughters at Lake Junaluska, a beautiful United Methodist retreat center in the mountains of Western North Carolina. It's in the Smoky Mountains and is a very popular vacation area of the South.

Anyway, my parents built a summer home there in the summer of 1956 and I've been every summer since then! My three daughters also went there every summer growing up so it's a real family tradition! Here are just a few of our pictures from that week-end!

If you're interested in renting the place in the Fall or Spring, or Summer, let me know! It is very reasonable!

Summer of 1961

I've always loved to go to the beach! Probably because I knew that for sure, my family would be going to the mountains and to me it just wasn't as special, even though we had our own summer home in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I think what sealed the deal for me was when my parents took all five of us kids plus my grandmother to the Bahamas in the summer of 1961. We were there for 3 weeks and I was an early teen, just feeling the surge of teen emotions for boyfriends and getting away from parents.

After that, I always associated the beach, palm trees, sunburn and tropical flowers with fun, love and excitement! Here are a few of the pictures from that summer of 1961! The first picture is our family on the cruise ship "Emerald Sease." We left out of Miami and arrived in Nassau the next morning. I'll never forget the sight of Bahamian boys swimming out to the ship and diving for coins that we would throw out into the ocean!

Chantdoc goes to Washington, D.C.

I'm in the middle of a very exciting adventure in Washington, D.C. The official reason is to do research at the Library of Congress on Wanda Landowska and the Revival of the Harpsichord. Wanda was the topic of my Ph.D. dissertation back in 1990 and at that time I was aware that a lot more material existed on this topic.

In 2004, Landowska's lifelong companion died and finally in 2008, 110 boxes of archival materials about Wanda arrived at the Library of Congress. Today I was there for 8 hours and only got through two of them! Tomorrow I'll go back and hope to get through at least two more. If there is something in particular you'd like for me to take a peek at, please let me know ASAP.

The pictures are from some tourist activites I did yesterday with my daughter and son-in-law. You'll recognize the Lincoln Memorial in the background.

Travel around the world with music, "Stand By Me"

One of the great parts of my job---speading word of the healing power of music--- is that people send me awesome videos all the time! Recently this one was sent to me and I have watched it over and over!

I hope that YOU'LL enjoy it and leave me a comment on it! It brings tears to my eyes every time i watch it!

We made it to Dublin...and Rock of Cashel!

This past week-end we had a wonderful Irish adventure! We flew from Paris Beauvais airport to Dublin, Ireland and beyond. This picture is of Allison and Liz outside of Christ Church in Dublin where we went to a beautiful Evensong service on Saturday, the day we arrived.

The next day we rented a car and set out to see Cashel, where the Cash family alledgedly started! We were amazed to see a huge castle on a mammoth rock, rising into the sky there. We met many friendly and helpful townsfolk but there don't seem to be many Cashes there today? However they treated us as family and that was nice! We were a little nervous about driving on the other side of the highway, but brave little Liz was willing to give it a try and Allison navigated. I sat in the back seat, enjoying the scenery. There are truly loads of sheep, emerald green grasses, and tulips, daffodils, and tiny daisies everywhere!

Sorry about the picture I can't rotate for now. Will fix that when I get back home!

Have you been to Dublin?

My children and I are looking for tips on travel in Ireland. Have you been there? Did you rent a car and try driving on the left side? We will be traveling from Dublin to Cashel on the week-end and are considering renting a car but don't know how dangerous or scary it might be for 3 American women who are ingrained with driving on the right side.

Comments and suggestions welcomed!

Thanks,

Alice

Chantdoc plans trip to Ireland!

My children and I have always wanted to go to Ireland to see not only the beautiful Emerald Isle, but also to go to Cashel where our family name began. Of course, Cash is my married name, but it has been my name for nearly 38 years and I do love it!

Cashel has a very ancient history, albeit only documented since the 4th Century. The Rock of Cashel, with its well preserved ecclesiastical remains, is one of Ireland's most spectacular landmarks, rising above the surrounding plain and dominating the land route southward.The large Cathedral, ancient round tower and the very early Romanesque Cormac's Chapel , perched on a dramatic outcrop of rock, were silent witnesses to many of the stirring events of Irish History; St.Patrick converted the local King Aenghus, here in the 5th century; Brian Boru was crowned King of Ireland on this spot in the early 11th Century. The Vicar's Choral has been restored and the site, one of the most visited in Ireland, now provides an interpretative centre, (multi lingual) an interesting museum, guided tours and superb views over the extensive and beautiful plains of Tipperary.

Chantdoc preparing to go to Paris

It seems as though it's been a very long time since I was in Paris for more than just to transfer planes. I spent six weeks there in the summer fo 1987 doing my Ph.D. dissertation research. My dissertation was on "Wanda Landowska and the Revival of the Harpsichord: a Reassessment." I've included a brief clip from the documentary that was later made from my dissertation. . I am hoping to do a presentation at the American Church of Paris, but now it looks as though I might also be able to do a presentation on Landowska to a group of harpisichord afficionados. If you know anyone or any group in Paris that would like to sponsor a lecture or a seminar, let me know ASAP!

Thanks,

Alice

Do you like cruising?

The cruise that my children took me on last August was one of the best vacation experiences that I've had! I have to especially recommend Carnival cruises too because they do such as excellent job of preparing you for the journey, making sure that everyone has a good time and being creative and flexible! For example, the cruise that my children and I went on was originally supposd to go to Key West and Cozumel. At the last minute, Hurricane Faye came our way and when we went to the pier we though the cruise would surely be cancelled. To our surprise and delight, we were informed that we would now be going to Grand Turk, Bahamas and we did and had a great time!
If you're interested, please go to www.CashFamilyTravel.com and book your Carnival Cruise today! You won't regret it!