This week is part one of the conversation Brandi and Michelle had about the past few weeks and Brandi’s road trip through the midwest and all of the interesting, and inspiring things she found.

Inspiration on the Road (Part 1) – Episode 104

Michelle’s week:

For starters, Michelle almost got a “breakup haircut” not because she broke up with anyone, but because so much has been changing and happening in her life that she wanted to control one thing. Fortunately, she didn’t change it that much and she got a great haircut. She’s just in a place where change isn’t bad it just feels bad. And Michelle finally saw Bohemian Rhapsody finally! Go, Michelle!  

Takeaways from this episode/Brandi’s family road trip:

• Still recovering and trying to remember all that she did on her family road trip. Brandi had been to all the places they stopped before except for the Nashville Jacksonville area and Chicago. Starting in New Mexico they drove to Texas. 
• In Houston Texas, they wanted to go to the Johnson Space Center. They also stopped in Huntsville Alabama to see the largest space museum. In Houston, they specifically saw the Saturn 5 rocket which is 60 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty! Fun fact that Brandi loved was that when building the campus for the Johnson Space Center, they designed it like a college campus so as to create a community. What stuck with Brandi from the space center though was on a timeline of the space race. At the very end was blank vinyl with nothing on it, and to Brandi, that blank space meant the future; it meant where we can and hopefully will add to the timeline. 

• The Monument Au Fantome by French sculptor Jean Dubuffet was another fun stop in Houston. Jean Dubuffet also designed another sculpture that Chicago and Brandi had already seen a sculpture if his while on her trip to New York.

• The good thing to note is that Galveston is the best beach ever! For Brandi, it was like swimming in a bathtub the water was so warm. And it was shallow for a way’s out which made it great for swimming

• They also watched fresh taffy being made with like 140-year-old taffy machines in downtown Galveston.

• In New Orleans, after some scary flood warnings, they made it safely and got to walk around Jackson Square. Sadly they didn’t walk Princess and the Frog. It was also really hot so New Orleans is much more enjoyable at night rather than during the day.

• Brandi had crawfish etouffee for dinner one night and she really liked it! 

• They stayed at the Andrew Jackson hotel where they still give you actual keys for the door which is a cute detail. And they serve your continental breakfast to you in your room on a silver platter. Super fancy! 

• At the French market, they had the important foods Gumbo, Jambalaya, and gator sausage. Sadly, Brandi’s daughter Jasmine is a bit traumatized from being forced to eat “weird” things in New Orleans… Oops  

• Next stop was Nashville where they met friends Dawn and her son Johnny for cronuts at Five Daughters bakery at The Factory in Franklin
• Also at the Factory, Brandi found a really cool record store
• Sadly because of the CMA’s they didn’t to Nashville so that will be a trip for another day
• They also got fresh Georgia peaches (Joelle is jealous haha) 
• Next stop was Chicago and the first morning was rainy and cloudy and the tops of the building were disappearing in the clouds which were so pretty. For Brandi, who loves rain, this was the perfect introduction to the city for her.
• It was also Sunday when they got to Chicago so they took the opportunity to go to church at an old church. The pastor let them see and play the pipe organ which was a really fun experience. Brandi took the opportunity to take lots of pictures of the church building which was covered in moss and ivy. 
• They surprised Jasmine with a trip to the American Girl store, then went to a store called the Unicorn store. They also went to the Nutella cafe for breakfast. Fun fact Michelle and Brandi love it, Joelle is indifferent but a story goes with it. Maybe one day that story will be told. Anyway, Brandi loved the branding of Nutella and their decor inside the cafe was on point 

Michelle’s song: The Modern Leper by Julien Baker

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Thank you to Vesperteen for allowing us to use his song Shatter in the Night as our intro and outro music for Design Speaks

This Quarter’s Book:

We are reading and reviewing books on the podcast every quarter!

If you would like to read along, THIS QUARTER, we’ve been reading, The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair.

Want to support us?

Go to Patreon and help support our podcast!

Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any burning questions you want Brandi to answer on an episode at brandi@brandisea.com.

THANK YOU to the ultra-talented  Vesperteen (Colin Rigsby) for letting us use his (“Shatter in The Night”) track in every episode of Design Speaks.

TRANSCRIPTION

Brandi Sea: 00:00:00 And if I turn on the AC, I’ll freeze my sleeping children.

Michelle: 00:00:03 Oh Gosh. Those poor, poor kids I know. Living with AC.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:08 Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. This boujee life I’m living

Michelle: 00:00:12 Boujee

Intro: 00:00:14 Welcome to Design Speaks. This lovely podcast is brought to you by a graphic design geek and irregular human being AKA a non-designer. We’re here to chat about music, pop culture, cool places, and basically whatever we feel is relevant.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:30 Hey guys, I’m Brandi Sea

Michelle: 00:00:32 And I’m Michelle

Brandi Sea: 00:00:33 And you’re listening to episode 104 of Design Speaks.

Michelle: 00:00:37 Welcome to it. On this episode, we will be talking about the grand trip. That was Brandi’s this summer. The road trip

Brandi Sea: 00:00:46 The grand trip. The Great Midwest road trip of 2019.

Michelle: 00:00:50 It was pretty grand.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:52 It was pretty great. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle: 00:00:55 Yeah. Same thing.

Brandi Sea: 00:00:55 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:00:56 One’s bigger than the other. I feel like grand is bigger than great

Brandi Sea: 00:00:59 Grand sounds fancier. Road trips aren’t really fancy

Michelle: 00:01:02 No, I was saying earlier today, I was like, you lived in this car pretty much

Brandi Sea: 00:01:07 Yeah, we did.

Michelle: 00:01:08 Like you had beds at night, but you lived in this car.

Brandi Sea: 00:01:11 Yeah, we basically did. Yeah, I think we did. All right. We had a pretty, we had a pretty good set up, but there were times where I was, I told Kenny like, you’ve got to clear out around my feet, like cuz I’m so claustrophobic right now. Like I’m going lose it

Michelle: 00:01:23 And see so many people are like, oh, I’m so sorry. There’s stuff by your feet. And I’m like comforted by stuff being at my feet, so that doesn’t bother me.

Brandi Sea: 00:01:32 Well, I don’t mind there being stuffed by my feet, but when I have my feet up on things so that I’m like eating my knees, things at my feet.

Michelle: 00:01:41 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:01:41 That’s where I was like, I can’t, and it wasn’t like his fault. It was just like, instead of putting things in the back, we just kept putting things in like

Michelle: 00:01:48 It compiles.

Brandi Sea: 00:01:49 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:01:50 No, that makes sense.

Brandi Sea: 00:01:51 Yeah so

Michelle: 00:01:52 That is wild. Um, but you did it.

Brandi Sea: 00:01:55 I did it.

Michelle: 00:01:56 You got through it.

Brandi Sea: 00:01:57 I did.

Michelle: 00:01:58 And it actually looked like a lot of fun.

Brandi Sea: 00:01:59 I tried, I tried really hard to keep up with my stories because I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to keep up with my, like my actual Instagram posts.

Michelle: 00:02:07 I know

Brandi Sea: 00:02:07 I’m still, super behind on those, but um, I tried for everyone’s sake. That was like, make sure you post things. I’m following you. I was like, okay, I’m going to try really hard. So I was only a few days behind by the end so it wasn’t too bad.

Michelle: 00:02:21 Yeah, no, you’re caught up on that, right?

Brandi Sea: 00:02:24 Yeah. Yeah. I finally did catch up on that.

Michelle: 00:02:27 I feel like I was on the trip with you, but I was also really sad that I wasn’t, because I want to visit places like Nola and Chicago, like those, are cool places.

Brandi Sea: 00:02:34 Yeah, they were very cool.

Michelle: 00:02:36 I literally don’t know where else you went. Oh, good. Okay. I see it now

Brandi Sea: 00:02:40 I shared. I shared with you the list

Michelle: 00:02:42 The list. You actually went to a lot of cool places, but there’s some places I would’ve been like, what’s in Minnesota? But

Brandi Sea: 00:02:49 Well,

Michelle: 00:02:50 You’ll find out you’ll find

Brandi Sea: 00:02:51 We’ll, we’ll just, we’ll just go there first and say that’s sort of a sad story because I have two friends in Minnesota, in Minneapolis

Michelle: 00:03:00 Oh okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:03:01 David Schwinn and my friend Kelsey Sharp and both of them wanted to hang out with us and we were supposed to be able to have dinner and then probably breakfast with either or both of them. And we ended up leaving Chicago too late because somebody’s an amazing friend that I’ll talk about. Got us tickets to a speed boat cruise. Um,

Michelle: 00:03:23 Oh cool

Brandi Sea: 00:03:23 Tour thing. And that didn’t start till 11, so we didn’t end

Michelle: 00:03:29 At night?

Brandi Sea: 00:03:30 In the afternoon

Michelle: 00:03:31 Oh and you were leaving early

Brandi Sea: 00:03:31 In the morning. So we didn’t end up getting, being able to leave Chicago until like three in the afternoon, which put us in Minneapolis at like 10 o’clock at night. So we weren’t able to have dinner

Michelle: 00:03:43 Past dinner.

Brandi Sea: 00:03:44 And then we woke up early, just barely had, um, donuts with David and his family. And Kelsey woke up late so she missed donuts cause it was 6:00 AM when we had donuts.

Michelle: 00:03:55 Yeah

Brandi Sea: 00:03:56 And that was it

Michelle: 00:03:56 That’s pretty early for donuts.

Brandi Sea: 00:03:58 So, that was, that was Minnesota.

Michelle: 00:04:00 Oh

Brandi Sea: 00:04:00 That was all we did. And then we left,

Michelle: 00:04:02 That’s okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:02 So

Michelle: 00:04:03 You saw some people and moved on.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:05 We saw

Michelle: 00:04:06 You drive through Minnesota

Brandi Sea: 00:04:07 A couple people and had donuts and had a coffee. Yeah. So

Michelle: 00:04:10 Yeah,

Brandi Sea: 00:04:10 That was all

Michelle: 00:04:12 Oh well it’s okay. More about that later.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:15 Yeah, well that’s, that’s all there is about Minnesota, but there’s lots about pretty much everywhere else. Poor David, I’m so sorry Kelsey, we missed you.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:25 Hey guys. So if you really love this show and want to support it, um, so we can continue making episodes now over and above a hundred. Um, we would really appreciate it if you checked out our Patreon.

Michelle: 00:04:37 It’s patreon.com/designspeaks and you can give as little as $1 and as much as you absolutely want to. And it could be monthly, a one-time thing that’s on you.

Joelle: 00:04:47 It will help us out immensely.

Brandi Sea: 00:04:49 It might make, make Joelle a, a full employee someday.

Joelle: 00:04:54 Yeah, get up job, to get paid to do this would be awesome.

Michelle: 00:04:58 You and me, both you and me both. All three of us, really.

Joelle: 00:05:01 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:05:01 So patreon.com/designspeaks.

Michelle: 00:05:08 I’ll just, I’ll just start with my week. Um, my week. It’s like more like three weeks.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:14 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:05:14 It’s been insane.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:16 Where have you been, Michelle? I’ve been here all alone.

Michelle: 00:05:19 No. You left this, the state,

Brandi Sea: 00:05:23 The states

Michelle: 00:05:24 Then state states, you went to do many states. And I feel like my life just completely changed. Like I almost like this Friday I’m getting a haircut and I’m like, I wonder if I get like a breakup haircut because like there’s so much that’s changing and that’s the only thing I can control.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:41 Is that what I was like, what’s a breakup haircut?

Michelle: 00:05:44 You know, when like you break up with a boyfriend and you drastically change your hair. Have you never heard of that?

Brandi Sea: 00:05:48 No.

Michelle: 00:05:50 That’s a thing.

Brandi Sea: 00:05:50 I’ve never done that. Or heard of that

Michelle: 00:05:52 I did that unknowingly. And then you be like, Oh yeah, you did the breakup haircut. And I was like, what?

Brandi Sea: 00:05:57 I did?

Michelle: 00:05:57 And it’s usually you go from like super long to super short and you’re just like, look, I’m a changed person. I don’t need you. Um,

Brandi Sea: 00:06:04 Oh, interesting. So, so you’re, you’re changing so much that you need to break up haircut?

Michelle: 00:06:09 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:10 So long as you’re not breaking up with me

Michelle: 00:06:12 I’m not breaking up with you. That is the good news. I am not

Brandi Sea: 00:06:16 Good news. I always liked the bad news first though.

Michelle: 00:06:18 Oh, bad news. I don’t know if I had, well I dunno if I have bad news, just

Brandi Sea: 00:06:24 Bad news for your hair because it’s done. It’s going to be cut.

Michelle: 00:06:27 I don’t know. Yeah, I’ll do something. I’ll cut some of it real short. Um, but I think change isn’t bad. It just feels bad. So I think that’s where I think that’s where I am.

Brandi Sea: 00:06:38 I feel like I’m a good quote.

Michelle: 00:06:41 Yeah. Okay. So I heard a really good quote, which is kind of helped me with the change. And, um, actually, my coworker said it, he said, cause I said, Oh, you know me, I just like if there’s a bridge that I want a burn that I’m just going to burn it like I’m going to be like, whatever. But, and he was like, yeah, and cause that’s just how I am. Like, like, whoops, guess that’s gone. Like,

Brandi Sea: 00:07:07 Oh well

Michelle: 00:07:08 Mm bye. And like I feel bad later, but whatever. Um, but he’s like, he’s like, well question, are you really burning the bridge if you didn’t start the fire? And I was like, oh,

Brandi Sea: 00:07:20 oh, burn

Michelle: 00:07:20 That’s really helped me, with all of the changes happening in my life. So yeah. Um,

Brandi Sea: 00:07:29 No,

Michelle: 00:07:29 Lots of

Brandi Sea: 00:07:30 You did not, in fact, burn that bridge if you did not start the fire.

Michelle: 00:07:33 Exactly. I let it burn. I didn’t try to put it out but I don’t need to put out every fire.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:38 No,

Michelle: 00:07:38 It is not my job.

Brandi Sea: 00:07:39 It’s not, look at you

Michelle: 00:07:39 There’s a lot of therapy

Brandi Sea: 00:07:41 You’re being such a healthy nine right now.

Michelle: 00:07:43 I’m trying, I’m trying. Um, lots of changes at work with like employees, coworkers. It’s been wild ride there. Um, but as hard as it is, it’s been, it’s growing us all.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:01 I know some, I know some of what’s going on. I’m not trying to be cryptic but obviously, we can’t like air everything out on here. But

Michelle: 00:08:08 No dirty laundry,

Brandi Sea: 00:08:08 Only clean laundry

Michelle: 00:08:11 Only the clean stuff, preferably

Brandi Sea: 00:08:15 The dirty laundry is elsewhere.

Michelle: 00:08:17 We gotta go put it in the washer.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:19 I know. Let’s not talk about washers cause I still had it. A whole bunch of laundry from the trip.

Michelle: 00:08:24 Oh my gosh. I wish I could like carry cause I’m doing this through a computer right now. I wish I could carry my computer to my bed and just show you what I’m probably going to sleep under tonight cause it’s just it’s clean

Brandi Sea: 00:08:34 Do you sleep under clothes?

Michelle: 00:08:36 Um, I do, Kelly pushes them off of the bed.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:40 I put into baskets. I can’t sleep with clothes on the bed.

Michelle: 00:08:44 I don’t mind it because the weight is nice.

Brandi Sea: 00:08:47 Oh yeah.

Michelle: 00:08:48 So, um, but I did bring a song this time, which I really love. Um, little bit of a back story

Brandi Sea: 00:08:56 Longest name ever.

Michelle: 00:08:57 I know. Well, here’s the thing. Um, there’s a bit of a backstory to this song because the song that I’m bringing is in this version sung by Julian Baker. I’ve talked about her before.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:10 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:09:11 Um, but she did not write this song. This song is written, I have to say this because I don’t, I don’t usually like the music that Kelly, my husband,

Brandi Sea: 00:09:23 we established

Michelle: 00:09:24 Listens to

Brandi Sea: 00:09:24 We’ve established, we’ve established that, the national

Michelle: 00:09:26 I’m just like, wow, that’s really boring. But, um, but, um, he has been listening to a band that I’ve grown to really, really like.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:36 What?

Michelle: 00:09:36 Um, and I as the moment I heard them, I was like, this is good. This is awesome. They are a Scottish band, um, called Frightened Rabbit.

Brandi Sea: 00:09:48 I like it already.

Michelle: 00:09:49 And um like, I was already liking the music and he like looked at me, he was like, just so you know, Ian McGregor likes this band. And I was like, well, now I’m sold because Ian McGregor. Um, but the band is amazing. Like they had their sound very scottishy. They’ve got really cool indie rock sound, sound. Um, but sad news is that the lead singer from Frightened Rabbit dealt with depression openly. Um, and he ended up committing suicide back in May of 2018. He was only 36 years old.

Brandi Sea: 00:10:22 Wow, that was not that long ago?

Michelle: 00:10:23 No. Um, so he has a lyric and I might be misquoting the lyric, but it’s something like, as long as I’m alive or as long as I’m on this earth, I’ll continue to make tiny changes. Um, and so in his honor, there’s been a bunch of people that have come together to make music or to recreate his songs. Um, covers and two of four of those covers dropped on I think like yesterday, which is the 25th. I think I could be wrong about that date, but I just heard them yesterday and Julian Baker’s one of them. Um, she released a song by a cover by Frightened Rabbit called the Modern Leper and it’s for everything that they do. All the money they make off of this, um, goes to a mental health organization called tiny changes in his name.

Brandi Sea: 00:11:24 Got It. Very cool.

Michelle: 00:11:26 Yeah. So here is the song just for warning, there is language right in the beginning. It is explicit, so skip it if you need to. Here it is

Michelle: 00:13:42 So there is a part of the song, um, but you should listen to the original. These guys like Frightened Rabbit. The band is just so vibey Brandi, I think you really would like them.

Brandi Sea: 00:13:53 Yeah, I plan on, I plan on listening to that a little bit more later.

Michelle: 00:13:58 She may, but Julian Baker made this, um, just like a really chilled out vibey very, very her version. Like I, I love it. Another guy also made the same song. Oops, just hit the mic, just hit the mate. He just made the same song, covered the same song. His name is Biffy Clyro I could be making, I could be saying, oh, it’s a rock band. I could be saying that wrong Biffy Clyro

New Speaker: 00:14:23 I knew a girl named Biffy

New Speaker: 00:14:23 Really? Um,

Brandi Sea: 00:14:27 Elizabeth

Michelle: 00:14:28 Ooh.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:28 But they called her Biffy, isn’t that funny

Michelle: 00:14:29 Huh? Yeah, I knew it was a little girl named Rosemary and they called her Rosie and I thought that was interesting. Um, no, they called her Romy.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:38 Romy

Michelle: 00:14:39 But her name was Rosemary

Brandi Sea: 00:14:40 Rosemary’s not that different. Interesting

Michelle: 00:14:41 And um, yeah, side note. Um, I digress. So Biffy Clyro made another version that’s just like ready to like rock and a big concert area arena.

Brandi Sea: 00:14:57 Same Song. Oh cool. I’m gonna have to check those out.

Michelle: 00:15:01 Yeah. So, um, I love, love this band and I love the people that are jumping on board. Um, people like Chvrches, Aaron Dessner, The National, The National’s involved. Who knows

Brandi Sea: 00:15:13 You can’t escape them, Michelle.

Michelle: 00:15:15 I know they’re everywhere. They’re all over my life. Um, but yeah, so

Brandi Sea: 00:15:19 Nice

Brandi Sea: 00:15:20 Good stuff. Julian Baker, go check them out if you’re interested in more

Brandi Sea: 00:15:22 Well, thanks for sharing that whole story cause I wouldn’t have had any idea.

Michelle: 00:15:26 Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Oh, and then I also saw Bohemian rhapsody finally last night. Gosh took me forever

Brandi Sea: 00:15:31 Oh, isn’t it good?

Michelle: 00:15:33 It’s really good. What are people complaining about?

Brandi Sea: 00:15:35 So like, so tactful and such a really positive, like, I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt really in spite of how sad a lot of things were in his life. Like I felt very up

Michelle: 00:15:52 Inspired

Brandi Sea: 00:15:53 Yeah. Like very upbeat about the story of like the band together seemed like, I don’t know, it was so good.

Michelle: 00:16:03 They had ups and downs, but like, they really were overall family and they clicked together.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:07 They did and they like, they just, they had so much, much like grace and forgiveness and understanding for each other. And I don’t know it, I, we really enjoyed it when we saw it.

Michelle: 00:16:20 I did too. And like I had, um, some people from like, I’m from the LGBT community just talking about how much they didn’t like it, it didn’t portray him correctly or whatever.

Brandi Sea: 00:16:32 Why?

Michelle: 00:16:32 And I, I don’t, I can’t understand because I’m thinking about this time of Freddie Mercury living as a gay man. Um, it’s the 70s, you know

Brandi Sea: 00:16:45 Yeah

Michelle: 00:16:45 Like it’s a completely different time. I know it was, I’d had to have been so hard, but um, he like, I feel like they portrayed it accurately for the time that it was in and, um, also like helped us. I, I, what I got from it is that these things weren’t his identity.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:08 That’s what I was just about to say. I think I really appreciated that they showed all aspects of who he was as a person and it wasn’t, it wasn’t just like this puff piece about that.

Michelle: 00:17:25 Yeah. Like, or like, or even AIDS. Like he kept that super under wraps. He announced it to the public one day before he passed away.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:32 Right. And not, not the, you know, not that you should keep that or you know,

Michelle: 00:17:37 It was choice.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:38 Yeah. Like the, if you have AIDS, you should keep that, you can keep that stuff to yourself or anything like that. But I just, I think that you know, they showed that he was just a really private person.

Michelle: 00:17:47 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:17:48 And you know, this was who he was. He, he, he wasn’t there to be some sort of a poster boy for anybody, for anything. He was just him and I

Michelle: 00:17:57 And he made that, they made that clear in the movie with that line. Um, it was a line about saying I don’t want to be like, you know, the poster child for AIDS or something.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:08 Oh right, yeah. Yeah, that’s right. It was something like that. So it was, I thought it was really great and obviously, we’re not in that community but I thought it was very well done.

Michelle: 00:18:17 Anyway, that’s my week. That’s been my life.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:19 Hey, that’s awesome. I’m glad you finally saw that. I didn’t know you hadn’t. That’s great.

Michelle: 00:18:22 Took me a second.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:24 It’s okay. We waited till it came out on DVD too. So definitely like five, five steps away from us.

Michelle: 00:18:30 Five steps.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:31 I don’t know. I don’t even know what that means. You know how hot my office gets and it’s stinking hot in here right now.

Michelle: 00:18:37 Dude, I am in a tiny broom closet. Actually, it’s my real closet but it’s very isolated

Brandi Sea: 00:18:41 It probably feels as hot as it does in here. Cause I had the windows both open all day. And it’s, I had to turn off the fan cause you know, we’re recording so.

Michelle: 00:18:50 See, yup. Yup.

Brandi Sea: 00:18:51 I’m baking in here and if I turn on the AC, I’ll freeze my sleeping children.

Michelle: 00:18:56 Oh Gosh. Those poor, poor kids

Brandi Sea: 00:18:58 I know. It can wait

Michelle: 00:18:59 Living with AC.

Brandi Sea: 00:19:01 I know. Oh my gosh. That just made me feel terrible. Okay. I’m like, oh my gosh, this boujee life I’m living

Michelle: 00:19:09 Yeah, boujee.

Brandi Sea: 00:19:11 So that’s a word I learned on vacation from my husband who, who doesn’t normally say things like boujee. So

Michelle: 00:19:17 But he got you.

Brandi Sea: 00:19:18 Yeah. Got me on that one. I Dunno. I dunno where to start on this. I was expecting, I don’t know why I was expecting it to go slower because it was a road trip. Like usually our trips, I feel like they go way too fast and all those two weeks that we have always gone really fast and I was like, man, driving, it’s going to feel slower. Like it’s gonna feel slower and it didn’t

Michelle: 00:19:40 It went just as fast

Brandi Sea: 00:19:40 Everywhere we went and was like, oh my gosh, we need to come back here. Okay, we need to come back here too this wasn’t long enough. Um, Kenny kind of described the trip as like we, we went to a lot of places. He had never been. Um, most of the places I had been, um, excluding, um, I had not been to Nashville Franklin. I had been to parts of Tennessee but not those two

Michelle: 00:20:04 And you went to the factory.

Brandi Sea: 00:20:05 I went to the factory and I hadn’t been to Chicago. Um, but all the other places that we went, I had been before. So I was really excited to go to those places. So from Lubbock, we went to Houston and we stayed with my uncle who lives in Katy, Texas, which is like 30 minutes away. Um, a really, really easy drive to downtown Houston. The big thing that we wanted to do in Houston was the Johnson Space Center, which is, um, you know, Houston, we have a problem.

Michelle: 00:20:34 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 00:20:34 That’s that. Basically on the way from Nashville to Chicago, we, we kinda like popped over to, um, Huntsville, Alabama, which sounds really random, but the largest space museum in the world I think is there. And that’s like a really cool museum. We got there when it was closed and I’ll get to that later. But there’s only three Saturn, five rockets left. Um, and they’re all like fully built. Like if we wanted to use them, not that we would because it’s old technology, but if we wanted to use them, we could like put astronauts in these things and go like, there’s three Saturn rockets ready to go.

Michelle: 00:21:12 Wow.

Brandi Sea: 00:21:12 Um, one is in, um, Florida at the Kennedy Space Center. One is in Huntsville, Alabama at this other place and one is in Houston.

Michelle: 00:21:22 Oh.

Brandi Sea: 00:21:23 So we were able to go to, yeah, so we saw two of sort of saw two of them. We’ll get to that one in a minute. But um, the one at the interesting thing about Houston, um, space center, Johnson Space Center is that it’s like still an active working like a control center. So P it’s like this huge campus that people still work at. And they also like, they also have a museum. It’s like

Michelle: 00:21:50 That’s pretty cool

Brandi Sea: 00:21:50 Mainly this, but they have a museum. The big thing that we did was to go see the Saturn five rocket. It took me about a minute and a half of like decent speed, not just like normal meandering walking like pretty normal walking speed to get from one end to the other. It was laid on it’s inside. It’s 60 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Michelle: 00:22:15 Oh my gosh.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:16 Which is insane.

Michelle: 00:22:18 I mean she’s pretty big.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:19 Yeah. I mean not including the base just

Michelle: 00:22:22 Right.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:23 The actual her

Michelle: 00:22:24 Body.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:25 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:22:25 Body to body to fire

Brandi Sea: 00:22:27 Yeah. Yeah. Body to fire. Um,

Michelle: 00:22:31 It’s not a real fire. I was sad to find out.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:33 Oh well

Michelle: 00:22:35 It’s fine. It’s fine. How do they, how would they do that? You know?

Brandi Sea: 00:22:38 Yeah, I don’t know. They could, they could if they wanted to

Michelle: 00:22:41 But it rains and fog and stuff.

Brandi Sea: 00:22:43 There are ways if they want it to, it’s just too much effort. Um, so while we were taking the tour, we, you take like a little tram to get over to the Saturn five. And, um, something that the little tour person said on the tram was that they, they organized the office buildings like a college campus on purpose to promote, um, interaction and community community between all the different departments that Jen that normally would just stay in their cubicles and not like go anywhere. And even if they had to go somewhere else, it’s usually in their same building. So the way that they organize the campus was to promote community, which I thought was really cool. Like they

Michelle: 00:23:27 Super thoughtful

Brandi Sea: 00:23:28 They designed it that way, which was, you know, I hear the word design in my ears go up.

Michelle: 00:23:32 You’re in

Brandi Sea: 00:23:32 Yeah. My radar goes up and then, um, I don’t, I wish I had looked up the spacesuit. You’ll have to check out my Instagram. I’m gonna, I think I’m gonna post it in a couple of days. Um, they had a couple spacesuits that I just like could not get enough of, they were just like this crazy metallic gradient material and it just looked super cool and

Michelle: 00:23:55 Super spacey

Brandi Sea: 00:23:56 Not really a spacey. It looked like if you looked and I, you’ll see it on my Instagram if you, if you like got up really close to it. It looked like a like you were looking at mount like a mountain range or like it’s really hard to explain on a podcast, but it was beautiful and it was really, really incredible. So I’m going to be doing something with those colors, but I already did like one of my digital painting things. I just had to post it. Um, the biggest thing about the Johnson Space Center was, um, I did, I did a design tip on it today because I, I’ve just been obsessed with it. Um, so as you go in the Saturn five, um, building, um, when you, so you start at the back end where the engines are and that’s like the start of the space race timeline and it’s like, this is when we started and they have like pictures of all the astronauts and it’s like this huge timeline that goes all the way down this wall on this big vinyl, um, display. So by the time you get to like the very tip of it, which is the very end, um, it has another really, really large banner. And part of that banner is like where we are now, which is like, um, Mars, like working towards Mars and Boeing and space x and it has like that stuff. It’s like, here’s where we are now and you know, to infinity or whatever, it’s just like,

Michelle: 00:25:14 And beyond

New Speaker: 00:25:14 Who knows what’s next? And so I was like, oh, that’s cool. And then, you know, I kept walking just a little ways and there’s another equally large as, as big as that one is to the left of it just completely empty. It’s just a blank banner. Like they just had to put something there to keep the other one up. Basically. It’s just, you know, it was just the part that they didn’t print cause they didn’t have anything to print on it.

Michelle: 00:25:36 Right.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:36 And um, I stood there and like I was just like overwhelmed with emotion. Like I almost started, like I almost started crying. I was like, this blank space represents the future.

Michelle: 00:25:52 That’s super cool.

Brandi Sea: 00:25:53 Like this is possibly where my son will be someday. Like this is where humanity is going, this is everything that no one’s ever thought of yet. Like this is everything. Like I was so overwhelmed like I’m about to cry talking about right now. This is so crazy. And I was just like, I took like some pictures of it and I told Kenny and he was like, wow, like only you would think of something like that. Like you would be inspired to tears by a blank piece of blank vinyl. I was like, I don’t know, but it’s so amazing.

Michelle: 00:26:31 I would have looked at it and be like, oh they didn’t finish it.

Brandi Sea: 00:26:34 And that might be true

Michelle: 00:26:35 It must be under construction.

Brandi Sea: 00:26:37 Yeah. So that was my favorite part of, um, of that place. Like there was so much cool stuff to see and all kinds of things.

Michelle: 00:26:46 But that’s what stuck with you

Brandi Sea: 00:26:46 But that was what really. Yeah, what really meant a lot to me. Um, after that Kenny left, he had to fly home to come back to work and so it was just the kids and I, and we were still at my uncle’s for another couple of days. And um, we went to this place in downtown Houston called the discovery green. It’s like just this huge park. It’s not, it’s not like central park, but it’s a nice big park. And they had some really cool stuff there. They had, um, they had an artist installation, an art installation that’s temporary but really cool. I don’t know what it was actually called. I’m just gonna call it a pinwheel garden.

Michelle: 00:27:20 Okay. I mean, that’s easy to

Brandi Sea: 00:27:22 Yeah, it was this huge, huge garden that you can walkthrough. It’s like there’s like a sidewalk path in the middle and all along the two sides were like, um, orange, yellow and purple and red. Um, pinwheels just tons of them. Like they were

Michelle: 00:27:38 Wow, I love it

Brandi Sea: 00:27:38 Planted like flowers. So when the wind blew you just like sat there and listened and it’s like, I dunno, it was just really, really cool. I like that. Um, uh, they had this thing called a mist tree, which is like a giant sculpture fountain thing that they built for kids to play in. So it’s like,

Michelle: 00:27:58 Oh, I want that right now

Brandi Sea: 00:27:59 For kids to play in. And it was really cool. Um, they had these two giant things of metal art that look almost like, like if you unroll the Rubik’s cube and like laid it out flat. There was like warm colors and cool colors. And I looked it up because I didn’t, I didn’t, uh, I didn’t realize that it was called something. It’s called synchronicity of color metal art walls by Margo Sawyer. So, um, there, I didn’t even know they were metal. They were really cool. Um, uh, they had a sonic playground, which is these like giant instruments that the kids could play. Giant metal sculptures that, another art installation that’s just there temporarily. Um, we ate at this restaurant called the grove, which is literally the Best Burger I’ve ever had in my life.

Michelle: 00:28:45 Dang it

Brandi Sea: 00:28:45 I ate a two Patty Burger every single bite and I didn’t, it didn’t feel like I ate as big a burger as I usually eat at like McDonald’s, I don’t eat at McDonald’s like Wendy’s or whatever. Like it melted in your mouth. Like, it was, it was so good. Um, let’s see what else? Uh, oh, when I was in when I was in New York, I found this really interesting. We like happened upon this sculpture. Um, it was like black and white and I looked it up. I looked it up now and I think it’s called like the four trees or something. And it’s just like this weird abstract like clay looking weird thing. And I thought it was cool and I, I posted about it before but we were at the discovery green and we were walking back to the car and there was another one like very similar, but instead of black and white, it was like red, white and blue. And it’s really fun. It’s something I can’t explain, but the, the sculpture is called a Jean Dubuffet and I’ll put it in the show notes. Um, the sculpture is called Monument Au Fantome and he’s a French sculpture sculptor and it’s just like really cool. And then we found another one by him in Chicago, which is

Michelle: 00:30:01 Oh my gosh, you saw them all

Brandi Sea: 00:30:02 So crazy. I don’t even know like how that happened. Um, so that was really

Michelle: 00:30:07 I’m googling it right now.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:07 Yeah, it was really fun. Um, I took tons and tons of pictures there with the kids because it was just so asking to be photographed. Um, so we stayed there. Um, then we went to my grandparents, they live in, in Bastrop, which is about 20 minutes outside of Austin. Um, oh actually, no, I’m sorry. We went to Galveston before that with the kids. Um, best beach ever.

Michelle: 00:30:36 Really?

Brandi Sea: 00:30:37 Yeah, the water was like 75 degrees. Oh, I dunno, that’s warm. Right? That’s like pretty warm.

Michelle: 00:30:44 That’s pretty good. Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:45 Maybe 80. Like, I don’t know. It was, it felt like I was in the bathtub, like it was so warm.

Michelle: 00:30:51 I’m like googling everything as you say it, cause I just want to see them.

Brandi Sea: 00:30:54 Yes, you should do that. Um, and it was shallow, like for a half a mile out.

Michelle: 00:31:01 Yeah. Those, so beaches. I’ve never been to beaches on that side of the country until we went to Florida. It’s a different world. Like in California. It’s like don’t go in the ocean cause you’re going to drown

Brandi Sea: 00:31:13 You’re going to die or you’re going to get stung by a jellyfish.

Michelle: 00:31:17 Yeah. Something. And so when I went to Florida, like you, they could, she could walk out for like 40 feet.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:25 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:31:25 Just keep going

Brandi Sea: 00:31:26 It’s crazy.

Michelle: 00:31:27 And she’s fine.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:28 Totally fine. Yeah.

Michelle: 00:31:29 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:31:29 So, um, this other, the other thing, we were really wanting to go eat at this, um, this really cute cafe in this little area called Beach City. You should Google it. Beach City, Galveston. Um, so we were, we were gonna go eat at this, this place. Um, long story short, the people were super snobby and we ended up just saying, fine we’re not eating here. Um, but the little place where this restaurant was looked like

Michelle: 00:31:55 Santa Monica?

Brandi Sea: 00:31:56 No. You know the beach. Have you seen the Truman show?

Michelle: 00:31:59 No.

Brandi Sea: 00:32:00 Oh, I can’t even. Okay. The listeners will know on the Truman show the little area where he’s like, where he lives and like where they go sailing and go out on the beach. This little city looks like a movie set, like a movie set, but the movie set from the Truman show like it’s crazy.

Michelle: 00:32:20 That’s fun

Brandi Sea: 00:32:20 And so it was like a little creepy but a little cool. So we ended up going out to eat at this Italian place and came back near the beach city. Just up the road a little bit. There was this really amazing little walking, um, bridge out to the beach. So that’s where we ended up going to the beach. And it was, it was so much fun.

Michelle: 00:32:38 I love that

Brandi Sea: 00:32:39 Um, we ate dinner in Galveston in downtown Galveston and went to this little, um, confectionary called the king’s confectionary and watch them like make fresh tappy, taffy, tappy. What’s tappy. Fresh Taffy

Brandi Sea: 00:32:53 Taffy

Brandi Sea: 00:32:54 That was using like 140-year-old taffy making machines, which was crazy.

Michelle: 00:32:59 Good that they hold up I guess.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:01 Yeah, I guess so. Um, best Bratwurst I think best homemade bratwurst I’ve ever had was there at that, um, that we

New Speaker: 00:33:11 I don’t think I’ve ever had homemade bratwurst

Brandi Sea: 00:33:12 Yeah, I don’t think I had either. I don’t know. Can I say ever had if it’s the only one I’ve had

Michelle: 00:33:17 But it was pretty good. Better than the store.

Michelle: 00:33:19 Yeah, it was really good. It was huge. It was like as long as my, like my forearm, it was crazy. So from there, uh, we went to my grandpas and stated there, uh, with, I stayed there with the kids so I took the kids on a little day trip to Austin where you and I have been, took them to a lot of the same places. We basically just parked. Um, do you remember that little boutique that we went to that where we sat in those chairs and tried to take cool pictures and

Michelle: 00:33:46 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:46 Try to be cool.

Michelle: 00:33:48 We tried.

Brandi Sea: 00:33:49 We tried real hard, um, I parked right near there and we ate at the restaurant like right around the corner. Um, and just like walked up con South Congress and actually went to a lot of the places that you and I didn’t have time to go to cause we were busy, like looking for coffee shops.

Michelle: 00:34:04 Yeah, so much coffee. I just wanted coffee the entire time

Brandi Sea: 00:34:06 I know. And it was what, like 98 degrees and 90% humidity.

Michelle: 00:34:10 It was rough. It was rough.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:12 It wasn’t as hot this time.

Michelle: 00:34:14 And then it was cold at night. You weren’t there to, you were doing your like thing

Brandi Sea: 00:34:17 It was cold where I was though with James Victore.

Michelle: 00:34:20 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:21 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:34:21 It was so cold.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:22 Um, so that was fun. I took, we went all around and like got little souvenirs and got, I went to Tom’s, which the Tom’s shoe place there has a coffee shop inside.

Michelle: 00:34:31 Oh, nice.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:32 So that’s where I got coffee, which it was actually really good. Um, visited a bunch of murals. Um, I just, I love the energy. I love the energy of Austin.

Michelle: 00:34:40 It’s so pretty out there.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:41 I really just wanted to like get my sketchbook out and do something cool, but I was trying to keep my kids entertained I don’t think they would’ve liked that very much.

Michelle: 00:34:49 No, not that time.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:51 Took lots of pictures of them and food.

Michelle: 00:34:55 Yes the good things.

Brandi Sea: 00:34:56 Do you remember? I didn’t remember until I got there how amazing Austin is at branding.

Michelle: 00:35:02 Oh yeah. I remember like it was like what you were like freaking out over.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:06 Yeah. I’m like, oh my gosh, this place. This is why I love this place. They care about design

Michelle: 00:35:09 Remember when you stole that poster?

Brandi Sea: 00:35:09 I did. Hey, We’re on radio thing here.

Michelle: 00:35:15 You stole it

Brandi Sea: 00:35:15 I didn’t steal it. There was lots of them pinned up.

Michelle: 00:35:18 I mean, to be fair the festival was already happening.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:20 The festivals already happening. Okay. I S I s quote-unquote stole a Gig poster.

Michelle: 00:35:27 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:28 Off of a,

Michelle: 00:35:29 Off of a

Brandi Sea: 00:35:29 Off of a light pole

Michelle: 00:35:30 Yes

Brandi Sea: 00:35:30 Or was it out of a bathroom?

Michelle: 00:35:32 It was a light bulb.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:33 Bulletin board. It was from somewhere, but I couldn’t resist. It was. There’s just all these random like really great designs just like thrown up all over the place that are just going to get thrown in the garbage and like two days.

Michelle: 00:35:44 It’s like crazy that like Albuquerque is so close and they just, I mean there’s some people who care, but I’d say the overall theme for Albuquerque is we don’t care.

Brandi Sea: 00:35:54 I would probably have to agree with that at a lot of levels. Yes. You’re so right, yeah

Michelle: 00:35:57 It’s just like we’re so close and it’s so different. We’re so different in our, like

Brandi Sea: 00:36:04 Mindset

Michelle: 00:36:04 What we care about, what we don’t. Yeah. Mindset

Brandi Sea: 00:36:06 For sure. The kids and I drove alone from, um, Austin to New Orleans, so that was like a six-hour drive on our own. It was actually really scary. There was like a flood warning, like happening and we were really scared because, you know, you’re driving, you’re driving through all these like marshlands and like

Michelle: 00:36:28 And so you never know.

Brandi Sea: 00:36:29 You never know. And um, it just ended up like missing us. But I was, I was so glad because there were areas where I was driving that the way I could see the Wa like, like the swampland, like just over to the right. And it was not far. I’m like, if that were to go up another like two or three inches, it’d be in the road. Like it would be a mess. Thank God. Like we got to New Orleans and in plenty of time and um, the kids and I got to walk around Jackson Square and like watch the musicians play on the street and play on the street. Play in the street?

Michelle: 00:37:03 In the street. Both. Did you watch Princess and the Frog after that?

Brandi Sea: 00:37:07 No. And Kenny was like, did you prep them? Did you have them watch Princess and the Frog on the way? I’m like, oh my gosh, no. But they’d know it like they know so well. Yeah. Cause they, that used to be Jasmine’s favorite princess for like such a long time when she used to have favorite princesses and wasn’t a preenager

Michelle: 00:37:23 Oh gosh.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:25 Um, Jackson Square was really pretty. Um, New Orleans is much more enjoyable at night as far as the weather goes. Cause during the day it was, it was pretty dang hot and like sticky

Michelle: 00:37:37 Muggy too.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:37 Yeah, it was pretty sticky. Um, I will say that was one thing I remembered about New Orleans was the smell.

Michelle: 00:37:44 Yeah. See, but that’s what I remember about New York too. And I still love New York

Brandi Sea: 00:37:49 Like, It’s a different

Michelle: 00:37:49 In the summer

Brandi Sea: 00:37:50 It’s a different smell

Michelle: 00:37:50 It’s different.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:51 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:37:52 I remember basically New York in the summer, it smells like urine and trash. You’re like, Oh cool, I’m here.

Brandi Sea: 00:37:57 Yeah. Add beer to that. And we’ve got New Orleans. Yeah.

Michelle: 00:38:03 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:04 But it was still enjoyable. Like it wasn’t super sketchy, you know, I was a little worried, you know, being out there by myself with the kids at night

Michelle: 00:38:09 It’s just a place you don’t know

Brandi Sea: 00:38:10 But I just, I knew I was advised to avoid Bourbon Street, which I could’ve probably guessed anyway. Um, and I did. And we went, we had Beniets the famous Cafe du Mande and um, that was really, really good. And I just had their cafe au lait, which they’re famous for and it’s super

Michelle: 00:38:29 Cafe milk, coffee, and milk.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:31 Super cheap. Like to give their stuff.

Michelle: 00:38:33 That makes me happy.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:35 Oh my gosh. So we went back again when Kenny came

Michelle: 00:38:37 I’m like okay I paid eighty dollars for this. Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:38:38 No, I know. It was so cheap. Um, so we did that. We ate, we ate dinner together. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant. I’ll probably put links, send them to Joelle for the show notes. But um, I had etouffee, which I had never had for dinner with, um, crawfish, crawfish etouffee.

Michelle: 00:38:56 Oh my gosh. Okay. Tell me your experience. How was it?

Brandi Sea: 00:38:59 It was good. Honestly, like I could barely taste the crawfish because it was so like marinated in with the Etoufee, which is basically like a rice soup.

Michelle: 00:39:09 Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:39:09 It’s like the best way I can explain it.

Michelle: 00:39:12 I went to a crawfish boil and so that’s a different experience because it’s like you’re literally pulling them in and opening them.

Brandi Sea: 00:39:19 Yeah. Well, and then I had, I had um crawfish, a crawfish Poeboy and it was still good. So I think I like crawfish. I don’t know that I would like the work of getting it out.

Michelle: 00:39:29 It was rough. I mean

Brandi Sea: 00:39:30 I’ve heard they’re a lot of work.

Michelle: 00:39:32 It’s a lot of work for not a whole lot and I think it’s mostly a community thing. So it’s like we’re all talking and for hours while we eat

Brandi Sea: 00:39:40 Oh so it doesn’t matter how long it takes because you’re just cracking things and talking.

Michelle: 00:39:43 Yeah. It definitely tastes like the lake to me. Like whatever they were swimming in, I taste it.

Brandi Sea: 00:39:50 I did not taste lake like it barely tasted like seafood, to be honest with you.

Michelle: 00:39:54 Oh good. Yeah. It doesn’t taste like seafood at all.

Brandi Sea: 00:39:56 Like I, the texture of it and what, what flavor I could catch. Tasted like a mix between um, crab and lobster.

Michelle: 00:40:03 Yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s the that’s like the consistency. Like the texture.

Brandi Sea: 00:40:07 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:40:08 Otherwise it was like, hmm, I feel like I’m swimming

Brandi Sea: 00:40:12 Gross

Michelle: 00:40:12 And drinking the water.

Brandi Sea: 00:40:13 It didn’t feel like that for sure.

Michelle: 00:40:15 Good

Brandi Sea: 00:40:15 Um, I, let’s see, I had blue, I had, I had like a blue crab, blue crab, and shrimp. Um, it was almost like biscuits and gravy, but it was like a fancy biscuit with like a crab and shrimp gravy poured over it. And that was delicious. Um, succeeded in making my daughter cry, cause forcing her to taste the etouffee that basically just tasted like rice.

Michelle: 00:40:41 Oh, poor thing. How dare you even think about turning on the air conditioning.

Brandi Sea: 00:40:50 I know I should go turn on the AC now. Just

Michelle: 00:40:53 That’s for crying over

Brandi Sea: 00:40:55 Just to punish her for crying over me, making it.

Michelle: 00:40:56 I mean, to be fair, as you asked the same kind of kid like I ate what I ate

Brandi Sea: 00:41:01 I know, I was too, but it’s so irritating when it’s your kid.

Michelle: 00:41:05 I know, but I really was the same kid. I remember like crying because the babysitter, well the babysitter was crazy. She was crazy. Made me eat green beans and I did not like green beans at that time.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:20 I’m on 5% ps.

Michelle: 00:41:21 Okay, hurry it up. Sorry. So I, I totally get that.

Brandi Sea: 00:41:26 Oh my goodness. So, um, then Kenny came in and he came in around midnight. His flight kept getting delayed because of the weather, so he didn’t get to New Orleans to meet us till about midnight. Um, slept. We stayed. Oh, we stayed in the Andrew Jackson Hotel, which apparently is like one of the most haunted places in New Orleans. I don’t know.

Michelle: 00:41:43 Ooo

Brandi Sea: 00:41:43 It’s whatever. Fine. We didn’t have any experiences. Um

Michelle: 00:41:48 Didn’t happen

Brandi Sea: 00:41:48 No. Uh, but it was, it’s actually really cute. It’s super old. It’s been there, it was like the place of one of the first US congress meetings or something like that. And it used to be like a boys school, but they still give you like real honest to goodness, just like keys for the door.

Michelle: 00:42:05 How cool! Oh how quant

Brandi Sea: 00:42:07 Yeah. And they, they bring you, they bring you, um like croissants and, and jelly and orange juice on like a tray. That’s like your continental breakfast is served to you in, in your room on a silver platter.

Michelle: 00:42:21 I love it. I love it

Brandi Sea: 00:42:21 And it was so cute. It was so great. Um so Kenny got in that night, we hung out in the morning. We did, um, a lot of the walkthrough stuff of, again, Jackson Park and um, a lot of the things I did with the kids, but during the day, so it was, it was kinda different. Um, the, they had a lot of like this jazz band playing outside the cafe this time, which was really fun.

Michelle: 00:42:43 Love that

Brandi Sea: 00:42:43 Um, and we, we left right before we left, we went to the French market, um, and had lunch. Um, Jasmine, I don’t know what Jasmine got. I think she got, um, oh, what’s the rice stuff? Gumbo. I think Kenny and her shared some Gumbo. And I got, that’s where I got the shrimp, the poboy with crawfish and um, oh and we got Jambalaya

Michelle: 00:43:06 I love it. I like jambalaya

Brandi Sea: 00:43:07 And gator sausage

Michelle: 00:43:09 Which I will just say I love gator.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:13 It just, it didn’t taste like it tasted like sausage. It did leave a weird, it wasn’t bad but it left kind of a weird taste in my mouth after the bite was gone.

Michelle: 00:43:24 The gator I’ve had to like the consistency of like chicken almost. And it’s like, it’s got good flavor.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:30 Yeah. I Dunno.

Michelle: 00:43:31 Maybe it was just what we cooked it in

Brandi Sea: 00:43:32 Maybe it was the flavor of the sausage. It’s possible that that’s what was leaving, but it didn’t really taste like, it was just like kind of whatever. Again, forcing Jasmine to take a bite. She didn’t cry this time. She was just really angry,

Michelle: 00:43:42 It tastes like chicken

Brandi Sea: 00:43:42 She was just angry at us

Michelle: 00:43:45 She was just, trauma.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:46 Yeah. This is where we traumatized her for life, folks.

Michelle: 00:43:50 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:43:50 Um, from there we drove to, um, Nashville. We spent the night there. We didn’t like do anything cause it was late. And um, and then we woke up the next morning and met our, our friend Dawn and her son Johnny for, for uh, what do we have cronuts at Five Daughters Bakery at The Factory in Franklin.

Michelle: 00:44:13 That was the very first experience they gave us too. They’re like, we’re going to The Factory and getting cronuts. I was like, oh, okay, cool.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:19 What kind did you get? Do you remember?

Michelle: 00:44:21 I don’t remember. I took a picture. It’s in my phone somewhere.

Brandi Sea: 00:44:23 Okay. I didn’t take a picture cause I was so caught up to and happy to, to see Dawn. Yeah, we were supposed, Matt was supposed be there too. Our friend Matt was also supposed to meet us, but we ended up getting there a little bit later, um, because it took us a lot longer and he no it was a Saturday, but he, um, he had Bible study, so he had to go, he had to go study. Um, so there was that. Um, so the, The Factory is really fun. I liked that record. They have a really cool record store.

Michelle: 00:44:53 Oh, I’ve been to that

Brandi Sea: 00:44:54 Where I found some, um, patron saints of rock and roll candles. I almost bought Shirley Manson.

Michelle: 00:45:02 That’s fun. Um, I was sad cause I went to the Factory and then like three days later, Brooke Frazier, she’s a really great artist, um, musician. She was there and I was like, I just missed Brooke Frazier

Brandi Sea: 00:45:14 That’s crazy. Yeah. So that was a lot of fun. Um, we went to Franklin to meet up after that downtown Franklin to meet up with, um, a girl I went to high school with who, um, has been, um, working in Nashville for a long time doing, um, artist management. She’s a manager for musicians. Um, she’s since shifted away from that role. She’s now, um, managing events for, um, Compassion.

Michelle: 00:45:41 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 00:45:42 Um, so that’s what she’s working on right now. But we, we hung out and went to a bunch of little shops and had lunch and I hadn’t seen her in such a long time. It was really, really nice to hang out with her. Um, the the thing that stuck out to me about, um, about downtown Franklin was like, not that this is bad or, you know, or whatever. It’s just, uh, an insight is everything is so overtly, um, Christian.

Michelle: 00:46:09 Very

Brandi Sea: 00:46:10 It was like, it was like, there’s so many stores that are just, just like not ashamed of it. And I was like, wow, this is so crazy. Oh yeah, I’m in the Bible belt.

Michelle: 00:46:18 Yeah. Well, I was going to say, I was like frank or Nashville. Tennessee’s like, you’re welcome to the Bible belt.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:24 Yeah.

Michelle: 00:46:25 And so it’s like, here you are welcome. And it’s everywhere.

Brandi Sea: 00:46:29 Yeah, and you know, we’re Christians and like, it’s just not something that I’m used to seeing and everybody was like so nice, like,

Michelle: 00:46:36 Well

Brandi Sea: 00:46:36 Ov, how this is like Nice, nice.

Michelle: 00:46:40 Yeah, well Franklin

Brandi Sea: 00:46:40 Like Texans are nice, but this was a different. This was kind of a different kinda nice. I’m putting you on the charger.

Michelle: 00:46:47 Okay.

Michelle: 00:46:48 So, but like in a see up my nose

Michelle: 00:46:50 That’s fine. Um, Franklin is like the family-friendly area of that, you know, Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, and the sore other surrounding areas. Um, so like if you have a family and you want to just like chill, you’ll move to Franklin.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:06 Yeah, we, we planned on going to Nashville like from the very beginning, but um, when we were starting to plan stuff, I was talking to Dawn and she’s like, so CMA’s are going on the weekend you guys are here. And I was like, oh nope

Michelle: 00:47:17 Hashtag never mind.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:19 And then I, you know, Isaac, uh, he messaged me too. And um, another great designer shout out to Isaac Del Toro. Um, he was, ah, it’s going to be crazy. Are you guys sure you want to go to Nashville? And I was like, oh I know. Dawn already told me it’s okay. So we’re going to do Nashville and another time. But Franklin was really charming. They had such cute stores. Everybody was super nice. We had barbecue, like an array. We’ve got like the barbecue sampler at this place called Pucketts.

Michelle: 00:47:49 Oh yeah. Pucketts.

Brandi Sea: 00:47:50 Did you go there?

Michelle: 00:47:51 I’ve never been. I remember looking at it and being like, oh, I know Shaylene but that’s a different Pucket. So

Brandi Sea: 00:47:59 Cuz Kenny was like, what’s the name of that restaurant? The last name of those people, you know, and I was like, oh Pucketts.

Michelle: 00:48:04 Yeah. She, uh, she posted a picture of her and her dad at Puckett’s.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:09 Oh, that’s perfect. I love that.

Michelle: 00:48:10 So it’s just funny. Um, but yeah, I’ve never been, I went to I think somewhere really. Um, there’s a place really close to Pucketts that I went to like right across the way. I remember sitting in the, in the car looking at it. I don’t remember.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:26 I’m not sure. I can’t remember either. Yeah.

Michelle: 00:48:29 I don’t know.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:29 I don’t know it by heart. Obviously, it was only the once, but also while we were there, there was this like this little, I don’t know, tent thing where they were selling, uh, Georgia fresh peaches.

Michelle: 00:48:43 Ooh. Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:44 And they came with like little instructions on like, you have to wait this long, keep them in the bag, wait this long before you can eat them. And we

Michelle: 00:48:52 And bet it’s like, you better do it too. They’re like, it’s not going to be good if you don’t.

Brandi Sea: 00:48:59 Yeah. That was basically how she said that. Yeah. So, um, we were able to eat them like our second day in Chicago, which was great. As we were like walking around, it was like, we can eat our peaches today.

Michelle: 00:49:10 That’s cool.

Brandi Sea: 00:49:11 Yeah. So that was fun. Um, so after that, uh, we basically drove from there to Chicago, got to Chicago, um, for our first night. Um, and I was probably 11 or 12 at night. We always got there way later than we planned, but it was all worth it I guess. Um, except for when we missed David, that was really sad.

Michelle: 00:49:32 Oops. That’s okay

Brandi Sea: 00:49:33 Well not David, but like missed really hanging out with him and his family and stuff. But

Michelle: 00:49:38 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:49:39 Um, so Chicago, um, I don’t know if I can go day by day. I’m just gonna like pick out the things that, that kind of stuck out to me. We went to this, um, we were staying on the magnificent mile at this Cambria hotel, which we got with points, shout out to choice hotels. We like a lot. Um, so it was like right in the middle of everything, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t like Times Square, kind of in the middle of everything. It was just kind of everything adjacent if that makes sense.

Michelle: 00:50:11 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:12 Um, so we, we kind of, it was the morning when we woke up was like rainy and foggy and really incredible because the clouds were so low that like all the buildings were just disappearing into the clouds, like the tops of them

Michelle: 00:50:27 Oh so pretty.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:27 And it was so beautiful and it was like raining and like, you know how everything looks so great in the rain.

Michelle: 00:50:35 Yes

Brandi Sea: 00:50:35 It was just like

Michelle: 00:50:36 Everythings perfect.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:37 The perfect introduction to me, um, for Chicago. Um,

Michelle: 00:50:41 Love it.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:41 So we have friends that live in Chicago that we also visited, but they were like texting me the whole time. The first morning I’m like, we’re so sorry. It’s all rainy and ugly. This is my dream come true.

Michelle: 00:50:52 You’re like, what? No, you’re wrong.

Brandi Sea: 00:50:54 You’re so wrong. It’s beautiful. And she’s like, you must not live here. I’m like, no, I, don’t

Michelle: 00:50:58 No, it actually just started raining, um, like a few hours ago in Albuquerque and I was like, man, we do like, this is when everybody takes pictures cause we’re like, Whoa, look at that waters falling from the sky

Brandi Sea: 00:51:12 And then they all wreck into each other on the street.

Michelle: 00:51:14 Yes, exactly. Don’t go out. Don’t go driving at that time.

Brandi Sea: 00:51:18 Um, so uh, in, in walking, there was like this really cool church that just like this old church that had like all sorts of like moss and ivy growing up the sides. And I, of course, had to take some pictures. Um, so it was a Sunday and we just decided to like go check it out. They had just finished service and um, the priest, the guy, the pastor, I guess.

Michelle: 00:51:42 Sure

Brandi Sea: 00:51:43 Sure. The guy who was like, uh, we were just like admiring the place and he, he, I think he asked Kenny like, Hey, do you wanna, you want to come see the organ, the pipe organ? And we were like

Michelle: 00:51:53 Oh, nice. Oh, I remember this.

Brandi Sea: 00:51:54 We were like, oh sure. Yeah, why not? So we like go thinking, we’re just going to like go get to peek at it and like the as it, is he an organist? A piano player

Michelle: 00:52:04 I assume so. Nah he’s an or he’s gotta be an organist.

Brandi Sea: 00:52:10 Organist. Oh could, did you hear Kenny organist

Michelle: 00:52:12 Yeah, it’s an organist.

Brandi Sea: 00:52:14 He, um, he like had the kids like scoot up next to him on his little bench and was like, here, play something. And it was insane. It was

Michelle: 00:52:23 It’s like, whoa. I’ve always said playing in the organ is like trying to land a plane. Like

Brandi Sea: 00:52:29 Yeah, there’s, yeah, there’s like a million buttons. And he was like,

Michelle: 00:52:31 The whole floor is buttons

Brandi Sea: 00:52:33 Yeah! The floor, the sides. Like it was crazy and it was like the most beautiful. Like surround sound craziness

Michelle: 00:52:42 And it really comes out of all the pipes. Like it’s crazy.

Brandi Sea: 00:52:44 Yeah, it does it like shakes you inside.

Michelle: 00:52:47 Yeah. Resinates

Brandi Sea: 00:52:48 The deep like bass notes.

Michelle: 00:52:50 Yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:52:51 So that was super, super cool. Um, the lighting inside there was beautiful, like the old wood. Um, I took a ton of pictures in there too. Uh, so that was, that was really inspiring to me. I really enjoyed, you know, explaining to the kids like why, um, there are stained glass with like stories, you know, and all that stuff was really cool. Um, we, we surprised Jasmine with a trip to the American Girl store. So that’s, that’s fun.

Michelle: 00:53:22 Perfect. All worth that nasty food she had to eat.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:24 I know, right? See don’t you like us? We take you through the American Girl store. Even if we forced you to eat foods you hate. Um, we found this really interesting store called Unicorn world.

Michelle: 00:53:37 Yes.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:38 Which only, there’s just things Kenny and I had this conversation about, there’s just things that you can have in a big city that you just, you can’t sustain in a place like Albuquerque.

Michelle: 00:53:47 I would see that store and be like, I give that store six months to shut down.

Brandi Sea: 00:53:52 Yeah, absolutely. But they had like really beautiful, like little corners with like rainbow flowers and they have a giant White Unicorn, like on its back two legs.

Michelle: 00:54:01 Oh my gosh

Brandi Sea: 00:54:03 It’s just in, it’s just insane. So that was, that was kind of fun. Um, and by that time I was like, okay, we’re, we’re in a mall. We need to leave. What, why are we in the mall? Let’s get out.

Michelle: 00:54:14 That’s how I feel when I’m like, why are we here? We’re going to actual city. I don’t need to be a the dumb mall

Brandi Sea: 00:54:19 I know, exactly. Exactly. So yeah, we didn’t even go to the Mall America in Minneapolis.

Michelle: 00:54:24 Minneapolis

Brandi Sea: 00:54:25 I don’t think we would have, even if we had time unless we had like a long time. But um, the other thing, speaking of things that are only like sustainable in big cities, I love Nutella. I don’t know if you know this.

Michelle: 00:54:38 I love Nutella. It’s so good

Brandi Sea: 00:54:40 Yeah, Kenny’s kind of indifferent towards Nutella. The kids really like it. Um, there we were, we were trying to

Michelle: 00:54:46 I don’t understand that. I don’t understand that

Brandi Sea: 00:54:48 You can ask him about that later. I don’t understand it

Michelle: 00:54:49 Anyone who who’s indifferent. I don’t know. No, I don’t want to try to understand them. This is not something I want an understand. I love Nutella It’s so good

Brandi Sea: 00:54:59 Nutella is heaven. I know. So we were like trying to figure out what we’re going to eat for breakfast. And I was kind of like, I really want someplace that has pancakes. And Kenny had already thought about this other place and I think we went around to find it and it was like too busy or I don’t remember why. Um, I think it was too busy. So he’s like, all right, well let’s go back. And I was like, well, I don’t want to go to Nutella if you don’t like it. Like it’s probably expensive and I don’t wanna.

Michelle: 00:55:20 Right

Brandi Sea: 00:55:20 Like I want everybody to be happy with breakfast. He’s like, it’s okay. It’s okay. So we went in and it’s like a legit cafe. It’s the Nutella cafe. So I didn’t even really know like what to expect. So like first of all, walking in, I’m like, these guys know how to like fully flesh out their branding.

Michelle: 00:55:39 Yes

Brandi Sea: 00:55:39 And this was just like on first glance and there was, there was like so much more to it. So, um, I got, um, croissant French toast with Nutella and strawberries

Michelle: 00:55:51 Okay. I want that right now is, it’s 11 o’clock at night and I want that now.

Brandi Sea: 00:55:56 It was unbelievable. Jasmine got blackberry Nutella crepes.

Michelle: 00:56:01 Okay. That sounds incredible too

Brandi Sea: 00:56:02 Kenny I think Kenny got a waffle with Nutella and strawberries and Kaden got a Nutella um, baguette with like hazelnuts on not top of it.

Michelle: 00:56:13 Nice.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:14 And then I got, I don’t even know what it was called. It was an espresso. Okay. So it was like espresso with Nutella and whipped cream with hazelnuts on top.

Michelle: 00:56:26 It’s like a, it’s like a makeshift off, affogato

Brandi Sea: 00:56:30 Kind of like an affogato. But instead of ice cream, it’s Nutella

Michelle: 00:56:33 Yeah, worth it.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:35 And I, you know, I’m just, you know how I am with food, I’m like I eat because I have to,

Michelle: 00:56:41 That’s literally what I’ve been doing

Brandi Sea: 00:56:42 But like food isn’t exciting to me. Generally speaking. I like, I was so happy, I like almost teared up.

Michelle: 00:56:50 This is amazing.

Brandi Sea: 00:56:51 I’ve never had anything this good in my life. And Kenny was like taking pictures of me cause he just like, could not believe that I was so excited over anything that was food. And so that was really exciting. But then like the longer I sat there, I’m like looking around going like their branding is on point. Like they’ve got these like modern, um, like things on their ceiling there. They just look like decorative things. But the more I looked at them I’m like, those look like the Nutella if it was spread on the ceiling and made into like an architectural element.

Michelle: 00:57:24 Okay.

Brandi Sea: 00:57:25 And then they’re all, their lights are like abstract, modern hazelnuts at

Michelle: 00:57:32 Really

Brandi Sea: 00:57:32 Like it’s not goofy. Like it sounds kind of goofy but it’s not, I haven’t posted about it yet cause I need to like flesh out all the ideas. Um, yeah, everything was like unbelievably like branded so well and they were, they were so like nice and like the manager came over, it’s like, how are you guys enjoying everything? And I was like, I just have to compliment you guys on like your branding. And I’d never do that. I was just like so overwhelmed with joy

Michelle: 00:57:59 So happy.

Brandi Sea: 00:58:00 It was probably really weird. Now that I think about it, but he was like, yeah, no, I really like it too. The more, you know, I realized this, that and the other thing and I was like, yeah, and even your lights. And he was like, oh my gosh. I never noticed the lights. You’re welcome.

Michelle: 00:58:17 Yep. Yep

Brandi Sea: 00:58:18 So it was just, it was so much fun. So that’s the one mug that I got. You know, I like to get like a mug when I go places

Michelle: 00:58:24 A mug on your trip, yeah.

Brandi Sea: 00:58:25 So I got the Nutella cafe. Am I going? It has like this really beautiful just line art, um, the skyline of the Chicago skyline, so it’s really nice. Um, so that was part of Chicago. That’s just like the beginning of Chicago. I don’t know how long you want me to go on here. Do you want to like split this up because this is literally like the halfway point of our trip?

Michelle: 00:58:45 Oh my gosh. Let’s split this up into next time.

Brandi Sea: 00:58:48 Okay. We’ll have, we’ll have one in between, uh, with Joelle and I, um, we kind of recorded out of order just because, um, Michelle and I were crazy times and I was sick and all sorts of stuff. So, um,

Michelle: 00:58:59 Life man

Brandi Sea: 00:59:00 Yeah, so one oh episode one oh six

Michelle: 00:59:04 Six.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:05 I hope this was exciting. It was exciting for me to talk about. I just have so many

Michelle: 00:59:10 You need to.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:10 So many inspiring stories and cool things to share with you guys. Um, and if you don’t already follow me on Instagram, now is the time to do it cause I’m posting all sorts of pictures from our trip. So

Michelle: 00:59:22 Yes. Yes. What’s your handle?

Brandi Sea: 00:59:24 Oh @brandisea B R A N D I S E A

Michelle: 00:59:29 So you can follow her on Instagram or as well. You can check out her youtube.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:34 Oh yeah, I’m still on youtube guys. If you want to go watch old videos

Michelle: 00:59:39 Design tip Tuesday

Brandi Sea: 00:59:40 Yeah, you can just search Brandi Sea. Basically, you search Brandi Sea everywhere and you’ll find me

Michelle: 00:59:45 If you have any questions

Brandi Sea: 00:59:46 Where can people find us, Michelle?

Michelle: 00:59:48 People can find us on Instagram as well. Our handle is design speaks podcast. Um, correct. And they wrong in that.

Brandi Sea: 00:59:57 No, you’re right, it’s been a while. It’s been a minute.

Michelle: 00:59:59 I had to like think about it. I’m like, is there a podcast

Brandi Sea: 01:00:02 We’re also on Facebook. We don’t, we don’t do a whole lot on there, but if you’d like to go comment or talk to us there. I mean I do check it and stuff, but

Michelle: 01:00:10 Yeah, and I think our, my favorite thing besides the Instagram just cause it looks, I don’t manage Instagram. Instagram is Brandi does that, which is why it looks amazing. I am not good at that. But my other like, my favorite thing that I get to be a part of is um, our playlist. So we add all of the songs that we play on this podcast to a playlist on Spotify. Its design speaks music playlists

Brandi Sea: 01:00:36 Music from design speaks podcast

Michelle: 01:00:37 Music from design speaks Yeah. There you go. Music from design speaks podcast

Brandi Sea: 01:00:41 I keep wanting to change the name and then I forget how often we’ve said it on this podcast to direct people there. So I’m like, I’m just going to leave it

Michelle: 01:00:48 Leave it. Um, it goes back to the beginning up to today. So just go check it out.

Brandi Sea: 01:00:53 A whole two years worth of weekly music.

Michelle: 01:00:56 I know it’s just nice to like press play and not have to worry about it.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:00 Yeah. So I’ll share my song. I did actually bring a song. Um,

Michelle: 01:01:03 Okay.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:04 But I will. I will share my song next time. How’s that?

Michelle: 01:01:07 Sounds good.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:07 Okay.

Michelle: 01:01:08 And also a shout out to Colin from Vesperteen for allowing us to use his music shatter in the night as the intro and outro to our podcast and he’s having, he’s going to have new music.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:18 I was just about to say. Yep. So check him out again if you haven’t already.

Michelle: 01:01:21 He has announced that he’s signed to a really awesome label and they’re making him and making him, they’re helping him produce and create really awesome music that he is so excited for. And I’m excited to hear this.

Brandi Sea: 01:01:32 We are all excited.

Michelle: 01:01:32 Go check it out