City of the Apes: A Week in Nashville

A week ago I guess, I went to a magnificent place for vacation. You see, my dad had to go to a seminar in Nashville with his business partner Dr. Hanson, so me and my mom took off with him. So we drove 3 and a half hours to Murfreesboro, TN and I had an awesome time once I got there.

First thing we did was check into our suite in the hotel, Embassey Suites. And I can tell you honestly, it was almost as good as the Animal Kingdom Lodge that I stayed in when I went to Disney World. It has to be like one of the best of all hotels. Hopefully, there will be another Embassey Suites hotel near our next vacation spot.

Next, me and the family went up to our sweet suite. See what I just did there, that's what you call a play-on-words. But, back to the subject, our suite was very luxurious. It had 1 bathroom, 2 sinks, 2 beds, 2 desks, 2 televisions, 1 couch and some chairs, a window with a good view of the outdoor mall across from the hotel, and a little kitchen-like place next to the bathroom where mom made my sandwiches, etc. Really the only bad part was that I couldn't get any of the Disney Channel, nor Disney XD. Fortunately I was there on a Friday, when I got to watch Monk and Psych.

I also got to take the laptop where I wrote a Microsoft Word Document, a biography on Rowlf the Dog, the Muppet, and his rise to fame. So far I got 2 chapters done out of 10. I also used the laptop for internet access, where I went to YouTube to watch the latest episodes of TSLOD (the Suite Life on Deck)

My dad had to go to his chiropractic seminars most of the time, so that left me and mom to do a little sight-seeing. We went to the outdoor mall I told you guys about in the last paragraph where we went to Barnes & Noble where I saw cool books especially a PIXAR encyclopedia that has really been updated, since it said that Cars 2 would be coming out in 2011, which is two years from now.

I had a great time there, but what I really enjoyed was going downtown with my mom and dad to eat at the Rainforest Cafe in a cool mall. But first we went down in to the otherside of the mall where I first went into another restaurant, only to pet stingrays and feed them too!!! And see people feed the pirahna!!!!!. Which I know from watching proffessionals that it's dangerous!

After that we went back down were we ate with the animals, animatronic that is, in the monkey section. Hence the title, "City of the Apes", funny. Huh? Anyway, mom and dad thought the food didn't taste that good. I thought different, the dinosaur chicken nuggets tasted fine to me. But we all loved the animatronics, the hippo, snake, elephants, butterflies, and especially the monkeys. At first I was afraid and scared of the monkeys, especially the little infant monkey, but as Dad and I kept watching them I wasn't that afraid anymore.

The next day, I think, I went to the pool, and I think I stayed there too long. By the time everyone was gone, I was still swimming. Even the lights dimmed as if it was closing down. Then came the last day of our trip where I spent most of my time in the lobby and the halls. I kept going back and forth from mom to waiting for my dad to get out of his seminar in the halls. Good news, dad got a break and I got to see him, I decided to go into the seminar with him. Bad news, it was as boring as in the lobby with mom and Mrs. Hansen talking about "The DaVinci Code". By the time dad got out and all of us got out of Barnes & Noble, we were taking the trip back. And that was my trip to Nashville, at least the good points of it.

I'll talk to you later, oh and by next time I'll be here to tell you about my show at Playhouse, "Narnia". I'll talk to you about who I might be playing and the songs I've learned in my first rehersal. Well... Bye!

The Murfreesboro Embassey Suites exterior (top right)

Me and an elephant at the Nashville Rainforest Cafe (lower right)

How to Draw: Pepe the King Prawn

Hello, people of the galaxy, lend me your brains. Today I, Max, will show you the reader at home how to draw a Pepe the King Prawn, the wise-cracking Hispanic Muppet I talked about in "Why I Like the Muppets". The reason I'm teaching people how to draw, well, I want to show some of my viewers more of my talents. Besides writing. By the way I'm wondering what I should go as for Halloween, even though it is two months away. I'm thinking either Michael Jackson in Thriller, Beaker, or Fred (YouTube star). Think about it, give me your opinion and comment on it, or you could talk about what you wanna be for Halloween. In other words, comment about anything.

Now to show you how to draw Pepe the Prawn:

Before we start your going to need these supplies, pencil (any kind), crayons and/or colored pencils in orange, tan, white (if you don't have white, leave all whites blank), red, and any two colors of your choice.

1. First, I like to start with round eyes for Pepe, don't add any other features just yet. 2. Next, add pupils, and a peanut-like shape encircling the eyes for the top of the head, then make something along the lines of a bread loaf's height. Don't forget to add his one tooth on the left side.

3. After forming the head, I like to add his hair and antennae next. 4. Once you're done, add the neck and the shoulders.

5. You now need Pepe's jacket down to show the arms. This will be quicker than some steps. 6. Quicker than No. 5, draw Pepe's four hands on Pepe, but remember he has only has three fingers.

7. Now grab a red or dark orange crayon or colored pencil and color over his hair and antennae. 8. For No. 8, get out some light orange or peach color for his face. But don't color his tooth or any of his ordinary two eyes.

9. Last, but surely not least, get two colors of your choice (I prefer light blue and light green. His usual outfit color) and color his jacket and shirt.

So now after 9 steps we have made Pepe the King Prawn.

I'd like to thank all my readers, and pupils for helping Journey to Tennessee get off on it's feet. Thank you! I'll be back to blog for your amusement. Read more of my blog and draw if you want. Keep up on my Journey to Tennessee. Maxwell out...

Again another awkward exit. See ya!

Best Friends

Maxwell here. The man who runs the blog with already 20 posts. And this is Journey to Tennessee. If you don't know why I'm making a cool introduction on the internet... well. I was trying to act like Ryan Seacrest or someone like that. Anyway, today I want to talk to you, the readers out there, about my friends. Or best friends at least.

Now, you've heard of my cousin, Braxton Anderson, my sort of new Tennessee best friend. And you've heard of my Missouri friend, Kohl Haun. But in St. Louis I have a very, special dude who is a lot like me. His name is David. Last name: Pisarkewitz. Yep, easy to say, hard to spell. At least it's hard to spell for you.

We are awesome buddies, me and him have a neverending friendship. The first time we saw each other was at lunch in the 1st grade. Our first game... I do not remember. We love playing wizards and superheroes.

Wizards is our favorite game. We like making up our own spells, charms, and potions. And we usually team up with some of our other friends, who also live in St. Louis, Nathan and Lili. One time we made a spell to switch bodies and pretended to be each other which was really fun. We miss each other now that I have moved to Tennessee. We're thinking about getting a web cam to talk to each other from our different states over the computer.

I'd love for you to meet him. Maybe if we ever get the web cam we could get it on video and put it up on my the blog.

Anyway, Scout Camp was over on the last day we had a space derby with model rockets. Each cub/boy scout gets one time. Except for me. The first time I went it didn't go one bit. It just went straight to the ground. The second, it did the same. But, the third was different. With a lot of hard work and help from Dad, I won.

While at Scout Camp, I made a new friend, Jack. He's a lot like me... and David. He even has a family cartoon they do monthly on Youtube. They call it Fred, the Lovable, Huggable, Zombie. Which gave me insperation to do a cartoon too. 2 actually. I'll tell about em' later.

But, I like having friends. I guess this wraps it up. Have a great summer. Max out.

My boy, David in the second grade with his Webkinz tree frog (Upper left).

Nana in Tennessee

Hi, ya... It's me. I'm back. And Happy International Day of Families. Yes, that's today and it's a weird coincidence beacause my grandma and grandpa, Nana & Umpa, is in town today and tommorrow. She comes from my mom's side of the family, obviously since my other grandma lives here already. It's also another coincidence that it's my mom's birthday. It's been fun we've played dinosaurs, the family's went to On the Border, we even got to watch half of the "Secrets of the Muppets" episode of The Jim Henson Hour on YouTube. We're gonna watch the rest tomorrow. I had a great time. It's still not over yet.

Ya know, I learned alot from that "Secrets of the Muppets" episode. Well, since they told the Muppets' secrets, here's one you didn't know. Gonzo said, quote, "At night, uh, I puts soda into my socks to make my feet fizz, oh...", unquote, but not unwierd. And you think that's funny, try seeing Gonzo, and two other new Muppets, Bean Bunny & Leon, running and screaming in terror when Jim Henson says 'puppet'.

So it's been great, now I may have not gotten mom a present (yet) but I've given her alot of attention even though it's Grilled Cheese Friday. It's going to be great, so I hope you have a great weekend. See ya.

Umpa (far left), Nana with a broken nose (middle), Mom (far right), and me (lower middle) at my Dad's chiropractic graduation in Logan College of Chiropractic.

Mother's Day with the Jessops

Hey, ya. St. Louis was awsome. Unfortunately, since the call to tell us if we got the call back was supposed to be at 9:00. I didn't get a call. Like the Muny, there is just something even better for me.

Yesterday was my dad's All About Women chiropic screening downtown. I had a babysitter for 8 hours. I'm fine with it since my babysitter is Tori, is Kalee McBride's, my mom's couponing friend, daughter. I didn't know her but my mom told me she liked drama and the preformance arts.

We had so much fun. We made stories, we sang songs, we watched YouTube videos. We even went on iCarly.com. We also practiced The Underground. Currently we are making a movie, Lights, Cameras, Kanines. It's about a talking dog who runs off to Hollywood to be a big star.

So anyway, it's Mothers's Day. The day deticated to moms all over America, and all the othe places on Earth. So I might as well tell you what mom wants.

1. Money for a new pair of walking shoes or a purse that she will pick out


2. Ten new patients at my dad's office


3. And no going anywhere except church for the day.

Yep, she's had a ruff weekend. So that's what she wants. Also for Mother's Day we sent nana, my grandma, a card. Now she always sends me cards with money in them. Like 1$ bills to like on really big occasions 20$. But this time we put money in the card for her. When she saw it she laughed so hard. Nothing like a little oppositing.

Anyway yesterday was Brandon's, my friend and nieghbor, birthday. So he invited me to the party but we couldn't go because of the babysitting. On the brightside, we got him a cool present, a 4-pack of Expedition brand Tech Decks. Oh, while getting his Tech Decks I got some myself. A 3-pack of Black Label brand Tech Dechs. Chandler will freak out. Or get mad.

So I guess that's my news for today. See ya, and Happy Mother's Day. Only 235 days left.

Me and my mom together (Upper center)