Winter is coming...ready or not

Mother Nature don't care...

Thursday, October 30 - We picked up our friend, Jeremy, at the airport tonight and had dinner at the always tasty, Homegrown Taproom, and followed that up with some bourbon tasting at our friends, Wendy and Charly's house nearby.  Jeremy had flown in from Salt Lake City to join me and 4 other guys on our annual GAME weekend in Kentucky and Charlotte, NC, this year.

Friday, November 8 - We saw the new holiday film, Last Christmas, tonight at our local Roxy Theaters (recliners!). We both really liked it, especially since it was filmed in London which we visited again last year.

Sunday, November 10 - We were back in Chattanooga this weekend again working on the house, and came to what we hope is a good decision and is definitely an instant load off our minds with it by allowing our nephew, Matt, and his wife and son to move in and help pay the mortgage on it.  We tried the nearby Taco-nooga for take-out lunch and it was excellent.  We will definitely have to hit this place again when in town.  

Monday, November 11 - We attended the  SOLD OUT Ryan Bingham show at The Ryman  tonight with our friends, Wendy and Charly.  The opener was Jamestown Revival who we have seen before at Bonnaroo and really liked.  It was a fantastic show from start to finish.  Ryan has an excellent band around him and his own guitar- and harmonica-playing are superb along with a singing voice that it very unique and true.  The boys from Jamestown Revival also joined him on stage for a number and on the closing song.  We ate dinner at Nectar, a great new-to-us Mexican cantina with killer tacos.  We drove home with snow flakes coming down as temps drop steadily throughout the night.

Tuesday, November 12 - We awoke to a nice little dusting of very early snow (for us) on the pumpkin today thanks to an arctic blast from the north.  Guess it's time to light the fireplace pilot light and put up the Halloween decorations!  Thanks for the fun pic, Ashlee.

Sunday, November 17 -  After a day of pretty strenuous yard-work, we rewarded ourselves with a late-afternoon visit to the new Shop Springs Creamery here in Wilson County for some homemade ice cream.  This was the grand opening weekend for the SSC and our choices of waffle cones of chocolate chip cookie dough and salted caramel were both excellent.  What a great addition to our area!

Tuesday, November 19 - We went to see the new film, Ford v Ferrari, at the Roxy Theaters here in Lebanon ($5 Tuesdays and recliners!) tonight.  We really enjoyed the film and it's 2.5 hour run-time just seemed to "speed" by.   

Thursday, November 21 -It's been about 4 years since we've been to the Mercy Lounge in Nashville.  And who did we see there four years ago?  Why, Augustana, of course.  So we were back again tonight to see a show by the reformed band, Augustana at the Mercy Lounge.  Founder and lead singer, Dan Layus, and Company are back and as good as ever.  They tore through a great set of old favorites of ours and even a couple of excellent new songs.  We also enjoyed their fantastic opener, Zac Clark.  
(Editor's note:  Wonder if this will be the last show we ever see at The Mercy Lounge?  It was reported recently that the entire Cannery Row property has been sold with new plans for its future.
Second editor's note:  Well, it won't close before March since I just saw that Blue October is playing in the Cannery Ballroom.)

Autumna-All FUN, ya'll

Saturday, September 8 - We were in Chattanooga today for Day 1 of the SOLD OUT second annual Moon River Music Festival down at Coolidge Park on the north shore of the Tennessee River.  Just like last year, the festival tix went quick thanks to reasonable prices and a killer music line-up.

Good Lord it's hot!!  We grabbed a discounted beer (discounted vs. festival prices that is) at The Brewhaus before diving into the outdoor inferno.  Early September shouldn't have 90-degree-plus weather, but we've got it this year.  Our first band to see in the blazing heat was a very pregnant (8 mos.) Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds who we always enjoy seeing live.  They tore it up with a good-size crowd gathered next to the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge. Next up was a great set on the larger Poplar Stage by Drew and Ellie Holcomb, who are also a favorite of ours and the organizers of this great festival.  Following up on the main stage was Nashville's own, Moon Taxi, who we've seen a little, but this was probably our first full set and they were extremely good.  We saw a lot of these shows from the shade underneath the Walnut Street Bridge which offered nice site lines out of the brutal sun.   

Did we mention it was hot?  I mean, real hot.  So hot, it melted the cups they were serving Tennessee craft cocktails in!!  This was the Peach Picker with Huling Station Bourbon made by Old Dominick Distilling in Memphis.  The drinks were small and overpriced, but they went down cool and refreshing.  The beer pours were expensive as well, but  bigger, and it was nice to see all Tennessee craft brewers in the festival's "Tennessee Tavern."  We caught parts of the sets by Devon Gilfillian, The Oh Hellos and Josh Ritter throughout the afternoon.
The night brought on two great performances by St. Paul and the Broken Bones who we always enjoy seeing and hearing live.  The night was closed by the amazing Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit who we were seeing for the first time live.  Now we see and hear what all the buzz is about.  No wonder him and his band sold out night nights in a row at The Ryman.  What a tremendous band! Thanks to our friend, Deborah, for joining us for this wonderful closing show.

Sunday, September 9 - Moon River Festival Day 2 was briefer for us due to obligations back at home; a less-impressive line-up than Saturday; and, yep, it was just  damn hot again.  Before heading down to the park, we had breakfast beforehand across the river at Whitebird, a relatively new restaurant in the bottom floor of the also new (and swanky) Edwin Hotel.  It was pretty good and we sat outside on the patio before the real heat started setting in.

The artists we wanted to see the most today were the Nashville-based duo, Johnnyswim, who we had to miss recently at Live on the Green.  We got pretty close to the big Poplar Stage to catch the early part of their set and then retreated once again to the shade.  They were pretty good.  Most of their songs kind of sound the same, but it's a pleasant sound at least. I am sure we will have more chances to see them in the future since they seem to pop up at all kinds of different events that we frequent.  We listened to a little of the set by The Band Camino who were OK before heading home.  If we are comparing year to year, last year was better, but not a bad sophomore follow-up to say the least.  I bet we are back here next September as well because it's a great festival in a great location in a great city.

SHRIMP FEST 2019!!!!

Monday, September 9 - Thanks to our pals, Wayne, and Charly, for not making us feel guilty and for going with us to the Red Lobster in Mt. Juliet tonight for all you can eat shrimp.  We did some damage to say the very least.  This was Ashlee's first time ordering the all-you-can-eat option and she did OK until she fell for the cheddar biscuits and got full first....amateur....

Thursday, September 12 -It's Ashlee's birthday!!  Woot!! Woot!!
Even though we technically already had a party at the new Opryland Water Park called Soundwaves last month to celebrate my best girl, we couldn't just do nothing on the actual day.  So we kept it small and at home with some cool gifts (Christmas Mova Globe!), flowers, a Chik-Fil-A lunch delivery (yep, she worked on her birthday...so sad), pool time and dinner via Painturo's Italian take-out from around the corner.  Happy Birthday, Officer Sexy!! 

Oh and there was ice cream cake, of course, from Baskin-Robbins.  Someone does love her fancy purses especially if they are made of mint chocolate-chip ice cream!!

Tuesday, September 24 - It was like Kinder-Care in our back yard today as our young cats, Doris and Byron, sweetly interacted with a couple of young deer that frequent our neighborhood.  

Wednesday, 9/25 - Well, I got skunked 7-0 in our first game of bocce at the new courts here in town as part of the Don Fox Park complex.  They have built eight really nice courts that are free to use.  I bought a nice set of bocce balls from Amazon for us to use recently.  I made it a game the second time around, but still lost 7-6.  Someone's been sneaking up here and practicing during the day I think! 

We took a bit of hiatus from fun activities together this last half of September with work and the usual day-to day-grind.  Plus Ashlee took a great trip to a Disney World with her sister, Paige.

Saturday, October 5 - We took an overnight trip today to Monteagle Mountain to catch a show by Blue October at The Caverns.  Since it was an evening show, we decided to stay nearby and found a cabin for rent on top of Monteagle with a 50' waterfall on the property.  Unfortunately, we've been in a drought lately so Morgan's Falls was just Morgan's Bluff today, but still a pretty cool place.  I will definitely be back in wetter weather because it looks very promising to my waterfall-loving mind.

Man, what a blast from the past for me, and a special visit for Ashlee.  On a whim, I gave my old wood-carving friend, Jess Betchart, a call to see if he was still around on Monteagle Mountain.  He has pretty much retired, but lit up when he heard my name over the phone and invited us over for a visit.  The old woodcarver's shop looked the same as it had way back in 1991 when I interviewed Jess for a "Tennessee Magazine" article (which he still has mounted on the wall!).  We visited and reminisced for a long time and it was very special to me, and Ashlee enjoyed herself as well because Jess is a charmer and has a million great stories.

We even got treated to a song from Jess about his old friend, Dusty, who's about the sweetest dog we've ever encountered.  Dusty has cancer and his days are numbered, but Jess is making the most of them with him.  At 83-years-young, Jess, as well, is getting closer to that long walk home himself, but he looks great for his age and is still carving when he can while taking care of his ailing wife.

Still generous and caring, Jess insisted that we pick out an animal carving of his to take with us.  Ashlee chose this beautiful deer which she says reminds her of the ones we have in the back yard at home.  I would have to agree.  We have vowed to stop back by and see Jess again when we get a chance, and we aim to make good on that vow.  

Another unplanned and unexpectedly delightful stop in Monteagle before the concert was dinner at the Mountain Goat Market.  We had a great pizza in this fun, quirky and hip restaurant/market.

Man, you forget for an amazing live act Blue October is until you see them again.  And seeing them in a beautiful and acoustic cave makes it even better.  The SOLD OUT show was great even if the openers were pretty forgettable.    The rain had started outside as we ducked out a little early to avoid traffic in the crowded parking lot, and along the windy little roads back out to the interstate.  But we got well over an hour of powerful songs and unbridled energy from the band, especially lead singer, Justin Furstenfeld (photo below) who had the crowd in the palm of his hand all night. 

Sunday, October 6-  Well, there wasn't enough rain overnight to make Morgan's Falls run yet, but it was still a beautiful morning up on Monteagle Mountain that was actually starting to feel like fall after several record-breaking hot days in late September and early October.  This little tree I viewed from the nice back porch on the rented cabin was ready for fall even if all the others around it are not yet.
On our way off Monteagle Mountain, we took a quick look at The Retreat at Deer Lick Falls, an interesting tiny-house natural community that could also be of some interest to us/me in the future for rental options for a nice weekend back up on the mountain especially since Deer Lick Falls is one of my favorites in that area and I haven't been back to it in years.

We headed on into Chattanooga for the rest of the day to do some work at Ashlee's mom's house and then rewarded ourselves with a few libations and Chattanooga's newest craft brewery, Five Wits Brewing Company.  It's located in an interesting, new complex known as Market South, kind of a high-end food court.  We had some decent Asian food as well and enjoyed seeing our friend, Chris, who came by and had a couple of beers with us.  Another great addition to the little city we love.

Tuesday,October 8 - We attended our first and only film tonight at this year's historic Nashville Film Festival at the Hollywood 27 Theaters called Bluebird, a documentary about the famous Nashville songwriters venue, The Bluebird Cafe.  A place we surprisingly have never been to together.  We gotta change that! The film was very well done and there was a Q and A after with the director and the current manager of The Bluebird Cafe.  Beforehand, we had a tasty dinner at Vui's Fresh Vietnamese nearby.

Saturday, October 12 - We were hosting Ashlee's newly-found cousin, Leslie, and her daughter, Leeanne , from Cincinnati this weekend during their visit to Nashville.  We started today with a quick tour (and sampling, of course) out at Pennington/Speakeasy Distillery in West Nashville.  The girls loved their products and stocked up on them for the journey home tomorrow.  This was our second visit this year to this fun place.  They are busy here and on the brink of going big-time soon I think.

We headed south next and stopped in Nolensville at the Oktoberfest event they were having at Mill Creek Brewing.  The fun and festivities were dampened by a drunk asshole who decided to sit down beside us without invitation, so we moved on to nearby Arrington Vineyards for a much nicer experience as the sun was setting among the grapevines.

We closed out the fun day with a fire in our backyard as the full moon shown down in our (yes, still open) pool. We roasted hot dogs and had s'mores and laughed into the night as the cool fall temps finally found us here in Middle Tennessee.

Sunday, October 13 - We ate well today with a late brunch stop at the new Party Fowl location in Donelson with our visitors before they headed home.  Then, just a few short hours later we met our good friends, Wendy and Charly, at Cherokee Steakhouse for an early dinner that was excellent as usual and some libations to close out a fun weekend.

Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20 - We didn't have a very fun weekend down in Chattanooga, since we were working at Ashlee's mom's house, cleaning it out and cleaning up the yard, but we did eat well!  On Saturday evening we had a well-deserved grilled cheese and tomato soup from Milk and Honey just down the street on the North Shore.

Sunday's lunch was splitting a giant muffaleta sandwich from Kenny's Southside Sandwiches along with some house-made chips and pimento cheese along with some interesting mustard slaw.

Saturday, October 26 - We took a weekend off from working down in Chattanooga on the house since the weather was kinda crappy and enjoyed a trip in to Nashville for some fun shopping/browsing at the Green Hills Mall, an afternoon matinee showing of the new film, Judy, with our friends, Danny and Brenda;  a tasty dinner afterwards at Emmy Squared and then a little more late-night grocery shopping at the always-interesting Trader Joe's.
The movie was surprisingly depressing as we learned that Judy Garland's life was far from the perfect persona seen on the red carpets of Hollywood.  However, Renee Zellweger's portrayal of the tragic Hollywood icon was brilliant, so we may have seen an Oscar winner tonight.

From CoCo's Courtyard to Martha's Vineyard...

Ever since our good friends, Chris and Tarryn, moved away from here in Wilson County to Fort Wayne, Indiana, we have started a yearly tradition of meeting them somewhere for a little get-together trip.  First it was Columbus, Ohio, to see a Predators game.  Then, last year, we met in Chicago for St. Patrick's Day.  This year, we stepped it up a notch with a little bit bigger trip to New York to catch some world class tennis at the U.S. Open, and then on to explore the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.  

Saturday, August 31 - We flew into NYC's Laguardia Airport this morning and then Ubered a short distance to an Airbnb apartment located in Flushing/Queens that we had rented.  We spent the rest of the day in this area since we've never visited this blue-collar side of New York.  The tennis stadiums are so close to the airport that you can see them on approach.  Our weather was perfect as you can see.

After meeting Chris and Tarryn at the apartment and dropping our bags, we headed to the Long Island City Farm open house before it closed for the weekend.  This is one of the largest rooftop gardens in New York City (45,000 square feet) and a part of three such set-ups around town known collectively as The Brooklyn Grange. It sits atop a re-purposed Standard Motors building with a heck of view of the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

Our next stop was the swanky, new Boro Hotel which proposed a whole different kind of rooftop that was a bar.  Unfortunately, it did not open until 5 PM (weird on a lovely Saturday afternoon), but we decided to have a few libations and split a tasty pizza downstairs on the outdoor patio of their in-house restaurant, Beebe's.  From there we headed to the nearby Big aLICe Brewing Company per my suggestion, of course.  We split a very good 6-beer taster flight in their small, but popular, tasting room. LIC stands for Long Island City which is the name of the brimming neighborhood here.

Dinner was our next endeavor, so we Ubered again to the ethnically-diverse Jackson Heights neighborhood to check out the Arepa Lady Restaurant, a long-standing and popular staple here since it's beginnings as just one lady and a food cart.  Arepas are Columbian corn cakes (photo below) and we had several tasty ones along with interesting pork belly (chicharrion) patacons (photo above).  Patacons are fried mashed plantains with an avocado spread and your choice of meat topping.

We walked off our large dinner with a stroll down 37th Avenue to the fascinating Apna Bazar Farmers Market/ Supermarket.  It was like stepping into another country (or several other countries)  here with an amazing array of ethnic food choices. And despite it being around 9 PM, the place was jammed with customers.  I mean where else are you going to get fresh pooja nuts when you need them?  Yes, we had to Google what pooja nuts are also, so don't feel bad.

We Ubered back to the apartment after a long day of travel and exploring to relax and turn in fairly early in preparation for a long day of tennis tomorrow.  Our AirBnB apartment was nothing special, but it was clean and spacious enough occupying the third floor of the owner's own home.  It was cheaper and gave us more room than two hotel rooms would have.  A couple of unexpected bonuses of the apartment included the fact that jet planes didn't buzz our roof at all hours despite it being a stone's throw from Laguardia. The runways are mercifully on the opposite side of the area. Secondly, there was actually a decent view westward of the Manhattan skyline from the third-floor living room window.   You take what you can get.

Sunday, September 1 - Good mornin' Manhattan, from over here in Flushing/Queens! 

Another reason for our apartment choice was that it is close to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park which is hosting the 2019 US Open tournament. It's already to the fourth rounds of the singles, and we had a day pass for the entire grounds and then assigned seats to the prime-time night session.

We started the day with another ethnic meal as we walked to the only place close the apartment, The Laguardia Cafe, a Dominican-based restaurant.  The food was decent and plentiful and you get chicken soup for breakfast...it's a Dominican thing, who knew?

We had great weather once again as we Ubered a short distance from the apartment to the U.S. Open.  Our first stop before going in to the tournament was to check out the giant Unisphere from the '64-'65 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.  In the background are the abandoned observation towers also from the world's fair history, and which are in the process of being restored.

The US Tennis Association Center is an amazing facility.  It even underwent a multi-million dollar renovation recently.  The impressive and massive Arthur Ashe Stadium is an imposing site to see inside and out.

Today was Round 4 of the women's and men's singles and the second round of doubles matches of the  prestigious Grand Slam tournament and we had a bevy of games to choose from to watch with our day pass.

We opted to watch most of today's action in the second biggest venue in the complex, the beautiful  Louis Armstrong  Stadium where we saw:
China's # 12th-ranked Qiang Wang upset # 1 overall, Australian Ashleigh Barty to move on to her first-ever Grand Slam Quarterfinal
Britain's #11 Johanna Konta pull another upset over  # 2 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic to advance to her first-ever U.S. Open Quarterfinal

Our biggest thrill of the day was getting to see the 15-year-old  U.S. sensation, CoCo Gauff, and her 100 MPH serve take out an older, more-experienced and ninth-ranked doubles team of Nicole Melichar (US) and Kyeta Peschke (CZR), along with her U.S.  partner, the excellent, Caty McNally, who herself is only 17.   The stadium was packed for this one.   Look for team  "McCoCo" to move up fast in the ranks in the near future! 

This magical day in New York took on an amazing glow as night approached.  As we filed into Arthur Ashe Stadium for the two night-time, prime-time sessions, our nose-bleed seats afforded us the jaw-dropping sunset view of Manhattan from the upper outdoor tiers.  The picture has ZERO filters, folks.  

They call it "Prime Time Under the Lights" and it's as big a presentation as any NFL  football game, NHL hockey game or arena concert we have been to.  And why not, in the world of pro tennis, these players are rock stars. The place was packed and there were famous folks in the crowd including comedians, Chris Rock, who we saw flashed on the big screen, and Adam Sandler, who we saw being interviewed earlier in the day.  This was being shown on ESPN with millions watching world-wide.  It was an honor and a thrill to be here.

This may be the best IPhone panoramic shot I have ever taken.  It's just about perfect.
 Tonight, we got to see two important matches under the lights and in prime time:
American hopeful and # 9 in the world, Madison Keys, fell in two straight sets to # 5 Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine who was just on fire with her swings.

The only men's game we saw turned out to be very exciting, very strange and very memorable at the same time.  The # 1 in the world monster, Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, fresh off his Wimbledon win, was down in a third straight set to # 19, Stan Wawinka, of Switzerland when he suddenly retired from the match due to injury...we think...it was never really confirmed.  Djokovic had a strange tournament overall with angrily shushing the crowd with colorful language;  getting in a heated debate with a fan during practice; and winning a match though complaining of a shoulder injury, then being perfectly dominating in the next match, and then quitting while getting trounced tonight to a packed house that was definitely pulling against him.  It's always hard being on top of the mountain.

Like him or not, you gotta respect the power and grace of Novak Djokioick.  He nearly made a play with his back to the net  way in the back-court between his legs that sent the ball back to just within millimeters of clearing.  Maybe one of the most amazing athletic things I have ever seen live.  

After the matches, we filed out of the stadium along with thousands of others and our plan to head south through  Flushing Meadows/Corona Park to grab an Uber back to the apartment were dashed as we walked under the spooky, abandoned and kind of otherworldly (remember the end of Men in Black?) World's Fair Observation Towers and were told by the police that we didn't want to go any further because the park isn't lit up at night past here and thus it is not a place to walk in the dark.  Yes sir!  Thank you, sir!  Hey, it's still New York. 

We did make it back to the apartment after a fairly long wait in the official ride-share line.  It was late and we were exhausted, but it was such a great day and experience.  

BUCKET LIST CHECK!!  

Monday, September 2 - We awoke today to some light rain, so what better time to leave New York and take a short flight to Nantucket, Massachusetts .  We got a light breakfast around the corner from the apartment at a deli/market that was actually pretty good despite giving it a skeptical second-chance.  Sorry about that, Danny's Deli and Grocery.  You are awesome despite your, crowded aisles, weak beer selection and somewhat dirty floors! 

To say our short flight on Jet Blue was easy and casual is an understatement.  The terminal we flew out of was mostly empty since many flights south had been cancelled or delayed due to Hurricane Dorian churning off the coast of North Carolina.  Since it's the end of the in-season on Nantucket, the flight was almost empty and we had entire rows to ourselves.  The weather improved as we headed east also and we touched down under sunny skies.  

Our first views of the uniquely-shaped Nantucket Island were surprising as it did not seem as developed as you would imagine as a playground of the Northeastern rich and famous might be.  

One of the first things you notice (and feel in the Uber from the airport) are the cobblestone streets.  The town of Nantucket is idyllic in every way.  You can tell there is money and history here, but you aren't beaten over the head with either.  They are just here and accepted.  

We chose the Hawthorn House based on a reasonable price and a good location in town.  It's one our first encounters with an invisible service hotel, meaning no front desk, no bellmen, just our keys to our rooms in envelopes in the hallway entrance.  Kinda nice and obviously a very low crime area!  It's a beautiful, old large house built originally in 1849 and has served as traveler lodging since 1920.  Our room # 1 was right inside and quite lovely with an incredibly nice and comfortable bed.  

After settling into our rooms, we immediately headed out for a walk around town and out to beautiful Brandt Point Lighthouse.  We had a pretty good dinner and drinks around the corner from our hotel at the Company of Thieves Pub and then headed back to the Hawthorn House and wiled away the rest of the evening on their secluded back patio with libations and laughter.

Tuesday, September 3 - This morning we were scheduled to take a ferry over to Martha's Vineyard for a guided tour of the famous and swanky island.    We started the day with breakfast as the excellent Black-Eyed Susan's restaurant just around the corner from our hotel. 

It was just a short walk to the ferry dock, so we did some casual shopping and browsing on our way there.  It was during this time we had quite a disturbing incident with our scheduled tour operator on Martha's Vineyard.  I try to keep this blog positive and upbeat, so I won't go into too many details, but let's just say we were very let down by our expensive, private, pre-paid-in-full and booked-months-ago tour and it's unprepared operator this morning.  We wound up having to cancel the tour the morning of due to her shocking unprofessional ineptitude.(Editor's note: We did end up receiving a full refund and future credit also thanks to booking through ToursByLocals.com instead of directly with this twit of a tour operator. They treated us great from the start with a frantic phone call to them that morning and then thru email afterwards.  Here's a big shout out to Tours By Locals for all their help. and we will definitely be using them again!)

Despite the setback with the tour, it was still a beautiful day and the Hy-Line Ferry left right on time like our  pre-paid tickets said it would (see how that works, Dee-Dee?).  We had a smooth ride over enjoying the scenery including this front view of Brandt Point Lighthouse again.  After a bit of looking around at the dock in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard at our options, we decided to rent a car for the day to see as much of the island as we could before our return trip in the afternoon.  The guy at Sun and Fun Inc. car rentals was nice and professional (see how that works, Dee-Dee?) and gave us a four-door sedan for a reasonable price as well as some great tips on where to go and what to see.

Our first stop was the famous Jaws Bridge from the classic film just outside Oak Bluffs heading toward Edgartown.  If you can't read my lips, I am saying..."there's a sh-sh-shark!  A shark in the pond!!"

We did a drive-by of the Edgartown Harbor Lighthouse.  The whole town itself is beautiful.

Our next stop was my call, of course, but we all enjoyed it.  Bad Martha Brewing is named after the beautiful siren mermaid Martha who summoned many a sailor to his doom.  She just showed me where the tasty beer is, so I got no problems with her. 

On the far westernmost end of Martha's Vineyard is Gay Head Light which was actually moved back a few hundred yards recently due to erosion around its base.  This was our final stop before heading back to Oak Bluffs to catch our ferry back to Nantucket.  

Gay Head Light overlooks the beautiful Aquinnah Cliffs.  Sure wish we had had more time here.

Our time on lovely (and larger than expected) Martha's Vineyard Island was much too short, and while a lot of it was seen from a passing car window like these awesome gingerbread houses that the island is famous for, we still really enjoyed it enough to know we would consider a return trip if the opportunity every arises. 

The ferry ride back to Nantucket was quick and easy, and when we disembarked, we went to get in the line out the door of The Juice Bar, a very popular ice-cream shop cleverly disguised as something healthy.  Some of the best ice cream we've ever had, no doubt about it.  We spent our last evening on Nantucket back on the patio of the Hawthorn House with a lot of libations, more laughs and even a pizza delivery.  

Wednesday, September 4 - We had a late afternoon flight home scheduled with a layover in Newark for a late arrival back home while Chris and Tarryn's flight was around noon, so we had just enough time to go back to Black-Eyed Susan's for breakfast again.  This is my "side" order of Yucatan chicken sausage that was unbelievably good with my scrambled eggs.  

We tried to book a sail around the harbor, but there were not enough people for it to go out, so with a few hours to kill and some pretty hot temps, we decided to duck into The Nantucket Whaling Museum.  Despite our opposition to whaling, there is no disputing that it was a major part of history and the industrial revolution in America, and Nantucket was the undisputed capital for it.  The air-conditioning and displays were very nice and we enjoyed our visit more than we thought we would, and seeing the full skeleton of a grown sperm whale was amazing.  

An added bonus to The Whaling Museum was the 360-degree views of their Roof Walk. This panoramic shot out toward the harbor shows the beauty and meticulous upkeep of this cool little historic town.  

You know what else is close to The Whaling Museum?  The Juice Bar!!!  This is a scoop of their "Dirty Grasshopper" flavor (chocolate mint ice cream with Oreos) which they were out of during our visit yesterday, but in stock today and it was amazing.  

An added bonus to our admission to The Whaling Museum was that we also gained access to some other historic points of interest on the island.  The closest (and most interesting) to us was The Old Mill.  This beautifully restored wind-power grist mill is the last survivor of a row of seven of these beautiful structures that once adorned the landscape here grinding out corn hardtack for the scores of whaling ships heading out from Nantucket.  Built in 1746, it is also the oldest mill in the United States still in operation and we got to have a private tour and demonstration of it in action (private because we were the only visitors at that time) by the folks working there.  See video above.  The wheel in the photo above the video is for rotating the entire top of the windmill and its blades to whatever direction the wind is blowing .  Clever, huh? 

We were done with learning and history and it was time for some drinking!  We took an Uber out to Cisco Brewery a few miles from town for a few afternoon libations since they not only brew craft beer, but distill liquor and also make wine.  We met a great couple there while sharing a table who told us about a free shuttle that Cisco was running from downtown Nantucket out to the farm so we hopped on with them to head back to town at no charge.  That was the good news...

then came the bad news..

Yep, first time ever in all of our travels together, United Airlines cancelled their last flight out of Nantucket today which we were supposed to be on.  With no good alternative, we were stuck on the island with Hurricane Dorian down south and churning northward.  We were forced to spend another night in this beautiful place even though it screwed with our work and other plans.  Our room at the Hawthorn House was still available, so at least we got that..but at no discount...and since it was not the fault of UA...supposedly an air traffic control issue at Newark...we probably won't be getting reimbursed for it or our other expenses to stay the extra night.

We just had to trust the UA gate agent who was confident we would get on their 9 AM morning flight with no problems even though the hurricane had us worried about more flight delays and cancellations.  With no other choices and hungry bellies, we decided to try the restaurant here at the airport called Crosswinds which we were told was great by a flight attendant when we were coming in on Jet Blue.  He was right!!  The food was amazing, so at least we had that.  The Wednesday night weekly special is unlimited pasta (Ashlee) and 50-cent jumbo wing (me).  It was cool to see that some of the stars of the long-defunct TV show about a small airport in Nantucket called, "Wings", had visited here also and left signed photographs on the wall.

It was another beautiful night in Nantucket and although we don't live on Easy Street, it is fun to visit it now and then, and eek out a pretty darn good trip despite some major snafus along the way.

Thursday, September 5 - The food was so good at Crosswinds at the airport that we came back for breakfast.  Check out my wonderful steak and eggs platter.  And the potatoes and rye toast were perfect.

We did make it off the island on time and with no issues.  Goodbye, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, it's been a memorable time for sure.

The window was a tight 45-minutes to change planes in Newark which we made without much trouble and a little bit of sweat from having to cross three huge concourses.  The flight home was smooth despite a warning from our captain that we might be on the runway in Newark for a long while before departing (that didn't happen), and it might be a bumpy flight due to the outer trails of Hurricane Dorian (that also didn't happen). And we did get Stroopwafels which may be United Airlines only redeeming value.

We used a lot of Ubers/Lyfts this trip (about $200 in total) and as I was going back through my receipts I could recall that all of them were pretty good, but this guy's name stood out.  

You know the ladies love Lovejit!! 

Epilogue: Hurricane Dorian got close to Nantucket as a CAT 1 storm, but missed it on it's continued path north. Our thoughts are with those affected in it's terrible path of destruction.
None of our faves at The U.S. Open won their brackets.
As I mentioned before we got our refund from the botched MV tour.
We have yet to hear from United Airlines about any reimbursement for the cancelled flight.
We miss eating at Crosswinds.