Hey, mon, Cayman is Grand - W. Caribbean Cruise - Day 3

We would be hard-pressed to have had a better day than we did in Grand Cayman today. Perfect warm weather and what a beautifully amazing place. Of course, your opinion of a new place is always strengthened with a good guide showing it to you, and Capt. John-Michael was just that. He was the pilot and tour guide for our private boat tour around Grand Cayman Island. He picked us up at the port after we had tendered in early this morning from the ship. We drove to the other side of the island away from a surprising amount of rush-hour traffic coming into George Town. We arrived at his dock and boarded his beautiful 27-foot Boston Whaler Outrage and headed out immediately to Stingray City, one of Grand Cayman's busiest attractions. We knew Capt. John-Michael knew what he was doing when we arrived at Stingray City with only two other boats in sight (by the time we left an hour later there were dozens of boats and jet skis around us). Stingray City is a section of waist-deep ocean near Grand Cayman Island with a sandy bottom just inside a large barrier reef. Years before their were cruise ships and too many tourists, local fisherman used this area to gut their catch instead of waiting until they got back to the dock and making a big mess there. Stingrays in the area got in the habit of visiting this area and feasting on the discarded chum. Nowadays, anyone can drop into the water with a handful of squid and feed these beautiful and gentle creatures by hand. There are scores of them in the waters here of all varying sizes. Some of the bigger ones had wingspans that were easily 4 or 5 feet in width. We all fed them and it was truly an amazing experience. They don't have teeth per se and their undersides are very soft. Their imposing-looking tails are not sharp or stinging as their name implies, but instead just rough in texture. And, they really seemed to try and prevent hitting you with them as they circled about. Capt. John-Michael also showed us a trick that since the rays can't swim backwards if you get in front of them and carefully cradle them in front of you they will actually just hover their resting in your arms (photo above). Very, very cool. He also explained to us that the rays actually like human contact and that was evident as many of the rays hung around with us long after the squid was gone.

We left the growing crowds at Stingray City behind and headed next to a prime snorkeling spot. We spent another hour or so floating around and gazing at a huge diversity of fish (the most we had ever seen in one area while snorkeling) swimming in and out of coral reefs growing on huge boulders in about 10 feet of water. Capt. John-Michael came through again by picking a spot that was only occupied by us the entire time we snorkeled. Afterwards, we motored over to the north central part of the shoe-shaped island known as Rum Point and anchored near shore. We took about a half-mile beach walk to a little restaurant just off the beach for lunch (photo above). We got a bit of jolt at the Cayman Dollar-U.S. Dollar exchange rate, but it's hard to grumble too much when you are in paradise. By the time we got back to the boat Capt. John-Michael had gathered together four huge starfish (photo below) for us to examine up close. Each one was a different brilliant color and are fairly heavy in weight. As a final stop before returning us to the ship, we slowly motored through a huge expanse of mangroves without another soul around. Very tranquil. Through the murky water Capt. John-Paul showed us hundreds of large jellyfish resting on the bottom of these canals.

If you ever get the chance to find your self in Grand Cayman, we highly recommend Capt. John-Michael's eco-tour. It's affordable, professional, private for groups of up to 10 and extremely respectful of Grand Cayman's awesome biodiversity.

W. Caribbean Cruise Day 2 - A Fun Day @ C

We got up this morning and boarded our "Fun Ship" - the Carnival Legend. Overall, it's a nice boat. It could use a little paint on the outside in some places and most of the interior open areas are downright gaudy in terms of decorating. The walls were so busy with color and adornments it could give you a headache if you looked at it too long. Our room was the best thing we found. Tastefully decorated with a good layout and design that gave us ample room to move around and for storage. Our mid-ship port-side 5th-floor balcony (a must for a cruise if you ask us - totally worth the few extra dollars) giving us a perfect vantage point while cruising. Didn't even have to get out of bed to get the photo above. We explored the ship some more as we cruised out of Tampa Bay and were disappointed to find that a few of the lounges we were looking forward to frequenting (the sports bar and the piano bar) allowed smoking. Yuck! The food and clientele weren't bad, but nor were they great. Instead of a lot of rowdy partiers like we expected, the majority of the cruisers were very elderly. The best food we found was of the fast-food variety - pizza and burgers. The nightly sit-down

dinners were decent but not the taste sensations we would look forward to on other cruises we have taken in the past. The unseasonably cold temps in Tampa (50 was the projected high today) left the open decks rather inaccessible as well for the start of the trip until we moved farther south into warm latitudes. Jimmy Buffett had it right, however, when you change your latitude, you do change your attitude and the warmer it got outside, the less the little shortcomings of the Carnival Legend mattered to us. Grand Cayman here we come! Above is 30 seconds of relaxing balcony time to enjoy anytime we want. Thanks Blogger.com!

Western Caribbean Cruise 2010 - Day 1

It's been over a year since our last cruise and we were sure missing it. So, we decided to try Carnival Cruise Lines this time for a week's long trek to the Western Caribbean. Carnival always has good values, but sometimes gets mixed reviews in terms of quality and clientele. We did get a great value and a great itinerary which includes stops in Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize and Isla Roatan, Honduras. We flew down today to Tampa to spend the night before our departure and met our traveling companions for the week, Amy, who Ashlee used to work with before she moved back up north to New Hampshire, and her new husband, Jeremy. We had just seen these guys a month or so ago when we spent New Year's Eve together in Atlantic City for an O-A-R concert (see previous blog entry).

Breaking our Hilton hotel loyalty, we all shared a room at the new Hyatt Place near the airport thanks to an amazing rate that Ashlee found. We picked up a rental car at the airport for the early evening/night since the Hyatt's only real downfall was its not-so-great location in terms of walking destinations. We found a unique place to catch dinner and a movie all at the same time called Cinebistro. The concept is very unique with rather fine dining and a full bar in the theatre as you watch first-run movies. The place was very luxuriant throughout with large leather chairs that reclined somewhat and even ottomans for the first row (photo above) which we chose (still a bit close to the screen - not recommended in terms of some neck strain). Dinner was delicious and our movie of choice was Avatar 3D which we were both able to cross off our Best Picture viewing list for the upcoming Oscar party we always attend at our friends, the Edmondsons. Everyone had a great time. We will definitely keep this place in mind if we happen to cruise out of or visit Tampa again. Afterwards, we stopped by Ybor City - an eclectic Cuban neighborhood with a busy nightlife scene of bars and clubs. They had just had a free night-time parade there celebrating a city pirate festival. Unfortunately, as with any free event, not always the best class of people show up...i.e. there was some weird folks wandering around. We had a quick adult beverage and walked around a bit and decided it was not for us. Time to get back and rest up for our embarkation tomorrow!

Sundance EAST

Tonight with our friend, Sharon, we attended a premiere screening of The Extra Man starring Kevin Kline and Paul Dano at The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville as part of the new Sundance Film Festival USA. The famous independent film festival started by Robert Redford decided to expand beyond the mountains of Utah this year and offer eight of their premiere films to be screened around the country at the same time. Nashville and The Belcourt were lucky enough to be chosen as one of those eight cities and one of those eight venues.The tickets sold out fast and we felt privileged to get seats. The film was introduced by co-director, Shari Springer Berman and one of the producers. Ms. Berman's directing partner and life-partner, her husband, Robert Pulcini - who together won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance back in 2003 for American Splendor - wasn't able to attend due to commitments at the Sundance Festival itself where the film is also premiering.

The film was very enjoyable with quirky characters, an interesting story and lots of witty dialogue. The cast was superb with amazing performances turned in by screen veteran, Kline, at the top of his game and young Dano working very well with him. Shot in and around New York City, Berman and Pulcini's home, was also of great delight to us as we plan a return to The Big Apple next month. Questions were fielded after the screening as well and we learned interesting details on casting, adapting the screenplay from a beloved novel, and the nuances of shooting in some of New York City's famous and not so famous locations. We also found out that the filmmakers are currently in negotiations to have the film mass-distributed.

We feel very lucky to have such a cutting-edge theatre as The Belcourt nearby to offer such rare events as tonight's premiere. We will be back over there next Tuesday for another interesting wine, food and movie event as well. We are aiming for the Sundance Festival itself for next year.

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EPILOGUE:

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Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - We did return to The Belcourt tonight for their Wine, Food and Film event. Five nice wines were available for sample from Village Wines and there were heavy hors d'oeuvres furnished from Whole Foods Market. The screening was of "Big Night" - an excellent cooking- and food-oriented film from the late 90's with a great cast. We had a large group show up to join us including our friends Carolyn, Emily, Steve, Danny, Brenda and a new member to Ashlee's supper club meet-up group, Paige. Everyone had a great time. Thanks again, Belcourt, for yet another fun and unique evening.

201O|A|R - Happy New Year Road Trip

Dec. 30 - Philly, PA to Atlantic City, NJ

We met today at the Philadelphia airport (Ashlee driving, Rob flying). Ashlee had left a few days earlier to visit her childhood friend, Starling, in Washington, D.C. From there we headed to the sun-lit (but not sun-warmed!) beaches of Atlantic City (photo above) to begin our New Year's Eve long-weekend extravaganza. Tonight we had dinner and drinks with Ashlee's co-worker and our friend, Eileen, and her husband, Mike. We went to Dock's Oyster House which serves a heckuva lot more than just oysters. Great fresh seafood was had by all. Thanks to Mike for researching this excellent place. It would definitely be worth another visit. We did a bit of bar-hopping before and after dinner at the Caesar's Casino and at the Tropicana Casino (photo below - Ashlee and Eileen in the back of a cab with the glitter of Atlantic City flashing by). Not much gambling was done by this group other than a few slot pulls that were to no avail, but a great time was had nonetheless.

Dec. 31 - Atlantic City Eileen and Mike had to head back home to Philly this morning, but we weren't lonely too long because our friend and Ashlee's former co-worker, Amy, and her husband, Jeremy, were safely fighting their way through winter weather driving in from New Hampshire to meet us for New Year's Eve dinner and the OAR concert we all had tickets to. Dinner was at PF Chang's and was delicious and technically free since Rob chopped a small poker tournament earlier in the day (while Ashlee slept in and then went shopping) with three other players for a $300 profit that went to paying for dinner for everyone plus some drinks. The concert was at The House of Blues inside the very nice Showboat Casino. There was a big crowd and we met several OAR loyalists who had seen them several times. This made the second time for us this year and could have been the third time except for a scheduling conflict. The guys were spectacular live again as we expected. They only took a few moments to count down the New Year, let the balloons and confetti drop, and then were right back into the music. The venue was good and spacious which was a relief because we had a bit of bad HOB experience on New Year's Eve a few years back in Chicago. Thanks OAR and Atlantic City for showing us how a great New Year's Eve concert is supposed to go down. January 1 - Atlantic City to Charlottesville, VA We all slept in to start 2010 as late as the great little Chelsea Hotel (highly recommended if you are in A/C) would allow us, and then packed up for our respective trips north and south. But before totally departing ways, we had a delicious Italian lunch with a friend of Amy's who lives in the area. Luckily, it will be a short goodbye for us four as Amy and Jeremy are going on our upcoming Caribbean cruise in early February where we are all looking forward to more beach time of a much warmer nature. The rest of the day was taken up with a lot of driving with good views of the Philadelphia and Baltimore skylines, the Beltway of D.C. and the bitter cold and darkness of Northern Virginia. We had been extremely lucky in terms of weather with the timing of this trip as most of the Northeast had been hit hard a week earlier by a huge snowstorm. Charlottesville and the rest of northern and central Virginia were no exception and still had plenty of remnants remaining (photo below). The roads, however, were in great shape and we had no problems traveling. January 2 - Charlottesville, VA to Johnson City, TN We chose to stop in Charlottesville for three reasons: first, it was about half-way home, second, it had a Doubletree Hotel we could stay at to rack up more points for future travel, and third, it's the home of Starr Hill Brewing, one of Rob's favorite regional microbreweries. After another good sleep in, we ambled over to the small hamlet of Crozet, Virginia, about 10 minutes from Charlottesville to check out the brewery (photo below). We got to taste six of their varieties on tap plus an extra secret one since we had driven so far to visit (shhh! don't tell anyone...thanks, Dave!). See Rob's beer blog for more on the beer itself.

After our tasting we took a short 20-minute tour of the facility led by Shelley, a Starr Hill employee who obviously loves his job and his product! Starr Hill got its start in Charlottesville-proper as a brew-pub and then expanded operation in this converted chicken-processing plant in nearby Crozet. They currently distribute to six states with plans to branch out farther very soon. After a few purchases for us and for friends, it was time for some lunch. From literature we found at Starr Hill we decided to try what else - another microbrewery! After punching in the address in the handy Magellan, we traveled east to another small town called Afton just in time to join a big crowd already assembled at the small, but obviously popular, Blue Mountain Brewery and Restaurant.

All the tables were full for lunch but we were offered a sofa, an armchair and a coffee table if we wanted immediate seating. Yes, please! Blue Mountain like a lot of this region we noticed by way of town and road names has a heavy German influence. Their beer offerings were of the Bavarian nature as was their menu (and our selections from it). We started off sharing a big soft pretzel dipped in their own delicious home-made mustard, followed up a bigger-than-we-thought-it-would-be Brat Pizza...yep, pizza with brat slices..ingenious and oh so good. We also got a beer sampler (photo above) which was also very impressive. So much so that Rob had another pint and we bought a 750ml bottle to take with us (again, more info on the beer in Rob's beer blog). With daylight fading in the cold winter afternoon, we decided to check out one more spot that Rob had researched and was recommended by Bon Appetit magazine for their wine, The Kluge Estate & Winery. This beautiful place happens to be just a few miles from Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home and the area's most well-known attraction, but it seemed many miles away from any crowds. We were able to easily and quickly try a flyte of their wines (photo below where Ashlee might be enjoying the fire even more than the wine). The wines were superb as was the ambiance here and we would have loved to linger for a while more, but as the sun began to set in the Blue Ridge Mountains (photo above) we knew we had another long drive ahead of us into the darkness of southern Virginia to the state line and the city shared by two states, Bristol, TN-VA. Plus, we had one more thing to see before we crashed again at another Doubletree Hotel in nearby Johnson City, TN - the famous World's Fastest Half-Mile Bristol Motor Speedway decked out in Christmas lights and a chance to actually drive on the high-banked oval! The drive south did indeed turn out to be long (2oo+ miles), but we made it with just enough time to spare to drive through the impressive Speedway in Lights Christmas Display in and around the Bristol Motor Speedway Complex. This expansive display includes the grounds surrounding the football-stadium-shaped racetrack, the adjoining drag strip and then concluding inside and on the track itself with a carnival of food and rides available in the infield. Despite Christmas being over for a week, this experience was well worth it and highly recommended if you find yourself in the Bristol area around the holidays (or just want to make a fun holiday road trip). They have been putting on this show for several years now, and according to their advertising it only gets bigger every year. Plus, you get to drive on the steep-banked track! (photo above) Even at 5 MPH it's pretty exhilarating and addictive. It took everything we had not to get a speeding ticket on the way home the following day! January 3 - Johnson City to Home Four hours of squabbling over the radio and complaining about the car being a mess. Yep, it's a good thing this road trip is coming to an end! But in all seriousness, this turned out to be one of the best trips we've taken together(and we take a lot of trips!). We thoroughly enjoyed Atlantic City which has really cleaned up its act from the reputation it had gotten in the past of being dirty and crime-ridden. The Charlottesville area turned out to be a great surprise and a real hidden gem. Very undeveloped in terms of touristy crap and instead incredibly pristine in terms of the preservation of history and nature, while still having tons of things to see and do and interesting places to eat and perhaps have a drink or two. What a great way to usher in 2010! We got a feeling it's gonna be a wonderful year as well as a great new decade.!

Collages 11

It was another busy year for us and the collage for 2009 has come together nicely. Like the past two years, we had enough memorabilia to fill an entire frame in one year with tons of great concerts, amazing trips to the Caribbean and Ireland, plus Las Vegas. It went on the wall today along with our other ten framed collages and made another great addition to the den. 19 years and counting. We are already looking forward to 2010.

BIRM-traIN-GHAM

Friday, December 4, 2009 Even though we had just made a trip to Austin to see our favorite band, Train, perform live on their Save Me San Francisco Tour; when they added nearby Birmingham, Alabama, to the schedule and the tickets were only $15 each, we just couldn't resist. We headed out that afternoon for the 3-hour drive south because the tickets said the show started at 7 PM which seemed a little early. Sure enough after we checked in to our Doubletree hotel (more Hilton points to use later!) and walked a couple of blocks to the 5 Points Music Hall there was a line to get in the place just before 7 PM...but the show didn't start until 9 PM!!! Ugghh, looks like it was a misprint on the tickets that should have read "Doors Open at 7 PM." Because of the long line to get in we figured we wouldn't get as close to the stage as we did in Austin, but thanks to the grueling 2-hour wait, we actually were a few rows closer providing great views of Train and their sensational opening act, Serena Ryder (photo below). Her strong vocals and emotional delivery reminds one of an early Melissa Etheridge before she got famous and over-focused on her sexual preference instead of her music. The 5 Points Music Hall has had a strange little history we learned via Google on Ashlee's Blackberry while we killed time before the show. Evidently, the building was originally a Piggly Wiggly grocery store. It became a hot-bed of live music in Birmingham throughout the 90's and the early part of this century until a double-homicide in the parking lot by an underage patron shut it down for several years. It re-opened a couple of years ago and is building back up its reputation for great live music. We were impressed with the venue for the most part. Good acoustics and sight lines to the stage. A bit smaller than La Zona Rosa in Austin, but not too cramped. The place was packed and Train has a huge following in Birmingham it seems. Lead singer, Pat Monahan (photo above), even told a story of how Birmingham is near and dear to the band's heart because it was one of the first major cities whose prominent radio station featured the first songs from the band on their regular rotation which led to growing exposure and on to nationwide success. I guess that explains why Birmingham was added to the tour dates and not Nashville which we were hoping. This acoustic show put on by Train was not only different in sound, but also in song selection, from two weeks ago in Austin. This made it a wholly unique experience. After the amazing show, we stepped outside with the bustling crowd just in time to see huge snow flakes billowing down from the sky. Too bad our camera batteries were dead! But still a very memorable night deep in the heart of Alabama with our favorite band of all time as we chalked up an 8th time we have seen them live and they still never disappoint.