Holy moly! We're in China!! 圣钼！我们是在中国！

Today we embarked on what we feel is our most ambitious trip so far.  We are off to the other side of the world for a 10-day visit to China!!  Following is a day-by-day, place-by-place account of what turned out to be an amazing journey from start to finish.  

Wednesday, August 28 - Nashville to Seattle:   Since we have to head west to get to The Far East, we flew out today on a non-stop Southwest Airlines flight to Seattle where we would spend the night before boarding the big plane to Beijing, China.  We had the afternoon to enjoy the Jet City and did so very much with a visit to Pritty Boys Pizza for lunch which was delicious, Emerald City Brewing for a few tasty afternoon libations and the grand finale: a evening boat ride and  houseboat tour of Lake Union.

Our vessel for the evening was the lovely restored, Mary Adda. a 1928 all-wooden yacht that was given up for dead in a Seattle boatyard up until a few years ago when our captain, Kevin, brought her back from the grave.  I have to thank groupon.com for helping me find this jewel in The Emerald City...and at a great discount, of course.  (EDITOR'S NOTE:  This was also sort of a recon mission to check out the boat because five friends and I plan to hire Kevin and his boat to take us to the Titans-Seahawks game in early October from our rental house on Vashon Island.  That little adventure will be included in an upcoming beer blog entry.)





We couldn't have asked for better weather in the always-tricky Northwest for our evening cruise.  We hit it off with our captain, Kevin, and his first-mate and friend, Laura, so well that they invited us to dinner with them afterwards to a great little restaurant nearby called Cicchetti, a great little Mediterranean restaurant.

Made famous in the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movie, "Sleepless in Seattle" this beautiful floating lake house is just one of dozens of private homes that surround Lake Union.

Thursday, August 29 - Friday, August 30 - Seattle to Beijing - We boarded our Hainan Airlines flight around 2 PM on Thursday and would fly all night to arrive in Beijing on late Friday afternoon.  Kinda trippy, and the really weird thing with this flight was we never flew in darkness.  Despite that odd date-line fact, we were able to get some sleep, the food served was pretty good and our coach seats weren't bad for the 12-hour flight. After an "interesting" car-ride transfer from the Beijing airport to downtown (evidently you can use the emergency lane in China for passing), we arrived at the nice Dong Fang Hotel where we checked in and just basically crashed for the rest of the evening.

Our first glimpse of China was dazzling with the crinkled mountains in the northeast of the country in shimmering green.

Saturday, August 31 - A Day in Beijing -  After a good night's sleep and a hearty complimentary breakfast that included "breakfast bowels" (i.e. sausage).  We were somehow able to get on Facebook (we read that we would not be able to in China) and a picture of the sausage tray with it's interesting "description" on my timeline brought howls of laughter and pangs of disgust from several folks back home. Yep, this was going to be a fun and interesting trip. After breakfast and with a free day in Beijing before our official tour of China started, we were picked up for a day-tour of the city with three stops that weren't on the list of places we would visit with our main tour: the Giant Panda Garden at the Bejing Zoo, the Summer Palace and the Lama Temple.  All three places, plus lunch across from the famous "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium were great.  Our guide, Jason (bet that's not his real name since he's a native), was excellent and easy to understand.

This great zoomed-in shot was taken by Ashlee of two of the Beijing Zoo's most popular residents, giant pandas, noshing on some morning bamboo.

The Summer Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is right in the heart of Beijing, but you would never know there was a giant city surrounding this beautiful and peaceful oasis.  In this shot is part of the huge, man-made Hunming Lake and the soaring Buddhist pagoda temple on  Longevity Hill.  As we where leaving the Summer Palace Ashlee experienced the first of several times while we were traveling in China the phenomena of us as Caucasians being sought after by rural Chinese people to have their picture taken with us.  According to our guide, this was probably the fist time these folks had ever visited Beijing and the first time they had ever seen a "big nose" (that's what they call any foreigner) in person.

Lunch time across from The Bird's Nest (i.e. The Beijing National Stadium)!! The pride and positive affect of the 2008 Summer Olympics is still very evident in Beijing.  While driving around town we also got a glimpse of The Water Cube  (National Aquatic Center) where Michael Phelps did all his gold-medal damage.

The Lama Temple is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Beijing  that is not only a tourist attraction, but also an active religious site for practicing Buddhists.  This beautiful and serene sanctuary boasts a Guinness World Record with the largest wooden Buddha (85+ feet tall) carved from a single piece of sandalwood (no pictures allowed out of respect).

After our wonderful day tour, we were dropped off back at the hotel in time for a little rest up and then we met the rest of our tour group and our guide, Michael, in the lobby and then walked to dinner together.  This is the first multi-day tour we have ever taken and we probably just got  really spoiled.  Our entire group was wonderfully nice and interesting, and our guide, Michael, and our drivers throughout the trip were top-notch.  It's going to be hard for any future tour to live up to this one.  Here's a quick run-down of the great people we traveled with.  I mention these folks because they were equally as enjoyable as the country of China and each of them enriched the experience for us in so many ways:

Michael - our guide - his real name is Huang Hai Tao and he couldn't have been nicer, more helpful, more patient and honest about our trip, his country and the overall experience.

Bob - a very successful businessman from Toronto
Kevin - Bob's son, and a charismatic and funny guy
Richard - an always-smiling, globe-hopping Brit who most recently worked on oil rigs in Russia and was heading to North (yes, North) Korea for his next adventure after this.  EDITOR'S NOTE:  He made it out fine and enjoyed the trip.  Whew!
Olly - a young, friendly Aussie businessman who was squeezing a visit to China in between international business meetings
Katharina - a young college graduate from Austria who had never left Europe and was now continuing her studies in China after this trip
Joe - a witty and intelligent Brit who loves adventure and hasn't met a dark, dingy alley yet he won't explore
Natalie - a young British medical student with Indian heritage and a bubbly personality
Usha - Natalie's mom, a recent widow and a warm, sincere and classy lady

Thanks to all these new friends for making our entire trip even better than expected!

Sunday, September 1 - Beijing to The Great Wall of China - Our "official" tour with G Adventures started off with a bang as the ten of us loaded up in a small tour bus and headed for The Great Wall of China, the first place on the agenda to visit.  BUCKET LIST GO BOOM!  Wow!  What an amazing thing to see in person.  Pictures will NEVER do it justice and we feel privileged and fortunate to have seen and experienced at least a small part of it in our lifetime.

Our guides for the next 10 days in China.  They were excellent and we hope to use them again.

The Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall is about an hour from Beijing and one of the best preserved portions of this modern wonder of the world.   As the picture above shows, we couldn't have asked for better weather for our visit.

Up and down, up and down.  One of the truly amazing things about this section of The Great Wall besides it's sheer enormity is that fact that it was built along the spines of many jagged mountains.  Our visit turned into quite a workout as we were able to explore for more than an hour up and down the endless stairways.

We took an aerial tram to the top of The Great Wall, but another option to come back down was by toboggan .  What a surreal (and fun) experience to whisk off the mountainside riding a modern plastic sled in a  metal chute while the ancient, silent bricks of the wall loom behind you.

Back in Beijing that evening we wondered through some of the tiny, winding and historic alleys (known as hutongs) near our hotel.  These tiny streets gave us a glimpse of how most of China truly lives their lives in humble clean homes, eking out just enough for a meager livelihood, yet with the smiles and laughter of people focused on family and who are basically happy. Not a bad lesson to be learned here.   After dinner, we caught an optional show called "The Legend of Kung Fu" at The Red Theater which turned out to be more of a Broadway-style musical instead of a martial arts demonstration.  Ashlee was the only female in the group to go and was paid off "handsomely" with some great-looking shirtless guys on stage.

Monday, Sept. 2 to Tuesday, Sept. 3 - Beijing to Xi'an - We spent most of today in Beijing visiting some of the most famous (and infamous) parts of the city including Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Pearl Market, and The Temple of Heaven.

The gigantic Tiananmen Square is the third-largest public square in the world.  It's a nice place and the picture above obviously reflects a happier time now than the one incident back in 1989 that most people think of in relation to this place...but don't speak of in China...our guide warned us that there are three political "T's" you don't discuss in public in China:  Tibet, Taiwan and the Tiananmen Square Massacre.  Enough said I guess.

Pagodas near and far in The Forbidden City.

"Which purse you want?"  "How many you want?"  "Good prices here!"
Shopping is an intense experience in The Pearl Market where pearls and everything else you can think of are for sale.   We stopped here for a bite of  lunch (the McDonald's we had was delicious!) and tried to browse in some shops but the term "just looking" isn't a concept that the aggressive salespeople here can relate to very well.

We finished our Beijing visit with the exquisite Heavenly Temple, a Taoist temple which sits in a vast park not only packed with visitors but with locals as well, playing cards or Mai Jong, or practicing Tai Chi or some other exercise or just chatting the afternoon away with friends.

After dinner we packed up our suitcases and headed for the incredibly busy train station for an overnight trip to the "small" city of  Xi'an (only five million or so people) nearly 700 miles southwest of Beijing.  Spending the night on a sleeper train was a new experience for us and overall it was pretty enjoyable.  The quarters were tight, but the beds were comfortable, and the toilet was western.  Google "eastern toilet" for more in-depth research on this "sensitive" topic if you want to know more.  It's definitely something you want to know about before you head to The Far East.  Our roommates in our double bunk-bed compartment were the other "North Americans"  in the group, Bob and Kevin from Canada.  We all laughed and giggled like kids well into the night as the train rushed through the darkness toward our next adventure.

Let's eat!!  All our meals together as a group were served family-style at tables with giant lazy-Susans on them.  The big giant Chinese beers were usually cheaper (about $1.50 each) than bottled water.

Tuesday, Sept. 3 - Xi'an to the Terra Cotta Army and Back Again

The wall around the city of Xi'an is impressive and in immaculate shape.  The city is busy and full of students since there are several universities here.  Unfortunately, we encountered the worst smog around this area than anywhere else.  We were expecting more in Beijing which has been suffering from some of the worst air pollution on the planet in the last decade, but it wasn't too bad while we were there.  The smog in Xi'an was somewhat depressing and definitely altered one's view (literally and figuratively) of this obviously impressive city focused on history, culture and art.

Above is a shot of our awesome guide, Michael, giving us an intro to The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, our first stop in his hometown, the ancient walled-city  of Xi'an.  This huge Buddhist temple was built in 652 A.D.

After lunch we loaded up on a tour bus and trekked out to see country's "newest" ancient tourist attraction, the life-sized Terracotta Army that was buried with the first emperor of China dating back to 209 B.C.  Re-discovered back in the 1970's, it has become an incredibly important archaeological site  in China as well as a hugely-popular tourist destination.

Only 6 of the of estimated 8,000 life-sized clay army were found intact.  All others were smashed by a preceding dynasty to insure the first emperor would not return from the afterlife with his army.



one of the intact "survivors"

Jig-saw puzzle masters at work on site.

Coming back to life.  The army is being painstakingly reassembled and the site of them standing in rank and file in their original location under a giant airplane hangar is quite breathtaking.

Xi'an was prettier at night with the smog hidden in the darkness.  The strikingly beautiful Bell Tower Pagoda is the true center of the city as it sits amid a huge traffic circle constantly buzzing with activity.

Weds., Sept. 4 - Xi'an to Hangzhou - This morning we took a short flight (on Hainan Airlines again) due east toward the coast to the larger city of Hangzhou (8 million+).  The city's most distinctive feature is West Lake, a huge half-natural, half man-made body of water the embodies peacefulness and tranquility.  It recently became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



We took a private cruise on West Lake with a nice view of the Hangzhou skyline in the distance.

Like most things in China, even the koi pond at West Lake is BIG.

Tea time!  Just outside Hangzhou, we had a great visit at this family tea plantation in the Longjing Valley. Both sides of the steep valley were terraced in tea plants in all directions, including up and down the mountain sides

No tea bags here!

Thursday, Sept, 5 - Hangzhou - Wuzhen - Shanghai - We had about a four-hour drive (with traffic) from Hangzhou to our last destination, Shanghai.  On the way to break up the drive, we stopped in Wuzhen for a couple of hours.  Wuzhen is a "water town" and is known as the "Venice of the East."  Having been to the actual Venice and ranking it as still THE BEST place we have ever visited, I would beg to differ on this comparison.  Nonetheless, it was a charming little town with a ton of cool exhibits and shops and a place we could have easily spent a whole day exploring instead of such a short period of time.

A little rain doesn't matter in a water town like Wuzhen.

Welcome to Shanghai..well, welcome to  a half-hour from it thanks to an incredible amount of traffic.  Note that all those skyscrapers ahead are apartment buildings and they are everywhere even this far out from the city center with tons more being built.   That's what 22 million plus residents gets you I guess.

Friday, Sept, 6 - A day in Shanghai - Look out New York...you've got some real competition here!!  This city is mind-blowing in so many aspects.  Below is a pictorial list of some of the "wow" moments in our brief visit to the incredible city:

A rainy day view of the amazing "new" Pudong skyline in Shanghai on the east bank of the massive Huangpu River.  That's not smog on the right, those are clouds enveloping the soon-to-be tallest building in China (for now, anyway, and second tallest in the world) when it's completed, the Shanghai Tower.  The picture below was taken from the 155th floor of the building next to it that looks like a bottle opener, the Shanghai World Finance Center (SWFC).  The futuristic one to the left is The Oriental Pearl (radio and TV) Tower.  This great view is from The Bund, an expansive river-walk on the west "old" side of Shanghai.

An evening Shanghai view westward from the SWFC Observation Deck, 155 floors up.  The floor of this enclosed observation deck is made of glass to add  to the fun (or horror depending on the person).  The public bathrooms up here have two urinals in the men's room with the same view, and there is one (western) toilet in the ladies room with the same view.



East Nanjing Road is like the Broadway of Shanghai on the old side.  A quick subway ride from here under the river puts you on the "new" side of the city with its massive skyscrapers in a matter of seconds.

This was my favorite jade sculpture  at The Shanghai Museum which boasts and incredible amount of priceless Chinese artwork and heritage pieces dating as far back as...get this...circa 4800 B.C....wow!

Oh, the shopping you can do in Shanghai and at 16 cents to one Chinese Yuan, there are bargains galore!

Our last night in China was a doozy with tickets to an amazing, live acrobatic show followed by goodbye drinks with our group on the 14th floor outdoor bar of The Peninsula Hotel.  Another one of those unforgettable nights.

The very short video below is what 261 miles (431 kmh) looks like on the amazing Maglev Train (that's right, it LEVitates on MAGnets) from downtown to the Shanghai Airport in about 8 minutes.  That's the fastest in the world in commercial service, folks.  Jaw-freaking-dropping to say the least.

Saturday, Sept. 7 - Shanghai - San Francisco - Denver - Nashville - HOME! 

The package flight deal we bought on Orbitz.com was a good deal, but it meant we would be flying a different airline back to the U.S.  That direct flight to San Francisco clocked in at just over 10 hours and was handled quite nicely by China Eastern Airlines.  Just like going over on Hainan Airlines, the food was decent, the coach seats were comfy (and a bit roomier even) and the entertainment system was top notch (tons of movies and TV shows to choose from - so many in fact, neither of us slept coming back which was probably a mistake in terms of some jet lag when we got home).  We had a fairly long layover in San Francisco and couldn't help ourselves not to take a kinda expensive round-trip cab ride downtown to grab a burger in one of our favorite cities in the U.S..  We connected back home on Frontier Airlines with a quick stop in Denver and were home by 11 P.M., exhausted but  happy that we had just completed an amazing journey to an awe-inspiring place with some of the nicest people in and from around the world (literally). And, we would be able sleep in our own bed tonight (and all day tomorrow!!).

Hey, that's The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.  We're home!  (kind of).

5 Summer Weeks, 6 Summer Shows and Random Other Fun Stuff

Late July and most of August 2013 gave us a chance to see six great concerts as well as some fun stuff in and around them.

Saturday, July 20 - We caught yet another great show tonight (this was # 6 for us) by one of our favorite live bands, 0.A.R., back down in Atlanta (this is the 3rd time we've seen them in the ATL)  at The Tabernacle  with our nephew, Matt.   They had two good openers in Allen Stone, and Andrew McMahon (who was a bonus for us since we've seen him with and without his band, Jack's Mannequin, three other times).  Other highlights of our trip to Atlanta was having a cocktail at one of the last Trader Vic's in the country (there are only 4 left in the U.S.).  Weird thing is they have no pina coladas on the menu?  I guess the song is wrong.  We also had a good dinner with our friend, Rex, at Meehan's Public House, a nice Irish pub, before the show on Saturday. We also did some shopping and had lunch at IKEA (Swedish meatballs!) on Sunday.  We topped off Sunday with our first-ever visit to The Georgia Aquarium which was really impressive.



Man in Motion:  Andrew McMahon about to take a flying leap from atop his piano.  EDITOR'S NOTE:, Andrew reported  a few weeks later on Facebook that he was having knee surgery...coincidence?



LONG LIVE TUBA ROCK!  O/A.R. lead singer, Marc Roberge, is all smiles as his brass section takes a turn for the BIG.

Gentle giants.  The "biggest" attraction at The Georgia Aquarium are the resident whale sharks.  Check out the kid in the bottom right corner for scale.  The giant devil ray in the top left ain't bad either!

The biggest hams at The Georgia Aquarium are the beluga whales.  They seem to love to show off for the crowds.

The colorful and coordinated confusion of African Cichlids at The Georgia Aquarium.

Saturday, July 27 - Tonight we saw a fantastic SOLD OUT show by the fairly-new, but extremely-popular band, Imagine Dragons, who were accompanied  by The Nashville Session Players Orchestra at The Woods Amphitheater in Nashville. The  two openers batted .500 with The Neighbourhood being boring and Terraplane Sun being pretty good.  We enjoyed some tailgating with our friends Danny, Brenda, their son Kyle and a friend of his, Chris, Tarryn and our nephew Matt before (and after) the show,   We all felt lucky that we dodged a lot of bad weather and heavy rain around the area and got to see the whole show with only a few drops hitting us.

Night Visions is Imagine Dragon first full-length album and it has done exceedingly well, and we don't think there is a bad song on it.  We first saw these guys last year at The Bunbury Festival in Cincinnati (previous blog) and we knew they were bound for greatness.  They will probably be playing big arenas before long.  (EDITOR'S NOTE: Guess who's playing the Bridgestone Arena in February 2014...told ya...and, of course we have tickets to it!)

Imagine Dragons' lead singer, Dan Reynolds , is suspended upside down in their finale song so that he can bang on his signature drum one more time from high above the stage.  Spectacular show from start to finish.

Friday, August 2:  We returned to Fontanel today to check out the Southern Living Idea House that's been built on the grounds there (photos above).  It was extremely nice and actually did give us a couple of "ideas" including a cool side-table shaped like a giant compass and some decorative wall air vents that we wound up buying for our home.  This lovely house at Fontanel will eventually become a boutique hotel.

Blast from the past.

Saturday, August 3 - We returned to Atlanta again this weekend to a place we haven't been to  in a very long time, the Lakewood Amphitheater south of downtown to catch a double-bill show by the Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20.  We were joined by our nephew, Matt, our friend, Mike and his date, Kristin, our friend Emily, and our friend Rex, and his date, Darren.

We met Rex and Darren at the show, but the rest of us had a nice and surprisingly-good dinner beforehand at Oz Pizza near our hotel in East Point, GA.  We were looking for something quick and the pub we had researched and picked out allowed smoking, so we opted for Oz next door, and while not a fancy place, it served up some excellent food and great service despite it's location which has a reputation as not being the safest of place in the Atlanta metro area.

By the way, thanks to a ROB AND ASHLEE COLLAGE FLASHBACK (photo to the right) you can see we haven't been to Lakewood since 1995 and 1996.  Funny thing is, we paid less to see both these bands this weekend (thanks GrouponLive.com) than we did to see Van Halen back in '95 (plus, I can't believe I dropped $100 on two Jimmy Buffet tickets back in 1996...geez, I was so broke back then!). Oh, and just for the record, the Southside Grill is no longer around.  It's a Japanese steakhouse now.


We saw the Goo Goo Dolls just over a year ago at the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga (see previous blog) and really enjoyed them.  They sounded great again tonight and had a cool way of introducing one of the newest songs, "Come to Me" by broadcasting the lyrics above them as they performed.  Great idea!



Matchbox 20 had an ultra-cool stage set-up and sounded great.  They have been around an amazing 17 years and are still producing great new work.  We've loved them since they first broke out back in the late 90's.  We still vividly recall seeing them at a show early in their career in Knoxville at The World's Fair Park when they only had one song on the radio and had just released their first album.  We've seen them only once since then and lead singer, Rob Thomas, once as a solo artist.  Despite the lack of times we've seen them over the years, they truly are one of our favorite bands.

After the show (and the traffic jam to get out of there - the place was packed!), Rex invited us all back to his condo in downtown Atlanta and a great roof-top party being thrown at his complex by one of his neighbors. Rex's neighbor happens to be Colombian (the "good kind" as Rex put it) as were most of the guests at the party including the guest of honor, the birthday girl.  These folks were super-friendly and generous. They welcomed our gaggle of strangers without hesitation and we all enjoyed ourselves to the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday, August 4:  Before heading home, me, Ashlee and Matt swung northeastward from Atlanta to visit the amazing Stone Mountain Park.  I can't believe we've never been here before!  The place is amazing and we will definitely be back!

This I-Phone picture (my regular camera died on me) doesn't do Stone Mountain justice in terms of grandeur and beauty.  The huge Civil War carving of Lee, Jackson and Davis (the largest bas-relief in the world) is quite stunning in person.

We rode the Swiss-made Skyride Cable Car to the lunar-like landscape on top of  Stone Mountain (almost 1,700' above sea-level).   There were good views of  the surrounding countryside and a hazy Atlanta skyline way in the distance.   We opted for the 1.3-mile walk back to the bottom along with a good amount of other folks on this warm summer day.

Thursday, August 8 - Thanks to our pal, Wayne, for inviting us to the opening preseason game for the Tennessee Titans vs. the Washington Redskins.  Despite the game not counting for anything and the Titans losing by a point, we had a good time together, as usual, along with our nephew, Matt, who had never been to LP Field to see a game before.  We enjoyed another great dinner at Suzy Wong's House of Yum downtown before the game also.

Saturday, August 17 - A fairly unplanned event that popped up and turned out to be a lot of fun was attending the Arrington Vineyards Harvest Party this afternoon and evening just outside Nashville with our friends, Chris and Tarryn, and Ashlee's cousin and our friend, Allison, along with her extremely well-behaved little boy, Crusoe.  Vineyard-owner and country music star, Kix Brooks, put on a great free show that even appealed to us with his cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl" and the hilarious "Nekkid" song.

Napa East?  What a perfect night for some wine, good food and song on the hill at Arrington Vineyards.

Sunday, August 18 - This is the sixth time we've seen this band and only since 2010.  They are one of our regional favorites.   We saw The Dirty Guv'nahs play tonight at 3rd and Lindsley along with our friends, Mike and Beth. We had dinner there beforehand which was pretty good for bar good.  They had a very good opener by the name of Ernie Hendrickson, who had a Tom Petty look and sound to him, and he sure can make an acoustic guitar growl.  The boys from Knoxville put on a helluva show, as usual. with the addition now of a good new keyboardist (who also plays harmonica) and an excellent horn player who can really wail on the saxophone.

The Guv'nahs were the feature band on Nashville Sunday Night, a weekly live-broadcast show on the local  independent radio station, Lightning 100.  I am guilty here of altering the cover of the  band's newest live album,  Live from Knoxville, (photo above) for the blog's sake.  Sorry, guys, but you know we still love you.

Thursday, August 22 - We saved the best show for last!!!  When they announced that Michael Franti and Spearhead would be at Live on the Green in Nashville, we instantly go VIP tickets.  Our friends Wayne, Chris, Danny, Brenda, Nate and Ginny followed suit.  The VIP passes got us unlimited great food including some awesome BBQ sliders and several good beers from Schlafly Brewing.  The opener for Franti was Nashville's own, The Delta Saints, who were very impressive.

We were right up front thanks to our VIP passes when Franti took the stage and systemically whipped the crowd of 10,000+ into a dancing, jumping and hand-waving frenzy.  As is his way, Michael was in and out of the crowd all night singing and playing his guitar as his band, Spearhead, thumped the back beats from the stage.  This band easily maintains their lead as our favorite live performers.  And they made several new fans among our group several of whom were seeing them for the first time and were unsurprisingly blown away by his energy and the  positive messages of his songs.

Up close and personal with Mr. Franti

Hey, it's not like he only came into the crowd once....

Saturday, August 24 - We closed out this wonderful section of summer with another item checked off of our bucket list:  a great 30-minute helicopter ride in the North Georgia Mountains thanks to a Groupon from Blue Ridge Helicopters.  Afterwards, we had a nice walk around the beautiful mountain town of Blue Ridge and a delicious lunch (and some good beer) at Blue Ridge Brewing.



We got a private ride in this four-seater chopper (the Robinson R44) with just our pilot, Steve.  We were zooming along well over 100 miles an hour in a matter of seconds after lift-off.

Our destination on this tri-state tour (GA, TN and NC) was Fields of the Wood, a faith-based park that includes a huge layout of The Ten Commandments easily visible (and readable) from the air and the hill pictured above called The All Nations Cross with the North Carolina mountains in the background.

The STEAL City vs. The STEEL City

We booked two almost back-to-back trips over the week of 4th of July

 including a return to Las Vegas and our first-ever trip to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area.

Friday, June 28:  We boarded an early afternoon direct flight to Las Vegas via Southwest Airlines and touched down in the desert in the early afternoon (gotta love gaining two hours) and met our friends Karen and Mike.  Lodging went a little different this time with a "girls' room" and a "boys' room" - well, actually,  make that a "girls' hotel" (the MGM Grand) and a "boys' hotel" (directly across Las Vegas Blvd. at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino).  Ashlee and Karen chose MGM since that's where the two concerts they were attending (Justin Beiber tonight - because the tickets were cheap) and (Beyonce on Saturday night - the show this trip was planned around) were being held.  Mike and I chose NYNY because it was a cheaper rate but still close by.  I didn't attend either show but chose to play some poker tournaments instead.  The girls said Bieber kind of stunk (what a surprise), but was at least interesting to check out.  It was reported that Beyonce's show, however, was incredible. Unfortunately, I was 0-3 in my poker tournaments during the concerts without a cash, but I still had a lot of fun playing.  It's probably unfair to refer to Las Vegas as "The Steal City" since we don't do a lot of big-time gambling, but money can still slip away fast out here with good food, great shows and tons of other fun things to do.

Close to record-setting temps for Sin City while we were there visiting.

Saturday, June 29:
After a huge brunch buffet we spent the majority of the day lazing around at the larger (and a bit nicer than NYNY) pool at MGM before "all the (married) ladies...and Mike" headed out to see Beyonce and I headed off to play some poker including my first-ever official World Series of Poker tournament entry in Las Vegas.

Sunday, June 30:

After Karen headed back home this morning, we had a fairly busy day of activities planned up and down The Strip.  We started with an early drive up the Las Vegas Blvd. to the Paris Hotel and Casino for a light breakfast.  Afterwards, we continued north and stopped by the pawn shop made famous on The History Channel's "Pawn Stars."

 When we got back to the hotel we took a ride on the roller coaster at New York, New York.  This was my second time on it and I can't say I remember it banging me around as much before.  Ouch!

We walked to and had lunch at the tasty, Fatburger,  near our hotels, but we still give our nod to In-N-Out as the best West Coast gourmet burger chain.

 We drove down to Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort to check out the Minus 5 Ice Bar.  What a "cool" concept!  Everything is made of ice including your drinking glass and it was kind of trippy considering it was 111 degrees outside. (Photo courtesy of the Ice Bar staff photographer - thanks to Mike for purchasing and sharing it!)

Our first real casualty from the heat was the news that the helicopter ride over The Strip we had booked had to be cancelled due to the weather conditions.  Hot air and rotors don't mix very well it seems.

We ended the day with some discounted tickets to check out the 10 PM performance at NYNY of the Cirque de Soleil show, Zumanity, which was quite entertaining albeit quite a bit racier than we were expecting.

Monday, July 1:

After a great Thai lunch buffet at a popular dining spot for Las Vegas locals called Lotus of Siam, we shuttled Mike to the airport for his afternoon flight home.  Our flight wasn't until that evening, so we finished the afternoon checking out the newest casino on The Strip called The Cosmopolitan and did a little shopping next door at the Aria Resort where Ashlee excitedly got her first-ever Gucci handbag (it was on sale at least!).

July 3:  During our two-day
"layover" back at home we also caught a pre-Independence Day celebration show by one of our favorite performers, Brett Dennen, at The Tin Roof in downtown Nashville.  Opening for Brett were two other great bands, John and Jacob, and Alanna Royale.  We also ate dinner here during our first visit to this new downtown establishment and it was very good. We will definitely be adding this rocking little joint to our list of places to visit again.


RED hair, pale WHITE skin and BLUEjeans.  What's more patriotic than the great Brett Dennen!

July 4:  Thanks to a great airfare sale with Southwest Airlines. We boarded a plane to The Steel City on Independence Day.

Beautiful PNC Park is the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and we grabbed some great seats to their day game vs. the across-state rival Philadelphia Phillies.  The weather was nice albeit pretty warm and the first-place Pirates dropped the game to the Phillies 6-4.  By the way, their food and beer selections are tremendous!

We had a delicious dinner (and the 8, yes 8, beer sampler) at The Church Brew Works.  As the name implies, this award-winning microbrewery is set-up in a restored (and, yes, deconsecrated) Roman Catholic church building.  This has been on my Bucket List of breweries to visit for a long time.  More on the beer in my beer blog.

Friday, July 5:

Stone meets wood in a wonderful way at Kentuck Knob, the lesser known and smaller in size of Frank Lloyd Wright's residential masterpieces located in Pennsylvania's Allegheny Mountains.  Our morning tour of this incredible structure was a perfect way to start a very memorable day.  Kentuck Knob is about an hour southeast of Pittsburgh.

With no photos allowed inside, it was the after the tour and out on the back patio and porch of Kentuck Knob that we could capture some of the amazing creativity and design that went into this home including these cool skylights.

The hexagons of harsh, bright sunlight from the skylights strike in hard contrast to the dark coolness of the stone and wood on the back porch of Kentuck Knob.

The view from atop Kentuck Knob just a short footpath down from the home.

The beauty and roar of Ohiopyle Falls in Ohiophyle State Park which separates Kentuck Knob from Fallingwater.



The amazing masterpiece:  Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater! Speaking of Bucket Lists, this beauty has been on mine for a long time now.  To see it in person and to be able to take a tour inside was a dream come true!  It's everything it's "built" up to be! Pun definitely intended!



The classic shot:  Fallingwater sitting atop Bear Run Falls.  Is this the eighth wonder of the man-made world?  It sure seems like it to us!

About a half-hour away from the beauty of Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob is the peacefulness and infinite sadness of one of our country's newest national monuments, The Flight 93 National Memorial.

The crash site which created a huge crater at impact has been filled in and wildflowers now grow in its place.

The simple, yet stirring, memorial consists of 40 marble slabs each with a name of a crew-member or passenger who died that fateful day here as heroes saving countless more lives by diverting the plane from its intended target in Washington, D.C.  The angle of the marble wall is the actual flight path of the plane to the crash site.

Did we mention the food was amazingly good in Pittsburgh?  Because it is.  Our first stop when we got back to The Burgh from our day in the mountains was Primanti Brothers, a local chain of restaurants and a Pittsburgh legend that specializes in sandwiches with French fries stuffed inside.   They were pretty good (and efficient).  Dessert was on our mind next and back near our hotel (a nice and cheap little Wyndam on the University of Pitt campus - thanks Hotwire.com) was Dave and Andy's Ice Cream where all of the good stuff is home-made (and delicious).

Saturday, July 6:  Food continued to be on our mind (and in our bellies) as we packed up to fly back home this afternoon, but beforehand we had arranged for a food tour over in the Brookline neighborhood.  Our tour stuck to Brookline Avenue but wandered all over the map in terms of types of food from Middle Eastern pitas with olive oil and cheese; Mexican candied fruit; Philly-style soft pretzels, bakery-fresh sweets;  rich, delicious South American coffee; and ending with classic thin-crust Italian pizza.

Brookline Avenue is a classic Pittsburgh neighborhood with tons of great eateries and local shops nearby.



It's not called "Pitaland" for nothing.  They are cranking them out here all hot and puffy six days a week.  We got to pick our fresh pitas right off the line and dipping them olive oil and a hunk of cheese was incredibly tasty.  The Lebanese-American owner could not have been nicer to us and his story of his journey to the U.S. was very interesting.



The amazing Pittsburgh skyline and more atop Mt. Washington.  This was a nice place to say goodbye to The Steel City, but with assurance that we will be back someday.  Thanks for a great time!

The beautiful Chesapeake Bay peeks out from under some rough-looking clouds.  After stopping in Baltimore, we made it safely home despite the ominous weather.