Yes, you MAY continue to have fun in 2018

Friday, May 4 - This bathroom poster tells it all...we saw Andrew McMahon in the Wildnerness  tonight in a sold out show with several other excellent guest musicians for nearly 3 hours of incredible music at the brand new venue, The Cowan, at the new Top Golf Live in downtown Nashville on a stage with a hilarious and very creative Mr. Rogers Neighborhood theme.    Beforehand, we had a tremendously tasty dinner at Butcher and Bee in nearby East Nashville.

Thursday, May 10 - We attended the Opening Night of the 2018 Nashville Film Festival at the Regal Hollywood 27 Theaters and were thrilled to see Steven Tyler walk right past us shortly after we arrived.  He was there to promote the documentary/concert film Out on a Limb which focuses on him and his recent endeavors into country music while living here in Nashville.

After watching the SOLD OUT film which we thought was pretty good (we could have used more documentary about the ultra-interesting Tyler and less concert footage), we got an additional treat of Tyler not only answering questions from the audience, but also performing four songs with his new Americana-based solo band, Loving Mary, who are tremendous.  They opened with their original song, "We're All Somebody from Somewhere" and closed with the Aerosmith classic, "Walk this Way."  What a great night, and a great deal, as we got all this for mere $25 each.  Thanks, NAFF!

Friday, May 11 - We went over to the far side of Nashville tonight along with Ashlee's mom, Evelyn, to check out "Hoppy Hour"at the Cheekwood Botantical Garden to see the new giant glowing bunnies art exhibit by Amanda Parer called "Intrude."  It was perfect weather for a stroll through the beautiful grounds with low humidity and clear skies.  The exhibit has traveled world-wide and while the nine giant bunnies are cool to look out, their overall message is a bit more ominous as the artists' home country of Australia struggles with an overpopulation of rabbits.

Wednesday, May 16 - We continued our attendance of the Nashville Film Festival tonight with a Tennessee Premier screening of  Leave No Trace starring Ben Foster.  No stars in attendance, nor the director, but a beautiful film nonetheless.  We stopped by Brothers Burger Joint in Berry Hill near the theaters for a tasty dinner beforehand.

Thursday, May 17 - It was another amazing night at the Nashville Film Festival for us.  Unfortunately, we had two conflicting films we wanted to see tonight.  The first was the Michael Franti written-and-directed music documentary, Stay Human.  This was the Southern U.S. premiere of the film.  We got there in time (despite iffy weather and terrible traffic) to see Michael out in front of the Hollywood 27 Theaters and Ashlee even got a selfie with him and I got to shake his hand!  Still one of the sweetest guys we've ever encountered!  His feature started at 6:30 and we had tickets to it, so we slipped in to take in a little of it before our other film started at 7 PM.  What little we saw of the film was beautiful and stirring.   We can't wait to buy it or rent it ASAP to see the entire piece.  

Even though we couldn't stay for his whole documentary film, Michael Franti did serenade us in the movie theater before it started with a beautiful acoustic version of his hit, "(Say Hey) I Love You."  What a treat!  

Our conflicting film we wanted to see was the festival's special presentation of the documentary, All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records directed by, Tom's boy, Colin Hanks, who was in attendance.  We love him in the sit-com, "Life in Pieces," and couldn't pass up the chance to see him in person.  It was a tough call, but we have met Michael Franti before, so we made the difficult choice hoping for the best.  We are so happy we did!  Colin sat two rows behind us during the film.  The documentary was well-done and fascinating, and Ashlee even got a selfie with Colin as well after the Q and A session after the film.  He seemed humbled and pleased by the audience's reaction to his film which was a 7-year endeavor for him.

Colin Hanks talks with the media before the screening of his new documentary here in Nashville.

Friday, May 18 -  We finished off our week of NAFF with the Tennessee premiere showing of Hot Summer Nights with today's Hollywood "it-boy," Timothee Chalamais.  The movie was OK, but definitely not our favorite of the festival.  The highlight of the night was dinner beforehand at Vui's Kitchen in nearby Berry Hill.  The food was simply outstanding!

Saturday, May 19 -  Hooray!! It's our 17th Wedding Anniversary!  We took advantage of the good weather and our pool to make it a rare stay-home celebration.  We did wander into downtown Nashville so Ashlee could take advantage of "Yoga and Mimosas" on the roof-top of Acme Feed and Seed with our friend, Ali (who saved me from having to do yoga, thanks, girlie!).  I did meet up with them afterwards up on the roof for a libation.

We walked back over the Cumberland River to our parked car after the yoga and mimosas and listened to the waters make music on the pedestrian bridge.  Very cool and this also shows what a beautiful day it was.  We hopped back in the car and headed to brunch at Fort Louise in East Nashville.  What a quaint little place and the food was top-notch!

Our last stop before heading back to the pool to drift the afternoon away was to check out the new Mewsic Kitty Cafe, a unique adoption agency where you can interact with the felines before making your choice.  We visited a similar place in NYC a couple years back (March 2015) called the Meow Parlour.  The cats here were adorable including this big lazy who let us give her some belly rubs while sprawled out on the table in front of us .  We weren't in the market for a new cat, we just like to hang out with them!

As I mentioned, the rest of the day we lounged in and out of the pool, had  a few libations and some great stakes and grilled corn for dinner.  A nice and relaxing way to spend an anniversary day!

Saturday, May 26 - We headed up to Clarksville tonight for a visit to Beachaven Winery for their weekly summertime "Jazz on the Lawn" with our friends, Wendy and Charly.  We haven't been here in several years and my last visit (pre-blog) was not a good one as I mixed cold medicine and wine for a pretty bad result.  No bad mojo tonight, however, the weather was perfect, the crowd was cool and the band was pretty good with a lot of good cover songs (none of which were jazz).  

Monday, May 28 -  While I try to keep this blog as upbeat and as positive as I can, today was one of the toughest days in our life together as we had to say goodbye to our oldest cat, Mabel, due to oral cancer.  See her full tribute in the next blog post...

Birthday RAMPAGE Month!

It's less than a month until my birthday...let the RAMPAGE begin!!

Thursday, March 27 - We went to see Ready Player One at the Opry Mills IMAX  tonight with our buddy, Wayne.  It was a fantastic film that we just might go see again! 

Saturday, March 31 - We spent a good part of  the sunny and beautiful last day of March today buying a new car.  Welcome, "PK Subaru" (Go Preds) to the family!!  We had to have a new car and Ashlee did a great job researching several makes and models until we landed on this  2018 Outback after a lot of deliberation.  We love the color, the gas mileage, the all-wheel-drive,  the safety and all the whistles and bells.  We look forward to taking him on his first road trip later this month down to New Orleans (or just Birmingham - see below).

Instead of burning up the road in our new car, we drove PK straight home and enjoyed the rest of the beautiful day and evening in our back yard sipping wine by the fire admiring our new purchase.

Sunday, April 1- We decided to indulge in a boozy Easter brunch today at Tansuo, a relatively new high-end Chinese Restaurant over off 12th Avenue in Nashville.  We came for the bottomless mimosas which were tasty, but we were floored at how good the food was too.  Above in the foreground is the pork belly fried rice (my personal favorite) and behind it was the tasty and creative General Tso's Bubble Waffle, a unique take on chicken and waffles.  We also had some tasty bao buns, dumplings and wontons from their serving carts.  We must come back to this place!

We hit the movie theater next and saw the somewhat sweet, but overly depressing film, The Leisure Seeker at the recliner theater at the Green Hills Mall.

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We ended the Sunday fun-day by checking out the newly refurbished Noelle Hotel in downtown Nashville and its brand new  open-air rooftop bar, Rare Bird, which just opened this weekend.  The outside seating was closed due to some rain earlier in the day, but we were able to a get a couple seats at the heated bar and enjoyed some libations, house-made chips and a nice cheese plate.  The views are outstanding here and we will try and come back to enjoy the outdoor seating soon.

Saturday, April 7 -  We celebrated Ashlee's mom, Evelyn, and her 79th birthday today with a party at her house with lots of friends and family in attendance.  Despite several medical set-backs, "Evie-baby" rolls on and is able to live at home again which is very important to her.  

Overall it was a nice long weekend in Chattanooga with tasty meals (and a few libations...you know...dealing with family and stuff) at Heaven and Ale Brewing, the Frothy Monkey and the Breu Haus.

Friday,  April 13 - We went and saw the late showing of (Cock) Blockers tonight at our local Roxy 10 Theaters with the recliners seats.  It was hilarious from start to finish.  Thanks again, MoviePass!!

Wednesday, April 18 - Congratulations to Ashlee for winning her first (and our first, collectively) HQ Trivia game last night.  Granted, she only won 55 cents, but given the fact the game started with over 1.7 million players and she answered 12 questions in a row to win along with about 9900 other people is still pretty darn good!  I flamed out on Question # 11 and gave the wrong advice on Question # 12, so this win was all hers!

Friday, April 20 -  My birthday didn't go as originally planned since our nephew, Matt, and his fiancee' Sherrae, decided to get married today down in Chattanooga (4/20 get it...yeah, they like to smoke pot..) which we were obligated to attend and then while driving back we got to listen to the Preds lose at home in the first round of the playoffs to Colorado extending the series another game back in Denver.  Tomorrow will be a better day...I PROMISE!

Hey, what else do serve at a 4/20 wedding?  We brought these as kind of a joke and they were gone in 10 minutes!  

All grumpiness and joking aside, it was a beautiful day for a wedding and the couple picked a pretty spot at the base of Lookout Mountain in Rising Fawn, GA, at the take-off and landing strip for hang gliders.  We wish Matt and Sherae (and baby, Phayden) the best of luck and all the best for a happy future together

Saturday, April 21 - My "official" birthday celebration started today down in Murfreesboro with an early lunch (and beer) at The Green Dragon Pub and Brewery, a few more beers at Mayday Brewing, and then a couple hours at the Flashback Arcade playing the classic arcade game (and my all-time favorite), Rampage, plus many more.

We followed playing Rampage by watching Rampage, the movie based on the game and starring the always-great, Dwayne Johnson, back in Lebanon in recliners at the Roxy Theaters.  It was a hoot and a holler to say the least.  We ended the evening back at our place sitting around the patio and the fire pit laughing and enjoying life deep into the night.  Thanks to my great friends Craig, Alison, Wayne, Danny, Brenda, Nate, Ginny, Bethany, and, of course, my true love, Ashlee, for hanging with me and giving me such a fun and memorable day.  

Sunday, April 22 -  The birthday celebration continued today with a delicious brunch at City Tap in downtown Nashville.  Thanks to more of our friends, Doug, Charly and Wendy, for joining us today.  The weather was rainy so most of us headed to catch a movie next over at Opry Mills.  We caught a showing of the new Amy Shumer comedy, I Feel Pretty.  It was a pretty good flick.   Afterwards, along with just Wendy and Charly, we went to the SOLD OUT show of Billy Gardell (of Mike and Molly fame) at Zanies Comedy Club as part of the Nashville Comedy Festival.  He was great as were both of his openers.

We ended the evening a few doors down at Cilantro Mexican Grill noshing, travel planning and watching the Predators finally take the Round 1 series against Colorado with a resounding 5-0 beat down in Denver.  On to Round Two!!  What an absolutely great weekend with my friends to celebrate this old man getting even older.  Thank you, everyone, for attending and sharing in the fun and helping stay as young as I can (at least in my mind)! 

We closed out the month with a long weekend trip to New Orleans to finally get a chance to attend the always-enticing Jazz Fest and Heritage Festival.

Friday, April 27 - We were going to drive down to NOLA in our new Subaru Outback and then Ashlee had the brilliant idea that since we were going through Birmingham anyway, why not just ride the inexpensive Amtrak Crescent Train (like we did back on New Years 2014/15) and take away some of the stress (and danger) of driving another 5 hours.

What a great idea!  We kicked back and relaxed and let Amtrak do the driving as we imbibed in some adult beverages, made friends with our seat-mates and gazed in wonder at the beauty passing by like this sunset on Lake Pontchartain as we made our way in to New Orleans.

We decided that once we  had checked in to our nice hotel, the Marriott Metairie at Lakeway, we would just turn in early and prepare for a long day tomorrow in the Crescent City.

Saturday, April 28 - The music and festival didn't start until 11 AM, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast near our hotel in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie (that "Metry" dawlin') at Russell's Marina Grill.  The food was amazing starting off with these sweet potato beignets.  

After breakfast, we Ubered over to the Horse Racing Track and Fairgrounds where the The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is held.    It was easy to get in and the festival is laid out really well.  We were very impressed.  Lots of shade, plenty of great food and not real long lines either.  The first new-to-us band we checked out was Tracksuit Wedding out of Denver who were terrific.    We sought out a little of that plentiful shade next in the Economy Hall Tent with the Paulin Brothers Brass Band who were terrific.  We met up there with our friends, Danny and Brenda, who have been to the festival before.

Our next new-to-us band we discovered was, Sweet Cecelia, from Cecelia, Louisiana, a couple hours west of New Orleans.  This lovely and talented Cajun trio and their band are terrific and their cover of The Zombies classic hit "Time of the Season"  (sang completely in French) was very cool.

There were several colorful and joyous New Orleans krewe parades going on throughout the day.  How these folks stand marching and dancing in the heat in this amazing costumes is beyond me.   Before heading to the main stage to close out the evening, we grabbed some food from the numerous vendors.  It's New Orleans, so, of course, it was all delicious.  My cup of  shrimp  and okra gumbo was so good, I went back for another one!

The main stage area was already packed and Bonnie Raitt was already playing on stage when we arrived.  We moved up into some grandstands for a better view of the closer, Sir Rod Stewart (subbing for the ailing Aretha Franklin) who put on a great show.

I had to steal this shot from NOLA.com because it really shows the energy and showmanship of Sir Rod during the show.  Not bad for 73 years FOREVER YOUNG!   (Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Since the festival is in the city limits and their are noise ordinances, it's over by 7 PM every night.  Not a bad thing for us aging folks I guess!  We walked back to the French Quarter and along the way took in the unique beauty that is New Orleans.  We also bought Jello-shots from some ladies selling them in front of their house (ahhh, N'AWLINS!) 

When got to the French Quarter, we headed over to the historic Golden Lantern Bar and met up with Ryan, a friend and past neighbor of Ashlee's mom in Chattanooga, who is living down here now.  After that we headed over to the famous Clover Grill and had huge cheeseburgers steamed under a hub-cap  (don't think about it, just go with it).  We closed out the night afterwards since we had a pretty early wake-up call tomorrow.

Sunday, April 29 - The train back to Birmingham leaves at the bright and early time of 7 AM so we upgraded our ride home to a "roomette"  that allowed us to do some snoozing on the way north.  The upgrade also included free breakfast and lunch (what a deal!).  The drive back home was smooth and uneventful.  Just the way you want it.  We will DEFINITELY be doing this trip again.  It's just too easy, too fun and New Orleans and the Jazz Fest are just too awesome!

Another scenic stop for the Amtrak Crescent...Roll Tide....no, not really...

MARCHing to Atlanta and Chicago

Saturday, March 10 - We took a quick trip down to Atlanta today to catch one of our favorite singers, LP, at Centerstage tonight.  Ashlee's mom, Evelyn, and our niece, Ella, came along as well.

We got a great price on the historic and quirky Artmore Hotel just up the street from the where the concert was being held.  This little 3-story structure built in 1924 is dwarfed by the new high-rises all around mid-town Atlanta.

Before the show, Ashlee, Ella and I walked nearby to the Center for Puppetry Arts which has a great Jim Henson exhibit including his original work desk and office set-up.

Big Bird really is BIG in real life.  This original puppet used on Sesame Street was part of the collection.

Our friend, Rex, joined us for dinner before the show at DaVinci's Pizza Mid-town and then we walked over to Center Stage Theater for the packed show with LP.  We got there in time for the second opener, Noah Kahan, who was pretty good.  LP's show was tremendous and this was her last stop on a recent North America tour.  I think she's about ready for the big time and the bigger arenas.

Sunday, March 11 - Before heading home, we took some time to visit the World of Coca-Cola exposition in downtown Atlanta.  It's a great , interactive hands-on experience of every aspect of the soft drink giant.

One of favorite exhibits was the tasting room where Coca Cola products from around the world can be sampled.

March 16-18: One of our TRAVEL BUCKET LIST ITEMS got checked off this long weekend as we flew to Chicago to experience St. Patrick's Day in the Windy City.

Cotton-ball clouds on our decent into Chicago this morning

Friday, March 16 -  We took a very early direct flight to Midway Airport this morning and rode the EL in to downtown Chicago for a day of fun and exploration.  We stored our bags at the spiffy Conrad Hotel and headed off for some fun until our room was ready....a very affordable room thanks to Hotwire.com's "buy it blind" option.

Before heading out, we did grab a mimosa at the 20th floor lobby bar of the Conrad Hotel.  Cheers!

Our first destination was a couple EL stops south (for $20 you can ride the EL an unlimited amount of times in 36 hours!) at The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Money Museum:  a free interactive  learning center where you can actually see one million dollar bills stacked together in a cube...(that's too heavy to run with Ashlee...).  They also had a million dollars in $20 bills and another million in $100 bills...show-offs!  

Another cool (and free) stop was inside the Chicago Cultural Center which is housed in a large building built in 1897 and has two incredible large domes made of Tiffany glass. 

It was time for some more libations and fun so we hopped on the El and headed to the West Loop area and the Kaiser Tiger Curling Bar.  We came here because they boast at having Olympic curling lanes you can actually try out, but the food and drinks were great as well.

We found out quick that curling is much harder than it looks on TV.  We also found out quick that we won't be making any U.S. Olympic teams anytime in the near future.  

We were able to check into our room at the Conrad Hotel after lunch and we were very impressed with it.  We grabbed a quick nap since we had been up since 3 AM and wanted to stay up later tonight to meet our friends, Chris and Tarryn, who were driving in after work from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to join us for the rest of the festive weekend.  After our snooze, we grabbed dinner at Friends Sushi near the hotel and it was fantastic.  

Chicago was gearing up tonight for the big green weekend ahead.  

After dinner we walked down to Spin Chicago for a game we could handle a little better than curling.  This huge ping-pong bar and restaurant was a hoot and we had a "ball" playing...in between drinks, of course.  

Chris and Tarryn got in a little later than expected, so we all just sat around in the room enjoying some libations we bought at the Trader Joe's around the corner and  watched the historic March Madness upset of a tiny #16 seed, UMBC, over mighty #1 seed, Virginia, before turning in for an early rise and a long day tomorrow.

Saturday, March 17 -We began St. Patty's Day in Chicago early with reservations for breakfast and unlimited libations at Kerryman's Irish Bar near our hotel.  Here's two of the prettiest lasses in the joint with some of their "supplements."

  We didn't really know what to expect with the famous dyeing of the Chicago River Green, but it exceeded all our expectations.  The crowds were reasonable so there was lots of easy access to view the river, drinking wasn't out of control so the crowds were laid back and jovial, and the dye is just amazing.  This shot is completely unfiltered and one of a hundred good ones I took.  We highly recommend this inexpensive and easy access experience to everyone.  

We looked for the St. Patty's Day Parade that was going on but never found it.  We did get run out a building while trying to use their PUBLIC bathroom by a cranky old lady who then proceeded to follow us outside when I called her a name...well, that was her mistake because...any way, moving on...

We headed back to the hotel to change because we had a big evening ahead of us with tickets to see the super-popular (and thus super-expensive in terms of tickets) musical, Hamilton.

The show is and was fantastic.  Our balcony seats were not fantastic,  but it's really not that visual of a show and we are glad we experienced it and now we see what all the hub-bub is about.

Sunday, March 18 - It was going to be a Sunday-Funday in Chicago for us today before we flew back home late tonight and another early rise as we had an Underground Do-nut Food Tour scheduled for 9 A.M.

We had four stops on the Underground Do-Nut Tour that included Do-Rite Donuts, Firecakes, West Town Bakery and Stan's Donuts.  All the goodies we got were delicious and we had a pleasant morning stroll through downtown Chicago with our guide and small group.  The river was even still green from yesterday despite the fact that we had read it would only last about 6 hours.

Next up was a booze cruise on Lake Michigan aboard the Anita Dee II yacht.  This cheap Groupon find was a hoot and the weather was the best of the entire weekend during the 3 hours we were out on the water.

Chris and Tarryn had to start their drive home after our lake cruise, but we still had a couple hours to kill so we made one more stop and it turned out to be a dandy.   The Three Dots and a Dash Tiki Bar is a fairly new establishment known for a cool vibe and over-the-top drinks.  Thanks to our do-nut tour guide for pointing out how to find the place down a little obscure alley earlier in the day!

From left to right:  Ashlee's Chief Lapu Lapu (suggested for 2 people...balderdash!), our Captain Dino's Pu Pu Platter (serves 3 or 4...double-balderdash!) and my Aloha Felicia # 2 rum drink.  The food and drinks were amazing!  We can't wait to come back here with a larger group and try the Treasure Chest  drink for $385!!

Our late-night flight home was a few minutes late arriving back in Nashville, but we made good time getting driving and in the bed a little after midnight after a fun, fun GREEN weekend!