Headin' Due South to Key West



Saturday, September 10, 2011:  We took our almost-yearly pilgrimage to The Conch Republic this past weekend to celebrate Ashlee and her twin sister, Paige's birthdays.  This is one of their favorite places to visit, so it  seemed a natural choice.  We found extremely affordable airfare out of Nashville on Delta and after an annoying two-hour delay in Atlanta due to plane maintenance (man, we always seem to have problems with all domestic airlines except Southwest) we were able to join Paige, and her husband, Andy, who had flown directly from Atlanta earlier in the day, at the great rental house on Center Street in Old Town Key West that we stayed in last year for the first time (see September 2010 blog).



Sunday, September 11, 2011:  One of the biggest draws of Key West for us is the amazing food available all over Old Town.  We walked a few blocks from our rental house over to Simonton Street this morning and had a great brunch (Key West pink shrimp and bacon omelet for me!) at Sarabeth's.  We were lucky to get this opportunity since they were closing the next day for a month during the off-season. This off-shoot of a well-known NYC-based restaurant is housed in a beautiful old building that used to be synagogue.  Well, the praising and the "Amens" continue to this day.



Key West just has a style and feel of its own.  They don't take themselves to seriously down here and don't expect you to either while you are visiting.



According to Andy, a real boat-geek, Key West is one of two "Boating Meccas" in the world.  The other being Cannes, France.  That's pretty easy to see from the mass of beautiful boats in the harbour.



Everywhere you look here in Key West is a postcard.

 


We chose a new place for dinner tonight based on a friend's recommendation (thanks, John) and some research Paige had done.  The restaurant is called Latitudes and it's on the west side of  Sunset Key, a man-made island just a 10-minute boat ride from the Key West Harbour.  While the island is mostly a private residential neighborhood that includes a Westin Resort and is covered in fancy houses and cottages for rent, visitors are welcome to explore the island, and the restaurant is available to anyone willing to plunk down a good chunk of money for some amazing food (above: Ashlee's  yellowtail snapper with coconut risotto) and a jaw-dropping view of the sunset (see below).

 


Dinner with a view from Sunset Key (aptly-named).  End of the day, September 11, 2011:  I dedicate this beautiful picture of serenity to those who lost their lives 10 years ago today.



Monday, September 12, 2011:  Happy Birthday Ashlee and Paige!!  With a bit of ominous weather creeping about The Keys this morning and early afternoon, we weren't quite sure we were going to be able to get in our 3-PM scheduled boat tour and snorkel that we had booked.  While we have had plenty of boat rides and snorkeling opportunities in Key West over the years, this experience offered by Sunset Watersports was something different.  We actually got to drive the boats!  Pictured above is our boat, # 10, a two-seater mini-speedboat with a 30 HP outboard engine.  We are following our guide and there are four other boats behind us including one driven by Paige and Andy.  What a hoot!  See the short video at the bottom of the page to get an idea of the speed we were going at times.



Our first stop on our boat tour was about 15 miles out of Key West on a large sandbar that was only knee deep.  It was kind of cool to "stand" out in the middle of the ocean.



The weather cooperated with us during our tour and skies opened up with some amazing cloud formations.



Not a bad self-portrait if I do say so myself.  Ashlee is usually better at these than I am, but I proud to say that I snapped this one during our tour while Captain Ashlee did the driving.

The birthday girls after dinner at the always-delicious Mangia Mangia.  Our absolute favorite restaurant in Key West is Blue Heaven and that was our destination tonight for the girls' birthday dinner until we sadly found out they were closed for a month during this off-season.  We were surprised (and delighted) that the tiny Mangia Mangia Restaurant was open and it made a wonderful substitute.  Their fresh seafood pasta dishes are out of this world.




Key West displays beauty and character in all sorts of nooks and crannies.

 



Tuesday, September 13, 2001:  Sadly, our last day of our too-brief trip to Key West was upon us.  We did have most of the day to spend here before our 6 PM flight back home began, so we soaked up more pool time at our great rental house and finished off a few craft beers we had left in the fridge.

Even though our favorite restaurant, Blue Heaven, was closed for the off-season while we were here in Key West, we did manage to grab a late lunch/early dinner before our flight at it's new sister-restaurant, Salute! on the Beach.  This quaint Caribbean-style cafe sits right on Higgs Beach with nice views.  Ashlee and I split a large pork tenderloin sandwich that was delicious.  It was a nice place to soak up a few last rays and vibes of this special area before heading back to the real world.  Thanks again, Key West, we hope to see you again very soon!

Live on the Green 2011

The 6-week downtown Nashville concert series, Live on the Green,  hosted by local independent radio station, Lightning 100, began this week with an interesting line-up of local singer/song-writers.  The headliner, K.S. Rhoads, was to be accompanied by The Nashville Symphony and that made it worth it to us to grab some VIP tickets to get up close to check out the show.

The event takes place in the innovative Public Square Park where grass has been planted on top of a multilevel underground parking garage (aka "The Green") in front of the Metro Courthouse.



First up was Nashville native, Will Hoge.  We have been wanting to see him for a long time and have heard his live shows are worth a look.  This was an accurate report as he and his band put on a lively guitar-driven show.




While originally slated not to come on until 9 PM, the headlining show was forced to start at 7:30 due to cooler-than-expected outdoor  temperatures.  Evidently, the symphony cannot play at temperatures below 65 degrees (something to do with the woodwind performance I suppose).  We had not seen K.S. Rhoads before, but like Will Hoge, had heard good things about him and his live shows.  He's definitely a very interesting and cool cat, that's for sure.  His music reminds you of Coldplay in some ways while still with its own uniqueness.  His songs are symphonic in nature and teaming up with The Nashville Symphony seemed logical and came off very nicely.   Rhoads and the symphony also added in a few cover songs in their set including the quite-unexpected, "Teenage Dream" by  Katie Perry.  It was fun to see the casually-dressed symphony members cracking smiles while playing this bubble-gum pop diddy.   We really enjoyed the show as did our friend, Eileen, who was in town from Philadelphia  for a business conference.  We also got delicious all-we-could-eat food and four adult beverages with our VIP tickets.  With the temps lower than usual for late summer, it was a very pleasant evening and well worth attending.

We will be back to Live on the Green  in a few weeks hopefully to catch one of our favorite regional bands, The Dirty Guv'nahs, as they open for headliner, Robert Randolph & the Family Band; and in Week 5 for one of our favorite performers, Brett Dennen, who we are also cruising with in a couple of weeks.



Worth Mentioning...

We attended the Wilson County Fair on Tuesday, August 16, 2011.  While we are not the biggest fans of this huge yearly hometown extravaganza, but the realitively cool temps, free entry,  smaller crowds on a weeknight evening and the promise of yummy food on a stick ( a corndog for Ashlee and chicken for me) swayed us to go.  We had an OK time, but realized  pretty quick that we really hadn't missed much in the ten years or so since we last attended the fair.

We attended Grassy Knoll Movie Night in East Nashville on Sunday, August 28, 2011.  The were showing Princess Bride, which I still think is a bit over-rated as a cult classic.  But the temps were mild and it was a beautiful evening for an outdoor movie showing with our friends, Nate and Ginny.  We had some good beer from Nashville's newest craft brewer,  Jackalope Brewing, and some great pizza slices from the Pizzabuds food truck.

We also attended Vanderbilt's first football game of the 2011 season at home vs. Elon University out of North Carolina on Saturday evening, September 3rd.  We had dinner at Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers near the stadium before the game with our friend, Emily, and her parents.  Thanks to Em's dad for snagging the free tickets for us.  They were good seats just a few rows from the field in the Elon section (Em's dad is friends with one of the Elon coaches).  It was a  sweaty, steamy night but at least the rainy, stormy weather around the region held off.  The game was good with Vanderbilt pulling away in the second half for an impressive first win for the Commodores' new coach, James Franklin.

Memphis with Mannequin

Friday,August 26, 2011:  We took a quick trip west to Memphis today to catch a show by Jack's Mannequin for the second time this year.  It was supposed to be a double-billing with another one of our favorite bands, Augustana, but they had to pull out of the tour for some reason recently.  But with tickets bought and hotel room already booked, we weren't discouraged and knew it would still be worth the effort.  We got a good price through Hotwire.com on a nice room at the swanky Madison Hotel downtown on their 13th floor (I thought they didn't do "13th" floors in hotels due to superstition?).

Ashlee enjoying her strawberry and pomegranate margarita on the roof of the lovely  Madison Hotel in downtown Memphis with the Mississippi River, Mud Island and the Hernando de Soto Bridge in the background.  The weather was perfect this late afternoon-early evening before the show down on nearby Beale Street.

I opted for a pale ale draught from new local craft brewer, Ghost River Brewing.  This rooftop patio is the same one used in the beginning of the film "The Firm" where Mitch has his welcome reception with Bendini, Lambert & Locke.  Thanks to Ashlee for the snapping the picture and for assuring me that our current dieting is definitely paying off!

The stroll down and back up famous Beale Street from our hotel to The New Daisy Theatre for the concert was colorful, loud and always interesting.

This was our first visit to this Beale Street venue and we really liked it.  A large general admission standing area with good sight lines in front of an elevated stage, optional balcony seating and superb acoustics. We would love to see more shows here in the future. 

This view from the balcony of The New Daisy Theatre as Jack's Mannequin is playing shows there just isn't a bad "seat" in the house.  We watched all of the show from down on the floor about 10 rows from the stage.  Opening for JM, was Lady Danville, a trio of lads from California with a very good sound quite similar to another of our favorite bands, Guster.  Their 3-part harmony  was spot on. Lead singer, Andrew McMahon and the rest of Jack's Mannequin followed with a show that was as good if not better than  the one we saw up in Asheville, NC, last month.  McMahon's energy on stage  is so fun to watch and can be quite addictive, not to mention inspirational (don't forget the dude recently beat leukemia). See the video below for some quick evidence of the fact.  They recently announced a show in Nashville in October and we hope to catch them for a third time this year if no conflicts arise.

After the show, we grabbed a quick bite of food on Beale Street and headed back to The Madison to check out that fabulous rooftop again at night.  The views were just as, if not more, stunning in the dark as the city sparkled below us.  Only a few people were taking advantage of the cool evening temps and lovely views up on the roof.  It was a nice respite from the roaring din of Beale Street and a relaxing way to end our half day in Memphis.

Saturday, August 27, 2011:  After sleeping a good bit of the morning away (I did get up a little earlier than Ashlee and took a dip in the very nice lap pool in The Madison's basement), we packed up our stuff and got ready to head back to Nashville because our friend, Wayne, had invited us to the Tennessee Titans third preseason game tonight vs. the Chicago Bears.  Before leaving Memphis, we did swing by our favorite new place to eat, Uncle Lou's Famous Fried Chicken, and had a great lunch.  Three drumsticks with the hot Sweet Spicy Love Sauce for Ashlee and four huge chicken tenders for me with the milder sauce (yeah, I know, what a wimp!).  We met Wayne at Suzy Wong's House of Yum in downtown Nashville before the game for a fun and festive dinner.  The game was quite enjoyable and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  The Titans even eked out a 14-13 win.  Not bad for a game that doesn't even count.  Thanks to Wayne for the invitation and for snapping the great picture of us three above.

OBX II



Thursday, August 18, 2011 - After having a great trip out to The Outer Banks of North Carolina back in late June, we took advantage of the same great airfare sale from Nashville to Norfolk, VA ($39 each way on Southwest) and drove south for another visit in hopes of grabbing more beach time than we actually did on our first trip.  We found a great little inexpensive but clean motel right on the beach near the tiny town of Buxton, just a mile or so from the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.



The Outer Banks Motel sits right in the westwardly dog-leg turn of Highway 12 as you head south. 



The bungalow-style rooms of the motel were spacious and did not smell of mildew as some lower-priced beach-side places can.  They have a nice large swimming pole as well. The beach out front was clean and fairly uncrowded most of the time despite there being no vacancies for the weekend.

 


Friday, August 19, 2011 - It is just a 5-minute walk across Highway 12 to a finger of the Pamlico Sound where the motel had two rowboats tied up for their guests to use.  We took a beautiful sunset trip on our first full day there.

 


We took a stroll south on Hwy. 12 after our rowboat ride on the sound and found The Diamond Shoals Restaurant quite by accident.  We have been dieting as of late and keeping our caloric intake down, so we settled for a  couple small dinner options.  Fresh sushi rolls for Ashlee and fresh lightly-fried grouper fingers for me.  Both we excellent and despite a bit of slow service (they were slammed on a Friday night and only had one guy rolling sushi), we thoroughly enjoyed our food.



We loved our beach time as we had perfect weather the three days we were there with warm but not humid temperatures, mostly sunny skies, and cool, but not cold water.  The surf was tremendous with sometimes 6 and 7-foot waves breaking off from huge rolling swells.  You really had to pay attention while wading in the surf so as to not get knocked off your feet by a sneaky wave.  Swimming was a fun challenge as well with waves breaking over you and riptides pulling your slowly north.



Saturday, August 20 - We took a break from the beach this afternoon and drove a half hour south (plus a 30-minute ferry ride) to Ocracoke Island.  The tiny village there reminds us a lot of a smaller, quieter Key West.  We rented a couple of bikes and tooled around the quiet neighborhoods and pretty waterfront with very little motor traffic to have to contend with.  Editor's Note:  The island was evacuated the following week due to the approach of Hurricane Irene.

 


After a couple hours of bike riding, we rewarded ourselves with a visit to Howard's Pub.  Their burgers were awesome...it didn't hurt that we were starving either.  And their beer list is amazing.  How they get such a wide variety of beer way down here on the end of The Outer Banks and charge reasonable prices for them is beyond me.  After getting back to Buxton and enjoying some more beach time, we ambled our way back down to The Diamond Shoals Restaurant for another round of sushi and grouper fingers (a double order for me this time).

 


Sunday, August 21 - We reluctantly packed up our stuff this morning for our trip back north to catch our plane home early on Monday morning.  Before we left, we took a nice long walk south on the beach and soaked up as much of the vibe of the beautiful ocean as we could.



On our drive back north we stopped in Kill Devil Hills for a brief visit of The Wright Brothers National Monument.  We climbed the famous Kill Devil Hill where the Wrights tested their aircraft.  The views atop the hill are impressive in all directions.  The hill is  also adorned with a beautiful and gigantic monument honoring their achievement.  The life-size statues depicting the first flight help add to the sense realism for this historic place.


We flew back early Monday morning, August 22nd, without incident and were back at work by 10 A.M.  It was another great trip to The Outer Banks, and we are already planning a return visit hopefully next year with plans of visiting even farther south to the Cape Lookout area.

Editorial Note:  Just a week later the Outer Banks and much of the East Coast were battered by Hurricane Irene. 

An Ode to the Toad

Saturday, August 13, 2011 - We took in the surprisingly sold-out show of 90's hit-makers, Toad the Wet Sprocket,  at The Mercy Lounge in downtown Nashville tonight.  Despite not having a new record out in over 15 years (they've got a new one set to drop next year), lead singer/songwriter Glen Phillps, and the rest of the original four-piece band are in top form, and gave us a great two hours of music including all of their hits, some fan favorites that never made it to the radio (man, "Brother" is such a great song), plus some new tunes that sound very good.  The crowd was older than we usually see out at The Mercy Lounge.  "Trying to relive their prom" as Ashlee put it.  A couple behind us, for example, was from Illinois and had just dropped their son off for his freshman year at college at nearby Murray State before heading down to the show.  Time marcheth on.

We had a nice, memorable evening leading up to the show as well including dinner at the always-delicious Urban Flats, a beer out on the patio of the new Yazoo Brewing Taphouse on Division Street (the weather was perfect for this with low humidity and a nice breeze not typical around here in mid-August) and finally the unintended "Lobster Hunt 2011."  It seems that Ashlee needed live lobsters for her supper club meet-up the following day and we had to go to three different upscale supermarkets before we found any (and those were hidden behind a counter because supposedly Carrie Underwood found it "inhumane."  Good grief.).  But we got 'em and packed them in a cooler for the evening before their fateful day on the grill.  RIP, good soldiers.

CCSG

Lots of fun on a Tuesday night in Nashville..thanks to our friends, Ryan and Tom for meeting us for the show:


http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NoezcOq5C_c&vq=medium#t=55