MAY we have another 15 Years of Marriage and more!!

May 2016  Activities Log...

Friday, May 6 - We saw Captain America: Civil War in IMAX tonight with our friend, Wayne, over at Opry Mills.  We all really enjoyed the movie.  All three of us had dinner at the Homegrown Taproom beforehand which was delicious.

Sunday, May 8 - We took a drive down Hwy. 111 to the Dunlap area to meet Ashlee's mom, Evelyn, for a late Mother's Day lunch at The Cookie Jar.  The food was outstanding and location and views are very nice.  We will back here again for sure!

Saturday, May 14 - Tonight we attended a Nashville Sounds baseball game with our fantasy football friend, Jared, and his fiancee' Jen, who were in town on a long-weekend vacation from Indianapolis.  We all had a tasty dinner before at Butchertown Hall in Germantown and then walked to the game.  It was a 9-1 thumping of the Fresno Grizzlies in some unseasonably cool weather.  We then took in a little bad karaoke at the double-wide bar known as Santa's Pub afterwards.

Since Johnny Cash and George Jones are no longer with us, it only makes sense that Reba McEntire came from behind in the Legends of Country Music Race.  Well done, lady!

Thursday, May 19 - Happy Anniversary to us!!  15 years of marriage went by so quick!  To celebrate we drove down to the Aska Lodge in Blue Ridge, Georgia, for a couple days.  We had dinner outside in some beautiful weather at the Blue Ridge Brewery.

Moon-rise from our wrap-around porch  in the Hummingbird Room at the Aska Lodge.

Friday, May 20 - We got up and had a great breakfast at the lodge and then went into town to catch the Blue Ridge Scenic Railroad's 4-hour tour.  It was a great ride along the Toccoa River which flows northward toward Tennessee.  We hd a two-hour layover in McCaysville, Georgia/Copper Hill, Tennessee.  We did a little shopping and had a few pints on the "wet" side of town in Tennessee at The Copper Pale.  The rain set in when we got back (we were just happy to have dodged it while on the train) so we stopped by a new little microbrewery in Blue Ridge called Grumpy Old Men Brewing.  You had to buy a glass to drink because they couldn't sell beer yet, but you sure got a lot for your $15 glass!  We had dinner in town at Harvest on Main, another tasty place to eat in this great little mountain town.

One of the cool views from the train was this Native American fish-trap still visible in the Toccoa River.

Saturday, May 21 -  Back in Chattanooga today, we attended the high school graduation of Ashlee's cousin, Alexis, who we both think the world of.  Congrats, girlie!    That evening, we checked out Heaven and Ale brewpub in North Chattanooga with Ashlee's half-sister, Nancy, and then went across the street to the new Embargo '62 Rum Bar for more drinks and fun.

Sunday, May 22 - We had a delicious brunch back at Embargo '62 today before heading back home.

Saturday, May 28 - Pool Party - Yes, it's finally open!!!  We threw a Memorial Day Weekend soiree at the new pool today with about 20 people showing up throughout the day to take a gander and a dip despite a little rain and cloudy weather.

Sunday, May 29 -  Pool Party Part II - It was "Family Friendly" Day today at the pool with another 20 or so people and their kids coming by for some fun wet fun in the glorious sunshine.

Monday, May 30 - Memorial Day was spent, not surprisingly, at the pool again with still more friends trickling by for a swim.

From New York's Tribeca to a Birthday MusicTrifecta

We took an early birthday trip for me up to New York City this week to take in some sights and attend some of the 15th Annual Tribeca Film Festival along with our friends Danny, Brenda, Wayne and Bethany.   Hello again, Big Apple!

Wednesday, 4/13 - We flew up to NYC via Southwest today and took a private car to our a cool two-story loft apartment in the Tribeca area that we found on  AirBnB.  It is situated over a pizza parlor called Saluggi's where we had our first meal in the city and it was fantastic. The building is also just a couple blocks from the hotel where everyone else was staying.

We had tickets to an evening performance of Fully Committed starring Jessie Tyler Ferguson (our beloved "Mitchell" on TV's huge hit, "Modern Family") at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway.  It was an amazing one-man show with Jessie doing over 40 different voices.  We had great seats very near the stage.  After the show we met up with everyone else nearby at The Perfect Pint for a drink and then hit Times Square and wondered around in the glittering lights before walking back to our "neighborhood"and turning in for the night.

Our beautiful large bedroom was on the 2nd floor and our private bathroom was on the third floor where we also shared a living room area and kitchen with our host, Josie, who couldn't have been nicer and made us these great breakfasts each morning.  Man, we got so spoiled!!

Thursday, 4/14 - We slept in a bit this morning since our first commitment was a lunch-time walking food tour of a couple of nearby neighborhoods including NoHo (north of Houston Street) and NoLita (north of Little Italy).  Our guide, Annie, was fantastic and she led us to six distinct eateries including The Little Cupcake Bakeshop, Emporio pizza, Tartinery Restaurant, the Tacombi taco stand, Smile Restaurant and finally the Alimentari and Vineria Mediterranean restaurant and market.  We also learned a lot of history and culture about these small, but unique, New York neighborhoods along the way.

The gang enjoying a toast of vino at the cool Tartinery Restaurant in Nolita during our food tour.  Photo by our guide, Annie.

This evening we attended our first event at The Tribeca Film Festival.  It was the premiere showing of a film entitled  The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea along with two more friends who arrived today from Pennsylvania, Joe and L.A., who we met on our Galapagos trip last year.  The red carpet was amazingly easy to access at this festival and we saw a ton more stars up close than we were expecting.  Plus there were Q and A sessions after the films with all the stars and directors in attendance.  This one had Jason Sudeikis (SNL, Horrible Bosses), Maisy Williams (Game of Thrones), Jessica Biel and her super-cool hubby, Justin Timberlake, who scored the film, a first for him.

Superstar Justin Timberlake on the red carpet at The Tribeca Film Festival.  Can't believe we got this close!

That's a lot of finger-food for after 10 PM, but when in New York...you eat at the trendy restaurant, Vandal, where they have taken street food to a whole other level.  

Friday, 4/15 - Today was another easy start with a Statue of Liberty with Crown Access Tour at 11 AM followed by access to the new Freedom Tower's One World Observatory that afternoon.  We attended a Tribeca Talk with JJ Abrams and Chris Rock and a premiere viewing of the film, All We Had.  We closed out the evening watching our beloved Nashville Predators at a sports bar in their first playoff game from Anaheim which was a great road win.

I know this looks posed for a lame cell-phone ad, but it's not.  

My lady in Lady Liberty's crown.

The winding staircase to and from The Statue of Liberty Crown.

A surreal and spooky shot from the new Freedom Tower's One World Observatory looking down into the 9/11 Memorial where the towers once sat.

OMG, it's JJ Abrams!!  Just for the record, this ultra-hot Hollywood director/producer gave me an approving nod and smile when I yelled  "JJ, a remake Highlander, just think about it!" as he was walking away from his interviews on the red carpet.  Fingers crossed!

The "much lovelier in person" Katie Holmes introducing her film All We Had.  She starred and directed it. It was a solid film with good performances throughout.  As you can see we got great seats for this presentation.

Saturday, 4/16 - Yep, you guessed it, no early plans.  After a walk through nearby by Washington Square Park, we rode the subway up to The Bronx to catch our first-ever Yankees game vs. the Seattle Mariners (the M-men took it 3-1).  

The Washington Square Park and it's famous Arch were just a short walk from our apartment.  Although we've been to NYC several times this was our first visit to this iconic place.

What a perfect day to catch a game from the outfield bleachers at Yankee Stadium...and the bucket of chicken and fries for $20 that our friend, Wayne, found was amazing!

The evening was occupied with two more Tribeca films,  The Fixer (which we didn't like very much to be honest) and the much better (albeit a bit strange) film, The Family Fang.  The all-star cast for the latter film of Christopher Walken, Nicole Kidman (who mentioned that her home is now in Tennessee!), Jason Bateman (who also directed the picture), Maryann Plunkett and screen-writer David Lindsay-Abaire were all on-hand for some Q and A after the screening.  We, again, got very close seats to the stage which was amazing considering they were general admission.

Sunday, 4/17 - We flew home today in perfect weather again and in time to watch the Preds play and win again on the road in the NHL playoffs.  

The birthday extravaganza continued the following week with three great shows in three different cities for a great musical trifecta:

Tuesday 4/19 - We saw Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals in Chattanooga  tonight (the Nashville show sold out months ago) at the beautiful Tivoli Theater.  What a great band!

Wednesday, 4/20 - It was a happy "official" birthday to me today with a SOLD OUT show by Dawes in Nashville at The Ryman Auditorium.  And "When My Time Comes" I hope it's singing out loud at The Mother Church to a great band like Dawes similar to the short video below.

Thursday, 4/21 - Tonight we attended our first 2016 Preds First-Round Playoff Game( # 4) vs. the Anaheim Ducks.  It was a very disappointing outcome, but at least the chicken and biscuits were good before the game at the arena  and we did get to sit close to arena organ-player extraordinaire, Krazy Kyle. (By the way, Nashville would go on to win the series in dramatic come-back fashion 4 games to 3).

Just a man in a dapper suit and a giant arena organ...go Krazy Klye, go!

Sunday, 4/23 -  We saw the legendary Van Morrison tonight in a SOLD OUT show in Atlanta  at the fairly intimate Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.  Our seats were perfect and even a bit elevated above the ones in front of us allowing for a great view.  The 70-year-old Irish crooner hasn't lost a beat and sounded as smooth as ever as the video clip below can attest.  We had a tasty dinner before the show with our friend, Rex, at a place called Hop Alley nearby.

Now  ALL THAT is how you do a birthday up right!!

SPRING-tivities

Monday, 3/21  We finally got back to a Preds game tonight and we chose a good one with a big 5-2 win over western division-leader, the LA Kings.    We finally got to eat at the legendary Nashville hot-chicken restaurant, Hattie B's, before the game.  It was delicious and well worth the long wait in line to get in.  Thanks to our friends, Danny, Brenda and Bethany for joining us.

Thursday, 3/24 - We went to opening night of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice An IMAX 3D Experience with our friends, Wayne and Casey.  We all enjoyed the movie probably a little more than we were expecting with the so-so reviews it's been getting. 

Sunday, 3/27 - We enjoyed a  wonderful Easter brunch buffet at Fontanel with Ashlee's mom, Evelyn, and our friend, Bethany today.  The former home of Barbara Mandrell was open and set up with tables throughout the beautiful 27,000 sq. ft. space.  

Sunday, 4/3 - We checked out a new winery near our home called Cellar 53 today in Brush Creek, TN, along with Ashlee's mom, Evelyn.  Several of their wines that we tried were very good and we brought a good bit home with us.  After a bit of cruising through the surrounding countryside we had a picnic with some KFC on the banks of the Cumberland River in nearby Gordonsville.

Tuesday, 4/5 - With the # 1 Western Division Wildcard Seed already wrapped up, we attended our last regular-season Preds game of the season (or so we thought, see below).  We had some great sushi before the game at Suzy Wong's House of Yum.  It was a back-and-forth 4-3 win over the  Colorado Avalanche which eliminated them from playoff contention.  Sorry! See ya next year!

Thursday, 4/7 - We got a surprise email yesterday telling us that I had won a "shirt off our back" prize with the Predators meaning we would get one of the player's game jerseys that was worn tonight in the very last home regular season game of this season vs. the Arizona Coyotes.  So we scrambled to get a couple tickets to the game that we weren't planning on going to until this happened.  It was well worth the effort as it turned out to be a thrilling come from behind win in overtime by a score of 3-2 with the tying goal coming with just 19 seconds left in the game and the winning goal coming only about 20 seconds into overtime!  My chosen Predator was veteran winger, Erik Nystrom, who was a healthy scratch tonight so his jersey was nice and clean!

Erik was very friendly when we met at center ice and he signed his jersey for me and let me get a selfie with him.  Thanks to Ashlee for taking pics and video from the stands as well, and a big thanks to the Nashville Predators Organization for continually providing one of the best pro sport experiences at each and every game.  On to the playoffs!!! Let's do some DUCK huntin'!!  Go Preds!!!

Saturday, 4/9 - After a nice Saturday outdoors getting some work done around the house, plus a good jaunt down to a new creek-side walking path that the City of Lebanon has built near our house, we headed over to Mt. Juliet for some tasty burgers at Red Robin and a showing of My Big Fat Greek Wedding II which was just about as good as the original that has always been a favorite of ours.

Sunday, 4/10 - Our friend, Wayne, met us for brunch today at Prince Street Pizza in Gallatin, TN.  I discovered the place a while back from an app that considers it a great place to get craft beer (which it is - we had some great offerings there from their local brewery, BriarScratch).  But the brunch menu was what really intrigued us.  Let's just say the Cowboy Breakfast Pizza and the Pump Up the Jam Breakfast Pizza were both worth the drive.  Wow!  We will definitely be back here again!

You're Going on LeBREWski, Lebowski!!

Wait, hold up... it's a Bahamas cruise with live music from two of our favorite bands, O/A/R and Alpha Rev, plus many other artists, there's a ton of craft beer on board, and we would be celebrating the classic film, The Big Lebowski???  And, it's at a great discounted price?  Well, how could we not be in!?!?

Saturday, 2/27 -  We flew from Nashville today down to Ft. Lauderdale, rented a car and drove a little farther south to Miami today to start a long weekend as we awaited to board our cruise ship on Tuesday.  We booked a room at the lush Hilton Cabana Hotel on the North Miami Beach.

White sand, blue skies and aqua ocean!  What a beautiful day to fly in to South Florida!

After landing and securing our extremely nice SUV (thanks Ashlee's "Preferred Status" at Avis), we secured some  lunch at the nearby Tap 42  in Ft. Lauderdale.  The food was delicious and, as the name implies, the beer list was impressive.

After checking in to our hotel, we headed to the beach to catch the last bit of daylight and to crack open our delicious (and hard to find...thanks Tap 42!) limited Tiramisu-Hoo  Imperial Milk Stout from one of our favorite craft brewers, Terrapin, in Athens, Georgia.   What a great way to toast the end of our first day way down south!  Except it wasn't...we ended the night with some bubbly up on the third floor roof of the hotel under a starry sky with the waves crashing below.  So nice!!

Sunday, 2/28 - With an iffy forecast for tomorrow, we decided to go ahead and move inland this morning and try our first-ever air-boat ride over in the Everglades National Park.

Now THAT is a big ol' gator, folks!!  We saw several of them actually while on an hour excursion with Coopertown Airboats for a great price (thanks Groupon!).    This  excursion would have been worth full admission.  What a fun trip!  We would considering doing a longer, private tour that goes deeper into the swamp next time we are in the area.

The weather cooperated, albeit a bit cool, this afternoon, so we headed back to the hotel and back out to the beach!

We returned inland again for a few miles this evening to attend an event called Hollywood's Big Night Party for an Oscars telecast viewing at the Cinebistro movie theater at the Dolphin Mall. 



What a great deal!  For $40 each we got lots of wine, great heavy appetizers, four free hand-rolled cigars (the dude was on site making them in front of us!) and a hilarious caricature drawing of us as well from an artist on site.  Our seats were super-comfy and we watched the entire telecast of which the highlight was seeing Leo finally get his well-deserved Oscar!

Monday, 2/29 - Happy Leap Day everyone!  We spent our extra day of 2016 in South Florida again checking out the beach .  Afterwards, we picked up our friends, Laurie and Derek, at the airport who are also going on the cruise that starts tomorrow.  We had a late night drink (and dinner for Derek and Laurie) at the very cool Lou's Beer Garden near our hotel.

Tuesday, 3/1 -  Day 1 of The Lebrewski Cruise - This was our first time on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.  The Norwegian Pearl is a very nice boat with pretty darn good food in the buffet.  We started seeing performers almost immediately after boarding includig the hard-to-miss Andy Frasco (photo bombing our friend, Derek...nice shirt, D...lol...and then again later in the evening hugging on my wife!?!).   We saw performances from Kyle Hollandsworth of The String Cheese Incident and friends, Jared and the Mill and the aforementioned (and amazing) Andy Frasco and the U.N.  We had dinner in the Chinese bistro which was very tasty as were the three desserts we ordered!  You gotta love cruisin'!!

The young harmonious band from Arizona, Jared and the Mill, were rockin' the swim trunks (and boots?) in honor of the cruise and our tropical destinations that lay ahead

Wednesday, 3/2 - Day 2 of The Lebrewski Cruise - We woke up in the Bahamas in the Port of Nassau today to perfect weather.   We did a great small-group (just 8 people including us and Derek and Laurie) snorkeling trip excursion that included stops at a boat wreck/living reef that was sunk for the filming of the James Bond film, Thunderball, and then another stop at a larger natural reef.  Captain Mark with Blue Hole Watersports was a great guide.  On the way back to the cruise ship we stopped at Lukka Kairi Restaurant for some local beer and Bahamian bread.

We capped off the day (and the night) with a headliner performance by O/A/R  in the ship's main theater.  We got great seats down close for another solid performance by the boys from Rockville, Maryland.

The photo below is of our last performers of the night, Alpha Rev.  I snapped this pic before the crowd filled in the area in front of the stage.  While lead singer and heart and soul of the band, Casey McPherson, was there, several other members of the band were not including their awesome lead guitarist Zak Loy (who is still touring with Ed Kowalczyk of Live - see previous blog entry).  It was also evident in their performance which wasn''t the best we've seen from them, and was basically turned into a jam session that included the help of some other bands on the boat like Jared and the Mill and Hollis Brown.

Thursday, 3/3 - Day 3 of The Lebrewski Cruise was a relaxing  day at sea that started with a perfect  pool-deck performance by O/A/R.  We also caught some of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers later on this stage  as well.  We took in  as much of a late-night screening of The Big Lebowski in the ship's  main theater as we could before calling it a night.



Friday, 3/4 - Day 4 of The Lebrewski Cruise - We awoke anchored off of  NCL's own private Bahamanian island, Grand Stirrup Cay. for a day of beach fun and an amazing performance by Andy Frasco and the U.N.  again (video below).

We had to tender over to shore but it was worth it.

Yes, we saw Andy Frasco and his crew in the elevator on the way to the island that morning, and yes, Andy said he wanted to crowd surf to the ocean from the stage...and he did just that!!  And we were privy to that information before anyone else...you never know what you are gonna learn in an elevator...(this is not my picture...thanks LeBrewski Cruise...but that's me under Andy's right knee in the yellow hat (Go Preds!)  and Ashlee is behind me holding a guy's arm that I guess she thought was Andy's leg?? 

Beautiful Great Stirrup Cay.

Back on the boat that evening it was time for some craft beer tasting, some Hollis Brown tunes, more Alpha Rev jamming and a few tunes from Nashville's own, Tyler Bryant  and the Shakedown.

The craft beer was very abundant on board.  This was one of our collective favorites  and the name of it seems quite appropriate for this cruise.

Besides Andy Frasco, the young  band out of New York called Hollis Brown was one of our great new-to-us "discoveries" on this trip.  They have a fantastic sound and some great original songs.

Saturday, 3/5 - We arrived back in port this morning and rented another car (with a sweet large sunroof) and drove down to our beloved, Key West, for a long weekend.  

One of favorite drives anywhere.

From a distance this looked like a religious or church vehicle carrying a cross...as we got closer we realized it was just a tiki bar being moved from on place to another..ahh, The Keys.

Our one stop on the way to Key West was for some awesome tarpon-feeding at Robbie's Marina in Islamorada.  These suckers are huge and will eat small fish-heads right out of your hand!

We arrived in Key West late in the afternoon and checked into the nice, albeit a bit loud due to traffic on Truman Avneue , La Pensione Inn.   We took a walk in Old Town had a few beers at The Porch (photo above), a quiet beer bar with a great selection just off  the always-busy Duval Street.  We wondered some more along the water and had some more beer and a delicious snack at the relatively new Waterfront Brewery.

We ambled back along the water and were fortunate enough to witness one of the best sunsets we've ever seen in Key West (and we've seen many) at Mallory Square for the daily Sunset Celebration.  The air was a bit chilly after sunset, but otherwise perfect throughout our stay.

 We opted for a late dinner at our favorite restaurant in Key West, the always-awesome Blue Heaven.  I had the daily special which was grilled hog fish (photo above) and
Ashlee had their signature yellow-tail.  Both were delicious!

Sunday, 3/6 - We slept in a bit this morning and then after breakfast at the inn, we strolled over to Nancy Forrester's  Secret Garden, a sanctuary for rescued or abandoned parrots.  

We got an impromptu and private tour of secret garden from Batman and Jerry.   What a great place!

With great dining views and the prospect of more good food (and beer) we decided to have lunch back the new Waterfront Brewery.  It was a good decision.  Cheers!

Despite just getting off the water for several days with the cruise, it's really hard to come to Key West and not get on the water at least a little, so a sunset wine-tasting sail with Danger Charters was just the ticket for us, and a great way to wrap up our way-too-short visit back to one of our favorite places in the world.

Monday, 3/7 - We had a nice, leisurely drive back to Ft. Lauderdale today to fly home.  Before taking off, we had another great lunch at Tap 42 again near the airport.

Stunning views and good weather as we headed north on Highway 1 and back to reality.