NEW YEAR'S IN NOLA

We picked yet another famous locale to ring in the 2015 New Year.  New Orleans is one of our favorite places and it seemed like an obvious choice.  And since we have been a few times already, we decided to enhance the trip by making it a literal "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" kind of endeavor.

Photo by Wayne Hutton.

December 31:  We switched the order around a bit from the movie title with the automobile coming first in the form of a one-way rental minivan taking us and four of our good friends (Wayne, Mike, Chris and Tarryn) from Nashville to Birmingham, Alabama.  From there we hopped our first-ever Amtrak commuter train for a 7-hour jaunt down to New Orleans.  We were a little skittish about the trip after seeing the rather run-down station in downtown Birmingham a month or so ago and while it wasn't very fancy (looks to be under renovation perhaps), we couldn't have been happier with the Amtrak Crescent train, the staff and our coach seats.  The train arrived on time and we boarded quickly and easily,  The staff did a great job of making sure our party of six could sit together since there weren't assigned seats.  The seats were comfy with lots of leg room and the ride was smooth and problem-free.  It was a very social atmosphere on-board with BYOB not being frowned upon. The time just flew by as we pushed through Mississippi and on into Louisiana with several quick stops along the way.  We even had dinner in the dining car which wasn't bad either.  What a great experience!  We hope to do it again soon ...maybe Memphis to Chicago?

Did I mention it was a social atmosphere?  Here's a pic of all of us along with our nearby seat-mates, a group of young professionals some of whom were also from the Nashville area.  That's the infamous Doug from Franklin in the middle.  No idea who the gal in the back is by the way.  Photo taken by a stranger.

It was a quick cab ride over from the much bigger, newer (and cleaner) New Orleans Amtrak station to our hotel, the awesome Place D'Armes in the French Quarter. We stayed here on our last trip to The Big Easy and even got the same room as before, good ol' # 308.  We took a quick stroll over to Bourbon Street and then rang in the New Year at Jackson Square with fireworks over Cafe Du Monde and even a fleur-de-lis drop high atop the Jax Brewing Building.

Jan. 1 - We slept in a good part of the first morning of the new year and then grabbed some NOLA-famous Hurricane drinks and rode the ferry across the Mississippi River to Algiers, but it was just too cold to explore the river walk they have there.  Maybe next time.  We had a late brunch at the busy Ole Saint Kitchen and Tap which is owned by former Ole Miss and New Orleans Saints' running back star, Deuce McCallister.

We booked this trip well before it was determined who would be playing in the Sugar Bowl (and the first-ever college football playoffs semifinal game).  It was a surprising upset by # 4 seed, Ohio State over # 1 seed, Alabama. We all watched the entire game in Wayne and Mike's amazingly huge room (# 222) and no one was happier with the outcome than our friend, Chris, who is a huge OSU fan.  The rest of us were happy with the bags of beignets from nearby Cafe Du Monde!

Jan. 2 - After an amazing early brunch at The Court of Two Sisters,we took an afternoon streetcar up to the end of the green line to City Park for some fun urban kayaking

We had a delightful two-our tour on the Bayou St. John Historic and Scenic Waterway.  This natural bayou was a key to the settlement of New Orleans and is today a nice blend of nature amid the urban sprawl of the city.

It was back aboard the streetcar after our tour which we squeezed in just before the rain set in.  "Fortune favors the bold." 

Our late dinner was super casual as we checked out the incredible Killer Po'Boys in the back of the tiny Erin Rose Bar.  All sandwiches were good, but the shrimp ones were outstanding.  Photo taken by a nice random guy.

We blew it out on our last night in NOLA up and down Bourbon Street with some activities that are probably best left unwritten on this blog, but that I am sure will be long remembered.

Jan. 3 - We flew back home today on a Southwest airplane. Our reasoning was two-fold.  First, the Amtrak trains back to Birmingham leave at 7 AM (no, thank you!), and secondly, a 7-hour train ride and a 3-hour drive back to Nashville doesn't sound appealing after several days of making good/bad life decisions in NOLA.  It was definitely the right choice.  The flight home was a little delayed due to weather, but we got home safe, sound and happy early that afternoon.

Here's to a great new year!!

NOVEMBER- and DECEMBERINGings

A couple months of fun and frolic leading up to the new year:

Weds., Nov. 5 - We went to a sneak-peek of Interstellar in IMAX with our friends, Casey and Wayne tonight.  What a tremendous film and an awe-inspiring experience!

Thursday, Nov. 6 - We drove down to down to Chattanooga today to catch a show by O/A/R at Track 29.  We had a tasty dinner and good beer beforehand at The Blind Squirrel. We scored a cheap room at the accompanying Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel as well. We had the honor of meeting lead singer, Marc Roberge (second from right) out front of the venue while waiting on our friend, Deb, to arrive. We three and another friend of Deb's were able to get front row for the show since the place was only about half full since it was a weeknight, but it was a great show nonetheless and as usual with this awesome live band.

"She's as sweet as..Tupelo Honey" - Van Morrison.
Friday, Nov. 7 - We slept in  peacefully late, and  then got up for a great brunch at the new-to-Chattanooga location of Tupelo Honey Cafe, an Asheville-based favorite restaurant of ours.  This bustling new locale was just as good as the original.

Saturday, Nov. 15 - We had a great day of fun activities with an early showing of Birdman at Opry Mills. This was our viewing start of the Oscars season, and it's a little spacey of a film, but well-acted.   There could definitely be some nominations come from this one.   It was then on to the always-delicious O'Sake Sushi for an early dinner after that, and before another Nashville Predators game where we came from behind to defeat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1. We met our friends, Chris and Tarryn, and Danny and Brenda, between periods outside our sweet 200 level seats.  We all went for hot victory doughnuts after the game at the nearby downtown Krispy Kreme.  By the way, a lot of the this fun day was funded by the sale of some of the Titans season tickets that I won earlier in the year.  We haven't been to game yet this year (mostly because they stink), but the tickets have all been used by someone who got a good under-face-value deal on them from me.

Tuesday, Nov. 18 - My friend Mike and I drove up to Indianapolis today and met Ashlee (who had been working in nearby Kentucky) to watch our beloved Duke Blue Devils take on the Michigan State Spartans in an early-season Top 25 college basketball clash in the Champions Classic.  Duke scored a solid victory over a talented MSU team. We also got the chance to finally meet our friend, Jared, who lives in Indy and is an MSU graduate.  Jared has played in our fantasy football league for 15 years and joined as a complete stranger.  We've been Facebook friends for a little while now, so we knew what he looked like, but it was great to finally meet him in person.  The second game of the night was UK vs. Kansas which we didn't stick around for the entire game.  Good thing too because it became a blow-out for UK and their fans were numerous and loud.  We drove home the next day with a stop in Louisville where we met Ashlee again for lunch at the Bluegrass Brewing Company. (Editor's note:  Three of these four made it to the Final Four this season.  Sorry, Kansas. And our Duke boys went on to win their fifth National Championship!!)

Weds., Nov. 26 - Saturday, Nov. 29:  We've started a new Thanksgiving tradition of spending the holiday on the beach somewhere.  Last year it was on the East Coast south of St. Augustine, and this year it was Destin on the Gulf.  Ashlee and her mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece and a couple of their family friends drove down the Saturday before, but I worked a few days and then flew down via Southwest Airlines on one of their newest routes to Pensacola.  Ashlee picked me up and delivered me back to the sweet house they had rented just a few blocks off the beach.  The weather was mild and we enjoyed our time here with some good food, some nice long walks on the beach, and just hanging out and relaxing.

On our last  full day at the beach, we decided to take another helicopter ride.  We've been kind of addicted to these since our first two rides these past couple years.  Our 10-year-old niece, Ella, was brave enough to go with us and had a great time.  It was one of the best flights we've taken so far with our great pilot doing his best to get this most out of this little whirlybird.

A real unexpected treat while flying in the helicopter was spotting this pod of dolphins just off the beach.  What a thrill!

Below is a few seconds of the thrilling ride we took up and down the beaches of Destin, Florida.

Saturday, Nov. 29 - We drove back from the beach with Ashlee's mom, Evelyn, and split up the long drive with an overnight stop in Birmingham.   Our first stop in town was a late lunch/early dinner at the delicious Edgar's Bakery.   We could have easily made the drive in one day, but we were also spending the night to catch our favorite live band, Augustana, playing at The Workplay Theatre downtown.  We got a room a mile or so away at the beautiful and historic Tutwiler Hotel (a Hilton property now - points scored, check!).  Getting to and from the venue from the hotel was an interesting experience since our cabbie who picked us up had only been driving in Birmingham for two days and we had to help navigate him with our phones(?).  Cabs were non-existent after the show also and after hearing it would be a 20-minute wait when we called one, the owner of the venue himself (Tom, I think is his name) offered to drop us off, clearly miffed that his city would strand out-of-towners like this who took the time to come to his venue and whom I am sure he would like to come back.  And we will if the opportunity arises, it's a solid venue with a good beer list, nice sight lines and great acoustics.  After sleeping in, we had a great brunch late the next morning at Another Broken Egg Cafe.  It was so mild temperature-wise, we were even able to sit outside and enjoy our delicious breakfasts.  Not bad for the last day of November!

We got front row for the Augustana show thanks to a fairly sparse crowd for a Saturday night. The impressive English band, Scars on 45, opened and we really enjoyed their short set.  Dan Layus, the lead singer, founder and heart of Augustana gave another brilliant performance in our fourth time seeing him and his band this year.  Photo by Ashlee.

Saturday, December 13-We decided to throw a sort-of last minute Christmas Party and a nice large crowd of friends showed up for some great food prepared by Ashlee, lots of tasty libations and even a three-group gingerbread-house-decorating contest that kind of "wild" to say the least.  Let's just say some people (Wayne Hutton) will do anything to get a win.

Sunday, December 14 - We finally attended a Titans game this year despite having won season tickets and we still never sat in the seats we won, but we did get to see the cool banner of us (right) that has hung in the stadium all year.  Instead, we sat with our good friend, Wayne, in his season-ticket seats and Ashlee even joined in the fun of "Titans Clause" by being Mrs. Titans Clause this year.  These two were the hit of the day with tons of folks wanting pictures with them including the stadium staff who took them to the front of the line for the hilarious mock "Gameday" program cover (above left).  The game was another loss for the woeful Titans, but we had fun nonetheless.  Thanks to our friend, Bethany, for coming along as well.

Friday, Dec. 19 - We had an excellent dinner at Lockeland Table in East Nashville with our friends, John and Monique.  We moved on for drinks afterward at the very cool modern speakeasy, Bar No. 308.

Saturday, Dec. 20 - Afters stopping by our friend, Carolyn's annual Christmas party in Nashville, we headed over to the Mercy Lounge to catch Augustana play again (yep, that's the 5th time seeing them this year and a new record for us). Scars on 45 was the solid opener again and despite missing their female co-lead singer, Aimee, of the quintet, they still sounded great. The crowd was much bigger than the recent Saturday-night show we saw in Birmingham.  It was homecoming show for Augustana since they now all reside in Nashville.

Sunday, December 21 - We continued our research for the upcoming Oscars season with a viewing of "Wild" starring Reese Witherspoon. It was a solid film and followed the book closely, but Witherspoon was only decent at best in her leading role in our opinion.  We don't see them handing her the statue for this performance. Beforehand, to kill some time between another great dinner at Nama Sushi, we stopped for a couple drinks at Craft Brewed and The Sutler Saloon, a couple of cool new places now open on 8th Avenue.

Wednesday, Dec. 31 - Well, we are off to New Orleans today to ring in the new year.  See our next blog entry for the full details.

COLLAGE UPDATE

Welcome # 16 - 2014 was a fantastic year!!