Ashlee's 46th and Beyond

...in Cincinnati

...in Chicago

Wednesday, September 12 -  Hoo-ray!  It's Ashlee's 46th Birthday and we both had to work all day...oh well...we still had a nice time with an evening visit to the Cherokee Steak House up on the Cumberland River here in Lebanon for dinner.  It's a very  unpretentious place that's been open since 1958.  The food (i.e. steaks) is good and cheap, and it's where my baby wanted to go, so I made it so!  I also got her a fancy birthday frosted lemon bundt cake (her suggestion, of course) from Nothing Bundt Cakes in Mt. Juliet that was delicious, unlimited car washes at the local Mr. B's Car Wash, two different pairs of shoes (again, her suggestions), a donation to the Chattanooga Humane Society and some other various little goodies.

...in Cuba

...in Norway

And while we didn't take an official trip for her birthday this year since it fell in the middle of the week, we are heading up to eastern and central Kentucky for the weekend with our friends, Wendy and Charly, for some Bourbon Trail fun.

46 years young....thanks to bourbon maybe?  

Saturday, September 15 - We headed north this afternoon to eastern Kentucky.  I was the designated driver as Ashlee and our friends, Wendy and Charly, imbibed on bourbon and a good amount of Jack Daniels in any kind of frozen drink we could find along the way...frozen Cokes from Burger King, frozen Minute Maid flavors from McDonald's and slushes from Sonic.  After all our "important" stops, we FINALLY made it to Frankfort in time to check in to our hotel and head over to Buffalo Trace Distillery for our scheduled ghost tour.

Buffalo Trace Distillery is a beautiful historic facility, one of the oldest in Kentucky.  The grounds and buildings do become a bit spooky after dark.  Our free hour-long ghost tour was excellent with access into Stony Point, the mansion built in 1934 by then owner Colonel Albert Blanton, and the gothic-looking Barrel House 15 (photo above).  After the tour, we even got  a generous tasting of several of their wares.

All the ghostly encounters at Buffalo Trace have been friendly at least...must be the bourbon...

After the tour at Buffalo Trace, everyone allowed me to partake in my personal vice: craft beer.  We headed up the road a few miles to the West Sixth Brewing Farm for a libation under about a billion stars.  It was Waffle House afterwards for a late dinner to cap off a great day in The Bluegrass State.

Sunday, September 16 - Although not open yet, we stopped by Wild Turkey Distilling in Lawrenceburg on our way west this morning for a look at their beautiful facilities and grounds.  We will have to come back sometime and take their tour as well.  Pictured above is their cool gift shop and welcome center.

After a leisurely sleep in and breakfast at the hotel, we headed west today to the pretty city of Bardstown to check out the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival, a free event held on the Great Lawn downtown.  Along with free parking, this made for a cheap, fun day especially since the rain held off that was in the forecast.

Many of the famous Bourbon Trail distilleries had cool set-ups at the Bourbon Festival.  One of our favorites was Heaven Hill with their cool jack-o-bourbon-barrels.  We did a lot of shopping since prices were good.  We got Christmas presents, bourbon-rolled cigars, bourbon fudge, hand-made seasoning and several other fun items.  Good live music was playing throughout and we had a great lunch there as well.  And, yes, libations were consumed! 

Cool branded ice done by yours truly at the Maker's Mark set-up at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

We headed out about 3 PM and made the short drive over to Willett Distillery  here in Bardstown for another scheduled tour.  This small operation is still family-owned and produces some top-notch products.  The tour was fun and informative. 

One of our favorite aspects of Willet Distillery is their collection of cats they have on the property.  Where you've got grain and corn, you've got mice, so these guys are true employees.

This is Noah who's resting up for his night of mousing to come soon here at Willett Distillery...

After a stop in Bowling Green for a tasty dinner at White Squirrel Brewing (and, yes, a libation for me!), we got back to Nashville before dark with only a smattering of rain during the drive with another successful little trip in the books.  Thanks, Kentucky, I am sure we will see you again soon!

Saturday, September 22 -  We took an Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Factory Tour in East Nashville this afternoon that was pretty cool and fun.  They are the only bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the Southeast and their products are unbelievably good.   Afterwards, we had a tasty dinner with Ashlee's co-worker, Melanie, at 5th and Taylor over in Germantown.  It was Melanie's first visit to Nashville, so we showed her around town a little after dinner despite the rain including a neat walk through the always-interesting Marathon Motor Works complex.

Sunday, September 23 -  We saw Maroon 5 in a SOLD OUT show on their Red Pill Blues Tour at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville with our friend, Emily tonight.  Mark another performer off our Must-See list and, yes, Adam Levine can really hit those notes live.

After a not-great opener, Maroon 5 put on an excellent show that started promptly at 8:30 and ended around 10 PM (old people like that time frame for a show on a "school night").  We had good (albeit pricey) seats with a great view of the cool stage set-up.  They played all their hits plus a great cover of  the late Michael Jackson's "Rock With You."  An interesting appearance by the young 14-year-old actress phenom, Millie Bobby Brown of "Stranger Things"-fame for the song "Girls Like You"  of which she appeared in the video and did the Cardi B rap section evidently live for the first time.
Song memory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJOTlE1K90k

Wednesday, September 26 -  We had our scheduled Global Entry interviews this afternoon over by the Nashville Airport and governed by Homeland Security.  Global Entry is like TSA Pre-check for international flights, and should help us a lot next month when we travel back from Europe.  The cards we will be issued are good for 5 years and also include TSA Pre-check.  Our interviews went smoothly and easily and in fact was a little too non-serious in my opinion....but, I guess they get pretty bored out there.

Sunday, September 30 - We were down in Chattanooga this weekend for some family obligations and decided to check out the cheap $5 brunch with $2 mimosas down at the fairly new River Drifters Bar and Grill on Suck Creek Road across from the swollen Tennessee River thanks to pretty much a full week of rain around the area and more here this morning.  The food was buffet style and nothing fancy, but pretty good and the mimosas were great and served in nice fat-bottom glasses.   We ate out on their deck with partial views of the river. We hope this place makes it, but it's probably gonna be tough with their location.  But since they also rent kayaks and paddle-boards, maybe they can make it last.

Did we mention our new kittens, Byron (foreground) and Doris love the pool?  

Friday, October 5 - We saw the hilarious comedy duo, Garfunkel and Oates, at Zanies in Nashville for a SOLD OUT late show special engagement with our friends, Danny and Brenda tonight.  We had a tasty dinner and some fab cocktails beforehand at Hemingway's Bar and Hideaway in the up-and-coming Wedgewood area.  Before dinner, we also had a beer across the street at the nice new Jackalope Brewing location called The Ranch.

Saturday,  October 6 -  Somehow, our friends, Charly and Wendy, talked us into attending Midget (sorry) "Micro" Wrestling at the Nashville Fairgrounds tonight.  It was as embarrassingly amusing (and as strangely fascinating) as you might think.  Ashlee even won the door-prize as her name was announced over the loudspeaker along with the cast of the "Micro Wrestling Federation."  My ring-side seat shown in the photo above even got into the act, as did Wendy's lap (hard to forget and un-see that!).   Beforehand, we had a good (and fairly respectable) dinner nearby at the always-tasty Cilantro Mexican Grill over in the Melrose area.

Friday, October 12 - We checked out the new film, A Star is Born tonight at our all-recliners Roxy Theaters here at home.  We both loved it, but it is probably just too sad an ending to watch again (sorta like Steel Magnolias).  Beforehand, we had a  wonderful dinner (and draft beer and wine, finally!) on our improving city square at a new restaurant called the Town Square Social.

Tuesday, October 16 - We were back at the new Town Square Social restaurant again tonight on the square here in Lebanon.  The food was still amazing and the adult libations were flowing.  We took our friend, Doug, to dinner as thanks for his upcoming house- and cat-sitting for us during our trip to Europe next week.