October 31, 2018 - The night before November is Halloween, of course, and we did something a little different this year with a downtown Nashville Ghost Tour from the back of a hearse!
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| It was actually a pretty good tour of downtown Nashville besides the fact you were in the back of modified hearse listening to ghost stories from our guide/driver. I got this great shot of The Capitol as we rolled along since the weather cooperated nicely with mild temps and no rain during the tour. |
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| We all made it back safe and sound from the tour to the beautiful Union Station Hotel and had a celebratory cocktail in the amazingly beautiful lobby there. We had commandeered the entire tour with our friends from left to right: Danny as a bio-hazard worker; Brenda as Ruth "Vader" Ginsberg; a friend of our friend, Wendy, (her name escapes me) as a zombie; Wendy as Officer Zendayhas from our favorite show, "Live PD"; Charly as Officer "Sticks" Larkin also from "Live PD"; Bethany as a businesswoman who just got in from Houston; me as our new cat, Byron, Ginny as a disco queen; Ashlee as our new cat, Doris; and last, but never least, Nate as a disco zombie. What a fun night! |
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| November 1, 2018 - We both completed early voting this week. Trying our best to turn this ugly red state a little blue. |
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| November 4, 2018 - Well, they don't get much closer in predictions than this. Ashlee and I squared off this week in fantasy football. It started off neck and neck and then my team tanked (as usual) and Ashlee wound up blowing me out 178-85. This is a stupid game we've only been playing for 19 years now...lol. |
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| November 7, 2018 - Ashlee did a great job in scoring us front row seats tonight to see and hear one of our favorite voices in music, Day Layus,at the City Winery in downtown Nashville. We have followed Dan for a long time now from his early success with his band, Augustana, to his now smaller-scale solo career. I was even able to grab one of Dan's handwritten set-lists after the show which will go great in this year's collage! |
music memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AQ1K7jp8Cw
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| Friday, November 9 - With a couple Groupons to burn, we headed to dinner tonight at the fun and tasty Sushi Train restaurant in West Nashville with our friends, Wendy and Charly. The empty plates started stacking high and fast as we all opted for the all-you-can-eat option for twenty bucks a person. They lost money is all I know... |
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| Sunday, November 11 - We headed over to Green Hills in Nashville tonight to catch the TCM Film Classic, Die Hard 30th Anniversary showing at the recliner theaters there. The film has held up well over the years and was still a funny action romp from start to finish. Beforehand, we had a tasty dinner at the new Shake Shack (the first one in Tennessee) and did some Christmas shopping at the Whole Foods Market. |
Saturday, November 17 thru Sunday, November 25 -
We spent over a full week in Florida for Thanksgiving this year.
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| Saturday, November 17 - We headed out on a 7-hour plus drive to Destin, Florida, with these two cuties in tow. This is the first time we've ever taken our pets on vacation and I have to say they did great. They mostly just snoozed in the back seat as we made our way south with no traffic problems. We made a couple stops for bathroom breaks and fast food and to grab a growler of beer at the Interstellar Ginger Beer and Exploration Company in Alabaster, Alabama. We arrived at our rental house in Miramar Beach in Destin, Florida just before dark. We ordered out from nearby Kenny D's beach bar and Cajun seafood grill, and enjoyed a tasty dinner with Ashlee's sister, Paige, her husband, Andy, their daughter, Ella, and the girls' mom, Evelyn. |
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| We all spent the night in HOUSE # 1 (as it became known) with its cool shaped pool. Too bad the water was even cooler preventing us from getting in. This house is next to the Destiny East neighborhood that we usually stay in. |
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| Sunday, November 18 - Despite having a written cancellation, Ashlee somehow got mistakenly saddled with two rental houses on this trip, but it actually turned out to be a blessing of sorts. HOUSE # 2 was in Destiny East and had this great sun-porch for the kittens to stay on during the day away from the very allergic Paige and Ella who moved to this house the second day and the kittens stayed with us in House # 1 each night. This gave everyone a lot more room and privacy. Not that we can afford to rent two houses every year, but it was a nice mistaken luxury. |
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| Doris on a beach! We took both kittens to the beach today and they were less scared of it than we thought they would be. We couldn't stay long since this public beach doesn't allow animals, but it was a fun experience while it lasted. |
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| We enjoyed some great temps and sunshine for mid-November today. The water was cool, but tolerable to wade in. This beautiful large crane was enjoying the day as well as he walked right in front of where we were lounging on the beach. |
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| Monday, November 19 - Now THIS is how you do a Monday morning! The weather continued to be in our favor today. |
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| I talked everyone into a cheap late-afternoon dolphin cruise out of nearby Destin Harbor and it paid off in spades! We saw tons of dolphins and were treated to a beautiful sunset aboard the Hannah Marie with Olin Marler Charters. It was also informative as we learned some of the history of Destin including the fact the town is named after an actual person. |
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| The whole cruising gang...well minus the resting Evelyn and the snoozing kittens! |
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| Tuesday, November 20 - The weather continued to be mild, albeit a bit cloudier in the morning when we found this little festive jewel down the beach during a walk. |
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Yes, we brought them back to the beach. Yes, we posed for pictures with them. Yes, we are crazy.
We cooked at the house for a second time this trip tonight and had tasty burgers on the grill and some awesome fresh shrimp and scallops we picked up at Blalock's Seafood Market. |
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| Wednesday, November 21 - After a great breakfast at the new Crackings restaurant (used to be Another Broken Egg cafe) this morning, we went our separate ways today as the girls went shopping and the fellas went to an Air Force museum and a brewery since the weather had cooled off enough to skip the beach. We met back up for dinner at the always-tasty Pompano Joe's seafood joint just down the road from our house(s). |
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| Thursday, November 22 - Happy Thanksgiving! We picked up another great meal from Cracker Barrel this year and enjoyed a lazy day of eating and relaxing. The temps were still a little cool for beaching, but we did make it down to the shore to catch a nice sunset to close out Turkey Day. |
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| Friday, November 23 - The weather was cloudy and iffy with rain chances today, so we headed east to check out the cool little towns of Seaside, Water Color and Santa Rosa Beach. We had a great lunch and picked up this crowler of tasty beer at the Grayton Beer Brewpub in Santa Rosa Beach. We split up again after lunch with shopping and brewery-hunting in mind, respectively. |
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| Saturday, November 24 - The weather improved greatly from the forecast today and we were able to get another glorious day at the beach with 70+ degree sunny weather. The Gulf surf was booming too. |
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| We also got one of the best sunsets of the trip to close out the day and the trip. |
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| Our trip got one last surprise addition as we made our way back to the house tonight from a tasty dinner at the Osaka Japanese Steak House, we stopped to take a few pictures of the Christmas-lit palm trees at the spiffy new hotel, The Henderson. Not only did they let us stop for pictures, they also invited us to their large outdoor Christmas tree lighting with carolers, free food and drinks, and the big man himself, Santa, arriving on a Harley. And we weren't even staying here! Thanks so much, Henderson Hotel! |
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| Sunday, November 25 - We had a nice steady incident-free drive home today without even as much as a slow-down in the traffic for the end of a holiday weekend. Very surprising! The kittens were very good again and loved looking out the window as the world whizzed by. Well. at least in between snoozes. Caught ya, Byron! |
Thursday, November 29 - We caught an opening-weekend
SOLD-OUT show with actor/comedian, Jeremy Piven, at Zanies Comedy Club tonight in Nashville with our friends, Danny and Brenda. We paid extra for the
VIP seating up close to the stage and a brief meet-n-greet after the show. "Ari Gold" is new to stand-up comedy, but did a good job and was very funny. He also had two good local openers that we enjoyed. Our dinner there was, as always, surprisingly good despite coming from a comedy club kitchen.
Friday, November 30 - Alfred Hitchcock does sushi? No, that's my big gut shadow after we closed out the month with
another visit to the Sushi Train restaurant with our friends, Wendy and Charly, since the place would only take one of our two Groupons on the previous visit earlier in the month. It was just a good as before, but I am glad we are out of Groupons for a while...
