Saturday, September 8 - We were in
Chattanooga today for
Day 1 of the SOLD OUT second annual Moon River Music Festival down at Coolidge Park on the north shore of the Tennessee River. Just like last year, the festival tix went quick thanks to reasonable prices and a killer music line-up.
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| Good Lord it's hot!! We grabbed a discounted beer (discounted vs. festival prices that is) at The Brewhaus before diving into the outdoor inferno. Early September shouldn't have 90-degree-plus weather, but we've got it this year. Our first band to see in the blazing heat was a very pregnant (8 mos.) Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds who we always enjoy seeing live. They tore it up with a good-size crowd gathered next to the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge. Next up was a great set on the larger Poplar Stage by Drew and Ellie Holcomb, who are also a favorite of ours and the organizers of this great festival. Following up on the main stage was Nashville's own, Moon Taxi, who we've seen a little, but this was probably our first full set and they were extremely good. We saw a lot of these shows from the shade underneath the Walnut Street Bridge which offered nice site lines out of the brutal sun. |
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Did we mention it was hot? I mean, real hot. So hot, it melted the cups they were serving Tennessee craft cocktails in!! This was the Peach Picker with Huling Station Bourbon made by Old Dominick Distilling in Memphis. The drinks were small and overpriced, but they went down cool and refreshing. The beer pours were expensive as well, but bigger, and it was nice to see all Tennessee craft brewers in the festival's "Tennessee Tavern." We caught parts of the sets by Devon Gilfillian, The Oh Hellos and Josh Ritter throughout the afternoon.
The night brought on two great performances by St. Paul and the Broken Bones who we always enjoy seeing and hearing live. The night was closed by the amazing Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit who we were seeing for the first time live. Now we see and hear what all the buzz is about. No wonder him and his band sold out night nights in a row at The Ryman. What a tremendous band! Thanks to our friend, Deborah, for joining us for this wonderful closing show. |
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Sunday, September 9 - Moon River Festival Day 2 was briefer for us due to obligations back at home; a less-impressive line-up than Saturday; and, yep, it was just damn hot again. Before heading down to the park, we had breakfast beforehand across the river at Whitebird, a relatively new restaurant in the bottom floor of the also new (and swanky) Edwin Hotel. It was pretty good and we sat outside on the patio before the real heat started setting in.
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| The artists we wanted to see the most today were the Nashville-based duo, Johnnyswim, who we had to miss recently at Live on the Green. We got pretty close to the big Poplar Stage to catch the early part of their set and then retreated once again to the shade. They were pretty good. Most of their songs kind of sound the same, but it's a pleasant sound at least. I am sure we will have more chances to see them in the future since they seem to pop up at all kinds of different events that we frequent. We listened to a little of the set by The Band Camino who were OK before heading home. If we are comparing year to year, last year was better, but not a bad sophomore follow-up to say the least. I bet we are back here next September as well because it's a great festival in a great location in a great city. |
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SHRIMP FEST 2019!!!!
Monday, September 9 - Thanks to our pals, Wayne, and Charly, for not making us feel guilty and for going with us to the Red Lobster in Mt. Juliet tonight for all you can eat shrimp. We did some damage to say the very least. This was Ashlee's first time ordering the all-you-can-eat option and she did OK until she fell for the cheddar biscuits and got full first....amateur.... |
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Thursday, September 12 -It's Ashlee's birthday!! Woot!! Woot!!
Even though we technically already had a party at the new Opryland Water Park called Soundwaves last month to celebrate my best girl, we couldn't just do nothing on the actual day. So we kept it small and at home with some cool gifts (Christmas Mova Globe!), flowers, a Chik-Fil-A lunch delivery (yep, she worked on her birthday...so sad), pool time and dinner via Painturo's Italian take-out from around the corner. Happy Birthday, Officer Sexy!! |
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| Oh and there was ice cream cake, of course, from Baskin-Robbins. Someone does love her fancy purses especially if they are made of mint chocolate-chip ice cream!! |
Tuesday, September 24 - It was like Kinder-Care in our back yard today as our young cats, Doris and Byron, sweetly interacted with a couple of young deer that frequent our neighborhood.
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| Wednesday, 9/25 - Well, I got skunked 7-0 in our first game of bocce at the new courts here in town as part of the Don Fox Park complex. They have built eight really nice courts that are free to use. I bought a nice set of bocce balls from Amazon for us to use recently. I made it a game the second time around, but still lost 7-6. Someone's been sneaking up here and practicing during the day I think! |
We took a bit of hiatus from fun activities together this last half of September with work and the usual day-to day-grind. Plus Ashlee took a great trip to a Disney World with her sister, Paige.
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| Saturday, October 5 - We took an overnight trip today to Monteagle Mountain to catch a show by Blue October at The Caverns. Since it was an evening show, we decided to stay nearby and found a cabin for rent on top of Monteagle with a 50' waterfall on the property. Unfortunately, we've been in a drought lately so Morgan's Falls was just Morgan's Bluff today, but still a pretty cool place. I will definitely be back in wetter weather because it looks very promising to my waterfall-loving mind. |
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| Man, what a blast from the past for me, and a special visit for Ashlee. On a whim, I gave my old wood-carving friend, Jess Betchart, a call to see if he was still around on Monteagle Mountain. He has pretty much retired, but lit up when he heard my name over the phone and invited us over for a visit. The old woodcarver's shop looked the same as it had way back in 1991 when I interviewed Jess for a "Tennessee Magazine" article (which he still has mounted on the wall!). We visited and reminisced for a long time and it was very special to me, and Ashlee enjoyed herself as well because Jess is a charmer and has a million great stories. |
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| We even got treated to a song from Jess about his old friend, Dusty, who's about the sweetest dog we've ever encountered. Dusty has cancer and his days are numbered, but Jess is making the most of them with him. At 83-years-young, Jess, as well, is getting closer to that long walk home himself, but he looks great for his age and is still carving when he can while taking care of his ailing wife. |
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| Still generous and caring, Jess insisted that we pick out an animal carving of his to take with us. Ashlee chose this beautiful deer which she says reminds her of the ones we have in the back yard at home. I would have to agree. We have vowed to stop back by and see Jess again when we get a chance, and we aim to make good on that vow. |
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| Another unplanned and unexpectedly delightful stop in Monteagle before the concert was dinner at the Mountain Goat Market. We had a great pizza in this fun, quirky and hip restaurant/market. |
Man, you forget for an amazing live act Blue October is until you see them again. And seeing them in a beautiful and acoustic cave makes it even better. The SOLD OUT show was great even if the openers were pretty forgettable. The rain had started outside as we ducked out a little early to avoid traffic in the crowded parking lot, and along the windy little roads back out to the interstate. But we got well over an hour of powerful songs and unbridled energy from the band, especially lead singer, Justin Furstenfeld (photo below) who had the crowd in the palm of his hand all night.
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Sunday, October 6- Well, there wasn't enough rain overnight to make Morgan's Falls run yet, but it was still a beautiful morning up on Monteagle Mountain that was actually starting to feel like fall after several record-breaking hot days in late September and early October. This little tree I viewed from the nice back porch on the rented cabin was ready for fall even if all the others around it are not yet.
On our way off Monteagle Mountain, we took a quick look at The Retreat at Deer Lick Falls, an interesting tiny-house natural community that could also be of some interest to us/me in the future for rental options for a nice weekend back up on the mountain especially since Deer Lick Falls is one of my favorites in that area and I haven't been back to it in years. |
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| We headed on into Chattanooga for the rest of the day to do some work at Ashlee's mom's house and then rewarded ourselves with a few libations and Chattanooga's newest craft brewery, Five Wits Brewing Company. It's located in an interesting, new complex known as Market South, kind of a high-end food court. We had some decent Asian food as well and enjoyed seeing our friend, Chris, who came by and had a couple of beers with us. Another great addition to the little city we love. |
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Tuesday,October 8 - We attended our first and only film tonight at this year's historic Nashville Film Festival at the Hollywood 27 Theaters called Bluebird, a documentary about the famous Nashville songwriters venue, The Bluebird Cafe. A place we surprisingly have never been to together. We gotta change that! The film was very well done and there was a Q and A after with the director and the current manager of The Bluebird Cafe. Beforehand, we had a tasty dinner at Vui's Fresh Vietnamese nearby. |
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| Saturday, October 12 - We were hosting Ashlee's newly-found cousin, Leslie, and her daughter, Leeanne , from Cincinnati this weekend during their visit to Nashville. We started today with a quick tour (and sampling, of course) out at Pennington/Speakeasy Distillery in West Nashville. The girls loved their products and stocked up on them for the journey home tomorrow. This was our second visit this year to this fun place. They are busy here and on the brink of going big-time soon I think. |
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| We headed south next and stopped in Nolensville at the Oktoberfest event they were having at Mill Creek Brewing. The fun and festivities were dampened by a drunk asshole who decided to sit down beside us without invitation, so we moved on to nearby Arrington Vineyards for a much nicer experience as the sun was setting among the grapevines. |
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| We closed out the fun day with a fire in our backyard as the full moon shown down in our (yes, still open) pool. We roasted hot dogs and had s'mores and laughed into the night as the cool fall temps finally found us here in Middle Tennessee. |
Sunday, October 13 - We ate well today with
a late brunch stop at the new Party Fowl location in Donelson with our visitors before they headed home. Then, just a few short hours later we met our good friends, Wendy and Charly, at
Cherokee Steakhouse for an early dinner that was excellent as usual and some libations to close out a fun weekend.
Saturday, October 19 and Sunday, October 20 - We didn't have a very fun weekend down in Chattanooga, since we were working at Ashlee's mom's house, cleaning it out and cleaning up the yard, but we did eat well! On Saturday evening we had a well-deserved grilled cheese and tomato soup from Milk and Honey just down the street on the North Shore.
Sunday's lunch was splitting a giant muffaleta sandwich from Kenny's Southside Sandwiches along with some house-made chips and pimento cheese along with some interesting mustard slaw.
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Saturday, October 26 - We took a weekend off from working down in Chattanooga on the house since the weather was kinda crappy and enjoyed a trip in to Nashville for some fun shopping/browsing at the Green Hills Mall, an afternoon matinee showing of the new film, Judy, with our friends, Danny and Brenda; a tasty dinner afterwards at Emmy Squared and then a little more late-night grocery shopping at the always-interesting Trader Joe's.
The movie was surprisingly depressing as we learned that Judy Garland's life was far from the perfect persona seen on the red carpets of Hollywood. However, Renee Zellweger's portrayal of the tragic Hollywood icon was brilliant, so we may have seen an Oscar winner tonight. |
