The Awesome Ms. Beatrice - AKA Capt. Sammich- AKA Boo-ba- RIP, Sweet Girl

We lost our beautiful girl, Ms. Bea, recently.  It's going to be hard to be in our house without her there as she has been for 16+ plus years when she showed up as a young stray at our house and just would not go away.  Thank you for choosing us, Ms. Bea.  We love you and are going to miss you greatly.

Ms. Bea took her first real trip very recently and got to see and smell the beach in Destin, Florida.  She was a trooper throughout the trip despite being elderly in cat years and a real home-body for her entire life.

No, there are not.  

Ms. Bea showed up at our house as a young stray and just would not go away.  She was determined to live with us.  I even carried her off a few streets when she first showed up thinking she would find her home, and she came right back to us.  

 The next time I was going to take her farther away became the biggest argument Ashlee and I ever had as she threatened to leave and take Ms. Bea with her to Chattanooga.  We compromised by letting Ms. Bea stay locked in the garage overnight since every time she jumped up on our bedroom window sill at night our first cat, Mabel, would just go nuts and wake us up.  We figured if she didn't like the garage, she would leave.  She did not.  Once we knew she was going to stay, we had to get her fixed.  It was winter when her procedure was done, so she wound up in the warm house to recover, and never left.  Crazy Mabel eventually came around to Ms. Bea's sweet disposition and they actually became the best of friends.

One of my favorite recent pictures from just a few summers ago when we are all lounging out on the patio on a warm afternoon.  We miss both of these old girls immensely.

We were sadly out of town when Ms. Bea passed, but we got to talk to her on the phone before she left us thanks to our great cat sitter, Anjie.  We decided to have her cremated and the vet did a beautiful job with it.  Ms. Bea now sits on our den coffee table just as she did a thousand times before.

We hope these two old friends are together again somewhere - stretching and lounging the day away in comfortable bliss.
We miss you both greatly.

A Big New Year's in Big D (and not so small Ft. Worth)

Monday, December 30 - We flew out today in  beautiful weather to Dallas for a New Year's trip.that was rescheduled from our original plan to drive there from Destin.  We had a couple of big events to attend including a NYE concert at the world's largest honkey tonk, Billy Bob's, in Ft. Worth and seeing our hometown Nashville Predators take on Dallas at the Cotton Bowl for this year's outdoor NHL Winter Classic! 

I took this artsy kind of shot coming in to land at Dallas.  At first I thought it was just kind of neat looking, but now I think it looks more like Dallas after a nuclear attack.  Yikes!

We got some terrible news when we landed.  Our cat sitter, Anjie, called us to say that our 16-year-old cat, Ms. Bea, was not doing well at her place where we dropped her off yesterday.  Anjie took her to the vet and the diagnosis was not good.  We both talked to Ms. Bea over the phone just before the vet planned to euthanize her, but she passed on before that had to be done.  We were devastated and briefly considered cancelling our trip, but with nothing that could be done, we trudged on with heavy hearts.  An entire blog entry will be dedicated to our sweet girl coming next.  

We choose a pretty sweet ride from a group of mid-range SUVs available at Thrifty Car Rental.  This GMC  Terrain was roomy and comfortable for our jaunt around Dallas/Ft.Worth.

Our first stop was the infamous grassy knoll along Daley Plaza in downtown Dallas where President Kennedy was assassinated.  Ashlee had driven through her before on a work trip, but I have never been here and was shocked at how small the entire area is and how the book depository building to the left just looms ominously over the whole area.  The tours to the 6th Floor Museum in the aforementioned book depository building were sold out for the day so we bought tickets for tomorrow online while we strolled around the area.  We had a tasty lunch a few blocks away at a little place called Latin Deli.

We headed west about 30 miles to downtown Ft. Worth to check in to our hotel, the very nice Hampton Inn and Suites next to their convention center.  We chose to stay in Ft. Worth since we had concert tickets for New Year's Eve at Billy Bob's nearby.

We liked Ft. Worth a lot.  It seemed a little less busy than Dallas and we had no trouble with traffic while wandering around.  These cool beams of blue light were being projected from downtown Ft. Worth tonight and many of their high-rise buildings were decked out in Christmas lights.

Ashlee met me at Martin House Brewing near our hotel for a few libations.  We raised a few to Ms. Bea as well in her memory.  It was a happening and lively place.  These guys are doing very unique styles of craft beer and we tried a bunch of them via flights.  Our favorites were their stouts and their Belgian-style concoctions and an interesting pickle sour beer called Best Maid.

Tuesday, December 31 - When we woke up this morning and looked out our hotel room window, it looked like a scene from The Day the Earth Stood Still.  The giant "space-ship" that landed overnight is part of the Ft. Worth Convention Center.  

We decided to a little high-end shopping this morning and stopped by Neiman Marcus so Ashlee could peruse their purse collection.  Who knew they had their own complimentary water! 

The shopping district where the Neiman Marcus was is brand newand called The Shops at Clear Fork.  You have to still drive past cattle and ranch land to get to it, so you don't forget you are in Texas.  

We had lunch at the always-delicious (and needs to be in the Southeast) In-N-Out Burger.  This is as far east as the popular chain goes, so we were happy to find one.

We headed back to Dallas for our 2 PM reservations to visit the incredibly-popular and busy Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.  We met up with our friends, Wendy, Charly and Wayne as well here.  What an interesting and immersive place!  We all spent a good two hours plus with our audio guides checking out the detailed exhibits of not only the assassination of, but the entire presidency of John F. Kennedy.  What a great man and what a giant loss to our country.  The eerie photo above is taken out of a nearby window on the same floor that Oswald fired his rifle.  Sorry, but there's just no way he acted alone.  Since the museum is private and not run by the government, the theories of a larger conspiracy are explored as well.  

After our museum tour, we doubled-back to Ft. Worth along with Wendy and Charly to prepare for our New Year's Eve festivities.  We learned that one of our favorite Ft. Worth craft breweries. Rahr and Sons Brewing, was actually open today and we just had to stop by for a visit and a libation...or two.  

Our favorite beer of last summer around the pool was hands-down the canned light citrus lager brewed with lemon and lime from Rahr and Sons called, hilariously, Adios Pantalones.  And now we got to have it on draft from the mother-ship itself!  Viva Rahr and Sons! Prost Ya'll!!  

Dinner reservations on New Year's Eve in Ft. Worth were a little hard to come by and we felt fortunate to have found a table for four at Lucile's Stateside Bistro which has been around since 1993 in a landmark Ft. Worth building built back in 1927 with a history of being restaurant establishment. Despite having a reservation, the place was so slammed, that we still didn't get seated until about 30 minutes after our booked time.  But it was worth it.  The food and ambiance was outstanding.  My first steak in Texas was here and it was an excellent ribeye.

After dinner, we Ubered over to the historic Fort Worth Stockyards which looked to have a thousand different bars to get drink at, but we were headed for the biggest one in the world...Billy Bob's.

Cole is pure "bro-country", but he's also a pretty good entertainer and we enjoyed his show from our seats with a good view of the stage.  It was a tight fit at the tables, but it was sold out and we were happy to have somewhere to sit as hundreds of others did not.

Billy Bob's did it up right for New Year's Eve.  They provided party favors, balloon drops and even free champagne with clock struck midnight.  Happy New Year all you shit-kickers!!  Yee-haaaa!!! 

Only in Texas do you get an Uber that is Ford F-150 pick-up truck!  Thanks, Jack, for the pick-up after the show on a very busy New Year's Eve!  

January 1, 2020 - Happy New Year from Dunkin' Donuts and the NHL!! 

We got up pretty early this morning and headed back to Dallas again to spend our day at The Winter Classic being held at The Cotton Bowl and Texas State Fairgrounds.  We had a great day despite a disappointing loss by the Predators.  We were there well after dark exploring and taking in everything that was available during this outstanding event.

There were a ton of fun activities, exhibits and tomfoolery to be had before and after the game itself.

We drove in with Wendy and Charly and met up with Wayne a little later before the game.

Nashville was well-represented in Dallas with tons of fans making the trip like we did.

We were floored at the amazing set-up inside The Cotton Bowl.  The weather was perfect.

So how do you warm up for a hockey game on a football field?  Well, with some soccer, of course!!  Several of the Preds players kicked around a soccer ball before the game very close to where we were standing near the field.  Some Dallas Stars players also began their own soccer-ball warm-up as well near us shortly afterwards.  Copy-cats!  

There's a joke about "horse hockey" in here somewhere, but I just can't find it.  Only in Texas do you have livestock waiting in the wings of a hockey game!! 

Following are some videos and pics of the start of this historic game:  

We were fortunate to be on the side of the stadium that the players walk in and out of the rink from.  We also had the rodeo ring in front of us as well.   In the rodeo ring during timeouts they had pig racing and mutton-busting (Google it if you don't know what it is) that was pretty entertaining.  They also had trick rodeo riders, jugglers, sword-swallowers and other state fair type entertainers.  The country band, Midland, performed before the game.  Dallas sports legends, Ricky Williams and Troy Aikman, dropped the ceremonial puck before the start of the game.  The popular country duo, Dan and Shay, also performed between periods.  All this and a hockey game too! 

There were over 20,000 Predators fans in attendance.  That's more than any other visiting team in the history of the Winter Classic.  In total, the attendance was 85.630, the second largest in the history of the Winter Classic.  Pretty good numbers for the first Winter Classic ever held in the south.   It's too bad we didn't get to witness a better game by our guys.  We jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to power-plays resulting from some dirty play by the Dallas Stars that even got one of their players ejected from the game and one of our favorite players, Ryan Ellis, who we've actually met, leave the game with injuries sustained from the nasty blindside elbow.  Unfortunately, the Preds looked flat the rest of the game and allowed Dallas to climb back in the game and eventually win 4-2.  Very dissatisfying as a Preds fan.   (Editor's note:  We evidently were not the only ones dissatisfied with the outcome of today's game.  Less than a week later, Predators head coach, Peter Laviolette, was surprisingly fired along with his assistant coach.  I guess there's just too much talent on this team for this kind of less-than-mediocre result.)

We "drowned" our sorrows after the game with a bucket of fresh cookies from the hilariously named Stiffler's Mom's Cookie Factory.   All joking aside, they were delicious! 

All the rides at the state fairgrounds were open and free to ride during the day.  Unfortunately, the lines were super-long to ride them also.  We did get a chance to ride the Top O' Texas rotating wheel after the game as the crowds were starting to thin out,  It goes up 500' for great views of The Cotton Bowl, the fairgrounds and downtown Dallas in the distance (which I cut-off in the picture below).  

We were pretty beat after a full day at game and all its surrounding activities and decided to have a food-delivery feast in the lobby of the hotel instead of going out somewhere.  Not a lot places were open on New Year's Day, so we settled for Macaroni Grill which was actually pretty darn good.  We also picked up some more craft beer from Rahr and Sons to enjoy as well.  Thanks to the Charly for the pic of our spread.  YOGOMFL!! 

Thursday, January 2 - After another fine (and free) breakfast at the hotel in Ft. Worth, we parted ways with Wendy and Charly who were headed to San Antonio for a few days before heading home.  We had another day in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area with no a lot on the agenda other than to move to another hotel closer to the airport for our last night here.  We lazed around after breakfast and headed out around noon.

Our first mission this afternoon was to check out a Buc-ee's, the giant gas station/convenience store chain found (almost) exclusively in Texas.  What an amazing place!  We wondered around in here for close to an hour checking out everything they had to offer.  I bought some awesome jerky from their deli-style counter.  We also bought T-shirts and a few other goodies as well.  And, of course, visited their "famous" large, clean bathrooms.  Boy, could Nashville use one of these!  Here's hoping for the best!
Speaking of chains we love, we also had to check out a Texas Aldi grocery store which was fairly simiilar to ours at home except I found local craft beer there to enjoy tonight in the hotel room and we found Texas-monikered shopping bags as well to take home and share as gifts. 

Our "Texas shopping" took up some time and we were ready for some lunch.  We found another awesome Texas regional chain called Rodeo Goat which had delicious hamburgers and great craft beer (for me).  This location was a fairly new one on the shores of North Lake northwest of downtown Dallas.  We also split an order of their "Surprise Fries" which were fantastic.  Psst, the "surprise" is chili underneath all bacon, cheese and peppers!!

We spent our evening in the nice Sheraton Hotel at DFW Airport just relaxing, digesting our giant late lunch/early dinner, watch college football (congrats, UT, on the Gator Bowl comeback and win!) and goofing around online since I had a scheduled poker tournament I couldn't miss.

Friday, January 3 - It was tale of two regions flying home today as we had sunny skies in Dallas taking off this morning with a beautiful view (pictured above) of what I believe is Lavon Lake northeast of Dallas.  And then rain, fog and some nasty air-pockets bumps coming in to Nashville.

Another fun trip and another great New Year rung in despite the heart-wrenching loss of our beloved pet while we were gone.  We are so sorry we weren't there, Ms. Bea.  We love and miss you more than words can say.

The SNOW-BIRDING Episode...

After researching a rental house down in the Destin, Florida, area again for a week at Thanksgiving and maybe even a week at Christmas, Ashlee came to the conclusion that for just a little more in cost, we could rent a house for a couple months and try snow-birding out for the first time.  Granted, Ashlee can do a lot more of it than I can since she works from home, but I tried my best to spend as much time "down south" as possible.  

(Editor's note: We had to then shorten our snow-birding to just a month when the house Ashlee had booked well in advance was very shittily sold out from under her and she was only given a smaller place as an option with only 3 days notice.)

Here's how it went when we were together:

Saturday, November 23 - We spent a rainy day packing.the U-Haul trailer we rented to move Ashlee and 3 of our cats down to Florida for a month.  The giant cat-tree that Byron and Doris love to climb, play and sleep on was a must and took up most of the room in the trailer.

Sunday, November 24 - With much improved weather, we started headin' south early today.  Our first stop was the Alabama state-line rest area.  The cats were troopers for the entire trip and Ashlee did well pull the U-Haul trailer.  Traffic was fairly light and we made good time down to Destin.

We got unpacked and dropped off the U-Haul trailer before dark in and were treated to a beautiful sunset over Choctawhatchee Bay as we crossed the bridge back over to Destin.  

Since I had to go back to work after the holiday week, I followed Ashlee in a sweet G20 Mustang convertible that I got a great deal on for a week's rental.  It was even warm enough to drop the top after we got off I-65.  Our rented condo was, as mentioned before, not what Ashlee had originally rented and was smaller in square footage, but it was still pretty nice and in a great location.  Our sister- and brother-in-law, Paige and Andy, and their daughter, Ellas, joined us for the week.  We celebrated despite the loss of the girls' mom, Evelyn, this year and our first Thanksgiving without her.  

The cats all did well adjusting to the new space.  The babies were a little hesitant about the long staircase, but were soon bounding up and down it with glee.  Ms. Bea's first long trip went well and her elderly-cat habits were about the same as at home, but her appetite was good, and she seemed to enjoy the warm temps coming through an open window in our bedroom.

Monday, November 25 - Today was our first full day of snow-birding and while it was sunny, the temps were still a little cool, so instead of heading to our nearby Crystal Beach,  we opted to head west and check out Navarre Beach which is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  We also had a tasty lunch and some libations at Ye Olde Brothers Brewing nearby.

I got all five of us tickets to see Frozen II in IMAX tonight at the nearby AMC Destin Commons Theaters.  We all enjoyed this impressive sequel.  

Tuesday, November 26- The weather warmed up enough to go to Crystal Beach, a short walk from our condo.  But the wind (and the seagulls) were relentless enough, that we didn't stay too long.  Here's the most consistent of the gulls we named "Jerry" dive-bombing Ella who he was sure had snacks.  

One our best dinners of the week came at Boshamps Seafood and Oyster House just down the road from our condo.  We haven't been here before, but we will be back.  The food was fantastic! 

Boshamps is on the waterfront and has their own little beach, lots of decking and a cool harbor dock.  These big beauties were laying in wait for a fishing tournament the next day.

Wednesday, November 27 - The weather was PERFECT for the beach today and we headed back down to Crystal Beach for several hours of lounging and even got in the water some.  Beforehand, we had a tasty breakfast at Camille's Coffee Shop.

Andy snapped this cool shot of me and Ella in the rolling waves off Crystal Beach.

It was movie time again as I got us all tickets to see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood starring Tom Hanks as the admirable Mr. Rogers.  It was an interesting true story told from a jaded magazine writer's point of view who was given an assignment to interview the children's icon and it wound up changing his life for the better.  We were back at the AMC Destin Commons thanks to its close proximity to our condo, but we sure we wish they had recliners!!  Before the show we had an excellent dinner at The Craft Bar - Destin as well as some tasty craft beer.  

Thursday, November 28 - Thanksgiving was a pretty lazy day for us.  Instead of a lot of cooking, we just ordered Cracker Barrel To Go which was just around the corner from the condo and lazed around watching Netflix, eating and napping.  

Friday, November 29 and Saturday November 30 -  It was another couple spectacular beach days for us with even warmer temps and more time spent in the water at Crystal Beach.  Friday saw The Gulf with very little waves and looked almost still as a farm pond.  Saturday the waves rolled in again in steady and beautiful fashion.

We drank a nice plethora of canned craft beer during our days on the beach thanks to the excellent selection at Beach Liquors just down the road from our condo. Salute!! 

Sunday, December 1 - Before I hit the road headed back north, we had a wonderful brunch at the Sunset Bay Cafe in the Sandestin Beach and Golf Club complex on the Choctawhatchee Bay.  

Wednesday, December 4 - I stopped by our neighborhood Aldi Store today to grab a Countdown to New Year's Advent Box with seven different bottles of sparkling wine to count down to 2020.
Cheers to the new year!! 

Friday, December 13 - While the weather wasn't that great, it was still nice to be back at the beach with my baby today!  I flew down on Southwest Airlines to Pensacola late last night with our friends, Danny and Brenda, who were joining us for the weekend.  We had a great late lunch at Harbor Docks Restaurant today with a table overlooking the Destin Harbor. 

Saturday, December 14 - The weather improved greatly today and we started the day with breakfast just up the coast at The Whale's Tale.  The food was good and the views were better.

The best find of the morning however was across the road from the beach at Pascalli Kitchen where they have hot, fresh beignet bites available every morning!!  It's NOLA on the beach!! 

The kittens are still enjoying their beach vacation, although Doris was as peeved as I was that Chelsea F.C. took out their new American scoring phenom, Christian Pulisic, in the second half and still needing a goal!!  

Poetry (and scavenging) in motion.  Danny got this great shot of the gulls at Crystal Beach grabbing French fries from The Crab Trap while we were enjoying the sunny weather today. 

We were back at Harbor Docks tonight for dinner when our first choice was closed for a private event, and I didn't mind at all.  I call this my "Cajun Combo" - a bowl of seafood gumbo and a mud-bug sushi roll.  Both were outstanding! 

After our friends, Wendy and Charly, arrived from Nashville this afternoon, it was time to "suit-up" for the Sandy Claws Party.  

That's right, Ashlee had all six of us custom onesies made that we could lounge around in at the condo and out on the beach for a campfire under a million stars...some of which were shooting during the Geminid Meteor Shower.  Thanks so much for this great memory, honey! 

Ashlee also ordered us fancy mini-cupcakes for the night-time beach soiree.  They were fantastic and went down good with several adult libations that we had available.

We barely even got any second looks as we all ambled into a nearby Waffle House on the way back to the condo for a late-night snack in our matching onesies.  

Sunday, December 15 - We went to the beach a little while today, but the wind was relentless and we called it quits after an hour or so.  Before heading to the airport to fly back to Nashville along with Wendy and Charly, we had a tasty late seafood lunch at Dewey Destin's Restaurant. 

Saturday, December 21 - I flew down early today to the Panama City Airport on Southwest from Nashville and Ashlee picked me up.  We had brunch at Big Bad Breakfast in Rosemary Beach on the way back to Destin.

Despite the inclement weather, we toured through the quaint (and fancy) little town of Rosemary Beach.  We would like to come back and stay here sometime and explore a bit more.

We were in the midst of down-south'er nor'easter for a few days and to us it looked more like a Hurricane Light on the radar.  

With the crappy weather raining out the day, we headed over to AMC Destin Commons to took in a showing of the new film, Cats, based on the long-running Broadway Show.  What's with all the negative reviews?  We thought it was pretty good.  It's people dressed as cats...of course it's gonna be weird! 

Sunday, December 22 - We spent a lot of yesterday afternoon and this morning moving from the condo to a much larger house that we had rented before in the very nice Destiny East Subdivision.  This gave everybody much more room to hang out including Paige, Andy and Ella who drove down today from Chattanooga through the icky weather.  

It was an angry Gulf we were watching during an early dinner at The Crab Trap today.

Monday, December 23 - The highlight of this rainy day was going to see the new film, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker which we all enjoyed immensely.  Me for the second time actually.

Tuesday, December 24 - We got to spend of some of Christmas Eve Day finally back at the beach as the storm moved north and blue skies were once again overhead.

We saw this giant jellyfish and scores of sea cucumbers washed up on the beach today from the storm.  Ashlee read that the sea cucumbers are usually found in very deep water, so no telling how far out those poor guys and this giant had been washed in from.

Wednesday, December 25 - Merry Christmas from the beach!  We had great weather for Christmas and took a stroll after a great early afternoon meal at the house.

Thursday, December 26 - Looking like something out of the aforementioned Star Wars film, this other-worldly looking shot at the beach today (no filters, by the way) does show we had a great afternoon of hazy sun and warm temps.  We even got back in the water a little to close out our holiday beach time here in Destin.

We all took in a showing tonight of the new sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level over at the nearby AMC Destin Commons Theaters.  It was a hoot just like the first one and well enjoyed it.

Friday, December 27 - We did get back to the beach briefly this morning to let our oldest cat, Ms. Bea, check out the sand and smell the surf for her very first time.  She's been a trooper on this long trip being as this is her first real time traveling from home.  

We packed up our U-Haul trailer today for our trip home tomorrow and rewarded ourselves after all the hard work with dinner at Camille's at Crystal Beach.  It was fantastic.  My rib-eye steak (photo above) was tremendous.  They have excellent sushi too.

Friday, December 27 - We finished packing up this morning and had a nice, uneventful drive home with all the cats doing fine.  Thanks to the small-town, true-crime podcast, "Small Town Dicks", for keeping us entertained for the entire 7-or-so-hour trip back home.  

It's gonna be a quick weekend at home before we head out on our New Year's adventure to Dallas!