Falling In for Fall

Sunday, September 24 - It was an end of the summer pooch pool party today as our friend and sometimes dog-sitter, Adrianna, brought a couple of her goldens over to hang out with Sunny.  It was also Adrianna's birthday to double the fun! 

Tuesday, September 26 - Jury duty, really?  Mia is not ready to tackle the justice system, just the kitten adoption system, please! 

Wednesday, September 27 - Did we mention we LOVE $5 sushi Wednesdays at our local Publix?  Whoever they have churning out these tasty rolls is excellent! 

Friday, September 29 - We were in Murfreesboro tonight doing some shopping with Sunny in tow, so after the sun went down, and the temps cooled off, we headed over to Mayday Brewing to hang out a little on their awesome large patio deck and enjoy a couple libations.  Sunny was a hit as usual with the patrons and there were even a couple other dogs for her to meet.  Cheers to fall weather! 

Monday, October 9 - We officially closed the pool today for the year.  Sunny has turned her back on us per this decision...

Tuesday, October 24 - Well, we got a new car today, more by force than choice since this happened to me the other night (so glad this wasn't something we experienced together).  I had no injuries, but our beloved Sue-bee which had just been serviced and rolled over 100K miles was totaled when an old guy pulled out onto me on West Main Street here in town during a storm.  I swerved to miss him, but he hit me square enough to turn me over and I had to crawl out of the sunroof in a hailstorm!!  So crazy! 

It's our NEWBIE SUE-BEE!!  This 2024 Outback sure looks a lot like our old one, but with a few more bells and whistles (and a higher price tag), but we got a somewhat reasonable deal at the Subaru dealership in Gallatin despite some comical salesmanship from them early on.  Here's to another 100K, and beyond, hopefully.  

Thursday, November 9 - Well, fishy, looks who's first and second in our fantasy football league past the halfway mark of the season!!  Oh, and we play each other this weekend!  I have no fear because the Stingrays are pretty much paper lions and their W-L record is quite deceiving...but, we shall see! 
(Editor's note:  I won, pretty easily...just sayin'.)

Sunday, November 12 - We went to see one of our favorite Irish music bands, Gaelic Storm, at a SOLD-OUT show at The City Winery tonight with our pals, Curtis and Kate, who are celebrating their first wedding anniversary today (cheers!).  We had dinner here as well as we usually do, and despite not being here in quite a while, the food seemed even better than before.  The show was great as well.  The band had us up on our feet a lot so we could "dance around, dance around!!" 

Afterwards we stopped by the always-interesting dive bar, Santa's Pub, since Curtis and Kate had never been before, and this was another door we haven't darkened in quite a while.  The karaoke going on wasn't very good (except for Kate's rendition of "Knock 3 Times on the Ceiling" of course), but still a fun time late into the night. 

Beforehand, our foursome headed up to Madison to take a behind the scenes tour at Yazoo Brewing to make it a complete Sunday Funday!  Our friend, Emily, joined us for the tour, and we even ran into our pal, Nate, there.  Our tour guide, Ty, was funny and friendly and we had a great time with him during our lookey-loo behind the curtains of what is now Tennessee's biggest craft brewery and one of Nashville's oldest celebrating 20 years in existence this year. 

Tuesday, November 14 - It's Bargain Night at our local Roxy Theaters (recliners!) so we went to see the new superhero flick, The Marvels, with our friends, Toney and Lisa.   Ashlee's not the biggest fan of comic book movies, but this one has two things she loves:  girl power and cats!  The film was really fun and enjoyable! 

Saturday, November 11- A little out of chronological order, but I wanted to make sure and remember  to note that we had our first fire of the season tonight in the Solo Stove out on the patio.  We also got to try out our new faux fur seat covers (background right) that we learned about on our recent Sweden trip from the Vikings.  Skol!!  

Saturday, November 18 - We took our new Sue-bee for its first long drive to Destin, Florida, today with Zippy in tow as well for our annual week at the beach during Thanksgiving.  Zippy's first trip to the beach comes mostly with the fact that he needs insulin shots twice a day now.   He was a real trooper on the drive down with no problems at all. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the "Three Pianos" audiobook on our drive down.  This memoir from one of our favorite musicians, Andrew McMahon, was interesting and beautifully written.  And as the narrator as well, we will feel like we now truly know the man himself.  This might come in handy late next year when we plan to book a cruise with him and entire musical history on one boat! 

Despite the camera's view here, it was pretty dark on the beach when we got to Destin, but the moonlight and stars were immaculate! 

Sunday, November 19 - We were surprised to wake up this morning to an ocean view from our bedroom. Yes, it's a limited view, but it's still a view of ocean water!  You take what you can get! 

We went to see the new film, Priscilla, at the AMC Destin Common Theaters tonight along with Paige and Ella.  The movie was an interesting look at Elvis from a different perspective for sure.  

Well, some cats just get their own hotel room for a week...like easy pimpin' Zippy!  We got found out at our snooty rental house that we had a cat (against the rules) and had to make other accommodations, so $600 later, he has a room at the low-class Village Inn.  Of course, he spends a lot of time at home in a dirty garage, so this is still an upgrade.  

Pretty sunset, prettier girl.  All the credit for this great shot goes to Ashlee as the photographer, and our niece, Ella, as the foreground subject. 

Monday, November 20 - We got some more beach time in today, albeit most of it was cloudy and all of it was windy, but the sun did pop thru for a bit giving the glassy ocean a beautiful sheen. 

We all had dinner at The Back Porch tonight which was great in terms of view and food. 

Santa and his eight tiny...dolphins?  Sure, why not here in Destin!  

Tuesday, November 21 - It was a rainy day on the beach today, so we decided to all go see the new comedy, The Holdovers, at the AMC Destin Commons Theaters.  The film was awesome, and we all loved it.  Ready to see it again right now!

After the movie we revisited Jackacudas for dinner and had some great food.  The spicy tuna roll we split had cucumber instead of rice which was interesting. 

Wednesday, November 22 - Ashlee found us another great house this year in the awesome Destiny by the Sea development.  We spent the day today shopping and such including an excellent lunch at the local P.F. Chang's.  We don't come down here to eat at chain restaurants usually, but we've been craving the Chang's for a while now and it did not disappoint! 

Thursday, November 23 - Happy Thanksgiving! From the beach!  Despite some cool temps and cloudy weather predictions for today, it was nice enough to catch a little time on the beach before our giant meal compliments (mostly) of Cracker Barrel.  Thanks to Paige and Ashlee for the planning and plating.  Delicious!  

Friday, November 24 - Well, after a nice day on the beach with a lots of sun, we decided to give Zippy a little time in the sun on his first visit to the beach at the John Beasley Park in Ft. Walton.  He wasn't too keen on the idea (too many people around), but he was a pretty good sport with it nonetheless.   Thanks, buddy. 

We enjoyed an amazing sunset and a fantastic dinner at Boshamp's Seafood House after dropping Zippy back off at his motel.   This place is easily one of our favorite go-to places here in Destin. 

Saturday, November 25 - We got some more quality beach time in again on our last full day here in Destin along with some quality craft beers (and a good buzz).   The weather and water were absolutely stunning.  We had dinner at Osaka Japanese Steak House which has become kind of a last night in Destin tradition for us.  It was delicious and filling!  We packed up most of our belongings tonight since we want an early start tomorrow for home and there is rain in the forecast (boo!).  

Sunday, November 26 - The drive back from Destin was uneventful and smooth despite rain most of the way.  Zippy was again a real trooper, opting to snooze and hang out in the backseat near us instead of inside his little house that we brought him.   

We also listened to most of the new autobiography audiobook from Henry Winkler called "Being Henry The Fonz...and Beyond."  Ashlee actually met Mr. Winkler recently at a (hardcopy) book signing in Atlanta of this same memoir, but it was great to hear it in his own cool, sweet voice.  We hope to finish listening to it very soon. 

Tuesday, November 28 - Well this was fun!  How have we been so close to Cumberland University Basketball for 20+ years and never attended a game?  We saw The Phoenix men's team take on Oakwood University out of Huntsville, AL, tonight and eke out a 79-76 win with a decent crowd in attendance.  This probably won't be our last game to attend hopefully. 

Stock-HOME For a Week

Saturday, September 2 - We flew to JFK airport in NYC this morning on Delta and then took a separate Delta flight overnight to Stockholm, Sweden.  We flew overnight and landed in the late morning hours of Sunday.  Check another country off the visited list!  Note the cool windmill field in the photo above as we descended into Stockholm. 

Sunday, September 3 - Arrival at the Stockholm Airport and taking the Arlanda Express Train (at sometimes over 100 MPH!) and subway was so efficient and easy, that we got into downtown Stockholm well before our apartment that we rented from AirBnb was ready.  We did pay for early check-in and got in right at noon as promised.  So, we killed some time walking around in our quaint little Sundbyberg neighborhood and stopping at the Princess Konditoriet (Pastry Shop).  They had these excellent, giant cinnamon rolls (photo above), so we enjoyed our first "fika" of the trip here.  A fika is a Swedish activity of enjoying coffee and some sweets with friends, family, co-workers, etc., at least one or two times a day.  With this awesome place being right across the street from us, we knew this would not be our last visit here! 

After a little napping since we did not sleep on the plane much, we headed back downtown for one and only planned activity of the day, an open-air electric boat ride around the harbor.  Walking to our pickup site, we quickly realized that the old and new mix perfectly in Stockholm.  What a beautiful city! 

The open-air electric boat tour was fun and relaxing.  We did a huge circle around this town that is flanked by water at so many locations.  So, a boat ride is an excellent way to take it all in.  This little picturesque military fort called Kastellet is just one of the many quaint and beautiful sites we took in and learned about from our guide.   As long as the flag flies here, Sweden is at peace.  Glad to see it flying there this week while we are here! 

We had a little energy still left after our boat ride, so we ambled over to The Grand Hotel's Cadier Bar for a libation.  We only chose this place because Ashlee has a massage set up here in a couple days, and we wanted to check it out.  What a great find!  The place was packed with folks finishing up late afternoon tea, but we were able to snag a table in the large verandah area after starting at the bar.  But if we had not started at the bar, we would not have seen this amazing cocktail being prepared for someone else.  It's called the "Antimon" and it's booze (gin, champagne and bitters) in a bird-shaped glasss served in a cage...come on, we had to try it!  Turns out, it's tasty too!  And the views across the water to Old Town (Gamla Stan) and The Royal Palace were excellent.  

The food in Stockholm was AMAZING!!  Along with our libations we had dinner in the Cadier Bar as well.  My open-faced shrimp sandwich was incredibly fresh and delicious, and Ashlee's steamed brisket buns had an amazing flavor.  

We headed back to our great little apartment.  Yes, it had no A/C which is common in Europe and yes, it was small and efficient, again, very common in Europe, but it was clean, modern, and had a kitchen, fridge, and even a washer/dryer.  And the price was under $100 a night!!  Thank you ApartDirect via AirBnb!!  Our place was just a few subway stops from downtown and we were amazed at the very deep, clean and art-filled subway stations throughout Stockholm.  We went to a neat local supermarket called Willy's before turning in to grab some essentials for our home for the next week.  

Monday, September 4 - We would end up doing about 10 miles of walking today in and around Old Town Stockholm and it started here at the Ostermalm's Food Hall for our food tour meeting point.  This awesome place has been around since 1888 and is considered the 7th best food hall in the world.   We started with some very nice cheese tasting at Husmans Deli.   Then it was some interesting wild meat tasting at B. Anderssons including reindeer jerky and brown bear sausage!  

Well, of course, we had the meatballs...they're world-famous!  These were served up at our last stop inside Ostermalm's Food Hall at the M. Seger stall.  Our serving included mashed potatoes, dilled cucumbers and lingonberries. 

We had great architecture to gawk at and great weather to view it in throughout our week while in Stockholm.  This tall, thin beauty was on our way to our next food tour stop. 

Our next food/market hall was called Hotorghallen and has basically moved underground from where it first stood back in the 1880's.  Our favorite stop of the tour was here at Kajsas Fisk (Fish) which is world famous for its delicious and unique tomato-based fish soup.   Along with the awesome soup, we got some other fish-based treats like smoked salmon, more great shrimp, and another lightly breaded hunk of aquatic yum! 
Dessert (if you want to call it that) was here in Hotorghallen also with a final stop at P and B Delikatesser where we had some foul dark licorice that the Swedes seem to be very proud of.  Never again!  Yuck!  "Fisherman's Friend" is no friend of ours!! 

After the great food tour, we had some time to kill before our next scheduled ghost tour, so we jumped on the subway and took it a few stops south of Old Town to the sporting arena area where we were scheduled to ride one of the amazing Skyview gondolas up the side and then atop the giant Aviccii Arena which was the largest spherical structure on Earth until the recent completion of The Sphere in Las Vegas.

It was an amazing 360-degree view as we approached the top of the arena, and the weather was perfect.  What a hoot this was! 

We headed back into Old Town after our ride to the literal top of Stockholm and wandered around doing some shopping and more sightseeing.   We enjoyed a few libations at a nice Americanized beer bar called Barrels, Burgers and Beer as well.  
As sunset approached, we made our way to one of the many beautiful squares in Old Town to meet our tour guide for a popular ghost tour.  

Our ghost tour began on the narrowest street in Stockholm, Marten Trotzigs Grand. 

Old Town at dusk takes on a beautiful sheen. And then gets eerie quick as night falls and you hear about the history of famous Stortorget Square where the term "bloodbath" originated.  Yikes! 

Our awesome ghost tour guide, Callum, giving off quite The Exorcist vibe in the "Bone Room" where our tour concluded.  Callum was an outstanding tour guide, funny and dramatic at the same time.  Thank goodness this Scotsman married a Swede and ended up here to give this great tour! 
What a long, but great, day in Stockholm! 

Tuesday, September 5 - We were up early again today to catch the subway to meet our guide for what was said to be just a nature walk in an outdoor recreation area south of Stockholm.  It was kind of cool that you could ride a city bus out into "nature" basically.    The "walk" turned into about a 5-mile hike and bushwhack that we were not really prepared for.  The area was nice, but generally all the same topography and thus not very interesting to be honest either.  We stopped at the lake pictured above called Sandasjon.  Overall, kind of a bust. 
We took some time for ourselves afterwards with Ashlee heading to the spa The Grand Hotel while I played some poker at the Cosmopol Casino downtown.  

Wednesday, September 6 - We were picked up at our apartment for today's private tour that was a drive about an hour and half south to catch the ferry at the tip of the Stockholm archipelago at Ankarudden to the pretty little village of Landsort on the island of Oja. 

Our main objective today was to visit the Landsort Lighthouse (circa 1680) which the oldest Swedish-built lighthouse and still operational.  This was our first encounter with a fortified lighthouse as well as large artillery guns are still in place here and around the entire island from the end of WWII and the Cold War.  We continued hiking the entire length of the little island and back before the next ferry (only two a day) left back for the mainland.  Similar to yesterday's "walk in the woods" this one was a little longer than we anticipated and not very scenic since the rocky outcrop's topography did not change much, but still an interesting day in Sweden's outdoors.   Surprisingly, we did see two different kinds of snakes on our walk including a young (and venomous) viper (aka adder) that thankfully wanted nothing to do with us. 

Our guide did give us a good tip for dinner back in our neighborhood atop a pretty steep hill near our apartment and set up in a pretty and historic water tower is Delibruket Flatbread.  The place was packed, so we got a half pepperoni/half prosciutto pizza to go which we enjoyed back at our apartment.  

Thursday, September 7 - Our tour today was by ferry out of Stockholm a couple hours to the island of Birka, also known as Viking Island.  It was another beautiful day weather-wise, and we headed out under the watchful eye of Stockholm's amazing town hall structure.

The lake views on the ferry ride coming and going were pretty and serene.  As noticed before in our hikes, the landscape just doesn't change much in Sweden, so while lovely, it can get a little monotonous. 

It is estimated that over 5,000 Viking graves were once on the island of Birka.  These mounds represent burials of wealthy high-ranking individuals from all over the region.  The entire island is a World Heritage Site now and protected by the Swedish government.  It was a privilege to get to visit these hallowed grounds today. 

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Unfortunately, the mosquitos were bad on Viking Island and drove us into the little Sarimner Restaurant there which was a nice surprise since the food was fantastic!  The photo above is my braised codfish special.  

Cruising back into Stockholm was a pretty site. 

Stockholm - a city of spires.  We've never seen so many buildings in one place with spires atop them.  Very striking and unique. 

Looking back through my Birka pics, I forgot how cool these remnants of Viking combs that have been unearthed there by archeologists and now displayed in the museum.  #alwaysbegrooming  

IKEA City - you know we had to at least check it out here in Stockholm.  There were no Viking combs, we looked.  We actually didn't buy anything because the check-out lines were so long with what looked to be locals.  Come on, you Swedes, you get to come here every day!  Give us tourists a chance to browse and buy something!  
We headed back to our apartment after a long day and enjoyed some excellent sushi from Sushi King near our apartment.  My theory that sushi would be great in this fish-heavy port city was spot-on.  Our rolls were fantastic! 

Friday, September 8 - It's Museum Day!  And there are lots of them in Stockholm.  We once again jumped on the subway in the artistic, bright, safe and clean Sundbyberg Station and headed downtown.  Our week-long pass cards for the subway were a great investment.   No tours today.  We were on our own to wander Stockholm in our last full day in the city.  

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How could we not come back to The Grand Hotel Cadier Bar for lunch one last time?   We got different food this time which was again fantastic.  We've heard this place has a Michelin Star and definitely deserves it! 

One of the world's oldest public urinals at 130 years old...and it smelled like it!  Welcome back to Old Town! 

No pictures in the Wood Horse Museum!!   Oops!  This tiny shop (and tinier "museum") was chock full of beautiful wooden horses of all shapes, colors and sizes.  Dala wooden horses have been a symbol of Swedish life since the mid-1600's.   

The Nobel Prize for Dessert goes to...well, The Noble Prize Museum!   We enjoyed the small, but interesting museum dedicated to winners of the past.  And it was even half-price entry day!  This same dessert was given to the winners at their ceremony dinners since it began.  Winners' names are also scrawled under many of the chairs in this museum cafe as well.   Yes, the desserts were excellent!  Our "medals" were chocolate and delicious. 

We walked by what is known as "Stockholm's Eiffel Tower" - the amazing structure that houses the Nordic Museum in Stockholm.  Since we got plenty of Viking/Nordic info yesterday, we skipped going inside for time's sake.   Maybe next visit? 

The hands-down winner of the day was The Vasa Museum for sure.   This amazing and unique museum houses the gigantic Vasa royal navy ship almost 98% restored and raised from the Stockholm harbor after 333 years.  It's masts even go through the museum roof.  Leave it to the Swedes to celebrate one of their biggest screw-ups in history.  It was also the polluted water the ship sank in that basically preserved it decay from wood-eating microorganisms.

From seven stories up, this is the full view of the entire Vasa ship.  Note the people on the first floor for scale.  Simply incredible. There are even skeletons on exhibit of some of those on board who did not make it off the doomed ship's maiden voyage. 

We were going to skip our reservation made at Lucy's Flower Shop, one of the Top 50 Bars in the World according to Conde Nast Traveler Magazine but went anyway and dropped in and enjoyed our cocktails in this speakeasy style establishment.  But it also made us appreciate what we have in Nashville which in our opinion are some bars that are equal or even cooler than this famed one. 

We saved the strangest museum of the day for last.  Fotografiska Museum houses Avante Garde photography exhibits some of which were just not our thing, but the exhibit by the late Peter Lindbergh was pretty interesting.  His striking black and white images of fashion, style and famous faces were worth the price of admission. 

We got back to the apartment and said goodbye to our great little Sundbysberg neighborhood where we found such fun things as this pretty mural, Orange Fanta flavored Mentos, chai lattes in paper cans, a pet store to get some "Dreamies" treats for our cats, some great craft beer for me in a brewery housed inside a former church and all the other aforementioned food, groceries and an overall sense of "yeah, I could live here."  

Saturday, September 9 - We had an early flight back to NYC this morning and had an easy commute to the airport thanks to the subway and the Arlanda Express.  This was the longest time we've stayed in one European city, and we really enjoyed it as we got a sense of actually living there instead of just being tourists.  We would definitely come back if circumstances make it so.  The food, the people and the city of Stockholm itself was fantastic.  

We made up time flying back and arrived at JFK in the early afternoon.  Customs was a breeze with our Global Entry passes.  We were a little too early to start our one-night stay at the historic and ultra-cool TWA Hotel at JFK Airport tonight.  So, we got a couple drinks at the lobby bar and then wandered around the well-done and meticulously-detailed hotel created from the old TWA terminal here at JFK.  The long "tube" hallways from the lobby to the rooms (photo above) were both futuristic and retro at the same time. 

Our room was very cool with a view of the runways through giant sound-proof glass windows.  The little thoughtful touches (like a rotary phone in the room) were so neat and fun.  

The rooftop heated pool was kind of amazing with its overlook of the runways with jets coming in and taking off.   We got a drink at the bar and waded into the infinity pool despite and enjoyed our time here some cloudy weather.  

Sunday, September 10 - Well, what started out with a beautiful sunrise over the TWA Hotel at JFK  Airport turned pretty sour quickly for us when our direct flight home this morning got cancelled and we were forced to stay another night here (on our dime) to catch a flight tomorrow to Atlanta and then Nashville.  We never got a clear answer as to what the problem was, but it was supposedly weather-related, but we have our doubts. 

Well, we aren't in Stockholm anymore.  The few times we took Uber in Stockholm it was in a Mercedes Benz and a Lexus.  Welcome to Queens and the land of beat-up Toyota Camrys.   Ashlee got us a room at the airport Hilton since the TWA Hotel suddenly were charging double what we paid for our room last night (a Saturday night) vs. a Sunday night.  Conspiracy theory much?  The weather was shitty, so we just stayed in the room and hung out in our double beds for most of the day.  Boring, but what ya gonna do?  

Monday, September 11 - What was supposed to be a nice day off from work for both of us back home today, turned into more expense and travel for us just to try and get home.  It was weird enough having to travel on 9/11 which we tried to avoid from the start, but now Delta moved the flight to Atlanta to late afternoon and gave us no connector to Nashville.  Then when they did it was going to be tomorrow.  Screw that!  Ashlee found us two seats on a direct flight to Nashville out of Philadelphia on American, so we rented a one-way car and drove the two hours there.  Up yours, Delta, and JFK Airport!  What a nightmare!  The weather continued to be shitty, but Ashlee did great driving us in already heavy Monday morning traffic before rush-hour and got us to Philly safe and sound.  This shot out the windshield on the massive Verraazzon-Narrows Bridge connecting Queens to Staten Island gives you an idea of the mess we have to drive through just to try and get home today.   

Welcome to Philly!!  It would be easy to use the abandoned Holmesburg Prison to make wise-ass cracks about Philly, but we actually found it quite fascinating.  And PHA and American Airlines did get us home on time and with no stupid stops in between (you suck, Delta). We are sending our receipts to Delta for all the expense, stress and delays they caused us, and we are trying our best not to let this mess at the end of the trip taint what was up until then a great experience.  

Tuesday, September 12 - Happy Birthday, Ashlee!!  We both had the day off from work for Ashlee's birthday today but were too tired and stressed from our efforts to just get home from NYC the last two days to do anything much.  We did go see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 at our local Roxy Theaters (recliners!) but, God, it was just awful.   So, for the most part we just thought back on all the fun we had over the last week in Stockholm including finding this happy hot dog while walking between museums.... culture at its finest!!