SPRING-boarding into warmer weather!

Congrats, Dudley!! 

Saturday, March 3 - We did some shopping and hanging out in South Nashville today at the swanky new Tanger Outlets down in Antioch.  It was a great day to kick back on the patio with Sunny of Tailgate Brewing South.  We had some excellent pizza as well there.  Sunny was a hit with the adults and kids that were there.  We concluded with a four-pack of decadent cookies from the Crumbl store next door that we brought home to happily consume.

Friday, March 8 - We took Sunny with us over to the Cool Springs/Brentwood area this afternoon to do a little shopping, and then we had dinner at the Tupelo Honey Restaurant there which has its own Dog Menu!  We met up with our friends, Danny and Brenda, and their dog, Coco, who also dined with us.  Both ladies had the "pawfect snack" of bacon with a generous "smear" of peanut butter.  And they loved it.  Our meals were tasty too.  The weather was a bit iffy, and the staff even let us bring the dogs inside to dine (not sure that's legal in Tennessee, but what the hey)! 

Saturday, March 9 - We attended the SOLD OUT Lucero show at The Basement East tonight and stayed overnight close by at the very cool Waymore's Guest House Hotel.  The show was great, and we were not crowded at our left-side stage location.  It was certainly nice not to have to drive home after the show ended after 11 PM.  

Before the show, we had some tasty chips and salsa, guac and queso and drinks at Rose Pepper Cantina in East Nashville.  We then met up with our friend (and sometimes dog-sitter), Adriana, and her boyfriend at Pins Mechanical downtown.  What a fun place!  This was our first time here, but I bet we come back!  We then Ubered back over to East Nashville to Smith and Lentz Brewing for some final pre-show libations. 
After the show, we dropped in to the little dive bar called Hubba Hubba Tiki Tonk for a late-night libation.  Fun, little place that we had no idea was there before tonight! 

Sunday, March 10 - We slept in and enjoyed our comfy room at Waymore's this morning before walking up to brunch at Snooze.  It was quite the shared feast with two kinds of bacon, delectable fried rice and a pancake flight. Can't wait to come back here again!! 

Sunday, March 17 - We celebrated St. Patty's Day today over at the M.L. Rose location in Providence in Mt. Juliet.  Their patio was open, so we could bring Sunny along too. We both had their signature Owl Lager dyed green for the day, and Ashlee added a green Jello shot for her two-fisting!  Our food was good including a decadent key lime cheesecake for dessert! 

Sunday, March 24 - It was a beautiful day to take a drive over to the Tulip Festival at Lucky Ladd Farm in Eagleville with Sunny today.  They have planted 700,000 tulips at the farm, and this was a good weekend to check them out in terms of blooming.  Ashlee got to pick eight for us including the bulbs which we have now planted in our landscaping at home for future blooming hopefully.  It also happened to be a designated monthly "dog day" on the farm so Sunny could tag along.  She even had her own ticket for entry. 

Big thanks to the anonymous young lady who snapped this great, but impromptu Easter picture for us over near where the farm animals were.  We learned a little later that Sunny was not actually supposed to be in this area, but nonetheless she was well-behaved around the myriad of animals present and close by (the baby goats were adorable).  She seemed a little of scared of some of them even, but her composure overall was very good.  We also had an excellent lunch while on the farm from the Smokey Dawggs Gourmet Hot Dog Food Truck.  A fun day on the farm! 

(Editor's note:  It was sad to find out the Lucky Ladd Farm got hit pretty hard by a tornado a month or so later.  It was bad enough they had to shut down business to rebuild.  We wish them all the best.)

Sunday, March 31 - Speaking of Easter...Happy Easter from Fall Creek Falls State Park! We joined Ashlee's sister, Paige, and her family for a nice picnic lunch here today.  

On our way out of the park, we stopped by the Piney Falls Overlook which is my favorite waterfall of the several here.  

Friday, April 5 - We're baaack!   The pool was opened today for the 2024 season despite the cool temps.  Can't wait to get our first float in ASAP!! 

Saturday, April 6 - "Tremble, little lion man, you'll never settle any of your scores..." - Mumford and Sons

We took old-man Zippy in for a grooming appointment today and they suggested a "lion cut" for him so as to completely remove the old, matted hair down deep and let him start back fresh.  It was a little daunting of a site at first for us and he must have been thinking "WTF?", but we've all gotten used to it now, and it should be for his overall betterment from here on. 

Sunday, April 14 - We held Letty's First Birthday Party today to celebrate our sweet torty being with us a whole year now.  Sunny "hosted" the party since Letty is technically her cat and her buddy.  Ashlee gets credit for this great picture of our little girl who doesn't always photograph well because of her markings. 

It was a beautiful day for a backyard hibachi!!  How do you get people to come to a cat's birthday party?  Grill meat on the patio for them!  We had 15 people, five dogs and a couple of brief appearances by Letty and Zippy.  The food was tremendous, and a large time was had by all. 

The birthday girl wasn't too keen on all the dogs (and people) being invited to "her party" so her appearance at the soiree was rather brief.  

Friday, April 26 - Well, our little girl made it to her first prom tonight.  Her date, Wrigley, is "just a friend" or so we are told.  What a handsome couple! 

Saturday, April 27 - Speaking of proms, Ella had her senior one tonight and we drove down to Chattanooga to check out her dress and wish her well.  We met up with some friends and family afterwards and had a great dinner at Tupelo Honey downtown.  

We decided to stay in town for the night and our Hilton Garden Inn hotel was right next to the Lookouts Baseball Stadium, so we decided to catch the last few innings vs. the Birmingham Barons.  It was a beautiful night for a game and the Lookouts/Wreckers won 4-1!

Sunday, April 28 - Tonight, we attended the SOLD-OUT show of JOHNNYSWIM at 3rd and Lindsley in downtown Nashville.  The show was fantastic!  "Hamilton"/movie-star, Anthony Ramos, joined the duo on stage in a surprise number of a song they just recently wrote together.   Their opener was Will Solomon who was pretty good as well. 

Beforehand, we stopped by Paige and Andy's new home purchase up on Mowbray Mountain in Soddy Daisy on our way back to Nashville.  Congrats to them on finding a pretty spectacular place!  

Wednesday, May 1 - Hooray! Hooray!  The first of May!  Pool floating started today!!  We braved the still-cold waters of our pool today and got an afternoon float in while the sun was still with us.  The new $20 floats I got from Amazon were very comfy! 

Saturday, May 11 - We finally got around to attending the famous, historic (83 years old this year) and hoity-toity Iroquois Steeplechase here in Nashville today thanks to an invitation from our friends, Danny and Kim, who've attended before and knew the ropes of attendance to this swanky affair. 

There were 7 races throughout the day and Danny and Kim's group had a pretty sweet tailgating spot beside the course for all races.  We had plenty of food and libations throughout the day.   It's a very well-organized event I have to say (they broke attendance records this year with over 30,000 people in attendance), and we wound up having a lot of fun and it wasn't near as snooty as we thought it might be.   We would definitely go again.  

We even won the $5 per horse pool in Race #6!  Cha-ching!  Nothing sweeter than winning Williamson County money!!  Way to go, Right Tempo!  

Our tailgating location also gave us a great view of the horses after each race.  These animals are exquisite.  Note the interesting "ice pack" around its neck.  

What a fun day!  We stopped on our way home and also had a great dinner at The Green Hills Grille.