OMG! We love the OBX!

We briefly visited a small portion of the Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina several years ago when our friends, Craig and Alison, lived nearby.  Ever since then, we have wanted to come back and explore more of this beautiful area and thanks to a dirt-cheap flight sale to Norfolk, VA, on Southwest Airlines recently, we were able to do just that for a long weekend.  We rented a car and made the easy hour and a half trek south.


We stayed two nights in the lovely and quiet little town of Manteo on the sound-side
of the Outer Banks at The Outdoors Inn B&B.

Located in Nags Head and voted "the best seafood dive in North Carolina" by Coastal Living Magazine, we had a wonderful dinner here on Friday night, June 24,  at Tortugas' Lie.  Ashlee had a huge spicy shrimp skewer while I had the nightly special of peppered mahi.



Saturday, June 25, 2011.  Looking east from atop Cape Hatteras Lighthouse at the 6/10 of a mile path that the lighthouse travelled a few years back to save it from possible collapse due to beach erosion.  The 12-story, 268-step stair-climb to the top of this American classic was well worth the effort.



A view of our rental car as it takes a ride with us on the Ocracoke Island Ferry.  The free 45-minute boat ride from Hatteras was a lot of fun and afforded great views of the Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean beyond it.



The lovely Ashlee at the lovely Ocracoke Lighthouse.



A little muskrat love on Ocracoke Island.



The visitors center perched over the bright green, swampy water of
the Nature Conservancy's Nags Head Preserve.



A sound-side view from atop the Currituck Beach Light in Corolla.
 Only 214 steps needed to get to the top of the red-brick beauty.



Tooling down NC Hwy. 12.  Yep, the beach north of the town of Corolla is still considered part of the highway and it's the only way to reach a large number of rental and private beach houses located in this area.



A grazing "Banker Pony."  One of just over 100 pure-bred Spanish mustangs that roam wild and free on the dunes and beaches north of Corolla.  We were able to see several of these beauties thanks to a very cool two-hour, open-top Jeep tour that we had booked.

How much fun did we have in the Outer Banks?  Well, enough, to say "Heck, yeah!" to another trip out here in mid-August.  We got the same great flight deal into Norfolk and this time we are going to stay right on the beach.  We might even try our hand at some kite-boarding??

The Beach Boys? Really? Yep, really.




John Stamos (front left) with Mike Love (right) of The Beach Boys
Thanks to Debbie Butcher England for the great pic.

  Just a quick spur-of-the-moment addition to the blog here.  We were visiting our families in this weekend in Chattanooga, and Ashlee's family let us borrow two entry pins for the annual Riverbend Festival in downtown Chattanooga.  We weren't real enthused about the prospect of it and just figured it would be something to do to pass the time.  It was also a chance for some good exercise as we walked from Ashlee's mom's house way up on a hill in North Chattanooga to downtown and back.  We scheduled to meet up with our friends, Patrick and Michelle, at the festival.  They had commandeered some blanket space on a hill to the left side of the main stage which sits on a barge out on the Tennessee River.  We were actually blocked from a direct stage view and would have to view the performance via a big screen projection nearby.  We didn't really care and weren't planning on staying long anyway since it was The Beach Boys who would be performing and we figured it would be kind of a snooze.

Well, that changed pretty quickly for a couple of reasons.. First, along with some of the original band who are definitely showing their age, they have sprinkled in some really good younger musicians in the band on lead guitar and drums/vocals.  The original guys still have their signature melody in terms of vocals and sounded pretty darn good for their age (the band's been around an incredible 50 years).  Secondly, the band added some star power with John Stamos (of Full House and Glee fame) playing rhythm guitar on several songs, drums on several others songs and even sang one.  He's been playing with them off and on since the mid-80's and is quite a talented musician (and a real dream to look at sweating on the stage according to Ashlee, Michelle and every other woman in attendance).  They played pretty much non-stop for over 2 hours and besides their string of well-known hits, they  also included some other great songs of their era including the Beatles' "Back in the USSR" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones.  It also helped that it was a nice, cool evening on the river with reasonable humidity.   Thanks to Ashlee's family for the entry pins, to Patrick and Michelle for the company and to Debbie Butcher England for the picture steal.

Despite all our planning and scheduled activities, it's the unexpected surprises that make some of the best memories and best times.

Followin' the Band

June 2, 2011 - WROK(ing) in Cincinnati  

 

Windmill field in northern Indiana

We were on the road yet again this long weekend heading north to catch a few shows of one of our favorite bands, Augustana.  We rented a sweet, new Chevy Malibu with sunroof, leather seats and XM Radio from Hertz for a great low price. We got up early and headed up through Louisville and on into Cincinnati so that we could make a 1 PM (EST) food tour we had scheduled.  We stayed downtown just a couple blocks from the food tour meet-up spot at the Hyatt Regency.  We got a great last-minute rate (thanks Hotwire.com) at this very nice hotel.





A Chicago "must-taste"

 Our walking food tour was great and  turned out to be private since we were the only two on the Thursday schedule.  Our guide was Mike, a native of the area and a real ambassador for this surprisingly unique city.  We had been to Cincy before to see a Titans game several pre-blog years ago and also checked out the zoo while we were here, but we had no real idea about the city itself.   Mike's tour took us to seven different places around downtown.  Our first stop was next door to our hotel at Hathaway's Diner, a 50's-style dinner that's been in the bottom floor of the famous and lovely Carew Building (Cincinnati's tallest until just a few years ago) for over a half century.  We were given a generous sample of one of their famous milk shakes which was delicious.  We moved on to Via Vite Italian Ristorante next to busy Fountain Square where we were given some delicious bruschetta.  Next came the well-known, Skyline Chili, a Cincinnati original and mainstay since 1949.  We were given a coney-style hot dog adorned with the thin, sweet-tasting chili. Granted, it's not for everyone, according to Mike, but it sure was for us.  We loved it! 



AUGUSTANA in action



We moved on to Nicholson's Scottish Pub where we were given two samples of their more than 150 type of scotch they have available.  Whooo!  That's powerful stuff!  We also got a sample of cask-conditioned Alba Scots Ale, and a small plate of  mac-n-lobster-n-cheese which was great.  It was on to Roxy's next.  A burger cafe by day and a rocking discotheque by night.  We had their very original kibee burger in which the patty is made of a combination of  lamb and beef.  This was our favorite thing so far.   City Cellars was next on the agenda which is a wine store/ pizza bar and we had great samples of both.  The finale was a small cup of Graeter's Ice Cream.  Graeter's is a Cincinnati staple as much as Skyline Chili is, and we can see why.  This is some of the best ice cream we have ever had.  Man, what a great tour!  We were very stuffed and very happy.

We rested up a bit (and digested a lot) before grabbing a cab for a quick ride up near the University of Cincinnati to a place called Bogart's to see Augustana in concert.   The place is in a relatively bad part of town, but the venue itself was fine.  It's an old converted movie theatre with pretty good acoustics and a great elevated stage.  Opening the show was Austin Gibbs and his band who were pretty good.  Next up was The Maine who is was co-headlining, but who we thought absolutely sucked.  However, the throng of teenage girls in the audience seemed to love this lame band and and as  soon as they finished, the kiddies were gone and we were able to move up closer to the stage to catch Augustana.   Lead singer, Dan Layus, was in good form and their show was great with lots of "old" songs from their previous two albums and plenty of new ones from their new self-titled album. 

June 3, 2011 - Westward to the Windy City

The Kibee Burger

We slept in a bit this morning, had a quick breakfast back over at Hathaway's Diner (from the tour yesterday), and then headed northwest toward Chicago. After passing back through Indianapolis and fondly remembering our weekend spent there last week at the Indy 500 (see previous blog), we stopped at Lafayette Brewing for lunch. It was good beer and great food. The students at nearby Purdue University sure have got a great place to get some good suds and some great grub. The drive into Illinois was easy, but fairly uninspiring in terms of scenery expect for a cool, large field of huge windmills south of the state line. We were making great time except for the last hour when we got caught in some early Chicago rush hour traffic north of the city. Our hotel was a Holiday Inn Express and was good and cheap over by the O'Hare Airport. Everything downtown was sold out for the weekend for some reason. After checking in and unpacking for our couple of days stay, we rode the EL into downtown from the airport.

About 40 minutes later we were downtown and grabbed a good slice of pizza on State Street for dinner before going over to the House of Blues for the sold out Grace Potter & the Nocturnals show. This venue is a bit infamous to us as it was the site (pre-blog) of one of our worst concert experiences ever involving overpriced New Year's Eve tickets, overpriced drinks, a lame crowd, etc. But, hey, that was then and this is now with the lovely Ms. Potter.  No way there was going to be a repeat of that disaster.   Another band from Vermont called Chamberlin opened. They were OK, but a little to spacey for our taste. GP&N were on fire as usual including a very cool insertion of some "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones into one of their songs. The acoustics and sight lines in the House of Blues are top-notch. It was a pleasant evening in downtown Chicago after the show was over and we enjoyed our walk back to the EL. While we have been to Chicago several times, this is by far the warmest time of the year that we've been here and we loved it.  We got back late to our room and crashed after a great, long day.



Sunset on the Chicago River



June 4, 2011 - Another day in Chi-town:

We slept in a while this morning and made it back downtown just in time for our 11 A.M. Near North Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour. This was our second go-around with this touring outfit called Chicago Food Planet. We really enjoyed their Wicker Park/Bucktown Tour a couple of years ago (see previous blog). This tour covered the neighborhoods of Gold Coast, Old Town and Lincoln Park north of the downtown loop near Lake Michigan. We had seven stops that included the following:

1.Ashkenz Deli - a Jewish deli where we had a wonderful reuben sandwich made with pastrami.

2. Tea Gschwender - a German tea store where we had some thirst-quenching natural, loose-leaf  iced green tea.

3. The Spice House - a store full of fresh spices of which we were able to sample many including some amazing cinnamon flavors.

4. Old Town Oil - a unique oil and vinegar store that was the real surprise of the tour in terms of amazing and unique flavors.

5. The Fudge Pot - a chocolate confections bakery that's been around since the early 60's.  Their homemade toffee bars were amazing.

6.  Delightful Pastries - this Polish-heritage bakery gave us a somewhat sweet kolache pastry and a savory pirogi  (dumpling).  Yum and yum!

7.  Bacino's Pizza - best deep-dish pizza we've ever had.  Hands down.  And did we mention it only had spinach as the topping?

Overall, a wonderful tour that we highly recommend if you are in the area.  We hope to someday take their elusive Chinatown tour and complete our Windy City trifecta.

After the tour concluded, we started to amble back south back toward the House of Blues for our second consecutive night to see a show there which was our second time seeing Augustana on this trip.  We had a few hours to kill and a few a miles to get there, so we decided to do a little bar crawling on our way.  Plus, it was hot and a cold beverage sounded about right every ten blocks or so.  Our first stop was Stanley's Kitchen & Tap.  We were only interested in the tap part of Stanley's establishment since we were still stuffed from our food tour.   We found it quite amusing that we stumbled into one of the few bars in this huge city that was actually themed-around and  playing country music like we were back in Nashville.  Otherwise, the ambiance was cool and we relaxed with a couple of rounds and were ready to move on when we noticed it was pouring rain outside and a nasty little thunderstorm had rolled up out of nowhere (no forecast of it that we had seen that day?).  Oh well, we ambled back to the bar and had another round to wait it out.  We decided since our time was waning and the skies were still threatening, we would just hail a cab and book it on down to the House of Blues area.  When we arrived back downtown, we still had a little time before the show and made our way to the bar of  The Public House nearby to continue our crawl.  We also got an appetizer of delicious cheese at Bin 36 to see us through the night.




Serving it up at Bacino's



We were happy that the Augustana show had sold out at the House of Blues but were bemoaning the fact that we would have to sit through another atrocious set by The Maine first, but then A CHICAGO MIRACLE HAPPENED!!!....AUGUSTANA CAME ON FIRST!!!  Praise be!!  Since the two bands were co-head-lining, it must have been Augustana's turn to go first which was fine by us.  But it was strange that the opening band in Cincinnati, Austin Gibbs, didn't open the show even though they were there and came out on stage with The Maine as well to do a cover of Tom Petty's "Walls" along with Augustana toward the end of their set.  Strange.  Oh well, as long we got to see Augustana and enjoyed the wonderful sight lines and acoustics of The House of Blues, it was fine by us.  The show started early in terms of concerts ( 6 PM CST) and we were out of there before it was even dark which again worked out great as we got to enjoy a nice sunset walk along the Chicago River with views of Navy Pier jutting out into Lake Michigan.  What a beautiful city!

June 5, 2011 - "I'm goin'  back down South now..."  -Kings of Leon

We slept in a bit and packed up for our long road trip back home this morning.  About an hour outside of downtown Chicago, just past the Indiana state line, we stopped at 3 Floyds Brewing Company.  These guys are veterans in the craft beer industry and their products are some of the best we've had.  The brewpub is located in a  industrial park in the city of Munster, Indiana, and there was already a handful of people waiting for the place to open at noon when we pulled in at about 10 'til.   By the time we left and hour or so later after some great beer and a tasty meat-n-cheese appetizer tray, the place was almost full.  Keep up the good work, fellas!

The rest of the trip home was uneventful and we made good time with no delays of any sort.  We pulled in the driveway just after dark.  What a great trip and itinerary!

Note: Below are couple of quick videos from the Augustana show in Cincy and GP&N in Chicago:





The Indy 500

Saturday, May 28, 2011:  

We took a road trip this weekend up to Indianapolis to check out the world-famous Indy 500 Car Race.  This is the 100-year anniversary of the race and we figured what better time to check it out in person.  Now, neither of us are particularly big race fans, but we do like large events and 300,000+ in attendance on average is a pretty darn big event.  The price was right (tickets were very reasonable).  The timing was right (it always falls on Memorial Day Weekend).  And, the distance was right (the easy 5 hour drive makes it very doable in a three-day weekend).

Our long-time friend, Wayne, joined us for the weekend as well.   Just like us, he's not a huge race fan, but loves being a part of big events and was curious about it like we were.  He met us at our house around 10 AM and we loaded up the rental car we picked up the night before at the airport for a cheap rate and headed north toward Kentucky.  We were in Louisville inside 3 hours and stopped for lunch just across the Ohio River at one of my favorite places, The New Albanian Brewing Company.  I have been here several times because of their great beer and close proximity to a casino that I frequent for poker tournaments.  Their food is also superb and we had a huge lunch of French fries with a variety of dipping sauces, pork tacos and burgers made with meat from local farms.

We made a couple of other stops at brewpubs (per my influence)  along the way to Indianapolis including Power House Brewing in Columbus, Indiana, which we have to admit wasn't too great, and then Oaken Barrel Brewing in Greenwood just south of Indianapolis.  The OB beer was much, much better.

Optical illusion?

We arrived at our Hilton hotel on the north side of Indy in time to unpack and rest a bit before dinner.  We went to dinner nearby at Zest! Exciting Food Creations Restaurant.  This unique little place has made it on Guy Fieri's show, "Drive-ins, Diner and Dives"  The food was very good.  We started with some baby tomato bon bons and then split the 5-hour braised short ribs entree.  Wayne was nice enough to share some of his huge carrot cake that he ordered for dessert.  After dinner we turned in rather early to rest up for tomorrow's big day at the racetrack.

Sunday, May 29, 2011:

So this is what 300,00+ people look like...we headed out to the track before 9 AM in hopes of getting plenty of time to mill around the track before the noon start.  So much for that.  Traffic was nuts and not as smooth as we thought it would be for an event that's been going on for 100 years.  Perhaps it was our fault for pre-buying a parking pass for a lot that was albeit close to the track itself, but excruciatingly slow to get to due to traffic.  We did enjoy ourselves along the way by people-watching.  There were some real characters including the gent above having his breakfst in the world's biggest outdoor chair.  Note the regular sized chair to the right for reference.

The view from our seats looking north toward the start finish line.

As the noon hour creeped closer and we were still not parked, Ashlee was gracious enough to allow Wayne and I to go in and find our seats to see the start of the race.  Ashlee got parked pretty quick and was able to hear and see the start of the race from the infield as well.  She found us at our seats about 12 laps in.  Our seats were very close to the track between the starting line and Turn 1.  However, they were a bit low and there were some obstructed views at times.  But we did have a good view of some of the pit areas, the race tower and all of Turn 1.  We stayed here for the first 60 laps or so which included the first crash of the race which we saw happen to our right in Turn 1. The speed and sound of these tiny cars busting 200 miles per hour on average are hard to describe in words and TV doesn't do it justice.  It's exhilarating and amazing to witness first-person. 

No Danica, but that's her ride.

We decided to check out the infield next for some of the race and made our way along right beside the track with bits of rubber hitting us as  the cars roared by only an arm's length away.  We walked through a tunnel going right under the speedway and cars racing above us, and emerged into the beautiful infield.  And when we saw beautiful, we mean it.  It's like a park inside the racing oval.  There are tall trees and tons of grassy areas including part of a manicured golf course.  Surprisingly to us, there were also great views of the racing action from the infield and we decided to spend the rest of the race slowing walking around the 2.5 mile oval checking out the spectacle both on and off the racetrack.  The 200- lap race seemed to pass very fast and before we knew it was over with a stunning ending as rookie, JR Hildebrand, had an easy lead to the checked flag when he smacked the wall in Turn 4 and allowed Dan Wheldon to slip by him and capture his second Indy title.
[Epilogue:  October 16, 2011.  In a shocking and very sad twist of fate, Dan Wheldon died in a fiery race crash in Las Vegas less than 5 months after winning the Indy 500.  RIP, good sir.]



Ashlee and Helio...Go # 3!



After the race we headed over toward Gasoline Alley where the cars travel from the garages to the pit area and vice versa after the race, and got in line to tour the garages thanks to some passes we were able to buy.  We had to wait a while as all the teams and cars made their way back to the garages before we were allowed in to have a look.  We were able to get a glimpse of last year's winner, Dario Franchitti, and his famous wife, Ashley Judd, as they came by to cheers from the crowd.  By the time we did get access to the garages, most of the drivers were gone, but 3-time Indy winner and "Dancing With the Stars" champ, Helio Castroneves, was still there signing autographs and shaking hands.  Ashlee was fortunate enough to get one of her patented self-portraits with him as well.

A great time was had by all.

We never saw the most famous (or infamous) driver on the track, the popular and beautiful, Danica Patrick, but her Go Daddy team was hard at work on her car as we came by for a look.  We hung out in the garage area for quite a while and observed the goings-on as we waited for the traffic to start clearing out.  When we got back to our car we were able to tailgate a bit as well, but we were drained from the long, hot, but exciting day.  The traffic had cleared out nicely by the time we hit the road and we got back to our hotel around dark and crashed for the evening.



A view from the infield between Turns 2 and 3.



Monday, May 30, 2011:  We celebrated most of Memorial Day in the car driving home, but we did make a few interesting detours along the way.  We did a nice little tour of downtown Indianapolis before we left and checked out the sites including the beautiful capitol building, the lovely Depew Fountain and the impressive new Lucas Oil Stadium where the Colts play.  Our lunch plans were at yet another brewpub...of course, and this one was in Nashville...Nashville, Indiana, that is.  It's called Big Woods Brewing Company and not only was the beer good and the food amazing (yummy chili and pizza), but it was located in one of the coolest little towns we have visited in a long time.   The town of Nashville, Indiana, is the heart of the regionally famous Brown County - an artistic and cultural center set amongst the lovely Hoosier National Forest. The town has a number of interesting shops and restaurants and it looks like a perfect weekend getaway kind of area.  We will definitely try and make it up back up here sometime when we can spend more time.

Has It Really Been a Decade?

Of all the exotic places we kicked around over the last year or so as ideas as to where we would spend our 10th wedding anniversary, we can't say that Gulf Shores, Alabama, was on the short list. But as the fates would have it, the first place we ever traveled to together as a couple (albeit not married...shhhh, don't tell anyone) wound up being a great place to see a decade of marriage come to fruition. It all started as a plan to attend The Hangout Music Festival, a Bonnaroo-style, 3-day festival held on the beaches of Gulf Shores which was taking place the same weekend as our May 19th wedding anniversary. Instead of camping like at Bonnaroo, festival-goers must obtain nearby lodging instead. We found a great-sounding beach house nearby and after offering the 2 extra bedrooms it has to some friends of ours who quickly accepted the opportunity, we suddenly had a plan.

Wednesday, May 18: We rented a car from our local Enterprise office for a week at a wonderfully low rate. We got an early start and the drive down in the Nissan Altima was comfortable and without incident. We caught up with our first housemates for the trip, our friends Gary and Cary, just inside the Alabama state line at the welcome center on I-65. After a quick stop for lunch, we made it to the rental house around 4 PM.

The house was as great as advertised (photo above). It was spacious and clean with all the modern conveniences including fast WIFI, satellite TV and a sweet in-ground pool (photo below). We got unpacked, stocked up big-time on groceries (photo above) and hit the pool for a relaxing dip before dinner. Gary prepared a wonderful meal for us four that included sauteed shrimp with a spicy pineapple salsa. Our last two housemates, our friends Chris and Tarryn, got a later-than-anticipated start from home and didn't arrive until just after midnight.

Thursday, May 19: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! We all slept in a bit this morning after our long travel day and decided to head out as a group later that morning to the beach which was just a block away. The house had a golf cart that we packed all our beach stuff on for an easy commute. We also had 3 nice bikes for our use. The beach was quiet and clean. Most of the houses on the beach were empty and we only saw a few other people a good distance away. The weather was beautiful. With an almost constant breeze, the temps and humidity were very tolerable. The tide was strong with impressive breaking waves for the Gulf.

The original plan of attending The Hangout Festival kind of fell through for a few different reasons. One, they didn't sell individual day tickets as we were expecting like the did last year. It was never our intention to go all three days since we had such a great house to share with good friends near the beach. By the time they announced that no one-day tickets would be sold, the event was sold out....good reason not to sell one-day tickets I guess. We did discover a "pre-party" event going on this evening with tickets being only $15 each. They had a half dozen bands of which we had never heard of but at least it was held at The Hangout Festival grounds and would give us a chance to check the area out. Gary and Cary opted out of this little side trip, so the remaining four of us headed out to catch the shows which started at 7 PM. We had a hard time finding a place to park (more on that later) and by the time we found a place and located will call (nice job of Ashlee coolly cutting the long line to get the tix), the first band, Romany Rye, was already on the stage. They sounded pretty good and we got a seat on the outer deck of the actual bar/restaurant, The Hangout, to check them out while we grabbed some dinner. Unfortunately the beer selection, the food and the service at The Hangout were not very good which was a huge disappointment and definitely a strike against the idea of attending the festival itself in the future. Restoring our faith, however, was the performance by the next band, Big Sam's Funky Nation, out of New Orleans. This blues, rock and funk quintet with trombone and trumpet taking center stage and flanked by a sizzling lead guitar and thumping bass and percussion were a great band to see live. We enjoyed their entire hour-long set as did the swelling crowd around us. Ashlee and I finished the show in the front row yelling for more.

After waiting an extremely long time for the next band to take the stage and encountering yet more bad service from The Hangout , we agreed in unison to call it a night. Unfortunately, our night was far from over....when we got back to the side street we had parked on, our car (Chris and Tarryn's to be exact) was gone. It had been towed despite being parked legally we thought on the road right-of-way without any warning signs posted. The next two hours plus were spent expensively taking a cab to the out-of-town towing company, paying an exorbitant fee to get the car back, listening to the tow company's BS as well as the local cops, and finally getting back to the house. As I have said before, we will not dwell on the negative in this blog and it won't be used as a place to air our gripes about the few bad things, people, etc. we encounter in our adventures. Instead we will chalk it up to experience and again remember it when we decide NOT to attend The Hangout Festival in the future. There are way too many good outdoor festivals nowadays to choose from all over the country. We are already looking back at the whole experience and laughing about it despite the insulting, disgusting manner that it all went down. But, hey, screw it and screw them!! We're at the beach!!

Friday, May 20: We spent a gloriously lazy day at the pool and the beach. The highlight to us was playing in the surf which was even stronger than yesterday, letting huge waves pound us into gleeful submission. It wasn't a nude beach, but it might as well have been as Chris temporarily lost his shorts in one strong wave break, and Ashlee her top in another. It was Chef Gary again that evening whipping up another amazing meal. This time glazed chicken breasts with a mango salsa were the stars of the show. The nights were cool and the little portable fireplace provided at the house was a welcome addition to the pool area. We gathered around it after dinner burning driftwood and other dead-fall we had found nearby. Smores were made available and under the clear, bright sky with a million stars shining down, we couldn't have asked for much more.

Saturday, May 21: We all slept in again this morning and lazed around the pool for the most part (except for a rousing 4-hand game of poolside Scrabble) as we awaited the time to leave for a scheduled 2 PM kayak eco-tour that I had found nearby thanks to Groupon. com. We drove about a half-hour north to the town of Foley and met Captain Chris Nelson, owner of Alabama Kayak Adventures at the Graham Creek Preserve. We hopped in our individual sea kayaks and paddled south on winding Graham Creek which feeds into Wolf Bay, an estuary of the Gulf. It was a fairly tough paddle as we went out two miles non-stop into the bay and stopped briefly at a long, thin strip of land jutting out in the bay. Here we were shown osprey (photo left)and blue heron nests high up in the trees. We were hoping for more wildlife viewing including perhaps one of the many pods of dolphins that call this area home, but we were not so fortunate. Overall, it was a nice time and a good accomplishment for us all. After getting back to our cars and changing clothes, we opted to head to the tiny hamlet of Bon Secur, Alabama, and have dinner at a place called The Tin Top Restaurant, a recommendation by Capt. Nelson. He was right on the money with this tip. It's a great little, mostly-locals place with a vast menu including a lot of fresh seafood (we had blackened trigger fish and spicy Gulf shrimp as our entrees).

We got back to the house around sundown and were relaxing around the pool when Cary made quite the discovery at the back of the property:

"Gator!!"

Yep, we had paddled four miles in kayaks without seeing much more than a few birds and some jumping fish and we come back to find an alligator in our back yard. Now, granted, he was a pretty small, young fella - 2 or 3 feet at most - and we were safely observing him from a dock high above the small wetlands pond he was in (another sweet perk to this house is that it backs up to a nice, natural wetland that not only provides wildlife for viewing and hearing - great frog songs at night - but also makes the back of the house and pool area very private). There is a cutesy little sign at the dock saying "Don't Feed the Alligator." We thought it was a joke until now and as the gator floated patiently watching us gawk at him from above. It was obvious he was waiting on a snack and the sign was actually a real command. We heeded the warning reluctantly and resisted the strong urge to toss him a piece of turkey just to see him gobble it up, but he can't always depend on the kindness (and dumbness) of strange humans. We ended the night with an impromptu poker tournament at the dining room table. Teaching the game to the willing ladies was slow, but enjoyable, as well had a good time savoring our last night in this great house.

Sunday, May 22: It was with heavy hearts that we packed up this morning and left our wonderful little house near the beach. Gary and Cary headed out first, and then Chris and Tarryn. We did the final close-up on the house and discovered that our little gator was back again. We named him "George", told him goodbye and headed west back toward Foley. We stopped for an early lunch at Lambert's Cafe, a Cracker-Barrel-On-Steroids kind of place that is famous for its "throwed rolls." Basically, if you want one of their piping hot rolls for your meal you just raise your hand when the cart comes by and they sling you one through the air (check out the short video below). It's a gimmick, but they know what they are doing. Not only are the rolls delicious, but everything else we ordered was top-notch as well. We walked off our lunch with a little outlet mall shopping before heading on north for an easy ride home.

Despite what happened at The Hangout, we really did love this area, the house we rented and most of all, our companions. Thanks so much to Gary, Cary, Chris and Tarryn for spending this special time with us. We hope to travel more with these great folks. We are definitely bookmarking the house for another stay sometime. (http://www.beachhouse.com/32440.htm).

Comings & Goings

We have had a few small events occur over the last few days that are clumped together in this one blog entry for the sake of brevity:

Thursday, May 12 - We met our friends, Brenda and Danny, out at Zanies Comedy Club for dinner before comedian/actor, Kevin Pollak, took the stage. Kevin had a couple of openers for him who were pretty good, but paled in comparison to his wry, intelligent and hilarious set. It's no wonder that Pollak has transitioned into the movies so easily (loved him The Usual Suspects, A Few Good Men, and Grumpy (and Grumpier) Old Men). His story-telling style of comedy is impeccable and his voice manipulation and control (including great impressions of such Hollywood icons as Jack Nicholson, Christoper Walken, etc.) are incredibly skillful. He was nice enough to meet us briefly after the show and snap a picture with Brenda and Ashlee (photo above).

Friday, May 13 - We finally got to see "Water for Elephants" at the movie theater and loved it. We are both big fans of the book and were hoping the film would do it justice. It did in several ways including a great cast, beautiful cinematography and a splendid rendition of the book.

Saturday, May 14 - We had tickets to see one of our favorite performers, Brett Dennen, again at The Cannery in downtown Nashville. It was an early stop on his Loverboy tour in support of his new album of the same name. Opening for Brett was a folk-rock band by the name of Dawes. They were pretty good and their signature song, "When My Time Comes" is a great tune to hear live. Brett and his band followed with a great hour and half set of several new songs off the new album as well as some of his past hits (video below). Thanks to our friends, Beth and Michael, for meeting up and hanging out with us at the show.

Sunday, May 15 - The unseasonably cool weather and rain this weekend lent itself well for another trip to the movies this afternoon as we caught a showing of "Bridesmaids" which opened this weekend. Touted as the female version of "The Hangover" it definitely had it's share of over-the-top raunchy humor and it keep us entertained for a full two hours which is a bit long for a comedy these days. We were surprised when the movie ended that we were actually going to be a little late meeting our friends, Danny and Brenda, at Taste of Williamson (County), a food-sampling event from local restaurants held after hours at the Cool Springs Mall benefitting United Way. The food was great and there was plenty of it. We got full bellies and our money's worth for the entry fee very quickly.

Historic Hockey in May in Music City

We were proud to be a part of history tonight in Nashville as the professional hockey team, the Predators, hosted their very first 2nd-round playoff game in franchise history vs. the #1 seeded Vancouver Canucks. The Preds came home to the Bridgestone Arena tonight after splitting the first two games of the best of seven series in Vancouver. The downtown area around the arena was absolutely electric as Predators fans got to experience their very first taste of "hockey in the month of May" since they've never gotten out of the first round of playoffs before, but that all changed this season as the took care of the higher-seeded Anaheim Ducks in the first round in just six games.

We met our friends Chris and Tarryn outside the arena before the game and had a few drinks to celebrate the occasion. Our friend, Ryan, also met us before the game as we toasted the Preds' success. Our seats were obtained off Stubhub.com once we knew the date, and we got a couple of club level spots for a very reasonable price. The atmosphere inside the arena was even more pumped up as a "Gold Out" ensued with almost everyone wearing gold-colored Preds t-shirts that were given out before the game as well as gold rally towels being whipped around in a mad frenzy. It was quite a thrilling site as the players were being introduced at the start and on throughout the game especially during the now Predator-fans-patented standing ovation during a TV time-out in the 3rd period (video
below).

The game itself was as thrilling as the build-up to it, if not more so. It went into overtime tied 2-2 with the hard-working Predators battling every second against the built-for-success top-seeded Canucks. Vancouver's shots-on-goal were twice that of the Preds and were nearing 50, but Nashville goalie, Pekka Rinne, turned in an amazing performance as he blocked shot after shot from the relentless Canucks' attack. Overtime was brief and gut-wrenching as the Canucks went on a power play after a very questionable call going against the Predators. The sudden-death rules of hockey overtime allow for no errors and a crummy ending in OT of a 3-2 loss was the result.

Despite the heartbreaking loss, it was a thrilling night to be in Nashville for sure with the sold-out crowd of over 17,000 people, and we are so happy we were able to be a small part of it.
(Update - 5/10/11) - The Preds went on to lose all three of their home games against the Canucks and lost the series in 6 hard-fought games last night. Despite being knocked out of the playoffs this year, it is obvious that this team is improving greatly and we hope to see a lot of success from them in the future.