Rombello Cruise

Well. we just couldn't pass it up.  Despite just getting back from a quick trip up to New England, working one day and then  flying back out that night, we headed south to board our second music cruise of the year.  The company, Sixthman, who organized the Best Cruise Ever musical voyage that we took back in late April/early May (see previous blog post: ) offered us a deal as previous cruisers that we couldn't afford to not accept ($298 ea. including tax!) for another one of their four-day music cruises out of Tampa, FL, to Cozumel, Mexico, and back. packed full of bands performing throughout the trip. 

Welcome to Rombello!



Thursday, September 29, 2012:  The lovely city of Tampa wished us a "bon voyage" again as we headed out of the same port on the same ship, the Carnival Inspiration, that we had taken on the last music cruise.  Bonus points if you can find the large "T" (for Tampa, I suppose) among the downtown buildings.  Wonder if that was done intentionally?



 Michael Franti & Spearhead, who happens to be one of our favorite live acts, kicked off the trip with a sail-away concert out on the Lido Deck.  Their recent hit "The Sound of Sunshine" never sounded better or felt more appropriate as we got underway under blue sunny skies with warm temps and with the beach balls a-flyin'.





 Our favorite "new-to-us" band we discovered on the Rombello Cruise was Gaelic Storm, an energetic and musically-adept Irish band.  Appropriately, here they are above ending their first set in the bar on the Lido Deck.  That's showmanship and drunkenness all at the same time, folks!




How do you like our new family Christmas card?  He's our boy and we are so proud of him!  One of our favorite performers, Brett Dennen, hosted a wine tasting and although we did this same type of tasting on the last music cruise with Jimmy Stafford, lead guitarist of the band, Train, and the wine offered by Carnival pretty much sucked (as it did again here), it was still a great chance to meet Brett and talk with him one-on-one about wine (even the crappy kind), his music and his upcoming show in Nashville that we were looking forward to seeing after the cruise.  Brett was funny and charming as the guest host and he and the ship's dining room maitre'd and wine representative, Omar, made quite the comedy duo.

 


Hmmm, is The Old 97's song, "Big Brown Eyes"  written by lead singer, Rhett Miller, pictured above with my brown-eyed girl about someone in particular??  It sure looks like it from these beaming smiles.  We got to meet Rhett briefly before his first show on the boat in the small nightclub venue, the Candlelight Lounge.  He was winging it solo on this trip without the rest of the 97's and his one-man-and-a-guitar performances (we saw all three) were impressive, not to mention he had the help of his great voice in accompaniment.




After the wine tasting, Brett Dennen took to the Lido Deck stage for an early evening performance.  We believe Brett may have had a lot of complimentary wine during and after the tasting we attended with him because it wasn't one of his best shows in terms of performance....i.e. we think he was sloshed!






Saturday, October 1, 2011:  We didn't have any luck securing an excursion for our stop in Cozumel before the cruise, so we stood in the excursion trip line on the boat (with Brett Dennen again!) and chose what looked to be an interesting cave tour and swim at Rio Secreto over on the mainland near Playa del Carmen.  It turned out to be one of the best excursions we have ever done.  It's a privately-owned cave system discovered only recently back in 2008.   The half-mile hike, wade and swim through this underground wonder was simply amazing.  The tour was very organized and went smoothly.  Hats off to Carnival Cruise Lines for providing such a great tour since our past history with some ship-sponsored excursions have not been that great.  Since personal cameras weren't allowed in the cave, I can't take credit for this incredible (and accurate) shot above.  I borrowed it from the website blog of Legacy Travel.





After the tour of Rio Secreto we strolled around in Playa del Carmen a bit and wondered into Tequila Town for a drink.  Who knew there were so many kinds of tequila!





As we boarded the ferry back to Cozumel from Playa del Carmen, this beautiful Caribbean storm popped up on the horizon.  It never affected us which added to our record of perfect weather during this trip.





Rhett Miller once again took the small stage on the back of the cruise ship on the Serenity Deck as we awaited to depart from the Cozumel port.  He gave another energetic performance even as the Carnival Elation headed out to sea behind him.





As the sun was setting and we got underway from Cozumel, Rhett Miller finished his set with flair and style.



Despite the fact that our favorite band, Michael Franti & Spearhead, were performing the headlining  7 PM show in the ship's huge Paris Lounge, we opted for a more up-close-and-personal experience with Gaelic Storm in the Candlelight Lounge.  We think we made the right choice as the band put on one hell of a show while all along taking good-natured jabs at "Franteeeee" for playing at the same time upstairs and stealing their crowd (which you couldn't tell since the place was packed).  After the performance which again ended in the lounge bar,  of course, we got a chance to meet lead guitarist, (and possible Keebler Elf?) Steve Twigger.

 



Well, here he goes again.  After telling us in the excursion line the day before that all he wanted to do in Cozumel was "snorkel a little, get drunk and eat a bunch of guacamole" - we think Brett Dennen did just that.  Donning his bathrobe from his cabin and a Captain & Tennille-style hat, Brett gave another less than stellar late-evening performance after we departed from Cozumel/  There were a lot of slurred lyrics and awkward fumbling pauses between songs.  He was hammered, folks.  Some people just can't handle Mexico I guess  (been there, done that, I confess)






We caught an energetic late-night show by JJ Grey & Mofro in the Paris Lounge to end the evening's musical journey.  Grey's booming voice and dynamite backing band were a treat to see and hear.  We had heard good reports of these guys and their live show, but had never seen them before..  Now we know what all the buzz is about.





Well after midnight and with his show in the main lounge over for hours, Michael Franti was still out and about in the open public areas of the ship posing for pictures, signing autographs and just being one of the nicest people you will ever meet.  Here he stops and poses for a picture with me and John and Jessica, a couple from Charlotte, North Carolina, that we befriended on the cave tour and hung around with the rest of the cruise.




Sunday, October 2, 2011:  Our last day at sea consisted of an afternoon and early evening of acoustic-style performances out on the Lido Deck with almost every band taking the stage for short sets as we lazed around the pool and cruised back toward Tampa.  The now-infamous Brett Dennen gave an intimate set back on the Serenity Deck and seemed to be more himself albeit probably hung over, but he was still all smiles and happy to pose for pictures as the sun was setting on the day and  another great music cruise.

 
ADDENDUM: Thursday, October 6, 2011 - We saw our boy, Brett Dennen, again (sober this time, thank goodness, we were starting to worry about the kid!) put on a great show as the headliner at the fifth week of Live on the Green in downtown Nashville.  Link below is part of his great performance.  We had VIP tix that gave us unlimited drinks and great food from B & C BBQ (their buffalo chicken grits were outstanding!) as well as up close viewing of the stage.  Before Brett's set we also saw some good performances by Rayland Baxter (performing with his legendary father, Bucky Baxter) and Nashville's own, Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors.  Thanks to our newly-married  friends, Nate and Ginny, for attending with us.  Congrats, guys!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyfErB6a8gM&hd=1

New Hampshire in Early Fall

We took a quick, long-weekend trip up to New Hampshire to visit our friends, Amy and Jeremy, thanks to a wonderfully cheap airfare I found ($130 RT each!) into Manchester.  This was a late birthday present for Ashlee who is close friends with Amy.  We hadn't seen these guys in over a year since we took a great Caribbean cruise together back in February 2010. 
See the blog entries: http://collagebarrage.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

The thought of checking out early fall in New England was also a bonus since Amy and Jeremy live in the lovely coastal town of Portsmouth about 45 minutes east of  Manchester.

Saturday,  September 24, 2011:  Fresh off the plane, our first stop once we got into the Portsmouth area was the east coast branch of Red Hook Brewing, a great craft beer pioneer which originated in Washington state.  We grabbed a late light lunch in their cool brewpub and took the 3 PM brewery tour which cost $2 and was chock full of samples!  Salute!



After resting up a bit and settling into Amy and Jeremy's spare bedroom of their apartment in downtown Portsmouth, we strolled a few blocks toward the waterfront and had dinner at on of their favorite places, Spring Hill Tavern.  This bar in the basement of The Dolphin Striker Restaurant serves up great seafood from upstairs.  Our choices were the Chilean sea bass cooked Asian-style for Ashlee, and the lobster omelet for me.  Delicious!

Sunday, September 25, 2011:  We all slept in this morning and by the time we had collected ourselves, our stomachs were grumbling for some lunch and we decided on a place we couldn't get into the night before due to it being so crowded, The Portsmouth Brewery.  I appreciate Amy and Jeremy accommodating my always-fervent interest in craft beer, but even they admitted that as usual in good brewpubs,  the food is darn good as well.  More on the brews themselves will be in my beer blog soon.




After lunch we strolled down to the beautiful, busy and historic Portsmouth Harbour.  We bought in for the 3 PM harbour cruise on the MV Heritage.  As we waited to board our hour-and-a-half-long cruise, we checked out the waterfront which offered dramatic views of the swift-moving Piscataqua River as it surged out to sea and the charming views such as the chubby Moran Tugboats (above) tied up at dock taking a well-deserved Sunday off.

  





  The weather, which had been rainy the day before we arrived and overcast on Saturday with some sprinkles of rain, cooperated beautifully for our harbour cruise.  The sun emerged from the breaking clouds giving up warm temps and beautiful views north to southern Maine, Whaleback Lighthouse (above in the distance), the Portsmouth Harbour Light,  Newcastle Island and the distant Isles of Shoals to the east and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.  We finished the evening with cocktails at the very cool bar, The Library, and grilling out back at Amy and Jeremy's on a wonderful early fall evening in New England.







Monday, September 26, 2011 - While Jeremy had to unfortunately head to work for the day, Amy had the day off and we decided to head north into the White Mountains for the day.  The weather was perfect and the leaves were already starting to change as we gained altitude.

 

Our main destination in the vast White Mountain  National Forest was Mt. Washington, the highest point in the Northeastern United States.  We took the self-guided Auto Road all the way to the top.

At the summit of Mt. Washington was a very cool visitors center and several historical buildings including the small observatory used back in 1934 when the highest surface wind speed ever recorded by man was clocked at 231 MPH, hence the chains on the building preventing it from blowing away.



Not bad for a Monday....








 The Mt. Washington summit is frequently shrouded by cloud cover, but we were fortunate to pick a very clear day to visit.  Despite a bit of haze, the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, to the south was stunning.  Here above the tree line, the landscape took on a very different look and reminded us a lot of Iceland.






 The Auto Road coming up and down Mt. Washington reveals some amazing views.  The above shot was taken as we descended back down the winding, tiny road which is glaringly absent of guardrails!

We concluded our trip with a pretty cool Haunted Pub Walk in downtown Portsmouth that evening.  After saying our goodbyes to Amy and Jeremy the next morning, we headed back to the airport.  What was supposed to be a short trip back to get us home by the late afternoon turned into a fairly long and grueling day of flight delays in Manchester and our connector city, Philadelphia.  Heavy fog that morning in Philly had disrupted the whole day of flights, but we finally made it home late that evening exhausted but content with our brief visit to see our friends and the lovely area in which they live.

Just hanging out in Nash-Vegas...

Sunday, September 18, 2011: We attended the 2011 season home-opener for the Tennessee Titans vs. the Baltimore Ravens with our friends, Gary and Cary.  Much thanks to our good friend, Wayne, for letting us use his season tickets since he was out of town. The Titans won in an exciting upset, 26-13.  Half-time included a stirring tribute in memory of 9/11 (photo above).  Before the game we had a delicious brunch at Mad Donna's over in East Nashville.  We all rode over to the game from E. Nashville in Cary's sweet, new Mini convertible.  After the game we walked across the Cumberland River to downtown and had an early dinner at Big River Brewing while we waited on traffic to clear out after the game.

Thursday, September 22, 2011:  We attended our second 2011 Live on the Green concert tonight downtown  with Nashville natives,  Moon Taxi, opening the show.  We now see why they won a Battle of the Bands competition here in Nashville a couple of years ago.  They were very impressive.  Next up was one of our regional favorites, The Dirty Guv'nahs, from Knoxville, who we have seen several times.  They put in a powerful hour-long set and although we did not opt for the VIP area this time, we were very close to the stage with a great view.  The mild evening temps were perfect.  See the video below for a half-minute of the outdoor rock-n-roll bliss or the much better done You Tube link below for the whole song.  We ate dinner off a couple of the popular food trucks parked nearby  that serve the Nashville area.  Ashlee chose a great sandwich and tots from The Grilled Cheeserie (photo above, left) while I had a yummy cheeseburger and sweet potato fries from Hoss Loaded Burgers.  On our way home, we got a cool view of the Titans Stadium at LP Field all lit up for Code Blue Week.  Go Titans, beat Denver!  (Editor's Note:  Which they did, 17-14!)

http://youtu.be/iDpBQxILZ4U

Headin' Due South to Key West



Saturday, September 10, 2011:  We took our almost-yearly pilgrimage to The Conch Republic this past weekend to celebrate Ashlee and her twin sister, Paige's birthdays.  This is one of their favorite places to visit, so it  seemed a natural choice.  We found extremely affordable airfare out of Nashville on Delta and after an annoying two-hour delay in Atlanta due to plane maintenance (man, we always seem to have problems with all domestic airlines except Southwest) we were able to join Paige, and her husband, Andy, who had flown directly from Atlanta earlier in the day, at the great rental house on Center Street in Old Town Key West that we stayed in last year for the first time (see September 2010 blog).



Sunday, September 11, 2011:  One of the biggest draws of Key West for us is the amazing food available all over Old Town.  We walked a few blocks from our rental house over to Simonton Street this morning and had a great brunch (Key West pink shrimp and bacon omelet for me!) at Sarabeth's.  We were lucky to get this opportunity since they were closing the next day for a month during the off-season. This off-shoot of a well-known NYC-based restaurant is housed in a beautiful old building that used to be synagogue.  Well, the praising and the "Amens" continue to this day.



Key West just has a style and feel of its own.  They don't take themselves to seriously down here and don't expect you to either while you are visiting.



According to Andy, a real boat-geek, Key West is one of two "Boating Meccas" in the world.  The other being Cannes, France.  That's pretty easy to see from the mass of beautiful boats in the harbour.



Everywhere you look here in Key West is a postcard.

 


We chose a new place for dinner tonight based on a friend's recommendation (thanks, John) and some research Paige had done.  The restaurant is called Latitudes and it's on the west side of  Sunset Key, a man-made island just a 10-minute boat ride from the Key West Harbour.  While the island is mostly a private residential neighborhood that includes a Westin Resort and is covered in fancy houses and cottages for rent, visitors are welcome to explore the island, and the restaurant is available to anyone willing to plunk down a good chunk of money for some amazing food (above: Ashlee's  yellowtail snapper with coconut risotto) and a jaw-dropping view of the sunset (see below).

 


Dinner with a view from Sunset Key (aptly-named).  End of the day, September 11, 2011:  I dedicate this beautiful picture of serenity to those who lost their lives 10 years ago today.



Monday, September 12, 2011:  Happy Birthday Ashlee and Paige!!  With a bit of ominous weather creeping about The Keys this morning and early afternoon, we weren't quite sure we were going to be able to get in our 3-PM scheduled boat tour and snorkel that we had booked.  While we have had plenty of boat rides and snorkeling opportunities in Key West over the years, this experience offered by Sunset Watersports was something different.  We actually got to drive the boats!  Pictured above is our boat, # 10, a two-seater mini-speedboat with a 30 HP outboard engine.  We are following our guide and there are four other boats behind us including one driven by Paige and Andy.  What a hoot!  See the short video at the bottom of the page to get an idea of the speed we were going at times.



Our first stop on our boat tour was about 15 miles out of Key West on a large sandbar that was only knee deep.  It was kind of cool to "stand" out in the middle of the ocean.



The weather cooperated with us during our tour and skies opened up with some amazing cloud formations.



Not a bad self-portrait if I do say so myself.  Ashlee is usually better at these than I am, but I proud to say that I snapped this one during our tour while Captain Ashlee did the driving.

The birthday girls after dinner at the always-delicious Mangia Mangia.  Our absolute favorite restaurant in Key West is Blue Heaven and that was our destination tonight for the girls' birthday dinner until we sadly found out they were closed for a month during this off-season.  We were surprised (and delighted) that the tiny Mangia Mangia Restaurant was open and it made a wonderful substitute.  Their fresh seafood pasta dishes are out of this world.




Key West displays beauty and character in all sorts of nooks and crannies.

 



Tuesday, September 13, 2001:  Sadly, our last day of our too-brief trip to Key West was upon us.  We did have most of the day to spend here before our 6 PM flight back home began, so we soaked up more pool time at our great rental house and finished off a few craft beers we had left in the fridge.

Even though our favorite restaurant, Blue Heaven, was closed for the off-season while we were here in Key West, we did manage to grab a late lunch/early dinner before our flight at it's new sister-restaurant, Salute! on the Beach.  This quaint Caribbean-style cafe sits right on Higgs Beach with nice views.  Ashlee and I split a large pork tenderloin sandwich that was delicious.  It was a nice place to soak up a few last rays and vibes of this special area before heading back to the real world.  Thanks again, Key West, we hope to see you again very soon!

Live on the Green 2011

The 6-week downtown Nashville concert series, Live on the Green,  hosted by local independent radio station, Lightning 100, began this week with an interesting line-up of local singer/song-writers.  The headliner, K.S. Rhoads, was to be accompanied by The Nashville Symphony and that made it worth it to us to grab some VIP tickets to get up close to check out the show.

The event takes place in the innovative Public Square Park where grass has been planted on top of a multilevel underground parking garage (aka "The Green") in front of the Metro Courthouse.



First up was Nashville native, Will Hoge.  We have been wanting to see him for a long time and have heard his live shows are worth a look.  This was an accurate report as he and his band put on a lively guitar-driven show.




While originally slated not to come on until 9 PM, the headlining show was forced to start at 7:30 due to cooler-than-expected outdoor  temperatures.  Evidently, the symphony cannot play at temperatures below 65 degrees (something to do with the woodwind performance I suppose).  We had not seen K.S. Rhoads before, but like Will Hoge, had heard good things about him and his live shows.  He's definitely a very interesting and cool cat, that's for sure.  His music reminds you of Coldplay in some ways while still with its own uniqueness.  His songs are symphonic in nature and teaming up with The Nashville Symphony seemed logical and came off very nicely.   Rhoads and the symphony also added in a few cover songs in their set including the quite-unexpected, "Teenage Dream" by  Katie Perry.  It was fun to see the casually-dressed symphony members cracking smiles while playing this bubble-gum pop diddy.   We really enjoyed the show as did our friend, Eileen, who was in town from Philadelphia  for a business conference.  We also got delicious all-we-could-eat food and four adult beverages with our VIP tickets.  With the temps lower than usual for late summer, it was a very pleasant evening and well worth attending.

We will be back to Live on the Green  in a few weeks hopefully to catch one of our favorite regional bands, The Dirty Guv'nahs, as they open for headliner, Robert Randolph & the Family Band; and in Week 5 for one of our favorite performers, Brett Dennen, who we are also cruising with in a couple of weeks.



Worth Mentioning...

We attended the Wilson County Fair on Tuesday, August 16, 2011.  While we are not the biggest fans of this huge yearly hometown extravaganza, but the realitively cool temps, free entry,  smaller crowds on a weeknight evening and the promise of yummy food on a stick ( a corndog for Ashlee and chicken for me) swayed us to go.  We had an OK time, but realized  pretty quick that we really hadn't missed much in the ten years or so since we last attended the fair.

We attended Grassy Knoll Movie Night in East Nashville on Sunday, August 28, 2011.  The were showing Princess Bride, which I still think is a bit over-rated as a cult classic.  But the temps were mild and it was a beautiful evening for an outdoor movie showing with our friends, Nate and Ginny.  We had some good beer from Nashville's newest craft brewer,  Jackalope Brewing, and some great pizza slices from the Pizzabuds food truck.

We also attended Vanderbilt's first football game of the 2011 season at home vs. Elon University out of North Carolina on Saturday evening, September 3rd.  We had dinner at Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers near the stadium before the game with our friend, Emily, and her parents.  Thanks to Em's dad for snagging the free tickets for us.  They were good seats just a few rows from the field in the Elon section (Em's dad is friends with one of the Elon coaches).  It was a  sweaty, steamy night but at least the rainy, stormy weather around the region held off.  The game was good with Vanderbilt pulling away in the second half for an impressive first win for the Commodores' new coach, James Franklin.