Movies, Music, Hockey...(and Ducks?): Late April into May 2015

Thursday, April 23 - We attended Game 5 of the opening round of the NHL playoffs tonight which was a fantastic 5-2 mud-hole-stomping win over those hated Blackhawks by the Predators!  The game included a franchise-first-ever playoff hat-trick by our awesome, young winger, Filip Forsberg (who should have been in the running for rookie of the year).  Below is a quick video of the aftermath of that fantastic feat:

(Editor's note:  The Preds went down swingin' a couple days later in the next game in Chicago by a score of 4-3, giving the series to the Blackhawks  by a 4-2 margin.  A tough way to end an exciting season.  See ya next season, guys!  2nd Editor's note:  The Blackhawks amazingly went on to win the Stanley Cup this year.  Well, if ya gotta lose..)

Friday, April 24  - We attended the Closing Night of the Nashville Film Festival (NAFF) with a screening of the quirky comedy, Welcome to Me starring Kristen Wiig.  We hung out at the Closing Night Party afterwards and had some free booze and food and heard the announcement that this was the most attended NAFF ever in their history.  Congrats to this great event!

Tuesday, April 28 - We saw Ryan Adams  tonight at The Ryman in the second of his two shows that SOLD OUT very quickly.  Now we know why.  He puts on an excellent show with a great voice and smooth guitar play.

We had a great dinner beforehand at UP, a rooftop lounge down in The Gulch atop the new Marriott hotel.   The temps were a little cool and forced us to sit inside, but the vibe and views are great and this will be an excellent place to hang out this summer and beyond.

Ryan had a very cool, laid-back stage set-up  complete with a vintage Dr. Pepper machine and an arcade game.  He's definitely the real deal.  He had guest appearances by Jason Isbell and his wife, Amanda Shires plus his opener, Natalie Prass (who we weren't overly impressed with).   The coolest moment of the night was when he did a cover of "Summer of '69" by BRYAN Adams, a song he infamously freaked-out about someone jokingly '(and drunkenly, so the story goes) kept requesting from the crowd the last time he played The Ryman.  Below is a snippet of that cover:

Saturday, May 9 -  Today we cashed in a little Christmas stocking-stuffer fun with a Chattanooga Duck (DUKW) ride.   What a hoot!  This is a much more interesting outing than it might look with great views of the city from the water.  We should have done this a long time ago!  Later that evening we watched the Memphis Grizzlies get a playoff win at the fairly new World of Beer bar/restaurant downtown with our friend, Mike.  We closed the evening with a stop by the also-new Casual Pint craft beer bar and market on the North Shore.  Both are great new additions to this continually-growing town.

Ashlee's pic of me riding in the Duck made the Tennessee Aquarium in the background look like a watercolor painting.

A photo of a Duck from a Duck passing each other on the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga.

Sunday, May 10 - We had an excellent Mother's Day brunch at Beast and Barrel on Chattanooga's North Shore.  The food and mimosa bar were top-notch!

Monday, May 11 - Tonight we saw Ed Kowalczyk, founder and lead singer of the 90's rock band, Live,  at The City Winery for a SOLD OUT show as he performed the entire classic 1994 Live Throwing Copper album acoustically in an on-going 20th anniversary celebration and national tour. It was an excellent show that ended with several other Live songs as well as a couple new solo tunes. The food and wine we had before and during the show were great and this new Nashville venue continues to impress us.

We even got to meet Ed after the show.  The big surprise of the evening for us was that he had Zak Loy, lead guitarist of one of our favorite bands, Alpha Rev, accompanying him on stage. I think we shocked Zak a bit when we recognized him from his "other job." 

On the trail of cheese and beer...and another birthday

For my 48th Birthday I decided I wanted to take a cheese and beer trip through a good portion of Wisconsin, plus a little dip down into Iowa to check off a bucket-list item.

Saturday, April 18 - We flew to Chicago via a cheap Southwest flight along with our friends, Danny and Brenda, who were gracious enough to tag along for the trip. We drove northwest into Wisconsin from there with a stop for Chicago dog as a late lunch just before we left Illinois.

Our first stop in Wisconsin was at Baumgartner's Cheese Store and Tavern in the lovely town of Monroe.

We had a good cheese plate and some local beers during our stop.  The friendly gal at the counter even let us try some stinky Limburger cheese on the way out.  They are only one of two places in the U.S. that produce it.  Supposedly it's good if you don't smell it while you eat it, but we all agreed it pretty much tasted like the floor of a cow barn nonetheless.  Yuck!!  Thank goodness for the mint chocolate chaser!  However, the horseradish cheddar and pepper-jack we bought were outstanding.

Our first night was spent in the quaint town of Mineral Springs.  And we do mean quaint, the whole freakin' town is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  We had rooms reserved at the Brewery Creek Inn and Pub, a beautifully restored stone warehouse originally built in 1854.  Dinner in the pub that night and the complimentary breakfast the next morning were extremely good.  Thanks to Ashlee for finding the article about this  wonderful place a good while ago. 

Sunday, April 19 - About an hour away from Mineral Point, we dipped down into Iowa (check another state of the list for me - only 4 left) and visited the movie site of the 1989 classic, Field of Dreams.  Despite a forecast of rainy weather, we arrived with perfect conditions and only a few other people there.  We had the place pretty much to ourselves and made the most of it by sitting in the bleachers soaking up some rays, playing some pitch and catch on the field, and just generally goofing around.  This place has been on my Bucket List for a while and it was definitely worth the visit.

Field of  Dreams time warp:  Yep, that's Danny pitching, Danny on first base, Ashlee playing second, Brenda at shortstop, and Danny, again, at third base??  Ah, the marvel of panoramic pictures on the I-Phone.  Danny looks a little winded there on first base for some reason, doesn't he?  

We stopped for a late lunch on our way back into Wisconsin at the nice brewpub at the historic Potosi Brewery (established in 1852)  in the tiny town of the same name.  The food and beer served were good stuff, and their on-site National Brewing Museum was pretty impressive. 

OK, these ConAgra GMO's are getting out of hand!

Our second night of lodging was in the small town of Shelby right outside LaCrosse, Wisconsin, at the converted 1917 one-room Wilson Schoolhouse which is now an inn.  We had the whole place to ourselves with a large living area and kitchen upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs.  We grabbed some local pizza for dinner and our friends, Laurie and Derek, who live nearby come over with lots of local beer and we had a great evening just hanging out in this very cool little place.

Monday, April 20 - Happy Birthday to Me!!  We swung through La Crosse the next morning to get a look at The World's Largest Six-Pack at City Brewing.  We then spanned the Mississippi River to the west and visited Minnesota, albeit very briefly, before heading back east toward Milwaukee where we would spend our third and last night of the trip.

It seemed like each night our lodging on this trip became more and more interesting.  When we got to Milwaukee we checked in to the amazing Brewhouse Inn and Suites Hotel which is housed in the former Pabst Brewery established back in 1844.  These guys have put a lot of thought into this place including  the check-in desk made of more than 1,500 beer bottles.  This is easily one of the neatest and nicest places we have ever stayed in.

Room 306 is a beautiful two-bedroom suite and was our home for the night. It was amazing.
Yep, those are the "beer doors" to our bedroom

The mezzanine of The Brewhouse Inn and Suites is comprised of the brewery's original huge copper brew kettles and  some amazingly cool furniture.  This is one hotel worth hanging out in.

At one end of the mezzanine is the original huge two-story stained glass rendering of King Grambinus, the patron saint of beer and brewing, that was commissioned by Frederick Pabst himself.

Love the brewery and hotel, but don't care for Pabst products, so we headed to dinner at the nearby Horny Goat Brewing Company.  Their beer was impressive, but their food was outstanding including the biggest pretzel we've ever seen.

After dinner, we headed over to beautiful Miller Park to catch a baseball game between the hometown Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds.  Weather be damned, this beauty has a retractable roof that can close in 10 minutes.

With the roof closed, Miller Park has a nice, cozy feel to it.  We had sweet fourth row seats down the 3rd base line and saw the Reds pull away from the Brew Crew by a score of 6-1 including a 2-run dinger by Joey Votto that sailed right above us.

We had prime seats to witness the famous Racing Sausages (yes, that name is trademarked) in the sixth-inning of all home Brewers games.  We were pulling for the chorizo, but he didn't win, place or show. Also during the game, one of the most hilarious (and kinda weird) coincidences I have ever witnessed or been a part of happened when a "Happy Birthday" announcement was flashed on the jumbo-tron of the stadium for "Rob."  And it just happened to be my birthday as well?  Of course, I have had a hard time explaining to Ashlee who "Maryellen and the kids" are!!  Thanks to Danny for quickly and alertly snapping this great picture.  And thanks to Maryellen and the kids for the sentiment.

Tuesday, April 21 -  We quickly realized that we had not planned near enough time in the lovely lake-front city of Milwaukee.  But, before leaving for our afternoon flight back down in Chicago, we were able to look around a little downtown despite some cold temperatures (it actually sleeted a little while we there).  Our first stop was the Bronze Fonz down on the Milwaukee Riverwalk.  Since he's bronze, his once-blue jeans have oxidized to green, but other than that he's as cool as they get.

We had lunch around the corner at The Safe House (aka International Exports, Ltd.) which is one of the neatest places we've ever been too (thanks Derek and Laurie for the suggestion!).  The whole place is spy-themed including the entrance being rather hard to find down a little alley.  Sometimes you even need a password to even get in the place.  Luckily, it was early and we were spared the need for a password or having to do something silly to get in without one.  The place is huge with tons of little rooms full of cool memorabilia and oddities.  The food was spot-on as well.

On our way out we drove by the amazing Milwaukee Art Museum (aka The Calatrava) on the lakefront.  We have definitely got to come back here with warmer temps and explore more of this wonderful city.

Another Milwaukee drive-by was the beautiful North Point Lighthouse.  Perched high up on a ridge above the city, this beauty was not open for a tour (nor did we have time for one), but is another reason to return to Brew City as soon as we can.

Overall, a really outstanding trip.  We saw and experienced a lot in a short amount of time.  Thanks again to Ashlee for going along with my silly trip ideas, and to Danny and Brenda for coming along and adding to the fun.  We will see you again, Wisconsin.  I am sure of it.

MARCHing into April 2015

March and early April 2015 were busy for us with three short return-trips to some of our favorite places including New York City, Memphis and Destin, Florida; plus some music, comedy and hockey thrown into the mix.

NEW YORK

Snowy Percy Priest Lake and the dam from take-off

Friday, March 6  - We flew to NYC around noon today, lucky once again to miss another snow storm like we did last year.  We stayed at the super-convenient (and quite affordable) Hilton Garden Inn Times Square.  Our 12th floor room had a great view looking westward toward the Hudson River.

A snowy Manhattan sunset

After checking in we walked a short distance to an interesting dinner at Inakaya Japanese Restaurant which was offering a nice three-course discounted menu for NYC Restaurant Week which was just drawing to a close. After dinner we took in a spur of the moment Off-Broadway production called The Gazillon Bubbles Show.  It was pretty fun, albeit much more oriented towards kids than we thought it was going to be.

This billboard in Times Square under the famous NYE Ball had it right.  It was Brr-tastic!

After a couple brews at the bar of The Beer Authority and a walk through Times Square in the brisk below-freezing air, we retired for the night.

Saturday, March 7 - We slept in a bit and then took a cab to the south end of the island for a scheduled visit to The Meow Parlour.

Ashlee had read an article recently about this cool concept of pet adoption where you interact with the animals before you adopt them instead of just seeing them sitting in a cage.  Now while we aren't in the market for another cat, we still wanted to check the place out and, of course, mess around with the cats for a charge of $4 for a half-hour.  That's about the best deal in the city!!  That's our favorite one, Kris, pictured above.  He was very playful and friendly.




On our walk from the Cat Parlour through Chinatown toward the new Freedom Tower (background), we stopped for a look at the cool little fire station made famous in the film, Ghostbusters.  We happened upon a hearty and delicious brunch beng served just across the street at Walker's Bar.

The new Freedom Tower is an amazing site from all perspectives.

Here's Ashlee on The Highline, a new park concept in Manhattan that converted an old elevated railway into a green area.  We walked the entire length of it and booked over 10 miles overall for the day according to my Fitbit.

We had a tasty dinner at Braai, a South African restaurant, before attending the Broadway show, "Constellations" starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson.  It was an excellent show and we were lucky enough to see both stars after the show and have them sign a poster we bought.

Thanks for the autograph, Jake!

Sunday, March 8 - With nothing really planned before we flew home today, we booked a last-minute mid-morning 20-minute helicopter tour from Helicopter Flight Services Inc.  The weather cooperated in spectacular fashion as we lifted off from the East River Heliport, came around the south end of the island over The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and then up the Hudson River and back.  We've become pretty addicted to helicopter flights as this is our 4th in the last year or so and this one was exceptional.

A grand view from the helicopter of the gleaming Freedom Tower and the rest of lower Manhattan.

MEMPHIS

Pampered ducks.

They are "The Boll Weevil Club" or something strange like that.
At least they're green I guess.  Happy St. Patty's Day Weekend!

Saturday, March  14 - We took a road trip this weekend back out to Memphis with our friends, Mike (who had never been there before), and Brenda and Danny (who used to live there, but hadn't been back in over 20 years). We started the day by watching the March of the Ducks in the amazingly beautiful lobby of the Peabody Hotel.  A total hoot and a total must for any visit to Memphis.  This is something that Ashlee and I have both witnessed before, but never together.

Then it was on to an awesome lunch at the famous Rendezvous Rib Joint.  Again, an absolute must for any visit to the Bluff City.  We walked off lunch with a nice walk over to the Civil Rights Museum at the infamous Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was killed.  Again, this is a place that both Ashlee and I have been to before, but never together.  And once again, an absolute must when you visit this area.  The mood was lightened on our way back toward Beale Street as we happened right upon an early, but very festive, St. Patrick's Day parade.   After catching a few flying bead necklaces, we had a few libations at the Memphis location of The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium before checking into our sweet rooms at the Hampton Inn right on Beale Street, one of which included a balcony which we enjoyed hanging out on before heading out for the main reason we picked this weekend to visit Memphis: a home game for the Grizzlies at the nearby FedEx Forum.

Sweet $9 seats for a first-place team.  Go Grizzlies!!

The Memphis Grizzlies. who are currently in 1st place in their Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the NBA took on the Milwaukee Bucks.  It was a dominating 96-83 win for the Grizzlies. We celebrated after the game out on famous Beale Street late into the night and grabbed a delicious bite at Dyer's Burgers before turning in.

Hey, a fair warning is all you can ask for from our hotel on Beale Street.

Collage Flashback to July 2000,
our last pre-blog visit to Graceland

Sunday, March 15 -  After sleeping in a bit, it was time to take in a couple last must-sees before leaving Memphis.  First was the eclectic time-warp home of Elvis Presley, Graceland.  Ashlee and I have been here before (pre-blog), but we had forgotten what a great tour it is, and they have improved it as well including a new audio-tour via your own personal computer tablet.  We opted to see Big E's private planes as well which was quite interesting also.  None of our friends had been here before, and it's always a treat to show something this interesting to people for the first time.  Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.

Secondly, was lunch afterwards at one of our favorite spots, Uncle Lou's Famous Fried Chicken.  Again, this was a repeat for us, but the other three in our group had not been here.  It was the flavor sensation it always is and Uncle Lou made three new fans today of his Sweet Spicy Love sauce.

I think I liked Elvis' swanky billiard room more than even the famous Jungle Room

$15? Man, what a deal!!

DESTIN

April 1-4:  I flew down to Pensacola, Florida, today to meet up in Destin with Ashlee and her family again  for a few days of "spring break" on the beach.  They had rented another large, beautiful house with it's own pool in a gated community.   It was just a couple blocks to the beach from the house and we had a cool 6-seater golf cart to use to get there.  The weather was perfect for laying around on the beach (see the short video below of  the beautiful beach that we shared with a cute sandpiper).  The water was even warm enough to get into and goof around in as well.

We had a couple of awesome dinners while we were down in Destin at Louisiana Lagniappe and The Craft Bar.  On Saturday, we packed up Ashlee's car and headed back together to Nashville for a concert (see below).

A limited view of some of the beautiful house we rented down in Destin.

Saturday, April 4 - We attended the SOLD OUT Mat Kearney show at The Ryman tonight.  Our sweet 6th row main floor seats were perfect and when Mat came into the crowd during one song (see video below), he was right beside us.  He had to great openers as well with Judah and the Lion, and  then Parachute.

I stole this great pic from Mat Kearney's Facebook page.  That's me on the far right side holding up the gold Preds hat.

Thursday, April 9 - We attended the SOLD OUT last Preds home regular season game tonight against the Minnesota Wild.  It was actually the first and only game of a four-pack that we bought with our friend, Wayne, that we could actually attend together.  Icy weather prevented us from going to the first game, a conflict in Ashlee's schedule prevented her from going to the next game, and the Mat Kearney show mentioned above was a conflict for both of us on the third game.   Despite a quick 2-0 lead in the first period in this game, the Preds dropped this one 2-4 and also lost their chance at their first-ever conference title.  Bummer. On a brighter note, we did qualify for home-ice during the playoffs which start next week.  And on an even brighter note, we surprised our friend, Wayne, with a meet and greet of Preds winger, James Neal, after the game.


Our first-ever ticket package bought with the Preds.

Wednesday, April 15 - The 2015 NHL Playoffs began today and our Nashville Predators locked up a berth more than a couple weeks before the regular season even ended with a second place finish in the Central Division and a # 3 seed in the West.   Tonight was Game 1 of the Western Divisional Semifinals against the hated (but talented) Chicago Blackhawks.  We had great seats in the 200 club level behind the defend-twice goal  secured with our Smashville Passport along with our friend Wayne.  Our friends, Danny and Brenda, also got a passport and had seats right beside us, and our friends, Chris and Tarryn, did the same with some upper level seats.   It was a soul-crushing 4-3 loss in double OT.  The longest game in franchise history.  We didn't get home until well after midnight.  Jumping out to a fantastic 3-0 lead in the first period was the toughest thing to swallow about this loss.  On a positivie and fun note, we did get on the jumbotron for about 30 seconds during the game just dancing like fools.

Don't let Ruxin get in your mind
 about his skewed fantasy football trade offer!!

Thursday, April 16 - I was lucky enough to win two Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) Gold Laminates  recently (thanks www.nowplayingnashville.com !!)  that gave Ashlee and me full access to the entire event and the ability to view  up to 40 films (that's a $400 value). Tonight we attended the NaFF Opening Night Party and a screening of the film "Adult Beginners" which was written, produced and stars comedian/actor, Nick Kroll, who we know best as "Ruxin"  from the hilarious TV comedy, "The League" which is centered around fantasy-football.  The movie was very good with a great cast and Nick was even on hand before the film to introduce it, and to take some Q and A afterwards.  Later, out on the red carpet, we even got to meet him and Ashlee grabbed a patented "selfie with a star."  We enjoyed some complimentary food and libations after the film as well.

Friday, April 17 - We attended the SOLD OUT Game 2 of the Western Dvisional Semifinals vs. Chicago tonight. It was a different story tonight as we laid waste to those stinking Blackhawks with a 6-2 trouncing evening the series up at 1-1.  We had our same sweet seats as before.  The boys are off to Chicago next with two hard road games ahead of them.  We hope to be back here soon for more Preds playoff action.

I was goofing around with the panoramic feature on my IPhone and got this cool picture
of Bridgestone Arena during Game 2 with our friends Wayne and Danny and Brenda book-ending it.