You're Going on LeBREWski, Lebowski!!

Wait, hold up... it's a Bahamas cruise with live music from two of our favorite bands, O/A/R and Alpha Rev, plus many other artists, there's a ton of craft beer on board, and we would be celebrating the classic film, The Big Lebowski???  And, it's at a great discounted price?  Well, how could we not be in!?!?

Saturday, 2/27 -  We flew from Nashville today down to Ft. Lauderdale, rented a car and drove a little farther south to Miami today to start a long weekend as we awaited to board our cruise ship on Tuesday.  We booked a room at the lush Hilton Cabana Hotel on the North Miami Beach.

White sand, blue skies and aqua ocean!  What a beautiful day to fly in to South Florida!

After landing and securing our extremely nice SUV (thanks Ashlee's "Preferred Status" at Avis), we secured some  lunch at the nearby Tap 42  in Ft. Lauderdale.  The food was delicious and, as the name implies, the beer list was impressive.

After checking in to our hotel, we headed to the beach to catch the last bit of daylight and to crack open our delicious (and hard to find...thanks Tap 42!) limited Tiramisu-Hoo  Imperial Milk Stout from one of our favorite craft brewers, Terrapin, in Athens, Georgia.   What a great way to toast the end of our first day way down south!  Except it wasn't...we ended the night with some bubbly up on the third floor roof of the hotel under a starry sky with the waves crashing below.  So nice!!

Sunday, 2/28 - With an iffy forecast for tomorrow, we decided to go ahead and move inland this morning and try our first-ever air-boat ride over in the Everglades National Park.

Now THAT is a big ol' gator, folks!!  We saw several of them actually while on an hour excursion with Coopertown Airboats for a great price (thanks Groupon!).    This  excursion would have been worth full admission.  What a fun trip!  We would considering doing a longer, private tour that goes deeper into the swamp next time we are in the area.

The weather cooperated, albeit a bit cool, this afternoon, so we headed back to the hotel and back out to the beach!

We returned inland again for a few miles this evening to attend an event called Hollywood's Big Night Party for an Oscars telecast viewing at the Cinebistro movie theater at the Dolphin Mall. 



What a great deal!  For $40 each we got lots of wine, great heavy appetizers, four free hand-rolled cigars (the dude was on site making them in front of us!) and a hilarious caricature drawing of us as well from an artist on site.  Our seats were super-comfy and we watched the entire telecast of which the highlight was seeing Leo finally get his well-deserved Oscar!

Monday, 2/29 - Happy Leap Day everyone!  We spent our extra day of 2016 in South Florida again checking out the beach .  Afterwards, we picked up our friends, Laurie and Derek, at the airport who are also going on the cruise that starts tomorrow.  We had a late night drink (and dinner for Derek and Laurie) at the very cool Lou's Beer Garden near our hotel.

Tuesday, 3/1 -  Day 1 of The Lebrewski Cruise - This was our first time on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.  The Norwegian Pearl is a very nice boat with pretty darn good food in the buffet.  We started seeing performers almost immediately after boarding includig the hard-to-miss Andy Frasco (photo bombing our friend, Derek...nice shirt, D...lol...and then again later in the evening hugging on my wife!?!).   We saw performances from Kyle Hollandsworth of The String Cheese Incident and friends, Jared and the Mill and the aforementioned (and amazing) Andy Frasco and the U.N.  We had dinner in the Chinese bistro which was very tasty as were the three desserts we ordered!  You gotta love cruisin'!!

The young harmonious band from Arizona, Jared and the Mill, were rockin' the swim trunks (and boots?) in honor of the cruise and our tropical destinations that lay ahead

Wednesday, 3/2 - Day 2 of The Lebrewski Cruise - We woke up in the Bahamas in the Port of Nassau today to perfect weather.   We did a great small-group (just 8 people including us and Derek and Laurie) snorkeling trip excursion that included stops at a boat wreck/living reef that was sunk for the filming of the James Bond film, Thunderball, and then another stop at a larger natural reef.  Captain Mark with Blue Hole Watersports was a great guide.  On the way back to the cruise ship we stopped at Lukka Kairi Restaurant for some local beer and Bahamian bread.

We capped off the day (and the night) with a headliner performance by O/A/R  in the ship's main theater.  We got great seats down close for another solid performance by the boys from Rockville, Maryland.

The photo below is of our last performers of the night, Alpha Rev.  I snapped this pic before the crowd filled in the area in front of the stage.  While lead singer and heart and soul of the band, Casey McPherson, was there, several other members of the band were not including their awesome lead guitarist Zak Loy (who is still touring with Ed Kowalczyk of Live - see previous blog entry).  It was also evident in their performance which wasn''t the best we've seen from them, and was basically turned into a jam session that included the help of some other bands on the boat like Jared and the Mill and Hollis Brown.

Thursday, 3/3 - Day 3 of The Lebrewski Cruise was a relaxing  day at sea that started with a perfect  pool-deck performance by O/A/R.  We also caught some of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers later on this stage  as well.  We took in  as much of a late-night screening of The Big Lebowski in the ship's  main theater as we could before calling it a night.



Friday, 3/4 - Day 4 of The Lebrewski Cruise - We awoke anchored off of  NCL's own private Bahamanian island, Grand Stirrup Cay. for a day of beach fun and an amazing performance by Andy Frasco and the U.N.  again (video below).

We had to tender over to shore but it was worth it.

Yes, we saw Andy Frasco and his crew in the elevator on the way to the island that morning, and yes, Andy said he wanted to crowd surf to the ocean from the stage...and he did just that!!  And we were privy to that information before anyone else...you never know what you are gonna learn in an elevator...(this is not my picture...thanks LeBrewski Cruise...but that's me under Andy's right knee in the yellow hat (Go Preds!)  and Ashlee is behind me holding a guy's arm that I guess she thought was Andy's leg?? 

Beautiful Great Stirrup Cay.

Back on the boat that evening it was time for some craft beer tasting, some Hollis Brown tunes, more Alpha Rev jamming and a few tunes from Nashville's own, Tyler Bryant  and the Shakedown.

The craft beer was very abundant on board.  This was one of our collective favorites  and the name of it seems quite appropriate for this cruise.

Besides Andy Frasco, the young  band out of New York called Hollis Brown was one of our great new-to-us "discoveries" on this trip.  They have a fantastic sound and some great original songs.

Saturday, 3/5 - We arrived back in port this morning and rented another car (with a sweet large sunroof) and drove down to our beloved, Key West, for a long weekend.  

One of favorite drives anywhere.

From a distance this looked like a religious or church vehicle carrying a cross...as we got closer we realized it was just a tiki bar being moved from on place to another..ahh, The Keys.

Our one stop on the way to Key West was for some awesome tarpon-feeding at Robbie's Marina in Islamorada.  These suckers are huge and will eat small fish-heads right out of your hand!

We arrived in Key West late in the afternoon and checked into the nice, albeit a bit loud due to traffic on Truman Avneue , La Pensione Inn.   We took a walk in Old Town had a few beers at The Porch (photo above), a quiet beer bar with a great selection just off  the always-busy Duval Street.  We wondered some more along the water and had some more beer and a delicious snack at the relatively new Waterfront Brewery.

We ambled back along the water and were fortunate enough to witness one of the best sunsets we've ever seen in Key West (and we've seen many) at Mallory Square for the daily Sunset Celebration.  The air was a bit chilly after sunset, but otherwise perfect throughout our stay.

 We opted for a late dinner at our favorite restaurant in Key West, the always-awesome Blue Heaven.  I had the daily special which was grilled hog fish (photo above) and
Ashlee had their signature yellow-tail.  Both were delicious!

Sunday, 3/6 - We slept in a bit this morning and then after breakfast at the inn, we strolled over to Nancy Forrester's  Secret Garden, a sanctuary for rescued or abandoned parrots.  

We got an impromptu and private tour of secret garden from Batman and Jerry.   What a great place!

With great dining views and the prospect of more good food (and beer) we decided to have lunch back the new Waterfront Brewery.  It was a good decision.  Cheers!

Despite just getting off the water for several days with the cruise, it's really hard to come to Key West and not get on the water at least a little, so a sunset wine-tasting sail with Danger Charters was just the ticket for us, and a great way to wrap up our way-too-short visit back to one of our favorite places in the world.

Monday, 3/7 - We had a nice, leisurely drive back to Ft. Lauderdale today to fly home.  Before taking off, we had another great lunch at Tap 42 again near the airport.

Stunning views and good weather as we headed north on Highway 1 and back to reality.

An ALL-STAR January and a ROCK-STAR February

2016 Has Started Off with a Bang

Tuesday 1/5 - We attended a Preds game tonight, but it was a disheartening 4-1 loss (44 shots on goal and we don't win?) to Winnipeg, but at least the food and company were good during the game and before with some of our friends and  1/2 price sushi at Susie Wong's House of Yum.

Saturday, 1/9 -  We saw the outstanding film, The Revenant, today.  I think I enjoyed more than Ashlee, but we both agree that Leo DiCaprio should finally get his Oscar for this amazing performance.

Wednesday 1/13 - We traveled down to Chattanooga this afternoon to see Grace Potter at the soon-to-be-gone music venue, Track 29.

We got a great deal on an overnight stay in a train car room at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.  It was such a good deal that we also got a room for Ashlee's mom, Evelyn, which she enjoyed. We had a great dinner  before the show at FEED Co. Table and Tavern,. We had lunch at the Terminal Brewhouse the next day before heading back home.

January 16-24 - Ashlee and I did a little separate traveling this week with her going on a week-long girls-only cruise in the Caribbean and with me going to L.A. for a few days.  What we both missed was a huge snowstorm back at home with about 8 inches of snow and ice accumulating!  

While we were away...this was happening at home.  

We did get home in time to see our nearly-finished pool in all it's winter wonder.

Saturday and Sunday, 1/30 and 1/31:  It was a proud time for Nashville this week as they hosted the NHL All-Star Weekend for the very first time and we were very happy to a be able to attend several of the many planned activities.  The city looked great, and the event went smooth and the fact that the weather was unseasonably mild and clear helped a lot as well.

Bridgestone Arena never looked better than this All Star Weekend!

On Saturday before the All-Star Skills Competition we were having a beer outside the Bridgestone Arena at Tavern '96 and so was current Nashville Predators head coach, Peter Laviolette.  He was gracious enough to pose for a pic with Ashlee.  Go Preds!!

At the NHL All-Star Fan Fair going on inside the Music City Center we even got to fondle and faux-kiss the actual Stanley Cup.  You could kiss it for real if you wanted, but there sure have been a lot of hands and lips on it, and worst of all it's spent most of the off-season with  the damn Blackhawks in Chicago...yeeech!!  

The NHL All-Star Skills Competition was a lot of fun and our own Predators captain, Shea Weber, won the Hardest Shot competition AGAIN this year with no one else even getting close to his 108+ MPH slap-shot.  Wow!

CHICKEN BRUNCH!!

We spent the night downtown since we had to be here tomorrow for the All-Star game anyway, and got a great rate at the Maxwell House Hotel where we had spent New Year's Eve.  Per Ashlee's love of all things Christmas, we decided to seek out Santa's Pub tonight, a infamous Nashville dive bar housed in a double-wide trailer and  owned by a large dude in a long white beard (maybe it's Kringle, maybe not).   It was a hoot and some of the karaoke was actually decent.   We continued the night with a late visit to the new Butcher and the Bee Restaurant over in East Nashville for some delicious snacks and tasty suds. Thanks to our friends, Danny and Brenda, for staying out late with us tonight.

Late Sunday morning we had an awesome brunch at Party Fowl before going back to the All-Star activities where we got  up close for a couple of good free concerts with country up-and-comer, Kelsea Ballerini, and  Nashville veteran, Dierks Bentley (video clip below).  Dierks is a pretty good beer-league hockey player himself, and even helped Preds winger, James Neal, score a goal in yesterday's skills competition.

 The  NHL All-Star Game was up next and our Preds scored 3 goals but their Central Division Team didn't make the finals of the new tournament structure.  But the team with the great feel-good story of the NHL year of John Scott's team did  advance to the finals and won the tournament, and Scott, with two goals of his own, was voted MVP by write-in ballot!!  Very, very cool.

photo by Ashlee

Saturday, 2/13 - We did a little beer touring today in Nashville and visited a couple new microbreweries including Bearded Iris Brewing in Germantown and Smith and Lentz Brewing in East Nashville before and after dinner at the always-delicious Ted's Montana Grill over in Green Hills. Then it was on to a show at the Nashville War Memorial Auditorium with the fun and energetic Nashville-based band, Judah and the Lion. (video clip below).  Their first opener, Future Thieves, were pretty good too.

Sunday, 2/14 - We spent Valentine's Day at home today after  having to cancel some dinner and movie plans in Nashville due to a forecast of bad, icy weather.  We just had a modest dinner at home (with $5 Little Caesar's takeout pizza...our new obsession, what a deal!) and some old movies on the DVD player.

Saturday, 2/20  We headed down to Chattanooga today to take in a college baseball game at the minor league AT and T Stadium for the Lookouts.  It was the UT Vols vs. the Memphis Tigers in the second game of a three-game East-West Showdown.  It was a 13-8 final with Memphis winning.  The weather was very mild and the rain held off as we enjoyed our seats right behind the first-base dugout and visited a little with our old friend, Mick.

Afterwards, we checked out the lovely new facility for Chattanooga Brewing and had a tasty libation or two. Cheers!

Sunday (2/21) was a dreary, rainy day in Chattanooga, but that didn't stop us from taking a walk from Ashlee's mom's house in North Chattanooga across the river to the Hunter Museum and back.  Photo by Ashlee

Tuesday, 2/23 - We finally saw Deadpool in IMAX  tonight at Opry Mills.  We have to admit we weren't overly impressed with it especially since most of the humor was very dark and centered around violence. But it did have some good laughs not dealing with the killing and maiming of others.  And best of all we got to see it with our old pal, Wayne, as well as dinner beforehand at the always-delicious (and bowel-cleansing) Moe's!!

MMXV Collage UP!!

Put it on the Wall!!

2015 was a great year and its memorial collage turned out pretty darn good!

Closing out the Year with Cheer

December is always a busy month for us and this year was no exception

We attended a couple of hockey games this week as part of our season ticket package.  On Tuesday 12/1 we saw the Preds score a big 5-2 win over Arizona, and on Thursday,12/3, it was just me and Ashlee this time, and we saw a tough 2-1 loss over a Florida Panther team who have a surprisingly good defense.

Saturday, !2/5 - We attended a showing of the holiday comedy classic film, Home Alone, tonight with the Nashville Symphony providing the beautiful John Williams' score live at the Schermerhorn.  They also had a chorus singing during parts of the movie which was a nice touch.  We sat behind the orchestra again as we did with Star Trek and it's such a cool perspective from that vantage point.  Our friends, Mike, Bethany, Wendy and Charlie attended with us.  We had dinner before and dessert after the show at Kitchen Notes in the nearby Omni Hotel.

Wednesday, 12/9 - We attended an in-store acoustic performance late this afternoon at Grimey's in Nashville by  British punk-folk-rocker, Frank Turner.   Ashlee even met him and we also got an autographed copy of his new album.  Afterwards we headed over to 3rd and Lindsley for dinner followed by Frank and his band, the Sleepless Souls, in a plugged-in SOLD OUT show.

Thursday, 12/10 - The digging for our new backyard in-ground pool BEGINS!!

Friday, 12/11 - We split up tonight for a while in downtown Nashville as Ashlee and her sister, Paige, went to a hilarious Amy Shumer show at the Bridgestone Arena  while I got front row for a rocking good Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue show at Marathon Music Works.  Since Ashlee and Paige's tickets included all you could eat and drink before and after the show, I volunteered as the designated driver as well.

Thursday, 12/17 - We were proud to have been a very small part of cinematic history tonight as we saw the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens at the SOLD OUT Opry Mills IMAX with seven of  our friends .  It was a record-breaking opening Thursday night  and well-deserved since it was such a good movie.

Yes, this is a real picture that Ashlee took while on a cruise this past summer and was the photo on our Christmas party invitation on Facebook.   It kinda set the tone for the party...

Saturday, 12/19 - We threw a Christmas party tonight with  a cover-all theme of Dickens/Ugly Sweaters/Pajamas/Costumes that was a ton of fun, as usual, with the highlights being a risque gingerbread man decorating contest and a hilarious game of "Utter Nonsense" which our friends, Danny and Brenda, had brought us as a gift to our recent Halloween party.

Wednesday, 12/23 - Despite the unusual winter sound of tornado sirens going off (what the??) in downtown Nashville tonight, we enjoyed a safe and cheerful evening at Drew Holcomb's Neighborly Christmas at The Schermerhorn.  This SOLD OUT event was great as usual and in this new amazing venue it was all the more special.

Thursday, 12/31 -  We decided to stay home this New Year's Eve and check out the celebration in downtown Nashville.  We got a room at The Millenium Maxwell House Hotel for a reasonable price.  We started with dinner at Puckett's, then drinks and merriment in our private room at Pub 5 with several friends, and then it was back out into the cold to hear Kings of Leon play and count down to midnight to watch the note drop in a new record crowd of over 150,000 people.

Very impressive, Nashville, very impressive!  Thanks for a safe, organized and festive event!

Friday, 1/1/ 16 - We celebrated New Year's Day with brunch at Party Fowl  with great food and libations while watching a big Outback Bowl win by UT.  Afterward we took a mile walk for ice cream at Mike's on Broadway. a little boot shopping with the tourists, a stop at Barlines for a drink and to catch up on some more bowl game action.