Christmas and New Year Trip - Dec 2020

NC Gang in FL

Our 2020 end of year trip was to be a two-week trip around New Zealand with John and Joanna.  Since Covid-19 put a stop to that, we opted to try a five-week, 4,000 mile road trip around the east coast!  With that much time on the road and a lot of room in the 4Runner, we decided to pack heavy.  And heavy we did.  To the point that we started getting nervous we'd actually fit everything in the car:  not only the large suitcases, but a folding table, Keith's large work monitor, herbs and spices, board games, a cooler, weights, and even steamed pudding pots!  But we loaded it all up on the morning of Thursday Dec 10...and we were off...

Kentucky

We left home at about 3 in the afternoon and drove the ~5 hours down to Louisville.  Dinner was veggies and hummus on the road.  We arrived at the Hotel Distil and used two valet carts to get our stuff to the room.  The next morning Keith left to visit three communities in the market, and on the way back to the hotel, he stopped by where he used to live during his pre-Shawna years, Mallgate Apartments (now Halsey Flats) by Mall St Matthews.  Dinner that night was takeout from Merle's Whiskey Kitchen with a bottle of wine from the hotel (after we bought that we remembered that we had ~20 bottles with us!).

Dining Covid style - take-out in our room

Carolinas

After a quick visit in Kentucky we drove the 8 hours to Raleigh - the last time Keith did this drive was when he was moving to Durham to go to grad school.  While we used much of the drive to listen to the beginning of Obama's audio book, we were lucky to spend 2 hours listening to Phoebe's bat mitzvah over Zoom in the morning!  It was great to listen to and Phoebe was incredible - very poised and confident.  Lunch was cheese and crackers: we had stopped by Whole Foods in the morning for a gorgeous spread that Shawna "served" as Keith was driving.  As a result, we made fantastic time and arrived at Chez Douglas on the Saturday night just after 5pm.  We unloaded the car and Keith set up his mobile office in John's spare room and had a few beers with sushi for dinner.  We stayed for a week with Shawna working out of John's house and Keith spent a couple of days down in Charlotte visiting properties.  While in Raleigh, we:

• Went for a walk around the Washington Duke Golf course - Keith with Stephanie and Shawna going for a run
• Ate lunch at Fosters
• Cooked gumbo and made a few meals out of it
• Had a socially distant Asian dinner at Keith and Kates (with Phoebe and Ruby) around their outdoor fireplace
• Did a few more walks: around John's neighborhood and to the mall and back

It was great seeing some of the Raleigh gang and when we departed we knew we'd see John and Joanna in less than a week.

Socially distanced dinner at the Artins

Georgia

The drive down to Atlanta was easy - more audiobook and cheese and crackers.  We planned the trip to arrive by 2pm so Keith could secret shop a property on the Sunday afternoon.  We checked into the Westin Perimeter North.  We got a larger suite so that there was more room after the smaller space we had in Louisville.  We had mediterranean for dinner than night (delivered to our hotel).  On the Monday, Keith toured properties all day while Shawna worked out of the hotel.  After property tours, Keith returned to the hotel, changed, and drove Shawna to a dinner in the private dining room of Ray's on the River where we had yummy steaks, joined by Kelly, JP, and Shuyi.  

Louisiana

After the brief stay in Atlanta, it was time for the 8-hour drive to Shawna's mom's house so that we could be with her for a few days over Christmas!  Keith drove half the way and was on conference calls much of the day.  We arrived at the house early evening.  While at Shawna's mom's we:

• Cooked and ate gumbo for Christmas Eve and several meals after...with enough leftovers to take to the beach house and have TWO full meals there!
• Ate fried turkey courtesy of Chet for Christmas day with some delicious sides
• Opened gifts on Christmas morning and gave Shawna's mom the Christmas gift of Shawna returning to the house for two weeks and being there to celebrate her 80th birthday
• Baked ginger cookies
• Ate pineapple cake that Shawna's mom made for Keith - we managed to eat the entire cake over four days!
• Went for walks along the bayou every day
• Watched cheesy Christmas movies at night

Celebrating Xmas Covid style

Panama City Florida

We rented a house on the beach for the week over New Year's with the Raleigh gang (Joyce/Phil, Kim/Jonathan, and John/JoAnna). We left Moreauville on the Sunday morning with a lunch stop in Slidell for Keith to meet his colleague Tami for lunch.   We made it to the beach house at 5pm: the rest of the crew were already there and had selected rooms which made things easier.  The gang helped us unload the car, Keith set up his "office" for the week, and we warned up the gumbo for the first dinner. The house was great - it had 7 bedrooms with plenty of bathrooms and a nice sized kitchen / dining / living room area.  It was located directly not the beach with great views of the water from each floor.

House Rental

The week was quite lazy:

• In the morning, people either went for walks, read, or slept in.
• Every day was focused on cooking, eating, cleaning up, and of course a few drinks were had - including Shawna's cocktails of the day,  Each couple had a day of cooking.  Shawna's day was New Years Eve and included an amazing kale salad for lunch and roast lamb for dinner with two steamed puddings for dessert.
• The house had a pool that was heated.  While it was a bit cool outside, it was warm enough to have a dip in the pool and drink a beer or five. It sunny the first few days of the week so we could sit outside and soak up a few rays during the day.
• Keith took out his kite once: since he brought it he had to use it!
• We played a few games around the kitchen table each day.

Hanging out at the pool

We packed up the last morning and all departed at about 7:45.  Keith drove Shawna to the airport where she picked up a rental car to drive back to Louisiana while Keith continued visiting properties.

Playing games

Louisiana (Shawna)

It was ~7 hours back to Moreauville for Shawna, then two weeks with her mom where she:

• Worked out of her house during the week
• Cooked lots of healthy food for mom to try and give her ideas
• Went for walks/run along the bayou
• Watched more cheesy Christmas movies
• Baked cookies and a pineapple cake for Shawna's mom's birthday
• Chatted with some of her friends who Shawna had texted to come by individually and wish her mom a socially distanced birthday
• Looked at old photos and reminisced about old memories

Tampa / Orlando / Jacksonville / Nashville (Keith)

Keith's job the next two weeks was to haul all the stuff in the car as he visited properties and met some of his teammates.  The next two weeks were all work, but he arrived home safely on Saturday Jan 16th, with Shawna flying home on the 17th. 

JoAnna, Joyce, Kim and Shawna in FL

Nashville Festival - September 2017

Nashville Food and Wine Festival

After the success of FUCAT (F'ed up Childhood Appreciation Tour), we worked with John and JoAnna to come up with a new excuse to travel.  So we settled on another four-year program where we'd visit one festival a year, with each of us taking turns to select the festival.  JoAnna went first since she was the inaugural FUCAT tour, and she chose the Food and Wine Festival in Nashville.  While Keith had been there for work as well as personal travel 20+ years before, none of us had really visited for fun in the recent past.

The Stillery for Dinner

Since we live on the west coast now, we decided to fly out late on the Thursday and work from the hotel on the Friday.  And late it was - the 7pm direct to Nashville arrived at 12:30am so we were not asleep until 1:30am.  It did help to have the time zones in our favor.  Our hotel for the weekend was the Renaissance hotel downtown Nashville, which was only a block off Broadway.  Shawna worked in the room the whole day Friday while Keith worked at a table in the club room on the 24th floor.  We both had back-to-back calls so were jammed the whole day.  John and Jo's flight arrived late so we fortunately had time for an early-evening nap and shower before they arrived so we were bright eyed and bushy tailed for their arrival.

Jonathan Waxman

The first stop of the evening was the rooftop of the Stage on Broadway.  Broadway is a massive honky-tonk street - think Bourbon in New Orleans or Duvall in Key West - but with almost all country bars.  The streets were heaving with people, though once we got to the rooftop it was full but not jammed.  We squeezed in a couple of beers before deciding we were hungry.  The next stop was The Stillery for dinner (on 2nd street) where we had Mac 'n cheese with fried chicken, jalapeños, brussel sprouts, and cheese dip with pesto bread.  The waitress was really nice and the food was tasty and fast.  The final stop for the night was the Swinging Door, another rooftop bar that backs to the Hilton where we sat next to a bachelor party and listened to a live musician.  We called it a night at about 2am which made John and JoAnna proud.

Pig - Yum!

Saturday was the main event - the Nashville (Music City) Food and Wine Festival. It was raining when we got up and continued to rain as we walked to the festival site in Bicentennial Park. We had pre-purchased the tickets for the day and the gates opened at 11-4pm. We started our first tasting at 11:15 and had a fantastic day with a massive variety of wines, beer, and local restaurant tastings. There were also celebrity chef demonstrations - we caught the last 10 minutes of Tim Love - a Fort Worth Chef that Keith's brother knows. We also saw Jonahtham Waxman. There were so many booths - we were not able to taste everything but we surely get it the college try!

HOHO Bus Tour

By 4pm we had our fill (and more) of the food and wine, so headed back to the hotel.  We decided to have a nap, which lasted until 9pm at which time none of us were inspired to head out.  So, with a pretty full day behind us, we ordered room service, watched Pitch Perfect 2, and fell asleep again!

What? The Parthenon? In Nashville?

Sunday was our last day in Nashville so we decided we had to see a bit of the city.  We showered, packed, and checked out - and opted for lunch which we found at Skulls Rainbow Room on Printers Alley.  It was a really interesting old building that has been resurrected - with pretty good food (the lobster bisque was delicious).  We then decided that the best way to see the city was the GreyLine Hop-On Hop-Off bus.  The first leg of the tour was terrible, with the driver naming pretty much every restaurant and shop on every street - including his commentary on Hooters - which was kind of creepy.  We jumped off half way through the tour and got the next bus with a different "guide" - who was only good in comparison with the first.  We did not really get any history, so it was a bit of a disappointment.  At the conclusion of the bus tour we had a couple of hours to kill before needing to go to the airport, so we went to the rooftop of the Acme Feed and Seed restaurant which overlooks the river.  The upside there was that the music scene was more traditional - which was nice since we were a bit "country-ed out".  We Ubered to the airport - with Keith heading to Phoenix, Shawna to Hartford, and John and JoAnna back to Raleigh.  It will only be a short time until we see them again in Scottsdale!

Blackberry Farm - TN - June 2010

For this birthday weekend, we decided to treat ourselves to 2 nights at the Blackberry Farm, a luxury hotel in Walland, TN.

Accommodation
Blackberry Farm - Located in a tiny town in the rolling hills of Tennessee, this hotel is absolutely beautiful.  We had our own cabin for the two nights.  The hotel has several fabulous restaurants, a spa and plenty of activities.  We highly recommend it as a place to go to celebrate a special occasion.

Our Room

Activities
We walked around the grounds of the hotel and went for a 8 mile hike that borders the perimeter of the grounds and Smoky Mountain National Park.  We also went on a 4-hour guided kayaking trip on one of the lakes nearby the hotel.  It was quite peaceful.  Of course, we had to try out the spa where we got massages and relaxed, taking advantage of the amenities of the hotel.

Keith and Shawna Kayaking

The Grounds

Restaurants
We had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Main House and one dinner (tasting menu) at the Barn.  The food was amazing and fresh as they used many of their own locally grown produce and livestock.  The atmosphere at the Barn was awesome -- very nice and rustic with candles lit throughout.

Keith and Shawna at Dinner in the Main House

The Barn Where We Had Dinner