day: 87 nashville to ownings mills

after a nice visit with my sister's family and the camper made right we headed out to ownings mills to visit with my best friends tim and jenne and our god daughters charlette and alex.  we had a gorgeous fish tacos with home made tortillas prepared gracefully by chef tim.  the next day we had a baby dance party

 

   

Read more...

california christmas

we had the pleasure to spend the christmas week with our good friend weston.  a week of debauchery touring santa cruz, the redwood forest, napa valley and sonoma county.

Read more...

day 48: austin to las cruces, nm

we drove from austin to las cruces new mexico and met up with my parents at the beautiful home of family friends, javier and ophelia.  the drive was long, 10+ hours, but the scenic views were spectacular... we are really seeing something different now.  along this drive you skirt the border of mexico and it got a bit exciting.  on one occasion we were prompted to pull over by some random pick-up truck, we believed it to be a robbery attempt.  as well we witnessed a border patrol high speed chase!

once in las cruces we had a couple days of quality food and family time.  ophelia is a master of mexican cuisine and she showed us much love, in return i made them dinner to return the favor.  we played some highly competitive dominos and we did some sightseeing; visiting my parents old home and the giant roadrunner built from recycled materials.

it was a blessing to see you mom and simp!  thank you javier and ophelia for the wonderful hospitality.

simpson, rosemary, kristen, andrew, javier and ophelia.

the brilliant view from the backyard of javier and ophelia's home.

cheffin' up some chicken marsala, corn risotto roasted carrot ribbons and broccoli rabe, sportin' ophelia's apron.

recycled roadrunner.

Read more...

the big easy thanksgiving

Read more...

day 37: pensacola to new orleans

drove through 4 states today into the devilish arm's of the big easy.  picked up stephanie from the louis armstrong international airport and then the debauchery began.

thanksgiving we spent at a wonderful champagne brunch at restaurant 5 fifty 5 in the marriott hotel on canal streat, boasting a beautiful spread with everything from andouille corn stuffing, brussells sprouts with bacon, to a boat load of fresh oysters, roast duck, pork, prime rib, smothered chicken, of course turkey and bottomless flutes of champagne.  we gorged ourselves like royalty, setting the tone for the following several days of equally extravagant food and drink.  needless to say... it was a delightful holiday spend with a good friend.

i have to admit the last several days have been a bit of a blur, usually i post a handful of pictures, but somehow i captured beau coup evidence of the cajun conundrum.  i am compiling a audio/video montage to showcase our drunken splendor: including thanksgiving, hurricanes, the house of blues, coyote ugly, metallic street performers, dancing in jackson square and the annual market jazz tribute to tuba fats.

Read more...

dinner with a friend

friday night we spent a lovely evening with the mother of our friend, colleen.  mary ellen lives in delray and she treated us to dinner at boston's on the beach.  we had a grand ol' time talking about florida and traveling and such.  after being on the road for a while it was a pleasure to be in the company of a friend.  we ate and drank circles around mrs. spellman, but she was sneaky and slipped away to the restroom and payed the tab before we had a word about it.  thank you again mary ellen.

if you were wondering, this is the only collared shirt i brought on the trip and yes you will see it again.

Read more...

halloween with friends

on halloween we met up with some good peoples and delaware "ex-pats" in carolina beach;  mike rhode (surfer friend from the navel jetty crew), dave (mike's neighbor and fellow surfer from cocoa beach) and katie (mike's girlfriend).  we had a nice afternoon on the beach, 2 hour surf session, waist to occasional chest waves.  it was a lil disorganized, but you couldn't complain since it was 80 degrees and sunny on the last day of october and we were still able to "skin it."  mike and katie moved to cb in the early summer and it was cool to catch up and get the inside scoop on carolina beach and wilmington area in general.

mike/katie have a killer condo 4 blocks from the beach.  dave was nice enough to let us borrow his bikes and we rode to el zapada on the main drag and had some quality mexican food and margaritas on the upstairs deck overlooking the halloween happenings.

it was an all around good day!  thanks again guys for your wonderful hospitality.  carolina beach is definitely a place i could call home, you may see us sooner than later.

Read more...