Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Recent travels (6 years!)

Been having trouble remembering where we've been! Had to go through the calendar!

Going to put some pictures with these.

April 2023 Lexington KY Keeneland race track & horse museum

Dec 2022 LuAnn in LA wine country

Nov 2022 New Orleans Thanksgiving

Oct 2022 LuAnn in Savannah

Sep 2022 Blue Ridge GA w/kids

Aug 2022 Cedar Key

May 2022 Southern Spain - Miami, Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Jerez, Arcos, Ronda, Granada, Cordoba

Oct 2021 Mexico City Day of the Dead

Sep 2021 Coral Springs, Del Ray Beach & Morikami Japanese Gardens

Aug 2021 LuAnn in Asheville NC

Jun 2021 Belize - Caye Caulker, Ambergris Caye, Hopkins

Xmas 2020 California - Jax to Jackson MS, to Amarillo TX to Santa Fe to Flagstaff AZ to LA to Palm springs & back

Jul 2020 Madeira Beach

March 2020 Austin TX for studio an Austin BDay w/ Alexa & Evan

Xmas 2019 home w/kids

Nov 2019 Charleston NC for Thanksgiving

Oct 2019 LuAnn in LA

Aug 2019 10th anniversary UK Scotland Ireland Wales

March 2019 Tulum MX w/ Alexa & Evan

Jan 2019 LuAnn in Vegas

XMAS 2018 kids in Jax w/Hanz

Oct 2018 Luann in LA  

Sept 2018 Andy in Austin TX Recording

July 2018 Germany - Basel Kolmar weisbaden

Apr 2018 Austin TX for studio and Austin BDay

Oct 2017 LuAnn in Palm Springs CA with Ostrows & kids

Jul 2017 Andy in Myrtle Beach SC with Boxy

2017 Andy in DC with Rose

Feb 2017 LuAnn in Vegas  

Monday, August 28, 2017

HIATUS 2017

Well, I just discovered that almost and entire year has gone by with nary a word here. Lots of things have happened (all good stuff) but travel has been light. Mostly we are loving our new Great Dane Heidi, working on the house, playing music, painting, and learning German for our upcoming trip in the spring. Therefore I'm going to officially close up shop here until we have something to write about. Meanwhile, please visit www.JacksonvilleHotRods.com where my music, car & guitar stuff happen. Bis bald meine freunde!


Saturday, January 21, 2017

Hello 2017

Hello 2017

Well life got in the way of blogging in Dec. Quel suprise!
   
     My buddy Lyle came for a visit and we took down the back deck, which was rotten.
I fixed the fact that the cable was run outside the foundation (!) and
LuAnn and I got it all painted so that's looking good. Gotta put some stairs down from the master bedroom door, put some plants and a picnic table umbrella thing and we're in business.










     We threw a grand party that was super fun. Remarkably we got hardly any pictures, so it must have been a good time. LuAnn made many fancy deviled eggs which were a huge hit.


     Austen was here the last couple weeks so we went to Fernandina and boneyard beach which were awesome.


     We had a nice meal at Candy apple Cafe and went to the symphony for Handel's Messiah.
Christmas was great and everyone got nice gifts


     I spent most of my spare time practicing and getting ready for the Jan 6th debut of a new band, 
only to have those members quit at the last second and for no sensible reason that they would admit.
Even if they hated me and thought I was a total incompetent I still can't believe these two broke
musicians didn't want to play and make some $$ but whatever. I found two other guys and we played. La.

     Had a delicious New Year's dinner containing crab which set off my new shellfish allergy, so that made NYE suck. Oh well, it was still good.

LuAnn and I have been working on a design for the kitchen reno on the theory that a paver patio would be nice, but a new kitchen will be more bang for the buck value-wise. Sure helps to have a wife who is expert in such matters.



     Well a little light and not the most interesting post ever. We didn't trot about very much but this helps me remember what happened. We did start planning some upcoming travel. LuAnn is going to Vegas for a spell and hopefully we'll be heading to Europe again soon. Cheers & happy New Year!

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Thanksgiving in November?!

Well it's time for an update here at We Trot About.

     As always you can check out LuAnn or Andy's Instagrams for more frequent updates. Our traveling has mostly been work related lately, with LuAnn making trips to Denver & South Florida.


     Andy took a new job that will have him traveling to South Florida too, as well as Seattle, Puerto Rico, and probably some other Central American countries, so that's pretty exciting. It's tech work mostly, but also has him in and around the ports, which he loves.


     We did get in a trip to Richmond Virginia to visit with Andy's family. The Saint James river and Maymont park were lovely. The Japanese garden there was great.




     Other than that we've just been super busy. Between work, working on the house, playing gigs, writing music and painting neither of us have had much time for internetting. We saw the Aluminum Show at the Florida Theater which was fun. We also went to the open house at CoRk (The artists's studios at the Corner of Roselle & King st) and it was great to see so many talented artist doing their thing.




It's just about too cold for the pool now. :-(


     We had a monarch caterpillar visit, so Andy put him on our milkweed plant to eat and winter over. Hopefully we'll get to see him do his butterfly thing in the spring.



Happy Thanksgiving y'all. We are so grateful to be so blessed and we love you.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Alabama Getaway


     Time for a #WeTrotAbout update! Alabama Getaway is, of course, a famous Grateful Dead songWith the onset of Hurricane Matthew we were faced with cowering in our house waiting to either flood out or blow away. Liking neither option, we chose the third way: When the going gets tough the tough go to the beach. Therefore we booked hotels in Gulf Shores, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida far from the ravages of the storm.



     When the choice is to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of trouble and by opposing end them? Yeah, oppose; if you have to choose between worrying about something you can't control, or taking positive action always choose action. This we did.


     The drive out was uneventful and we stopped in Tallahassee at the craziest little oyster joint called Bird's Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack  Lunch was yummy but it upset my tummy a bit. Baked oysters with bacon, spinach and cheese was delish and didn't bother LuAnn so maybe it was me.

      Anyway we got to the Holiday Inn at Foley Alabama, dropped off the guitar collection and hit the beach. We had a laugh over taking the guitars on a mini-vacation, but I wasn't going to leave them to the flood! For dinner we headed to Tin Top Restaurant Apparently Oysters were the theme of the weekend. Also seafood stuffed mushrooms, red shrimp and more! Also beer. Live music by the very excellent Mr. Logan Spicer. After a lovely night's sleep we spent the next day at the beach, with lunch at The Hangout 




     The place was gorgeous with an even nicer beach. 


     They really don't want you to feed (or be food for) the alligators though.


     We drove over the ridiculous toll bridge there to try to go to Big Fish,but every restaurant in Orange Beach 
had lines out the door and traffic to match so we went back to Tin Top for another delicious meal that 
couldn't be beat. Alas, no live music this time. The entertainment was limited to a fat, drunken middle-aged 
punter assaulting female patrons by dancing suggestively at their tables. Obviously a Trump supporter. 
Shockingly he wasn't ejected. I seriously considered assaulting HIM when he got a little too close to my 
wife but she restrained me. Probably for the best. I have no desire to be involved in the legal system in 
Alabama or anywhere else.


After a not so lovely breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express we discovered that the house was undamaged 
but the power was still out and they hotel had no more rooms except a $300 suite, so we booked a room 
at the Pensacola Grand. On the way there we stopped at several of the antique stores there. 
I swear they have the funniest crap sometimes! The hotel was indeed grand. We dropped of the guitars 
and headed into town for a little street fair there. Amazingly, Rachel, the broker who put up with our 
shenanigans and got us our house, also ended up in Pensacola, running from Matthew.  Unbelievably, 
we were driving by the Greek festival she was attending at the precise moment she was crossing the street. 
We didn't even know where it was! Truly a shocking coincidence.



     We headed downtown and had a nice lunch at the wine bar there, then went antiquing some more. 
Later on we decided the hotel restaurant was too sketchy. It was huge and empty. That's never a good sign,
so we ended up at Carraba's because what the hell? It was close and easy. 
     
One down side of this whole operation was that there was no chance I would make it back to 
Jax for the IBC (International Blues Competition) I was supposed to play at, but some things you 
just can't control. So that was sad but there will be next year one hopes.


     Next day we got up and headed out, deciding to take the scenic route back since we wanted to see the Gulf Coast anyhow.
There was some amazing stuff. The Pensacola coast was beautiful and Destin looked very promising.
Panama Beach wasn't so great but we really loved Mexico Beach and want to go back, and explore a bit more. 
The whole area would really lend itself to motorcycling and/or RVing. 


We ended up in this weird little town called Watercolor. It was the scariest Stepford town ever.
Every house the same, all the white people in thier BMWs...it really reminded me of 
the town in The Truman Show. There were tons of bicycles though so that was cool. They 
were having a little festival but I was too freaked by the crowds to stay.



We stopped at a biker bar, Ouzt's Too, much more to my liking for lunch. 
They had a rock band outside and bacon wrapped shrimp, fried oysters- OK! 



     The drive through Apalachiacola, Big Bend, Tate's Hell and all the Nature preserves there was just great. 
Gorgeous country! Lots of military stuff down that way too, Airforce bases & military installations of all kinds.
We drove through Perry, Shady Grove and a bunch of other small towns there to avoid traffic on I-10 and 
finally made it back to Jax around 8PM.

     The power was on, the food wasn't spoiled in the fridge and no visible damage except a royal ton of 
leaves in the pool. I fished most of them out and then we watch the hilariously SNIFF awful SNIFF 2nd 
debate. A disaster! SNIFF Can't wait until that's all done with. #DuckFrumph. Its a diss-ass-ter! 

So there you have it! Another successful adventure with #WeTrotAbout! See you on the intarwebz!

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

September of the 2016

     Short post today, just to have an update really. We haven't trotted about much this month.

     As always now we point to you LuAnn and Andy's instagrams for more frequent updates, though lately not much more frequent. We have been crazy busy with the house.


     Really, there is just an all fired TON of paperwork and running around and a neverending cast of characters to the process of buying a house. Bankers, Lawyers, Agents, Inspectors, Pool guys, tree guys, Alarm guys, Insurance guys...and a partridge in a frickin pear tree. Fortunately everything went quite smoothly, really. No hang ups to speak of.


     Some notable events in the past couple weeks besides closing on the house: We had our Seventh Wedding Anniversary, celebrated with a delicious meal at local French hot spot Orsay. We dodged the bullet of hurricane Hermine, our first since moving to Florida and the first to make landfall in Florida in eleven years. Well, mostly. Got a roof leak to fix, but it seems pretty minor.



     In all mostly we are working, pursuing our artistic bents, working on the house and of course spending every spare minute in the pool.  LuAnn will be traveling some more for work this month so.


     Andy will just have to muddle through. He quickly reverts to even more
complete uselessness without his wifeypoo.


     Occasionally we miss the devil-may-care vagabond life but considering how much we are digging our new digs and loving our new neighborhood & all of Jacksonville in general it's pretty great. Besides, soon enough the wanderlust will bite again no doubt and we'll be off on some more insane adventures, God willing and dangers of the sea excepted.



Cheers wonderful people! We love and miss you all!

Sunday, August 7, 2016

A great many things and August

Been slacking as usual, so here's some catch up.

As always I shall point to Andy's Instagram & LuAnn's Instagram as sources of somewhat more frequent updates. Here are some highlights since our last post.

     We took a trip to California! This is a travel blog right? I mean, sorta... after an uneventful flight to LAX, met up with the chilluns, Austen & Alexa, and her cool boyfriend Evan.


     We spent a some time driving around sightseeing and went up to Griffith Observatory:



    We headed up to Malibu where we stayed in the hills at a cool place with a hot tub, occasionally coming down to hit the beach and such. We climbed Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the Santa Monica mountains, at 3111 feet. Holy hell, it was tough!





     We left the kids in LA, got a JUCY camper and lit out up the coast to Santa Barbara where we checked out the beach, the amazing gardens, and especially Ganna Walska's amazing Lotusland.



     The next day we headed up to Morro Rock, & saw San Simeon, also known as Hearst Castle. Then we went up to Big Sur, stopping to see the sea lions on the beach and had lunch at Treebones Resort, which was delish, and offered an amazing view of the rocky coast. We did not stay in a yurt there, more's the pity. They were booked.



Sea Lions!


                                      The Pacific Coast Highway was pretty amazing!




     Then we headed back to LA, took a ride on the ferris wheel at Santa Monica Pier and flew home the next morning. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip and we missed a lot of things we wanted to see but what can you do? One thing we've learned in our travels is that you can't see everything in one trip anywhere!


     I have to say I'm spoiled by Florida. I really like it hot and the California coast was amazingly cold for July. It got hot during the day, especially in the hills but they were still having what they call the "June gloom". As for the traffic, don't get me started. One of the best parts of traveling is it makes you appreciate home more and now that I live where it's warm all the time? Yeah. That. Yay! Home, Sweet Home!


     After arriving back in Florida I immediately got some sort of flu that lasted about a week, then LuAnn got it. Ugh. Summer flu; the worst. On the good side I got hired full time at the company I've been consulting for. That's sort of fortuitous timing because we are actually buying a house!


     I know, I did not see that coming either. We both really like it here in Jacksonville though and the theory is we can rent it out and use the incoming to do some more traveling after a few years. The rental market where we are is a hell of a lot better than it was in NJ and in the meantime we need somewhere to live anyway, so the timing just seemed right. We has a pool!


     So the job is going well, LuAnn also got promoted so she is doing some work travel down to Boca Raton periodically. The bands are going well, especially Back Alley Cadillac, and I think I will soon be able to get my hot rod biz www.JacksonvilleHotRods.com off the ground. In all Team We Trot About is still going strong and we hope to have many more fun and fantastic adventures so stay with us! Big Love! -Andy & LuAnn