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.

Alabama Getaway

     Time for a #WeTrotAbout update! Alabama Getaway is, of course, a famous Grateful Dead song! With 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 

Then headed to the Bon Secour National Wildlife sanctuary

     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!

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!

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

Out with June; in tune with July

Hey Y'all! Welcome to We Trot About, the last day of June edition!

For more frequent updates try Andy's Instagram & LuAnn's Instagram!

Well let's see, what have we been up to? I can't even keep up anymore. I hate getting behind. We spent a lot quality time at the local beaches in Fernandina and GTM. Our pal Jan came up from Boca and spent a weekend with her that was super fun.

I shaved off the beard & mustache which was a big change. I haven't been bare faced in ages!

     No, just kidding, I got rid of the Teddy Roosevelt. I started a new job and it's going well. Working hard but that's actually a good thing. Filling up the coffers is highly desirable.  Also it has afforded me time to do something I love but rarely make time for and that is listen to music! Alas it is cutting into my late night writing & recording sessions. Still doing some gigs here and there.

     Speaking of music we had the Jacksonville Jazz fest where we saw Dr John and McCoy Tyner on Friday night, and Nathan East and the Dizzie Gillespie experience on Saturday. I love the awesome totally free concerts here in Jax. Three main stages, all class acts. Did I mention free?

     We had a lovely celebration at the rooftop bar of the black sheep restaurant for the prettiest wifeypoo's birthday. On Memorial day we bicycled down to memorial park had a lovely French style picnic by the river with red wine, baguette, salami & pepperoni, brie & chevre. I dunno where the pix of that all went.

     There was a Prince tribute in Hemming park with lots of great bands doing all Prince covers. It was a great time. Too bad he's gone so soon and seemingly so needlessly. We also saw Chvrches & Death Cab For Cutie at St Augustine and it was awesome!

     The big news is we are negotiating the purchase of a house now, so it looks like we're starting yet another new chapter in The Adventures Of LuAnn And Andy. We'll also be visiting the kids soon in LA so we're on the road again too. Guess y'all will be invited to the housewarming party!