The Best of the Bests for 2013

     Before 2014 gets going with a whoosh and a bang, I want to to reflect on the many traveling "bests" we enjoyed this year whether it was far afield in Montreal, along the Mississippi River, in a wintry New York City or closer to home in St Pete. Jerry and I know how fortunate we are to have the time, good health, and resources to travel the way we do and we make the most of it. But isn't just places or meals or sunset views that bring us happiness. Our travels are filled with opportunities to meet people, moments to reflect on history and culture, time to enjoy the bounty of nature, and space for reflection. It is the richness of experience that calls us to travel. 

     Here are a few "snapshots" of what we loved in our travels this past year.

Best Breakfast: We love a good breakfast to start the day whether at home or traveling. These three spots tied for honors in 2013: 

      Voula's Offshore Cafe, Seattle, WA

      Beauty's Lunchonette (since 1972), Montreal, QC

      Slim Goodies, New Orleans, LA

Best Birthday Celebration: Celebrating Canada Day (July 1) with thousands of Canadians in the Old Port of Montreal, complete with cake, bagpipers, and the swearing in of new Canadian citizens.

Best Scenic Drive: Highway 1 on the Oregon Coast on a misty day.

Best Animal Kiss: Giraffe at San Diego Safari Park (they have reeaally long tongues)

Best Oddball Museum: The Seattle Pinball Museum. For just $13 we played for hours on 50 well-maintained machines dating from the late 50s to present day. 

Best Farmers Market: Hands down:  Marche Jean Talon in Montreal. Jerry's favorite farmers market anywhere in the world. It's our first "pilgrimage" stop every time we arrive in Montreal. 

Best Pie Shop: Rustique Pie Kitchen in St. Henri neighborhood of Montreal. Delicious mini pies and all sorts of other goodies. My favorite? lemon meringue...no...apple...wait...the pecan...maybe the s'more pie? 

Best Donuts: A tie between The Donut Den in Nashville and Randy's Donuts in Inglewood (right near  LAX airport). Both places have the fantastic maple donuts. Randy's rocks the french cruellers. Although Tim Horton's in Quebec has the fantastic french cruellers, too.  Does anyone still wonder why I'm not a size 8?

Best Foodie Adventure: A May weekend in Montreal with my mid-twenties son and his friend Louise. We ate and walked and ate some more. Restaurants? Au Pied de Cochon, Garde Manger, Toque!, Beauty's Luncheonette, the Creperie at Marche Jean Talon, and Rustique Pies.

Best Winter Meal: Any meal at Hearth in New York is a great meal, but our meal with our son on a cold day in the middle of winter was spectacular. Hearty food, delicate gnocchi, great service, and long talks over wine. Perfection. 

Best Oysters: For west coast oysters: Taylor Shellfish Farms Melrose Market in Seattle. For east coast oysters: Maestro S.V.P in Montreal. 

Best Opportunity to Eat Lots of Pie: Judging at the National Pie Championships in Orlando. Nothing quite like sharing a weekend with a couple hundred pie-loving judges and 400 contestants from all over the U.S. 

Best Way to Work off some of that Pie: Three afternoon/evenings at Walk Disney World: EPCOT, The Magic Kingdom, and the Animal Kingdom.

Best Ride on Public Transit: The Charles Street Trolley in New Orleans on a warm summer night.  Close second? Sausalito ferry on a sunny day (love that view of the Golden Gate bridge).

Best Meal in San Francisco: Spruce.  The meal was excellent, inventive without being unnecessarily over the top. Fresh, quality ingredients. And, a young man who we've known since he was 8 works in the kitchen. It was really something to look through the viewing window to see him do his stuff. It was just yesterday we were fishing on Lake Bonaparte and roasting marshmallows over a campfire. 

Best Bookstore: Elliot Bay Books on 10th Avenue in Seattle (Capitol Hill). I could move in and stay.

Best Bookstore Celebrating It's 80th Birthday: Haslam's New and Used Books, St Petersburg, FL. An integral part of the St Pete community for 80 years, they threw a great party! 

Best Luxury Hotel: The Hermitage in Nashville. Jerry's favorite anywhere, any year. An oasis in the middle of the wonderful madness of Nashville during the CMA Music Fest every June. Love the "cookie hour" in late afternoon.

Best Bed & Breakfast (with a talented piano playing owner): J.N. Stone House and Musicale, Natchez, MS. 

Best Lodging with a Twist: The Shack Up Inn, Clarksdale, MS: A motel made up of  resurrected share cropper cabins and cotton gins on the old Hopson Plantation located in the cradle of Delta blues music.

Best Fruit Stand: Dickey's Peaches in Musella, GA. Late May to early August is peach picking time and they always have fresh peaches for sale. We love to sit and watch the sorting and packing operations while wiping the peach juice from our chins. A third generation tradition in central Georgia.

Best BBQ on the road:   Blackstrap BBQ in Verdun, Montreal. 

Best BBQ close to home: Fred Fleming's on 4th Street North in St Pete, FL

Best Cemetery: Cote des Neiges, Montreal. Beautiful and monumental headstones and crypts that tell stories covering 150 years in the lives (and deaths) of Montrealers. 

Best Botanical Garden Display: Montreal Botanical Gardens with this year's astonishingly imaginative and artful Mosaiculture International Competition and the always delightful Butterflies Go Free Display.

Best Bridge: The art deco  bridge in Florence, Oregon (Hwy 101) 

Best Scenic Drive: Highway 101 in Oregon from Coos Bay to Lincoln City.

Best Piggy Bank: The big bronze pig, Rachel, at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. 

Best Place to Buy Flowers: Pike Place Market in August...dahlias are in full bloom. 

Best Concert:  Thursday Night (first of 4 nights) at the CMA Music Fest in Nashville. (Luke Bryan, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band.

Best Concert While Freezing our Fannies Off: Alan Jackson at the Plant City Strawberry Festival (yes it was cold in Florida, in the 40s cold)

Best Snoball: Rootbeer flavored snoball from the guy in the French Market in New Orleans.

Best Snoball outside New Orleans: the Snoball shack in Treasure Island, FL 

Best High Tea: Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle (ask to sit by the doves)

Best Baseball Game: Any day the Tampa Bay Rays are playing at home at the Tropicana Dome. But especially Opening Day when I got to help unfurl the ginormous American Flag on the field before the game. 

Best Lonely Lighthouse: The lighthouse standing guard over the Louisbourg Harbor in Cape Breton. Just us and a few seagulls and the Atlantic Ocean stretching out to Ireland.

Best Lobster Roll: Thirsty Whale in Bar Harbor, Maine. Had a great game of dominoes in between bites of oh so fresh from the seas lobster.

Best Pilates Session while Traveling: Simply Balanced in Nashville, TN. Our classes there have become a tradition helping to unkink our muscles after boot scootin' at the nightly concerts at the CMA Music Fest. 

Best Cruise: Holland America's autumn cruise from Boston to Montreal through the Canadian Maritimes on the Maasdam.

Best Fireworks: Montreal's Annual International Firework Competition held for two months each summer. Weekly fireworks set to music created by the best talent in the pyrotechnic world. 

Best Temporary Exhibit at a Museum: The Beatles retrospective at the Musee Pointe-a-Calliere in Montreal. 

Best Cat: The gray mouser that hung out on the porch of our sharecropper cabin at Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale, MS.

Best Author's Reading: A tie: Jeff Klinkenburg at the Inkwood Bookstore in Tampa and Khalid Housseini at Tampa Theatre.

Best College Campus for Birding:  Eckerd College in St Petersburg, FL. Roseate spoonbills, nesting osprey, white ibis, egrets, and herons. 

Best Bird Sighting of the Year: Sandhill Crane families with little chicks just east of Sarasota, FL. Close second: nesting owls in Fort de Soto Park, St Pete, FL.

Best Koi Pond: Marie Selby Gardens, Sarasota, FL

Best Banana Cream Pie (my husband's favorite): Yoder's Amish restaurant in Sarasota, FL (yes there are Amish in Florida too...they drive three wheeled bikes instead of horse drawn buggys.)

Best Cabins at a State Park: Spacious well maintained log cabins (made from cabbage palm trunks) built in the 30s by WPA work crews at Myaaka State Park in Florida (just east of Sarasota).


Best Sunset: The view across the Mississippi River from Natchez Under the Hill, MS. 

Best Place to Spot Gators: Myaaka State Park (especially on Lake Myaaka...take the boat ride).

Best Shelling: Sanibel Island, Fl

Best New Find in Tampa: The Oxford Exchange: bookstore, coffee/tea bar, gift store, and bistro. A place to pause and reflect in comfort.

Best Local Festival/Fair: The Plant City Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL. I dream all year about their strawberry shortcake, chocolate dipped bacon, and concerts. 

Best Local Market: Mazzarro's Italian Market in St Petersburg. From cannoli to fresh bread, excellent meats to fine cheeses, house made pasta to salame, coffee bar to lunch counter, this is THE place to go.

Best Way to Start a New Year: Watching the first sunset of the year with picnic and champagne on the beach in Pass-a-Grille (St Pete Beach), Florida with our grown son. Watching he and his Dad walk along the surf line deep in conversation is great way to start a New Year.

Best Time with Our Grown Son: Our two week drive from So Cal to Seattle. 

Best Friday Night Date: Shuffleboard with my husband at the St Petersburg Shuffleboard Club celebrating 100 years of operation. (And shuffleboard isn't just for old folks anymore, lots of "younguns" on dates and families with kids...great fun).

Best Family Meal: Christmas Day Dinner at the Olympic Fairmont Hotel in Seattle. 

Best Time with Old Friends: This is a hard pick as we had many fun visits this year. But for sheer volume and amount of laughter, the winner this year would be my 40th high school reunion (El Rancho High School, Pico Rivera, CA).  There is something about discovering that we may have more wrinkles but we don't have less fun.  

Nashville: CMA Music Fest 2010

June, 2010 (posted belatedly)

Well, here we are again. Our 4th year of making the trek to Nashville for 4 days of country music fun, good food, and great friends. For the past 4 years we've driven to Nashville to meet our friends Peg and Jeff (from mason, ohio), colleen (from New Hampshire) and Moe (from Boston). We've stayed the last 3 years in luxury and wonderfully, reliable air conditioning at the Hermitage Hotel (6th and Union). On a day like today when its 94 degrees and a heat index probably over 100, the hotel is a welcome oasis to rest and recharge before heading back out to have fun in downtown Nashville.

This past May, Nashville (and much of Middle Tennessee) was hit with historic flooding that impacted a considerable number of businesses and venues in the downtown. What is truly amazing is that you can hardly tell. The effort, which MUST have been 24/7, to clean up and get businesses reopened is astonishing. There are a few places that smell a little musty and whose floor boards are worse for wear and I'm sure they've got more work to do after the Festival is over. But restaurants are open, western wear and honky tonks are alive and kicking, and the spirit of Nashville has never been more enthusiastic. There is much work left to do in the area outside of Nashville and contributions to rebuilding organizations are greatly appreciated. This year a large portion of the CMA Music Fest proceeds is going to rebuilding.

We arrived Wednesday in Nashville. We ate dinner at Monelle's on 6th Ave North in Germantown area of Nashville. Family style dining with home cooking food. Fried Chicken, fabulous porkchops, greenbeans, corn pudding, cold slaw, broccoli salad, cucumber salad, biscuits, and peach cobbler. Sat a table w/ a family from Tennessee and Ohio. We've eaten there for breakfast before (which in some ways in even MORE food than dinner). Had a great time as always and waddled away to the Marty Stuart's Late Night Jam.

For the 9th year Marty Stuart has held his "Late Night Jam" celebrating traditional country music and raising funds for Nashville's Music Cares program. Its held in the old Ryman Auditorium and is always a treat for seeing country through Marty Stuart's experiences and eyes. This year we were also treated to acoustic performances by Keith Urban!!! and surprise guest Vince Gill. The concert starts at 10pm. We left at 1:30 (and it was still going strong).

Fontanel. Yesterday we went to the newly opened Fontanel Mansion. Formerly the home of Barbara Mandrell and her family, it is the largest log home in the world and is now owned by a music producing duo. The mansion is open for tours. Grounds are open for hiking and horsebackriding. A great restaurant (operated by the Loveless Cafe folks) is located at the entrance to the grounds (along w/ a gift shop). The Mansion has only been open since last Monday but it is well run with a very friendly and acccomodating staff. The tour of the home is both about Barbara and her family as it is a mini tour of memorabilia of major country stars (such as Alabama, Big & Rich, Kenny Chesney, & of course the Mandrell sisters). We were invited to hold guitars of famous artists while toru guides took pictures of us with our own cameras (no price gouging for photos here). Barbara's daughter, Jamie, is director of hospitality for the Fontanel and she spoke with us for awhile with no pretense and good humor. Lunch at the cafe was excellent (wait staff was a little rusty on the menu, but heck they'd only been open for 4 days). We spotted John Rich as he walked into the gift shop for an autograph signing session. All in black and VERY fit!

That's John Rich's guitar!

Loveless Cafe. Having a hankering for fried chicken and biscuits, we drove out to Hwy 100 and the Loveless Cafe. As always, food was great. Jerry swears the biscuits are the lightest and fluffiest on the planet. (I bought a biscuit mix in the gift store, I'll see if I can replicate them).

Thai Phooket An unlikelier spot for a good Thai restaurant would be harder to find. Located in a single story, dumpy looking building with temporary signs plastered across the roof, Thai Phooket is located directly across from LP Field in the middle of a large parking lot. We had seen it when we drove into town on Wednesday. We decided to try it last night before Concert #2 at LP Field. (As the thought of another evening of LP field hamburgers and pretzels wasn't appealing. The restaurant was excellent, authentic, and very friendly. We'd go back again, concert or no concert.

Concerts. The food and Fontanel are great, but the real draw for this week (and why we come in the HEAT of June, instead of some more appealing time of year weather wise) are the concerts at LP Field. And so far, we haven't been disappointed. Our favorite performances so far? Alan Jackson who was surprisingly and charmingly chatty and nostalgic and had a much longer set than last year. Josh Turner, magnetic and energetic as always. Lady Antebellum in perfect harmony. Jason Aldean who hits the stage running and never lets up (am I the only one that thinks he reminds me a little of Elvis?). Miranda Lambert whose performance style has really matured over the past few years. She has a much more nuanced performance alternating between the hard charging rock and roll style of "loves given up on me" to the haunting "The House that built Me". Keith Urban was just electric!!! He is just the BEST. And he was joined by the gals from Little Big Town to rock "A Little Help From My Friends" in honor of all the many people who helped out (and are still helping) during the Nashville floods. Carrie Underwood gave a high energy show on Wednesday. And Reba was wonderful, although we thought her set was too short...making room for Kid Rock who we didn't stay for.

Hillsborough Area Went out this morning for late breakfast. Ate at Fido's on 21st Avenue. Great brunch and fabulous latte. A much better deal without the wait than the Pancake Pantry just down the street...i know blashphemy...but true. We walked the few short blocks in the area of stores. There are very nice boutiques, an expensive but astonishingly well stocked kitchen store, and BookMan/BookWoman bookstore (used). Jerry says that the bookstore has the widest selection of used Science Fiction he has ever seen anywhere in a used bookstore. And we've seen our share of used bookstores.

We will be back next year...already made our reservations. We're hoping its not so hot, so we can get down to the Riverfront stages for more rockin' music!

For more photos of Nashville CMA Fest 2010, check out my Flickr set at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abaesel/sets/72157624219816009/

Last Thoughts Upon Leaving Nashville and the CMA Fest

Had a great time with great people listening to great music and eating WAY TOO MUCH great food. Only thing we didn't overdo was drinking...thank heavens...I think it was too hot (although much of Nashville concertgoers appeared to differ on that opinion).

I forgot to talk about the City of Hope Charity Softball Game held the day before the festival...also known as Sweatin' in the Sun with the Stars....whoooheee it was hot! Here are a few photos from the event from Greer Stadium. Photos include Jo Dee Messina pitching (her team won despite the large number of opposing batters she walked), Sara Evans (who can really play softball, has a good arm, and does NOT run like a girl), and Joe Nichols (who looked good just standing there...but also could play).

Sunday - when we weren't eating

Sunday night's concert was a very pleasant evening (although slightly more humid). Dwight Yoakum performed (his first appearance at the Fan Fair/Music Fest since 1988). He was great. We also saw: Chuck Wicks, James Otto, Bucky Covington, Randy Travis, John Stephan, Sara Evans, Phil Stacey, Billy Ray Cyrus,. And Billy Ray was a pleasant surprise...he really rocked...a great gravelly country rock voice. Randy Travis was ALOT of fun...and we think we is turning into Mick Jagger's country cousin...don't have a picture of him...but next time you see one...see what we mean? At last late night walk back to the hotel was sultry...it was 80 degrees and humid at midnight!!!! AGain...thank god for well air conditioned hotels. Speaking of hotels...The Hermitage Hotel is trully lovely. I really didn't take any pictures of it...but this one of TJDuck and Cowgirl duck (on their first "date") shows some of the lobby...which is spectacular

Sunday in Nashville at the Loveless Cafe

The menfolk went out shooting...little orange disks...nothing animate. The womenfolk got to sleep in...yeah!!!! Once up and running we went to BlueShoes office (the agency who we got our CMA Fest package through) and signed up for NEXT YEAR! Yahooo. Then, not satisfied with cherries and cinnamon roll sticks, we drove out to Highway 100 on the outskirts of Nashville to eat lunch at the famed Loveless Cafe and Motel (yes...food again!). The "motel" is now a series of shops (jewelry, pottery, art, and "ham and jams") which we wandered through while waiting for our buzzer to buzz. They said the wait would be 1 hour and 15 minutes but it only took 45 minutes. AGain...good country food...really good cucumber/onion salad....excellent fried chicken...what is it with tennessee fried chicken...it is SO good (must be those Tyson plants in Eastern Tennessee).

This is the stuff you do when you've eaten yourself stupid!

More great food!

Saturday morning we rose early enough to be at Monell's at 8:30 for their famous country breakfast. I can guarantee you it was ONLY the promise of their cheese grits and fried chicken (yes for breakfast) that got me up at 7:30 in the morning after Friday nights LATE concert. Monell's is located in the Old Germantown seciton of Nashville. Everyone sits family style at shared tables and food is brought in a steady stream from the kitchen and passed clockwise around the table. biscuits and gravy, scramble eggs, potatoes (fabulous potatoes), cinnamon buns, cheese grits (I love these grits...and I'm not even a grit gal), ham, bacon, sausage, the BEST fried chicken...oh yes...buttermilk pancakes. I'm sure I'm forgetting something...unbelievably. We met Mark Kendall, the eldest son of good friends of ours. He is a recent VAnderbilt graduated grad student. with a new job...he's working as a videographer for Wynonna Judd...his first day was Friday at her autograph signing at the CMA Fest. We had a great time visiting with him (in between bites of all that food)

Peg, Jeff and Mark,

Got crabs? They've got 'em at Joe Crabs

Friday afternoon took us to Joe Crab's on 2nd Avenue just off of Broadway in Nashville. Yes...they have crab (3 kinds)...fabulous shrimps (3 ways), great crab cakes....salads...karaoke upstairs...wild waiters...and really great pina coladas...I mean really great!!! Does it look like we're having fun?

CMA Country Music Festival - Day One

What a great day! Peg, Colleen, Mo and I attended Trisha Yearwood's Fan Club Party. We met in a small bar just outside of downtown Nashville and Trisha sang, answered questions, and then took pictures with everyone. A gracious and talented woman with a fabulous, rich voice. Later in the day we went to the Old Ryman Theatre to watch a taping of Celebrity Closeups...interviews with Sara Evans, Joe Nichols, Bucky Covington, and (to be filled in when my memory returns). Great fun. Then last evening (a HOT evening) we enjoyed a great first night concert at the LP field. Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Montgomery Gentry, Kellie Pickler, Jewel, Luke Bryan, Jennifer Hanson, and Rascal Flatts. FABULOUS!

Trisha Yearwood at her Fan Club Party


Peg, Trisha Yearwood, Annette (with TJDuck)


Nashville's LP Field - home for 4 nights of the best Country music concerts

Nashville, Tennessee

The old and new of downtown Nashville


Jerry and I have joined good friends (Peg and Jeff cotter, Mo Cotter, and Colleen Noonan) in Nashville to do a little boot scootin' during the 4 day CMA Country Music Festival. We're staying at the gorgeous Hermitage hotel in downtown, which has great beds and really great air conditioning...both really important to Jerry since he is still battling a killer cold/bronchitis. It's an old historic hotel on 6th Ave and Union.

Last night we went to Marty Stuart's SEventh Annual Late Night Jam benefiting Nashville's MusicCares!. It was at least 3 1/2 hours long (that's when we left since it was 1:30...but it was still going). Marty Stuart and his fabulous superlatives were just that Superlative! We saw Charlie Daniels, John Rich, Gretchen Wilson, Mel Tillis (a surprise guest), new talent, bluegrass talent, old songwriters, and the guy who was the drummer for Johnny Cash for almost 40 years (I'll look up his name and post it later). It was in the Rynam Auditorium the former home of the grand ole opry...the church of country music. A great, great, evening...

Grethcen Wilson and Marty Stuart.


Today we're off to Tricia Yearwood's fan club party, a taping of GAC's Celebrity Spotlight, and this evening, the first of the BIG concerts at LP field. Yahooo! Where is my cowboy hat???