I now that people love Nashville. I’ve heard it my whole life. I never imagined how right they were. Like people talk shit you know? But these shit talkers were talking some honest shit. The shit be the truth.
But seriously, what an amazing place. I think I’ve traveled to most “party” places in the world, and make no mistake this is a party place, but it’s more than that. It’s better than that. The music flows out of every place like a welcome mat. The music isn’t an additional piece of the puzzle, it’s the other way around, and I love it. It isn’t always your type of music, and it certainly isn’t always at the volume level that you would prefer, but for real, the people making the music are having a great time, and the people listening to the music are having a great time. I couldn’t believe how generally happy everyone seemed. It was uplifting.

Every time I think of Charleston I think of Midnight in the garden of good and evil. Yes, yes, I know that’s Savannah, but I can’t help it. I want to sit awkwardly cross legged in a big chair while smoking and conversing in a very very long drawl. It gets me every time. Why on earth is that appealing! haha
In any case, I’ve been here many times and yet I feel like I haven’t spent much time in Charleston. I want to spend more. It is in fact a sophisticated city with mountains of tourism. It lacks some of that slow charm I want, but then again, I mainly stuck to the popular areas.

Every cruise is different and it would be impossible to outline each line, but I will say this, going for the cheapest cruise is an absolute mistake. When you buy the cheapest thing, you will undoubtedly find the cheapest people. No offense to anyone, but the idea here is luxury, or at the very least eliminating ideas and possibilities that aren’t even close to luxurious.
I like good itineraries but I care about them less than I care about the ship itself. The ship can be your best friend. It can be the most relaxing thing you’ve ever experienced in your life. You can do just about anything you want on a cruise ship and that’s why I love them.

The French Quarter has always been and always will be cool. The French style patios and buildings are old and falling down really, but they are cool and so fitting. Bourbon street gets crowded and can be overwhelming but walking down the street with a drink can never be too much of a bad thing. Dining on balconies overlooking the madness is also the perfect start to any evening.

The courtyard is on 15th, which I thought was close to the action, it is not. Really the heavy fun is after 1st. Like well after 1st.
So the hotel is on the boardwalk, and there is a 5 dollar per person trolley running all the time, but you ain’t really close to much even on 15th. It’s weird.

Ok. Ok….Ok. Well we were doing a week in South Lake Tahoe so since we had to fly into Reno first, we decided to stay there a few days first. It’s nice. It’s fine. I have some thoughts.
You know that cool picture you always see with the “biggest little city in the world” sign and it looks all cute and great and fun. Nope. Noooo. That area is pretty terrible. You would not be walking in that particular spot at night. That entire street has in fact devolved into a series of pawn shops and for lease signs. It’s Atlantic City outside, truly. I am sure it used to be great…but I am sorry, not anymore. I really hope they get that street together.

I wish these were all one place. They are too close to be so far away from each other. I don’t like it, someone get on that please. Durham is cool, lots of old buildings. They’ve built a riverfront area, they’ve built an entertainment area with a giant theater arena type thing (the DPAC), they have a pretty sweet triple A ball park that you can just walk right up to, and they have a university area near Duke. The walk from the hotel to the Duke area passes all kinds of shops and restaurants and this little 2 or so block pedestrian “mall” that kind of sucked ass (Brightleaf)…nice walk though. It feels relaxed. It feels like just the right amount of southern.

This is primarily about a recent bachelor party event along with some notes for if I ever return. I happen to like Myrtle Beach very much but this most recent visit was not technically there…much to my dismay.

For my entire life people have been telling me how much I would “fit in” in the Chicago area. I do like the people quite a bit, and I do like the city, but I never was able to shake the feeling that I wasn’t close to anything. Being in between has its merits, but I’d rather be next to or near the rest of the world.
Upon my second visit to Chicago I found myself much more enamored. The people seem so happy. Everything Chicago offers has some style to it. It’s old and new. We visited some cool stuff that would be extraordinarily popular in any city in the world.

Um Um Ummmmmmm
Tahoe is not like other mountain resorts. It’s an actual town beyond the slopes themselves, so it can be very spread out. They do have a tiny square at the bottom of the gondola where you can go to bars and restaurants and hear music. It’s not bad, but it’s definitely not sitting at an outdoor bar and watching people snowboard down all day.

I have now completed an official trip to Philly, rather than just a quick stop over, I gotta tell you, I was very impressed. This place is much better than I expected.
We stayed in Rittenhouse Square. I did like this area but it was a little more spread out than I wanted it to be. The square itself is mainly a park, another example of the US failing miserably when it comes to creating awesome European style multi function “squares”.
The old town area is cool to wander around in, but the main historic sites, namely the liberty bell, is actually kind of boring, and I am kind of a history buff.

VA Beach is completely different than Norfolk. Have you seen their real estate prices btw?! Out of this world. But anyway, it remains a perfectly fine beach visit and has come a long way since its down trodden days of my youth.
At the end of the day the vast majority of it is classic boardwalk beachfront, but there are many spots of hope and I can still find fun with a hot dog and an arcade. I certainly hope that never changes.

Cape Charles itself is fine. The beach isn’t so beachy, but I did like how warm the water was, I liked how you could walk out into the water a hundred years without it hitting your thighs, and I liked, no, I loved that you could take a golf cart anywhere. Kind of my dream honestly.But at the end of the day, this isn’t a small town, it’s a tiny town. You go to the same places over and over and over again because there’s only one of each.It’s nice don’t get me wrong, but still.

Based on my pictures I apparently liked this car more than anything else in Santa Barbara…NOT TRUE, but for real a convertoble drive down the PCH is hard to beat. Ok here we go.
Oh man I liked Santa Barbara. What a cool little town. First of all the drive from LA can be cool as shit. The PCH doesn’t really go the entire way but you still get to do a lot of it and once you pass Malibu it gets really impressive.

This was my first trip to New England…ever really. While we started our trip in Burlington, which I loved, Portland was the gem of the trip I think. It feels good up here. The people are really nice and the town has some style, all set in a weird Hemmingwayish backdrop. The Exchange Street area (the old port) from our hotel (The Press hotel at the top of the hill) to the wharf at the bottom of the hill has all kinds of shops and restaurants and general walkability. The wharf itself has a ton of seafood restaurants and other things you’d expect.I guess I just like the authenticity of it all. While other places would have a crab pot sitting around for show, Portland is the real deal, and doesn’t seem to care about doing much for show at all.

If you stay in the center of town you will have a great time. The right amount of old school with some style. The streets downtown are like walking through a movie.

You gotta love a major city that has beautiful beaches right next door and the Mexican border just down the street. Driving to Mexico is just fun, while walking across can be god damn scary (I did both). Tijuana is very boring and empty during the day, but at night it comes alive like some of the best party places in the world. If you didn’t have to worry about getting your head chopped off it would be much more of an overnight destination.

I Was only in Denver for about 24 hours but I really liked it. Must go back.
Went back! And I still really like it! The 16th street mall is pretty sweet. It’s not perfect, but it’s lined with restaurants, the center has food stands, it has a trolley, and it’s pedestrian friendly (its got car lanes on each side of a center “mall” stretch so it’s not completely pedestrian, but you’ll take what you can get).
We were only in Denver for one night on our way to Aspen. The goal was to see how much we’d like it. I loved it.