Last Thursday night we attended the Florence Freedom game along with some of Kim’s family. We ran into a brief rain storm on the way to the game and were treated to a full rainbow over the parking lot. It’s impossible to take a wide photo on the iPhone, so I tried to stitch a couple together. Pretty poor results, but you get the idea.

Stitched Rainbow

Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a double rainbow!

Double Rainbow

We had excellent seats to the game, in the VIP section which includes wait service from the staff. To make it even better, it was $1 beer and hot dog night. Plus the Freedom won the game in extra innings and the entire night was capped off with a nice firework display to honor our military.

Freedom Games Are Fun

A little over a month ago, Washington Park was reopened to the public after a $46 million renovation. We’ve been through the park a couple of times over the last month. Here are some of the photos that my mother has taken of our visits to the park.

Washington Park Entrance

Interactive Fountain

Trey Running Through Fountain

Trey Closeup

Music Hall

OTR Flags

Swinging With Historic Bandstand Behind

At The Playground

The park’s renovation is outstanding! If we lived closer to it I’m sure we would spend a lot of time there. But that won’t stop us from visiting after mass downtown or hopefully for one of the many planned events for the park.

I’ve written before about Kim’s uncle Joe and his cabin down at Williamstown Lake. On one visit to the lake earlier this summer we all noticed a nearby property that was going to be auctioned off. Even though we have put in a lot of work at Joe’s (plumbing, wiring, dry wall, etc.) and it is looking really nice, it is just a one bedroom cabin. The property for auction was a four bedroom, 2 bathroom house, that definitely needed some TLC, but we soon realized that it could be a great addition to our lake trips.

So when the house went up for auction at the end of May, my father-in-law was logged on to his computer and putting in bids. Kim and I, along with Joe, and another family, decided to chip in on buying the house. When the auction was over we all became vacation home owners! Once all the paperwork went through, we all started working on the new house. First up was ripping out all the old nasty carpeting. Then many holes were patched in the walls, and a fresh coat of paint was applied. Last weekend I started putting down new vinyl flooring in one of the bedrooms.

Prepping Floors

The house is set up for central air conditioning, but the previous owners took the air conditioning unit with them upon their departure. We rigged up a window unit in one of the bedrooms, which has so far just been used as more of a living room, with a large wrap around couch. Although some of the group have slept on the couch, so I guess it is part bedroom too. Anyway, I started putting the flooring in this room. Even with the window unit, it was still a hot and sweaty day.

Installing New Floor

We decided to use vinyl flooring after researching the various types and realizing that this is the most waterproof and should be the most durable in the varying climate changes of the lake house. The floor comes in planks that stick together, but not to the sub-floor, so it’s a floating floor. It was really easy to put down, but all the up and down of left my legs extremely sore for the next few days.

All Done!

I started early in the afternoon by prepping the floor by removing staples, nails, etc.  Unfortunately we then realized that we needed to take the baseboard off, which led to some sanding and painting. Once I finally got started on the floor itself it was already getting late in the afternoon, meaning the floor wasn’t finished until almost 9 that night. Hard work, but it is definitely worth it in the end.

Finished Floors

Trey wanted to help out the whole time, as you can see from the last couple of photos. Two photos up shows the door that leads from this living room/bedroom to the dining and kitchen area. The photo just above shows the large closet door on the left and the door to one of the bathrooms on the right. Back by the bath is the utility closet and hookups for a washer and dryer. Neither the washer or dryer are there, so if you are looking to get rid of some let us know. Also note that there is no oven, and the refrigerator is definitely showing its age.

Last Shot

The door in the photo above goes out to a very large deck. You’ll notice that I still need to put baseboard back on the walls, but that will have to wait. Plans for this weekend call for getting the flooring put down in two additional bedrooms. Once done we plan to move some beds in and we can finally stay the night down at the lake. It’s a lot of work now, but it will be so nice to have all of this for many years to come.

Over the weekend I finally made it to Nada. Saturday was my brother’s girlfriend’s birthday, so we all met up on Sunday for lunch.

Outside Nada

Actually I should say brunch, as that is what is served during Sunday morning and afternoon at Nada. They have a special brunch menu that is only available at this time. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of brunch. I don’t like eggs, and that seems to be what the majority of brunch items tend to be.

Salsa And Guacamole

Fortunately their guacamole is still available during brunch, so we started with a bowl of it ($7). Their version of guac is very good, and the chips are equally great. We were also given a couple bowls of ancho chile salsa, which are listed as $2 on the menu, but perhaps they are thrown in when ordering the guacamole? I don’t recall anyone actually ordering them, but maybe we were charged for them anyway. The salsa isn’t very chunky, but it packs a decent spice punch. If I had to pick one, I would stick with the guacamole.

Bloody Maria

Another bonus to their brunch menu is a special area for drinks, in addition to the regular drink menu. I decided to try the bloody Maria – house made mix, el Jimador tequila, and Cholula ($7). As similar as this was to a traditional bloody Mary, the tequila added an interesting citrus flavor to the drink. I think I actually would now prefer this version to the standard bloody Mary.

Mexican Mac ‘n Cheese

My brother, a Nada regular, also decided that I needed to try the Mexican mac ‘n cheese – fresh cheeses, jalapeño, and roasted poblano ($6). This appetizer was extremely creamy, and had the right amount of spice to compliment the cheese flavors. It doesn’t share as well as the guacamole for a large party, but we managed to have enough for the six people at our table to sample a bit.

Grilled Chicken Tacos

For brunch lunch I went with the grilled chicken tacos – marinated chicken, black bean purée, pico de gallo, chihuahua cheese, and guacamole ($11).  I wasn’t sure how many tacos I was getting for the price, and when only two arrived I have to admit I was disappointed. While it is true that they came packed with meat, I still feel that the cost is a bit high. With that said the flavor is really good, the chicken is moist and tasty, and you can’t argue with more of their guac.

Pork Green Chili Burrito

Others at the table had the pork green chili burrito ($12), the fish tacos ($12), and the crispy pork belly tacos ($11). I guess at 11:30 only my wife was interested in eating brunch. Her pork green chili burrito combined an egg and potato filled burrito with braised pork in a green chili sauce. The fish tacos are South African hake which is fried “baja style” and served with guacamole, pico de gallo, and fresh cabbage. My brother did have a fried egg added to his crispy pork belly tacos, to sort of brunch up the dish.

Fish Tacos

Overall, I would say the food was very good, but I felt the price was a little high. I’ve always heard that Nada served great food, but it is more of a place to see and be seen. I would tend to agree that the food and it’s presentation are very trendy, not that it’s a bad thing. I would definitely go back for more, but I think I’ll stick to lunch or dinner on future visits.

As soon as our vacation destination was switched from Virginia Beach to Myrtle Beach I was excited about the possibility of stopping in Asheville, NC. We had a caravan of four cars on the way down and drove throughout the night to get there, leaving the return trip as our chance to see it. Since we were checking out of our beach house rental on Saturday morning, we decided that we would spend Saturday night in Asheville.

Originally I thought that it would be an easy place to find a cheap hotel for the night. However what I found were inflated hotel prices, I think partly caused by the Bele Chere music and arts festival taking place in downtown Asheville. Even though rooms were more than I wanted to spend, we figured the festival would give us plenty to do for our afternoon and evening in town. I won the 3.5 star Crowne Plaza on priceline.com for $150. This resort was very nice and I would definitely stay here again, especially if offered at a cheaper price.

Bele Chere Stage

Our hotel offered a $5 per person round-trip shuttle bus to downtown, which we gladly paid for. We headed for the festival in the early afternoon and ended up staying until 8 or 9 that night. There were four stages of music, children’s areas, a Taste of Asheville, along with other standard festival style food offerings.

Mela Indian Restaurant’s Chicken Plate

Those of legal drinking age can buy a wristband for $2, which allows you to have an open alcoholic container. I’m not sure if this means that you can bring your own beer in, but we saw plenty of people doing just that. I stuck to the $4 cans of microbrew that were being sold throughout the festival grounds.

Boca Taco Plate

Besides the scheduled entertainment on the four festival stages, we also ran into a number of street performances. One guy had created his own percussion style using a guitar as his main drumming device. Attached to the guitar were various noise making artifacts, such as a fork and a pack of cigarettes.

Drumming Street Performer

As far as I could tell the festival was well attended. The crowds were pretty thick in the central area of the festival, but since there are so many streets involved, it was easy to find space to spread out. I especially enjoyed getting to see Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band perform. Trey also had a great time at the festival. Below are some pictures from Kim’s iPhone.

Asheville on Dwellable

This is the last of my reviews from our recent vacation near Myrtle Beach, SC. One of my wife’s cousins celebrated a 21st birthday toward the end of our trip. And to celebrate we had a large family dinner at the Dead Dog Saloon in the nearby town of Murrells Inlet. I didn’t think it would be easy to find dinner seating for a party of sixteen, but my wife called ahead and the staff at Dead Dog was more than accommodating.

Wall Of Honor

During our short wait while they made sure our table was ready, I spotted the Wall of Honor, where customers can bring framed photos of their deceased pets to hang on the wall. I also found out that the restaurant had just reopened earlier in the year after a major fire had destroyed much of the structure. The new building is very large and has plenty of seating, both indoors and out, for parties of any size.

View From Outdoor Deck

Our large party was seated on the uncovered outdoor deck, with sweeping views of Murrells Inlet. Some of the staff apologized saying that it was going to be pretty hot outside, but we were actually pretty comfortable overall. The sun was setting behind their large restaurant, so it provided some early evening shade.

Hush Puppies

While we looked over the menu and enjoyed some of their signature drinks, a few baskets of hush puppies with sweet honey butter were delivered to our table. These were delicious and our table quickly ate every last one. The menu has a wide variety of seafood options, Murrells Inlet is the seafood capital of South Carolina after all, along with a handful of sandwiches, steaks, and fish tacos.

Heavenly Inlet Trio

My wife and her mother decided to split the heavenly inlet trio – grilled crab cake, shrimp & scallops ($25.95). Each of their meals comes with a choice of side and they selected the vegetable of the day, a combination of zucchini and squash. I only had a small bite of the crab cake, but I can agree with their consensus that this was a really good crab cake, and was their favorite of the trio.

Blackened Chicken Alfredo

I’m not much of a seafood fan, so I went with the blackened chicken alfredo ($15.95) which is again served with a choice of side. I went with the cheesy grits and they were very good. The blackened chicken had a good amount of seasoning on it, and a large amount of it was placed on top of the linguini pasta. It was a good dish. Not as good as something you’d find in a more Cajun inspired restaurant, but better than other similar dishes I’ve had.

Alaskan Snow Crab

Others in our group ordered the Alaskan Snow Crab ($18.95 for 1lb) which is served with corn and red potatoes, the Cajun shrimp Alfredo ($18.95), and a variety of other dishes. Everything I heard from our party was a favorable review of the restaurant.

Cajun Shrimp Alfredo

I would easily go back for more food from Dead Dog Saloon, and maybe try to stick around for some of the live music they have on the covered deck.

While on vacation near Myrtle Beach, SC my wife and I took advantage of traveling with her family to escape without our year and a half old son for a nice dinner. We haven’t had much success with babysitters back home, so this date night was long overdue. We were staying between Garden City and Surfside Beach, and decided to ride a couple of bikes up to Surfside to see what we could find. The only requirement was that there had to be non-fried fish on the menu for my wife. After a couple of strikeouts with beachfront restaurants, we headed inland a bit to Valentino’s II.

Bread And Garlic Butter

This menu at this Italian restaurant easily pleased both of us. I’m not a big fan of seafood, but I do love Italian food and they offered most of the classic dishes. In addition there is a large selection of seafood even a couple of steaks to round out the menu. All dinners come with a house salad and homemade warm bread with signature garlic butter. While I found the bread and butter to be fairly common and what you would expect, the house salad was large and fresh. Their vinaigrette dressing was incredible, easily one of the best I’ve ever had. It had an added tartness to it that I’ve never experienced before.

House Salad

All dinners are prepared fresh and cooked to order, but we didn’t experience a terribly long wait between our salad and main courses. During the downtime my wife sipped on a glass of sangria, while I enjoyed a cold draft beer. I should have went with wine after seeing the typical beer offerings, but I wasn’t in the mood. My wife on the other hand loved the white sangria, which was made with pinot grigio.

White Sangria

For dinner I went with the chicken parmigiana (16.95), which also came with a choice of pasta on the side, my choice was penne. The serving size was very large, two breaded chicken breasts served on top of the penne with tons of marinara and plenty of cheese to go with it. I was very happy with dish and somehow managed to eat nearly every last bite. I could have easily taken some home with me for lunch the next day, but we were on bikes and didn’t want to deal with that potential mess.

Chicken Parmigiana

My wife ordered one of the daily specials – the grouper Florentine ($23.95). Again this was served with a choice of pasta (she decided on angel hair) and rather than adding marinara to it just decided to have more of the Florentine sauce served with it. Again the piece of meat was large and though I didn’t have a bite of the dish, I’m told it too was very good.

Grouper Florentine

Our service was very attentive and extra friendly. I would easily return for dinner in the future. Note that the restaurant is not open for lunch and hours are 4-10pm every day. Even though we didn’t bring our son, they are kid friendly, so perhaps we will bring him along if we are ever back in the area. I think it would be hard to find a better Italian restaurant in south Myrtle Beach.

While on vacation near Myrtle Beach, I had the opportunity to do a ropes challenge course for the first time. The first level of rope bridges, balance beams, etc. was not too intimidating for me, but once I climbed up to the second and third levels, the height started to freak me out a little more. Thankfully I remembered that I was in a protective sling, which actually came in handy when I completely fell off one of the obstacles.

Outside WonderWorks

Some of my in-laws had visited the WonderWorks in Orlando and suggested we all check out the Myrtle Beach location. The first thing you’ll notice upon entering the parking lot, is the very large upside down building. As the website says, “When you enter the building, everything will be upside-down, so in order to participate in the fun, you must be inverted. Step inside the inversion tunnel and be turned right side up to begin your journey.” This inversion tunnel simply used a swirling image on the walls of the tunnel, but the effect was really good. I honestly felt like I was flipping upside down.

Xtreme 360 Bikes

One of the first attractions we encountered inside were the Xtreme 360 Bikes where visitors pedal their way on tandem bikes as they try to generate enough power to complete a full loop over the top and back. Kim and I were not successful in getting the bikes to flip over, but were pretty close and still felt like we were upside down. The only people in our group who were successful in flipping the bike were my sister-in-law and her fiancée.

Astronaut Trey

There are over 100 different interactive exhibits throughout the three floors of the building. There is a space zone, lots of flight simulators, a bed of nails to lay on, a bubble lab, and so much more. It is pretty much a super interactive science museum. It’s obviously aimed to entertain kids, but it can be fun for parents too.

Ropes Challenge Course

Myrtle Beach on Dwellable

After driving overnight from Cincinnati our group of sixteen needed a breakfast stop before entering Myrtle Beach. We stumbled upon Mr. Waffles in Conway, a half hour or so outside of our destination. The restaurant doesn’t look that great on the outside and we nearly decided to head elsewhere, but with a group this large we figured we better take our seats rather than risk running into a wait at another restaurant.

Outside Mr. Waffles

Once inside we were greeted by our server, Gloria, who also happens to be one of the owners of the restaurant. The other owner is her husband James who works the kitchen. This truly is one of those small diners where the owners do all the work, something that is hard to find today. Gloria actually called her daughter and son-in-law to stop by and help out with our large group.

Inside Mr. Waffles

The breakfast menu is very lengthy and super cheap! I went with the single waffle combo which came with a choice of meat and potato for under $5. The single waffle is actually two waffles (the second is hidden underneath in my photo), and they were pretty tasty. This is not gourmet food by any stretch, but it is a very affordable and tasty breakfast food. Gloria was very friendly and accommodating. I wouldn’t hesitate to stop here again on future trips to Myrtle Beach. My only complaint would be the number of smokers in the restaurant, but that is something you run into in tiny diners such as this one.

Waffle Combo

I attended my third Reds game of the season last night. Kim emailed me around lunch time to see if I was interested in free tickets to the game from her employer. Immediately I said yes, and that was before I knew that the tickets were Scout Box Seats valued at over $75 each. Our seats were directly behind home plate, about ten rows up. The Scout Seats earned their name as these are the seats that Major League scouts occupy during games, in fact one was sitting in the seat next to me.

Entrance To Scouts Alley

Trey Inside Scouts Alley

Included in the ticket price are a host of amenities, including in-seat food and beverage service, and access to Scouts Alley, a private lounge for scout box and scout seat holders only. In addition the seats are padded and two inches wider than the typical seats in the ballpark. I definitely have never been as comfortable or as close to a Major League game as I was last night.

Trey With Gapper

View From Scout Box Seats

Another Look At The Ball Park

And to top it all off, the Reds beat the Padres 7-6!