A Virgin Cruise Virgin

Nothing says "craft beer section" like cases of Modelo stacked up high...nice fail by our new BJ's Wholesale Club store in Mt. Juliet.  

We are taking our "virgin" cruise on Virgin Cruise Lines, and I am excited about the expected craft beer choices on board! (and possibly some poker???  we shall see...)

2/10 - We flew down to Miami tonight in preparation for our first-ever cruise on Virgin Voyages.  While at the Nashville Airport, I found a couple new-to-me beers as I did a short Concourse C pub crawl.  First up was the decent Hap and Harry's Original Tennessee Whiskey Barrel Ale from here in Nashville at the Vino Fiesta bar.  I finished with the nice Hazefest NEIPA from Honky Tonk Brewing also here in Nashville which I had at the Rickhouse bar.  I wanted to have a trifecta with a nearby Tailgate Brewing beer but ran out of time. 

2/11 - I was impressed with how much craft beer is on board the Scarlet Lady including a Draught House bar which focused on craft beer.  Of course, the first beer I asked for they were out of...uh-oh ,,, so I settled for an UNTAPPD repeat, the decent La Rubia blonde ale from Wynwood Brewing here in Miami.  I do like the fact that they are working with a local craft brewery even if it is considered a macro-brewer.  
By the way, before we got on the boat, we had a little time to spare and my pal, Curtis, and I Ubered over to Prison Pals Brewing for a couple of libations before boarding...and they were closed...on Super Bowl Sunday...WTF???  Somewhat fortunately, there was a little Italian place next door that was open, and I had a decent 6 Luppoli Bock Rossa from Angelo Poretti Brewing in Italy.  

My first new-to-me beer on the boat was this terrific Whiskey Barrel Stout, an imperial from Boulevard Brewing (KC).  The prices weren't bad either for being on a cruise ship.  I bought a deal where if you spend $300 in drinks during the cruise, you get $50 free, so I had some damage to do this week!  I will only be reporting on new-to-me beers unless it's a special location or occasion and none of the countless white Russians and mojitos I consume! 

2/12 - It was a day at sea today and I enjoyed this solid Rye on Rye beer also from Boulevard Brewing while watching my Duke boys beat up on Wake Forest.  

2/13 - We docked in Cozumel, Mexico, today and I went on a solo tour of Punta Sur Ecological Park including the beautiful Celarain Lighthouse (1934) at the south end of the island.  It was such a fun excursion! 

These are Mayan ruins of an ingenious hurricane warning system where conch shells were placed inside and if the wind was strong enough it made a warning noise of impending danger.  Amazing!  

The beach at the base of the lighthouse was spectacular with some pretty big waves rolling in.  

It was on this same beach that I had my best animal encounter with this huge iguana sunning himself on the rocks there and really camouflaged from a distance.  I climbed an observation tower to hopefully see some crocodiles, but no such luck, although we did glimpse a young one sunning himself on a rock as we passed by in the military style truck we took out on the excursion.   

After 133 steps up, the view from atop the Celerain Lighthouse was spectacular. 

An even cooler aspect of this visit was the fact that you could actually touch the Fresnell Lens in this still active lighthouse.  No rules in Mexico!  

On our last stop I got a chance to take my first dip in the ocean here in Mexico and enjoyed a walk and a beer on the beach afterwards.  The always-good Modelo Negra lager was worth the repeat. 

I absolutely loved the Punta Sur area and would definitely do this tour again if and when we return to Cozumel. 

2/14 - It was another day at sea today and I was able to try the Virgin Craft Beer, a decent English pale ale made for the cruise line by Wynwood Brewing (Miami).  The weird lighting on the can is because I had it during a performance of "Duel Reality" on the ship in a dark theater with only red tones of illumination. 

I had some real poker success today on the ship as well.  It was an interesting scenario:  It was the WPT at Sea's Main Event Tournament and I almost didn't play since it was a bit pricey and I had played in a less expensive one a couple days before and flamed out badly.  But, with nothing much else to do and knowing I had some online winnings to cover most of the buy-in, I went for it.  Well, only 10 other players ponied up to play which meant first prize was a $2K valued cruise on Virgin and only $200 for second.  I managed to get to the final table by being patient and knocking out this ultra-aggressive player to my right on my first table.  I continued to knock out a few more players and wound up against this lady who had been the chip leader all day (in fact, she crippled me early on the first table with a turned set of deuces to my beautifully slow-played flopped two pair).  The staff said we could make deals, so I offered her the cruise if she would pay me $500 and I get the $200 for second.  She agreed!  It was actually her birthday, and her husband couldn't come on this cruise, so it seemed to work out better for her instead of us having to try and squeeze another cruise in by the end of the year anyway. She was also annoying to play with by constantly not knowing what the blinds were, weird table talk, etc.   So, I took 2nd place for $700 with an overall profit of $340 after tipping the dealers and accounting for this buy-in plus the previous one.  Hey, that'll work! 

 
With some of my profits I contributed $25 to DTCare, a public charity that will donate to the PAWS Foundation in the mission to help sick, injured and orphaned animals.  The contribution also got Dudley some more votes in the national America's Favorite Pet competition in which he is currently in 4th place.  Go, Dudley, go!! 

2/15 - It was our first visit to the Bimini Islands in the Bahamas today and Ashlee and I booked an excursion to snorkel around the wreck of the SS Sapona which ran aground here during a hurricane in 1926 and has a very interesting history.  It was an amazing experience!  I even snorkeled inside the wreck itself where there were tons of fish hanging out.  We also saw a sea turtle from a distance and the water was exceptionally clear. 

Before heading back to the ship, we stopped by Stuart's Conch Stand where it was 2 for $5 on their beers.  I grabbed a Sands Light lager from Bahamian Brewing over in Freeport which was not bad, and a Sands Pink Radler which I had a few sips of, and thought was a bit sweet for my taste, so I gave the rest to my friend, Kate.  We enjoyed our beers all the way back to the port via a golf-cart that Kate and Curtis had rented.  Cheers, Bimini!  What a great little visit!  We would love to come back ASAP! 

2/16 - We had some time to kill in Miami before our flight home today, so we stopped by the Latin Cafe 2000 near the airport and had some great Cuban food and I had a nice lager from Bacardi over in Coral Gables, FL, called Hatuey.   It's brewed for the liquor company by Thomas Creek Brewing over in Greenville, SC. 
When we got home, we were all starving again and decided to go for Indian food near the airport at Sindoore where I had a Kingfisher Premium Lager from United Breweries, a macro-brewery in India, that was OK, and a couple sips of Kate's beer, the decent Taj Mahal Premium Lager also from United Breweries.  
Good trip.  Pretty good beer.  Some poker profits.  And a fun time.  

AND THEN I GET HOME TO THIS NONSENSE...

The “Cold Beer Ban” In Tennessee Is NO MORE After Backlash Causes Lawmakers To Back Off (newsbreak.com)

another embarrassing moment of Tennessee elected officials being a nationwide laughingstock.  I mean you can’t make up shit this effing dumb…

I toasted this success of failure with a can of Premium Lager from Prison Pals Brewing down in Miami (hey, they sound familiar...).   Cheers, dumbasses!  

2/17 - I don't usually post 8th place finishes on Global Poker, but this one was lucrative.  It was another mystery bounty NLHE hyper-turbo, but super-deep, tournament with 173 other players and hosted (time-delayed) live on Twitch.  I only got two bounties, but they were the two biggest totaling just under $170.00!  When it was all said and done, I actually finished second in total earnings when I scooped an ROI of over 3,500%!  My handle was also mentioned by the host a couple times.  I cashed out a $100 of profit for the good cause. 

2/18 - Well, it's been a good 30-years-plus since I visited the Sewanee Natural Bridge up on Monteagle Mountain, but I returned today with Ashlee and Sunny as was happy in the knowledge that the university has given the property over to the state to protect as a natural area.  

Beforehand, we stopped at Common John Brewing in Manchester where I got a new hat with some poker winnings and a pint of their excellent IPA called Empty Promises. 

2/20 - I had some success on Global Poker tonight with a win of a small bounty tournament with only 5 other players (basically a sit-n-go), but I did get all five knockouts for an ROI of 500%. 

I also got second in a satellite tournament with 26 other players paying the top seven with tickets worth 500% ROI.  There was some overlay in this one to of around $18.   No luck in the main tournament unfortunately. 

And I got third in a final table on another small tournament with 100 other players in it. 

Decent little night on the virtual felt.   

2/21 - It was just too nice a day not to go see a couple waterfalls with Sunny today!  Our first stop was Union Camp Falls east of Lafayette up in Macon County.   A repeat visit for me, but Sunny's first time here.  

Our second stop turned into quite an adventure as we were able to make it to the bottom of the little water-carved canyon called The Winding Stairs thanks to some new trails at this cool little city park in Lafayette.  It's kind of a mini-Watkins Glen and Sunny was fearless walking in and beside the cascading water.  This was my second visit the park and Sunny's first.  And it was my first time to the bottom of the little gorge.   I can't wait to come back this spring when this little canyon is bursting with greenery.  

2/23 - I volunteered at the 14th Annual Science of Beer event tonight at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville.  I've always wanted to go this event, but never wanted to really pony up the somewhat steep ticket price, so volunteering to work at it seemed like a good choice.  It was a pretty good time as I was teamed up with a couple other nice folks to demonstrate how nitro-beers are made and why.  No free tasting glass for our efforts, however, so I only got to sneak off and have one beer tasting, but it was a good one: the Black is Beautiful IPA from Crazy Gnome Brewing over in East Nashville.  The ASC is a great place, and it was nice to be there without a million kids running around.

Beforehand, I attended another Finally Friday Live Music show at 3rd and Lindsley that included performances by Madness and Melody who were OK; Brittany Ann Tranbaugh whose voice was great, and her lyrics were very clever; and Kenny P (not G...P) who soulful, powerful voice was awesome to hear live.  I even downloaded a song of his.  I had a tasty lunch here as well. 

I filled my afternoon with a nice downtown Nashville walking beer crawl from 3rd and Lindsley.  First up was Tennessee Brew Works where I had their very good Secret City Imperial IPA .  Then it was on to Hi-Wire Brewing for their solid Super Bloom Pale ale.  

I concluded the first part of the crawl with a couple beers at Marble Fox Brewing where I had their tasty IPA called Vox Populi, and then their light and enjoyable Lumino Pils.  After walking back to 3rd and Lindsley, I drove over to the Adventure Science Center next and parked (for free with lots of spaces - worth remembering for future downtown outings) and then walked to New Heights Brewing where I had their brand-new Clown Baby pale ale that I thought was terrific.  I also had dinner here from the Sausfries food truck:  a terrific Chicago-style hot dog with all the trimmings. 

2/25 - I attended opening day of the new Nashville Soccer Club season at Geodis Park with my pal, Nate, this afternoon as our boys in gold took on the NY Red Bulls.    It was a frustrating 0-0 tie in the end, but we will take it since we had two of our top starters out.  I did have a couple of new beers at the stadium.  First up was a repeat for me, but new to the stadium, the tasty Scotch ale called The Fulkin from Half Batch Brewing up in Hendersonville.  Next was the excellent high-gravity Belgian blonde called The Strong Silent Type from Rock-n-Dough Pizza and Brewery which is now brewing beer here in Nashville, but started out in Jackson, TN. 
(This awesome NSC mural pictured above is on a building next to Santa's Pub near the stadium.)

Speaking of strong, silent types.  It was cool to see Titans legend, Eddie George, up close and personal from our seats as he "delivered" the game ball this afternoon.
We stopped at Homegrown Tap Room on the way home and had a couple half-pints as well including another ABV heavy-hitter, the overly sweet Rye Hipster Brunch Stout from Odd Side Ales (MI) and the light and refreshing Haus Pils from Barrique Brewing here in Nashville. 

2/26 - I got a small win today in a turbo bounty tournament on Global Poker with just 8 other players, but I did score four knockouts and claimed an ROI of almost 500%.  

I also chopped most of a local tournament on PokerStars with nine other players with a second-place finish that gave me an ROI of over 200%. 

With my winnings, I was able to grab some Johnnyswim concert tickets for me and Ashlee! 

I also got my first (and only) paycheck from the USPS today for some training I went through, but ultimately decided the part-time rural mail carrier job wasn't my cup of tea.  Thanks, anyway, USPS. 

2/27 - My buddy, Toney, and I went to see the new off-Marvel movie, Madame Web, tonight at our local Roxy Theaters (recliners!).   I had pretty low expectations based on the reviews, and was surprised to find it to be a decent film.  Not the best, but definitely not the worst.  Not sure where all the hate is coming from, but I have a suspicion that like with The Marvels, it centers around the film having female leads. 

Earlier today, I won another small turbo bounty tournament on Global Poker with just 9 other players, but I scored three knockouts and claimed an ROI of almost 500%.  

2/28 - I have been checking out the new epic FX/Hulu series, "Shogun" the past few nights and while it is slow in places, it does have its merits.  Tonight, I continued watching while enjoying a can of the DIPA called Transmigration of Souls from Orpheus Brewing down in Atlanta. 

2/29 - The Green Mile, one of my favorite films, is back in theaters for a couple days, so I went to catch a cheap matinee showing of it today at the Hollywood 27 Theaters.   What an amazing story and film!  And I only cried three or four times! 

This evening Ashlee and I attended our first Nashville Predators game at Bridgestone Arena in quite a while.  The boys are doing pretty good with a 6-game winning streak and are currently in the wildcard hunt for the playoffs this season.  Tonight's opponent was the Minnesota Wild and by the time we left in the 3rd period the rout was on with a final score of 6-1 Predators!