Spring Break America
M A R C H
Spring Break was the focal point of this month. Kim and I have been planning a Spring Break road trip to St. Petersburg to visit her family. I was recently "let go" at my job, which turned out to be the perfect situation. This gave me unlimited freedom and due the money I was making it allowed me to save up enough to pay off my lease early and have extra money to use on miscellaneous things. That being said, we planned out our trip and requested an Airbnb to stay in New Orleans. We were only a week away till we left for the sunshine state. The trip dates came out to be March 15th - 26th. It would be a very long trip, but we were prepared for this exciting ride.
Once Kim got out of class Wednesday we hit the road. We started our drive at 7pm, which was much later than anticipated. The boarder line of New Mexico and Texas was the furthest we could make it, before we had to call it quits. We found a free campground with the ever so handy website https://www.campendium.com/. We were the only one's at the campsite in a very small density town called San Juan, NM. We set up tent and crashed out for the night. The next morning, we began our journey fast! We immediately made it to the Texas Welcome Sign, where we stopped to snap pictures. After a few hours of driving we noticed the infamous Cadillac Ranch. We stopped to take some pictures and crawled around the vehicles. The town of Amarillo wasn't far, so we ate a delicious tacos at Torchy's. The phrase "everything is bigger in Texas' was proven true once our food had arrived my mind was blown my enormous amount of guac we were given.
We continued the ride, for hours, all we saw was desert, windmills, and tumbleweed. It wasn't too exciting till we made it to Dallas. The first thing we did was visit the JFK memorial where he was assassinated. It was a beautiful monument. We walked around it for about an hour, till we became hungry so we explored down town Dallas to discover pad thai. We ate up and made our way to an RV park in the middle of nowhere LA. We originally had a campground in mind, although once we arrived we were spooked out by the amount of shinning crosses standing in our direction. We slept in our car for the night, it was rough, but the next day was the day for our arrival in NOLA on St. Patrick's Day.
Upon our arrival in New Orleans, the first thing on our agenda was to check into our Airbnb (Flamingo House). The home was in Bayou St. John neighborhood off of N Lopez Street. The house was gorgeous. The outside had plastic flamingos out front of it. All of the houses in the neighborhood were different colors. It was bright, vibrant, and felt magical to be there. The home was a shotgun style like many others in NOLA. The host was a friendly musician, She got us set up and showed us our bed. We quickly developed a fast paced loving relationship with her dog Bear. We showered and got ready to adventure the city. My friend Keri a former 6 year resident of New Orleans, she gave us plenty of awesome recommendations. We started out with breakfast at Slim Goodies Diner. We got delightful vegetarian meals and sat out back on a marvelous patio of the restaurant. We were surrounded by abstract paintings along the fence, a sculpture of a rooster, and good vibes all around. Afterwards we made our way to Bourbon Street. The street is one of the best sights I've seen in my life. Every home is painted a different color, there is so much green everywhere, it's really beautiful. The architecture of all the places in New Orleans compares to no where else. We walked up and down the streets. We stopped in Cat's Meow for a few beers and to watch people sing karaoke. The bar was super awesome! The balcony was a great view of the strip. We continued around the neighborhood till we ran into Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar. We drank a couple more beers till we made it to the pier. There was an art market going on, street performers, and music. It was a perfect moment.
We hung out in the French Quarter for a couple of hours till we decided to go back to our place and take a nap. We were still feeling beat from our long Texas drive we just conquered. We woke up and took Bailey for a walk around a river that leads into Lake Pontchartrain. The walk was really nice, we made it to a bridge crossing over the lake where random people were playing banjo, dancing, card games, and doing pyro tricks on it. It was astonishing sight to see. We made it back to the place and ventured out for our special night. We ate at Mid Town Pizza and continued to explore the amazing city we were in. French Quarter was back on our agenda, we walked around exploring the neighborhood some more. It was the best time ever! We went back to our place and called it a night. The next morning we got up and made our way to La Boulangerie French Bakery. It was so delicious, we crossed the street to go shopping at Buffalo Exchanged, we both bought some threads. I started talking to the employees there mentioning my friend use to work there. They all knew her and it felt as if we made new friends. They suggested us to head back to the pier and explore some more and that's what we did. The tug boats, people dancing in the street, the historic buildings. It couldn't of been better, but it was time to go.
Back on the road! We made it to Mobile, Alabama. I thought Mobile was a top secret awesome city. I unfortunately was wrong. It very small, and didn't have much too it. A few hours later we made it to Florida! Waffle House was in the cards to have a celebratory meal. We camped out a few hours away from Kim's parents house. It was just too much further of a drive we couldn't handle. The next morning we rise and shined early to make our way to Kim's parents house in St. Petersburg.
Her mother and father were ecstatic to see us. After greeting us, they gave us a tour of her mother's garden. It was relaxing feel to be in the presence of others care. We showered up and got brunch at Locale Market in down town St. Pete, It's a nifty market with a variety of food and drinks options. We sat on the balcony and ate our meals as local musicians performed around us. We walked along the pier of the main part of down town. Being surrounded by water, after living in a land locked state for over half a year was charming. We then ventured out to John's Pass Boardwalk to explore our first beach of the trip. We took pictures with her parents and went back home.
Later that night, Kim and I drove around St. Pete ourselves, exploring the changes of the town. It was very distinct how much the city was changing. Lots of new business were opening everywhere. It was surprising for a city such as St. Pete, because it was very much so under the radar. I messaged a friend of Kim's older brother, Josh. We wanted to see if he was available to give us a tour of the city. He responded quickly yes! We picked him up and we all drove around the newly changed St. Petersburg. It was very fascinating to see the changes. He explained in the last few years, it has completely turned into a different city than it once was. More artists have moved in, art markets have become popular, hip breweries all over the place. @JoshComics is an artists himself, making animated pins of comics he draws up. He has recently found success in selling pins with the shape of Florida smiling. During our ride with him, he took us to Roser Park Drive Historic District. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. The site is a gorgeous historic area with a nice creek and palm trees surrounding your way. We walked around it for awhile, but then went to Bar@548. This is a new hip bar next to the infamous Emerald Bar. These two spots were very choice! I would highly recommend everyone to check them out, if you're in St. Pete. Josh surprised us by showing us his art was hanging up at Bar@548, they showcase lots of local artists to sell their work there. It was a great time!
The next couple days we visited Fort De Sota Beach, Tampa Rustic Steel, Gram's Place Hostel (we got a super amazing tour there). We also walked around Ybor City, Tampa. YBOR is awesome, I absolutely loved it there. It's a great down town artist hub with awesome shops and rosters roaming around the neighborhoods. We also visited skate park of Tampa which was a childhood dream of mine to visit there one day. This is such a huge deal, because all the pros and even skaters I looked up to have competed there.
Kim's Dad bought us tickets to see the Orioles play Tampa Rays in a Spring Training game, but before the game started Kim and I biked around down town St. Pete. We stopped at Evo Burger for brunch and made our first brewery stop at St. Pete Brewing Company. It was so awesome!!! Kim's best friends husband is the GM there. He gave us all our drinks on the house and hooked up with rad sun glasses and goodie bags. We drank a lot, but knew we had to hit at least one more brewery before the big game. So we made our way to the new 3 Daughters Brewery. This is a massive brewery with lots of fun grown up games to enjoy. It was time to make our way to the game. Kim's parents drove us to the Ed Smith Stadium. I was thrilled to be there! We made it to our seat and enjoyed baseball and vegan hot dogs. The Orioles beat Rays 7-4, it was the best day of the trip!
Other stuff we visited while there was Lotus (an old Pizza Hut turned into a vegan restaurant). An art market Kim's friend was tabling. Cycle Brewery (a cool bicycle brewery), Independent Brewery, Red Mesa (EXTREMELY delicious outdoor taco restaurant) for our final dinner with Kim's parents. Green Bench brewery (a dog/yoga themed brewery). Right Around The Corner (A super bad ass barcade). After a great trip visiting Florida our time was running out to get Kim back to Denver for school.
We packed our things and hit the road! Stopping by Tijuana Flats (of course), before our epic trip back to Denver. We also made a quick pit stop at USF Riverside Park to observe wild alligators. We drove all the way up to Pensacola to see my Baltimore friends band Raindeer open up for Generationals play at Vinyl Music Hall. My friends band guest listed Kim and I for the show. The performances were great and it was amazing to catch up with my old Bmore buddies. After the show we crashed out in a dirt cheap dirty motel with bugs as roommates. The next day we continued our journey stopping in Jackson, Mississippi (the largest population is MS). It was a ghost town! I truthfully mean there was nothing there, everything was abandoned and gone. We made it to Little Rock, Arkansas. We stopped at William J Clinton Presidential Library, it was very nice! We walked across a beautiful rustic bridge next to it, and we camped out in Burns Park that night. The next day we got up and made it to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We checked out Box Yard (a neat market made out of shipping containers), we ate at the super delicious Chimera Cafe and continued our journey till we made it to Wichita, Kansas. It started storming really hard so we booked out a room at Red Roof Inn and ate at CheeZe's Pizza. The next morning we got up and finished out road trip making it back to Denver, Colorado.
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This month was in no way perfect, in fact I've been suffering from some of the most severe anxieties I've ever faced. Since the recent departure from my previous employer, it caused me to have health insurance problems. Due to exceeding the maximum one can make to qualify for free health insurance. I was stuck with the expensive health insurance my employer provided till April 1st when I qualify for free health insurance again. My aunt Connie also passed away this month from cancer.
Although, I can't say it's been all bad. Besides an incredible road trip. I was recently called in for a focus group to give my feedback on sports nutrition bars. One hour of my time was compensated with $125. I try to do as many focus groups as possible. I recommend them to family and friends all the time because it's an easy way to make a few extra dollars just giving your honest opinion. Another great recent experience was winning 4 guest list passes to see Dan Deacon at The Marquis Theater. I won two guest list spots through a Facebook contest than an hour later the contest manager reached out to me to inform me they're giving me two more spots. I invited Kim, and two friends. We had a blast, it was their first time seeing DD. Kim invited two more friends to join and it became a fiesta of friends. It was an excellent time and great to see my old Baltimore neighbor Dan Deacon.
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Music reviews!
Real Estate - In Mind. I have to say this album was a big disappointment. Maybe I need to give it a few more listens, but I sincerely didn't care for it. It's too soft, it doesn't have many catchy ear pleasuring songs. The song "Darling" is by far the rest. I'm still excited to see them in mid April, but can only hope they come out with an EP later this year to redeem this new album.
The Drums - "Blood Under My Belt". I'm super excited for The Drums new album to come out after hearing the first single off of it. The song definitely has a perfect mix of a classic yet evolved sound were use to hearing from them. I feel a The Smiths inspired melody from the new single. I highly recommend giving it a listen.
Lone - "Crush Mood". This is an absolute must listen! Lone is such an amazing musicians. The beats he comes out with never fails. I remember seeing him live in DC two years and was very impressed how he still sounded great live and had awesome visual elements. I believe he plans to release four pieces of an album throughout the year starting off with this great house/electronica track Crush Mood.
Black Pus - "High Tide". A two song split EP with Damaged Bug (Thee Oh Sees). It's a solid tune. I'm a big fan of Black Pus. I primarily listen to him while running or needing to put energy in my bones. He's an intense noise act with some of the best drumming I've ever seen live. He recently started a family and has a newborn so the chances of hearing much else from him or a tour is unlikely, I'm just happy we got something out him this year.
...................................................................................................................................................................
News!
I'll be in Baltimore April 4th - 11th Light City week/end. I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends perform the festival. I'm also playing a set as Pelvis Presley at Joe Squared for The Hive compilation release show. I'm also releasing my first full length album Presley Pelvis record store day.
I'm working on a new project called Random Art. I'm looking into making prints and framing my pieces. I will be revealing the project to the public next month!
Lastly, I recently started a youth instructor position with Denver gov. It's a temporary position lasting only till late May, but it's exciting and I'm looking forward to trying something new.
Once Kim got out of class Wednesday we hit the road. We started our drive at 7pm, which was much later than anticipated. The boarder line of New Mexico and Texas was the furthest we could make it, before we had to call it quits. We found a free campground with the ever so handy website https://www.campendium.com/. We were the only one's at the campsite in a very small density town called San Juan, NM. We set up tent and crashed out for the night. The next morning, we began our journey fast! We immediately made it to the Texas Welcome Sign, where we stopped to snap pictures. After a few hours of driving we noticed the infamous Cadillac Ranch. We stopped to take some pictures and crawled around the vehicles. The town of Amarillo wasn't far, so we ate a delicious tacos at Torchy's. The phrase "everything is bigger in Texas' was proven true once our food had arrived my mind was blown my enormous amount of guac we were given.
We continued the ride, for hours, all we saw was desert, windmills, and tumbleweed. It wasn't too exciting till we made it to Dallas. The first thing we did was visit the JFK memorial where he was assassinated. It was a beautiful monument. We walked around it for about an hour, till we became hungry so we explored down town Dallas to discover pad thai. We ate up and made our way to an RV park in the middle of nowhere LA. We originally had a campground in mind, although once we arrived we were spooked out by the amount of shinning crosses standing in our direction. We slept in our car for the night, it was rough, but the next day was the day for our arrival in NOLA on St. Patrick's Day.
Upon our arrival in New Orleans, the first thing on our agenda was to check into our Airbnb (Flamingo House). The home was in Bayou St. John neighborhood off of N Lopez Street. The house was gorgeous. The outside had plastic flamingos out front of it. All of the houses in the neighborhood were different colors. It was bright, vibrant, and felt magical to be there. The home was a shotgun style like many others in NOLA. The host was a friendly musician, She got us set up and showed us our bed. We quickly developed a fast paced loving relationship with her dog Bear. We showered and got ready to adventure the city. My friend Keri a former 6 year resident of New Orleans, she gave us plenty of awesome recommendations. We started out with breakfast at Slim Goodies Diner. We got delightful vegetarian meals and sat out back on a marvelous patio of the restaurant. We were surrounded by abstract paintings along the fence, a sculpture of a rooster, and good vibes all around. Afterwards we made our way to Bourbon Street. The street is one of the best sights I've seen in my life. Every home is painted a different color, there is so much green everywhere, it's really beautiful. The architecture of all the places in New Orleans compares to no where else. We walked up and down the streets. We stopped in Cat's Meow for a few beers and to watch people sing karaoke. The bar was super awesome! The balcony was a great view of the strip. We continued around the neighborhood till we ran into Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar. We drank a couple more beers till we made it to the pier. There was an art market going on, street performers, and music. It was a perfect moment.
We hung out in the French Quarter for a couple of hours till we decided to go back to our place and take a nap. We were still feeling beat from our long Texas drive we just conquered. We woke up and took Bailey for a walk around a river that leads into Lake Pontchartrain. The walk was really nice, we made it to a bridge crossing over the lake where random people were playing banjo, dancing, card games, and doing pyro tricks on it. It was astonishing sight to see. We made it back to the place and ventured out for our special night. We ate at Mid Town Pizza and continued to explore the amazing city we were in. French Quarter was back on our agenda, we walked around exploring the neighborhood some more. It was the best time ever! We went back to our place and called it a night. The next morning we got up and made our way to La Boulangerie French Bakery. It was so delicious, we crossed the street to go shopping at Buffalo Exchanged, we both bought some threads. I started talking to the employees there mentioning my friend use to work there. They all knew her and it felt as if we made new friends. They suggested us to head back to the pier and explore some more and that's what we did. The tug boats, people dancing in the street, the historic buildings. It couldn't of been better, but it was time to go.
Back on the road! We made it to Mobile, Alabama. I thought Mobile was a top secret awesome city. I unfortunately was wrong. It very small, and didn't have much too it. A few hours later we made it to Florida! Waffle House was in the cards to have a celebratory meal. We camped out a few hours away from Kim's parents house. It was just too much further of a drive we couldn't handle. The next morning we rise and shined early to make our way to Kim's parents house in St. Petersburg.
Her mother and father were ecstatic to see us. After greeting us, they gave us a tour of her mother's garden. It was relaxing feel to be in the presence of others care. We showered up and got brunch at Locale Market in down town St. Pete, It's a nifty market with a variety of food and drinks options. We sat on the balcony and ate our meals as local musicians performed around us. We walked along the pier of the main part of down town. Being surrounded by water, after living in a land locked state for over half a year was charming. We then ventured out to John's Pass Boardwalk to explore our first beach of the trip. We took pictures with her parents and went back home.
Later that night, Kim and I drove around St. Pete ourselves, exploring the changes of the town. It was very distinct how much the city was changing. Lots of new business were opening everywhere. It was surprising for a city such as St. Pete, because it was very much so under the radar. I messaged a friend of Kim's older brother, Josh. We wanted to see if he was available to give us a tour of the city. He responded quickly yes! We picked him up and we all drove around the newly changed St. Petersburg. It was very fascinating to see the changes. He explained in the last few years, it has completely turned into a different city than it once was. More artists have moved in, art markets have become popular, hip breweries all over the place. @JoshComics is an artists himself, making animated pins of comics he draws up. He has recently found success in selling pins with the shape of Florida smiling. During our ride with him, he took us to Roser Park Drive Historic District. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. The site is a gorgeous historic area with a nice creek and palm trees surrounding your way. We walked around it for awhile, but then went to Bar@548. This is a new hip bar next to the infamous Emerald Bar. These two spots were very choice! I would highly recommend everyone to check them out, if you're in St. Pete. Josh surprised us by showing us his art was hanging up at Bar@548, they showcase lots of local artists to sell their work there. It was a great time!
The next couple days we visited Fort De Sota Beach, Tampa Rustic Steel, Gram's Place Hostel (we got a super amazing tour there). We also walked around Ybor City, Tampa. YBOR is awesome, I absolutely loved it there. It's a great down town artist hub with awesome shops and rosters roaming around the neighborhoods. We also visited skate park of Tampa which was a childhood dream of mine to visit there one day. This is such a huge deal, because all the pros and even skaters I looked up to have competed there.Kim's Dad bought us tickets to see the Orioles play Tampa Rays in a Spring Training game, but before the game started Kim and I biked around down town St. Pete. We stopped at Evo Burger for brunch and made our first brewery stop at St. Pete Brewing Company. It was so awesome!!! Kim's best friends husband is the GM there. He gave us all our drinks on the house and hooked up with rad sun glasses and goodie bags. We drank a lot, but knew we had to hit at least one more brewery before the big game. So we made our way to the new 3 Daughters Brewery. This is a massive brewery with lots of fun grown up games to enjoy. It was time to make our way to the game. Kim's parents drove us to the Ed Smith Stadium. I was thrilled to be there! We made it to our seat and enjoyed baseball and vegan hot dogs. The Orioles beat Rays 7-4, it was the best day of the trip!
Other stuff we visited while there was Lotus (an old Pizza Hut turned into a vegan restaurant). An art market Kim's friend was tabling. Cycle Brewery (a cool bicycle brewery), Independent Brewery, Red Mesa (EXTREMELY delicious outdoor taco restaurant) for our final dinner with Kim's parents. Green Bench brewery (a dog/yoga themed brewery). Right Around The Corner (A super bad ass barcade). After a great trip visiting Florida our time was running out to get Kim back to Denver for school.
We packed our things and hit the road! Stopping by Tijuana Flats (of course), before our epic trip back to Denver. We also made a quick pit stop at USF Riverside Park to observe wild alligators. We drove all the way up to Pensacola to see my Baltimore friends band Raindeer open up for Generationals play at Vinyl Music Hall. My friends band guest listed Kim and I for the show. The performances were great and it was amazing to catch up with my old Bmore buddies. After the show we crashed out in a dirt cheap dirty motel with bugs as roommates. The next day we continued our journey stopping in Jackson, Mississippi (the largest population is MS). It was a ghost town! I truthfully mean there was nothing there, everything was abandoned and gone. We made it to Little Rock, Arkansas. We stopped at William J Clinton Presidential Library, it was very nice! We walked across a beautiful rustic bridge next to it, and we camped out in Burns Park that night. The next day we got up and made it to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We checked out Box Yard (a neat market made out of shipping containers), we ate at the super delicious Chimera Cafe and continued our journey till we made it to Wichita, Kansas. It started storming really hard so we booked out a room at Red Roof Inn and ate at CheeZe's Pizza. The next morning we got up and finished out road trip making it back to Denver, Colorado.
...................................................................................................................................................................
This month was in no way perfect, in fact I've been suffering from some of the most severe anxieties I've ever faced. Since the recent departure from my previous employer, it caused me to have health insurance problems. Due to exceeding the maximum one can make to qualify for free health insurance. I was stuck with the expensive health insurance my employer provided till April 1st when I qualify for free health insurance again. My aunt Connie also passed away this month from cancer.
Although, I can't say it's been all bad. Besides an incredible road trip. I was recently called in for a focus group to give my feedback on sports nutrition bars. One hour of my time was compensated with $125. I try to do as many focus groups as possible. I recommend them to family and friends all the time because it's an easy way to make a few extra dollars just giving your honest opinion. Another great recent experience was winning 4 guest list passes to see Dan Deacon at The Marquis Theater. I won two guest list spots through a Facebook contest than an hour later the contest manager reached out to me to inform me they're giving me two more spots. I invited Kim, and two friends. We had a blast, it was their first time seeing DD. Kim invited two more friends to join and it became a fiesta of friends. It was an excellent time and great to see my old Baltimore neighbor Dan Deacon.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Music reviews!
Real Estate - In Mind. I have to say this album was a big disappointment. Maybe I need to give it a few more listens, but I sincerely didn't care for it. It's too soft, it doesn't have many catchy ear pleasuring songs. The song "Darling" is by far the rest. I'm still excited to see them in mid April, but can only hope they come out with an EP later this year to redeem this new album.
The Drums - "Blood Under My Belt". I'm super excited for The Drums new album to come out after hearing the first single off of it. The song definitely has a perfect mix of a classic yet evolved sound were use to hearing from them. I feel a The Smiths inspired melody from the new single. I highly recommend giving it a listen.
Lone - "Crush Mood". This is an absolute must listen! Lone is such an amazing musicians. The beats he comes out with never fails. I remember seeing him live in DC two years and was very impressed how he still sounded great live and had awesome visual elements. I believe he plans to release four pieces of an album throughout the year starting off with this great house/electronica track Crush Mood.
Black Pus - "High Tide". A two song split EP with Damaged Bug (Thee Oh Sees). It's a solid tune. I'm a big fan of Black Pus. I primarily listen to him while running or needing to put energy in my bones. He's an intense noise act with some of the best drumming I've ever seen live. He recently started a family and has a newborn so the chances of hearing much else from him or a tour is unlikely, I'm just happy we got something out him this year.
...................................................................................................................................................................
News!
I'll be in Baltimore April 4th - 11th Light City week/end. I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends perform the festival. I'm also playing a set as Pelvis Presley at Joe Squared for The Hive compilation release show. I'm also releasing my first full length album Presley Pelvis record store day.
I'm working on a new project called Random Art. I'm looking into making prints and framing my pieces. I will be revealing the project to the public next month!
Lastly, I recently started a youth instructor position with Denver gov. It's a temporary position lasting only till late May, but it's exciting and I'm looking forward to trying something new.
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