BARcelona and Three Sisters

The title of this post sounds like the name of some kind of weird book. Or a Woody Allen movie.

Good story, Abby.


BARcelona is a tapas restaurant in Indianapolis, and we went there after Sarah and Tim's wedding with Carla and Dave. Carla took us there once before; it was the highlight of SMT last year...the culinary one, at least.




I have so many great pictures of Dave talking and Carla looking at him as if to say, "What?!"
















We had white, then red sangria.
























The next day we went for a very hilly run in Fort Harrison State Park, where three of us randomly wore green running shirts. Then over to the Broad Ripple neighborhood in Indy to eat a very late breakfast at the Three Sisters Cafe.






Serious discussion about who's everyone's favorite Food Network personality.
















Three Sisters Cafe was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, the Guy Fieri show on Food Network. They have little markers on the menu for things Guy ate (see the highlighted "DDD" item here), including the thing I ordered: corn cakes with berry sauce and whipped cream.


















They were so good. I can see why they were featured on TV. They're on the sweet end of the breakfast spectrum, and you can taste the fruit, but they're not overpoweringly sweet. The sauce was perfect. I would eat the whole thing again right now if someone offered it to me.


I love how similar Dave and Carla's expressions are in these photos. They are of one mind!






















































Here's Dave casting a hex on me, sitting across from him.


















One thing I love about these pictures is that I went with the same people + Aisha to Three Sisters a few years earlier after running a 5K in Indy, and we sat at the same table. And we took similar pictures, only I was sitting where Carla is in the above ones.






Awesome, post-run hair.














I'm so glad we got to spend extra time with Carla and Dave. While I'm sad that they're moving so far away, but I'm also really happy for them to have jobs in Denver, and I REALLY WANT to go visit them there.

Summer Weddings

The initial purpose of our summer road trip (see the other three posts about it here, here, and here) was to attend two weddings - one in Nashville, one in Bloomington.

The first: John's friend Tanner from TTU and his wife, Sara.
























They got married at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville.






































Tanner's dad is a high school band teacher, but he also plays in a really great band, and they played the wedding. They were amazing! John and I danced until my feet couldn't take it any more.




































I wish we could have stayed later and hung out with Tanner and Sara some more, but it was really fun to see them get married!
If you'd like to see some of their beautiful pro wedding shots, click here for the photographer's blog. You know, if you live in Nashville and need a wedding photographer. Like you do.


Next: my former roommate at IU, Sarah Wangberg and Tim Climis, who got married in Bloomington in early July.

The day started with a trip to Upland with a few of my favorite IU people.
[I apologize for how blurry most of the pictures are from here on out.]



















Then we headed to the choich.
























Sarah looked beautiful in the dress her Mother. Hand. Made. Whew!
























Her dad is a Lutheran minister, so he and the local clergy each did parts of the service.







































Married!

























The reception was casual and held at a local park pavilion with lots of family.





















These aren't wedding-specific shots, just some pictures John took while we were at the reception.
































































































I'm so glad we were there to see Sarah and Tim get hitched and to have a little IU party with our friends. These were only 2 of the 5 (five!) weddings we were invited to this summer. Sadly we can only go to three total. I'm really excited to see my cousin Halley get married next in just a couple weeks!

A Tale of Three 'Villes - Knoxville

Our final stop in TN was Knoxville where we visited John's master's thesis advisor and her partner, who is also a musicology professor at UT Knoxville (you can read both their bios here).




Talking to Les in their spacious study. I loved their house!













They also made us a wonderful dinner of curried chicken, grilled corn on the cob, and cucumber salad. The next day, Rachel got up and made us all omelettes. As John said, they gave us the real executive treatment.
Here's Rachel with Frou Frou, their poodle.


























The weather cooperated and we had both meals outside on their porch.






















Frou Frou is really well behaved, and milled around the yard while we ate.






















After several hours of musicology talk, we got on the road and drove up to Bloomington. We passed several of our favorite TN landmarks, like this one:
A a combination porn/adult bookstore, as-seen-on-TV outlet, fireworks store, and fudge store, presided over by this giant white cross.

















Always my favorite place to stop on I-75.

A Tale of Three 'Villes - Cookeville

After our goodbyes to Kira and Joe, John and I headed to Cookeville to see his conducting teacher/mentor from his undergrad days, Dan Allcott. Dan's always been so supportive of John, and me - even though he was never my actual teacher - so we love to visit him and his family.

As we drove along I-40 we saw a sign for Del Monaco Winery just 5 miles from the Cookeville exit, and we decided to pull off.


















They had a nice tasting room, beautiful property, and friendly staff. Dan told us that the winery is THE place to have a wedding, if you live in Cookeville, and if you click here to see their pictures, you'll understand why.

We tasted several of their wines and you can read about them here. A lot of them were too sweet for my taste, but the chardonnay pretty nice. A lot of them would be good to drink while sitting out on their patio.


























Their tasting room overlooks the production part of the building.






































After some tasting and buying a bottle for our Knoxville hosts, we went on to Cookeville to hang out with the Capron-Allcotts.



















Dan and his wife Susan made us a fabulous dinner of grilled pizzas and salad, and then we played with the family's new dog, Sandy.




















Their son, Carter, posed some of his action figures for John to photograph.

































Dan still imparts life lessons to John when we visit. This time we learned two important things, though I'm sure John can tell us more:
1) When pouring beer in a glass, you want it to have some foam because its more fragrant.
2) If the glass is warm, pour slowly. If the glass is properly chilled, you have to pour aggressively to get the right amount of foam.
























The next few photos take a little explaining. The gist of the story is that Dan went to IU for grad school, and while there, his wife really fell in love with the Bloomington children's museum, Wonderlab.









John puts the dress frame-thing on Jacque (short for Jacqueline), their daughter.















After they moved to TN, Susan felt Cookeville should have something similar and so she started her own version of it: the Kiwanis Cookeville Children's Museum. This year they had a fundraiser called the Mad Hatter's Ball, where the Allcott's bought that dress frame-thing (can someone tell me the real name of it?) that John is putting on Jacque in the picture above.

























As part of the fundraiser they also asked local artists to create a fancy hat for the auction. John is modeling the one they took home.

We were so grateful to the Capron-Allcotts for hosting us. It's always nice to visit them and to see the local changes around TTU and Cookeville.

Next up: John's-professor-reunion part 2 in Knoxville.

A Tale of Three 'Villes - Nashville

Last week was the second half of our Summer Roadtripstravaganza Oh-11. It's less epic than last year's, but we've still gotten the chance to visit a lot of people we miss in Indiana and Tennessee. After a short visit to Memphis where we saw John's family, we made our way east.
Here are some random pictures I took along the way.

First we went to Nashville to visit my bff Kira and to see John's friend Tanner get married (that needs its own post, I think).

Kira's cat, Thelonious Monk, hanging out in the hallway.










Unfortunately we didn't get to spend a ton of time with Kira because she was the chaplain at this awesome church camp. But it was a nice, short visit.

Here's her other kitty, Duke Ellington. I love this picture because Duke looks like a cat-shaped pillow with eyes.






Also, Kira, I hope I have the cats' names right!






























He seems to love having his picture taken, and put on a brooding face.


While we waited for Kira to come back from camp for a visit, her husband Joe took us to a cool restaurant called Bread and Company, not unlike Panera but local and nicer.


















Joe and I studied the menu carefully.















Lots o' granola.












Joe and John both chose omelettes, something Bread and Co. is known for.





John's omelette - broccoli, tomatoes, and cheese (or some other veggie combo) with sourdough bread.














Joe regaled us with stories from his job as an anesthesia resident at the Vanderbilt Med Center.



















While I wish Kira had been in town longer, it was really great to talk to Joe. Normally when I visit Kira and I talk 90 miles an hour and no one can get a word in. I always wish our visits to Nashville could be longer. John can't get enough of this face: