Tootsie's Orchid Lounge If you’ve ever stepped foot in Nashville, you know that they don’t call it music city for nothing. This vibrant city is legendary as the county music capital but it’s not just country music that you’ll hear. Walking through the airport, I was greeted with the tightest rock band I had heard in a while. Browsing Nashville shops, restaurants and bars, I often spotted a stage where musicians would play all day and night. I heard jazz, gospel, pop and lots of country music during my visit but you can’t grab the full experience until you visit Nashville’s famed honky tonks. A wall of boots at Roberts Before I traveled to Nashville, I never realized that honky tonk can be used as a verb but that’s how I heard my nightly forays into the crowded, whiskey-soaked bars that line Broadway in downtown Nashville described. Making my way to the area, I heard the live music blasting four blocks away. Even crossing the street ...[more »]

A trip last year to San Francisco for the Craft Brewers Conference gave me an opportunity to explore the city’s bustling craft beer scene and I took full advantage of it. Meeting many of the brewers from the area gave me new places to check out. Stopping by the famed Anchor Brewing Co, as well as hidden gemBeach Chalet, was phenomenal. When most folks think of San Francisco, they get visions of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Grateful Dead, Alcatraz Island, riding the trolley into Fishermans Wharf and the smoke filled hippie days of the late 1960′s. Smack dab in the middle of these wonders of the West Coast, in San Francisco’s famed Haight-Ashbury district, sits Magnolia Pub and Brewery. Photo Courtesy of iNeTours After a day of walking around Fisherman’s Wharf and strolling through Golden Gate park, it was time for a quick visit at Magnolia before the evening events related to the Craft Brewers Conference. I stopped in with a couple of friends and quickly fou...[more »]

It’s Mardi Gras, people. Time to party. Go ahead, I’ll wait. There are celebrations being held all over the world, but the two best are Carnival in Rio and the craziness of America’s own New Orleans. By best I mean the most drinking, parades, and public nudity. You may have your own ranking system. If you can’t get to Brazil or New Orleans there are plenty of other places to enjoy the celebration before Lent sets in (although, my personal experience has shown a lot more people seem to partake in Fat Tuesday than Ash Wednesday — go figure). St. Louis throws a nice party as does Mississippi’s West Coast (both of which offer lots of family fun). Most cities feature some sort of celebration, although they tend to focus on Fat Tuesday (February 21) rather than weeks of debauchery. San Diego claims to have the best party out west, but I recall one Fat Tuesday in Seattle that brought out police in riot gear, which is always a sign that things are pretty w...[more »]