Northeast, Fall 2023: Part One

This was an amazing week long trip, so I’ll split this in two. Here is part one.

Pretty much ever since I graduated college about a million years ago, I’ve been hoping to make it back out to the Northeast to hit some fall colors. B and I have been talking about it for a few years, and this year, we finally just decided to make it work SOMEHOW.

And work it almost didn’t, due to typical family drama and scheduling, but thankfully, it did.

Wednesday, October 4
We left the morning after a concert (Beast in Black … which I’ll probably post about in my concert round up … eventually) and flew into Boston. We landed late-afternoon, checked in to our hotel, and then walked over to the BU campus for some of my favorite things.

The COM building and COM lawn look so different now.

T. Anthony’s for a slice of pizza appetizer.

And then obviously Brown Sugar Cafe for my favorite Thai Fried Rice.

After everything being as delicious as always, we walked back downtown to our hotel, grabbing some J.P. Licks before we headed to bed.

Thursday, October 5
We woke up and went for a run, grabbed some coffee, and then got breakfast at the hotel. We then packed up and headed over to South Station to grab an Amtrak Acela train down to Providence (with the “horsefeathers” bit from this skit on repeat in my head). Why? To grab a rental car there, as there were none in Boston (or at least none for any reasonable amount of money).

The train station isn’t near the airport, so we grabbed an Uber (with some guy who said he was a local but with how he got lost …) over to the rental car center there to grab our car. From there, it was down to Newport.

America’s oldest baseball field.

Just to grab some food, we split a (very mediocre) lobster roll from some food stand in the middle of the park before dodging huge crowds of cruise tourists to actually get where we wanted to go. Which for me, was Bowen’s Wharf for Kiel James Patrick.

If you follow the blog, you know I love their flannel dresses. I’ve liked their sweaters for years, but with the way my upper body is, I’ve always worried about fit … and I hate online returns. So I decided to use the excuse of never having been to Newport as also a reason to try some stuff on in person. Which I’m very grateful I did, as they were not flattering. At all. And tbh, kind of itchy. Very sad day.

After that, we snagged more fairly mediocre food at some place nearby just to eat and then we ventured over to the Cliff Walk, since apparently that’s the thing to do.

The Breakers.

Despite the pink, probably my favorite of the mansions.

We didn’t do all of the walk, but definitely most of it. We then headed back to our hotel … but not without me snagging one more picture in town.

America’s oldest tavern, the White Horse.

Dinner was at the Newport Creamery … where we decided to try something that seemed really familiar before we finally realized that we had seen it on Man Vs. Food – the Awful Awful.

We each did a tiny one, and it was good.

Friday, October 6
Friday we made our way back north, heading to Salem for the day. I figured since we were nearby and ’tis the season, why not? Finding a spot to park was an understandable nightmare (oh how I wish we could have managed this NOT on a weekend), but we did, and neither of us care about some walking.

This house was awesome (on Lafayette St.).

I didn’t take a picture at lunch, but we ate at the Derby and I had an amazing meal – I had the maple bourbon salmon with whipped potatoes, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, and pumpkin seeds. So good. After lunch, we walked around and explored the main area a bit.

Plus it was perfectly foggy most of the day.

Oh yeah, before leaving Newport that morning we detoured back into town to get B a matching flannel at KJP. It was his choice to match me this day.

Bewitched statue.

Although I’m sure there’s a lot more we could have seen, we called it good after a few hours and got back on the road and headed up to Maine. We ended up stopping for the night in Biddeford, Maine. Dinner was at a local New England chain that I hadn’t eaten at since college – Ninety-Nine Restaurants. Neither of us ate much, but it was food.

Saturday, October 7

I didn’t get my run in before we left – I had hoped for a longer run along an old rail trail, but alas, it was not to be, thanks to waking up late and B feeling a touch under the weather. Next time. B wanted to see Kennebunkport, so that was our first destination for the morning, besides a detour to the Holy Donut (since I had heard about them).

Potato doughnuts. They were tasty.

Kennebunkport was kind of busy already so we didn’t really stop and do much except at one of the beaches. However, we saw a dinosaur-themed mini golf place – Raptor Falls – that we had to stop at and play a round at.

So many animatronic dinos!

Dino footprint hole. And the agony of golf.

Like I wasn’t crawling in this egg.

Like I wasn’t riding on this dino.

Very fun detour aside, we worked our way up Highway 1 to the Portland area. Part of this trip was also a hopeful tour of lobster rolls from me, and I had a list of some to potentially try thanks to one of the IG accounts I follow. One of the ones was Bite into Maine, which just so happened to have a food truck by the Portland Head Light(house). Which got me one of my favorite pictures ever.

Also HOLY EFF DELICIOUS.

We split it but probably shouldn’t have.

After the lighthouse, we went a bit more into actual Portland to Sea Dog Brewing so B could get his favorite blueberry beer (and we both got a cup of chowder). We then continued working our way up the Maine coast, with a detour to Freeport because of a place that I had been to, but B hadn’t yet, and it’s kind of a thing you do if you find yourself in Freeport.

Yep. LL Bean headquarters. This giant duck boot did not exist in the late-’90s when I was last there.

From there, off to Bath where we were staying for the night. I got in a treadmill run and then we went off to find food, ending up at the Bath Brewing Company, where I ended up officially trying poutine for the first time.

Actually delicious.

(rest of the trip in part two!)

So Nice, We Did it Twice

… a.k.a. Shinedown 14 and 15.

(PROGRAMMING NOTE: I may do a quick round up of all the concerts I’ve been to this year that I haven’t blogged about; we’ll see. I also have a NE trip post or two that should have been before this, but alas – that will come next week.)

As I mentioned in the Bozeman show recap, when the fall leg of the tour was announced, we decided to grab tickets for two of the dates – 10.13 in Las Vegas and 10.17 in Salt Lake City. Since driving back from Bozeman the day after the show was ROUGH, we decided to book an extra night with our hotel. Which worked out, since B got a 10-game package of Vegas Golden Knights tickets and one of the packages with an Avs game (my team) also had the game on the 14th, so how fortuitous. It still meant we drove home dead, but eh.

The Vegas show was at the MGM Grand Garden Arena … a venue I somehow had never been to (the Avs way back in the day used to do a preseason game there against the Kings and we always talked about going (this is like high school back in the day btw), but we never did). Trying to figure out where to go for the VIP stuff was fairly confusing, but we made it work.

VIP now isn’t what it used to be – it’s not a meet and greet anymore – but it is a backstage tour where you do get to see all the staging, and the load in, and a peek into a few of the rooms and whatnot.

Ha. This was the back of the lanyard. If you know the song “A Symptom of Being Human,” this makes a lot more sense.

When we were out seeing the truck situation, we saw what was the gym truck (literally they take the trailer of a semi and turn it into a gym) and some legs behind a curtain … and then Brent Smith popped out and said hi. Barry Kerch did too for about 15 seconds as Barry does (it was his legs doing some insane burpee thing we saw), but Brent decided to graciously take some pictures with all of us.

Aw sweaty mess Brentley.

This was actually like their chill room, but this is what they call it. I also want to know who decided on the He-Man riff/theme for this tour because HILARIOUS.

In ending the tour, we came back out by where they were building the stage. As I do, I was thanking the random staffers for doing what they do. We also saw Eric Bass’s guitar tech, Hoogie … so B and I obviously asked for a selfie. Because we’re weird. But he was nice enough to say yes.

Of note: our tour guide was a staffer named Freddy … who has known Eric since childhood and had worked with Papa Roach for years. As a result, I asked if he knew my cousin Mike (who, you may recall, passed away a few years ago but when alive, did sound for multiple bands including Papa Roach) and he did, so it was nice to share that memory. Unfortunately, I feel like I may have tarnished his a bit, as he was wondering what exactly happened with Mike (I guess Freddy had talked with him like two weeks before he died and had no clue). When I ran into Freddy while getting into the SLC show, I explained what I knew – about him having had been diagnosed with cancer, beating it, and then having it come back – and I guess he knew none of it and sounded almost betrayed. I feel really bad about it, but I also know that ultimately, he feels the way he does and I can’t change that.

From there, it was shuffled outside to wait until early entry for merch and to stampede the floor. Which got delayed. Eventually we were let in for merch. I got a t-shirt and the guitar pick necklace, but found out that the show-specific pick packs (which we always go for) were at a DIFFERENT merch table … so we had to wait until the doors more opened for that. Eventually I figured out how to do that while B found us a rail spot. I also found us a very terrible hot dog to split since it was about 5:30ish, we had last eaten at 1:30ish, and the show would go until 11ish. Me at 40 DEFINITELY can’t take that long without eating anymore.

First up was Spiritbox. I don’t always know how Shinedown picks which bands to tour with, but I’m pretty sure Spiritbox was the band that Brent helped out early on in the panorama with some cash due to them having to cancel tours. In any case, they were a bit surprising – I was not expecting a lot of female growls, but there it was.

This is the third time I’ve seen Papa Roach and probably the best I’ve seen them. I don’t know if it was because Jacoby Shaddix had a lot of family around or what, but they were outstanding. And B ended up catching a pick from guitarist Jerry Horton at one point.

Then, Shinedown. Somewhat different show than Bozeman which is good. The Eric and Zach song is now Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” (which it seems like more people know than “Don’t Look Back in Anger” which still … FAIL) … but the COOLEST part is that they bring out The Warmup Room for it now. The Warmup Room is the band made up of the three techs – Hoogie, Drew Foppe (Zach’s tech), and Rick Sands (Barry’s). Love seeing those guys get some credit and love.

Same entrance as Bozeman though … which is fine because it’s AWESOME.

Sanjay doing his thing. We also chatted with him pre-show while in the MGM (before we figured out we needed to go outside) and coordinated a meetup prior to the SLC show to give him some goodies.

So rare I can snag a shot with all four guys. Silly Barry always hiding.

Prior to “Monsters”.

Amazing show, emotional … but then we got to do it all over again five days later.

The venue this time was USANA Amphitheatre – my first outdoor show since 2018 and the second time seeing Shinedown outside (the last time being the Red Rocks show a whole decade ago).

We didn’t do the full VIP package this time, but because we need our pick packs and our rail, we did buy the early entry package. Which, worth it. Got our picks and we got B a t-shirt.

The rail at USANA was actually kind of pointless … since the stage setup there is already high and because of all the pyro Shinedown uses, the stage got raised up even higher. So for us on the ground, it was kind of hard to see a lot of the performance ESPECIALLY of the opening acts (unless it was right in front of us). But we were on it anyway and I somehow had a bit of breathing room almost the entire show which never happens so yay for that?

Once we figured out our spot and the venue opened, I wandered off to find us food (because, old). While I did, I spotted something interesting.

Oh hey, it’s Sanjay filming Brent talking to some fan that I guess they know (based off marginal IG research post-show).

I got some chicken tenders and a corn dog and took it back to split with B. And then it was dealing with a really obnoxious tall dude (that, amusingly enough, some kid in line was saying was an asshole. You weren’t wrong, my friend, and I wish I would have run into you post-show because I would have said that) who had cheers that sounded like jeers and just ugh. Annoying.

Besides that, though, it was kind of take two.

Spiritbox was about the same – not better, not worse. We did get a pick this time around though, so that’s cool.

Papa Roach did not seem as “on.” Whether it was because it’s late in the tour (only … two shows left after this?) or because it was a marginal let down after two presumably emotional shows in Vegas and then in California (what would be their “hometown” show), I don’t know. Still good, just not as fire, y’know? Got another Jerry pick, but B handed it to one of the kids around us.

Prior to Shinedown we actually managed to get a Hoogie pick (I think he may have recognized us? Maybe?) and then got a second one at some point as well during setup that we gave to the other little kid next to us. But yay a second Hoogie pick! Last time we got one of those was the terrible birthday show back in 2017.

Shinedown, however, was AMAZING. Probably one of the, if not THE best show of theirs we’ve seen. Yeah, it was kind of the same show, but some of the interim stuff between songs was a bit different which was nice. Apparently – and I know they don’t say this every show, having been to as many as I have – SLC was the best crowd on tour so far. Brent even got choked up a bit at the beginning of “Simple Man” and mentioned it. Zach 100% mentioned it after “The Middle.”

I didn’t take as many photos because I didn’t feel the need, but I did potentially get one of my greatest concert photos ever.

Love it.

I did actually bring in a sign that said “Barry Spartan Brews Coffee is the Best! thanks!” and he saw it and appreciated it … and B had me give it to him at the end of the show. Barry, if you somehow see this, please don’t feel obligated to keep it. Silly husband.

We got a set list – which we gave away (okay, B got a setlist because one of the things that he/we gave to Sanjay pre-show was a pair of authentic wings to give to Eric on behalf of us since, from our meet and greet with them a million years ago, we know Eric likes airplane stuff. B managed to get his attention to see if he got the wings and he was like “YES THAT WAS AWESOME THANKS” and therefore handed B the setlist instead of wadding it up into a ball and pitching it into the crowd like normal) and B managed to find a few more picks, too.

*****

The funny thing is, post-Vegas show, B was wondering if maybe Shinedown was getting a touch stale for him (even though he’s like three shows behind me). I said as long as I still get all the feels during a show (that is, I cry), I’m still willing to go see them. After this show, despite us not particularly liking the venue (if we go back to USANA, we’re going to the back and the grass), B was like, this is why I keep going back to see them because magic still happens.

Third Quarter Style: 2023

And we have my usual three outfits, apparently, from three days around my birthday. As it goes.

Fourth of July fun.

Necklace: True Love Crystals Joy
Earrings: … no idea … Target, maybe?
Dress: Vineyard Vines for Target
Socks: Target
Shoes: Me Too

40th Birfday outfit.

Crystal Crown: Virgo Gems
Earrings: BaubleBar for Target
Necklace: Kate Spade
Dress: MacDuggal (maybe technically Ieena for MacDuggal?)
Watch: Olivia Burton London
Shoes: JustFab Online

Worn on the same birthday Vegas trip.

Necklace: Ken’s Design Haus
Dress: Tiare Hawaii
Purse: Kurt Geiger
Shoes: Nike