We’ve had a lot of music the last few days, as well as a lot of Mom and Dad.

Tristen was an early adopter of Nathaniel Rateliff to the point that sometimes when I hear his music I think of Tristen listening to it while she’s making dinner and such.  She found out that he was going to be at a free show in Raleigh a while back, so we decided we had to go.

My brother-in-law, Josh, is also a fan, so we talked to him and my sister, Andra, about going.  They were all for it.  I mentioned it to Erin, who is with Andra and Josh now anyway, Adam, who I think was going to be out of town, and my parents, too.  I thought Dad would particularly like it.

Thursday

Well, Andra and Josh welched on it, so Erin didn’t come.  Mom and Dad still did though.  Tristen and I left Wilmington right after her work.  Mom and Dad were already inside, having been in Raleigh for a few hours already.  We found a good place to park and met up with them inside the Red Hat Amphitheater.

I don’t remember the name of the first band, but they were from Australia I think and I liked the lady’s voice.  Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats came on just a bit before the sun went down.  They put on a great, fun and energetic show.  Mom and Dad enjoyed it too.  When their set was over Dad said he heard the Blues Brothers, the Doors, Creedence and I think a couple other influences in their music.

We left before the headliner, Lord Huron, since we had a two hour drive ahead of us.  I wouldn’t have minded sticking around for them otherwise.  We got home around 11:15 I think.

Friday

Mom and Dad came down to Wilmington Friday evening with a pack of dogs.  We’re taking custody of Elmo, so we’ll now have a dog larger than a cat in the house.

Shortly after they got in, we went to Downtown Sundown, which had a Led Zeppelin cover band.  We hung out behind the stage by the Cape Fear River.  Honestly, I prefer being back there to being in the parking lot where they’re holding Downtown Sundown this year.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad they’re doing it, but I’ll be happy when they finish the renovations by the River in front of the Federal Building so they can move it back over there.

We stuck around for a bit, but everyone was hungry so we decided to eat.  I chose Front Street Brewery, partly because I’d been hankering for their ribs, but apparently they dropped them.  That’s a real shame, because their ribs might be the best I ever had.

Afterwards we walked to Kilwin’s where I bought ice cream for myself and Mom.  We wandered a little more, sat and chatted by the river then went on home.

Saturday

Tristen was up early and off to work.  I said something to my parents about making breakfast, but they wanted to go out.  Our original plan was to go to the beach, but I had also agreed to help set up a playset that Laura bought.  It was kind of for Milly and for Sebastian, and it was going to be set up at our place since Milly and her friends would be able to play on it more for now, but there wasn’t a very good spot to put it so it was going down the street to Torrie’s.  Anyway, that set up was going to be this morning, so the plan changed to do breakfast, set up the playset then go to the beach.

So instead of going across town to the beach first, we went downtown to Dixie Grill.  There was a 15 or 20 minute wait, so we walked across the street to check out some Teslas that were on display in the small lot next to Slice of Life.  I so badly would like a Tesla.  The SUV model we played around with topped out at a cost of about $140,000, so that one’s off the list, sweet as it is.

After  eating we went over to Torrie’s.  Dad, Craig, Johnny and I put it together while Mom and Laura watched supervised.  Sebastian got to play with it after his nap and was highly entertained.

Sebastian, by the way, went from baby to toddler this past week as he’s walking now.  He also says a few words.  He’s said “bye” for a while, though it usually goes along with a mah sound when blowing kisses.  He also started saying “Bash” which is really cool.

By the time we finished putting the playset together it was starting to rain a little.  Tristen texted and said that the lines on and off the beach were ridiculous too, so Mom and Dad just waited for her to get off work before taking off.
Tristen found out that The Broods were doing an acoustic set at Ogden Tap Room, so we went there.  They played for about half an hour then did a meet and greet, which was cool of them.

After that Tristen and I did some running around to get things for Milly’s birthday party tomorrow.  It’s going to be a big, busy and, hopefully, fun day.