The other big sleep...the second half of the summer.

Since I last left off with my recovery from a "Hangover", I have been up to so much more this summer. I have tried a few new restaurants, visited a few new places, and seen some great movies.

I visited the small, beautiful town of Tryon, NC, a few weeks ago. Tryon is the kind of place that I would consider settling down with a family or retiring to one year. It has access to some gorgeous mountains, is not far from family and friends in the Carolinas, has charming architecture, and has everything one could need and want (varied restaurants and stores, old-school movie theater, Internet cafe/coffee shop). Plus Tryon is among other quaint towns such as Saluda, Hendersonville, Landrum, and Campobello, and is easily accessible to I-26 to go to Asheville, Tennessee, or back to Spartanburg or the beaches. Their perhaps most-popular and most-delicious restaurant is Sidestreet Pizza, which I tried on my second visit to Tryon.

I also got the opportunity to go to a vintage drive-in movie theater on the Fourth of July to see not only a fireworks display, but two movies: "Public Enemies" and "The Year One". (I will be reviewing these movies as well as others as August comes to a close in another week). On my way to the drive-in, I traveled through the towns of Boiling Springs and Shelby, both in North Carolina.


Speaking of movies, a good friend and I made our first visit to Greenville's Cherrydale Stadium 16 to see "Away We Go". Although similar to Spartan Stadium 16 (tiles behind concession stand and overall set-up), the designs and a few other aspects were different. Spartan Stadium 16 has more primary colors in its tile designs (blue, yellow, red, with some green), with yellow and red being dominant (and reminding me of a fire station). Cherrydale has more subtle, light shades of purple/lavender, blue, green, and silver around the building. The video game and theater set-ups are also different. Spartan has their games aligning the walls of both theater halls, while Cherrydale has all of their games to each side of the main lobby (with an air hockey table). Spartan's halls has nine screens to one hall and seven to another, while Cherrydale has eight screens for each hall. Cherrydale also has their popcorn heaters on display at the front of the concession table, whereas Spartan's are behind the cash registers.

In addition to "Hangover", "Away We Go", "Public Enemies", and "Year One", I saw several new movies this summer:
"Star Trek"
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine"
"I Love You, Man"
"Monsters vs. Aliens"
"Angels & Demons"
"The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3"
"Up"
"Land of the Lost"
"Drag Me to Hell"
"Whatever Works"
"Moon"
"Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs"
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"
"Bruno"
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
"Funny People"
"G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra"
"District 9"
"The Proposal"

I will be checking out a few more this week; then, by next week, I should be reviewing all of these in full and cracking a top ten list.

With several television series on hiatus for the summer, I have became addicted to several new shows, including "Entourage" and "The Goode Family", which I soon will discuss.

Have a good one!