Key West Best Eats

As you may know, I am in love with Key West. I try to get there at least once a year if not more. I got engaged there, married there and HOPE to one day move there. When anybody tells me they are going I can't help but spew out where I think they should eat, drink, and sleep, what I think they should do and what I think they should avoid. I get giddy just thinking of somebody enjoying some of the lesser known places and getting off of Duval Street to see the real Key West. Given my inability to shut up about the place I figured I should share some of my favorite places to eat in Key West. I left out most of the touristy places because (1) you can find them on your own without any help and (2) if I was going out to eat, I probably would not eat there. I'm not knocking the touristy stuff. There is something about those Key West classics like Margaritaville, Sloppy Joes and Hogs Breath that will draw you in, but trust me, you can find better food and drinks if you venture off Duval.

Santa's Little Helper...Backpacking & Camping

I know some people consider it odd, but I am one of those people who actually enjoy camping. I even spent my Thanksgiving weekend camping on Cumberland Island (a post on that coming soon). If you know somebody who loves to camp, maybe they would enjoy some of these gifts.

Santa's Little Helper...Travel in Comfort

Lets face it, airline travel has become one of the most undignified, uncomfortable and stressful parts of any vacation. You know something great is waiting for you when you hop off the plane, but first you have to run the gauntlet. Baggage fees, carry on allowances, damn it my perfume is 5oz not 3, palm swab (this is a new one but it actually happened to me last month), x-ray, strip searched,  buy a $5 bottle of water, wait a few hours since you got to the airport at the suggested time, settle in to your rock hard seat located next to crying baby/arm rest hog/sneezing guy (pick your poison), try unsuccessfully to nap, arrive (Yeah!), lost luggage (Boo!).... You know the drill! These gift ideas hopefully make the journey a lot more comfortable for your loved one (or you), so when they arrive they can start their vacation off on the right foot. Grab a few and make up a gift bag or stuff some stockings to bring joy to your traveler's face this season.

Washington DC

I have been traveling for work a ton lately so sorry for the lack of posts. One upside to work travel is going to places you have never been like the conference that recently landed me in DC. Amazingly, the closest I have ever been to DC was a layover in the airport. It seems like most people I talk to went there on some middle school field trip. I must have been absent when those permission slips were handed out! Ron was able to meet me up there for the weekend which made it even more fun! So without further ado, our trip to DC in pictures. PS - I forgot the camera so you get to see it all through the eye of my iphone.

Win a Trip for Two to Costa Rica

Costa Rica's tourism board is holding a "Million Dollar Gift of Happiness" promotion. You can enter every day for your chance to win a themed vacation (think adventure or romance) to Costa Rica. To enter just visit Costa Rica's Facebook page. What type of adventure did you pick? Who will you take if you win? Good luck everyone!

Food Truck Pile Up

This Friday October 14th there will be a Food Truck Pile Up at JM Lexus Margate . Ron and I went to the last one and had a great time sampling all of the different food. The people watching wasn't bad either as many people, young and old, hit the dance 'floor'. If you are in the area you should definetly try it out. One tip, BYO beverage. Last time we spent a fortune on bottled water and drinks. (Legal disclaimer) I am not advocating brown bagging your beer or doing anything naughty, but I doubt anyone would notice if you had a nalgene full of your drink of choice.

What do you think of food trucks? Love or Hate? Any issue with eating food from the road side?

Oktoberfest Bites and Brews

The second part of our European adventure was spent in Munich for Oktoberfest. Some fellow beer guzzling fun loving friends of ours from high school (yes we still talk 14 years later) met us there for the party cultural enrichment. Before I get to the beers and food I wanted to share a few things about Oktoberfest that surprised me. First of all Oktoberfest is kid friendly. We saw tons of kids in the beer tents, playing carnival games, riding the rides, etc. They even have family nights where they discount the rides. Second, somehow they keep the bathrooms decently clean. I have been in bars with under 100 people that have bathrooms worse off than a port-o-potty, but somehow the Germans manage to keep the bathrooms used by thousands of beer drinkers clean. Amazing! Third, everyone is a happy drunk. In the US if a drunk guy standing on a bar bench spilled a liter beer on the unfortunate guy below him, I am pretty sure a fight would break out. At Oktoberfest the spiller hugs the spillee and invites him to join his table. We sat and talked with more strangers than I can count. At times we didn't even speak the same language but we were friends by the end of the night. I love happy drunks! :)

As far as beer goes, the Germans mainly still stick by the 'Reinheitsgebot' or German Beer Purity Law, that states beer can only be made with water, barley and hops.  You are not going to find any IPAs or Blueberry Wheat Beers at Oktoberfest. And the food, well it IS exactly what you imagine, Meat and Potatoes. The only green on the plate is usually a sprinkling of parsley over your Knodel (potato dumpling). I hope you enjoy the picture tour!

Amsterdam Bites and Brews

I'm back from my European adventure. Did you guys miss me? Since I have been doing a lot of eating and drinking and not a whole lot of cooking lately, I figured I could share some of what I tried while on vacation.

Beer + Vacation = Brewcation. A Dogfish Head Brewery 360 Degree Experience.

In honor of some upcoming trips I have planned (Savannah Craft Brew Fest and Oktoberfest) I wanted to share the Brewcation that started it all. Before this trip I had visited breweries while on vacation, but not until this trip had the ONLY purpose been to drink beer. What a great time!

The beer delivery truck guy actually pulled over to take this picture for us

8 Trips for Animal Lovers

I had to share this great article I just read. Thanks to CNN and this article, 8 Trips for Animal Lovers, my bucket list for travel just got a lot longer.

My favorite trips mentioned include researching koalas in Australia (you get to hold them!), rehabilitating lions in Zimbabwe (walk and work with the lions), conserving sea turtles in Greece (monitor nesting, snorkel and a 2 day catamaran tour), volunteering with lemurs in Madagascar (helping an endangered species), washing elephants in Thailand (feed, bathe and learn about elephant families and communication) and saving sharks in South Africa (cage diving anyone!?). 

For some reason the trips focused on horses don't peak my curiosity at all. Maybe because I don't have to go too far to see a horse. Or maybe because I went horse back riding in Alaska and that stupid horse wanted to throw me off the mountain.  Who knows. But the rest of them are SO up my alley! And if you throw in a bit of volunteering it seems more meaningful somehow. Who's in?!

Savannah CraftBrew Fest

Still looking for Labor Day travel plans? You should check out the Savannah CraftBrew Fest, a three day festival set in the gorgeous city of Savannah, GA. What could be better than a long weekend, southern food and craft beer!? Some of the breweries (there are MANY more) attending are Abita, Brooklyn, Dogfish Head, Harpoon, Magic Hat, Sweetwater, Cigar City, Left Hand and Terrapin. There is even a homebrew contest! I have a Mango Double IPA fermenting right now that I hope is ready in time to enter. (I will share that recipe later if it turns out like I planned.) Fingers crossed.

Will I see you there?!

Scallopalozza! A Steinhatchee Fourth of July

We spent this Fourth of July weekend with great friends on our 3^rd annual scalloping trip to the tiny little fishing village of Steinhatchee, Florida.  If you have never been to Steinhatchee, it’s time to go! I hope this post will help you plan your own scallopalooza.

What to do in Steinhatchee?

Hunt for scallops, of course! Scalloping is a really simple activity that can be enjoyed by everyone. All you need is a boat, a mask and snorkel and a 5 gallon bucket to hold your catch (hint, a small bag like the ones used to wash delicates is perfect to hold your scallops while you are swimming around). The Steinhatchee River takes you straight out to the Gulf and from there all you have to do is choose a spot, throw in the anchor and let the hunt begin. It is a lot like an underwater Easter-egg hunt.  Scallops are just sitting on the bottom waiting for you to pick them up.  Once you have reached your limit or are tuckered out, grab a pool noodle or float, a frosty beverage and kick back and relax. This really is one of the best parts of scalloping!

If you aren’t interested in scalloping Steinhatchee also offers great fishing and apparently hunting (but that is not my thing). If you don’t like the outdoors and are expecting shopping malls, Whole Foods or ANYTHING bordering on fancy, this may not be the trip for you. It really is a fishing village in every sense of the term.

Where to stay?

In Steinhatchee, rental houses are key. There is not much in the way of hotels. Two places I would recommend are

Steinhatchee Rivergate http://steinhatcheerentals.com/statement.html and

Steinhatchee Landing  http://www.steinhatcheelanding.com/

 What if I don’t have a boat?

A few marinas in Steinhatchee offer boat rentals. The nicest boat we have rented so far was from SeaHag Marina http://www.seahag.com/boatrentals.htm

What should I eat?

Don’t count on restaurants or grocery stores. For this trip you will need to plan ahead! The rental houses have basic cooking utensils but you may want to pack things like a can opener, veggie peeler and a sharp knife. There are a few places to grab a bite around town, but count on 90% of it being some version of fried food.  Feel free to contact me if you would like to see the menu I planned for our most recent trip. I based it on food I could cook ahead of time and just heat up when we got in from a long day on the water.

So, are you ready to go try your hand at scalloping?