Sunshine

Have you been to Destin, Florida? It's quite lovely and the sand is white and remarkably fluffy.
Wait, wait...I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not going to post a lot of photos because I had enough video that I wanted to try my amateur hand at that instead. So here we go, click here and enter the password: sunshine

We stayed in a condo for three nights that overlooked a private beach. Though, we had a bit of a mishap—I broke the shower—real good. The water was scalding hot and wouldn't turn to cold and also wouldn't turn off. Eeee! I'd broken a screw, an antiquated and irreplaceable screw.

It would have been nice to NOT have to check on the status of the shower every 4-5 hours. And in the end, we ended up showering about a half mile away in a different condo the whole time we were there. Parts had to be ordered and the wall had to be opened up on the other side to get it fixed. Oh well. Oh well.

We planned all of our time to be on the beach. So, we reserved our seats for the next couple of days and slathered on the sunscreen.
The ocean conditions were flagged yellow, then red on our last day (hazardous) so the waves were rough enough to have some fun in and get some exercise!

For dinner we had some FANTASTIC seafood. I'm listing them here for future reference:
The Boathouse: (Loud bar ambiance, money and bras stapled to the walls.)
Yellow Fin Tuna Stake, medium rare. Excellent.

Bochamps: (Finer dining, a lot of seating on multiple decks outside by the doc.)
MUST get the Oysters Bochamp / baked with caramelized vidalia onion, Alabama feta, and house-made bacon marmalade.
Also MUST get the Pan Roasted Gulf Grouper / feta cheese soufflé, garlic braised local spinach, house made Alabama tomato jam, citrus butter.

At night from our balcony we saw people ambling around on the beach with flashlights. They weren't so much as walking somewhere—it seemed they were looking for something. We discovered they were ghost crab hunting. They're the same color as the sand so you have to be quick. It's fun for families. (A site online recommended that you deck your kids out with glow sticks so you don't loose them in the dark.) After catching the crabs, you can let them go or take them home and cook'em up. We hear they're good.

Traveling back to Destin is on my list. I've never had the opportunity to stay at a beach like this for longer than a few hours...and this was the place to do it. It really is everything the songs say it is. Sigh. Happy Face. Sigh again.

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Cabin in the Middle of Nowhere Texas

A work friend of a friend offered his cabin in Laneville to six of us for a weekend this spring. It was a tiny, cozy, little thing with a loft upstairs (community sleeping, yay!) a toilet room (that held us hostage) and a bedroom downstairs with a full bath, living room, laundry, dining area and small kitchen.
We banished the loud snorers to the downstairs bedroom. Heh heh.

We went exploring.

And shot guns and a crossbow lazily from our seats on the porch. We also played around with some tannerite off-site.

The guys spent hours fishing and floating around in a paddle boat. They caught three fish so we had fish tacos one night. I finally learned how to gut and clean one—can't believe I'd never had the opportunity to do it until then.

The owner left us the keys to his vehicle to get around—adding to the wonderful laziness of our weekend.

Then at night we lit a bonfire from the logs that had been stacked for us and we were instructed to burn.

The flames were enormous—and terribly hot; it melted a glass bottle. We couldn't get close enough for s'mores. Not at all. In retrospect, I'm not sure the blaze was totally safe...it was in close proximity to a tree....

But how awesome! Here's a little video (same one from my Instagram) Tap on the image below:

We very much enjoyed the get-away. I have gratitude for people who are kind and offer special places like this to strangers like us.

Rooster Roost Ranch

As a "work" trip and "thank you for your business"...Adam was treated to a pheasant hunting trip in South Dakota at the Rooster Roost Ranch.

Bright colored garb was provided for everyone to wear, and they rode out to the countryside on a bus.

The men formed a large "U" shape in the fields and sent the dogs out to scare up some roosters.

Now I know why Dog is Man's best friend...Dog does all the work for lazy Man.

Adam says the Ranch was EXCEPTIONALLY nice. They provided everything needed for the day including ammunition as well as hot fresh meals from the kitchen. The cook made some kind of pheasant casserole that Adam quite enjoyed. The ranch also cleaned and prepped all the roosters so when I pulled them out to cook I didn't have to do a thing...no gutting, plucking, or digging around for buckshot.

And now you know how our Thanksgiving meal came about.
If you'd like to watch some video

Do not use this link: click here password: roosterroost
Note: Animals were harmed in the making of this video.
(Images and video courtesy of the Rooster Roost Ranch in-house photographer.)

NYC: Evening Day 1

When your friends say they found tickets to New York City ON SALE and invite you for a 48 hour weekend with a special discount on hotel prices...GO GO GO! What's the point in working if you only cash in on the boring stuff? One of the reasons we work is to provide the opportunity to have adventures and make memories. We almost felt silly for hesitating.

After a rather terrifying taxi ride (taxi drivers are maniacs) to our hotel and settling in, it was starting to get dark. We walked to Time Square to see what kind of tickets were available for a Broadway Show. (If you don't care what you see, definitely buy tickets this way. You'll get a major discount and the seats can be really great!)

Time Square has definitely been cleaned up since last I was there (the naked cowboy is long gone.) And it seemed...smaller somehow. It's a crazy tourist spot but it's still amazing to see the bright lights and fun to people watch.

We decided to eat dinner at the Shake Shack since it came recommended. I do however have to admit...it wasn't good (in my humble opinion...sorry!) The burgers weren't fresh and nothing special, and the shakes tasted mostly of whipped cream and air. I know some people like it so don't let me sway you from trying it if it's on your list.

And then OF COURSE we had to eat New York Cheesecake at Juniors! Oh my gosh! This is some of the best stuff in the world.  No really. Years ago, my design teacher recommended we buy a whole cake and take it home on the plane with us. If only I could trust the TSA. They would probably confiscate it just to eat it themselves. *Anna sneers in their general direction.

I was excited to discover that Jamison likes to plan her vacations around food...me too, me too, me too!!! (I had my worries about not experiencing the food of New York the way I like.) But we ate ALL WEEKEND! YESSSSS!!! (In doing the math let's say we slept for 16 hours, leaving us with 32 waking hours in NYC...and we ate 16 times. Oh My.)

Anyway, Adam ordered a two layer cheesecake with chocolate and traditional. I has this lovely, creamy-smooth blueberry slice. I couldn't even finish it. People, THIS WAS SO GOOD. We really should have gone back again.

We then took our full tummies to a showing of Cats.

We didn't really know anything about it, except the costumes are award winning and it's famous for the song Memory, and that it's about cats. Yep. That's exactly what it's about—This kind of cat and that kind of cat, dance, sing, and dance some more. It was a total 80's musical—take that how you like. We had great seats and it was fun to watch.

Oh, and don't forget the first celebrity citing of our trip—the Winklevoss twins who sat two rows in front of us!

After the show we walked around and found a New York slice for second dinner. We saw a few other touristy spots like the outside of St. Patrick's Cathedral and the skating rink at Rockefeller along the way. After that we circled back to the hotel and were done for the day.