Key West

My mom called me last month and said she was spending two consecutive weeks working in Florida, so how would I like to fly down and road trip from Miami to Key West with her?  Uh, YES.  So we did that last weekend.

Our first stop on the trip was somewhere in Key Largo for a big plate of fried seafood.  It was much more impressive in real life than in this picture.

We stayed at the Doubletree on Key West, which is on the quiet (i.e. non-touristy) side.  The room was very Florida-esque.

And the view from our window was basically of a jungle.

We were both surprised at how Key West was not beachy in the least, and did some research to find out what the deal was with that. Apparently there is a coral reef that runs parallel to the Keys that prevents waves from reaching the islands; therefore there is no sand buildup, so people are forced to hang out at the pool rather than on beaches. Since I only like the beach in small doses anyway, this arrangement was fine with me.

Before we hit the pool, though, we took the hotel's free shuttle over to the touristy side of the island to see some attractions. I had mentally prepared myself for the fact that it was going to be extremely hot and humid.  I brought very casual, lightweight clothing and told myself it would be for one day only and I could handle it. Well, I guess technically I could handle it but also I will not be going back to South Florida in the summertime. I live in North Carolina - I know about heat and humidity - but this was beyond anything I have ever experienced. When we went outside my iPhone fogged over completely and water actually beaded up on it. It was insanity. ANYWAY so we braved the elements to wander around for a while.

There are chickens running around everywhere! It's like being in Tunisia! (Except in Tunisia it is goats, not chickens.) (But still.)

We went to the Harry S Truman Little White House and checked out the free exhibits, mostly to have a nice air conditioned break.

Then we went to the Hemingway House, which was interesting.  

There are 45 cats who live in the property, all descended from Hemingway's own cat. FORTY FIVE.  Here is a sampling.

I think this lady was pregnant. I sat next to her for a while. 

I firmly believe that more tourist attractions need to have cats wandering around. I cannot express how delightful it is to have parts of a museum cordoned off so that humans can't mess with the historical furniture, and meanwhile there is a cat asleep in the middle of it.

Key West was cute!

This is the southernmost house in the continental United States.

We got some matching flip flops. They're Crocs.  Shh.

The water was dirty-looking close to shore but gorgeous and turquoise farther out.

So after our time exploring we were about to keel over, and retired to the pool at our hotel. 

I drank three (3) pina coladas and mom went for the variety pack with a pina colada, margarita, and raspberry daiquiri.  Each of these drinks was delicious but had an extremely small amount of alcohol in it. We think they do this on purpose because they do not want their patrons dying of dehydration in those weather conditions.

After a while we snagged one of the cabanas, which was a good thing as spray-on sunscreen apparently does not work very well.

For dinner we went to an Italian place near our hotel.  We got key lime pie to split, and while it looks nice, it was sort of weirdly gritty.

The next day on the trip back to the mainland we stopped at a hole in the wall place on the water and tried again - this time it was delicious!

When we got back to Miami we had some time to kill before I needed to be at the airport, so we went to the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens.  Mom got a discount.

The house was amazing!  You may recognize it from The Money Pit.

The gardens are also beautiful, and enormous, but oh my god it was so hot outside. There was a bride and groom getting pictures taken and the photographer kept having to take breaks to fan her and mist them with water.

All in all a successful Florida weekend! but seriously do not go there in the summer.

Celebrating America

The only thing I did to celebrate America last Thursday was eat a bunch of delicious, unhealthy food. That seems like a pretty American thing to do, though, no?

For breakfast I made waffles with berries, but sadly we did not have any whipping cream so I just slapped some ice cream on there. Good decision.

Then I decided to make a cake. I've been wanting to bake something semi-complicated for a while and a random day off in the middle of the week seemed like a good opportunity. I found this recipe online that has universally positive reviews.

The bad news is that this thing was totally easy to put together and is absolutely horrendous for you. The icing! Two sticks of butter + 6 oz of chocolate! The first two pieces we ate were this size:

And then afterward we both felt like dying for hours. I was going to quit eating it altogether until it occurred to me I could just have a smaller piece. (See, this is why I am constantly having to start up with calorie counting again.)

It was real good, you guys. You should make it. Just don't eat 1/8th of the cake in one go.

Beach Trip!

Since we are not going on vacation (TO SPAIN DID I MENTION THAT) until late September, we decided we'll try to have at least one mini-trip, even if it's just a day trip, each month this summer. We were thinking about doing a day trip to the beach last weekend, but ended up deciding it would be better to go the night before so we weren't doing the drive there and back in one day.

On Friday afternoon, I picked Ben up at work and we headed out.  Two minutes later, before even getting on the highway, we were waylaid by a hit and run rear-ending! Someone actually hit the car behind us, and the momentum pushed her into the back of my car. Before I even knew what was happening, Ben had leapt out and was writing down the license plate number of the car that was speeding away. It was a hard hit - hard enough to give me some whiplash that was still a little achy the next day - but amazingly there is no damage to my car whatsoever. We stuck around for an hour regardless, waiting for the police to arrive and take the report, since Benjamin had witnessed the other car and could provide a description. They ran the plates and confirmed that the guy has a record and likely no insurance, which is a real bummer for the other lady, whose car had some significant damage.

So anyway!  After that we were on the road for real. We arrived in Wilmington just before 8:00 and ate at The Bridge Tender Restaurant, which was quite good. In fact, Benjamin told the waitress his scallops were "fucking awesome," and then kept bringing them up again and again the rest of the weekend. I didn't take any pictures of the entrees but dessert was also excellent. I got this brownie sundae thing that was easily big enough for two people.

Benjamin got blueberry cobbler which he also enjoyed.

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Wrightsville Beach, which was fine. 

On Saturday we drove down toward Carolina Beach, about a half hour from Wilmington. We stopped for a delicious breakfast at the Surf House Restaurant. I got an amazing breakfast hash with black beans, pulled pork, roasted potatoes, etc.

And Ben ordered the standard breakfast of bacon, sausage, grits, eggs, toast.

And then finally we were on our way to the actual ocean.  We ended up having trouble finding parking, and kept driving all the way to Kure Beach, a little bit south of where we intended to go. It was pretty crowded but we got a good spot.

My legs are roughly the color of the sand, I noticed.

The waves were huge!  We spent a lot of time floating and swimming in the ocean out beyond the surf, which was really nice.  I don't know that I've ever been in the ocean when I couldn't touch the bottom.  I was a little concerned a shark was going to eat my legs, but it worked out.

After a couple hours we'd had enough and drove back to Raleigh, making it home by late afternoon. Since we generally do almost nothing Friday night/Saturday morning, it seemed like we hadn't even missed anything by being away from home, and still had plenty of time to catch up on TV and run errands and all the usual weekend stuff. 

Taco Salad

I've been trying low-carb for the past week or so in an attempt to win a weight loss competition that's going on with a group of my friends. It's been surprisingly easier than I expected, and much more effective.  A winning combination!  I've been eating a lot of salads. One good thing about salads is they take about 15 minutes to throw together for dinner, even a complicated one like this:

That is lettuce, spinach, cherry tomatoes, avocado, sour cream, shredded cheese, and morningstar farms fake burger crumbles seasoned with cumin.  The dressing is the creamy ancho ranch from Viva Vegan. So easy and good!

In other news, I booked airfare to Spain on Tuesday night, and already have our car reserved and all the hotels arranged, despite the fact that we are not leaving until September.  I want it to be nooowwwwww!!!  This weekend we are going to the beach for a little trip, though, so there will probably be pictures of that forthcoming.

Socca Pizza

I made a new thing!

I've been hearing a lot about socca recently, a flatbread made with chickpea flour, and only last night did it occur to me that it's probably hot right now because it's gluten free. Well, who cares, because it's terrific and really easy. The only ingredients are chickpea flour, water, salt, and olive oil.  A LOT of olive oil - 1/3 cup. I used the recipe in Bean by Bean and she warns you not to cut the amount of oil, but seriously. I think I'm going to try 1/4th cup next time.

Anyway, so you mix up the batter and pour it into a hot, oiled cast iron skillet and then bake it. You can eat it plain, but you can also turn it into pizza, which is what I did. After 20 minutes in the oven, I took it out and topped it with chopped dried figs, blue cheese, and caramelized onions.

It was awesome, and even easier than regular pizza!  This is definitely a new item for the regular rotation.

Weekend Trip to Philly

The past couple of years, Ben and I have started a tradition of taking a quick weekend minivacation to explore a city.  This year we considered going back to New York, but I had never been to Philadelphia and it's closer and cheaper, so we decided to go there instead.

We stayed at the Penn's View Hotel in the Old City. The location was great, within a few minutes walk of all the historical sights, tons of restaurants, and a subway station. This was the view from our tiny (as in 8 inches deep and too scary to actually walk out onto) balcony.

The first night we arrived at dinnertime and set out for the closest place we could find.  We ended up at The Plough and the Stars, which was a little loud but otherwise fine.  We got this delicious appetizer spread to start.

And then I failed to take any more food pictures.  Oops!

Saturday we set out to walk across town to the Rittenhouse Square area, where Ben's mom lived in the 70s. It was a pretty day, although extremely windy and about 60 degrees, so not fantastic weather for wandering around.

City Hall is pretty impressive.

We saw a second LOVE statue, the first being outside our hotel in Montreal last fall.

In Rittenhouse Square.

The neighborhood around there was very cute and old.

This is where Ben's mom lived!

For lunch I had wanted to go to a vegetarian dim sum place in Chinatown, but they were closed for the holiday.

I don't know why I'm always surprised in Chinatown that there are actual Chinese people and shops there. I guess I expect it to be a tourist attraction rather than a real neighborhood.

Anyway, we walked to Reading Terminal Market for lunch instead.  It is jam packed full of every type of food you can possibly imagine, and also a million people. 

After walking around for a while we decided to stop at the first place we could find that had seats available, which turned out to be a Cajun place.  I made a passing stranger take this picture of us. Benjamin was thrilled.

The food was delicious!  I got a jambalaya bowl and Benjamin got a blackened chicken sandwich and cajun fries.

In the afternoon we saw a lot of the historical sights, including the house where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.

We passed by the Liberty Bell Center but the line was huge so we did not go in.  You can see it through glass, though.  You can also see Benjamin's reflection in the bell!  See his blue visor?

We went on a tour of Independence Hall.

George Washington sat in that chair on the left!  That very chair!  I almost cried when I saw it.  Ah, America.

I have gotten two new really comfortable pair of shoes over the past couple of months, some Naturalizer flats and a pair of Born sandals, that I thought would be great for summertime vacation walking.  GUESS WHAT they were both horrible.  I had to buy some tennis shoes at Ross Dress for Less.  I guess I'm just going to have to come to terms with being an unfashionable tourist.  Hopefully not quite this unfashionable at all times, however.

We went over to the Christ Church graveyard to see Benjamin Franklin's grave, which was very exciting.  There isn't much I love more than an old graveyard.

That night we had a tapas dinner at Amada, which I highly, highly recommend if you are ever in Philadelphia. It was fantastic. Fortunately we did not have a car.

On Sunday we met up with my friend Lauren for brunch.  

And then Lauren and I got matching tattoos. For the past 11 years I've been part of a group of friends who met on the internet circa 1998-2002, and recently we thought of the idea of having a secret internet friend tattoo that we all share.  So far two people had gotten it already:

And now Lauren and I were up. Our appointment was for 12:00, but no one was there when we showed up!  We waited around for a while and then decided to leave a note and go to the tattoo shop up the street instead.

When we got to the second place, however, they seemed really concerned we were going to lose the deposit we'd put down at the first shop, so we sent Ben back down there to make sure they hadn't arrived.  And, of course, they had. So we went back and they were really apologetic and gave us $10 off each, so it all worked out.

The tattoo itself took, I am estimating, fifty seconds.  I'm a huge wimp and expected it to be terrible but it really wasn't that bad.

OMG.

I have had a few moments since when I'm a little freaked out about having a visible tattoo for the rest of my life but it's really small and unobtrusive, plus it gives me a nice feeling about my awesomely great friends whenever I see it. Yay!

So anyway, after that Lauren dropped me and Ben off at the Eastern State Penitentiary for a tour.  It was built in the 1830s and used as a prison since the 1970s, but was then allowed to decay almost completely until they decided to start opening it to the public as a tourist attraction.  I don't know that I've ever been anywhere that has so thoroughly disintegrated and left open without being cleaned up or repaired. Some parts obviously had been, for safety reasons, but most of it looked like this:

Those walls are tall!

After the prison tour, we walked over to the Art Museum, where we got a little snack but did not pay to see the art.  The weather was perfect.

We did not run up the Rocky steps, although we sat and watched quite a few people doing it. Humans are such nerds. There was a long line of people waiting to get their picture taken with the statue.

We also went into the main library for a while, which is pretty great.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon doing this in Rittenhouse Square Park.

Our last dinner was at the Dandelion Pub, and was fantastic. We didn't have one bad meal in Philadelphia, really.  Great all around.

Now we are HOME and I am glad.