Author: ginnyinshanghai

Wow! We’ve had a fun 5 days in and around Crystal River.  Looking back through the photos, dividing  up the activities seemed the best way to go.

Food is an important aspect of any trip and especially so with us. First posting will talk about our adventures with food.

After dropping our things at the rental house, lunch was on our agenda.  First idea was Dan’s Clam Stand.

We had visited before but later visits always found the restaurant closed. It had been several years since our last visit.  I ordered the fried popcorn shrimp while Eric got fried whole belly clams with fries and hush puppies.
While nothing was wrong with our meal, it probably won’t warrant a return visit.  We’ve had such excellent seafood in the years between our visits, I’m going to guess this meal just couldn’t stand up to the comparison.

We had caught fish our first afternoon on the water and it turned into our first dinner at the rental.    It became  seafood ceviche topped with avocado.  Yummmm-very tasty.  Margaritas added to the enjoyment of our meal.

Another meal cooked was breakfast:  bacon, egg and cheese on an everything bagel.  It’s one of my all time favorite breakfast requests.

Celebrating my birthday, we had dinner reservations at Vintage on 5th.  It is a fabulous local, high-end place with a creative menu and lengthy wine list.

We started with she-crab soup and fish dip.  This was followed by Eric’s fried grouper and my ahi  tuna plate.  The meal was finished with dessert – of course – Eric ordering a chocolate & caramel sundae and I got coffee with my carrot cake.  It was cute-they added a birthday candle to my cake  🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

One fun dining activity when vacationing near the water is motoring up to a restaurant in the boat and securing your boat at their dock.  When Adrienne joined us, we had lunch at Crackers Bar & Grill and yes, we motored up to the restaurant.  🙂

We had been dodging storms that morning but at the headwaters of Crystal River (King’s Bay), the weather was good enough for eating outside.  It had cute, covered outside seating.

The fish dip was some of the best we’ve had and when dividing it up between 3 people, it went fast!

Meals  were fried grouper fingers, fried grouper sandwich (sans bun) and a fried, mixed seafood platter.

At a point in our vacation, we moved to a hotel-more about that in the next post. 😦  that meant all of our meals had to be eaten out.  Hence, why I’m dividing the week into several posts since we ate out WAY more than we expected.

Previously, Eric had stopped at Olive Tree Restaurant for breakfast food and brought back a menu to see other eating options.  A Greek restaurant in Crystal River – who knew?

They could pack food ‘to-go’ but it would never be as good as eating there.  One early morning we visited for breakfast……….

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

……..and later came back for lunch that same day.  My meal choice had a Greek focus while Eric’s meal was American comfort food (meatloaf & mashed potatoes).

We visited another local favorite Pecks Old Port Cove Restaurant  in Ozello, about 15 miles away.

Spicey fried shrimp was my selection while Eric ordered 1 dozen sautéed garlic crabs.  Man – look at the garlic in the bowl!  There must have been almost 2 cups of chopped garlic.

Our absolute favorite (new) local restaurant is Seafood Seller & Cafe. In fact, over a period of a few days, we ate there 3 times.  Their website says “Our food is cooked to order and prepared from the heart.” and truly, that says it all.

They feature Cajun food, which of course Eric loved.  Our first meal consisted of crawfish etouffee’ (Eric) and a catfish po-boy for myself, with a side of gumbo.  I should have stuck with only eating Eric’s gumbo.  His was the first I had ever tasted and he tailors the recipe to my taste – thanks hon!

We returned with Adrienne, sitting at their bar to avoid a 30+ minute wait – this place is popular!  I had finally had my fill of seafood for the moment and ordered a hamburger (when the waitress said it was the only thing her boyfriend ordered, I was sold).

Eric ordered 4 lbs of crawfish.  At one point in the evening, he was showing others around the bar how to eat them properly.

We topped off our meal by sharing their bread pudding.  It was big enough for the 3 of us to eat and still have some leftover.

Eric was curious about their crawfish and ended up talking to one of the owners-Jimmy- who actually took him in the kitchen area to see how they process their crawfish.  After my meal was finished, I got the tour myself.  Every 3 days, 800 lbs of live crawfish arrive in these mesh bags.  The crawfish are dumped out and the live ones walk down the chute, falling over the edge, into the sink below.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our last visit was Sunday afternoon and even at 2pm, there was a 15 minute wait – but well worth it.  We took other friends on Sunday to enjoy the Cajun cooking.  We had good waitresses on all of our visits, but on Sunday, Angel beat them all.  She shared her personal favorites and definitely should be someone working at Disney. She gets it!

Appetizers were fried pickles and fried green tomato chips.  The tomato chips won – hands down.  We love fried pickles and after all of the tomato chips were gone, we finished off the pickles, but all future visits we will be getting only the tomato chips – just saying!  The tomato chips are on the left.

Eric ordered ‘yankee’ chowder’ before getting his fried grouper entre’ while I ordered the fish tacos.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So the (Mahi) fish tacos looked kind of ‘weird’ to me, having a square piece of fish sitting on a flour tortilla.  Got to say………………….they were fantastic!  I will definitely be ordering those on any future visits.  I know, they don’t look like much but they have the right texture, the right flavor and the spicey mustard sauce that was accompanying them, was perfect.

I so wanted to order dessert, but I didn’t have any room.  They had beignets on their dessert menu (with a raspberry and chocolate dipping sauce!) but that would have taken me over the edge, in a bad way – too much food.

The next post will talk about our fish adventures and why our accommodations changed in the middle of our vacation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This began years ago, not working on my birthday, which morphed into taking the entire week off.  🙂

This year I’m splitting up the time:  3 days in Jacksonville visiting Karen and the boys, then 5 days at Crystal River with friends –  fishing, of course.

Dinner in Jacksonville Saturday was at the Wicked Barley Brewing Company.  BTW love their marketing slogan!

Being a new craft beer drinker, Rich gave me advice……..

……… and I went with the brown ale.

We chose a variety of appetizers and shared amongst the three of us (yes,  Karen joined us).  Left to right, we had fried cheese curds, chicken empanadas and pretzels with honey-mustard or melted cheese.

My favorite ended up being the fried cheese curds.  I wasn’t expecting much, but who doesn’t like fried cheese!

Afterwards, we walked through their outside seating area towards the St. John’s River and got a last photo before leaving the brewery.

I brought the beer home for Eric.  Started that trick during a recent cross-country trip.  🙂

Lunch on Sunday was at Newk’s, a favorite of mine.

I ordered a sandwich and my side was macaroni & cheese – yum.

It’s mostly sandwiches, but also has salads and pizzas.  They have some pre-packed breadsticks and although very crunchy, they take the edge off before your food arrives.
Since I haven’t seen these in Central Florida, I did a little internet research and found out more about them.  It was founded in 2004 in Oxford, MS by father and son chefs and described as an American eatery of fast, casual cafes.  Today over 100 Newks locations operate in 13 states, primarily in the Southeast.  They maintain a strong culinary focus with all products made from scratch, open kitchens and large round tables with complementary gourmet condiments, toppings and breadsticks!

The afternoon was spent creating jewelry, which was the ultimate goal for the weekend.  More on that later.

Dinner was pizza from ‘Jenks’, primarily since they have bacon as an option for a topping.  Really, who can resist bacon.

Eric packed me a few craft beers for my weekend and it added to my enjoyment of the pizza.

Every night we ended our evening by watching a movie, mostly a ‘chick flick’ – thank you Karen.  🙂

Monday was a visit to another favorite of mine – Maple Street Biscuit Company. Connor joined us.

My biscuit of choice was the chicken ranch biscuit, with smoked bacon – yum again – followed by (shared) iced cinnamon pecan biscuits.

This restaurant was created in Jacksonville, opening their doors in 2012 with 4 guiding principles: comfort food with a modern twist, gracious service, immaculately clean stores and sustainable business.

They refer to their places as ‘a group of community stores’ and are named after the community its built in.  You will notice a lot of communal seating inside the stores.  This is to ‘meet your neighbors’ or if visiting, ‘meet locals’.  Everyone should check out their website – it’s very interesting.

 

So, jewelry…………..a good many of the pieces were created from stones I got in Shanghai. Karen helps me finish bending the wire or tying off the thread when I’m done.  These are definitely ‘collaborative’ pieces.  I ended up taking home 3 pairs of earrings, 2 necklaces and 1 bracelet.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Stay tuned for Birthday Week 2.0.

 

The weather forecaster  said Sunday was supposed to be raining all day.   It was not going to be a day spent on the boat – bummer.  We proposed a day checking out some of the central Florida breweries and a good friend, Adrienne was game.

Before drinking we wanted to fuel up and Eric found The Elixir.  He googled best brew pub in downtown Orlando and this was our destination since (1) was open (2) close to the downtown area and (3) shouldn’t be full since it was Mother’s Day .

Soda (mine) and brews started our day while burgers & fries, fish tacos and pretzel bread fueled our day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

First brewery on tap was Orlando Brewing.  We were their first patrons arriving 15 minutes after opening.

Their ‘hook’ is that all of their ingredients are organic and their beers became the first to be declared “Fresh from Florida”.  In 2006 they were certified as an organic brewery, making them the only U.S.D.A. certified organic brewery east of Colorado.

Their story interested me since Orlando Brewing first opened their doors on Gore street shortly after 2000, changed ownership in 2004 and less than 3 months in their new location…….FL Dept of Trans. was going to use their land for the new I-4 interchange, meaning they had to move again.

They used this opportunity to re-think the direction of their brewery and this meant they decided to (1)brew in accordance with the Germany Purity Law of 1516 and (2) only use organic ingredients.

Okay, so maybe most beer drinkers know about this law, but I did not.  Apparently this law decreed that only 4 ingredients should be used: water, hops, yeast and malted barley.

Part of that  day’s quest was to obtain growlers from said brew stops, as seen in the photo.

 

Alas, they were out of (all) brown bottles.  I guess  this means we will have to stop back by the brewery –  darn .  🙂

Next on the quest was Orange County Brewers in downtown Orlando.  Love  their slogan ‘Orange County Brewers, where everyone can drink like a local’.  By the way, it is number 11 on the map and 12 was our first stop.

The idea for this brewery came from some rogue entrepreneurs looking to find a craft beer in downtown, that also quenched their thirst for unique beers.  Their brewmaster (Amanda) has already garnered quite a following after only 2 years of brewing.

We had a flight which comes in a very interesting holder:

The cutouts were places in the vicinity of 5 Florida cities, starting top to bottom:  Tallahassee, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Kissimmee and Miami.  I can see it – kind of.

While not really hungry, the smell from the nearby pizza ovens beckoned.  Orlando Pizza & Wing Co. shares the space and  the pizza counter is run as a separate operation and we couldn’t resist the cheesy bacon bread – now really, who could.

Before leaving Adrienne was able to add to her growler collection.

The beer was good (I liked the amber beers best) and our next visit to this brewery needs to include a meal with our brews (pizza!).

Last planned brewery was the Ten 10 Brewing Co. on Virginia drive.

Eric and I shared a flight and I probably need to visit again  I was starting to reach my upper limits of beer.  Not from consumption mind you, just the number of brews I had tasted in 1 day.

Including the 4 beers above I’ve tasted more than 13 today – yikes!  The key word being ‘tasted’.  I was able to get a decent shot of their tap list.

However, their pretzel alone would make me come back!

Warm, crusty, salty, doughy and just downright delicious.  It’s accompanied with beer mustard and their homemade beer cheese, yum.   The next time I have a craving for a pretzel, this is where I’m headed – just saying.

They have a good menu selection with several sandwiches but they also offer house-made hot dogs.  Like I said, we need to come back again when (really) hungry to fully appreciate this place.

This brewery opened summer 2015 after 19 months of planning. It’s part of the Mills50  –  an area that has a fairly new (named) identity even though  it’s been around for years.

With all of the rain covering the state we were in no hurry to head home. One last (unplanned) brewery was on tap…….Crooked Can Brewing Company in downtown Winter Garden.

It’s located in the Plant Street Market – a local community, artisan market that has become a social gathering place for family and friends (yes, found most of that sentence on their website).  There are a variety of food vendors in this building as Crooked Can focuses on brewing beers, not cooking food.  I respect that focus.  🙂

I am so glad this BBQ restaurant has joined their line-up of options in Plant Street Market.  Our ribs and pulled pork from This little Piggy was an instant hit and I can see this as a stop on our way home when no one wants to cook……….

………and Morthan Cheese (Raclette cheese from France & Switzerland melted then scraped onto your chosen base).  A salad made Adrienne’s meal seem healthy.

It was a fun day all around and while this won’t be a weekly occurance, it’s a nice way to spend a rainy day.

 

 

 

 

Wow!  Clermont has a new grocery that has landed and is taking the town by storm.

I don’t remember hearing much about it beforehand, only that another grocery store was going into an area formerly held by Sweet Bay markets.

Eric heard about the “Store that sold beer while you’re shopping”.  Man!  What a concept.  There may be other stores that have that option, but none close to here – just saying.

He stopped by the first week they were open and gave up because the lack of nearby parking.  We eventually was able to stop by within the first 2 weeks, and I still wasn’t won over because of the crowded aisles and what I thought was too much hype.  Since that time, I’ve changed my mind, found several very interesting things and yes, I’ve enjoyed the beer while shopping.  🙂

As mentioned above, the beer for some are a major attraction.  On one of our weekend visits here, the line waiting for their drink of choice kept growing and growing and growing.  Count them – 7 men in line (and a few women).  Four more gentleman got in the line before any left.

Their shopping carts have drink holders – how ingenious.

The first thing seen  upon entering are local touches they incorporated inside their stores.  There are local references in several places.  This makes it feel less like a corporate store and more like Clermont’s grocery store – with really cool things to buy, eat and drink.

We’ve tried several things thus far one. One Sunday we needed something small to tide us over until dinner and we thought ……….pizza slices and beer at Lucky’s.  Two pizza slices gives you a free beer.  While we only tried the cheese pizza slices, it was good (especially for a grocery store), we would go back and order it again.

On different trips, we perused their cheese selection and who can resist a display like this.

With micro-breweries being the ‘Uber’ popular thing now, Lucky’s did not disappoint.

Another day Eric felt like ‘ramen’ and who doesn’t (me for example).   Discovering that Lucky’s had a ramen bar was a hit for Eric. I loved the red carrier for the ramen containers – just saying.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Eric super enjoyed his ramen meal.  Me?  Wandering around in the store, I came across these cookies.  They have both ‘crispy’ cookies and ‘homemade – soft’ cookies, but these were our first purchase.

OMG x 3!!!  We’ve only tasted the ‘almond crispy’ variety, but we’ve gotten our second bag of cookies already.  Eric – who doesn’t like sweets – was found snacking on them late at night.  He’s not very good at hiding the evidence of snacking.

Okay, we actually had a ‘purpose’ one day when it was my turn for our Sunday meal.  My decision for dinner was skillet lasagna.  With our list in hand we got these groceries in the photo below.  Now I’ve made his recipe before – definitely ‘Loosey goosey’  (The story is under the Eats! Page – no specific measured ingredients) but this was the best ever yet!

These were all purchased at Lucky’s.  I don’t use any exact recipe just assembled the ingredients and started layering.  In past renditions I didn’t add  any spices – silly me.  It makes a difference.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As I mentioned above…….best ever.  🙂  A little bread, a little butter, a little garlic salt and the meal was finished.

We’ve checked out their fresh produce and made several purchases.  Their veggies are interesting and finding blood oranges are pretty unique, even though citrus is grown in the state.

One recent trip we found this display of herbs and yes, we put one in our shopping cart, along with our other purchases.  They looked super healthy and I could tell they were a  recent delivery to the store.  I’m starting a mint garden at home and my herb purchase is already in the ground.  With Eric making mint julips, mint is a prime commidity.

I’m sure there will be additional posts about Lucky’s.  As I said earlier, I was not going to become a fan, went grudgingly several times but once the crowds thinned out and I could really shop and look around, I’m converted.  I’m ending with a bit of their history.  If this doesn’t interest you, thanks for reading so far.

Lucky’s Market was started in 2003 by two chefs from Boulder, CO.  They wanted really good food.  Being chefs they knew where to get it and shopped farmer’s markets and gourmet food stores in addition to conventional grocery stores for their purchases.  They made a decision to do something about all that running around for good food and they wanted to do it right.  They created an entirely different kind of grocery store, Lucky’s Market.

 

Whew!!! Four states within a few hours.  Good thing for us that we’re at the bottom of the states and heading east.  After our breakfast in New Orleans, we were ready to hit the road and get some miles behind us, only stopping when needed for fuel.  Mississippi and Alabama were easy to drive through.

There’s one place along the route that I detest – the tunnel (George C. Wallace tunnel-Alabama governor at the time) near Mobile, AL.  The Mobile River is above and all I can think of is the river of water that I’m driving beneath.  Built in the early 1970s at the nearby Mobile shipyard, it was built in sections, floated to its final spot then sunk.  It was connected underwater, pumped dry then finished out.  I thought researching about the tunnel would make me more comfortable – nope.  Hope the next time I go through there I forget everything I just wrote.

Soon enough we were in the last state – Florida.

There’s no easy route to Apalachicola, just keep going south and east, south then east, then south and east again. Do that enough times and you finally get to where you want.

We were going to need something for lunch and a google search found Nicks Seafood in Freeport, FL.

It’s near the Eglin Air Force Base and several fly boys were leaving when we arrived. There were numerous photos and dollar bills tacked to he walls, with everyone writing down their home town on the bill.  Yep, I’m back in the south.  Also, we are on the gulf!  Water everywhere.  🙂  After we ordered our lunch we wandered outside to soak up the  sea breezes, sun and humidity – love the humidity, just saying.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our meal was great. I got fried mullet with fries and cole slaw. I’m just about done drinking beer and opted for a coke for lunch.

Late afternoon we reached our night’s destination.  I got a little worried the previous night because all the places I normally stay had no availability.  I kept pulling up places on the internet.  Yikes!  l finally found one room (their last) at Coombs Inn with two beds.

Wow-Eric and I may need to stay here on a future visit .  When we arrived they were serving cookies in the afternoon and then wine & cheese after 6pm. We definitely indulged.

As the welcome sign states………

……….this is the Florida oyster capital and we walked to find oysters at Hole in the Wall, a local restaurant that literally is a hole in the wall, inside the space is long and skinny.

We snagged a seat at the bar and got that night’s dinner, an oyster combo platter (cheese & bacon, parmasan cheese & butter, and the last were oyster Rockefeller).

While it wasn’t the beer being brewed in town, at least it was Florida local, being brewed at Fort Walton Beach, FL.

Next door was the Oyster City Brewing Company and we tasted a few of their beers that evening.

The previous night we discovered one of the reasons the town had more travelers than normal.  LOVED the guitar in their communication notices.

Saturday night there was a brew-fest happening on St. George Island (10 miles away), which unfortunately we missed.  Maybe next year we can plan to be there for the entire weekend.

I got a kick out of all the golf carts that had been driven to the event.  There was a band set up in the street and tents servicing OCBC beer, along with inside the brewery.

Since we were so close to the Apalachicola River (1 block away) we got a few shots as the sun was setting.

Alas, we could only spend one night as both of us needed to get home.  We drove by our city lot in town (since we are one of the town’s most recent landowners), then began our last leg of the journey.  The lot doesn’t look like much now, but it is ours.  🙂

Our last stop was for a late lunch in Ocala.   Googled top restaurants in town and Hardwood Smokehouse was listed first.

It did not disappoint.  In fact, my pulled pork sandwich was more than half gone when I realized I forgot the photo – oops.  😦  As a consolation shot, I’m adding this shot seen when exiting the restaurant.

Final thoughts:

•drive/ride with a friend

•both parties need to be ‘fluid’ and open to last-minute changes

•have some general goals for daily destinations

•google dining options as you go along

•travel light

Maybe most importantly, talk/text your loved ones that are home and bring them along the journey virtually (and bring them gifts)  🙂  These are lined up according to the order of states we drove through.

I totally loved the drive through the desert states and my friend totally loved the drive through areas that had plentiful water and green plants.   It comes down to one thing……It all depends upon your personal perspective.

Fairly traditional for breakfast in New Orleans is café du lait and beignets.  Most tourists go to Café Du Monde and this morning we were no exception.  We left our hotel with this quest in mind.

The ladies that work there look bored – I guess who wouldn’t be.  There’s really no change in the guest orders, only the quantity.  It’s a mindless job and one that could probably be done when a person is half asleep.

It is a short walk to view the ‘mighty Mississippi river’.

Turning 180 degrees, the St. Louis Cathedral dominates the view.

We were able to enter the church and pay our respects.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Five-ish blocks away was the St. Louis Cemetery #1.  Unfortunately we discovered that the only way to enter this cemetery was to be on a guided tour for $20.  However, St. Louis Cemetery #2 was another five-ish blocks and was free and could be entered on your own – yep, that’s where we walked.

The tombstones were in various stages of disrepair but were still interesting.

New Orleans is known for their ironwork and the cemetery was no exception.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I found this really cool plaque (Jordan B. Noble) and had to add it to my collection of photos.

He lived to be 90 years old, was an emancipated slave, served in the War of 1812 (at the tender age of 14)and ultimately was a veteran of four American Wars.

We had worked up an appetite and a gentleman at the Neches Brewery in TX told us we had to stop at Acme Oyster House for their chargrilled oysters.  So we did!

We split a dozen……….

……..before topping them off with gumbo.  Adrienne had the seafood gumbo (large bowl) and I tried the chick & sausage gumbo (small bowl).  I typically don’t eat gumbo at any restaurant because Eric makes the BEST gumbo.

I might be slightly biased, but his was the first gumbo I had ever tried and he has tailored his recipe for my tastes.  I love the smoked chicken that Eric includes in his recipe.  This gumbo was pretty darn good – had a nice kick to it.  🙂

 

This afternoon was pleasantly spent at the Crescent City Brewhouse.

I had the Red Stallion beer.  We sat at the bar and watched one of their employee shuck dozens of oysters.  We were full from our lunch meal and couldn’t eat another thing.

Dinner that night was at one of Emeril Lagasses’s newer restaurants, NOLA.  They had ‘small plates’ and gave us a chance to try a variety of things and not get over-stuffed.  The first place to come out was ‘cowboy caviar’ on johnny cakes.  Guacamole was underneath the goodies on top.  I could have licked the bowl clean.  Fried green tomatoes with shrimp was another small plate.  The tomatoes were good but the shrimp was cooked to perfection – not over done.  The last two places was an oyster & brie pot pie, with bone marrow and gumbo.  Okay, I’ll admit.  I missed the menu description and didn’t realize it came with bone marrow.  The first thing Eric said was ‘Who are you and what did you do with my wife?’.  I gamely tried a tiny bit………………..and told Adrienne, the rest is yours.  She was very happy.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I’m saving the best small plate that night for the last………………………dessert!  It was a white chocolate bread pudding with macerated strawberries.  OMG!  I truly don’t know which dessert I liked best.  This or the banana’s foster from the previous night.  Both are to die for – just saying.  🙂

We ended both nights drinking a local beer on our balcony – just because we could.  I had the one in the middle.

Our last meal in New Orleans was breakfast at Camellia Grill near the Garden District.  It is a landmark diner which opened in 1946.

The restaurant only offers counter service and it is well-known for its long-service waiters.  My meal was traditional breakfast food, a waffle, sausage link and an egg over-medium.

We took a scenic route to get there, following the route of the St. Charles Streetcar line.  Many beautiful homes line the streets and we passed by Loyola and Tulane universities.

Travel on this day will finally get us into Florida with Apalachicola, FL being our night’s destination.

I had one more photo to add before leaving New Orleans.  These priests were almost an attraction themselves.  They were enjoying the city as tourists and tourists were taking photos of them.  It’s just odd to see them utilize smartphones.

 

 

 

 

 

I saw this wall at breakfast and couldn’t resist.  The collage of license plates exemplifies our cross-country trip.  I needed a photo.  🙂

Breakfast was at a local place outside of San Antonio, the Oakridge Smokehouse.  The breakfast buffet  was the popular choice.  I haven’t had  biscuits & gravy in a while so that was a hit with me.

Right next door was a store that featured Texas products, highlighting one of their important crops – pecans.

Throughout this trip we keep running across pecan trees.  I’ve always heard about pecan tree in the southeast, but not so much in the southwest.  That being said  I needed to google ‘Texas pecan production’.   Trees can start producing at 5 years and live up to 300 years.  Nut yield averages 40-50 lbs annually, having alternate bearing years.   Both male and female flowers are found are the same tree and the flowers are usually wind-pollinated.  Sorry, it’s the horticulture part of me. I needed to do some digging……….

We didn’t stop in Houston but I got a shot of their skyline as we zoomed by.

A friend told me to stop at a ‘Buc-ees’ if given the chance.

It’s primarily a gas station, but carry a bunch of stuff.  Outside of Houston was our chance.  Yes, they feature a lot of gas pumps.  While I didn’t count them all, we were at pump 15 and not halfway through.  I’m going to guess there were at least 40 pumps.

There was a huge bank of self-serve drink stations and shelves upon shelves of their own brand of products.

They sold all types of Texas memorabilia, an example being below.

Lunch was on the agenda and google maps led us to Neches Brewing Company. The website had a menu listed but I didn’t checked it.  Note to self, check it in the future.  We walked into a mostly empty bar and discovered they only have food in the evening and/or weekends.  However, the few people inside were very helpful and said to download an app (waiterapp), put in their zip code and voila, restaurants pop up that will delivery to their place.  One of their patrons, Heather,  was very helpful and we took her suggestion for lunch.  Forty minutes later our po-boy surf & turf sandwiches arrived. The sandwich totally hit the spot.

The wait was pleasant and gave us the opportunity to try several local beers.

All in all, we were there several hours which gave us plenty of time to try several of their local beers.  We got to know Collin, their bartender quite well and he photo-bombed my shot.

We asked about last year’s hurricane which hit this area and heard heart-wrenching stories of bravery and a community pitching in to help their neighbors, even if they hadn’t talk with them in years.  Collin told stories of using his boat to rescue others, especially from their local nursing home.

All too soon, it was time to leave and continue our journey. This brewery is near Port Arthur and many oil refineries of Texas.

We crossed a really cool bridge before leaving the area and began to regularly see water – something that we haven’t seen much of this week at all.

Texans are proud of their flag and this bench is one of many examples we saw along our journey.

We made good time to New Orleans and found our hotel in the French Quarter

Staying in the French quarter gave us easy access to everything we wanted to see.

We sprang an extra $11 for a balcony room-well worth the few extra dollars.  Adrienne is standing below our second floor room.

Like most tourists we headed to Bourbon Street and did the ‘token’ photo.  No one was too wasted just yet, least of all us.

We ended the evening dining at an older New Orleans establishment The Court of Two Sisters.

Eric and I have eaten here a few times and if possible, it was on my wish list for this trip.  We stopped by with no reservations and 10 minutes later we were seated in their outside courtyard.

We started our meal with a locally made beer – Arbita.  I ordered the fried catfish w/ cole slaw for my meal.  Their homemade tartar sauce was the best!

Then it was time for the best part of my meal…………………..banana’s foster!  I had been saving up my calories for this part of the night.  Part of the attraction is the table-side service for the dessert.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

There is something magical about eating underneath sparkle lights and the weather was perfect.  The temps were in the 70s and great for this time of year.  It was a great end to our first night in New Orleans.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday was all about San Antonio, Texas.  We began our day with a historical dive into the reasons why Americans remember and talk about The Alamo.

We started in the church, which was the last place defended.  We saw a short film sharing the story of this historic place.  While all of the men were killed, women and children were allowed to live and leave the fort to tell the world what happened.

There were several actors on site adding to the overall experience and help explain the workings of the Fort back in the day.

The historic memorial is surround by the city, yet it is fairly quiet inside the walls.  We spent several hours here before exploring more of the city.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The other significant place in San Antonio is The Riverwalk.  Our hotel was half a block from the Riverwalk and a short jaunt to everywhere else.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

There is something kind of touristy which just has to be done………the river boat tour.  And yes, we did it.

We noticed lots of extra things were happening around the Riverwalk.  They have a ‘Fiesta’ festival which culminated the following weekend. In the meantime there were several extra venues sprouting up around the city, giving the place extra activities to explore.

After paying the entrance fee, we spent the next several hours in the fenced area, walking through the crowds, checking out options for food and drink.  First, coupons were needed for the food booths.  Which we quickly traded for chalupas.

   

 

Then added a drink – sangria was my drink of choice this night.

The place was crowded, which is not usually my preferred way to spend time, tonight was an exception – it was quite fun!

Apparently, it is a ‘thing’ to create and wear themed headwear.  These shots are a few that we came across.

Earlier in the day, lunch was at a local brewery and my grilled pimento cheese sandwich was accompanied by chili-salt fries-awesome!

One of our last shots that evening in San Antonio was of the Texas flag.  We were told that the Texas flag is the only one in the US that can be flown without the US flag. Google it to find out why.  🙂

Wednesday we continued our cross-country journey by heading to New Orleans, LA.

Driving across three states is a real bear. But on the plus side, it gave me a chance to see a type of scenery that was a break from home.Being able to drive 80+ mph is a definite plus.  Mostly the roads are traveled by semis hauling their loads across country, but every once in a while we shared the road with another car.

Throwing in a few more desert photos from Arizona, just because I can.  🙂  it’s such a change from home, I’m fascinated.

We broke up the drive by searching for a fun & interesting brewery in Las Cruces NM for lunch.  Love that internet and google search feature!  We had pretty good cell phone coverage during our drive through the desert and could research anything we needed.

 

We shared a sausage ‘nosh’ plate that was awesome!  We also ordered the duck drummettes, which while good couldn’t compete with the 2 sausages, 3 cheeses, 3 pretzel rolls and peach compote board.  The red one had a spicy kick.

I couldn’t resist a few other photos from inside the restaurant.

While not able to see any fields of hot peppers, I made a quick stop at a store specializing in dried peppers.  I didn’t think it would travel well so I had to make do with taking a photo.

Driving through the desert you never knew what would be perched on a hillside  , such as this 20’ metal roadrunner statue.

It didn’t take long and we were in Texas, my fourth state on this road trip thus far. Four more states to go.

We are still in the desert, Texas-style.

We were close to the Mexico border and everyone had to veer off the interstate to go through the Border Patrol checkpoint.

I would love to say we finished the drive with an awesome dinner……but we did not.  There was not a lot of options for eating and we were arriving at San Antonio after 11pm local time.  Sonic it was.

We spent 2 nights soaking up history and local flavor in San Antonio.  That will be the next post.

 

 

 

 

Before leaving California, we spent the night with Adrienne’s parents in Chino.  She drove me around so I could see a few of the remaining dairy farms in the area they live.

We also came across these llamas during our drive.

Her parents  have horses and here’s Harriet, her mom, feeding Axel.

Her dad, Mark wanted to be sure Adrienne had a special Florida gift to take with her.

Her mom also rescues cats and right now she has 20+ kittens.  I don’t think she will miss the black & white one I put in my backpack – just kidding.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

We’re meeting her sister in Indio at Shields Cafe for Brunch since it’s close to Coachella where she’s working for her newspaper.

This place grows and features dates and they are incorporated in a variety of ways. One option was stuffed dates (cream cheese & jalapeños) wrapped in bacon.

I opted for breakfast and had the date pancakes. They were delicious!~  The dates were so sweet, I hardly needed any syrup.

We we sat outside and enjoyed their live music.

It was quite ‘toasty’ outside, but worth the trickle of sweat that went down my back.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and start the 2500+mile journey.  We are pretty much on I-10, ninety percent of the time.

Naturally I had to share some of my desert photos.  These are from the California desert.  Yes, I have found that in each state the desert looks different.

Our goal this day was to reach Tucson, AZ.  Adrienne wanted to be the one that drove us out of California……and she did.

We stayed at an interesting hotel in Tucson – Lodge of the Desert.

The room was great and had that ‘southwestern’ theme going, go figure.  🙂

We found a really cool brewery downtown Tucson in their entertainment district called The Hub, Restaurant & Ice Creamery.

Beer started the evening…….and I’m discovering a taste for amber beer.

I had the best burger in a long time and they came with tator tots- very tasty.  Adrienne still had room for ice cream after her meal, which they make inhouse,  but I had no room left, I was stuffed.

Breakfast was included with our room and was a nice way to end our stay in Tucson.

And then we have the Arizona desert:

The next travel goal is to reach San Antonio, TX – its going to be a long, long drive in a days time.