Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category
Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Fun, Home, Pets/Animals, Photography, tagged Cats, Ellie, Home, Pets, Photography, Siberian Husky on September 28, 2011|
Thoughtful Thursday
Posted in Entertainment, Fun, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged Doc Taylor's, Doumar's, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Norfolk, Staunton, Tautogs, The Pi-zzeria, Travel, Tripadvisor, Tudor's Biscuit World, Urbanspoon, Virginia Beach on August 4, 2011|
I hope you have enjoyed the last few week’s worth of Thoughtful Thursday posts which detailed C & my 10th anniversary vacation to Virginia Beach. This post highlights the neat little restaurants we visited while on the road. I had done quite a bit of research on local Virginia Beach restaurants because I wanted us to get a local taste of the place. Thanks to sites like Tripadvisor, Urbanspoon, Google, and Yahoo travel, I found several local hot spots to try.
On Tuesday of our trip, which was our official anniversary, we ate at two local restaurants which had gotten really good reviews. These eateries are in side-by-side houses and are owned by the same people. One serves breakfast and lunch while the other serves dinner and late night eats.
We ate at Doc Taylor’s for lunch and it was so good!! Here is the exterior…
This is the only advertising that you will see so you have to know where they are.
I think the interior probably looks a lot like it did when someone lived there. The ambience was great!
C ordered the Philly cheesesteak with fries and I got the OBX shredded BBQ sandwich with fries and the absolutely best Cole slaw I have ever had! If you are ever in the Virginia Beach area, go to Doc Taylor’s! It was awesome!
For our anniversary dinner that night, we went to Doc Taylor’s sister restaurant, Tautog’s. This was a Tuesday evening and the place was packed. We had to wait about 45 minutes to get a table. We were seated in the screened-in porch back to back with many other diners. The food here was good but a little too pricey for what you get. I think they should at least throw in a salad or bread to go with the main entrée. C had their Steak au Poivre with roasted potatoes and I had the Wesley’s World Famous crab cakes with roasted potatoes. Good, but expensive.
The next day we headed into Norfolk for some sightseeing and to go to a little drive-in/diner called Doumar’s that I had heard about on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives from the Food Network. This place was famous for their homemade ice cream cones, so we absolutely had to try them. This was a neat little joint that was full of locals there for lunch. I think that is always a good sign!
C had a cheeseburger with fries and I had their shredded BBQ sandwich with slaw and fries. The food was great and the best was yet to come. C & I both ordered a chocolate ice cream cone and it was soooo good!!!!
Here I am trying not to lose a bite.
After a full day of touring, we made it back to our hotel room to decide where to eat supper. I wanted something quick and close because I wanted to head to the beach before sunset. We found a little pizza place just a block or two from our hotel called The Pi-zzeria (as in Pi, or 3.14). Kind of cute, isn’t it? The brick oven gave this pizza a great thin crispy crust and the cheese and homemade sauce were good, too.
On our way home through Virginia, we stopped in Staunton to pick up some supplies and decided to eat there. C has a neat app on his smartphone called Where. You can pick what you are looking for, such as a restaurant, gas station, hotel or store and it will search from your current location. One of the eateries listed was Five Guys Burgers and Fries. I had read about this place but there aren’t any close to where we live so we decided to check it out.
You order at their front counter and then take a seat to wait for your number to be called. They have peanuts in the shell you can snack on while you wait, but don’t eat too many because you get huge portions. I ordered a regular burger and fries and I got a double patty hamburger with enough fries for 3 servings. If I ever get to eat there again, I will definitely order the “little burger”. The food was really good though!
This is ONE serving of fries!! Oh my!
As we headed home through West Virginia on Friday morning, we had a late breakfast at Tudor’s Biscuit World. I had gotten a tip about this restaurant from someone I had met through work and was eager to try it. I think I was expecting something like Cracker Barrel so I was a little disappointed. The Tudor’s we stopped at was in a truck stop/mini mart kind of store, but it was busy. The prices were extremely reasonable and the biscuits were huge, but I have had better. It was ok, but not great.
I hope everyone has enjoyed these glimpses into our first trip to the ocean and all of the sites and tastes along the way!
Thoughtful Thursday
Posted in Fun, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged Ohio, Travel, West Virginia on July 28, 2011|
Today is the last travel day for the virtual re-telling of our anniversary vacation. We stayed the night in West Virginia and started toward Kentucky Friday morning. Before we got too far, we stopped for brunch at Tudor’s Biscuit World. Check back next week for a post all about the food we enjoyed on our trip.
This was the first time that I had travelled through West Virginia and it was an eye-opening experience. The interstate was like a roller coaster. We would go up, up, up and the go down, down down. Usually I don’t have any trouble pulling hills with my little SUV even with the cruise control on, but these weren’t just hills. After one particularly steep incline where I had to take the car out of cruise and creep up the “hill”, there was sign that read Sandstone Mountain. No wonder my little car was taking its time going up!
We drove through Charleston, WV and caught a glimpse of their capital building. This is a very industrial area with lots of factories and coal everywhere.
As we were getting closer to Kentucky, we took a very short little side trip. As you leave West Virginia going into Kentucky, you are right next to the Ohio River and Ohio itself. Since we were that close, we decided to cross (yet another) bridge and add Ohio to the list of state we went to on this trip, along with Virginia, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Finally, it was back home to Bluegrass Land! Well, almost back home. We still had a four hour drive after we crossed the state line, but we were getting close. We made it home that evening around four o’clock and were worn out, but it was so worth it.
We are at the end of our virtual trip. Some of you are probably thinking “FINALLY!” I will have one more post next week highlighting the restaurants we ate at while we were gone.
Thoughtful Thursday
Posted in Entertainment, Fun, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, Virginia Beach on July 21, 2011|
Our virtual vacation is starting to wind down…”today” is the day we leave the beach and start toward home. Sigh! I knew I would like the ocean, but it was even better and more awe-inspiring that I could have imagined. I would love to go back sometime!
We spend a couple of hours on the beach that morning just soaking it up a little longer.
We left Virginia Beach and headed toward Colonial Williamsburg. Since we only planned on staying a couple of hours at Williamsburg, we didn’t buy tickets that would have given us access to the interiors of some of the buildings and the storytellers, but we still enjoyed it. If you are a history buff and have a full day to spend there, then the tickets are probably worth the money, but it worked out perfectly for us to just walk the streets and sight-see instead. A lot of the houses along the paths are private residences anyway and you won’t have access to them even with a ticket. Here are a few photos of the sights at Colonial Williamsburg…
That afternoon we drove to West Virginia and spent the night. Friday morning we headed toward Kentucky.
Thoughtful Thursday
Posted in Entertainment, Fun, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Hapton Roads Naval Museum, Nauticus, Norfolk, Old Fort Story Lighthouse, USS Wisconsin, Virginia, Virginia Beach on July 14, 2011|
Welcome back to your virtual tour of C & I’s 10th anniversary vacation. We are up to day 4 of our trip and it was the busiest day yet. That was Wednesday of the week we were gone and we decided to make that day sight-seeing day. Once we started out that morning, there were so many things to see that we ended up staying out and about longer than I had planned and didn’t have quite as much beach time as I had hoped, but that was okay. We saw some amazing things while we were touring!
We started the day going to see the first lighthouse built in the United States. In fact, it was the first public works project in the newly founded country. It is located at Fort Story military base which was just a few miles up the street from our hotel. Since it is on an active military base, we were required to show our driver’s licenses and our vehicle had to be inspected. After that we were instructed on where to go and that we could not take any photos except at the old lighthouse.
This is actually the “new” lighthouse that is still used today so we didn’t get to go in it.
This is the “old” lighthouse.
There were many, many steps to climb!
Upon leaving the lighthouse, we headed toward Norfolk to continue our touring. Now, let me tell you a little “secret”, I usually DO NOT LIKE BRIDGES, especially shaky swaying bridges. As C was driving along he looked out over the water and asked what something was. That “something” was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a 20 mile long bridge with, not one, but two underwater tunnels. He asked if I wanted to go over it and, before I could chicken out, I said yes!! I am so glad I did, too. That drive was one of the most beautiful and interesting 20 miles I have ever been on.
Notice how it says “no stopping”.
Well, we had to stop. Once you are in the tunnels, there is only 1 lane per direction. We had to stop our way to let a wide-load hauling semi-truck come through the other way.
This was a helicopter that looked like it was chasing this boat. It just kept getting closer and closer!
We are officially standing in the Chesapeake Bay.
There is a restaurant and the fishing pier below on one of the man-made islands at the tunnel entrance.
After this wonderful little side trip, we headed into Norfolk.
Norfolk’s downtown has been revitalized and it was so pretty. We were heading to the Hampton Bay Naval Museum, Nauticus Science Center and the USS Wisconsin Battleship. When we got to the end of the street to find a parking garage, this was our first view of the ship…
Pretty awesome, isn’t it? This was one of C’s favorite stops along the whole trip. He loved the museum and science center, and especially the battleship. You give yourself the tour and you have access to many parts of the ship. Here are a few shots of the museum and ship.
As we were leaving to head back to Virginia Beach, I spotted the MacArthur Memorial. We didn’t take time to stop, but I snapped a couple of photos from the street.
We returned to Virginia Beach, hungry and tired. We found a little pizza place just down the street from our hotel and went there. I’ll have more info on that in a later “foodie” post. We spent some time on the beach and enjoyed an beautiful sunset and full moon.
There are only a couple of days left of our vacation to share with you, so please check back next Thursday for the next installment!
Thoughtful Thursday
Posted in Fun, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged Aquarium, Beach, Sunrise, Virginia, Virginia Beach on July 7, 2011|
Let’s see…I think you are now up to Tuesday (our 10th anniversary) on your virtual vacation with C & I as we explore Virginia Beach a little more thoroughly. Since we were on the East Coast and our hotel room faced the beach, we had an amazing view of the sunrise over the ocean. There was also a little action on the beach before the sun came up. The work crew use big John Deere tractors to smooth out the sand and vacuum up any debris that is on the beach.
No wonder I couldn’t find any good shells! Anyway, here comes the sun! Just sit back and enjoy the view.
The colors were just breathtaking!
Dolphins!
All of the above photos were taken between 4:30 and 5:00am so needless to say we went back to sleep for awhile after that. We spent some time on the beach that morning and decided to go the Virginia Aquarium that afternoon. The aquarium and aviary were enjoyable, but we agreed that the one in Gatlinburg is just as good. Don’t go to Virginia Beach just for the Aquarium. Go for the beach!!!
This is a salt marsh which is where the ocean’s salt water meets the river’s fresh water. I learned this fact from a handy-dandy info sign on the pier, but I also learned that salt marshes stink!!! The smell was bad.
Since this was our anniversary, we ate at two really good restaurants that are next door to each other and owned by the same people. I am going to tease you with that information for a little while, because I think the food and restaurants need their own post. Come back next Thursday for our continuing adventure. The trip just got better and better.
Thoughtful Thursday
Posted in Fun, My Thoughts, Photography, Travel, tagged Foamhenge, My Thoughts, Travel, Vacation, Virginia on June 23, 2011|
Today starts your virtual journey on C & I’s 10th anniversary vacation we took last week. I hope you enjoy, but I warn you that you may get tired of all of the photos I put on here from this trip. We had such an amazing time road-tripping through parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio before making our way back to bluegrass land. It was an adventure I will never forget!
C & I started out on Sunday with the plan to drive to Natural Bridge, Virginia to see Foamhenge. That’s right, I did say “Foamhenge” not “Stonehenge”. Here is a little history…I was watching Ace of Cakes on the Food Network one night and, in that episode, Duff and Geoff take a road trip. One of the stops they made was at Foamhenge, which is a free road-side attraction built by an artist. It is a full-scale replica of Stonehenge made of huge foam blocks. C was hooked! He had to see this. We had already been talking about a beach vacation to celebrate our 10th anniversary and that pretty much sealed the deal for Virginia Beach. Anyway, back to our story.
We arrived at the Kentucky/Tennessee/Virginia lines (yes, they are that close together) and realized that we would have to go through the Cumberland Gap Tunnel. Gulp! I am not that fond of being underground, but here goes…
After that, we took Highway 58 through a good portion of Eastern Virginia. This is a main highway, but it wraps around a mountain so it is really, really curvy. Then it started to rain while we were on the really curvy road. Thankfully, we made it without any problems and the scenery was great to look at.
We finally arrived at Foamhenge and it was so cool! The place is not fancy, but if you like Stonehenge and have a sense of humor, you really need to go!
It was kind of desolate. I was a little afraid someone would sneak in and lock the gate behind us.
There is even a levitating Merlin!
This is the path back down to where we parked.
We were being watched! I think it was an attack deer!
Once we had experienced Foamhenge, we headed toward Lexington, Virginia, where we were spending the night at the Hampton Inn-Historic District. This hotel is partially housed in a historic house called Col Alto. You can stay in those rooms, or did like we did, stay in the separate hotel in the back which is quite a bit cheaper. You can still walk through the historic home and enjoy the ambience without having to shell out the big bucks. I was saving my hotel budget for the beach!
This is it for Day 1. Please check back next Thursday as we travel to the coast!
Almost-Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Fun, Pets, Photography on April 13, 2011|
See our cat (who thinks he is actually hiding)…
See Ellie want to chase the cat…
See how her lead, while hooked to a stake, is also wrapped around C’s chair leg to stop her…hopefully!
That darn cat!!
Day Trip to the Orchard
Posted in Family, Fun, Travel on September 2, 2010| 1 Comment »
I took off work today to spend the day with my aunt, M, and Nanny. We went to Bowling Green, KY to Jackson’s Orchard. None of us had ever been there but had always heard good things about it. It is only about 5 miles out of BG, but it feels like you are worlds away from the city. If you are looking for fresh produce in the South-central Kentucky area, I highly recommend Jackson’s. Take a look at what I purchased today…
“Jonathan” apples
“Incredible” sweet corn
Pears-not sure of the variety
I can’t wait to try this BBQ sauce on some shredded pork this weekend, and a few of the apples are destined for an Apple Dapple Cake recipe that I found here.
The rest of the story…
Posted in Entertainment, Fun, Photography, Travel on June 20, 2010|
In this past Almost-wordless Wednesday post, I mentioned that there might be a story behind the beautiful fireworks display and there is. We decided to take a short getaway to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary by traveling to Lexington, KY. It was just what we needed…a weekend of eating out, movies, shopping, swimming, sleeping in, baseball, and fireworks.
The trip began late Thursday afternoon when we drove to Lexington and checked in to the wonderful Hampton Inn on I-75.
Friday was a day of shopping, eating, and movie watching…The A-Team to be exact. It was a great summer action movie; it was non-stop thrills and it didn’t take itself too seriously. We decided to do a little sight-seeing on Saturday. It is amazing what can be right next door to you and you don’t even realize it. We drove down a “Kentucky Scenic-byway” Saturday afternoon and the views were so pretty. There were several different horse farms along the drive and many barn quilt-squares as well. For those of you who don’t know what they are, the Kentucky tourism people started this project a few years ago. They would get farm owners to hang a painted quilt square on their barns and then the tourism board would print maps of these hangings for people to drive and see. We weren’t looking for these in particular, but I tried to snap a photo of the ones we saw. I think I may have missed one or two, but I got most of them.
We watched another movie Saturday afternoon, The Killers with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl. It was a really funny romantic comedy, perfect for a date afternoon. That night we went to see the Lexington Legends minor league baseball team take on Delmarva. C & I had never been to this stadium before and it was really nice. This is where the fireworks come in to play. There was an awesome fireworks show after the game. If you are looking for some great family entertainment, don’t look any further than the closest minor league stadium. It is awesome!
We kept seeing this little park when we would drive from our hotel to where the restaurants were. Sunday morning, we stopped and investigated. Turns out it is a horse cemetery! We were just a little surprised that the gentleman who started this decided to put it in the middle of a developing area. There is a shopping center on one side, a Lowe’s and Wal-mart on another, and a large subdivision across the street.
When we came home Sunday, we decided to take the scenic route home instead of a parkway. Well, we ended up missing one turn and took the VERY scenic route home, but it was still fun and we got to see some pretty country.
This was a home-made suspension bridge over a creek that ran next to the road. I don’t think I would have crossed that unless it was my ONLY way out and I absolutely had to get out!
Picture Perfect Cooking 