The last hurrah of summer 2011

After loads of traveling this summer (I saw my parents less this summer when I had off, than during the school year when I work!), we (Doug, Randy, Laura and I) ended in Charlottesville, Virginia, at nTelos Pavilion to experience the most amazing show ever!  (Of course, that's my opinion!)  It was a Dave and Tim acoustic show - 3 1/2 hours of the most amazing guitar playing and one of my favorite singing voices in the world.  I can't help it - I am a bit obsessed! 

We had lawn seats, so we were back a bit (as you can see), but the sound was top notch where we were.  And, of course, I had Doug's binoculars to watch up close and personal.  It really was one of the most entertaining acts I've ever seen (from Dave's stories to Tim's expert guitar playing).  I've seen the whole band twice, but this was just more intimate and so much fun!!

Like I said, we had lawn seats, so we brought some snacks - Laura and I went to this market/grocery store and got some shrimp salad, salsa, and some red curry coconut tofu hummus!  We like sitting on the lawn - you can pitch a blanket, eat food, drink, and have a blast!  And that's what we did!  Of course, I told Doug that next time I'd have to sit up close - it got a little old holding binoculars up to my face the whole night!

Oh, and while in Charlottesville we ate at one of my favorite places.  Great food - small menu (makes for easier choices!) It's called Marco and Luca's Noodle Shop - dumpling and noodles - so yummy! :)  It's one of the restaurants in the Downtown Pedestrian Mall.  I would definitely recommend it for a quick and easy lunch or snack!

Pig Snout, Ostrich Burgers, and Bitterballen!

When we go to a foreign country, one of our favorite things to do is to try the native food and explore places where the natives go.  So, last summer in Curacao we decided to go to their "market" figuring it would be somewhat like our "farmer's markets."  Well, it was, but I have to say I've never seen pig snout at our market.  Do people REALLY eat them??  And, how do you prepare them?  We didn't purchase anything here. :)

  

We did try ostrich burgers at an African cafe!  You could tell it wasn't a hamburger...it had a unique taste that's hard to describe.  We did enjoy it. They have an ostrich farm here that you can tour.   Thank goodness we had our lunch before we went on the tour.  After seeing the cute little baby ostriches, I never could have eaten them! 

Our guide was very informative and he let us feed the ostriches... 

Most of the food in Curacao was Dutch - we tried Bitterballen, defined by wikipedia as, "a savoury Dutch meat-based snack, typically containing a mixture of beef (minced or chopped), beef broth, flour and butter for thickening, parsley, salt and pepper.  They were ok - kind of tasted like fried balls of stuffing!

Probably our favorite meal here, (we weren't very impressed with the food overall at Curacao), was the chicken sateh - the peanut dipping sauce was especially savory!  In fact the below meal was so good, we had to return twice to indulge!  It helped they had exceptionally tasty frozen drinks and you were practically sitting on the beach! :)

Oh... and good apple pancakes too - very thin (crepe-like).

HARRY POTTER!

Probably the highlight of Katelyn's summer... our trip to Universal Islands of Adventure to submerge ourselves in the world of Harry Potter.  I have to admit it was quite magical... and for a die hard fan like my daughter, it was spellbinding to say the least!  When you enter Hogsmeade, you feel like you've been placed into the movie!  The town is a replica of the actual street in the movie... from the Owl Post to Honeydukes to the Three Broomsticks Cafe. Here is where we had Butterbeer, both regular and frozen - we preferred the frozen. (Hint:  Don't wait in line at the Butterbeer carts - go into the back door of the Three Broomsticks to the Hog's Head bar area - no line!)  We got a chocolate frog at Honeydukes (can't go wrong with chocolate!) as well as pumpkin juice to drink (it's like drinking pumpkin pie)!

The amount of people in this little section of the park is incredible.  When the gates open there is a mad rush to the right as people head for this section of the park.  But, of course, we were in the mix of the droves of Harry Potterites :) - you had to if you wanted to ride the Forbidden Journey and not have an hour and a half wait.  The first time we were on was ok to wait - while waiting in line you are entertained by props and scenes from the movie.  But after the first time you just want to get on the ride!  What a ride it is... you really feel as if you are flying along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione!  I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and I haven't even read all the books yet.  It just feels so real.  We ended up getting on it four times... never getting tired of it, yet two times the ride stopped in the middle (yes, stopped!).  We just had to wait until it started up again - the first time we were in front of a steam breathing dragon that "steamed" us every 10 seconds.  We were stopped so long they turned the lights on - it was pretty cool to see how the ride worked, but not cool to be harnessed in a seat suspended 12 feet in the air.  The second time it was just Katelyn and me and the ride stopped just as our car was leaning back - thank goodness it wasn't quite upside down!  No lights this time.  Not sure what went wrong either time, but it didn't stop us from riding it one last time on our last day there!

                           

The most enchanting part was when we went to the show in Olivander's Wand Shop and Katelyn got to be the "chosen one"  She got to take part in the show - a wand actually "picked" her.  She says it was similar to the scene in the first Harry Potter movie when the wand picked Harry.  She wanted to buy a wand anyway, but now she could actually buy the wand that chose her!  She was on cloud 9!

We had a great four days at Universal Islands of Adventure, returning to the Harry Potter section each day! I tried to think of a magical time in my childhood and what I remembered was when my parents took me to see John Schneider at the York Fair.  At the time, The Dukes of Hazard was my favorite and  I loved Bo Duke, so to see him in person (singing) was so exciting for me! :)  I'm sure this will be one of those times Katelyn never forgets!

Awesome place to eat in Key West!

We did a lot of toolin' around this summer.  One place I've been wanting to go for a long time was the Florida Keys.  Well this summer we went - it was the "Doug and Jess" trip (meaning no kids - we usually do that once a summer).  We had a terrific time and I know it's a place we will visit again - we couldn't get to all the cool places in one week!  I'm sure I'll have lots more posts about the Keys, but this one is about one of our favorite places to eat.

When I say a place is my favorite, nine times out of ten it's because I can see water while eating (must run in the family - right Mom and Dad?).  This place lived up to that - it was called Southernmost Beach Cafe and Bar and it's at the end of Duval Street in Key West (near the famous buoy!).  We went here once again beacause of reviews we read on Trip Advisor, but this time it was reviews about their happy hour.  

Happy hour consisted of Rum Runners (on the rocks) for $3, and then some $3 appetizers.  Well we had to try each one.  First the calamari - this is something we used to love and eat a lot, but we have both been trying to eat a lot healthier, so we've limited our intake of the squid!  Next we tried tuna sliders - very tasty!  Last, and our favorite was, as Doug called, an event.  We got our own little hibachi and cooked our food on skewers!  How fun is that?  This was the first time we ever saw anything like that!  We finished off with a red, white, and blue frozen drink!  Yum!

 

  

It's always fun sitting at the bar because it's fun talking to the bartenders - it was the Fourth of July so everyone was festive and having a good time.  At one point we saw them trying to figure out a puzzle on a Dots box and the teachers in us couldn't resist - we had to try it.  See below - can you figure it out?  We did! :)

After leaving we walked out on the pier and had an awesome view of the fireworks.  It was a perfect evening! :)



Swimming in a Cave!

Yes, that's correct - in a cave!  Thought I'd grab your interest in my first post!  This was so cool...literally!  As you swam around, the water temperature would change from freezing cold to bathtub warm.  I think the idea of swimming among stalactites and stalagmites just really excited me!  The water was so clear!

This was a cave in Bermuda at the Grotto Bay Resort (no we didn't stay here) that I heard about on Trip Advisor (one of my favorite sites for travel reviews).  There are caves that you can tour in Bermuda, but this one was more of an adventure - you had to find the resort, then find the secret entrance (actually not that hard - once you walk into the resort there is a sign for the cave).  The best part about it... it's free!  You can explore a little, but the awesome pool of water you can swim in is the coolest!