It was a Trip!

Well, I was just typing away a minute ago answering emails and my husband looked right over at me and said "are you blogging?" Which got me to thinking, doggone, I might should do that. How in the world are y'all?

D and I just got back about an hour ago from the land of the Atlantic Ocean. Now, neither one of us is a beach snob so we don't care which way we go, Atlantic or Gulf, or Pacific for that matter, as long as it has sand and sun (and a pool for me).

This was our long weekend away for our anniversary. This trip kinda evolved but long story short, we ended up going to Myrtle Beach. We stayed at a great resort and basically had a delightful time. We think we hadn't been to MB in maybe 20 years and yes, it had changed just a little. I'm not sure I have to go back anytime soon but all in all, we had a great time. So what did we do?

1. We sat in beach chairs, under umbrellas and read. Now, I think that maybe what we get to do in heaven during the summer months. Our view of the ocean was unobstructed and I pretty much could have sat there for days. It was hot but the breeze was steady and it felt fab.u.lous. I could just feel the worries of the world melting away. I got to finish Dorothea Benton Frank's new novel, "Folly Beach." It took me awhile to get into it and understand the formatting but once I got that, I loved it. I also read several publications about canning . . . because I'm canning things this year. Oh yes I am. We have an abundance of produce especially from my father-in-law's garden and I'm just going to teach myself to can. So there. I'll let you know how that goes.

2. We went shopping which was really kinda an accident. We were looking for something else and the GPS took us to a great shopping area. Well, score for the GPS! I got some new make-up and could not be more pleased. I've heard from every friend, neighbor and internet blogger how wonderful Bare Minerals make-up is. Well, I've been a little on the hesitant side because I've always used liquid foundation. Bare Minerals is powder and honestly, I just wasn't so sure. But since I was on vacation and my husband was in Dick's Sporting Goods, I decided to sit down and let the expert experiment on me at the make-up counter. I could not believe my eyes when I looked at my face in the mirror. I have a little (a lot actually) problem with redness and rosacea so I've always wanted a product that covers that up. The ones I've used would cover it up when you first put it on but after you've worn it for awhile, the coverage was long gone. Not this. It's great.

3. We went to the movies and saw "Cars." Yea, I know what you're thinking. Kids movie. I've never laughed so hard and so many times as I did in this movie. Honestly, I don't think kids would get half of the jokes. But you do have to have some appreciation for Tow-Mater, aka Larry the Cable Guy and his brand of humor. I thought it was cute as could be.

4. We decided that we wouldn't eat at any chain or mass-market restaurants. We aren't fans of those and if we go to a new place we like to eat at the hole-in-the-wall restaurants that don't have long lines of tourists waiting at the door. We found two of these and come to think of it, I might go back to MB just for these two restaurants. The first was Sun City Grill. Shrimp tacos and salsa to die for. The menu was very limited but the food was just great. The second was River City Grill.,very similar in name to the first but not menu. River City Grill was all about burgers in every shape, form and fashion. And the onion rings were the size of your fist. Honestly, where do you get onions that big? This food was amazing.

5. We visited grocery stores. I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows us because that's what our family does on vacation. We have to walk through as many stores as possible and analyze everything about them. We've gotten pretty good at it. I just usually stand in the produce section and drool because honestly, is there anything any prettier that a bunch of fresh produce. Just think about it. Fruits and vegetables are every color of the rainbow and come in every size and shape. It's just amazing to me.

6. We went to Hubbard Georgia on the way back. Why Hubbard? Well, I asked the husband the same question. He said there was something in Hubbard he wanted and I should say there was. Little known fact I'm sure, but Hubbard is the home of Bubba Grills. Apparently, these grills are famous in some circles. I guess I don't happen to run in those circles. But my husband is a Bubba Grill groupie wanna-be. You see, he has caught the smokin/grillin bug. Mr. Bubba said that might happen. You see we met the Mr. Bubba of Bubba Grill fame and he was a delight to be sure. I just might be wrong but if it weren't for Mr. Bubba I don't think anyone would ever hear about Hubbard. It has one flashing light and is home to about 700 people plus Bubba and his family. They live just north of town on Hwy. 129 (yes the same Hwy. 129 that runs right through Gainesville) and once we finally turned off the main highway and onto their dirt road, we found the Bubba Grill factory (looked like a barn to me), pretty as you please, right behind Mr. Bubba's house. He sure was glad we came and he said that he sure would be happy to build us a smoker/griller. He told us when we were leaving that we could just circle that there Pee-Can tree in his back yard and head on home from there. I just loved him plus he had a bull dog puppy that was just precious. Of course he did.

Well, that's all I know for today. It's 11:15 and this girl is tired from all the vacationing and riding in the car I've been doing. But I do know that my precious eldest child will be knocking on my door at 6:30 in the morning so I've got to get some rest.

Good night all.

Well, look who's back in Blogland!

Yes, I'm back. And can I just say, it is GOOD to be home. Good, I say. We had two fab.u.lous weeks in the sun, full of fun and food. You know, I sat down Monday night, and not one single person put a plate of food or a drink with a little umbrella in front of me. Yes, back to reality I am.

For those of you who might wonder where we traveled off to, the first week we were on a cruise celebrating the wedding of the son of one of my adopted sisters. It was great. He married a precious young woman whom we couldn't love more. We were blessed and honored that they wanted us two old folks traveling along on their wedding extravaganza. I've just got to tell you this story before I go any further because it may go down as one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life. Let me set the scene. We are in one of the bars/lounges on the cruise ship. I guess that's what you call it. All I know was that they were doing karaoke and there was a bar at the back of the room. Anyway, there was a bunch of us and we thought it might be fun to go in and check it out. Well, we sat through some pretty bad attempts with the exception of this beautiful black girl from Atlanta who brought down the house singing Aretha Franklin's "R-E-S-P-E-C-T." She was the crowd favorite for sure. But she must have thought she had peaked and didn't sing another note the rest of the night. So we were all sitting there discussing the pitiful state of the performers when my husband says, "well, Ben, (the groom) let's just go up there and show em how it's done." Excuse me? Since when do you sing karaoke? for a crowd of 200 people? And just for the record, he had not had a drop of alcohol. I thought, this is going to be good. The song selection became top secret and with the addition of one of Ben's buddies, they were quite the trio. Pretty soon, they called their names and these three unlikely performers took the stage. Big stage; bright lights; huge room; lots of people; tough crowd. They had decided to channel their country roots and for some unknown reason, settled on Alabama's "Mountain Music," circa 1982. Honestly, at first, I thought, they had made a mistake. This particular crowd didn't look like they were country music fans, much less fans of the mullet-men from Ft. Payne. But when they started singing, well D was the only one singing, the crowd went crazy. Keep in mind, these fellas are about 30 years old, cute as can be and surprisingly, full of some serious dance moves. Honestly, D could have been singing the phone book backwards with a beat and these boys would have brought down the house. Nothing against my husband's singing because he kept that together by himself but those boys shook it, moved it and rocked it. We were crying we were laughing so hard. It was classic and not a single one of us had a phone or camera to record it for posterity. So D is now denying it ever happened and if it did, that it will never happen again, at least not on dry land.

Our first port was Key West which I loved. Maybe it was because I had a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" at Jimmy Buffett's original Margaritaville for lunch. And you know I am all about what I eat. So when they sat that big ole cheeseburger and those giant fresh onion rings in front of me, I thought that I might have reached some completion of all my food goals. Don't worry, I will set more. But it was amazing and let's just say that Margaritaville lived way up to it's name!

Oh, I've got to tell you this. While we were sitting at the table waiting on our food, I get a text from E. So thinking it might be important, after all, she knows we were on vacation, I look at it immediately. It says something like this: "Mom, Steven Tyler and Carrie Underwood sang "Walk this Way" last night on the CMA Awards! It's awesome! You have got to watch it" Well, see there. It was important. The girl knows me. I don't know if I've told you this but I'm pretty much infatuated with Steven Tyler right now. See he and I go way back to 1975 when I had just turned 16; my new Camaro had an 8 track tape player; and Aerosmith was one of my favorite bands (along with the Doobie Brothers, the BeeGees, Chicago and REO Speedwagon - don't judge me). Well, to be honest, I hadn't given Steven much thought until he popped up on AI this season and oh, the old feelings started coming back. Don't worry, if you don't understand the attraction. I'm not sure I do either. Everyone in my house thinks I'm crazy. I think I'm just a girl revisiting her 16 year old self.

The next stop was Ochos Rios, Jamaica. This is a story all in it's self. Short story: Climbed a rushing, cold waterfall; took a serene ride on a chair lift through the rain forest; and then rode a bob sled down a mountain. Oh heavenly day.

The next stop was Grand Cayman. Our family had visited in 2004 after E graduated from high school and loved it. So since we had seen most of the island, we just did a little shopping and decided to turn the tables on the island. We would take it in from the cruise ship. We parked our rears on the balcony outside our room and enjoyed the view of the island and the water from up there. It was pretty much heavenly.

All in all, this first leg of our trip was fabulous. But there's more . . .