Well in an effort to clear things up around here, I've been skimming magazines before they go to the local senior center and came across a great story by a food writer in Food and Wine. He was remembering a meal of a very long time ago and then I watched a small amount of Iron Chef as they fixed octopus about 15 different ways. The point being (please!) I have no great octopus stories but thought of a wonderful trip to Spain more than thirty years ago and eating at a particular Posada one night. Now my former husband and I were very much newbies at travel especially foreign but fairly adventurous about eating all types of ethnic food - as long as it was cooked! I don't remember what I ordered that night but he had the stuffed calamari and it was wonderful much better than whatever I had. The stuffing was a chorizo or chorizo style sausage and perhaps bread and the two white tubes of squid lay side by side with the whole dish resembling some kind of pasta rolls like chubby manicotti. Whatever it was, it tasted great. Apparently my few my experiences with octopus were not as memorable as I can't find them in the memory bank.
That trip was also our first experience with having Churros. They dropped a continuous circle of batter into huge pans of hot oil and just kept cutting off hunks for customers. A strong shake of granulated sugar and yours was handed to you on white paper along with your espresso or stronger stuff if that was your preference for breakfast. The bar we stood at was in some tiny Spanish town, open to the narrow street and on the balcony across was a large bird cage with a canary singing away in full form. Now at that time I lived in Minnesota so any thought of having my birds outside was very exotic. I can close my eyes today and picture the whole scene.
Spain is one of our favorite destinations and a few months ago we visited Barcelona which was spectacular.
Mary
Monday, June 8, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Moving right along...
Hmm I guess I have a few months of travel to catch up reporting on.
We're quite excited about attending the Antiques Roadshow in Raleigh NC this June 27th. Although I don't believe there are any unknown treasurers in all my stuff, you'll be hearing all about it.
Last week we were up in Delaware for MATPRA, a travel related market place for mid Atlantic destinations and spent three days in Rehoboth Beach right on the boardwalk. Our last two days were in Wilmington and the beautiful Brandywine area. Watch for the stories from myself and others under destinations here on the site. They are offering a wonderful multi attraction pass that will save you lots of money.
Delaware is a tiny little state that packs a big wallop of diverse things to do. We saw museums, historic homes, National and State parks, beaches and rolling countryside. Activities included kayaking, cooking lessons, ghost stories on the beach, winery tours, history lessons and so much more.
One regret is always not enough time to see and do it all plus never testing that high butterfat cream from the Lewes Dairy!
On the way up to Rehoboth we stopped for lunch at the Sage Diner in Olney, VA and were surprised by wonderful generous portions of really reasonably priced good food. A great clue is when all the other patrons are loading up doggie - really people bags from their lunch special.
Back here in the "wilds"of rural North Carolina we're surrounded by growing cotton, tobacco, soybean and corn fields. So far it all looks good but with our day after day 80 plus temperatures regular rain is really important.
The fall elections are already crossing my thoughts and I'm hoping we'll have an opportunity to start with a clean slate in our town and county this year. Not so long ago I heard of another movement to limit Federal Senate and Representatives to two terms but of course they would have to pass that themselves. Can we guess what century that will happen in?
We recently met another couple who raved about OAT tours like one of our web site contributors, Francoise Yohalem, who uses them for her annual sketch trip group. This couple took one of their small group African Safari trips. Francoise has been to quite a few destinations with them. She also leads teams of volunteers for Global Volunteers and does extensive independent travel. Note her story on hiking in Georgia just before the invasion.
I think she keeps a note pinned to her coat with her home address on it she's gone so much!
Unfortunately our good friend Renee Wright missed MATPRA this year after coming home from Hawaii to find her house flooded from a plumbing disaster.
That happened to my parents while they were away for the weekend. A second floor toilet never shut off. Months later you could be standing somewhere on the first floor and all of a sudden a door frame would just pop off.
We'll be getting stories about Renee's Island adventures real soon.
I did a historical tour of Lewes while Will went kayaking and we passed a wonderful restored building that is the Buttery Restaurant. Later that night I had a chance to sample some of their specialities and also heard from others how much they had enjoyed eating there too.
On another note, we were made aware of a friend who had a very bad time being diagnosed correctly with Limes disease and have since heard of others as well as some cases of Rocky Mountain fever. Apparently with global warming not only are the planting zones changing but certain species of ticks are not being killed off by severe winters. So now you can have symptoms that mimic each other and it can be H1N1 or perhaps a tick bite or ? None of these are anything to fool around with and if you start to have symptoms that could possibly be any of the three (read up on the Internet) be sure and get tested quickly.
We've added new writers and some of the regulars have been doing lots of traveling providing fresh reports so check out Destinations.
Happy Trails,
Mary
We're quite excited about attending the Antiques Roadshow in Raleigh NC this June 27th. Although I don't believe there are any unknown treasurers in all my stuff, you'll be hearing all about it.
Last week we were up in Delaware for MATPRA, a travel related market place for mid Atlantic destinations and spent three days in Rehoboth Beach right on the boardwalk. Our last two days were in Wilmington and the beautiful Brandywine area. Watch for the stories from myself and others under destinations here on the site. They are offering a wonderful multi attraction pass that will save you lots of money.
Delaware is a tiny little state that packs a big wallop of diverse things to do. We saw museums, historic homes, National and State parks, beaches and rolling countryside. Activities included kayaking, cooking lessons, ghost stories on the beach, winery tours, history lessons and so much more.
One regret is always not enough time to see and do it all plus never testing that high butterfat cream from the Lewes Dairy!
On the way up to Rehoboth we stopped for lunch at the Sage Diner in Olney, VA and were surprised by wonderful generous portions of really reasonably priced good food. A great clue is when all the other patrons are loading up doggie - really people bags from their lunch special.
Back here in the "wilds"of rural North Carolina we're surrounded by growing cotton, tobacco, soybean and corn fields. So far it all looks good but with our day after day 80 plus temperatures regular rain is really important.
The fall elections are already crossing my thoughts and I'm hoping we'll have an opportunity to start with a clean slate in our town and county this year. Not so long ago I heard of another movement to limit Federal Senate and Representatives to two terms but of course they would have to pass that themselves. Can we guess what century that will happen in?
We recently met another couple who raved about OAT tours like one of our web site contributors, Francoise Yohalem, who uses them for her annual sketch trip group. This couple took one of their small group African Safari trips. Francoise has been to quite a few destinations with them. She also leads teams of volunteers for Global Volunteers and does extensive independent travel. Note her story on hiking in Georgia just before the invasion.
I think she keeps a note pinned to her coat with her home address on it she's gone so much!
Unfortunately our good friend Renee Wright missed MATPRA this year after coming home from Hawaii to find her house flooded from a plumbing disaster.
That happened to my parents while they were away for the weekend. A second floor toilet never shut off. Months later you could be standing somewhere on the first floor and all of a sudden a door frame would just pop off.
We'll be getting stories about Renee's Island adventures real soon.
I did a historical tour of Lewes while Will went kayaking and we passed a wonderful restored building that is the Buttery Restaurant. Later that night I had a chance to sample some of their specialities and also heard from others how much they had enjoyed eating there too.
On another note, we were made aware of a friend who had a very bad time being diagnosed correctly with Limes disease and have since heard of others as well as some cases of Rocky Mountain fever. Apparently with global warming not only are the planting zones changing but certain species of ticks are not being killed off by severe winters. So now you can have symptoms that mimic each other and it can be H1N1 or perhaps a tick bite or ? None of these are anything to fool around with and if you start to have symptoms that could possibly be any of the three (read up on the Internet) be sure and get tested quickly.
We've added new writers and some of the regulars have been doing lots of traveling providing fresh reports so check out Destinations.
Happy Trails,
Mary
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