Foodie Find – Page 9

Here We Go Again

By Jennie Simpson | May 4, 2017

Hey Guys! We spent almost a month at my parent’s house in the Southwest corner of Missouri visiting with family and friends!

One of our friends (waves to Gogo and family) sold Girl Scout Cookies with her troop…and well…we always like to support our friends in all of their endeavors. Especially when food is involved. So, we bought some cookies to help her out…and…cookies. Since she lives in Virginia, she graciously shipped them to my parent’s house for us. Food is our favorite kind of mail.

Did you know that Girl Scout Cookies can have a different name based on which bakery they were made in? What?!?! I know, right?! I totally did not know this! Not only are the names different, but the cookies can even be different. The S’mores cookies were totally different! I don’t have any pics to show you…we kind of ate them too fast…but if you have a chance to compare them, do. The S’mores cookies from Little Brownie Bakers were like a sandwich cookie where the ones from ABC Bakers were a dipped graham cracker cookie. Just FYI…we voted the Little Brownie sandwich cookies better.

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Since we’re on the subject of food… We had to hit some of our favorite foodie spots while we were back in our old stomping grounds. The burger above is the Poutine Burger from Eagle Drive-In. If you live in the area, go get one today. Trust us…everything from Eagle Drive-In is good!

We even found a new foodie spot! Wiestside BBQ is definitely a spot we will hit again! Just check out that burger Littlest has!

Jerl and I took a little side trip down to Houston one weekend. The plan was to stay with some good friends of ours (waves at friends) who were expecting a baby any day. On the Tuesday before we were to fly down, they thought they might have to induce early. So, Jerl and I decided to take some of the stress off and grab a hotel room. The last thing an expectant mom needs is the added stress of house guests. Well…more stuff happened and we ended up canceling our room and planned on staying with our friends again. We flew down on a Friday night.

Not a bad view for sunset… I didn’t get a window seat. I feel bad for the guy that sat next to me. I kept leaning over him to take video and pics. I did ask first and struck up a conversation with him…so that’s not too rude, right? He didn’t seem to mind…maybe he was just a nice guy. We ended up answering questions once he found out about our nomad lifestyle.

For anyone who’s had a baby, y’all know they do things on their own time. Our friend picked us up at the airport Friday night and told us they were, in fact, inducing that night! Wait, what? Long story short, they had the baby and he’s an absolute doll! We also had the help of a couple of other friends (Ben, and Brian) who we can’t thank enough. We packed up our storage unit Saturday morning with the help of Ben and Brian, then drove back to my parent’s house that afternoon. But, first…we made a pit stop at Torchy’s to stock up on some chips, queso, and salsa! We needed sustenance to get us through the long eleven hour drive ahead of us. *wink, wink*

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The weather didn’t cooperate with us during our stay in MO. We had all of these plans and projects we wanted to do while back, but we didn’t have the right weather to do it. The couple of days that were nice, the boys all took the opportunity to ride around my parent’s place on anything with wheels that went fast.

Mr. Dude turned 14 while we were there. Well, actually, he turned 14 the day after we left, but we celebrated while we were there! I baked him an Almond Joy Cake! It was pretty tasty!

We started planning the last 50 state tour loop. It’s going to be a doozy, Guys!! More on that in a different post.

I had a girl’s night with some of my besties (waves at friends). We’ve been friends for…a few (cough 30ish cough) years. Give or take a few years. I went to school from kindergarten on with one of these lovely ladies! Bonus points for anyone who knows which one!

Oh!! And, my camera crapped out. Boo. It saw me through 36 states. So, I’m learning how to operate a new camera.

I’ll leave you with this pretty from my parent’s (waves at parents) yard.

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017

Aaaannnddd…We’re Back

By Jennie Simpson | April 26, 2017

Hey Guys!! Aaaannnddd…we’re back in Houston! I can’t even begin to tell you how fast our Eastern Loop 2016 went or how good it feels to drive back onto Texas soil after having been gone for a whole year. A whole year, Guys!! This was our first full year loop and it was…well, it was kind of awesome. I’m not going to do our Year-In-Review post right now so stay tuned for that!

All of our loops start and end in Houston. That’s by design. We go back to Houston once a year to see our friends and get all of our yearly check-ups done. Even nomads have to go to the Dentist (waves and Dr, McGriff & staff), get their eyes checked (waves at everyone at Today’s Vision Sugarland), and they definitely have to get physicals done (waves at Dr. Kahn & all of the lovely Ladies). And, with two nomad cats, a good Veterinarian staff is a must (waves at SPAH)!

We spent two weeks getting our business done, visiting friends,

and hitting our favorite eateries. Y’all know we’re foodies and Houston is a foodie town. I’ve tried several other places in several other cities, but the best Indian Food is in Houston and this is my favorite place to indulge.

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We spent the whole year missing Torchy’s Tacos. They have awesome tacos, but my favorite thing to get there is the queso. It’s…well…magical.

We didn’t just hit all of our favorite foodie spots, we also went to the Houston RV Show! No, we’re not looking for a new home. We wanted to see what new features were being added and get a few ideas for some upgrades we are wanting to make to our home-on-wheels. Check out this slick feature! This is an induction cook top that has been designed in a way that allows you to easily remove it and move it to another spot like the table or outside and still use it! We want to take out our gas cook top and replace it with something like this. Our current cook top uses propane and we’ve found that in some areas propane can be…well, a pain to find.

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I got to spend the entire afternoon with one of my absolute favorite BFF (waves and Andrea). We always celebrate both of our birthdays while I’m back even though neither one of them is in February. She knows me so well…check out those truffles!

We’d just left Louisiana and all of that wonderful Cajun food right in the middle of crawfish season. We tried a place not far from where we were staying in Houston. It was ok. If we hadn’t just had the real thing, it would’ve been good.

During crawfish season all of the HEBs (Here Everything is Better) have live crawfish that you can get live or you can get them already boiled up in a spicy Cajun seasoning! We got 8 lbs of crawfish! We ended up with about 17 ounces of crawfish to use later in an Étouffée. Guys, we didn’t actually eat any of it as we shelled it. Maybe a few…for quality control purposes only. I promise! lol! We were a little surprised by how little we ended up with so we headed back and bought some crawfish in the freezer section that had already been cleaned up. And you know what? It was cheaper to buy them frozen! Oh well, lesson learned. I’ll post up my Étouffée later if y’all are interested.

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Living in an RV, weather is always on our minds. We had a few close calls with tornadoes in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. We didn’t really expect any trouble in Houston. But we spent an hour or so up at the RV park office during a tornado warning one morning. Growing up in Tornado Alley, we know the power and devastation Mother Nature can cause so we’re always prepared to jump and run.

While we always enjoy our time in Houston…

we don’t enjoy the endless supply of traffic.

See y’all down the road!!

NOLA

By Jennie Simpson | April 20, 2017

Hey Guys!! We spent one day exploring New Orleans.

We stayed about an hour north of NOLA so we got to drive across Lake Pontchartrain on the longest (continuous) bridge over water in the world to get to New Orleans. This bridge is about 23 miles long with several crossovers on it. Can you imagine getting on it by mistake and having to go the full length of the bridge before being able to turn around? Yikes!

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We went on a Sunday morning hoping to avoid some of the crowds. Too bad we didn’t know about the 5k run that was taking place. There were cars everywhere, no parking spots, and streets blocked off! We made it to a parking garage where we choked on the cost of parking. We learned later that traffic is always bad and parking is always pricey in NOLA. We’d been told that NOLA isn’t really family friendly. We were hoping by going on a Sunday morning there would be more families out and there were! We had a good time strolling around looking at all of the street performers. You can see how many kids were around in the pic above.

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We headed right to Cafe du Monde! The line was long, but moved fast. Make sure you take cash if you go to Cafe du Monde. Things run a little differently there. You order with the waiter and then they go stand in the line you see in the photo above to get your order. The waiter pays with their money before they bring you your order so you then owe your waiter for your order. We’d never seen a process quite like that before. I wonder what happens if the costumer didn’t bring enough cash? Our fluffy pillows of fried dough (otherwise known as beignets) and chickory coffee came in record time. They’re pretty good, but I think it’s mainly the novelty of eating at Cafe du Monde that brings people in masses to this cafe.

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We took some time to look through The Cabildo where we learned about life in Louisiana starting in the colonial times. Check out this blunderbuss! It’s so ornate! We also got to stroll through the room where the Louisiana Purchase transfer happened in 1803.

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This is called an Immortelle. An immortelle is a wreath made of durable material (the one above is made from wire and beads) to be placed on crypts and tombs.

Throughout the late 18th century, most of south Louisiana suffered from epidemics of yellow fever, malaria, cholera, and smallpox. We stopped by St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 to see what the famed “cities of the dead” look like. We made it to the Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 for a quick walk through. I wanted to go to the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, but you now have to have a guided tour just to get in the gates. Pretty much all of the graves are above ground in crypts.

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We went the week before Mardi Gras and everything was decorated for the party. We took a quick peek at Bourbon Street, but didn’t actually walk down it. We’d been warned it wasn’t really family friendly.

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Since pralines (pronounced Praw-leens) is the Louisiana state candy…we had to grab some. Plus, we wanted to compare them to the ones we got in Charleston. You might be surprised by how different they were. The ones from Charleston used heavy cream in theirs and there wasn’t any milk in the ones from NOLA. The ones from Charleston only came in two flavors (original and chocolate) while the ones in NOLA came in five flavors (original, peanut butter, coconut, rum, and chocolate). We all enjoyed the ones from NOLA more.

We couldn’t leave NOLA without sampling some of the dishes they’re known for. We found a place called Mother’s. We found it on one of those tv food apps. Mother’s has been on quite a few shows. I wanted to make sure and get a little of everything so I ended up with a sampler plate. I got to try the crawfish etouffee, the jambalaya, the red beans & rice, and the turnip greens. It was all really good! The thing Mother’s is really known for though are the Poboys. Jerl got the Famous Ferdi Special which has ham, roast beef, debris, and gravy on it. Debris? What the heck is debris? It’s magic. Mother’s cooks their roast for hours and all of the juice and shavings that fall off the roast is then ladled onto the top of a poboy. It’s basically a NOLA version of a french dip. Like I said…magic.

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So! We survived NOLA! We got to see most of what we wanted to see and got out of their before it got dark.

See y’all down the road!!

Louisiana

By Jennie Simpson | April 12, 2017

Hey Guys!

We spent one week in Louisiana!

Maybe I should say…we spent one week in Louisiana…eating. ;-P I knew it was bad when we found this place called Ronnie’s only five minutes away from where we stayed. We went there for dinner our very first day in LA and it did not disappoint!

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I know, I know…it doesn’t look like much, but let me tell you….woo-WEE…it is amazing! What you’re looking at are boudin balls. They’re made of rice and smoked pork then deep fried. The ones we got were stuffed with pepper jack cheese. If you’re ever in Louisiana make sure to get yourself some and make sure you pronounce it like a local… boodan. Ours was served with a spicy remoulade sauce that just really pushed it all over the top! We went back to Ronnie’s just for these. Y’all, I think we gained twenty pounds here, but you know what…I’d totally do it again!

We did actually get out and see some of the state. We didn’t just eat. I promise. We made it to the SCB in Baton Rouge. Check out that front door! We were completely surprised by the Louisiana State Capitol Building.

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This is the front hall of the SCB. We haven’t seen too many great halls like this. Out of 35 states…maybe three (including LA). I mean…look at the ceiling. Look at our ornate and detailed it is! We spent several minutes with our heads craned back trying to take it all in.

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One of the things I always look for at a SCB is the State Seal. In LA they’ve got a huge one right in the middle of the great hall! This is the Senate Chamber. Check out those columns. We really walked around totally stunned at the opulence of the LA SCB.

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Now, there’s not a dome at the SCB, but there’s a fantastic view on the 27th floor! And…you can actually go outside on the walk! That was a first for us. Usually, if there’s some kind of walk up that high it’s locked. It’s usually off limits. You can look out the windows, but you can’t get outside. It was so nice being able to go outside and checkout that view!

We also stopped by the old SCB. It looks like a castle! It was very cool!

When you walk into the old SCB you immediately see this amazing staircase! And Guys…look at the dome!!! I took sooo many pictures of this dome! But, look at it! Gorgeous!! The old SCB has been turned into a small museum. We didn’t really look through it all due to time.

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The stained glass wasn’t just on the dome. There were several of these wonderful windows too! Check out this mirror! I had the boys stand next to it so you could really see how huge it is!

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Here’s another view of that ah-mazing dome…and one more shot of the outside. Because, castles are cool.

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Zapps chips are offered in tons of states, but they’re a huge thing in LA so we grabbed a couple of bags. We weren’t too impressed with the VooDoo flavor. It was both very sweet and very sour all at the same time. I’ve struggled this entire EasternLoop2016 to find decent root beer. Y’all…it’s been so hard! And then we get to LA and there’s four different Barq’s!!! What?!?! I had to get some of each.

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Guys, we had a great week in Louisiana!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Sweet Home Alabama

By Jennie Simpson | February 22, 2017

Hey Guys!!

We made it to Alabama!

On our way to Montgomery, we stopped by a friend’s house and spent the weekend catching up with them! We met this family in June 2016 during our time in New York and our kids became fast friends. After a week of chit chatting and getting to know them, we jumped at the chance to stop by their home and see them again. They really made us feel at home.

We all went to see the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park where we got to poke around all twelve decks that are open to the public!

There are all kinds of nooks and crannies to explore on this huge battleship.

What you can’t see in the picture above are the two big boys up on the gun turret too. All of the boys loved getting to really check out the big guns.

Once we climbed around outside, we headed inside. Check out the lockers. One was open so we could see what it might have looked like when the ship was being used.

I love the old pics and other personal items they have on the door of the locker.

I had to share this picture of a food tray in the infirmary. Check out the Nestle’s wrapper! It looks so different that what we see now.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many valve wheels to turn in one place! I’m not gonna lie…I might have tried to turn more than a few. Maybe. *wink, wink*

What did I tell you? Valve wheels everywhere!! And buttons. Lots of buttons. I may or may not have pushed a few of those too. Shhhh…..

Besides the battleship, the park also had several aircraft. The coolest one (in my opinion) was the A-12 Blackbird spy plane. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a decent picture of it. Sorry. You’ll just have to take my word for it…it was very cool.

If the battleship and the aircraft weren’t enough, there was even a submarine we could explore! This was our first sub exploration and it was awesome!

The USS Drum is the oldest submarine on public display.

It was set up to look like it might have during it’s time in service. I love seeing all of the old items.

And added to the wheels and the buttons…levers. Tons of them! We kind of felt like kids on a playground.

I got a workout just going through all of the doors. They don’t look that bad, but when you’ve got short stubby legs and a big camera around your neck…well, I’m not the most graceful.

We had dinner that night at Ed’s Seafood Shed. Gotta have seafood when you’re in the Gulf Shores area, right? The food was fantastic, the view was ah-mazing, and the company wonderful! We had the best time visiting with our friends and we can’t wait for our next adventure together!

See y’all down the road!

Lake Louisa State Park

By Jennie Simpson | February 8, 2017

Hey Guys!! We stayed at the Lake Louisa State Park in the Orlando area for one week.

Guys…this park…

There are three lakes that make up this park. There’s a beach on one of them with a swimming area. I’m not sure I would swim there…there are gator signs around, but there’s also a great playground and picnic area.

There are docks that you can fish off of. We walked to this one often. There are stairs that lead down into the water, but again…gators.

There are some very nice sized sites at Lake Louisa State Park. We had to site hop throughout the week because the place was booked and we stayed here spur-of-the-moment. This park books up a year in advance. If you’re going to go to Disney or Universal…this is a great place to stay. At only around $30 a night it’s quite a bit cheaper than staying in a hotel.

There are tons of tangerine trees around the park. We went on a walk and passed a couple of guys who had bags full of tangerines so we thought we’d be cool and grab some tangerines for ourselves…they were the so sour…we spit them out. I couldn’t keep it in my mouth! Bleh!!! I don’t know what those two guys were doing with all of the ones they picked. Maybe they knew which ones to pick and we got ones that weren’t ready?

One of the coolest things about this park is that you can rent canoes. We took the opportunity to teach the boys how to paddle a canoe. I kept an eye out for any weird looking logs…aka…gators. I didn’t see any, but we avoided the areas we thought they would most likely be during that time.

I did take my camera out on the canoe to get a shot of the cypress trees in the water.

We found an awesome pizza place right down the road. Littlest told you all about it in his last Pizza Street post. If you missed it go check it out here.

We didn’t really do much the week we were there. Hung around the lake, had pizza, and stopped by an RV Dealer to check out what was new. We’re not in the market for a new RV, we just like to keep up on all the changes.

Seriously Guys…if you’re in the Orlando area for any reason check out Lake Louisa State Park. We will definitely stay there again!

See y’all down the road!

The Keys For New Year’s Eve

By Jennie Simpson | January 24, 2017

We were sooo close to The Keys that we really didn’t want to miss checking them out, but we couldn’t stay long. We do have a schedule and in order to keep all of our doctoring appointments we could only spend two nights in The Keys. And…those nights happened to fall on New Year’s Eve.

I knew we were in trouble when the water turned this amazing color of blue as we drove along the Over The Seas Highway. I knew right then that we were all going to love the area and that we weren’t going to want to leave so soon.

For anyone curious…it really is just a bridge connecting a bunch of little islands or “keys”.

For our first day there we were supposed to get there, set up, and then spend the entire afternoon in Key West. It went really well until we hit the traffic. It ended up taking us about four hours to go maybe 60 miles. It was a little insane. We did make it to Key West, but so did roughly a million other people (I may be exaggerating that number by a couple). We stood in line for 45 min to take our pic with the Southernmost Point buoy.

We tried to go to a fort, but it closed at 5pm and we were late so we headed over to the place I’d found for Key Lime Pie…but there wasn’t a free space to park…anywhere…within several miles. So, we left. We were tired and it was getting dark and I’d been warned beforehand that Key West after dark wasn’t exactly family friendly. On the way to the Key Lime Pie place we passed by the end of Highway One! We’ve been on this highway on and off all year so it was kind of neat to see mile 0!

The next day we had reservations for a snorkeling excursion! We woke up to a very cold, but pretty morning.

The water was so cloudy from the choppy water that we couldn’t see a thing. And…the water was pretty cool. Not cold, but cool enough that no one (there were 15 people on our boat) stayed in the water long. We were kind of bummed about that, but it’s hard to be in a bad mood when you’re surrounded by the beauty of The Keys.

The Captain of our boat felt really bad about the conditions, but there wasn’t anything he could do about the weather. He ended up taking us on a little sightseeing tour to make up for the snorkeling! You can see Seven Mile Bridge in the picture above.

We got to see a pod of dolphins playing around! I didn’t get the best pics of them…they didn’t jump out of the water or anything, but they would surface and play. You can see two of them near the bottom center of the picture above.

By this time in the tour it was starting to warm up to a balmy 70 and we’d all stopped shivering.

Our snorkeling/boat tour was a great way to spend our only full day in The Keys. We were done by noon and were able to relax the rest of the day.

I did get a little video of the boat ride. What do y’all think? Do you like the videos or not? It’s all done right on my phone…I’m not a professional at all…

Our Captain took us by this place. It’s a dockside restaurant called Burdines. We ended up going there for lunch!

Everything was fresh and we had some of the best burgers we’d had in a long time!

We were able to get some Key Lime Pie…

two different ways. Regular and fried! It was soooo good! We experienced the laid back Keys vibe at Burdines while we were waiting for our food. It’s not the fastest place, but it does warn you right at the top of the menu. Everything is made fresh…it’s not fast food. You didn’t go to McD’s. Everything we had was top notch and our server was genuinely nice.

After we got our fill of food, we moseyed over to Bahia Honda State Park and stopped by this bridge view on the way there. This is the same Seven Mile Bridge you saw in a pic earlier. You can see it better here.

We’d heard that there’s camping at Bahia Honda State Park that’s suitable for RVs and we wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, only registered campers could get to the campground. But…we did get to stroll around the beach and do a short hike to the view above!

We hung out at the SP long enough to see the beginning of a spectacular sunset.

It was so pretty; I’m going to give you another shot of it.

We got back to our RV park just as the sun was sinking. We headed back to our little home on wheels and had a very nice, very quiet New Year’s Eve celebration. Our tradition is to have a Back To The Future marathon and some sparkling cider at midnight.

There were pretties everywhere, but I somehow only got a shot of these. They were at the park we stayed at.

We hated to leave The Keys. The small amount of time just made us hungry for more of the island life and we were already making plans for round two before we even pulled out of the RV Park.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

South Miami, FL

By Jennie Simpson | January 18, 2017

We spent two weeks in the South Miami Florida area. This post is going to be a big one, guys!

Our very first night in the area we decided we should try some Cuban food. Y’all know we love to try the local flavors. We found a spot called La Carreta. I kind of wish we hadn’t. Cuban food is kind of…awesome. We spent the whole two weeks there wanting more Cuban food.

Our main focus in the area was the Everglades National Park. It took us three very full days to see what we wanted and we still didn’t see it all.

We started our Everglade exploration in Shark Valley where the main thing to do is take a tram tour. I was skeptical. The tram tour is extra. But it was the only way to really see this part of the park unless you want to walk the 15 mile loop…with all of the gators…and the heat. Um, no thanks. Can you spot the gator in the photo above?

The tram tour is guided by one of the National Park Rangers. Our Ranger braved the muck and the gators to teach us about the sawgrass prairie. She went out there bare foot. With the gators.

She brought handfuls of the soil and the periphyton (the stuff that floats on the top) for everyone to feel. Littlest wasn’t impressed with the texture and slime of it. Ha!

We saw tons of birds.

Please don’t ask me to name all of the birds we saw…

our ranger named them all…but, I’ve slept since then.

And we saw plenty of gators!

These guys were laying right by the road where the people who didn’t want to do the tram tour were walking. Right. By. The. Road!

We took an airboat ride. This place is one of only four companies allowed to go right into Everglades National Park!

I could put up tons of the pics I took while on the ride, but sometimes a video does the job better. So here’s a little peek into our airboat ride through the Everglades National Park.

The airboat place had a restaurant that served gator and frog legs. We had to try them. I’ll be honest, I wimped out trying the frog legs. I just couldn’t get pass the frog part. But the gator was excellent!

We spent an entire day making our way to the Flamingo Bay part of the Everglades NP. We stopped and did some of the hikes on the way down and some on the way back. If you go…take bug spray. They were really bad during one of our first hikes. We forgot to spray down for that first hike, but you better believe we didn’t forget on the second hike!

We saw several trees we hadn’t seen during our travels yet. The red barked tree is a gumbo limbo tree. We also saw tons of mahogany trees.

We made it all the way down to Flamingo Bay right about lunch time. We stopped by the marina there just to check it out and was rewarded with our first salt water crocodile! And he was a big one!

We also got our first look at a manatee! They kind of look like a huge floating potato.

I took this shot quickly as we were leaving the marina area. I didn’t notice the crocodile in the bottom right corner until I was looking at the shot on my computer.

We’d heard there was a campground down at Flamingo Bay so we went to check it out and scout for future trips. We found this great place for a picnic. It was pretty deserted there.

We stopped by the Royal Palm area for the last hike we wanted to do. We got there and noticed tons of these guys. Then we noticed there were tarps on most of the cars there.

Apparently, the vultures are destructive.

The NPS provided tarps and bungee cords for everyone to use while in the area.

We also made it to Biscayne NP. This NP is mostly underwater. We did get to walk the one small trail at the Visitor Center.

We had to be quick since the little spit of land the trail takes you out on was disappearing as the tide came in.

We were treated to a storm cloud and a rainbow while we were making our way off the little spit of land.

We were in the Miami area for Christmas. Our Christmas tradition is tamales. We searched high and low for Mexican tamales and came up with a big fat nothing. Nadda. But we did find this place. El Palacio De Los Jugos. This Cuban market is awesome!!

Our Spanish revolves around food items, but that didn’t help us here

because we weren’t familiar with everything here and there weren’t any labels. I’m pretty sure we were the only ones there who didn’t fluently speak Spanish. We got some of this and some of that. All by pointing and gesturing. We were pretty confident that we were in the right place because the line went out the door. Everything we got was absolutely excellent. We ended up with some Cuban tamales with some fixings for our Christmas dinner.

While we were looking for Mexican tamales, we asked around at the RV park we were staying in. One of the ladies in the office offered to try and find some for us and when she couldn’t she offered to bring us some that her mom was making. I should mention here she’s from Mexico. We were thrilled with the offer, but unsure if she would follow through. The day after Christmas she delivered with about a dozen homemade tamales. Guys, they were the best tamales we’ve ever had! I meant to snap a pic of them but they were devoured before I could think to stop and take a picture of them. So, you’ll just have to take our word for it. They were wonderful!

Since we’re talking about Christmas, I’ll mention here what we did on Christmas. We started our Christmas morning at Miami Beach.

We weren’t really impressed with Miami Beach. There were tons of jellyfish and more trash than I like on a beach.

We got there early and pretty much had the beach to ourselves for awhile. Right about the time we were ready to go, the crowds started to come out.

We stopped by a fruit stand called “Robert Is Here” one afternoon.

It’s an avocado. I sat a lemon and a key lime next to it so you could see the size difference. We bought one. We haven’t eaten it yet, so I can’t tell you if it’s good or not. But it is huge!

We got suckered into buying some of this fruit. I’m not sure where this guy is getting his cotton candy, but he needs to find a new place. This fruit was nothing like cotton candy. It was kind of a slimy gel texture that made me want to go brush my teeth. Mr. Man and Littlest both liked it.

We also bought one of these. It’s not ready yet, so I can’t tell you if we got suckered again. I’ll let you know.

We did find some really good Mexican food.

A good friend of mine met us at El Torro Taco! I got the plate above. It did not disappoint! So. Good! It was so fun spending time with another of my HP friends! *waves to friend and her fam* Her kiddos and my kiddos are all about the same age and into the same nerdy stuff. They all hit it off. My boys have already asked when we will see them again. It’s been fun this year meeting up with so many of my HP friends!

There are flower stands all over the place. People also sell them on the street corners.

Are you ready for some pretties? The pic above isn’t the best, but I wanted to share it anyway. The purple flowers and the bright orange/red seed pod are the same plant! Whhhaaattt…. mind…blown…

I took so many

pictures of pretties here.

I could have done a post

on just the pretties.

We love this area. We’re already trying to figure out how soon we’ll be able to come back…and spend more time.

See y’all down the road!!

#easternloop2016

Charleston, SC

By Jennie Simpson | December 1, 2016

Hey Guys!! We spent two weeks in the Charleston, SC area!

One of our favorite things to do is go check out a beach in the area! We happened to make it to the Kiawah Beachwalker Park on the last warm day during our stay. It was a fantastic day with temps in the low 80s! We collect a little sand and some shells from each beach we visit.

We found our first sea star out in the wild although, I think it might have been…a little…dead. I’m hoping when the tide came back in it perked up and made a recovery.

I found one of the best shells I’ve found on a beach so far! Too bad is was already spoken for. We put this little guy back into the sand.

We stayed until the park started closing and it got a little too cool for our taste.

We visited Fort Moultrie. You might not recognize the name…Fort Moultrie is right across from its more famous counterpart, Fort Sumter. One of the coolest things we get to do is visit old Forts. We don’t always get a chance to see them all, but we try to hit at least one when they’re available. Some Forts are open for visitors to roam around on their own while others require you to sign up for a guided tour. We like them both…we like to take our time and look, but we also enjoy the knowledge the tour guides impart. Fort Moultrie is a free roaming Fort. There were tons of nooks and crannies we ventured into.

This is as close as we got to Fort Sumter. While it is a part of the National Park System, a private ferry ticket is required to reach it. We can’t always do everything in a city we want to. Since we’re not technically on vacation, we have to pick and choose keeping in mind the cities to come and what those offer, as well.

The biggest reason we didn’t spring for Fort Sumter is because I wanted to visit Boone Hall Plantation.

Boone Hall Plantation is one of America’s oldest working plantations. You’re looking at the Avenue of Oaks. I love the look of the giant oak trees with the Spanish moss! The trees were planted back in 1743 by Captain Thomas Boone. It took more than 200 years for the two rows of trees to meet overhead in the middle. You might recognize this Avenue of Oaks form the mini-series North & South or maybe from the movie The Notebook. Boone Hall Plantation has been in quite a few movies, shows, and print articles.

Boone Hall has quite the history and is part of the Underground Railroad. Our favorite experience at Boone Hall was the Gullah Culture presentation.

This surprised us. To be honest, we didn’t know what Gullah is.

This isn’t our video. I didn’t take one. I could just kick myself for not taking a video. But, this is the same woman we saw and she was really good. If you get to visit Boone Hall Plantation, don’t miss the Gullah Geechee presentation. Plan your day around it.

I’m going to add one more video. This one isn’t at Boone Hall Plantation, but this is a story she told us. Her name is Jackie Michael and she’s a retired schoolteacher turned Gullah Geechee story teller.

The sweetgrass baskets everyone loves comes from the Gullah culture. You can find them all over Charleston. We got to see them being made at a few different places. The picture above was taken at Boone Hall Plantation, but we also saw them at the Charleston City Market and there were some roadside stands as well.

This is the Charleston City Market and if you’re ever in the area you should definitely at least walk through it.

You’ll find some of the best souvenirs here. And food. They sell food. Souvenirs, sweets and BBQ…what more do you need?

There’s a lot of history in Charleston. There are several different tours you can go on. If history is your thing, I would definitely suggest a tour. This is the Old Slave Mart. I’m sure you can guess what happened here.

This is called Rainbow Row. You’ll see this on sooo many Charleston souvenirs. It does depict the quintessential Charleston. I love that the buildings are pretty pastel colors!

Another Charleston must see is the Pineapple Fountain. There were tons of people at this park…all taking photos. The park is gorgeous and right by the waterfront. We saw just as many locals enjoying the park as we did tourists.

Welcome to the land of cotton. We saw so many huge fields of cotton while we were in this area! It was pretty neat to see. The one in the photo above was one of the smaller fields.

Lets talk food. Guys, plan to splurge here. The food is ah-maze-ing. Amazing! This was one of my splurges…it’s a pimento cheese, fried green tomato, bacon, and fried egg sandwich on Texas toast. And please notice the pickled okra next to it. Have you ever seen anything more southern on a plate? It was fantastic!

The other foodie find was a place called Charleston Burger Co. It’s definitely splurge worthy, but they do offer gluten free buns for anyone interested. The Dude got The Killer Beehive burger…and yes, he ate it all!

Angel Oak is a live oak tree that is estimated to be anywhere between 400 and 600 years old. The state of South Carolina has it fenced off and has set hours to visit to try and keep vandals away from it.

The sheer size of this tree was unbelievable!

The last touristy thing we did was go to the Charleston Tea Plantation where we learned all about what goes into making the tea we drink. It was pretty cool and…it was free. Seriously. The tour and all the samples you want…free. It’s definitely worth a stop.

Are you ready for some pretties?

There were tons of pretties in the Charleston area!

Nope, I don’t know any of their names.

I could do an entire post just on the pretties of Charelston. I was in flower heaven!

We also saw more butterflies and honey bees than we have in a long time!

So, there you have it! Our two week stay in Charleston! We didn’t see even half of what there was to see!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Oh Carolina…

By Jennie Simpson | November 16, 2016

Hey Guys!! We spent a week in the Raleigh, NC area.

We didn’t do much.

We made it to the State Capitol Building.

Most of the North Carolina State Capitol Building is a museum. They’ve arranged rooms to resemble what they were in years past. The room above is the geology room. We love it when there’s a museum in the SCBs! We learn so much about the state through these museums.

Y’all know we love foodie spots. Let me introduce you to Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar. You can get burgers, sushi, and burger/sushi fusions!

There were so many options…you could eat there everyday for months and not get the same thing twice. We absolutely loved Cowfish!! The owner came out and talked with us while we were there and guys…he was so nice. Seriously. If there’s a Cowfish near you, go check it out!

We also spent a week in Columbia, SC.

We didn’t take a tour at the South Carolina State Capitol Building, but we did get to roam around. I thought the dome was pretty.

Most of the SCBs we’ve visited have a redish/pink color scheme in at least a few of the rooms, but both of the Carolina’s SBCs were more earthy tones with blue highlights. It was a nice change.

We made it to Congaree National Park. I’d been looking forward to this park since I’d done the initial planning for our whole nomadic fifty state tour. It stuck in my head because there was a caution that this park inhabits six venomous snakes and alligators. Six. Six venomous snakes all in one park. And then they add alligators on top of that!

No, I don’t like snakes. Not even a little, but I felt like we were be safe enough with the boardwalk trail. We got there the week after Hurricane Mathew mucked up our plans and sent us fleeing to Asheville. So…we were already irritated with Mathew. When we got to Congraee we learned Mathew wasn’t done messing with us. Nope. He’d blown through the park and messed up pretty much all of the trails. We got to walk a teeny tiny bit of the boardwalk trail. We were so bummed. I’d been looking forward to it for soooo long and then bam! A hurricane.

But it wasn’t a total loss. We found an all you can eat buffet at Little Pigs Barbecue. All. You. Can. Eat…BBQ!!! What?!?!

I counted four different kinds of pulled pork! There was also all the fixin’s! All of them. Oh, and by-the-way…in the Carolinas anytime you hear BBQ they mean pork. Always. It was soooo stinkin’ good! Little Pigs is a no frills kind of place, but that’s ok because it helps keep the cost down. When was the last time you’ve eaten at an all you can eat buffet for $10? That includes a drink. Yum-oh!

We have officially fallen in love with the Carolinas!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016