Memories from Wood Brook Lane

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Family trip to Destin

Summer Vacation: Part II

Since summer is now officially over, I want to share a tidbit of our vacations. In April, we only knew for sure that we would be going on a solo vacation to San Francisco & Napa. Then, Michael's company announced they would be taking all employees and spouses to Cabo San Lucas. About that time, Michael's family vacation panned out. We had travel overload and were gone 15 days out of August. 15 days away from home is bad on the wallet and the waist line. However, being travel obsessed, we never say no to any trip that comes our way.

Where We Stayed

Trinidad and Tobago house on Port of Call Blvd, Destin, FL.

Who Went

Barbara and Michael's brothers

Barbara's siblings, Cathy, Vicki, and David

David's wife, Jan and kids, Laura and husband Michael, Anna, Becca, Alyssa, and Jonathan

Vicki brought along Dwight

Cathy's son, Chris and wife Rebecca and two adorable girls, Savannah and Allison

Grandma Yantz

Where We Ate

Pompano Joes- a typical beach side fried seafood restaurant. Live music every night and amazing coconut shrimp. Drinks were expensive (of course). So we opted for our Barefoot wine at home.

Crab Trap- a restuarant on the beach as well but down the strip in a less condensed area. If you go at 7:00 you can catch a beautful view of the water and sunset. If you get lucky, you might get a table closest to the water. Try the crab legs.

What We Did
Walked the dogs on the boardwalk (me and Max)
Made sandcastles
Sun bathed
Swam and played with the beachball
Cooked homemade meals for dinner
Played dominoes, poker and LOTS of Taboo
Yantz girls won every time
Watched movies when it rained
Went fishing (Andrew, Michael and Alyssa)
Drank lots of wine coolers :)
Fellowshiped and gossiped
SLEPT IN
Had a BLAST

Summer Okra Recipe

Roasted Okra

We sadly ripped up our tomatoes and zucchini after a long summer and an okay yield. So where the tomatoes were, we platned okra, not really knowing what would happen. Well apparently okra grows to 15 feet tall. Lawd have mercy. And the harvesting has begun...

The "baby" okra plant in the back.

Ingredients

18 fresh okra pods, sliced 1/3 inch thick

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste

2 teaspoons black pepper, or to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 F

2. Slice okra into 1/2 inch pieces

3. Arrange on baking sheet.

4. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle salt and pepper.

5. Bake in preheated oven 10-15 minutes.

Amount Per Serving Calories: 65 | Total Fat: 4.6g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/roasted-okra/

Y'all enjoy!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Champagne Brunch

Sooo I have been missing Uptown lately and the weekend brunches.

Brunch isn't food, it's a way of life.

Got the citrus theme from Better Home and Gardens, July, 2012 issue.

So we threw a champagne brunch for two couples that we adore. Being dumb, I forgot to take pictures of actual live people, but got the decorations.

I left my heart in San Francisco

Since I have a hundred bizzilion photos, I'll try to limit them to one or two per day. We spent 4 days in San Francisco and 2 in Napa. I wish I was still in Napa pretending to know about wine and eating the best Greek food we've ever had.

Day 1: Exploring the peer and eating dinner in Chinatown.

The stinky seals. They acted like bad behaved school children, knocking each other off the boards, then laughing.

Taken on Pier 39

Day 2: Alcatraz

I loved visiting and learning the history. I bought a book on Al Capone and have since become obsessed.

He lost his mind while he was in Alcatraz and died 2 years after he got out.

You should become obsessed too.

Loved Chinatown. The food: incredible.

We had fried dungeness crab at R&G lounge. (Thanks Spencer!)

Day 3: 20 mile bike ride to Tiburon.

I was scared to ride across the bridge until I saw that bikes had a separate lane.

In SF, pedestrians and bikers RULE the road, unlike in Texas.

My only visit with the cable cars :(

Each car was packed like a Japanese wave pool

(see link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inA-36YRV0Y ).

So we opted out, even though I have an on going love affair with trolleys.

Days 4-6, Napa.

We stopped at Domaine Carneros on the way to Napa.

The BEST sparkling wine. Try the blanc nior.

We splurged on a convertable... The hair did not approve.

My favorite winery was Robert Mondavi. Took the wine tasting class and are now officially snobs.

(So we can pretend).

At the hotel vineyard. All of Napa smells like sweet grapes.

We LOVED the trip and had a wonderful tour guide (Spencer) in SF. It was a needed break from the beach!

Triathlon

So... It's been a while. But we have been too busy to even stop and think about blogging. I have been busy finishing up things with the school and Michael has been busy training for his triathlon and busy with work. So here's a snapshot of happenings in College Station (and Dallas)...(and San Francisco).

First things first. Yay for summer! For years, I have been conditioned to be out of school and off work during the summer, so of course it is my favorite season.

You know it's summer when you have too much produce sitting out all over the counters.

Our first cookout of the summer. Michael grills some mean zucchinis :)

For a contest at work, Michael entered and ran a triathlon.

He was exhausted by the end but swears he didn't walk!

He beat his time by 10 seconds! Official time was 2:59:50.

Just for fun, some quotes I heard while waiting for Michael to finish:

"I haven't been working out so I decided to do a traithlon".

"I'm just doing this triathlon to train for my Iron Man next weekend".

Crazy fools!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Happy Easter~!

We have had a busy spring so far with Michael's appendectomy and getting our new kitten. It's not getting any calmer since we are hosting Easter at our house this year. I've combined my decorations from college with a few new items (from Goodwill no less!) to decorate for spring this year. See if you can figure out what is from Goodwill.