California Dreamin'

After one quick conversation, we have finally decided on a summer vacation- California! JR has been to San Diego and LA for soccer tournaments, and I have never been. We both agreed that CA would be the perfect place to explore!

Tentative plans:

We are planning to fly into San Diego and spend a few nights. JR has a list of places he wants to take me, including the Gaslamp District and La Jolla. I know San Diego is known for their zoo, but we are skipping (You know how I feel about most animals..especially caged ones).

From there, we are driving to LA. Of course we need a pic with the HOLLYWOOD sign and need to stroll down the Walk of Fame. Window shopping on Rodeo Dr would be nice too (notice I wrote window shopping, not real shopping-- your welcome JR). We also plan to check out the beaches and who knows what else we will find.

Finally, we will drive to San Francisco. We are really excited to explore this city! My friend Amy lives in San Fran, so we will hopefully meet up with her! Agenda items include the Golden Gate Bridge, a Giants baseball game, and maybe Alcatraz.

If anyone has any suggestions, let us know! We are super pumped and can't wait to finalize details and book our flights and hotels!

President's Day Weekend

After a long week in Marietta (my grandmother passed away and funeral), my mom and sister (Roselle and Jodi) came to visit us this weekend! It was the first time JK did not make the trip with the rest of the family. Because of the bad weather forecast for the weekend, we decided to head to the beach on Saturday. Lunch at Coconut's and a couple of drinks made for a nice afternoon.

Saturday evening we met my cousin Billy who was in town with his family (wife, Laura and daughters Erika and Diana) from New York. We ate dinner at Disney's City Walk at Paradiso 37, a multi-cultural affair with a Latin American theme. Their strawberry margaritas were awesome!!!

Group picture at Paradiso 37

Sunday took us to Winter Park and lunch at a new eatery that just opened, Prato - an upscale, open-air, Italian gastro pub. Lunch was delicious, and provided an idea for a possible family business (more to come later). Some shopping took place after lunch with everyone getting something to take home. Everyone's favorite purchase was the Peterbilt chocolate covered popcorn. It didn't last 24 hours.

Mom & Jodi at Prato

It was good to have the family in town. We always have an extra room, come visit!

A Chilly Weekend Trip

Our beach weekend did not turn out as planned. Let's say Mother Nature had different plans for us. We did not get to lay on the beach and enjoy the sunshine. Instead, a chilly Artic blast found its way to Florida and left us out in the cold!

We spent a good part of Saturday walking around the town of St. Petersburg, browsing in local shops and enjoying lunch at Lucky Dill Deli. Lunch was wonderful--especially JR's tuna melt--seriously the best either of us have ever had. Who knew adding red onion and celery would make such a difference!

JR had to work in the afternoon, so I went back to the hotel to work as well (lesson plans, grading). When JR returned, we went back out to dinner at The Moon Under Water, a British rugby joint. Again, the food was great (JR had Shepard's Pie and I had Shrimp Mac and Cheese).

While enjoying dinner, 4 high school kids came to eat before a dance. Our conversation quickly turned to our own experiences at dances, and had a great time laughing at each other. One of the young ladies had the most hideous dress I have ever seen- think bright pink Sleeping Beauty type with see through sparkle sleeves. It brought me back to Easter 1992. My Mom purchased me the prettiest Easter dress at Lazarus. White with neon flowers all over it. There was a cut out at the top of the back with criss cross fabric over the cut out. Linda thought it was too provacative and sewed a piece of fabric to cover my back. 9 year old me was SO embarrased, and I think that's how Sleeping Beauty must have felt...her mom had to sew those sleeves on. haha


We ended the night watching UK play Vandy at MacDinton's Irish pub. After an amazing game, we decided to call it a night! GO CATS!

The weather turned even colder on Sunday (high of 58 with extreme wind), so we left as soon as JR finished work. Of course we stopped at the outlets on the way home and JR ended up with a new shirt!

Happy Birthday...

To Me!! Yesterday was my 29th birthday. Mary and I celebrated it at a local joint called Citrus. We've lived in Orlando for 3.5 years and we always end up at the same places (we know what we like). Based on a recommendation from some co-workers, I decided to give this place a chance and thoroughly enjoyed it. Instead of going for two big meals and not enjoying the ice cream cake later, we went for the appetizers - crab cakes, fried calimari and fish tacos. A little heavy on the seafood, but all of it was delicious.

This weekend we're headed to St. Petersburg. I have to work as part of the St. Petersburg rock and roll half marathon and we are making a weekend out of it. More to come soon.

Off to Work Again...

As part of my job, I get to travel to different places throughout the southeast setting up vehicle displays for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiat. I cover a 6 state region and work with different events on sponsorships and exhibit space to collect leads for Chrysler dealers. This week took me to Raleigh, NC and the North Carolina State Fairgrounds as part of the Southern Farm Show. The Show was nothing like I have ever seen before. There was equipment I didn't even know existed, including this little guy you see me standing on top of.

I learned that this machine is used to create feed for livestock by harvesting corn and basically shredding it up, stalk and all. They told me this is the small one they were selling (if your in the market, the price tag was approxmiately $400,000). 

We're Back!

A few weeks ago, JR and I were looking at our European vacation blog. It is incredible to have such wonderful memories kept online for us (and others) to look back on. We decided to extend our blogging adventure and create another blog for us to record our favorite places and memories. Also, we want to  share our lives with our friends and family that live so far from us!

Saturday (January 28, 2012): JR and I traveled to Fort Christmas, FL to help package meals for homeless children in Central Florida. Recently, 60 Minutes reported on the growing number of homeless children in our area. In response to this story, the Kiwanis Club of East Orange County organized an event to help. As the teacher sponsor of Legacy Middle School's Builder's Club (a mini Kiwanis club), several students joined JR and me to help. Around 4,000 meals were packaged over the span of about 2 hours. The weather was AMAZING (low 70s, not a cloud in the sky), and we had a great time.