back to school and Hatch

Its back to school week in Houston.  Students and teachers of all ages head back to the classrooms today and all week.  Kevin is ready for his classes.  He has one more day til they start since he'll be teaching Tuesday/Thursday.

Good luck to all the students and teachers (and parents)!  I know I'll see lots of 'first day' pictures on my social media feeds.  Especially for those whose kids its the VERY first day, it'll be an emotional day.

I hope that fall weather isn't far behind.  We made homemade chili yesterday to go along with the football game and it really got me ready for fall.  Its my favorite season and one that is too short here -- ready for sweaters, drinks to warm me up.......if we could just get rid of summer.

We've been trying a new ingredient - Hatch chilies - and love them!   So far we've used them in burgers, yesterday's chili, and plan to use them in a soup later in the week.  I see now why people rave about them, and hope their season lasts long enough for us to make a few more dishes with them.   Maybe next year we'll roast and freeze them...

Football is back

For 2 more weeks it is still preseason, but its back and we are excited!

I was able to attend the first preseason game in Reliant Stadium last night with Kevin and had a great time!  (He and his family have had season tickets since before I MET him.  I don't have my own ticket but get to go to several games when someone else in the group doesn't want/can't use their ticket -- its the perfect arrangement!  I get to go often enough and have some time to myself on game days that he goes and I don't, I get some stuff done at home and cheer them on from home.)

During the off-season they installed even BIGGER tv screens in each endzone and I'd seen video online showing them in action, but the videos don't do them justice.  I knew they'd be enormous, but you really can't tell how big until you see them in person.   I found myself having to remember to look at the FIELD instead of the screen it was so tempting to just look at the screen.     As K was afraid of, much of the time 2/3 of the screen are covered in ads -- they took away the static ad space, but there are times when the whole screen is used and its impressive.   I love the new Texans 'transformer' sequence and our nephew will really love that one!   They did a lot of crowd shots and we love watching their faces change when they realize they are on the big screen.   On the way home, K and my father in law did say there were things they didn't like about it - some of the informational items were hard to find or sometimes moved (game clock for example).   I must admit I didn't notice, and just loved it.  

I didn't like the NFL's new bag policy.    You can't bring a purse in anymore, only a very small clutch (4.5" x 6.5" - mine are not that small!)  or stuff in a clear plastic bag - either one you can buy or a ziploc.    My mother-in-law had gotten a bag from the NFL and she let us all toss our few items in it - it'll become our 'community purse'.  My approach will be the less I bring the better, but even then there are items I need -keys, money, phone and I'd carry K's glasses case.   I realized after I got there I should have brought chapstick, and I'm used to having gum, Advil, the list goes on and on 'just in case'.  I'll get used to it, but its starting to feel like air travel -- you have to have a special bag packed for their specifications.   and I'll admit it, I felt a little bit naked without my purse.... I do feel badly for anyone who brings a baby/toddler to the game - all the diaper bag stuff in a ziploc is not going to be fun.     I'm not really sure what it saves, we had our bags searched before so its not really making us safer...   I will say that they publicized it well, and we were surprised to see a few people outside the stadium with huge purses.  I'm sure they were turned away at the gate....they'll learn it soon....Know before you go - the bag policy is NFL-wide.  Here is some info on it.

The game was great, and I loved getting to see former UH quarterback Case Keenum in action for the Texans.

Vacation food

I like splitting up the vacation recap into several posts; it lets me relive my trip a little longer.  This one is all about the food :)

We enjoyed the restaurants at the resort – they had quite a variety to choose from - and also were able to find some places to eat across the street – I love being able to walk to eat!

We stumbled on a seafood place, Snappers, and it was so so good.  I have to brag on their salad and dressing – Kevin cleaned his plate!   He’s not much for salads so this really is saying something.   After we ordered they brought out some long chips and spiced hummus, delicious.  I had to resist eating it all so I’d be hungry for the meal.   I had a lobster risotto with scallops and shrimp – I think it was my first time to have risotto and won’t be my last.   Kevin had a great piece of fish.

We also ate at a Cuban place, Bella Habana.  I have to say my thoughts about this place are mixed.  We ordered tapas (small plates) and the food we got was all good, but I was surprised at how many items they didn’t have  - both for food and drinks (they couldn’t make a mojito for me, which was really disappointing).  They even said they didn’t have chicken…. who doesn’t have chicken?  Then later the only dish that we’d wanted that called for chicken came out so I’m not sure if they did in fact have it…..so confused.    We did enjoy the place and the staff were very friendly.  They only took cash and so after we ate I went to the ATM to get some cash while K stayed at the restaurant and he talked Cuban history with the waiter and I think the cook came out at one point too, made his day.

The place we went to the MOST (besides the beach) was the beach bar right next to our hotel, called the Toasted Monkey.   They had live music almost all of the time and it was really comfortable.  We enjoyed just going over there and relaxing, and their chips and queso were good, and trust me I know good queso!  The people watching was so fun there too!

I had 2 favorite meals at the resort – fish tacos at the Flying Bridge our first full day there, and a Italian food at the Palmetto on our last night.  Totally different food and each time what we wanted – quick and easy the first day and a little fancier the last night.

We spent nearly our whole trip at the beach, but we did want a break from the sun one day and so went to check out a local winery.   Florida doesn't grow grapes so this place, Florida Orange Groves Winery, makes wines from all other sorts of other fruits – you name it, they probably make it.  We did a tasting and were able to taste 6 different kinds – we both tasted their Hurricane Class 5 wine and then were able to taste 5 of our choosing – we chose different ones and tasted each other’s so we actually tasted 11!    I liked the wines (my favorite was the mango) and really liked their ‘smoothies’ – a mix that you mix together with wine and ice to make a frozen drink – really good for the summer.  We bought some (blueberry, cherry, and mango) to bring home.   I especially like the wine pouches they sell – think capri sun for adults!  The wine is in a small pouch, perfect for the beach or anywhere you don’t want glass.   

On most of the drive to/from Florida we stopped at fast food places, not great I know but we wanted to get in and out quickly.  We made one exception and I'm so glad we did.   We debated trying to drive home in one day and when it became clear that was too much driving in one day for us we decided to stop for the night in Baton Rouge.   We wanted something good to eat and so I got to searching on my phone - criteria were local and near I-10 and we found the BEST place, even better than if we'd been searching for it...Parrain's (means godfather in French).   They have all sorts of Cajun food (which I love) and we were seated right at the end of the bar, right next to where they make something called chargrilled oysters.  We chatted with the guys working with the grill and they told us what everything was and let us try one.  I haven't been a fan of oysters, but they were delicious!   It was a great way to end the evening and the trip....we're going to have to think of trips that take us through Baton Rouge at mealtime so we can go back.

I'm a numbers person so here a few numbers from our trip...

miles traveled: 1,985

states we were in: 5

nights away from home: 7
total swimsuits we wore: 4 (2 each so one could dry while we wore the other one)

we won’t count the number of calories we ingested :)

St Pete Beach

We had a great beach vacation.    We went to St Pete Beach, FL (near St Petersburg and Tampa).  Whenever we plan a vacation we have to decide if we want to explore a new city and see the sights or just relax, and this year (like last year) going somewhere to relax was what we wanted and this was just what we needed!

We did work in some adventure because we decided to drive rather than fly. I won’t lie; it was a long drive (18-19 hours each way) but a fun one.   Kevin loaded up his iPod with music and we had a cooler with drinks and a few snacks and didn’t worry about how much stuff we were bringing since we didn’t have to get it into carry-on or checkable luggage.   We both enjoyed getting to see part of the country neither of us had seen as adults (we were amazed that parts of Mississippi and Florida had hills!)   I didn’t think to take pictures on most of the drive, but let me tell you we saw lots of I-10 and a surprising amount of rain - every time I drove it would rain, and we were starting to worry we’d see a beach through rain.

We broke up the drive into 2 days, and decided to just stop when we felt like it and find a room.  It worked really well for us both ways.  

Most of the way there we drove in rain, but as we came across the Tampa Bay bridge the sky finally cleared and we had great weather the entire time we were there.

Once we were at St Pete Beach we were very happy that everything we needed was in one spot.  We’d chosen a resort, Guy Harvey Outpost, that had restaurants (and bars) on site and where we could walk right out to the beach and it gave us everything we wanted.   They even had a happy hour each day with free drinks out by the pool bar - we took advantage of that the first day!

We fully enjoyed the amenities at the resort and also made sure we got out in the town a bit too.   The day we arrived, Kevin heard live music and we walked across the sand to a great beach bar next door– the Toasted Monkey.  We made several return trips there and also enjoyed meals at different restaurants just across the street (loved not getting back in the car!) on different days:  a delicious seafood place, a very rustic Cuban place, and a small diner that had Greek and Italian food along with salads.

The most appealing part of the resort was that we could walk right out to the beach and spend most of the day there.   We had use of a cabana – basically two connected lounge chairs with a table top with cut out cup holders in between and an adjustable shade – each day, and made good use of it.   Some people had the shade all the way down but I like to be in the shade and would sit and read when I wasn’t playing in the water.  We were able to reserve the cabana online the night before and could walk right to it in the morning; we could even order a drink through a website on my phone!  (We did that only once)

our cabana

Our resort was the smaller of two resorts run by the same company.   We could walk down the beach to that resort and enjoy the restaurants there.   We ate down there a few times and were very happy we were staying at the smaller one, we were able to enjoy both and didn't have to put up with all the noise from the larger one --- they had a DJ out at the pool doing games for kids and giveaways, we also saw one wedding party coming through on Saturday night.  Nice to visit, but glad we weren't staying there.  That resort also had a huge slide on the beach that we could use – I LOVED that slide!    Our resort also had an adults only pool, we’d walk by the kid pool on the way back from the beach and very happily go to the quiet of the adults only pool, only thing it didn't have was a bar.

The water was wonderful.  It was a bit rough the first couple of days – our plans of taking a dolphin watching tour were nixed since it was so rough.  We had fun just swimming and we bought boogie boards to do some body surfing – Kevin got pretty good at catching waves.    We joked that there was a ‘water taxi’ there was so much current pulling you southward.  When we wanted to ride the slide we’d get in the water and let the ‘taxi’ take us down towards the other resort.  We also made sure to walk up the beach before getting in so we wouldn't have such a long walk back.

I think that's enough reading for now :)   I plan to do another post about specific places we went.