With all the wedding festivities about to kick off, I took a little time to wander around St. Armand’s Circle. This unique shopping district is located on St. Armand’s Key within Sarasota Bay.
After about an hour or so walking, talking and falling out of hammocks, it was time to head over to the pre-wedding meet and greet. I arrived about a half hour early, so I took in the ocean breeze and a small snack.
There are so many reasons to visit home, but weddings are my favorite! The food, drinks and dancing, declarations of love and promise for tomorrow. It’s an opportunity to get lost in the romance of It all.
In order to make the most of the visit, I took a few days on either end of the weekend. Tampa, St. Pete and Bradenton Beach; Art, culture and all the Cuban and seafood one can eat. I think this is going to be a wonderful trip.
But enough thinking, it’s time to sit back and enjoy the beautiful view.
While I may have never had much of a sweet tooth, I’ve always had a weakness for a warm scone with a cup of tea. Sadly, being allergic to 90% of grain has left me with a warm cup and an empty plate … Until now!
This mix is the best one I’ve found! The recipe even includes different options for additional allergies or preferences including vegan & lactose intolerance.
But enough talking, let’s get to Baking!
All in all, the process takes about 10 minutes to complete – place mix in a bowl, cut in sugar/butter (or butter substitute). Add in milk (almond, soy, dairy, whatever) and dried fruits, nuts, etc. – mix until combined.
The above photo shows my poor attempt at making these lumps of dough into triangles. Lol. Now into the oven they go!
After about twenty-five minutes or just enough time to convince my husband that 8:30 am isn’t too early to wake up on a Saturday, the scones are done!
In the time it takes to cool the scones, I’ve made some tea and found a nice sunny spot at the table to enjoy them.
Do you have a favorite baking mix or a recipe that you love? Leave me a comment below!
Well fed and overly caffeinated, I hit the road again with hopes of reaching the ‘ville before midnight.
This portion of the drive is always a bit difficult due to the nature of the roads. While they are very well maintained, there are only pockets of lighted spots. Once the sun goes down, you have to rely on the reflective paint and hard road reflectors to guide you. There are many long stretches of road which have little to no traffic, making it hard to focus.
After about five (5) hours of driving, I noticed a little green sign off of I-10 … Publix!
If you’ve never had a Pub Sub, you’ve never truly lived.
Just something about that freshly baked bread that hits all your senses.
Refueled and ready for the last few hours on the road, I took a moment to book a hotel. As you might expect, this reservation was triple checked before pushing the “confirm” button. Fool me once. 😉
I’m a planner and it’s typically hard for me to break out of that mindset when on a “spur of the moment” type trip … so in my infinite wisdom, I thought it best to not book a hotel room until we were close to New Orleans.
Well … I accidentally booked my hotel for the wrong night, but didn’t realize my mistake until I had driven an hour from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, dropped the car with valet, AND carted my stuff up two flights to the receptionist’s desk. The women working the desk looked at me like I was crazy … “um, your reservation isn’t until Jan 10th and we’re actually all booked up for tonight – there’s a football game tomorrow.”
All was not lost! Instead of giving me a hard time about this reservation SNAFU, she called over to a Hilton that was just around the corner which, thankfully, had a rooms available for the night (it’s 12:40 am at this point). They moved the reservation to the Hilton New Orleans St. Charles and I ended up with a better room at the same (super cheap) rate. I guess it really does pay to be a Hilton Rewards Gold member.
After a great night’s sleep and a late rise, I headed up to the lounge for a cup of coffee and a bit of a chat – calling various family members to relay our interesting evening and to see how they had fared for the holiday. After about an hour and two cups of coffee, I headed out to Cafe Fleur De Lis for brunch and a little bit of planning. 😉
The majority of the drive from Texas to Florida is done on I-10 and one of my favorite stops along the way in New Orleans!
About an hour outside of New Orleans, you’ll find the Louisiana state capital, Baton Rouge. This is also home to Louisiana State University (LSU) and where you find college students, you find lots of late night food options! Being that the time was creeping ever closer to the dreaded “Fast Food or NOTHING” hour, we made good use of the college town and stopped off for a bite.
I enjoyed a flavorful and fresh Seafood Gumbo, Louisiana style BBQ Shrimp and a small salad with blue cheese crumbles before heading back out on the road.
So, sometimes I like to just get in the car and go! This time, however, I had a full flight booked from Austin to Orlando with the intention of flying over with the hubs and driving to my hometown to visit family and friends. In a strange turn of events, my trip to Colorado was cut short and I found myself back in Austin with four days to kill until an Orlando flight … so I did what any travel bug would do, I canceled the flight and hired a car instead!
Now let’s see what kind of trouble we can get into …
All machines have some sort of face … I wonder if this was something NASA thought about when they were putting Curiosity together?
The model below gives an idea of the scale to which the Egyptians built their temples. If you look to the lower left side, you’ll notice little white dots by the water … those are sheep! The scale of these projects is almost unbelievable.
The Power of Poison was an exhibition on the third floor and free with your general museum admission. There is even a 15-minute humorous presentation that walks you through the “Marsh Test” which was developed to identify arsenic poisoning.
I don’t think I could have come up with a better way to spend Christmas Eve! Family, Nature, and Science ❤