Palm Beach Shores, FL ~ July 3-10, 2010

Ah yes…Vacation. It’s our favorite thing to do as a couple and we embrace every opportunity. Whether it’s with family, friends or ourselves, we always have an awesome time.

Our most recent vacation was with Jenny & Bob to Palm Beach Shores, FL on Singer Island. It’s a very quiet resort on the Atlantic Ocean near West Palm Beach. Of course, we had a ton of fun. We laid on the beach, relaxed, ate, drank and did a whole bunch of nothing! It was magical.

We spent the first few days being lazy and enjoying the beach. Rain was intermittent, but welcomed as it gave us a break from the heat. When it rained, we either headed to Johnny Longboats for food and/or drinks or back to the condo for a nap.

Johnny Longboats is an indoor/outdoor restaurant across the street from the resort with pretty decent food. Not only did they have $1 draft beer when it rained, but they also had a great and cheap ($2.95) breakfast, $1.99 Bloody Mary’s, Screwdrivers & Mimosa’s, AND happy hour from 7 am – 8 pm…Awesome.

Oddly, we learned a lot about sea turtle nesting during this trip. There were several hundred nests on the beach. We actually had to set up our beach chairs and umbrellas around the nests due to the volume. Other than signs and barricaded areas, you couldn’t really see the nest.

At night, we were advised to turn off any lights that shine on the beach as mother turtles are bothered by bright lights and hatching baby turtles get confused and will follow lights and wander to the streets rather than to the ocean. To keep them from doing this, there were volunteers that went to the beach nightly to help lead the hatching turtles to the water rather than the streets. While out on our balcony at night, we could see them with their flashlights.

We headed to Clematis Street and CityPlace in downtown West Palm Beach a few times during the week. Whether it was for lunch at Grease Burger Bar, dinner at Rocco's Tacos or a GIANT slice of pizza from Pizza Luna, we had a nice time and enjoyed the scene.

The Islander Grill & Tiki Bar was located on the hotel premises. They had decent food and a pretty good happy hour.  I couldn’t resist getting this carved coconut monkey head to keep my drink cold :-)

On Wednesday, we picked up two cupcakes from Sugar Chef in West Palm Beach. When the clock struck midnight, we indulged in celebration of my birthday :-)

On Thursday, I celebrated my 31st birthday and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend it! Steve and I began the morning with a walk on the beach, followed by a few hours basking in the sun.

We met Bob & Jenny for lunch and then proceeded to Clematis Street for a happy hour crawl. We went to O'Shea's Irish Pub, Roxy's Pub, Reef Road Rum Bar, Grease Burger Bar, Don Ramon's Cuban Restaurant, Mambo Italianos, Rocco's Tacos and E.R. Bradley's for happy hour drinks & appetizers.

Sadly, our great night was interrupted for a few minutes when we had to witness “The Decision” debacle. I can promise you that after Steve and I drowned in our sorrows for a few minutes, we went right back to having FUN.

Friday was a lazy day that included a lot of SportsCenter, a trip to the airport to drop off Bob, lunch at Johnny Longboats, the beach and then dinner at Johnny Longboats. It was an early night as we knew our trip was coming to an end and we’d have to rise early to head to the airport on Saturday morning…always such a sad realization.

We notched another great trip on Singer Island and look forward to meeting up with Jenny and Bob (and Sean & Alex!) in just a few days when we head to Myrtle Beach. Don't be surprised if we continue this tradition and partake in more beach and happy hour adventures!

Ah yes…Vacation

More Than a Player...

More Than a Player…

July 1st has arrived...New York and New Jersey were the first two teams to arrive in Cleveland in an attempt to swoon our beloved LBJ. Next up are the Clippers and Heat…and finally Chicago and Cleveland. It's easy to become slightly obsessed with the national and local media attention that has surrounded the most amazing free agent class in history. It’s what people are talking about. It’s the office gossip, grocery store gossip, family gossip…it’s all the gossip! This daily talk serves as a reminder that while basketball is just a game, LeBron James in Cleveland is about more than basketball and more than a player.

Check out the official "More Than a Player" Web site:
http://www.morethanaplayer.org/

Lost in all of the hoopla is what LeBron truly means to Northeast Ohio. What his presence has done to revive the city and the people is remarkable. In a way nobody outside of Ohio can truly understand, LeBron James means more to us than winning an NBA Championship. We are blue collar, middle class, Midwest…and for us, it’s a way of life. If LeBron leaves Cleveland, the profound impact it will have on hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio will be devastating.

Cleveland has seen so many great players leave for greener pastures. Heck, we even watched an entire team pick up and move! I wouldn’t doubt that Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson would all leave Cleveland as free agents, but LeBron is different. He is one of us. We watched him play throughout high school and crossed our fingers during the 2003 draft lottery. We watched in awe as he grew up and became a man, an amazing athlete, and the best player in franchise history.

So to lose LeBron James isn’t to just lose a basketball player. It runs deeper than that. LeBron has given us a lot over the last 7+ years and it might be unfair for us to ask more of him. But there is nothing unfair about having a desire to continue on this journey where we actually enjoy cheering for LeBron and the Cavaliers.

PLEASE STAY LBJ

A Weekend in Northern Virginia

This past weekend Steve and I had a totally awesome time visiting our friends Jenny & Bob (and Albert & Otto) at their home in Reston, Virginia. We always have a great time together and it's unfortunate that we live 6 hours away. Despite the distance, we really try to get together a few times a year and it is always super fun…

Our weekend consisted of lots of great food, libations, late nights and great conversation. Our trip started on Thursday night as Steve and I departed Cleveland after work and arrived in Reston around midnight. Rather than going straight to bed like responsible adults, we enjoyed a few cocktails and conversation and before we knew it, it was 2:30 and time for bed!

It's no secret that Jenny and I love our wines (she the reds, me the whites), so on Friday we headed out to a few wineries in the area where we tasted some really great wines. Steve and I have done wine tastings in California (great!), Ohio (okay...) and South Carolina (blah!) and we were happy to add Virginia wines to our list! In the end, Steve and I agreed that the VA wines far surpassed those from Ohio, but California still tops the list...not too surprising :)

If you're unfamiliar, wine tastings range from $5-$20 and typically include a 1 oz. pour of each of the wines selected by the winery. Oftentimes, you can choose from a "reserve" list, which are their finer (a.k.a. more expensive) wines, but we usually shy away from them because chances are slim to none that we're going to splurge on a $40+ bottle of wine...and it's more expensive to taste them.

Our first stop was the Tarara Vineyard and Winery. The scenery was beautiful as the winery overlooked the Potomac River. We tasted six of their delicious wines and then were off to our next stop…

Our next stop was Fabbioli Cellars and these were some really great wines! We tasted eight different wines and we really enjoyed a lot of them. We actually liked them so much; we opted to purchase one bottle of the Cabernet Franc and one bottle of the Chambourcin.

After our tasting, we shared a bottle of their Cabernet Franc and enjoyed a simply DELICIOUS lunch prepared by Jenny. She went above and beyond your standard picnic fare with cheese and crackers (with jalapeno jam), chicken salad, deviled eggs and edamame salad...quite spectacular.

We took a quick ride on White’s Ferry...the only cable ferry still operating on the Potomac River for travel between Virginia and Maryland. (Note: The picture below is proof that I did have my crutches with me!)

We returned back to their place for a quick nap and then headed out to the town square for some more food and wine. We ate a fabulous dinner at Jackson’s Mighty Fine Food & Lucky Lounge...particularly delicious were the lobster roll & grilled corn (see below).

Dinner was followed by some wine at The Boxwood Winery Tasting Room & Wine Bar.

The Tasting Room has an enomatic, which is a self-service wine dispenser. We were able to purchase a wine card, which is inserted into the machine for a variety of 1 oz. 3 oz. or 5 oz wine samples. If you like the sample, you can buy a bottle or a glass of the offerings.

On Saturday Bob went to class, while Jenny, Steve and I slept, grabbed some lunch at BW3 and then to the best grocery store in the world!! Wegman’s is paradise…really. Even Steve is in grocery store heaven whenever we are in a Wegman’s. Despite our intent to simply browse this magical place, we left with a cart full of goodies :)

We returned to Jenny & Bob’s to nap...again and later that evening had dinner at Mon Ami Gabi, a classic French Bistro in the Reston Town Center. Jenny and I enjoyed steak frites with a Béarnaise sauce, while the boys had a really fantastic burger. We followed dinner with drinks at The American Tap Room and The Boxwood Wine Bar and finished the evening back at Jenny & Bob's. Great times!

On Sunday, we grabbed lunch at the Silver Diner before heading home...Like I said, it was a weekend filled with lots of food, libations, conversation...and most of all FUN!

In less than a month, we'll be doing a lot of the same with these two...but instead of Northern Virginia, we'll be wrecking havoc on the beaches of Florida! Until then, we'll cherish the memories and look forward to making new ones in the very near future!

Next stop...Palm Beach Shores, FL (July 3-10, 2010) for lots of fun in the sun and my 31st Birthday!