Tag Archives: food

On the Good Ship “Imagination”

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Welcome to Cabin Riviera 207. The cabin was set up as a double with one bed.
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That was easily remedied. Joe and I unmade the bed and pushed the 2 sides apart. Unfortunately there was no bedding for a “twin” set up so we made our way to guest services on deck 7 where they filled out a request form for housekeeping.
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From there it was time to explore the ship. The Lido deck, deck 10, (Sounds like the Love Boat?) seems to be where most of the action is.

Bars, swimming pools and hot tubs.
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A stage for shows and contests. A buffet lunch was underway so we hopped in the line. The offerings ranged from Pizza to rotisserie to “off the grill”.

I opted for the rotisserie, sliced roast beef and chicken,. Joe got a salad from the salad bar but couldn’t find any salad dressing. The paparazzi were out in force. Everyone was fair game. Everyone on the fun ship is a celebrity. And every 2nd guest had a camera. At one point I started turning the tables. If someone wanted to point a camera at me I’ll point mine at them!

The rain showers continued to drift through but didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits. Kids still slid down the giant water slide and adults sat in the hot tubs.

The revelry was briefly interrupted by the mandatory safety meeting. All guests had to report to designated locations to hear the evacuation plans incase of sinking. This included a demonstration of the life vests. We got to listen in English and then again in Spanish. Luckily we were spared French, German, Polish, Dutch etc. The last part of the safety meeting was to be led to the life boats and then we were dismissed. It’s kind of like listening to the airline attendants when they go through the safety speech on a plane. You listen but kind of not….of course history is filled with examples where the safety instructions were needed from the Titanic to the Concordia.

Around 4pm the ship cast off and we stood at the stern on deck 11 watching Miami shrink into the distance. We spotted some “ultra lights” as we left the harbor.

Heading back down to our room we bumped into “D” our room steward. We explained to him that we were friends not a “couple” and asked for the bedding to make up the room for twin beds. He was insistent that any requests like that go to him and he would make sure it was done. Thanking him we returned to the Lido deck for more pictures before dinner.

We enrolled in “anytime” dining so we didn’t have to be locked into a time frame. It was about 6:30 when we made out way to the assigned dining room…The “Pride” was on deck 8 also known as the Atlantic Deck.

Dinner was ok, nothing special. My shrimp cocktail was small but tasty. Joe’s Lettuce wedge was huge, crisp and fresh. I was disappointed in my “Southern Fried Chicken”. It was dry and all dark meat. Joe had a pumpkin, squash, yam casserole pie that was quite good. For dessert we both had the hot chocolate melting cake with vanilla ice cream. Rich, luscious, decadent, it made up for any shortfalls on the dinner.

The wait staff puts on a little performance midway though the dinner. It’s quite amusing. From there we tried several of the club activities wandering from the piano bar to the karaoke and finally to the Welcome Aboard Show.

This show is a variety style show designed to introduce you to the cruise director (Marcello) , the show dancers and singers and the comedians. Marcello pulled audience members up to the stage for silly skits between performances by the staff. Not a bad time but for me it was the end of a long day and time to call it a night.

Arriving back to R207 we were please to see our beds separated and crisply made up. Ready for a tired head to hit the pillows.

Tomorrow our port of call is Key West. It will be fun to be back after so many years away. Last time I was there was when Joe was driving the trolley in 2000.

One more food post

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Ok, I get it. You like the travel posts better than the food reviews, Ahh if only I could afford to travel enough to keep you, my loyal followers, satisfied.  Every now and then I have to unpack my suitcase and spend some quality time with my cats, work some overtime to replenish the travel fund, and recharge my own batteries.

I love traveling but I subscribe to the  Go, Go , Go philosophy of travel..so much to see, so little time. I would never be able to hang out on a beach, I’d feel like I was missing too much.  That’s not to say a beach vacation isn’t a perfect one for  a lot of people…just not me. Since my vacations are so high energy sometimes I need to get home and back to my normal routine to recharge my batteries. That’s when finding interesting topics to share becomes a real challenge.

So the bottom line here is that I have one more food tale for you then I’ll leave that subject for a while.

The Sailing Cow Cafe has closed up for the winter season now. The last weekend was Columbus Day which seemed early this year. As part of the last weekend festivities they had a band and the invited me to come down to take pictures of their customers. They called it Photos on the Beach by Dusty Roads Photos.

My friend Nancy and I went down for 10 am and stayed until 3pm. It turned out to be a beautiful day, if a bit cool by the water. The Cafe had us put a sign in the window and gave us a table outside to set up a display. Nancy is a power house when it comes to talking to people. She was busy handing out my business cards and brochures while I talked to the people who stopped to look at the cards and pictures I’d brought for display.

Everyone was enthusiastic and we gave out a lot of information but that was as far as it went. No one was up for a picture of themselves. Oh well, as far as publicity it was a great success. We met 2 women trying to get a dog park off the ground. They were very interested in the pet photography side of my business. I got ideas of things to make another such event more successful.

Being at The Sailing Cow from 10:00- 3:00 meant we had a chance to sample the food. We had muffins for a quick breakfast and all I can say is WOW. They were great. The breakfast menu had all the usual breakfast items and they looked good too but we wanted to keep it light. Others must have felt the breakfast was good too because they had a full house.

After we finished our agreed time frame (10am-2pm) we stayed a little longer to listen to the band and have a quick lunch.

One of the owners had told us they made the best onion rings so I had to try them. They were great. Very thinly sliced and fried crisp… they were excellent. The side order was easily large enough for both of us.

On a more healthy note we shared a turkey wrap. Getting a jump on Thanksgiving. For once I remembered to take a picture before we dug in.

Well, that’s all the food reviews for now. I promise to try to find something more exotic to tell you about next time. 🙂

Remember: for all your unique greeting card needs visit: www.dustyroadsphotos.etsy.com

Holiday cards are coming. For a more “commercial style” check out the offerings at: www.dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com

Kinda Quiet These Days

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Life seems to have slowed down a little. Cooler weather is starting to move in. We had a touch of frost a couple of nights ago but then temps rebounded back to the 70’s.  We haven’t had much sun so far this October…no “October’s Bright Blue Weather“. Maybe the poem could be called September’s Bright Blue Skies.

The first half of 2013 looks like it may be quite busy for travel.  On the books is a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico; a few days in Florida to visit the Everglades; and an 11 day cruise to Alaska in May. Because of all those fun but expensive plans, I’ve been staying close to home since I got back from the Balloon Festival in September.

Doing a bit of overtime at the real job while I can get it. It all helps with the bills and travel expenses.

Friday I posted some food pictures. I didn’t have time to say much about them then so I’ll update you now. When we went down to meet with the owners of the Sailing Cow Cafe it was on a Tuesday and the Cafe was closed for business because it was on it’s “Off Season” schedule. Since we couldn’t get lunch there we decided to go to the Kreme and Kone in Dennis.

There is also a 2nd restaurant in Chathem. This would be one of the last chances to enjoy  a visit there this season as they are closing Oct. 21. until next summer.

Just about everything at the Kreme and Kone is fried, a typical seaside style restaurant, but as long as it doesn’t become a daily habit it can’t be too bad, right. The weather was nice (It was still in September when we went) so we took advantage to sit outside on the deck.

We watched kayakers and water birds in the tributary behnd the “Kone” while we enjoyed lunch. A light breeze made it comfortable in the sun.

Nancy had the Fried Shrimp.

Nancy ordered the shrimp as a “side dish” because we knew from past visits that there was more than enough french fries and onion rings on the “plate” for two or more people. So the picture of the Onion Rings and Fries is my “plate” and all that deep-fried yumminess is hiding the best part of the “plate”….fried scallops.

The hardest part of food photography in my opinion is remembering to take the picture before you dig in!

Scenic Train to North Creek

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OK I have a confession to make before we get started. I don’t know how scenic this train ride was at all.  Four of us took the trip, my sister, my mother and my aunt…my mom’s sister-in-law. But let me start at the beginning.

Saturday dawned very gray and overcast. The forecast was for rain and we just hoped it would hold off until we got back home in the afternoon. Everyone met at my sister’s house so we could go to the train station together. Lorna, my Aunt, volunteered to drive because she had the biggest car, an SUV.

The train ride starts in Saratoga, NY and ends in North Creek, NY home of Gore Mountain Ski area. Sandy and I were hoping the foliage would be in high gear but we were about a week too early. As it turned out it didn’t matter anyway. I don’t think anyone spent too much time gazing out the windows. We could call our train ride the Reunion Train. Although we occasionally tried to figure out what river or body of water we were passing, most of the trip up and back was playing “catch up” , reminiscing and just plain having fun chatting. On the trip north the seats faced each other so it made conversation amongst the four of us easy.

When we arrived in North Creek there was a bus to take folks to Gore Mountain if you wanted to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain. That idea got vetoed pretty quickly so we had the option of taking a golf cart up the hill to main street or walking up the hill.

We may have been a band of Senior Citizens but we chose to walk.

North Creek seems to be pretty much the main street and that’s it. We strolled along looking in the windows and checking menus. We had arrived about lunch time. There were lots of tempting menus but we finally settled on Marsha’s. It turned out that it was a good choice. There was that Open Faced Hot Turkey sandwich again! This one was most definitely fresh roasted..delicious. If you get to North Creek you have 3 recommendations for Marsha’s Hot Turkey sandwich!

Lunch over we still had about an hour to kill so we crossed the street to visit a gallery that was located next to a Pizza place with the name of “Pete’s Ahh”. Very creative!

The Gallery was beautiful. So many lovely arts and crafts from photo postcards (very similar to what I do) to paintings, glassware, even clothing. All the items in the shop are on consignment and all of the artists are local. I asked because I thought maybe I could put some of my work in there but they shot that idea down quickly (but nicely). I don’t live in the Adirondacks anymore. They’d take my work if I ever move back.

Near the door on the ceiling were some metal things. I didn’t realize they were pipes. Someone asked what they were and the clerk said “rain”. She walked to the wall and threw a switch and sure enough, it began to “rain” . The pipes followed above a “creek” in the floor where goldfish swim. When the pipes are turned on the water drips slowly like a gentle rain. You walk over the bridges to get to different parts of the shop.

As we left the gallery the rain that had been threatening outside began to come down for real so we headed back to the train station. There was a covered deck with benches and chairs so we settled in to wait for the train.

I didn’t take too long before the train arrived and soon it was all aboard for the return trip to Saratoga. This time the seats were more traditional in rows. We could have sat in a row of 3 with one  across the aisle but we chose instead to sit 2 and 2. Sandy and Lorna in the front 2 seats and Mom and me in the 2nd set of seats.

The rain was coming down pretty good now and it was getting very dark for so early in the afternoon. We got back to Saratoga around 6pm and hurried back to Sandy’s so that everyone could scatter to their own homes before the weather got any worse.

Just as Sandy and I were about to address the question of dinner a knock announced the arrival of George and Kelly and the kids. They arrived bearing Pizza..yumm so the question of dinner was solved and I got to enjoy a visit with some more of the family. The 40 balloon “Moon Glow” at the airport was rained out but I had completely forgotten about it anyway.

What a great day with all of the family!