Catching Up With Kaneohegirlinaz

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Florida Here We Come! …

We like to plot out our Road Trips long before we leave.
We map out the roads we'll take, the hotels we'll stay at and look for attractions as well as places to eat.

Well, there was a small hic-cup the night before we started to head East towards Florida.

I got an email from the hotel we'd booked in Key West, right across the street from the Atlantic Ocean. It seems that they were closing their pool and were so sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.
I thought, oh well, that's okay, there's the beach, right?
My husband thought otherwise...

"Nope! You need a pool when you're in Florida, it's just too hot and humid. Call them up and cancel our reservation, we'll look for something else."
It's a good thing this happened actually, because I found an even better place that was cheaper! A fairly new hotel/resort, so there you go. But we'll talk about this more once we get there...

So off we go …

Our first overnight stop was in Ft. Stockton Texas.
I had thought ahead and made us one of our favorite meals prior to leaving that lovely apartment with a gas grill: Teriyaki Chicken, Steamed White Rice and my Quick Cucumber KimChee.



(file photo-I forgot to take a snapshot, I was too tired)

This made the long day of driving easier, let me tell you.
We've learned that it's better to have a pre-made meal that can be microwaved once we set-up camp in our hotel for the night.
Sitting in a restaurant sometimes can be unpleasant at times like these.
It was a fast continental free breakfast the next morning and we were off to ...

San Antonio Texas.

My husband booked us into a wonderful historic hotel just a coupla blocks from The Riverwalk and The Alamo.



I think this was one of the nicest places we've stayed yet!





The included breakfast was a full hot meal with the coolest Waffle Iron!
Can you see the selection of syrups? Man!
I didn't take a picture, but I had THE BEST Grits that I smothered in Sausage gravy, scrambled eggs and sausage on the side.



After breakfast, we wondered down to The Riverwalk, and really just walked, beautiful! But man howdy dowdy let me tell you it was sooooo humid!
But I'm a smart gal and thought to bring my paper folding fan that I bought at Marukai back sometime ago... do you know how many folks remarked "smart gal!" YUP! I also stashed a washcloth from the hotel into my bag so that DH could mop his brow.



It was so hot and humid that we were in search of any sort of air conditioning we could find!
Landry's Seafood Restaurant on The Riverwalk had just opened, so we scooted on in. We were the first guests for the day and got a fabulous table, inside, overlooking the water.
As we looked over the menu both my husband and I agreed that when possible on this Road Trip, we would eat fresh seafood; we were in the right place!







We also decided that we would each order a starter and than share an entrée, if we were still hungry there's always dessert.
DH ordered a dozen Oysters; I had a Caesar Salad and we shared the Snapper, marvelous!

The following day, we walked over to The Alamo, WOW!





This was so worth the short walk in the humidity, but now we needed AC!!!








Schilo's, what a find!
This was not on my radar but so glad that we found it.
Homemade Root Beer, Soft Pretzels with yummy Hot Mustard and the biggest Chef Salad I've ever seen in my life, which we shared by the way.
Our waitress was so nice, she brought us an extra bowl and two different salad dressings.
Didn't know that you get refills on the Root Beer, so dessert was out of the question. What a fantastic lunch!



We waddled back to our hotel and decided that since this was our last night in San Antonio, we'd stay in. In the lobby were many different frozen meals and dessert items, DING! Dinner's covered.

Tomorrow we ride at dawn ...

[Cheryl J]

LOVING your pics and road trip logs, kgirl. Thank you for posting...looking forward to more!

[Just Cooking]

+1 This is fun..

Ross

[Kayelle]

Loving the trip! Thanks Kgirl...

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Originally Posted by Cheryl J

LOVING your pics and road trip logs, kgirl. Thank you for posting...looking forward to more!

Originally Posted by Just Cooking

+1 This is fun..

Ross

Originally Posted by Kayelle

Loving the trip! Thanks Kgirl...

Many mahalos, thanks guys!

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Next Overnight Stop …

Slidell Louisiana

We figured out that it took us a total of 13 driving hours JUST to get across the State of Texas, WOW!

Believe it or not, we wanted to avoid New Orleans, yup. We're not really big city type of folks, we don't party on, anymore, so we took a wide turn off the path.

We found our hotel, which was a feat in itself, and went looking for some dinner.
I had a restaurant all picked out, but trying to get to it on the other side of the Interstate was going to be a bit more tricky than we were cared for after a long days drive.
I spy …
Fuji Yama Hibachi & Sushi
AH, that's the ticket! Our sort of comfort food, let's try this.



I must have beer with Japanese food.



Both of us ordered dinner specials, which included Miso Soup and a Salad,
I love that dressing! A chef-y friend of mine gave me the recipe for it.



DH was pretty hungry, so we also ordered some Sushi. One Cucumber and One Asparagus Maki Roll, meh.



DH's Chicken Katsu, not so good. I'm not too sure what they used for the coating, but I'll tell ya, it wasn't Panko.



My Beef Teriyaki, ack!

We've learned that when eating out and you do not care for your food, ask for a take-away box. Once you find the appropriate receptacle, deposit there. We don't send it back, you have no idea what they'll do to your food, just sayin'.

Tomorrow is another day …

[msmofet]

Love the pictures. One question - Is this now or in the past. Can you by chance post dates? I love rode trips also. I find restaurants have seasonal menus.

[GotGarlic]

E

Originally Posted by Kaneohegirlinaz

Next Overnight Stop …

Slidell Louisiana

We figured out that it took us a total of 13 driving hours JUST to get across the State of Texas, WOW!

Believe it or not, we wanted to avoid New Orleans, yup. We're not really big city type of folks, we don't party on, anymore, so we took a wide turn off the path.

We found our hotel, which was a feat in itself, and went looking for some dinner.
I had a restaurant all picked out, but trying to get to it on the other side of the Interstate was going to be a bit more tricky than we were cared for after a long days drive.
I spy …
Fuji Yama Hibachi & Sushi
AH, that's the ticket! Our sort of comfort food, let's try this.

Attachment 38794

I must have beer with Japanese food.

Attachment 38800

Both of us ordered dinner specials, which included Miso Soup and a Salad,
I love that dressing! A chef-y friend of mine gave me the recipe for it.

Attachment 38799

DH was pretty hungry, so we also ordered some Sushi. One Cucumber and One Asparagus Maki Roll, meh.

Attachment 38797

DH's Chicken Katsu, not so good. I'm not too sure what they used for the coating, but I'll tell ya, it wasn't Panko.

Attachment 38798

My Beef Teriyaki, ack!

We've learned that when eating out and you do not care for your food, ask for a take-away box. Once you find the appropriate receptacle, deposit there. We don't send it back, you have no idea what they'll do to your food, just sayin'.

Tomorrow is another day …

Why not just leave it on the table and tell them you didn't like it? You don't have to send it back, but I don't understand why you would throw it away and not tell them there was a problem.

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Originally Posted by msmofet

Love the pictures. One question - Is this now or in the past. Can you by chance post dates? I love rode trips also. I find restaurants have seasonal menus.

I suppose I could MsM, but I usually don't do that, let's just say that I'm "catching you up" from six months ago, since my absence.
I don't like to post anywhere, be it here or any other Social Media site, as to where we are at the moment, security issues, dontcha know

[taxlady]

Originally Posted by GotGarlic

EWhy not just leave it on the table and tell them you didn't like it? You don't have to send it back, but I don't understand why you would throw it away and not tell them there was a problem.

I was eating breakfast with friends, and one of them had worked in resto kitchens. He stubbed out his cigarette in his poorly cooked eggs. He said the kitchen staff would get the message and that it was so they wouldn't reuse it for something else.

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Anywhos

Next up …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38PThGgMd-A

PCB as the locals say or Panama City Beach, I say, BEACH!!!

… keep your radio dial tuned here for more …

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Panama City Beach Florida was, interesting. It wasn't what I had expected it would be, but all the same, it was great. Very low key, nothing fancy about it. Folks get around mostly in souped up golf cars! FUN! It seems like a very nice family orientated town, loads of stuff to do for the kids, besides the beach.



Even big kids like us! We love miniature golf, or what we call Putt Putt Golf. Even though is was oppressively hot and humid out, we had a blast. We started to keep score, but DH had a terrible time with the three water hazards. So we just called it even and had a good laugh along the way.



I even left this adorable Painted Rock that I made.



Oh, and speaking of Painted Rocks, this is the group that I brought along with us to "hide" at each stop.

Our hotel was a small place, beach front and we were lucky enough to get a ground floor room. We had a nice sized room with a `fridge and micro, charcoal grill and picnic table right outside our door; since we wanted to spend most of our time on the beach, we brought supplies with us. It was mostly picnics and microwaved dinners, that worked.







On our last day in town we went over to Jesse's Place for a big breakfast, YUM!

So it's time to move on again …

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

I totally forgot to say, that was my very first time in the Gulf of Mexico!
The water was so nice, especially with it being so hot & humid there at the time. We thought that we had timed our visit to Florida for the "cooler season" but this year it came late Thank goodness for paper folding fans and washcloths to mop ones brow

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Onward!

From PCB we motored South to spend a few days with our Nephew and his family, outside of Tampa Florida.





Our first night with them was High School Football night, so it was a quick supper and off to the game.



This is why we wanted to stop here, not just to see family, but to watch our Grand-Nephew play football, YAY



While here, our Niece-In-Law took me to my first adventure in a Publix Supermarket, WOW! What a fabulous place. I just wish we had these where we live. As she shopped, I just looked around and found this, something I had heard about but had never seen. Pre-sliced Taylor's Ham or Pork Roll.
We didn't stay long, `cuz we wanted to get to

Key Largo, FL

On our way down, we hit a bit a weather. A Hurricane (I forget which one, they have so many) skirted by Southern portion of Florida, but hit PCB right where we had been! But we made to our hotel, just a little shaken and wet.



What the heck is that right outside our hotel room? Dunno, but they stayed over there in all of the water, it got pretty flooded, so …



It cleared up enough that we went out back to the waters edge and what did I find, but a Tiki Bar, and they were serving, CHEERS y'all!



That was a long and tedious drive South, so we called it a night in our room with a warm cup-o-Ramen. I keep these sorts of easy-microwavable meals in my traveling kitchen just for this type of night

[cjmmytunes]

K-Girl, that looks like a stork. My step-father called them scoogings.

[dragnlaw]

Egret

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

This is actually a White Ibis, found in Florida

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_white_ibis

I looked it up while we were there, as well asked many local folks...
thought it was a funny bird and really very calm around humans, it would just move slowly away from you, not startle and fly off like other birds do :shrug:

[taxlady]

Originally Posted by dragnlaw

Egret

That was my first thought, but that beak is far too long.

[dragnlaw]

Ibis, lol knew there was another name I couldn't think of so put in egret as the closest!

I believe the Ibis is small like in your picture and the Egret is taller. (?)

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

One More Day In Key Largo Florida …





After a hardy FREE breakfast at our hotel, we took a ride around the area and went over to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.
We soooo wanted to get in the water, but can you see the vegetation? I can't recall what they called it, but we were told that it typically happens in early October, boo hiss! The water was so murky from all that rain, that the Glass Bottom Boat tours were cancelled. Oh well, it was a nice Park.














Our last night's dinner in Key Largo was at The Fish House.
THAT, was spectacular!
DH started with the Smoked Fish Chunks, he absolutely loved it.
Then he moved on to Mussels Marinara, which he also loved.
I had the house specialty Snapper "Matecumbe" topped with fresh tomatoes, shallots, fresh basil, capers, olive oil and lemon juice, then baked.
This Fish House favorite has been featured on the Food Network with Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives!
We ended our meal by sharing a slice of Key Lime Pie. I was told that when in The Keys, have a piece at each place that you eat, they're all different … we'll see.



Our last night. We sat out back of our hotel and watched the sun go down once more.

Next stop … KEY WEST FLORIDA!!!!