eat like you mean it

our spring break adventure was a seven day caribbean cruise with my mom, donald and i. while the ports are great and all, i honestly have to say we were mostly there for the 24/7 food [and i was also in it for the sunshine, though not everyone shared that sentiment]. some friends of ours recently went on a 'love like you mean it' marriage cruise, so it obviously made sense for us to name our voyage the 'eat like you mean it' cruise.  our days at sea looked a little something like this:

• wake up
• eat breakfast
• attend trivia activity
• grab a snack
• find a comfy chair/bed in the quiet zone and lay in the sun [one of us did not participate in this activity]
• eat lunch
• attend trivia activity
• grab a snack
• lay in the sun and take a dip in the adult only pool [see note above]
• get ready for dinner
• eat a three [or four or five] course dinner
• go to a show or watch an outdoor movie
• eat second dinner [always heavily revolving around nutella crepes]
• play cards [specifically mastering the art of three handed canasta]
• go to sleep

i’d like to say this list is exaggerated, but that would be lying. we did meander off the ship a bit when we were in port. donald stuck with me for an adventurous climb up dunn’s river falls in jamaica, and he also loving endured a day at the beach in grand cayman…i was in my happy place strolling the beach and floating in my tube, he and my mom were under an umbrella in their beach chairs. 

we spent an extra night in miami on our way back home and i managed to coerce my two compadres into accompanying me on one last outing. we requested our first ever uber, rode over to south beach, ate some delicious burgers from the shake shack and strolled to the beach for one last chance to get my feet in the water and sand between my toes.  [full disclosure: they later both admitted to enjoying the excursion]

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the eateries of raytona beach

while driving down 350 the other day donald decided that as a lifelong resident of his beloved raytona, he should make it his personal mission to visit every dining establishment this fine town has to offer. we figured he must have a pretty good head start from his first thirty eight years, specifically in the pizza and fast food categories.

when we got home we set up shop on the couch and got our google on. first we mapped out the boundaries based on the raytown city limits, and then proceeded to list and categorize all the options. we left no stone unturned and ended up with a total of 54. in the midst of our searching we discovered that las chilis, a long standing mexican restaurant, is actually known for their cheeseburgers. i know. it's weird. but we were pretty excited to check them out and don senior was kind enough to oblige. so the three of us went to a mexican restaurant and we all ordered cheeseburgers. and they were delicious.

honestly we don't eat out much unless it's initiated by friends or family, so it may take us awhile to get through the list. or i may get wild and crazy and create a special envelope just for the eateries of raytona beach.

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anniversary number two

for the second birthday of our marriage we kept with tradition and opted for one of the fancier establishments on our 'fried chicken of kansas city' list. i wanted to figure out a way to make it feel like date night as opposed to just a dinner out so i pulled up a list of fun date questions i had recently come across and we started in. we predicted each others answers to some of the questions, but we both learned some new things too. we were only two thirds of the way through the list when we finished our chicken, so we scouted out a swanky coffee shop to hang out in while we finished up the list. it was a really fun date with my very favorite husband!

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