Florida Stuff and a Little Plug!!

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends let me welcome all the new and old followers I notice today that I reached 700!!  Woo-Hoo!!!  It's a nice feeling to know that my little Blog postings are enjoyed by so many!!

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I thought to day I would mention a few of the things we did in Florida - one of the things I did was to take a Flat Stanley with me.  I was sent one to visit here in SF from a little girl in Australia and it arrived the day before I left to go to Florida so he went with me...  and some of the places he visited in the Greater Daytona Beach Area were....

...breakfast at the I-95 Exit waffle House in Ormond Beach...  and ...

...a Salt Water Taffy shop on the Boardwalk in Daytona Beach .... and...

... Bruce Rossmeyer's Harley Davidson Shop.

It was lots of fun taking pictures around town and I was amazed at how many people I knew who Flat Stanley was.  This weekend I will run around SF with him and get some snaps of the city sites - then it is back to Australia from his America adventure!!

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For my Mom's birthday we went to one of her favorite restaurants - The River Grille - on the Tomoka River.  here is an old stereoptican slide of the river c. 1905...

It was a great dinner and we sat outside on the veranda over looking the river...

We started off with some tasty hush puppies - served with spicy aioli...

and I had some delicious fried oysters - with cole slaw and more hush puppies...  it was a really nice dinner.

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I am often amazed at how many offers/emails I get weekly and sometimes daily for all sorts of products and folks out there wanting me to use my Blog for plugging different things - often things I have never heard of to begin with.  Anytime I mention something here it is because I have used some or been there done that and that's how I am going to keep it here at BSBotW - my Blog my rules!!!!

 With that said I wanted to mention something I read about a few months ago but just never could find here in SF.....  Bacon Salt.  You know my love of bacon and just about anything bacon related...  well I looked all over the place for this stuff and just couldn't find any.  While I was in Florida I ran to the Winn Dixie (a grocery store) for my Mom and I found some....

...and last night we had some fresh summer corn and I sprinkled some of this stuff on it and let me say it was just super delicious!!!  I think I paid about $3.99 or so for this bottle - and from now on this will be a staple in my spice cupboard!!!!  Thank you, thank you Justin and Dave!!!!!!!!!!!

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for the info about Flower Floss yesterday, it has come in handy already!  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!

Take care,

edgar

Florida Trip Eats

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I am so happy you have been enjoying the snaps of Florida.  If you ever get the chance to visit the Sunshine State there are lots of things to do outside of Central Florida and all the attractions there.  Don't get me wrong - I love me some Disney/Sea World/Universal but Florida is so much more than the man-made theme parks.  It is a sad fact but, often the readily available and naturally beautiful is overlooked for the more flashy and obvious things in life.

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Today I wanted to mention some of the eats I enjoyed whilst visitng.

From reading this Blog you know that I am a big fan of the Diners.  One of my favorites is Waffle House!  You don't find them outside to the South much and there are none anywhere by me here in northern California.

They usually occur near highways and are great for fast and tasty breakfasts!!  The one pictured above is in Daytona Beach at International Drive and 95 and is as good as all the rest.  The one I ate at the most is the one in Ormond beach on US 1 and 95.  You get a great meal for very little!!  

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Another place that exists in the South and when I was growing up and lived there you could only find in a Mall location is Chic-fil-a.  They are some here in California but none in the SF - 

You just can't beat a good chicken sandwich, Cole slaw and some waffle cut fries!!!  Tha's some good eating!!!

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I also love some good Barbecue - and Dustin's fits the bill.  Along with very tasty pulled pork they have fried okra - and I do love okra - anyway it is fixed, but especially fried. They serve is with a side of ranch dressing (which I don't really care for).

We had Barbecue a few times while I was there and even went there for my mom's Birthday dinner - where I was the only one to order Barbecue pork - my mom, brother and nephew all ordered fried shrimp!!

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There you go sports fans - a really nice trip south - it was hot, but nice!!!  Thanks again for stopping by and for you super comments!!

Have a great weekend!!

Take care,

edgar

Florida - Side Trips Pt 2 - lots of snaperoos

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends here we go with Part 2 of my Florida Adventure.

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In Daytona Beach is a gem of a Museum.  The collections are terrific and I usually try and get there each time I visit.  Click HERE for more info.

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One of the side trips I took was sort of last minute.  I had just finished up breakfast and was sitting there....  thinking what to do, what to do...  I think I'll drive to St Augustine.  I hadn't been there is years and have always enjoyed visiting there immensely.  You can click HERE for a site that has some info, but is very commercial.   The drive is about an hour or so and it was another beautiful day.  I did take a bunch of snaps......

I think the main reason to go is to visit the Castillio de San Marcos - it is a wonderful historic site and you can climb and walk all over most of it!!

There are cool armaments to see....

There a great battlements to scamper around and imagine firing the canons - they actually fire one at 1:00pm which you can hear all over the city!!

Standing here daydreaming and looking out over the Bay towards the Atlantic ocean you can easily imagine Pirates ships coming in for attack.

Looking down from the battlements into the interior of the fort.

.....and just like other historic sites you have the costumed interpretation team.

These are the old city gates

I love the old houses and buildings the litter the historic district - they are now restaurants and small shops - some good some not so good and some just dreadful.  But, you get that anywhere that lots of out-of-towners gather with vacation bucks!!

I couldn't go to St Augustine and not visit the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Augustine.

an interior shot of the Basilica.

The High alter

A beautiful side alter to Our Lady.

A great old cemetery that is closed to the public... but look into the distance and you can make out the Castillio.  I love looking at older cemeteries they are just bursting with history and info!!

On the way home - I drove up taking US 1 - and going home I went across the Bridge of Lions and took A1A along the beach - a great drive, but not fast.  You can see the ocean most of the way and get some super breezes!!  I did stop one more time at the Light House in Anastasia State Park.  You can click HERE for more info.

The 1874 Brick Lighthouse

The 1876 brick Lighthouse keepers house - it is a really beautiful site!!
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That about wraps it up for today sports fans.  Only one more day with a few more things 

- if you can take more of my trip!!  :)

Thanks for stopping by, do come again.

Take care,

edgar

Some Stitchin' and Florida Side Trips Pt 1

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends I thought I would start off the post today with some stitching stuff....

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I took part in a couple of HOE Exchanges - one of them was the "Prairie School Seasonal Exchange."  With the stitchers stitching the partners choice of season. I stitched and Autumnal piece for Angela 

- here is a snap - 

- My stitching partner was Faye.  She stitched for me a wonderful needle book 

- and here are a couple of snaps - 

 This is the outside cover

and on the inside she included some size 28 needles (my favorites) and some lovely pins she made.  I love this special piece and it looks great in my stitching basket.

I also took part in the "Snowman" Ornament Round.  Today is the mailing day and mine goes out this morning, but my stitching partner Meari sent mine early - and here is a snap - 

How cute is he!!  I love the little snowflake embellishments!!  Thank you both for these lovelies!!  It is wonderful experiences getting and giving like these that keep me exchanging!!!!

Also on the stitching front is some recently acquired stash....

From l to r an older BBD Pattern and a "Florida" Tree chart I picked up in Florida... a cute Blacksheep Pyn Cushion chart, the "Bliss" sampler, an older Heartstring sampler and the Summer Mystery Sampler - as you can see all the "non" progress I have made on this piece.  I think I will wait until all three pieces come out before I start - I chose 35ct Confederate Grey for the linen - it is a really great colour.

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Now on to Some Florida stuff - I think I will break up the FL posts over the next few days.  Today I wanted to talk about the trips within the trip - or - the side trips.  Starting off with a Birthday dinner for my mom down at our cousins house in Ponce Inlet.  They live right on the Halifax river, they boat a lot.  Here is a snap from their dock looking west towards the river - 

You step out of their house onto the pool deck and then down to this dock - it is really beautiful and breezy.  This is actually a man made inlet the feeds into the river in the distance.  Here is a snap of all of us taken by a neighbor - 

From l to r is...  my sister, PA (Gordon's wife), me, my mom, Gordon, Scotty (Howard's wife) and Howard - Gordon and Howard are brothers and 1st cousins once removed. You can see the great pool on the right and the sunset reflected in the window.  It was a great evening and super fun to get together!!  We drove home along A1A and the summer evening with the top down was just "delicious!!!"  (no other way to describe the early evening!!)
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 Another side trip I went on was a visit to Ocala.  I moved from there to SF almost 18 years ago.  When I lived there I worked as a Curator at the Appleton Museum - on this trip I wanted to revisit and also stop off at a stitching shop.  Here are a couple of snaps...

This is Brick City CS - a great small shop between Silver Springs and Ocala.  It was well worth a visit as they where really nice and I needed a couple of things.

This is the Appleton Museum and if you are ever get close enough well worth a visit.  I stopped here for a few hours and met up with some people I worked with all those years ago - it was lots of fun!!  I then had a very late lunch and headed back to Daytona Beach.  It is very easy drive to get to Ocala  - it is a straight shot on SR 40 - and takes about an hour to get there.  On the way back I just had to take a snap of this in Barberville-

When I was driving over I almost wrecked the car when I saw this giant pink chicken - and knew I would have to stop and get a snap for the Blog!!

I think I'll wrap it up for today.  Stop back tomorrow for Part 2 of "Florida Side Trips."  Thanks for stopping by today - and for your super comments!!!

Take care,

edgar