Monday, November 29, 2004
it's aliiiiiive!
What would the world be like without 12-hour-long car trips? We make them at least four times a year (that's FOUR COMPLETE DAYS spent driving, for those of you who don't feel sufficiently sorry for us yet, with an infant, no less). We've survived another one, I guess.
Florida was not too bad. The in-laws are always great hosts, letting us stay at their house instead of in a hotel, and feeding us til we explode.
This trip, they watched Rabbit while Ben and I went skulking around Orlando; on Friday we went down to International Drive (mostly the tourist trap stores Ben likes), and that night we went over to Downtown Disney to eat at Rainforest Café. We skipped the inside because the wait was about two hours and sat out on the deck instead (only a fifteen-minute wait). I know the atmosphere inside the restaurant is supposed to be the draw, but we kind of wanted to sit outside and enjoy the warm weather. The deck is beside a lake, so ducks and everything swam close to us. Highlight: a heron stood on the little ledge next to our table. A girl at the table next to us was proclaiming its cuteness, but then it swooped down, grabbed a fish out of the lake, and gulped it down all in one smooth motion, and the kid decided it was a mean bird. Inspiring story, huh?
Back to the food: the crabcakes were the best seafood thing I've ever eaten. In my life. No, I mean it. They weren't like the ones that come in a box in the frozen food section. They were big lumps of crabmeat held together . . . in some delicious manner. Damn, they were good. I also had the shrimp platter, mostly because I wanted to try the shrimp embrochette, since I'd never heard that word before. They ended up being shrimp wrapped in bacon and stuffed with crabmeat. Pretty good. The meal was expensive; luckily, Ben's parents were nice enough to give us money for dinner. (Told you they were awesome.)
So I had a good Thanksgiving, even if I wasn't with my normal Thanksgiving Day crowd. The Thanksgiving feast was splendid -- my favorite part was the sweet potatoes cut in half and topped with brown sugar and marshmallows, then baked in the skin.
I did miss getting to put up the tree on Friday, but we should probably worry about moving, like, a bed into the house first. This weekend is Ben's fancy-fancy company party, and then I can finally concentrate on making the xmas presents I need to make. The holidays are going by hella fast this year.
Florida was not too bad. The in-laws are always great hosts, letting us stay at their house instead of in a hotel, and feeding us til we explode.
This trip, they watched Rabbit while Ben and I went skulking around Orlando; on Friday we went down to International Drive (mostly the tourist trap stores Ben likes), and that night we went over to Downtown Disney to eat at Rainforest Café. We skipped the inside because the wait was about two hours and sat out on the deck instead (only a fifteen-minute wait). I know the atmosphere inside the restaurant is supposed to be the draw, but we kind of wanted to sit outside and enjoy the warm weather. The deck is beside a lake, so ducks and everything swam close to us. Highlight: a heron stood on the little ledge next to our table. A girl at the table next to us was proclaiming its cuteness, but then it swooped down, grabbed a fish out of the lake, and gulped it down all in one smooth motion, and the kid decided it was a mean bird. Inspiring story, huh?
Back to the food: the crabcakes were the best seafood thing I've ever eaten. In my life. No, I mean it. They weren't like the ones that come in a box in the frozen food section. They were big lumps of crabmeat held together . . . in some delicious manner. Damn, they were good. I also had the shrimp platter, mostly because I wanted to try the shrimp embrochette, since I'd never heard that word before. They ended up being shrimp wrapped in bacon and stuffed with crabmeat. Pretty good. The meal was expensive; luckily, Ben's parents were nice enough to give us money for dinner. (Told you they were awesome.)
So I had a good Thanksgiving, even if I wasn't with my normal Thanksgiving Day crowd. The Thanksgiving feast was splendid -- my favorite part was the sweet potatoes cut in half and topped with brown sugar and marshmallows, then baked in the skin.
I did miss getting to put up the tree on Friday, but we should probably worry about moving, like, a bed into the house first. This weekend is Ben's fancy-fancy company party, and then I can finally concentrate on making the xmas presents I need to make. The holidays are going by hella fast this year.
