Our Disney trip in photos....

We had such a blast last weekend in Disney! Staying in the Epcot resort area and being able to walk into the park was such a treat, I don't want to experience it any other way again. We walked in and were in England... Right up my ally :) 

Without further adieu, I give you.... The weekend in pictures -

Pulling up to the Dolphin!

The view from our room, lake view with a balcony!
That's the swan in the background - Swan Lake anyone?

Nerd Alert at the fountain in the lobby!

Dolphin!

Heading to the empty Boardwalk for dinner

Yum! Flying Fish Crab Cake!

When you don't make reservations,
you're forced to sit in front of the grill - At least we were able to give
the chef the thumbs up on our steak and scallops!

Napkin... Let the Memories Begin!

Andy on the Boardwalk...

Dolphin at night... 

Drinks at Todd English's BlueZoo

Saturday at Epcot!

Spaceship Earth anyone?

Welcome to Our Future!

Andy and I in our solar powered Jetsons mobile

Character Breakfast at the Swan...

Mmmmmmm... Mickey waffle!

Cari and Goofy... can't tell which is which ;)

Keith, Sam and Casey warming up to Goofy

Just a little chipmunk tail action...

That's a good note to end on... A little Chipmunk tail :) 

Been to Disney lately? Going soon? Do tell!

Key West... OMG

Can you believe I had to wait until Friday to feel back to normal enough to write this post?! I'm getting OLD!! I also write this post having not even seen most of the pictures from this past weekend.... Get on that Carl!

Nerd Alert!

We all had an amazing weekend in the Southern Most Tip of the US celebrating Keith's Birthday...

Southern Most Strangers

Casa Marina was more than excellent to us loud people at the pool...

Casa Marina views... Including Carl on her balcony...

We ate, we drank... We saw, we conquered... Friday night started with a trip to Sloppy Joe's....

This is the only pic I took there... Riveting...

Then to Rumor Lounge where they have a Men's and a Whoever bathroom...

Yet another riveting photo....

And then to Hog's Breath and a couple other unmentionable places... :)

Saturday consisted of pool time and Keith's Birthday dinner at Conch Republic... Yum!

Conch Republic Shenanigans

Sunday, time to go home... Breakfast with the roosters at the amazing Blue Heaven and shopping at Wanderlust across the street. I got an amazing mermaid shirt by a local Key West artist... Love! Reviews on both of these places to come!

Outside at Blue Heaven

So Monday morning rolls around.... I'm in the drive through line at Dunkin and what am I behind?

Key West Cluster...

You can check out my Yelp on Casa Marina here.... Reviews of others to come!

My only question is... When are we going back?

I'm a 2012 Elite Yelper!

Huge thanks to Johnny T for voting me an 2012 Elite Yelper - I've even got a new shiny badge to prove it!

Of course, as always, follow my reviews all around town on yelp here.

Mangia Monday - Bru's Room Coconut Creek

This past Saturday night we made the trek up to Coconut Creek and enjoyed the Miami Heat Game at Bru's Room.

There are 50 million tvs (slight exaggeration) and plenty of space for you and 500 of your closest friends in this multi-room mega-plex. Bru's has several locations, but this one is definitely the largest.

Heat Win!

While we did have to get there almost 3 hours early to secure the best seat in the house (a booth with plenty of room in the corner), it was definitely worth it once the crowd started rolling in. We feasted on wings, beers, drinks and 4th quarter cheeseburgers! Best of all - The Heat won!

You can check out the full selection on Bru's menu here or check out my Yelp on Bru's here.

Happy Monday - School's out for summer and we're going to Buffalo this weekend! Woohoo!

Mangia Monday.... Hard Rock Edition!

Yay Structure! Mangia Mondays... Where to and not to eat in South Florida!

For those who are not familiar with my lingo Italiano, Mangia is to eat!

This past weekend we celebrated my husband Andy's birthday at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL. A staple in the South FL night life scene, we have been coming here for a good time for years. Years I tell ya!

Happy Bday Andy - At Center Bar

Soooooo to break tradition from our usual Tatu birthday celebrations, this time we decided to try the semi-newly opened Cafe Martorano.  This is another location and more of a cafe than the original Martoranos that's in Fort Lauderdale. Can you say YUM!? Apparently this Martoranos has two separate seating areas, inside or out. While we would normally automatically opt for the under AC choice, we were greeted with the option of a 2 and a half hour wait for indoors or immediate seating outdoors. Break out the pony tail, lets sit outside!

I wish I would have taken a picture of the food, but I was too busy shoveling it all in my face. That's right... face! Thanks Louis CK! We ordered 4 menu choices which we all shared family style. We split a meatball. That's right, one meatball - 4 people. At $18 for a meatball, I think it was well worth it to feed 4. Then moved on to linguini with white clam sauce, a cheesesteak AND a pizza. At Martoranos you can also order the house Martorano wine, which is delish! A bottle of Pinot Grigio and a bottle of Chianti please! I'm so ready to go back again.... Would even wait 2 and a half hours if I had to - Delish! You can see the awesome menu for Martoranos here.

Now comes the irritating part.... Bongos. While we had all previously been huge fans of the upstairs bar (including me wanting to have my 30th birthday celebration there) that all went downhill. We wanted a bottle of champagne and a seat. They were out of champagne... Now, it's Saturday night at 8:00pm and you are out of champagne?? Isn't there Happy Pappy's across the street? Couldn't you send someone to Publix? We were so confused! SO CONFUSED!!! Now we can see why Bongo's is all over Groupon and Travelzoo. It's terrible!!! They can't give away their food and drinks! Also, I should mention that Andy said the bathrooms were worse than a NYC subway. After that lovely tidbit, we didn't even attempt to brave the women's ones.

Bongos upstairs... Super cool. If only they could get it together!

Though Bongos was terrible, I do have to thank them for being SO stupid that we ended back at our favorite hangout - Tatu! Tatu - a well prepared, delicious, gourmet Japanese fusion style restaurant, was NOT out of champagne. Smart! I knew I loved them for a reason....

Finally!

You can check out my Yelp's on Tatu, Martoranos and Bongos by clicking the links!

What's your favorite Hard Rock restaurant?

Monday.... Errrrr Tuesday....

Happy Monday.... Well Tuesday... Still feels like a Monday...

Want, need to get back on a schedule here people... That's what the summer is for. Only a couple weeks left until Buffalo and my summer vacation!!! So many plans for the summer... Not only just Buffalo, but Key West too! Lots of birthdays, weddings and other shenanigans.

Speaking of Shenanigans... Even the ATM is sticky

What did you do for Memorial Day weekend? Andy and I went to a BBQ at the Edelman's house and played with the kiddies in the pool. Yesterday we also ventured out to see The Dictator - Hilarious. There's a scene with a zip line and a robe... You just have to see it. 

We originally tried going to the amazing stupendous Wilton Wings.... Bonk... Nope Closed... Then to Jezebel for a little shopping... Bonk... No again. Soooooo we ended up just taking a cruise down A1A and stopping at Fort Lauderdale Ale House before our movie at Coral Ridge AMC. Can you say free movie tickets? Thanks to a light problem when we went to see The Muppets we scored free tix and only had to pay $14 for popcorn and a soda this time! Ha! :)

Also since this weekend, I'm back to being a brunette! Big thanks to Mama Fullone for putting me back on the wagon - my hair grows too fast for those damn highlights and who needs another car payment anyway?

This weekend I finally finally finally made it through EVERYTHING in my Google Reader. I had over 2000 posts unread... Sorry to the friends and Andy that kept constantly getting emails from me pointing out the cool people, places and events... Some of which had already past. Oh well... Lesson learned.  

You can see my Yelp's on Fort Lauderdale Ale House & Coral Ridge AMC by clicking the links.

Thanks for stopping by! Check out a new summer-fied and updated blog coming soon!

Deering Seafood Festival on Sunday....

This Sunday at the Deering Estate in Miami is the greatest seafood fest in South Florida - The Deering Seafood Festival. I'm SOOOOOOO excited that we are able to go this year!

We went in 2010, but in 2011 I had an art show. The art show was a flop, so I was cursing that we weren't able to make it. All the more reason to enjoy this one!

Cari, Casey, Maria and I in 2010

In 2010 we feasted on oysters, paella, stone crabs, mussels and anything you can possibly imagine. It was great - we set up our little blanketed area and camped out for the day. They have a mini art show, a rock climbing wall, a stage with live music and pontoon boat rides to entertain you for the day also.

If you're small enough, you can even enjoy the Uncle Andy ride!

The event features the best restaurants in South Florida and local celebrity chefs. Miami's winner of Food Networks Chopped, Giorgio Rapicavoli will be there preparing specialties and doing demonstrations. There will also be lots of other cooking demonstrations under the big tent. I have to be honest though.... We like to just park it and pig out.... maybe dance a little :)

If you're planning on going, you can buy your tickets in advance here. They are $10 off per ticket if you purchase before Sunday. So $15 in advance and $25 at the door. Seems a little steep, but once you get in the food and drink prices aren't bad.

I would also say that parking can be a bit of a hassle so get there early! If you come across a park and ride, definitely take advantage.

You can see my Yelp on Deering Seafood Fest here - Hope you can make it out!

15th Street Fisheries... Yum!

This past Sunday Andy and I were driving around checking out a few different events in the area and decided to have lunch at one of our favorite places in Ft. Lauderdale - 15th Street Fisheries.

We've been coming here since back when we were dating... (Insert Awwwwwwwwwwww) and it's just such a staple to the Ft. Lauderdale area. Fresh seafood on the water - What more could you ask for?

View of the docks from our seat at the bar

We were surprised at the 45 minute wait for lunch since we arrived around 2:00... Late lunch crowd. So we just sat at the bar.

The food here is excellent! We've never been disappointed. I always get the crab cake sandwich. It comes with fries and a great dill sauce - So yum!

Another must try is the Bloody Mary.... This ain't your grandmama's bloody mary - don't go without having one! It's like a meal in a glass, and at $10 a piece I guess it should be!  It's got the celery stalk... But also an olive, a pepperchini and a HUGE shrimp.... My mouth is officially watering.

Is this not the most delicious thing you've ever seen?

On Yelp, there are a lot of people saying it's touristy. I've really never noticed it being touristy until we noticed the water taxi stop - other than that it's kind of hard to find, down a back street. More of a locals place to me... You can pull up with your boat, fill up gas, get bait, have a meal, etc.

Inside Bar Area... Don't ask why there's a dozen eggs on the bar

They have free valet if you're driving up, which helps because of the location. There's definitely limited parking.

The only thing bad I can say is that it gets super crowded when the weather is nice and can take a while to get a table... But well worth it once you do. Sit outside! You can also buy bait to feed the Tarpon with. Great for kids!

I should also mention that we were able to score a free beer for Andy for checking in on foursquare - see, that whole rant on social media does prove beneficial sometimes... FREE BEER!

You can check out my Yelp on Fifteenth Street Fisheries here or take a drive down on a nice day and enjoy the ambiance!

Weekend in Orlando...

This past weekend Andy and I made the trip up to Orlando for his best friend's wedding and a little side trip to Walt Disney World!

We went up on Friday morning and headed straight to the Magic Kingdom - We had a deadline and had to be back at our hotel for the rehearsal dinner so we did a crash course in MK which included all the best rides of course!

She said, "Hold him like you really love him"

The funniest thing that happened would have to be the fact that we were stuck on Splash Mountain for 45 minutes. It's never a good sign when you're in the next log to go out and a siren goes off and all of the workers run to the back.... LOL. So we sat and sat and sat and sat... A guy came out and tied a washcloth to the front of our log... Were we the guinea pigs?! We made it through alive and on the way out were handed some pretty cool fast passes good for ANY RIDE in the park... Sweet!

So we left and headed to our hotel - Bahama Bay Resort. It's located just a few miles outside of Disney and all of the wedding festivities were held there.

It was beautiful and really reminded us of the hotel that we stayed at in Grand Bahama for our wedding - Pelican Bay. The wedding went off without a hitch at the beach on the property and the ceremony was held after at the Tradewinds Restaurant and Bar. They had an awesome photo booth for us to play in too - Such a great day!

Eric & Jenny Grossman

After the wedding we were off to Epcot!

Epcot!

Champagne in fake France....

 
We decided for Day 2 that would we just do the World Showcase and take our time. A completely different experience when you try to slow yourself down and get out of "Disney mode". We kept catching ourselves... "No, slow down! We stayed until about 6:00 and went back to the hotel to hang out with everyone.

Day 3 (our final day) we spent in Epcot as well - we love us some Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow! It's by far our fave park. We had lunch at Teppan Edo in Japan which we came back to after our last Disney trip because it's so yummy! We also spent a tiny fortune in the Japan gift shop - they have the coolest stuff!

Cheers from England... Well, fake England

After a day filled with drinks and fun we were ready to drive back home. So that was our weekend! You can check out my Yelp's on Bahama Bay Resort & Teppan Edo by clicking the links!

Yard House.... Yum!

This weekend Andy and I ventured down to Hallandale Beach and went to The Village at Gulfstream Park for dinner and a little light gambling. We particularly went because we wanted to check out the restaurant we've heard so many rave reviews about - Yard House.

The entire area in Gulfstream has been completely revamped over the last couple years. It now hosts 2 casinos and lots of great restaurants and shopping. We've been to a couple other restaurants in the center and always noticed The Yard House being packed... Now we know why -  this place is awesome!

With around 112 beers to choose from and a great food and drink menu, Yard House was a great evening out! We did have to wait almost an hour for a table, but went at peak time - around 7:30. We also wanted to sit outside which was a longer wait. Must say, it was well worth it! We perched at the bar, watched the Heat game and it went by quickly. 

Dark and not so great pic from the bar....

Once seated, we decided on the Lobster, Crab and Artichoke dip for an app. I had the Shrimp Rice Bowl for dinner and Andy had Lettuce Wraps and Calamari. Everything was great! It was a great portion size and we were even able to take home lunch for the next day. Everything was priced right, including the drinks. The menu was so crazy big it was so hard to decide on what to eat. Very excited to have tried this place - We now have a new fave spot!

After dinner we went to the casino which we were amazed and laughing hysterically that the house wine (red and white) was $2.12 a glass - amazing - drinks for everyone!

$6.36 for 3 glasses of wine? Sign me up!

We left the casino at about even for spendings and winnings all thanks to Andy on the Roulette machine - Bonus!

You can check out my Yelp on Yard House here - We will definitely be back many many more times!

FAT Village Art Walk & Tap 42...

Saturday night in downtown Fort Lauderdale.... So many things to do!

We started out our Saturday night at a funky new restaurant downtown called Tap 42.  Tap 42 is Ft. Lauderdale's newest craft beer bar and kitchen. They have 42 different beers on tap and over 100 bottled beers. AND... right up my alley, though it is new construction, they've used as much local, recycled and refurbished materials as possible... Awesome! Located off Andrews Ave and SE 14th Street it's easy to get to from whatever area you're coming from. This entire downtown area is going through a revitalization...  or as Keith said, "Gentrification" - We all learned a new word.

We had an awesome table outside (and impeccable timing as it poured rain like an hour or so after we left) Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of my own here, so I had to rip some off of their website (I was too consumed in our bottle of wine)

Outside of Tap 42...

Outside area where we sat and view indoors...

Inside Area of Tap 42...

We were there around 6:00pm and didn't have a problem getting a great table outside for a party of 6. It definitely got a lot busier the later it got. We dined happily on our bevy of appetizers which included an awesome meat and cheese platter...  Yum!

For the main course most of us had burgers, which were yum! The price was reasonable for the service and ambiance - Very cool in that you're at a restaurant surrounded by high rise buildings and the hospital. Just an overall fun experience - Great for date nights or a night out with friends. Very glad we tried it out!

You can see the entire Tap 42 menu here.

You can also check out the entire beer menu here.

After dinner we went to an art walk downtown that I have been wanting to check out for a while. Every month there is an event called FAT Village Art Walk... FAT (Flagler Arts and Technology) Village is located downtown just North of Broward Blvd on the intersection of 1st & 5th. The Art Walks are held on the last Saturday of every month from 7:00pm-11:00pm.... Oh and did I mention it's all FREE?

Fat Village Art Walk Map

 

 

 

We had such a great time walking around here - Our favorite (and I really hope I'm getting it right from the map) was the Fort Lauderdale Scenic Studio in 523A. This studio holds all of the props, costumes and whatever other fun stuff you've seen from events around Ft. Lauderdale. Like parade floats, massive Hard Rock signs from the boat parade, mermaids... And all of it is there for you to play with. You can touch everything, climb on it, take pics with it, go inside...whatever you want. So much FUN! All of the people that work here are so nice too. We were talking to one woman who said they just open the warehouse up because they love to see peoples reactions to everything. She even helped us pull out the 7 foot Rio Jesus that you'll see in the pics... Yep!


Here's some silly pics from inside...

Me with a massive Hollywood sign...

Another massive boat parade sign...

Cari and a giant 7 foot plaster copy of the Rio Jesus...

Rachel and Cari in a mini gingerbread house....

As you can see, you can spend hours in this place playing! After this were a few more galleries with serious artwork. Serious expensive artwork! There was also a bar with a live band playing with a free open bar! Of course the line was crazy, so we spent our $3 on a glass of wine each (cheap, right?) Such a great time!!!

There were food vendors and a couple of art vendors in the street. Cari bought a pretty new turquoise necklace outside of the next gallery we went into which was the Rolling Stock Gallery and Rolling Stock Alley. They also had a live band playing and artists doing graffiti in the back alley. In the middle area there was a blank banner with spray paint and sharpies in all colors to play with.... So we did!

Green Cycle Designs....

Doopie Moos.....

Andy's contribution... Our initials and anniversary... What a cutie!

So..... that was our night out at Tap 42 and FAT Village Art Walk - We definitely recommend checking out both of these destinations. You can also check out my Yelp on Tap 42   - See you at the next Art Walk!

Peace 25 cents... At Rolling Stock Alley