Category Archives: Travel

A New Local Family-Owned Place….

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This is one of an interesting situation where they story may or may not come clear some day. I have to start with a several years ago and Heritage Market. I think I have mentioned before about multi-generation farms that are being bought up and turned into mostly housing and some commercial. In fact, one such family has decided to sell after being here since the 1020s.

Anyway, the fourth-generation young man from another family decided he wanted to take part of their land and create a vision other than wholesale farming. I don’t recall how many acres are involved, but Heritage Market was opened with a multi-phase plan. A You-Pick area, Tiki hut, green space, food truck, small market for fruits and produce. It was also set up for events. A second hut added, along with some playground items as a building was under construction. Once opened, the building was a combination market and cafe and they had terrific homemade ice cream and sorbet. Things seemed to be going well, then suddenly there were rumors of closure.

What seems to have happened was the cafe/market has re-opened as the TUGA restaurant at Heritage Market. I was hearing good things about it, had lunch a couple of weeks ago, and we went to dinner with friends on Sunday. The people who run it have the La Flama Brazilian Steakhouse (haven’t been there, but good reports about it).

TUGA is smaller and this is the Portuguese “side” of the family. They blend the two a bit as there is a meat selection served on these huge skewers that take up quite a bit of room on a table. None of us had that as we opted for other dishes. I had salmon, Hubby had grilled octopus, friends had a pork dish and steak. Everything was delicious and the sauces are heavy on garlic, yet done with a smooth taste. We’ll definitely go back.

 

Gulliver’s Pork Chops…..

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Yes, the gap in posts is because of all sorts of overlapping matters. On the “upside”, two pressing things have been successfully completed; one is on the way to completion; one is looking good; and we’ll see if the coming week brings more progress.

Now to the title of the post. When we lived in the small, lovely seaside town of Tirrenia, the assignment I had meant we often hosted visitors with an interest in the project. (That is a way more complicated topic). Hosting often included taking the visitors to lunch or dinner. Among the other charms of the town, we had 3-4 favorite restaurants and almost a dozen others when we decided on a change. Gulliver’s however, was the hands-down favorite for taking out-of-town visitors, especially large groups. A dish they were known for was their grilled pork chop; a wood fired grill of course. What made me think of this yesterday was watching an episode of Bobby Flay when he did a double-bone chop. It was almost as good looking as what we would get at Gullivers. We never asked, but he either had someone in his family or a good friend as a supplier because no one else in town could match him for this particular dish. Everything else was good, too.

Like most of the restaurants, the house wine was not served in bottles, but from pitchers. You simply ordered red or white. We were in Tuscany after all and the house wines were not something mass-produced for export. Our personal go-to place was Cocoriba, a wonderful trattoria/pizzaria a ten-minute walk from the house. This was where I fell in love with wood-fired pizza and because we began going there when we first arrived, we became regulars during their off-season. Tirrenia is a tourist town for Europeans and Asians. We had been told the place surged with tourists June through August and it certainly did. We were always assured of a table though because we were regulars.

Unavoidable Gap…..

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In the way things can happen cascading events have kept me from posting. Even I do reach a point where things have to give a bit and in this case it has been the blog. I hope to get life back onto the hectic, yet normal hectic track this week. I have also sent word that a series I have been doing for our weekly paper will be on hold for a few weeks although I should be able to do one regular article per week. As much as I enjoy sitting down with multi-generation families to capture their stories (going back into the 1920s for some), it is a time-consuming effort.

Right before things unraveled on April 17th, I had a long day Wed, April 15th, but it included a delightful night at the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada. I was the speaker for their monthly program with my presentation about my experience in co-authoring Mystery of the Last Olympian: Titanic’s Tragic Sister Britannic with Richie Kohler. Richie’s presentations about diving the ship are of course the authentic adventure and I explained in the first minute, “This is not that.” Here is the link to the YouTube archive. The presentation is right at an hour long, so I recommend settling in with a favorite beverage if you decide to watch. It was a hybrid in-person (full house) and Zoom event. https://www.youtube.com/@TheDivingmuseum/videos

We’ll see what the week brings in the sense of I should have priorities appropriately realigned. This is truly one of those weeks when I don’t need any more unexpected tasks thrown in. Keeping fingers crossed.

Paying the Shark Tax…..

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This will make sense in a moment. First, people do ask at times about sharks and diving. Reef and nurse sharks are the two main varieties here that hang around the reefs. The simple fact is sharks are scavengers as much as predators. They want to expend as little energy as necessary when “hunting” and in the way of nature will go after the less mobile fish which are often those in their waning days. Once a shark has eaten, it has no further interest in attacking anything. People, especially divers in scuba gear, do not look like anything in their food chain. The flapping hands or feet of individuals swimming/playing in murky water though might seem so. Same with the situation of individuals on surfboards and floats. Sharks do love to eat seals and turtles. In looking up, guess what people on surfboards and floats look like? I will admit, it did take me a bit to accept this. While I’m fine with the regular encounters on the reefs, I certainly have no intention of getting into some cage for a great white shark encounter. Here, the bigger sharks such as bulls are mostly on the deep wrecks that are in the technical diving category. I haven’t heard of an attack on a diver in those cases because again, divers are not in their food chain.

Spear and other fishing is different; going back to sharks expending as little energy as needed. If someone has already caught or wounded a fish, then swooping in to snatch the fish requires very little energy for the shark. An angler battling to bring a fish in may suddenly realize most of the fish has bee yanked off the line. This is “paying the shark tax”. Our local Keys radio station has a fishing report three times a day; morning, noon, late afternoon and “Captain Matt” is matter-of-fact about this reality. The one thing that can happen is drawing multiple sharks in to create a feeding frenzy. As Captain Matt says, in that case, just move on to a new location.

More on Jazz Festival….

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Okay, now for the details about our Montreaux Jazz Festival in Miami experience. This is for sure a “splurge event” and that’s okay. Staying within walking distance is well worth it and the Courtyard Marriott was fine.

The food vendor set-up at the venue was interesting although sitting down to dine in the adjoining Bayshore Grill is a better way to go if leisurely dining is what you want. Not sure how we might go if we attend next year. The point is we understand timing better now. The experience was well worth it and the music was not what we were expecting. Part of that is because we weren’t familiar with the two performers so we had no way of knowing what they were like. Production-wise – as in light and imagery – the second show was impressive. As I think I mentioned in the previous post, the Latin Jazz was the least of my choices and all that was available when I booked. Since we are on the list, there is a chance we will get advance notice for next year. The timing may or may not work, so we’ll see how that goes.

I head back to Houston to help my sister next Thursday and my days are jammed until then and almost the entire week of my return. That has to do with known commitments and a couple of others thrown in. It really can’t be helped and maybe, just maybe, the last week will have some semblance of normal for me.

New Adventure….

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We are at the Courtyard Marriott Bayshore in Coconut Grove and  an hour will walk to the Montreaux Jazz Festival. We really don’t know what to expect as details are definitely lacking. Makes it a bit confusing for first-timers. This is the third year I think. Apparently the Montreaux group decided to expand out from Switzerland. I’m not sure how many places other than Miami or maybe they simply decided having a winter festival in a warm place was a good idea. There are supposed to be a variety of award-winning Miami chefs as food vendors or we can choose the Bayshore Club which is not on the premises of the actual venue of the Hangar. We’ve decided to go for the vendors as a might-as-well have the whole experience.

In choosing to stay within walking distance, let me just say the room price is not as much as we have occasionally paid. We are on the 8th floor and there is a pleasant balcony. Should be nice for coffee tomorrow. The rain has stopped so we should be safe from that.There is a hotel car that can take us, but we do enjoy walking.

The festival is three days and I had wanted the line-up from either Friday or Saturday, but those tickets sold out before I tried to book. It will be Latin Jazz tonight and we do enjoy others we’ve heard. We will not be staying for the 11:30 p.m. jam session. I can absolutely see true night owls loving something like that.

Traveled To Houston….

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Well, technically it’s Kingwood to be with my sister again for a family situation. I arrived Tuesday and will return Saturday. I’ve been able to help out and have at least a few more things I can help with. The weather is at least mostly sunny and temperature during the day is low 70’s. Kingwood is a lovely community with most of the amenities and services needed and the town of Humble is close by with others. There isn’t much chance for walking on this trip, but there are lots of nice trails, one of which goes along the lake which is like a five minute walk from their house. The golf course is on the opposite side of the lake although no one in the family golfs.

My sister is a big fan of the Netflix’s show “Suits”. Having watched multiple episodes of it, I can’t say I care for it much. Quite like “Vikings” and Game of Thrones” with constant scheming for power and position; just metaphorical killings instead of real ones and no dragons.

 

Nine Hours for Today….

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Although we had a great visit with our friends, topping off a good DEMA, I was juggling different queries and issues via phone, text, and finally email today. We left out this morning, did nine hours and have stopped in Ocala for the night. There is a cluster of motels off Exit 354 and fine dining is not in store. We’re walking next door to the Cracker Barrel.

We had a lovely brunch yesterday with our friends at their clubhouse – very “British” inspired with lots of stone and wood as it overlooks the golf course. We didn’t do champagne as that was planned for later during “Magic Time” – will explain in a bit. As I said to my girlfriend when the question about brunch came up, Hubby has to work most Sundays. Even though we do now have two places to go for brunch, he simply isn’t usually free to go. It was quite pleasant for him and yes, he did do the omelette station as well as other items. My girlfriend made shrimp creole for dinner last night and prior to that we went out onto their back terrace for sunset – what they call “Magic Time”. The color of the sky wasn’t spectacular, but was nice and we had wraps against what was still chilly. Bourbon all around – my girlfriend’s as a bourbon sour, then she and I swapped to champagne for dinner. We then did have a discussion of different Bourbons available and one called New Riff is something we will have to look for. Apparently is it limited in production so we’ll see what happens with that.

Oh, dinner tonight was country fried steak for me; catfish for Hubby and we are taking the extra biscuits with us.

 

Last Day of Dive Show…..

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We left yesterday morning for the 10.5-hour drive to Huntsville and I didn’t have time to post. I got around to all six booths Thursday on my to-do list to say hello to friends and touch base with those work-related. Also attended one session about this amazing small island in Greece where they have been finding more ancient shipwrecks than anyone can imagine. We had seen this on an Episode of Expedition Unknown with Josh Gates a couple of months ago. The American guy featured was the presenter and he had all the extra fascinating details.

We were so caught up in the trip that we literally forgot our last night tradition of the fine dining restaurant, Everglades, was also our 37th anniversary. so it all worked out well. I forgot, however, I wasn’t supposed to order the lobster bisque as an appetizer. Not because it isn’t delicious, but because it is so rich and filling. We decided to go all for seafood. Hugh had the Chilean sea bass with risotto and some kind of sauce and mine was halibut with black garlic sauce and yes, it was terrific. Between the bisque and the entrees, we had no room for even a small dessert. Coffee from a french press was excellent though.

The drive to Huntsville was without incident other than being 10.5 hours with only a very quick lunch break and one more quick stop. We didn’t make it in before dark, so actually finding the house was a bit tricky. Another place where house numbers aren’t lit up well. Having pizza delivered was the perfect answer and we got caught up with all the initial events over the past years. “Girl Day” for us today and the guys can do whatever that will, of course, include watching the game on the very large TV.

 

Full Day Two at Dive Show……

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Yesterday was a mix as Hubby and I went separate ways to tend to our different roles. He attended some professional development courses and I had a nice catch-up lunch with Richie Kohler before we went for a book-signing at the publisher who did Mystery of the Last Olympian: Titanic’s Tragic Sister Britannic. Unlike other shows, there was not a long line of people because Richie was not giving a presentation. There were of course those who did come specifically to see him and as word spread others came by. Oh, a quick aside about lunch. The Rosen where we are staying has the bar and grill as the only sit-down restaurant at lunch time. However, the lovely throw-the-doors-open to have an inside-outside option doesn’t work well when the temperature is still in the low 60s. It was sunny, but the relaxing poolside lunch I originally envisioned was inside instead. The Caribbean decor is still appropriate and their Cuban sliders are delicious. I resisted the option of french or yucca fries and had salad with a lovely dressing.

I didn’t spend time in the Exhibit Hall after the book signing as that is my primary focus for today as well as attending a couple of sessions. The big event was the Gala last night where five awardees are recognized for their amazing contributions to the dive and marine world. From the 95-year who has been a major figure in hyperbaric chambers and treatments as well as other things to a photographer who fell in love with the idea at age ten, became certified to dive at age twelve and has won five Emmy awards for her breath-taking work, all have remarkable stories. Although we have avoided attending this event in the past, we were invited due to a project we are somewhat involved in. I can’t really explain it yet, but it’s a highly technical, new approach to introducing potentially millions of people to the underwater world. Hubby did look good in his rented tuxedo and I even managed to put on a little make-up.