Savannah Night

We had one extra night to spend on our trip to the south last year and decided we would return to Savannah to spend the evening. Savannah is the location of the first out of town trip my husband and I took when we first started dating. We had fond memories of walking around the historic town and going on a haunted pub tour.

We like to stay in vacation rentals but since our visit was limited to one night we decided upon a historic hotel. East Bay Inn was a perfect place to rest. We were in walking distance to pretty much every where we wanted to go. We were also lucky that there was a free parking space available for us to keep our car.

After checking in we walked down to Moon River Brewing Company to begin some beer drinking. My husband and I first visited Moon River on our trip to Savannah in 2005 and remembered it fondly. Our second time around we were perhaps more educated on beers and not impressed like before. A good time was still had trying their brews.

Later on we had dinner at a.lure. I chose a.lure because I wanted to try some low country specialities and my first choice, The Olde Pink House, was booked for the evening. It proved to be a great choice.

We started our dinner with some fruity cocktails.

I decided on the pork shank for dinner. It was one of the best meals I have ever had. The pork easily fell off the bone and was cooked perfectly. The sauce complemented it very well. The garlic goat cheese grits provided a tasty bed for the shank to rest upon.

NIMAN RANCH PORK SHANK

(slow braised, roasted garlic goat cheese grits, charred tomato demi glaze, haricots verts

We finished it off with an interesting goat cheese frozen dessert. It was perfect for my taste because it was only slightly sweet but creamy. If you like your desserts super sweet you might want to chose another.

Frozen Goat cheese dessert

After dinner we decided to walk along the water. My husband and I remember a line of bars up and down the water on our previous trip; the economy must to hit many of them hard because many places were no longer open. We still had a nice walk that started by going down these steep, wet, slippery stairs.

When we got closer to the action there were performers and live music to entertain the masses after dinner.

Some were also entertained, as I, by watching the large barges come in. It is impressive how much cargo comes into that port.

We weren’t ready to go the bed yet so we walked around looking for a bar with some live music. We found a few with good sounds however the volume was so loud that neither one us thought we would have a good time in a bar with those noise levels. We people watched and listened to music from one bar from across the street instead. We soon found that we were not the only ones doing that.

We still wanted another drink before we called it a night so we headed over to the The Distillery to check out their craft beer selection. They had some interesting regional choices to try.

We finished off the evening with a cheese plate and then headed back to the hotel for bed. It was a perfect evening for a couple in their late 30’s.

Jaipur: Pink City

Nadivalya yantra

During our visit to the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan we got to see one of the finest astronomical observatories from the Mughal period, the Jantar Mantar. Built by Sawai Jai Singh (a Rajput king), it was modeled after one in New Delhi.

The site is full of large equipment used to measure the solar system, time, astrological signs, and also used to determine times for wedding dates.

Jai Prakash Yantra

My astrological sign

Hubby next to his sign

Observation deck of the samrat yantra

sundial

Also that day we stopped by the City Palace. It was a palace for royals but now serves as a museum. It has a pretty impressive armory which unfortunately I have no pictures of.
It is at the City Palace where you will get the idea of why Jaipur is also named the Pink City.

Some work going on for a private event

Love the detail on this balcony

Our tour guide told us that the maharaja would bring a couple of these vases full of Ganges water with him when he traveled. It is hard to see the size from the picture but imagine it is tall as a human. Quite a bit of heavy luggage for his international trips!

Complex designs in the arch.

It will only take a couple hours of your day to visit the City Palace. I recommend you at it to your list.

St Pete Breweries Day 2

We started off our second day of St. Pete with brunch at Peg’s Cantina. It was a good time on the patio enjoying food beer and friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cheese appetizer. It didn’t last long.

Blueberry goat cheese pancakes

The bill comes in this fun box.

Soon after Peg’s we headed over to 3 Daughters for our first beer tasting of the day.

The 3 Daughters tasting room was attractively decorated there. We spent quite a bit of time sipping our samples there. I soon realized that they had an outdoors activity area. You can play games with a view of the brewing facilities.

Our next stop was Cycling Brewing. Their cream & sugar, please was all the rage. We had fun hanging at their tasting room but soon it was time to head back home.

Not quite done yet. We decided to stop at Rapp Brewing Company heading out of Tampa. It proved to be the best stop of the day. You can tell they love what they do, you can taste it in their beers.

So the trip comes to an end. I will return someday. However next on the list is all the great breweries in Dunedin. See you soon!

Eataly

After asking for NYC recommendations our friend suggested Eataly NYC. It is difficult to explain what it is. I guess a simple description of Eataly would be a collection of restuarants, food markets, and food related products.

When you sit down to eat at Eataly, you must choose a specialized restaurant to eat at. The menu will be limited to dishes of a certain food type. If you want to try variation, you must move on to another restaurant.

We choose Il Pesce NYC, a fish restaurant, to start with. We ordered a salad and fish to share.

My husband loves whole fish and this orata did not disappoint. It was cooked perfectly.

While we enjoyed our salad and fish, Eataly was quite busy.

When we were ready to move on to the next food stuffs the restaurant portion was getting ready to close. We were unable to try more of the restaurants.

I was able to spend some time looking at all the food for purchase at the market.

I love squid ink pasta.

There are so many desserts. Too bad I was not in the mood for dessert. They look so good.

Last but not least is the cheeses. I could tell if I lived in NY this would be where I would hang out. I will take a cheese plate over a dessert any day!