Huntsville!

Huntsville is the last stop of our road trip.  We didn't have much planned other than to relax and try and get back in to a normal sleeping pattern for school! Oh, and of course, eat at Little Rosie's!

Saturday morning after a slow start Mom and I took the ladies to Little Rosie's for lunch.  They all enjoyed their first experience.  I will be there again on Thursday.

 We dropped Mom off and I drove them around downtown to see a bit of Huntsville and we stopped of at Harrison Brother's for a little excursion. I was probably in elementary or middle school last time I went to Harrison Brothers.

After our only outing of the trip I ditched all of the ladies at home and headed to Guntersville for a wedding. They throughly enjoyed themselves reading Better Homes and Gardens and Cooking Light, maybe even doing a little school work too while I was gone.  Ashley Bradford and Billy Ramsey were married at the Lodge at Lake Guntersville.  It was a treat to see such sweet friends from college that I haven't seen in months!

Pit Stop

The road from Lakeland, FL to Huntsville, AL is LONG! It was close to a 14 hour day for us.  Yes, a few stops helped lengthen to drive but so did a few back road detours.

Our first stop on the way to Huntsville was Gainesville, FL.  Katie and Michelle both spent some time there during college. Michelle is a UF graduate, Katie spent her first two there and finished up at Samford, but she is the one with the hard core Gator Pride.

This was my first trip to the swamp.  We walked through the main part of campus, grabbed lunch in the Union building (they have a much better selection than AU did-Subway, Starbucks, CheeburgerCheeburger, Freshens smoothies, and some Pollo Loco place), then walked through the stadium back to our cars.  It amazes me that all the athletes get mopeds to ride! You can definitely tell who they are walking around campus.  I loved being back on a college campus, but it is no Auburn!

After about 7 more hours of driving we stopped for dinner in Clanton, AL. We conveniently stopped at the Whataburger next to Peach Park.  We got there before they closed and I was able to introduce Brook, Michelle, and Katie to the goodness of Peach Park.  We had fried peach pies, peach cobble with ice cream, and the caramel peach ice cream.  OH I love it all!

Then it was almost 3 more hours of driving due to detours before we made it to our last stop...Huntsville!

Next Stop, Lakeland.

Our next stop of the trip was Lakeland, FL. Before we got to Lakeland we stopped of in Orlando for lunch with Pat, one of Michelle's friends.


Once in to Lakeland we spent the afternoon at Mitchell's coffee shop studying-like any good grad school spring breaker.  What else would happen then Katie and Brook were asked to be interviewed for their opinions on current events in the world.  So we watched, laughed and went back to studying.  You can't tell in this picture, but Katie is barefoot because she darted out of the coffee shop without her shoes for the interview.  

We spent some time hanging out with Michelle's family for dinner both nights.  We had great timing because her mom was off work one day so we were able to eat lunch with her and snag dad too for his lunch break! 

Here is a picture from our walk around one of the lakes in Lakeland.  After our walk around town and more seafood (I love being in Florida) we went to the Santos family's new property.  On their new property they have several orange and grapefruit trees.  We picked a few of each and headed back home.

Lakeland was another relaxing quick trip.  Next stop, Huntsville. 

Stop 2 of Amazing Spring Break

Leg two of the trip we stayed in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.  When we got in to Sawgrass after a day of relaxing  we celebrated my birthday with the most amazing dinner.  We had more seafood than I knew what to do with! I had red snapper for dinner but that was only after we stuffed ourselves with seafood appetizers.  I ate tuna, salmon, sea bass, scallop, shrimp, and crab cakes. It was a truly fantastic meal!  

For my birthday my roomies (L-R: Katie, Michelle, and Brook) bought me toothpaste because I forgot mine in STL and had been using all of theirs! While in Sawgrass we stopped by TPC, also known as The Players Championship to check out the Clubhouse and ProShop.  It was a beautiful course. 

We did another night of seafood outside of Jacksonville at the Outback Crab Shack.  We got a HUGE platter of fried seafood and another one of steamed.  I ate crab legs, tried crawfish again-and I'm still ok not liking them.  Shrimp, sausage, alligator tail, and other stuff that I'm not really even sure what it was because it was fried.

We also had a chance to sit in the hot tub at Katie's and just hang out.  It was a great few days in Ponte Vedra to eat more good food and see Katie's family.  Next stop,  Lakeland, FL.

First leg of the race

I feel like I am on Amazing Race this week.  We left STL a little before 4pm on Friday and headed for Tucker, GA.  We got in to bed around 3am.  Katie was a trooper and drove the whole way! We had a great time hanging out with Scott and Silka and both dogs.  Silka took us to Ikea for a browse around at all the cool stuff and some Swedish meatballs.  Scott went for a walk with us at the park across the street.  Really, it was more of a hike climbing over rocks and such.

Our dinner, which I wish I would have gotten a real picture of, was absolutely amazing.  We had grilled pizza and killer martinis.
The pizza crust was homemade with some rosemary in the dough. Our cheeses were Parmesan, mozzarella, and feta.  We had grilled red peppers and onions as well as spicy turkey sausage.  We finished it off with fresh tomatoes and green onion.  It was one of the most amazing pizzas I've had in a while.  It is an Epicurious recipe in case you want to look it up.

The martinis, also amazing, were Chambord and vanilla vodka.  I'm not really sure what else went in there but I just know they were strong and good.

Round one of our trip was a success.  Next stop Ponte Vedra, FL!

Here we come!!

Spring Break is upon us!! I know the week isn't over yet but I'm calling it today! Well, last night I had pretty much called it quits.  Today I'm turning in 2 papers and working but I am done for the week. Tomorrow all I have to do is go to work.  Then begins the Griswold Family Vacation.

My roommates and I are heading out tomorrow night for a road trip hitting most of our hometowns.  First stop is Tucker, GA to see Brook's brother.  After a few days there we are on to Jacksonville, FL to see Katie's family.  Next stop is Michelle's family in Lakeland.  After that it is Huntsville for a day and a half.  I have a wedding Saturday.  So we will be there long enough for some Little Rosie's and a wedding.  Then back up to STL!

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I don't know how much rest we will actually get but we are going to have a blast! I'm excited to eat seafood in Florida and Little Rosie's at home. Hopefully I will have some updates from the road!

A new recipe

Tonight was one of those "what can you make with what you have in the pantry" nights.   I have been following this blog Budget Bytes and love that she breaks down the cost of the recipes.  There have been several I have wanted to try but tonight was finally the night.
I had some sweet potatoes almost past due and turned them into enchiladas along with some black beans, corn, and red onion.  It turned out to be a really good recipe.  Cheap too because I had almost everything!
I didn't have poblano peppers so I used a small can of chilies instead and it worked out fine. I also didn't roast my potatoes.  I baked them yesterday and cut them up today.  My only recommendation would be to mix some sour cream in with the enchilada sauce before you put it on top. But, that is just the way I like it!

Happy eating!

2 Weeks to Go...

2 Weeks until Spring Break! I have to buckle down for the next 2 weeks to get everything done before this much needed vacation! Tomorrow I have a group presentation during my evening class. We are teaching for 45 minutes on a career theory.  I'm so glad that as of 9p.m. tomorrow night I will be done with all of my group projects!  All that stands between me and spring break is 2 book reviews, a letter and resume draft, and a midterm.  Hopefully I will survive all of this with a little work mixed in!

Since the weather has been so beautiful here this weekend after breakfast Saturday morning my roommates and I went on a morning walk around the neighborhood.  Then for dinner we grilled out burgers.  Oh how I LOVE grilled food. We borrowed a grill from the neighbors downstairs. Our burgers went great with the potato salad and macaroni and cheese.  PW's macaroni and cheese turned out pretty good. I just added more cheese because you can't really go wrong with more cheese.

Today after church 3 of the roomies and another friend all went hiking at one of the state parks. I am so excited for the weather to be warming up!

Spring Break I will be heading home for a day, maybe two.  I am doing a tour of hometowns with my roommates.  We are making a stop in "Atlanta", I think it is really Tucker though.  Then we will hit up Jacksonville and Lakeland, FL for a few days and end in Huntsville so I can go to a wedding Saturday.

Definitely looking forward to some time off from school. Other than my short breaks on the weekends I don't seem to have time to do much else around here. Life is pretty boring. School, work, church and lots of studying!