Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Vacation Chronicles: Service With A Smile...

This is the post where I give all the details of the awesome sex we had in that big bed while on vacation....

No, wait, come back, I am only kidding!!!

Lol..

This is the post where I talk about all the freaking food we ate in the span of 2 and a half days lol.

As I mentioned before, the hotel gives you a complimentary breakfast for each night you stay at the hotel. Last year we only stayed one night, did not get to the hotel until late, and had already eaten dinner, so we did not eat at Caroline's that night, but we did have breakfast the next morning.

This time, we ate the first night at Caroline's and omg, it was soooo good! I do not have tons of pics for this entry, as they were all taken with Jack's cell phone, since I did not want to wig people out by taking their pics while stuffing their faces lol. But Jack managed a few covert ones which I will share.

That first night, we started off with a hot crab dip appetizer, on their homemade French bread, which was rich and so good. We followed that with a salad with their homemade bleu cheese dressing, which was spectacular. I got the crab stuffed grouper, paired with their mashed new potatoes, Jack got pan seared grouper also with the potatoes, and they brought out a huge basket of their homemade rosemary bread. That bread was a first for me, and when they walked by me the smell was amazing and the taste was out of this world. I actually took the leftover bread back to the room with me, it was that good. Even though we were both about to kill over, we were so full, we had to have the whole experience and I ordered us a creme brulee to share for dessert. Totally divine.

We could hardly breathe by this point, so we walked around the town a few times ( which is when I found The Honey Hole originally ) to aid in digestion, but I still sat up half the night feeling like a beached whale. SO worth it though!!

The next morning we went down for breakfast, ans let me tell you, their free breakfast is not a few bagels or some eggs and toast. You get to pick from these choices:

French Toast made from their French bread, three HUGE pieces of it, with your choice of bacon, patty sausage, or a thick slab of ham.

Continental Breakfast which is eggs, same choice of meat as above, toast, and grits with fresh fruit garnish.

Shrimp and grits, which are self explanatory, paired with toast and eggs and fruit garnish.

Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, which were HUGE, and those came with eggs to I think, and garnish.

I think there was something else, but I can not remember off the top of my head.

The first morning I got shrimp and grits, which were awesome, and Jack got the Continental breakfast with the ham slab lol. They give you fresh squeezed orange juice ( which I gave to Jack, as pulp makes me freak out ) and coffee for both and milk for me.

After breakfast we took another short walk ( me without my damn camera ) before we retired back to the hotel to shower and...stuff...lol. *Side note: Took a shower with Jack and stayed in LONG after he got out, endless hot water is a rare treat and I did not want to get out lol.*

Later that afternoon we decided to drive towards Panama City and see if we could find somewhere to eat that was not at the hotel or in one of the smaller local shops, which were PACKED on a Saturday afternoon already. We drove through Port St. Joe, Mexico Beach, and a few other teeny beach towns, and then we drove through Tyndall Air Force Base where I got to see some cool planes, but did not get a good shot to take a pic since we were on the move with traffic behind us.

Finally we end up in Callaway, which is basically the outskirts of Panama City, and we drove by several places, stopped at Helen Back but we did not want to hang out at a sports bar ( I typed bra the first time lol ) and we drove on a ways and saw this MASSIVE sign that said "Black Angus" with a cow silhouette on it. We figured it for a steak house and pulled in, right as they were opening. Well this was no regular steakhouse lol. My cam had died at this point ( I had taken all the pics till then on one charge, including the ocean pics on the way to Callaway ) but this was a fine dining place for sure. It was HUGE, it had like 6 large dining rooms, and several smaller dining rooms, it was like a maze!  I got lost going to the bathroom, had to be shown back to my table lol. We were the only people in our medium sized, glass walled, full huge wrap around bar on other side of the room, dining room, in a darkened corner. Our waiter was this tall, thin, willowy pseudo-French, pencil thin mustache ( Jimmy Buffet would have been proud ) man who was very attentive. He was also amusing to me.

We made the waiter go awwww when we ordered, because when he asked us what we wanted, we both answered the same, at the same time, which was the 16 oz sirloin and half a lobster tail. When he asked how we wanted it cooked, we both said medium rare at the same time, we both wanted the baked potato, and when he asked what dressing, we both said bleu cheese at the same time, followed by we both wanted sweet tea. He giggled like a school girl at all this lol. If any of you have ever seen the Big Lebowski, the part where The Dude goes to visit Maude Lebowski after his attack, there is a French man in her apartment, tall, thin, thin mustache, high pitched voice...that was our waiter! He looked JUST like him, and had the same mannerisms and laugh, it was a riot!

Well after he brought our food, which was heavenly, the bleu cheese dressing there was SO good I almost teared up, I took a bite of my lobster tail. This was my first time having real lobster, and I am sorry to say it was icky. I like the fake stuff, surprisingly, but the real deal was very...bleeeeh. Jack just laughed at me as he took mine off my plate and ate mine too lol. The steak and potato and salad and SOURDOUGH bread were amazing.

The waiter got upset however, because he kept coming to the table to refill my tea, but Jack had not drank enough of his to need a refill. He never does, he drinks after he eats usually, very seldom during. Well this caused the waiter distress and I could tell. So at one point Jack got up to go to the bathroom, I reached over and sucked down half his tea, and not long after the waiter floated by going to another table, looked over, saw Jack's glass half full and tripped over his own feet to get to the back to get the tea pitcher, no joke. He fairly FLEW over to the table, almost upsetting the table in his haste. He was glowing, all because he could refill that glass. It took all I had no to bust out laughing right there, I sort of hid behind my napkin until he left, and I was shaking with laughter, with tears in my eyes when Jack got back, and I told him what happened and he cracked up. This dude really liked his job lol. The dinner was so good, but we were so full, and because at first, when we got there, the owner was replacing light bulbs or something in the room, ( remember, we were there when they unlocked the doors, and maybe 10 minutes had passed ) and he ended up dimming all the lights in the room. Our corner was almost pitch black, and the waiter came out and immediately went to waving his arms in distress, running over to the owner and whispering we were there, so the owner yells an apology and turns the lights up, he did not see us, and told the waiter to give us a free dessert.

Bonus!

However, with all the food we had consumed int he last 24 hours, we groaned at the thought of dessert and tried to pass it up, but the wonderful waiter was having NONE of that lol,. He put two pieces of cheesecake in a carryout container and carried it to the door for me lol. This dude earned every dime of his tip and then some let me tell you lol. We tipped him generously!

We ended up eating the cheesecake later, in the hotel in bed while watching TV. The cold front had moved in by this time, it was below freezing with the 30 mph wind chill, so Jack went to sleep and I stayed up half the night watching the History Channel, which I miss horribly...as we do not have cable.

The next morning we packed out and loaded up the truck, then headed for our goodbye breakfast. We had made friends with one of the waitresses, Charlotte, from last year, and we cut up with her both mornings we were there, and ran into her a few times on the hotel grounds. She was a trip. We both got the decadent French Toast the second morning, and it was a perfect end to a perfect stay there. I hugged Charlotte on the way out, and we started walking around town so I could take my pics for the tour entry.

SO we ate like kings while we were on vacation, and it was worth every penny, and every moan of " OMG I am so full" every night lol...

Here are the few pics we got of the inside of the restaurant, taken with Jacks cell so forgive the quality...


Above pic is the table beside us...ours looked exactly like that but he took a pic of the "clean " table instead lol..for my blog, bless his heart..



Above is another table across the way from us...it was nightfall by then, and the lighting was very low, and romantic, with Victorian chandeliers. The whole place was done is shades of purple mixed with rich, dark woods. Elegant and beautiful!



He had turned the shutter noise off on his phone so he could catch me unawares and take my pic, and I am swallowing my pride and publishing "raw" pics of myself, which never happens, because I always carefully set up my pics since I am not that photogenic...but for the sake of the experience, I let these two slide through...forgive my Cherokee moon face lol. The pic above I was suspecting him of taking pics of me when he said he was not..and you can see the disbelief on my face lol..you can also see the edge of that scar from my wreck I mentioned way back when.



Extreme close up above! Lol! I rather you check out the decor behind me lol..I look like I have no fingers, scary! Oh wait, there is my thumb lol..





And that sums up the food portion of our journey. All of my senses were very much satisfied in this trip!

Next up, the Apalachicola town tour!!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awww man! No sex details? Damn! *Giggles

You ate my Sebastian? Walk by....Umm, you ate my zodiac self? How rude! *Giggles

The complimentary breakfast sounds great minus the shrimp grits *Dry Heaves*. Most places have horrible breakfasts with stale danishes, bad coffee, and old cereal in itteh bitteh boxes from back when we were kids I think. Glad this place was not like that.

Mmmm rosemary bread! I haven't been able to use rosemary for four years because of G. Kaz is going to be like, "....and tonight, on cooking with rosemary..." *Dies

Did you put the bread in your purse or did you "roll" it elsewhere? *Dies*

Mmmmm creme brulee is soooo good. I haven't had one of those for a long time. Yum!!

Helen Back *ROFL

Your waiter sounds so cute! I died laughing when reading the part about you sucking down J's drink so the waiter's last wish could be fulfilled. That was awesome.

Jack is so sweet. Taking pics for your blog. Bless his little socks ^_^

I love the pics of you! You look beautiful and you are glowing. Haven't seen you that happy in a long time.

Love you xoxo

Mother Moon said...

when my son and his girlfriend went on their world adventures last year and visited 27 countries... they arrived home with literally hundreds of photos... I had to laugh because so many of them were photos of food... Now it is tradition to take pictures of the good food any of us have the chance to eat while out and around... sort of a standing joke

Lyon said...

What no sex?!?!? Then I'm not reading! rofl Joking joking!

God I just ate dinner before reading this and I swear you've made me hungry AGAIN!

I'm really enjoying your enjoyment of your trip btw. It really sounds fantastic.

Ryan Sutton said...

Whew, a lot of catching up! Now I REALLY want a vacation. Sorry I haven't been around!

Magaly Guerrero said...

You said you'd not talk about sex, but I find "cheesecake in bed" damn sexy! I'm glad you had a blast, reading the post made me a bit hungry and it made me miss The Boyfriend lol.

Bridgett said...

Everything sounds SALIVATION worthy.

But Bella...come on, now! We want the sex stories! LOL

My advice? Don't get on the scales for awhile. :D After I pigged out at the cheesecake factory the other night (and this was just one meal), I gained almost 3 pounds!

WTH? LOL

)O(

Rue said...

Vacations are ALL about the food. The only reason I didn't gain 10lbs in Mexico was all the darn walking while shopping - giggle!

So thrilled you guys had a great time!

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