Mini-break!

Last November we took a mini-break to eastern Connecticut. It was nice to take a break, but it was mostly so I could go to MGM Foxwoods to see the So You Think You Can Dance tour!

More about that performance in another post, but I've gone every year since they've started having them after the season's over. Last year was the third tour and FI has gone with me to the last two. He is a very patient FI. :)

After the performance, we did a little gambling (blackjack and slots) at MGM Foxwoods and then headed to our hotel outside of Foxwoods. No way we were staying there, given the price of a room.

The next morning we decided to explore some of the local towns and headed to Stonington, which is about 2 hours east of Stamford, almost near Rhode Island, along the coastline.

We drove into town and looked for a place to eat. There was just one main road and we stopped at the first restaurant we saw, Noah's Restaurant.


The inside was packed, which was a good sign. We got great seats right by the window.


FI orderd the Quiche du Jour, which was some sort of veggie quiche.


I ordered Portuguese Baked Eggs which was Portugueses spicy sausage and tomatoes laid out in a ramekin and then eggs were cracked over it and a salsa was poured on and the whole thing was baked. There was great contrasts of flavors, between the eggs and the spicy salsa and sausage, and textures, with the chewy sausage and soft runny eggs. I tried to make sure I had a bit of everything in each bite.


FSIL has a tomato and spinach omelet, which was hearty and yummy.


We then took a car tour of town. We drove through Main Street to the coast and got out to take some pictures. Stonington is basically a point of land that sticks south into the water. I'm sure there's a proper name for it, and I'm picturing my 5th grade geography lessons, but for the life of me I can't remember what it's called.

Along the coastline, facing east, looking north.


FI and I enjoying the balmy November weather.


A picture south onto the water. I'm assuming you might see the edges of Long Island in the distance.

It was a relaxing weekend and Stonington is a beautiful little town. There were some gorgeous homes and condos. We debated whether this would be a good place for retirement. Or at least an artist's retreat. Well if any of us were actually artists...

Rohobeth Beach!

For the holiday weekend we went to Rohobeth with a bunch of FI's friends. We rented a house about 3 blocks from the beach and were able to spend 3 days at the shore.

We all got in Saturday afternoon and went out for dinner at Claws Crab House. We got 2 dozen crabs for 4 of us. They were super delicious and full of meat and we got all supremely messy banging on the crabs with mallets.We spent all day Sunday and Monday hanging out at the beach and on the boardwalk. We sampled Boardwalk fries, frozen custard, burgers, and fish & chips. Five of us even played the "roll the ball to make your horse race" game. There were 11 of us playing and I WON! I got a stuffed horse about 8 inches long that I stowed in our friends' son's stroller as we wandered the boardwalk.



Here's where he discovers the ipod. It was really cute. He knew what to do with the earphones too.

Our friend decided to use the boogie board as a prop and create a sand sculpture.

Here's the finished work. People kept stopping by and taking pictures. Yes, there are 4 arms on the lady. We don't know why. He doesn't know why either. I just called it a Hindu goddess.

Besides lunches on the boardwalk and our crab dinner, we cooked our own meals. One friend made incredible ribs on Sunday night. She slow cooked them in the oven for 4 hours and the meat was so tender, it was falling off the bones and you could cut it with a butter knife. FI and I made blueberry pancakes for Sunday breakfast. That's one of our usual weekend activities so it was nice to make them for everyone. He also grilled hot dogs for everyone on Monday night before we drove back to NYC.

A very relaxing weekend!

Travel plans....

Our big trip this summer is a short tour of Asia. My cousin is getting married and his fiancee is Japanese, so they are having receptions in both Japan and Taipei.

FI has never been to Asia and we all haven't been to Japan, so this should be an exciting trip!

We will be traveling to both Japan and Taiwan over a 12-day period. The wedding in Japan is in Kyoto, so we'll be there and we also will stop over in Tokyo. Then we'll head to Taipei.

Mom actually wanted to also go to Osaka and Malaysia as well! I managed to talk her out of that otherwise we'd be flying/training every 2 days and basically have only 1 full day in each city.

Our itenary will be:

- 7/18 - leave US for Japan
- 7/19 - arrive in Tokyo, head to Kyoto
- 7/20 - wedding in Kyoto
-7/21, 22 - sightsee in Kyoto
-7/22 - travel to Tokyo
-7/23, 24 - sightsee in Tokyo
- 7/25 - fly to Taiwan
- 7/26 - wedding in Taipei
-7/27,28,29 - sightsee in Taipei
-7/30 - leave for US

We have a hotel in Kyoto and will stay with family in Taipei. However we still need to figure out where we're staying in Tokyo.

I've been assigned the trip coordinator for Japan since I didn't want to go on a guided tour and Mom isn't good with this whole internet research thing and Stephen is too busy to help out. Thank goodness FI has stepped in and offered to help plan. He's already found the nature-related sightseeing places he wants to go to near Tokyo so that's 1 day planned already.

For Taipei, I'm already thinking of the fun things and places I want to show FI. I actually totally want to get cheesy glamour-shot style engagement photos done! It's much less expensive and they have so many options and great packages. So that will be 1 day covered.

For the other 2 days, I'm thinking....
- get yummy egg pancakes for 30NT (about $1US)
- get hair washed for 90NT
- go to Shi Lin Night Market
- go to Gu Gong National Museum
- wander around Xi Men Ding
- go to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial
- take the supremely clean and awesome subway system
- check out one of the giant department stores (which is basically a multi-story mall all contained under 1 storefront)
- wander around and eat random food

That should be enough to get us through Taipei...