Goodbye Summer; hello to my favorite, Fall.

The remainder of my summer as shown in pictures...

If you've never tried this, you're truly missing out. French fries dipped in a vanilla frosty or vanilla ice cream, whichever you have available...it's so freaking good. Justyn & I made apit spot for this hood snack prior to going in to see Planet of the Apes.

I thought this was pretty cool when I came across it. I've tried making my own salad dressing to no avail; I like what I like.

Went to a spot that's on my now 59-item "Places to Eat" list in my phone, Acadania. Biscuits that came with a cream cheese/sweet and sour sauce. I thought it was delicious. The whole dining experience was interesting, I'll just say, if you're looking up the restaurant be sure to follow the happy hour listed from their computer homepage, not the mobile website. The manager was a jerk about the mobile page.

This duck was the best duck I've ever had in my life though. Collards and rice are underneath.

Mimosas from Acre 121.

I typically enjoy Acre 121 becaue of their mimosas, but this meal was the sorriest piece of sh*t I've ever eaten. We were STARVING when we got here and it came out in like 5 minutes, so we were happy but our antennas didn't go off that something could be wrong because we had been anticipating this chicken biscuit with bacon and cheese. As soon as I bit into it, I realized it was pre-made. I was pissed off, but my level of pissivity was unable to overshadow my hunger, so I ate it, and said nothing to the waiter. We weren't trying to wait on another entree, sadly. The sweet potato fries were pretty delicious but it should have been served with a spicy condiment instead of something sweet like the sauce in the picture. Next time, I'll just stick with my chicken & waffles or get the croissant french toast.



Went to Top Golf. They had good music, I twerked a little.

"The Mac Daddy Burger" described as "the classic burger with our awesome green chili mac n' cheese with sliced pepper jack cheese," sounds pretty delicious but it was just BLAH. The mac tasted like just that, mac, then cheese was far and few and it wasn't worth me wasting my precious calories on, so I ditched the noodles, scooted them to the side and just ate the burger, which had a pretty darn good grill flavor to it.

The wings, not crunchy, just saucy. I'm a bit of a stickler for wings since Bon Chon came into my life.

French toast, scrambled eggs with sauteed onions, fresh tomatoes, and green onion, and pork goodness hangin' in the background.

Me in the kitchen lookin' like somebody's grandmother. I love collard/kale greens, but they're so much work to make em. I fnid myself standing in the kitchen for hours prepping them, so I brought in my dining room chair.

This was a random delicious creation. A pizza quesadilla; yes, I own a quesadilla maker.

Sexual healing.

Guts and glory.

For Justyn's birthday, I took him on a tour of the White House and afterwards we went to Absolute Noodle & Sushi Bar, which was on my list of "Places to Eat". This was my meal, it was another blah entree that should have been sent back. The chicken tasted like it was frozen and there was no sauce on the noodles, making everything pretty dry.

Justyn's drunken udon noodles, however, were good. Tasted just like regular drunken noodles from a Thai restaurant.

Made another pot of greens the weak after the 1st batch.

I've been hooked on these Italian Prunes (prune plums) from BJ's for like 2 weeks now.

Girl time at Jasper's in Bowie, MD. This was a ughhhh, I can't remember what kinda flavor martini, but it definitely wasn't strong enough. My martinis on the cruise ship have me feeling like a pro.

Mac and cheese that I made for one of Justyn's family functions.

Green tomatoes, which I fried, of course.

2 lbs of head-on shrimp, with corn, andouille sausage, and potatoes, gator bites and fries with a delicious sauce from Chasin' Tails, which I've mentioned before. I adore this place.

Bermuda: Ending My Summer with a BANG!

I took a 6 night cruise to Bermuda and had the time of my life. We cruised with Royal Caribbean on the Grandeur of the Seas. It was my first time on a cruise and I believe Justyn and I will be going on another. It was plenty of older people and it made me realize that they're the smart ones, because clearly cruises are the ish. Each morning we had a newsletter placed on our bed with the next day's activities/itinerary. There was an array of things to do every hour on the hour. We ended up developing a routine while on the ship: first, I wake up and head to the gym, then Justyn follows behind about 40 mins later, come back to the room and shower (if time permits) or head straight to the buffet breakfast and hop in the omelet line for an egg white veggie omelette made by Kayode from Trinidad and Tobago. LOL! All the workers wore a name badge with their country of origin underneath their name. After a big breakfast, it was nap time before the day's festivities. Let me just say this one thing, Bermuda takes Labor Day super seriously, all the stores in the major city were closed except the bars, whereas back in the states I'm sure there were some good sales going on in the mall. Craziness. The food was pretty darn good on the ship too, we didn't even find any little authentic places to eat and I didn't mind because it was just that good.

Cons: On a cruise ship, you have to buy a drink package if you want to drink all you want and for our 6-night cruise it would have came to $330/pp throughout the duration of our vacation. That's absolutely insane to me, one I'm not that big of a drinker where I need a drink every day, even on vacation, so I passed on that option. I don't drink soda either, but you have to pay for a soda package too. I really only drink water except for the occasional cup of juice every now and then, so I drank water and about 2-3 cups of green tea every day (for the flat belly effects since I was eating so much). They did have what was called "The Drink of the Day" daily which was $6.95 and you got to keep the special light up cup which was cute. They also had an event called "Martini Madness" about 3 days while we were on the ship, $12 for 2. I learned on the first day of drinking these cocktails that martinis are my new fave drink. My word, they were strong yet delicious. Also, there were about 3 dining options included in the price you pay for the trip, then 3 other speciality restaurants. Next time, I would like to try the speciality restaurants, but I was cool with what was included for the time spent on the ship. 

Some things to consider is the gratuity, for us it was $12/pp/day and also you get these hotel-like key cards which you use for all your onboard expenses because it's a cashless system onboard. It's slightly annoying to have to always carry around the card, but it's pretty cool that you use it for everything from the bar to entering your room. I would like to see them initiate some type of bracelet system that can be scanned. 

Because I'm very empathic, it was somewhat difficult enjoying my time on the ship when I realized the workers were away from their home country and families for 7 months out of the year. The countries of origin ranged from China to Jamaica to Trinidad and Colombia. When you think about the fact that the person who collects the plates off of your table, while you just leave it there to enjoy your vacation, is away from their families and working 12 hour days, it's pretty sad. I can't get this young Chinese guy's face out of my brain as I type this. I think he was the saddest to me because he worked by the indoor pool and late-night eatery, where everyone went while drunk and after big events. He would be there in the morning and also late until they closed at 2:00am. But overall, I was able to tune out my empathy and enjoy my vacation, so here's some pictures...

Day 1 of Happiness, pulling up to the port of Baltimore.

Same Day. View from our room's window, while pulling out.



Night 1: The first formal dinner. This was my 1st course, lobster bisque. Yummy. I've had lobster bisque twice now each time on a ship. I had it on the Odyssey, DC dinner cruise a few years ago.



Duck, purple cabbage, and random fried potatoes. The duck and cabbage were good, I took one bite of the patties and realized they didn't belong.

Creme Brûlée. Since it was included in the meal, I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl, not my thing though, it was too sweet.



This strawberry cheesecake however was the bomb. The best cheesecake I've ever eaten, it was a perfect balance of salt from the cheese and sweet from the strawberry. UGH! I want more. I may go to cheesecake factory sometime soon...just to be disappointed.



Rock climbing wall. I made it to the top, but I'm sparing you all from my other pics because my right butt cheek was hanging out the whole time. There was plenty of people around to see it too. LOL! The wall was on the ship and if the camera panned over to the right you would see the water. It was pretty dope.



Justyn made it to the top too. I'm just realizing that even in this pic I can see how flat footed he is. LOL! 



Roof Roof. Another cool thing is, the room attendant was our attendant for the duration of our trip. That's one of the newsletters on the right.



When we finally got to Bermuda there was a light rain for about an hour.

They actually had a track on the top of the ship. Deck 11. Imagine that, running around a track while in the middle of the ocean. I was too much a punk, the wind was blowing too crazy for me to run up there, so I stuck with the treadmills indoors. I did however walk around it. 

Another ship was there when we arrived. Norwegian Cruiseline, they came out of Boston.



Dockyard in Bermuda.

Martini Madness. Deliciousness.

The mall near the dockyard.

Rudeness on the shuttle.

Again...deliciousness :) 

Our ship at night. We did a glass bottom boat tour of the Bermuda Triangle the night we arrived.

It started raining which made the trip a little scary at least for me. Not to mention all the drunk people on the boat. I was OD anxious. I didn't want to die on the triangle.

Some of the coral through the glass bottom. Apparently, the coral has wrecked many ships. I had no idea it was that tough.

A wrecked ship in the triangle. It's been there for over 100 years. 



While on the ferry to Hamilton.



Hamilton, Bermuda.

Franchises are outlawed in Bermuda, however KFC was already established in the country prior to this law, so they were able to stay. Otherwise, no other familiar store names are out there. 



Climbed a really tall rock, borderline a small mountain on Horseshoe Bay Beach. This beach has pink sand. 



That would be Justyn up there.

A shrimp and lobster (or crab, I don't remember) bisque. Again, tasty.

There was plenty of line dancing on the boat.

The wobble. 



SaDDerday. Leaving Bermuda.

They had a belly flop competition, which was hilarious.

Goat mole. MY goodness! This was the first time I had ever had goat and it was so good, they had plantains in it too. It was a bit greasy, you can see the oil, but it was still good. Mole is usually used when talking about some type of Spanish sauce. There's different renditions of mole. 

Lobster and shrimp with steamed veggies on the 2nd formal night.

Quest. The best adult game ever.

Oh looked! Mirrors on the ceiling of the elevator.

The last show on the last night of the cruise. tear

Battle of the Sexes. I went up for the females during the family Feud type portion of the game.

After the 70s party on the last night we got to take pics with the cruise entertainment staff. The director, Ricky, was super amazing and funny. I could tell that he loved his job and that made it that much more enjoyable.  

And to close out this post, I'm ending it with a quote this older lady said to us while eating dinner after I asked her how many times she's been to Bermuda, her response was "Seven. You know how people say they're going to Myrtle Beach for vacation, well that's Bermuda for me." WELL HELLO! I saw dollar signs float across my eyes when she said that, she's clearly part of the Umpty Umpt (the ballers, the elite, the Coinage Society) and has plenty of cheese. She's going on another cruise in November. The jealousy was real, but I suppose that's what life should be like when you're 50 and 60 and have the money.