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Staycation at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

For the Independence Day holiday, we managed a staycation to our condo at The Lake of the Ozarks. We headed down on Tuesday evening, with two of the kids, hubby’s mother, Grandma Marge, and our friend Captain Bill. Since we knew we would be staying through the weekend, we even brought the kittens. (Don’t let their angelic faces fool you!)

Kiki and Mia

Tuesday night was pretty low key with H Que BBQ take-out for dinner and swimming at the pool. After dinner, we all gathered on the pool deck to watch the fireworks that were being shot from Beaver’s at the Dam. It was a nice show that they put on.

The next morning, we all headed back to the pool since it was really too hot to do much else. Midday, hubby, Capt. Bill, and the kids headed down to the wave runners to test out the new tube we had brought down. After some vigorous attempts, they decided to call the tubing excursion a “learning experience” and wrapped it up. We then headed up to the Bagnell Dam strip for a little shopping, ice cream, and sight-seeing.

Grandmas Candy Kitchen
Fun on the strip

The day on the strip would not have been complete without a little fun at the Dogpatch Arcade and the kids trying their hands at Skee-ball. Needless to say, they didn’t win a pile of tickets for their efforts. Maybe next time.

That evening’s fireworks display was put on by Point Randall Resort. Hubby grilled kabobs for dinner and we were able to watch the show right from our deck.

The next day, we took the wave runners out and headed out for some lake sight-seeing. It turned out to be so hot, that we found a spot in a quiet cove and jumped off the wave runners for some swimming time. The water was still cool enough to be refreshing, so it was a good swim.

coved out

That evening we headed over to Dog Days for dinner. They almost always have live music, there are two swimming pools (one has a swim up bar which is reminiscent of an All Inclusive resort), and the food is really good. I had a Korean Beef bowl that was really tasty and not something I find on a lot of menus.

dinner at Dog Days

The following day was the day that the kids and hubby’s mom were headed home. That evening we ran over to Shady Gator’s to see one of my favorite bands, Dr. Zhivegas, perform. He’s considered to be one of the top St. Louis cover bands, but I consider him to be a funky master of multiple decades of rock and pop. He did not disappoint. It did not take long before we were dancing until we were sweating!

Dr Zhivegas rockin Shady Gators

This was our last full day at the Lake of the Ozarks. We hopped on the wave runners and headed up to one of our new favorites, The Boathouse. They are a lakeside and poolside restaurant that is known for their pizzas, but have a lot of other options on the menu as well. We gave the pizza a try and it was incredible! Now if we could just figure out how to carry-out on the wave runner.

pizza at The Boathouse

Above all else, we had a fun vacay experience just an hour away from home. There is so much to do at the Lake and we have just gotten started experiencing it all. Looks like we even exhausted Kiki during our few days there!

Kiki getting some sun
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Seattle, WA–The 3rd Day is a Charm

**This is a re-publish of a prior post from 8/17 that was lost in the transition to a self-hosted platform.

If you’re exhausted about reading my posts about Seattle, then you almost know how we felt by Day 3!  After walking around the city and putting so many miles on our feet, we decided to have a mellow day on our last day there.

We hung out at the Warwick during the morning, having breakfast in their restaurant, Margaux. After wandering one last time around Pike Place Market, where we mostly people watched, we had a great lunch at El Borracho.

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We ended up back at the hotel for the rest of the afternoon, hanging out in our room and napping. Have I mentioned how much my feet hurt by then?

We did venture back out later, walking down to Pier 70 to have dinner at Aqua, By El Gaucho, which had been recommended by an old friend. Because the weather had been so beautiful, we decided to dine on their expansive outdoor deck. Talk about another incredible meal and unbeatable ambiance! It’s probably a good thing we didn’t find this restaurant on our first night–I would have eaten every meal there and not experienced any other places.

Since my favorite type of seafood is sea scallops, I had the sea scallops in lemon beurre blanc over risotto. UNBELIEVABLY excellent! I swear, the scallops just melted in my mouth! Additionally, since I LOVE crème brulee–and I mean the classic kind, not any special, novel flavor–I also had the crème brulee for dessert.

Lucky for me we still had a trek to make back to our hotel, since I was completely stuffed after this dinner and needed the exercise. Walking back to the Warwick, we could see the Space Needle lit up against the night sky.

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A perfectly beautiful ending to a perfectly beautiful trip.  I can’t wait to visit Seattle again!

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Seattle, WA–Around The Town Day

**This is a re-publish of a post from 8/12/17 that was lost in my transition to a self-hosted platform.  It’s also a bit of an experiment to see if I can re-publish a post this way.  If it looks horrible, it won’t happen again and you have my apologies.

Up early and back at ’em! We still had so much left to see and do in Seattle, WA. We started the morning off by cutting through Pike Place and grabbing a watermelon juice from The Juice Emporium. If you’ve not tried it, watermelon juice is pure goodness–nothing but the juice of a watermelon. There is no added sugar, flavoring, etc.

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We got down to the waterfront and headed over to the Seattle Aquarium which was included on our CityPASS. I guess I expected more from the aquarium since Seattle is located right on the ocean. It felt geared towards young children, but the otters were pretty cute to see!

From there we ventured over to the Argosy Harbor Tour which was also included on our CityPASS. This was a nice one-hour tour of  Seattle from Elliot Bay and Seattle Harbor, not to mention a great opportunity to sit down and take a break. Cocktails and snacks were available for purchase.

We then headed towards Pioneer Square, where there was an underground tour I had heard of and was eager to check out. We had our choice between Bill Speidel’sUnderground Tour  and Underground Paranormal Experience. We went with the Underground Tour because the Paranormal Experience wouldn’t start until after dark. What a fascinating story! Before the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the streets of this part of town actually used to be a full story lower than they are now so there’s a whole underground part of Seattle down below. You can read about in Seattle Underground or Seattle Underground: In which the Truth, the whole Truth, and a lot More than the truth is told about the Forgotten City which Lies Beneath Seattle’s Modern Streets.

It was getting late in the day and we knew that the walk back was probably going to seem even longer, so we decided to make stops along the way. We stopped in at the Klondike Gold Rush Museum which was quite interactive and more detailed than what we ever learned in history class.

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We bought truffles from Fran’s Chocolate (which we learned was a favorite stop of Michelle Obama’s). We had some killer oysters at The Brooklyn Seafood, then stopped in at Suite 410 for a cocktail.

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some of the beers at Tap House

Next, we checked out the Tap House Grill where I was finally able to find a Bud Light beer and then on to The Palace Kitchen for dinner.  (You know how Texas Roadhouse brings peanuts to each table? The Palace brings out pistachios!)

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Montucky Cold Snack

After dinner, I did try a Montucky cold snack which was pretty good. We wrapped up the evening by walking around the block, stopping in at Assiaggio Ristorante, and making new friends who walked the rest of the way around the block with us back to The Palace Kitchen.

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Sonny, Tracey, Angie

Luckily, we were only a block away from our hotel by then. Our wonderful waitress bid us goodnight by sending us back to our hotel with a HUGE bag of pistachios!

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I Want to Cruise 80s Style

OMG, I can’t believe I am even writing this post. While driving into work this morning I heard an ad on the radio to win a spot on The 80s Cruise hosted by Dee Snider and sponsored by SiriusXM 80s on 8 satellite radio station.

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Since I’m a fan of contests, drawings, and any kind of free stuff, I pulled up the web site and entered. Once in a blue moon I’ve won concert tickets and gift cards, so I hope maybe my chances are good to win this cruise.

After entering the contest, I surfed around on the website for the details. Now, for any of you who know me or read my posts regularly, you know I’m not a fan of cruising.  I’ve been on ONE and really can’t see myself going on another one. However, this cruise may be changing my mind. They tout it as THE ULTIMATE 80s PARTY and being a product of the 80s, I think I may HAVE to go!

This is the 4th year for the 80s cruise, it will embark in Ft. Lauderdale, and port in Cozumel (I love Cozumel), Costa Maya (never heard of it, but it sounds interesting), Belize (it’s on the bucket list), and Key West (another place I love). The selling point for me?  The (Totally Rad) Lineup!

Performances will be by:

Kenny Loggins–remember Footloose?

Sheila E–she had a Glamorous Life 

Starship–We Built This City

The Fixx–One Thing Leads to Another

Grandmaster Flash–the Message

OMD–Remember the last song from Pretty In Pink?

BERLIN featuring Terri Nunn

Club Nouveau–Lean on Me

Tiffany–I Think We’re Alone Now

and more!

Now, here’s where I am sold.  OMG!  SHEILA E and BERLIN? Do you mean to tell me, I could see them perform in the same place in the same week and maybe even meet them?  These are two of my ultimate favorite artists from that decade! I even still have a probably 25-year old Berlin CD, sitting in the old CD player in my garage so I can listen to it while I’m out front doing yard work. This sounds ABSOLUTELY AMAZING to me. Don’t get me wrong, I like or love the other artists in the line up, but SHEILA E AND BERLIN? BERLIN AND SHEILA E? That fact alone has me thinking I will HAVE to go on this cruise.

Beyond that, there will be theme nights on the cruise where you may want to bust out your old prom dress or tuxedo. There will be Big 80s Trivia–I could probably win this in my sleep–but I’m sure everyone else on that cruise would be able to as well! There will be 80’s Karaoke, which sounds good, but ALSO Cobra Kai Karaoke–if you suck or don’t know the lyrics, you will find no mercy. Let’s Get Physical aerobics classes outside on the deck sound super fun and so does Camp 80s Cruise, where the “camp counselors” ensure you have fun playing beer pong, doing the limbo and scavenger hunting.

Have I lost my mind? I know theme cruises have been around for a while now and I have had NO DESIRE to ever go on one. Especially since I don’t care much for cruising. But I have to admit, I’m kind of smitten over this 80s cruise. I think I’m going to have to do it.

My one last hurdle will be hubby. This is soooo not his cup of tea. There’s no way I will get him to agree to go on this cruise, UNLESS I WIN THE XM CONTEST (then he’ll have to go)! Fingers crossed, fingers crossed! And if I do win, you all will hear relentlessly all about it.

Have you been on a theme cruise before? Or do any of the songs bring back nostalgia for you? Shoot me some comments. Let me know what I should be prepared for, or what was your favorite cruise, or which of these groups or songs were your favorites?

This post brought to you by the power of positive thinking and finger crossing…

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What I Love About Las Vegas

I love Las Vegas! There’s so much to do there, that every few years I get a hankering to visit. I’m getting to that point again. Hubby’s never been to Vegas, so we may have to plan a trip soon. The best part will be that I should be able to cover the entire cost of the trip with my Chase Sapphire Card that I signed up for after reading the blog post 5 Reasons Chase Sapphire Preferred Should Be Your First Cardby the Points Guy. img_2266I’ve learned I can only handle Las Vegas in short, 3-5 day bursts. I could never spend a week or two vacationing there. There’s so much to do in Vegas, and with no visible clocks anywhere, I would not get any sleep and wind up exhausting myself. I love to get out and see and do everything Vegas has to offer.

Since I like to gamble, but I’m not a hard-core gambler, I tend to pace myself. I will play the slots when I want to order a cocktail, so I can take advantage of the free drinks, and I will play on my casino rewards card–in the hopes of accruing enough points to get free stuff. (One trip, I accrued so many points that I didn’t pay for a single meal or cocktail and I had points left over when I left.) big slot

I make it a point to stay at a different hotel each trip to Las Vegas. Since they are all so different and have different themes, it makes sense to experience a different one each time. I’ll usually choose hotel by location.  I try to alternate between staying at the north or south end of the strip and I think I may even consider staying on Fremont St. at some point in the future.

Picture 207After location, I do also consider the pool situation. Some of the hotels have incredible pools that are open March through October. If it happens to be pool season when I go, the pool will also determine where I stay. poolsIt’s so easy to get around Vegas, that location doesn’t really matter. You can take the shuttle from the airport to your resort. There’s a super-fast monorail you can take down part of the strip. Or, you could opt for the double-decker bus, The Deuce, which is my favorite. They have an all-day rate that will allow you to hop a ride any time for the entire day and it’s reasonably priced. You could also Bike Share, Uber, or call a cab to get around. Maybe you choose to walk, but keep in mind, those casinos are much further apart than they look! ballysFor a newbie to Vegas, you may want to consider a day trip to the Grand Canyon. If you’ve never been, it is definitely a must see, but in my opinion, I’d want to visit longer than a day trip. Since I’ve been to the Grand Canyon before, I tend to skip this when in Vegas. 1255182_10202181805249704_900201334_nShows! The shows in Vegas are incredible! Years ago, I went to a Cirque du Soleil show. I loved it so much–from the athleticism of the artists, to the acrobatics, to the overall performance–I’ve vowed to take in a Cirque show every time. I see that there’s now a Michael Jackson ONE show that I WILL go to on my next trip there. There are also other shows to experience as well. From comedy to burlesque, magic to music, dance reviews to major artists–there’s something for everyone. One year I lucked into Tickets to see Jay-Z and Mary J Blige. It wouldn’t have been my first choice of shows to see, but I have to admit, it converted me into a Jay-Z fan. The show was amazing!

bellagioShopping in Vegas is a real treat. You can shop on the strip or off, or visit one of their outlet malls. Be prepared though, while you can shop for a Rolex or Maserati within blocks of each other, you will not find them at clearance prices. If you are looking for something specific or eclectic, you will be able to find it. If you are looking for something you can get at home, get it when you get home. The price will likely be more reasonable. Picture 345After all the activity in Vegas, you gotta eat. Food and restaurants in Vegas are good, and some are REALLY good. You can find a little bit of everything to tempt your taste buds and at almost any price point. Sushi or steak? Mexican or Italian? Brunch or Buffet? It’s here. I recommend you attempt one buffet meal when you visit–whether it’s brunch at Cravings in The Mirage or crab legs at Rio’s seafood buffet.

There’s much more to do in Vegas besides gambling, shows, shopping and eating. You can golf on some of their incredible golf courses, ride the Big Apple Coaster at New York, New York or experience X Scream at the Stratosphere. You can spend the day at one of their world class spas like Canyon Ranch or Spa Mandalay getting a relaxing massage and facial. Go check out a book signing by Bobby Flay or catch the street performers and do some serious people watching. bobby flay Finish off your night by shaking what your momma gave ya in one of the nightclubs or go to 1 OAK and hope for a Kardashian sighting.

Enough about Vegas, since I’ve got myself all riled up to go. Now, I’d better get to planning our trip there. Let me know what you love about Vegas!