January 4, 2012 by Misty.

I had great aspirations for this blog, that I started way back when; however, ask my mother or my husband and they’ll admit that I’m kind of lazy. I have these wonderful ideas in my head - I’m witty and funny but by the time I actually locate paper and pen those ideas are all but gone. My wonderful husband recently purchased Dragon naturally speaking for me, so hopefully this will help me to get back into blogging soon.

In the last year I actually went to a couple of really neat places and I took lots of pictures and completely intended on writing and uploading stuff to my blog; however, that never actually happened. So I’m going back through my pictures and see what I can come up with.

There was the snake farm, the bed-and-breakfast that my husband and I stayed at in Kerrville and I even spent two full weeks in New York with my in-laws. So I think I have some stories that I can actually put up on the blog that might be somewhat interesting to all two of my readers.

In addition to the couple of trips that I made in 2011, I was also thinking about possibly expanding the website to include some cooking, arts and crafts, and just anything that strikes my fancy. I am constantly coming up with new ideas in the kitchen and thought maybe I’d like to incorporate a food blog with my travel blog, somehow.

So check back often as I fully intend to get some more content, including pictures, up really soon!

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November 8, 2009 by Misty.

Recently, my boss was generous to his employees and gave each of us a gift certificate to try his new favorite restaurant, 34th Street Cafe.  My husband and I opted to go there for lunch as neither of us are terribly fond of crowds.  My first impression was that it looked like a “trendy” place.  Which is not usually my thing.

The lunch menu consisted mainly of sandwiches, salads, pizzas, and soups.   Bill tried their Reuben sandwich with fries.  I opted for the turkey & Swiss, minus the onion with a side of new potato salad.  Pretty ho-hum, boring stuff.

I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised.  The turkey & Swiss came on a kaiser roll that was very tasty and the meats and cheeses on the sandwich were also very yummy.  I believe they used Boar’s Head brand, which is preferable for any sandwich!  The new potato salad was quite scrumptious as well!  It had bite size pieces of red potatoes and the fresh ingredients made it very visually appealing as well as tasty.

I don’t usually go for Reuben type sandwiches, but I had to try a bite anyhow.  I must admit, I was quite surprised at how yummy it was.  The rye bread had a nice texture and the melted Swiss and sauerkraut were very delectable.  The fries.  Whoa.

They were some of the best fries I’ve had in a very long time.  They were seasoned fries that had a hint of sweetness to them, but were also a little spicy.  I almost wanted to trade meals with my husband!

We still have a decent amount of money left on our gift certificate, so I think I’d like to go back for an early dinner sometime and try some of their dinner items including appetizers.  I’m a sucker for cheeses and I really want to try their cheese plate.  I know that doesn’t sound very exciting, but I love trying different cheeses with accompanied flavors, such as fruit or honey.

All in all, I would say that I really enjoyed eating at the 34th Street Cafe.  The wait staff were incredibly friendly and courteous and I enjoyed my overall experience at this place.  I’m looking forward to our next trip when I can try the 34th Street Cheese Plate.

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September 17, 2009 by Misty.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been anywhere recently.  Monday is my birthday and we’re going to have dim sum at Shanghai on Saturday.  Check back next week to get my review of this popular dim sum restaurant!

Posted in Restaurants, Reviews, Not necessarily "road" trips | 1 Comment »

August 30, 2009 by Misty.

Thursday was our travel day and things started out well enough but our travels came to a bit of a screeching halt; more or less, but we managed to make it to Albany easy enough.

It was the adventure that ensued once we took a cab from the airport to Shurtz** Car Rental off of Central Avenue in Albany. I had booked our rental car approximately 3 weeks in advance and was very excited to get set up with a car and start exploring!

Apparently, that was not meant to be. Shurtz** has this ridiculous policy that in order to accept debit cards, they first have to run your credit…..are you kidding me? I wasn’t going to let them run my credit just to rent a car!

My husband and I then tried to pay with my Visa. Unfortunately, this was the only major credit card we brought with us and there wasn’t enough credit available to cover the cost of the 5 day rental and the deposit. Of course. We then tried to get them to put the car rental on one card and the deposit on another. That, too, was a no go.

We tried to explain to the guy that we just flew in from Texas and we were stranded without a rental car. Tough bananas to us. They weren’t wiling to help us in the slightest. Fantastic.

Luckily, we were able to call my mother-in-law (who was about an hour and a half away) to come and pick us up. We had to carry all of luggage into a diner (if you want to call it that) until his she was able to get to us.

The moral of this story? Shurtz** sucks! If you need to rent a car, say away from them. I will not give them my business and I decided to tell my story to hopefully save someone else the headache. All I can say is thank goodness we weren’t truly stranded.

Stay tuned for further adventures from Upstate NY! We go to an incredibly old cemetery to get some awesome pictures! The trip only gets better from here!

**all rental car companies’ names have been changed to protect the innocent – in this case, US!

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August 19, 2009 by Misty.

I’ll be in Upstate NY in a couple of days, so look for new posts and pictures coming soon!  I, personally, am hoping to see some goats!

Posted in Not necessarily "road" trips | 1 Comment »

July 4, 2009 by Misty.

Although most of my travels in recent times are in and around central Texas, there was a time when I saw new places, exotic lands, and fantastic destinations. The very first trip I ever made on an airliner was to British Columbia, Canada. I was 22 and I loved it! Seeing as how BC is far from exotic, I might save details of my travels to Canada for another time.

I was fortunate enough to spend roughly a month in Malaysia when I was in my early 20s. Most of my time in Malaysia was spent in Kuala Lumpar (“KL”), but I also got to visit Ipoh and Pinang. The Malaysia in my mind and the real country were nothing alike.

When told I had the opportunity to go to Malaysia, I was excited, but scared. I had never been out of North America. My thoughts raced as to what medical vaccinations I would need for my trip; luckily, I didn’t have to get any shots before I left the states.

Seeing as how I was there for a decent amount of time, I won’t go into detail about all the things I saw, felt and experienced. Some of the interesting things I experienced, was eating at US restaurants while there. Schlotzsky’s, A&W, TGIFridays, and KFC were some of the American chains that I had the opportunity to try.

You may be wondering why I ate at American chain restaurants while in a foreign country, let me say that some of the sights and smells of the cities weren’t really conducive to building an appetite for wanting to try something new. The piles of rotting vegetation outside some of the street vendors were awful! Nothing like smelling rotting vegetation outside a restaurant you’re about to eat in. No thank you!

So, this is why I stuck to American chains, at least initially. The first chain from the states that I tried was Schlotzsky’s. The regular size original was about the size of the smallest sandwich Schlotzsky’s offers. It didn’t have the usual ingredients as the original here in the states. It didn’t contain the cheese or black olive goodness that I’m accustomed to. They didn’t have ham on the menu, at least what I recall. So, overall, the food was similar, but no where near as good as the original here.

An issue that they have in many Asian cultures is timing food correctly for parties of several. When a dish is prepared, it is served whether all the other dishes are complete or not. Of all the American chain restaurants I experienced while there, TGIFriday’s was the worst.

The overall food quality was about the same…..mediocre at best, but the waiters/waitresses looked very excited to be serving this fat American. Another chain I visited was KFC. Normally, I’m not a KFC fan, but the one I tried in Malaysia was terrible. The chicken pieces were very small and looked like reject chicken parts. I don’t recall the taste of the food. I almost think I threw it away it was so repulsive looking.

The food I had at one of the local restaurants in Pinang was very yummy. They had both traditional Asian dishes, as well as some of my favorites from home. I ordered sesame chicken and Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce (YUM!). The food was very flavorful and I regretted not having eaten more traditional and local dishes.

After getting, roughly, ¾ of the way done with my meal, I found some surprises in my food! I won’t be too graphic, but let’s say that I found bugs in both of the dishes I had been so enthusiastically enjoying about 10 minutes previous. That was the end of my meal and that, my friends, is exactly why I ate at American chain restaurants while in Malaysia.

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