We're going Glunting! (Glamorous Hunting!)

By now you've all heard of "Glamping"- Glamorous Camping- but this season's newest, hottest trend is Glunting- Glamorous Hunting! And yes, I am the creator of this term, and I need your help to see that it goes viral!!! I am totally convinced, due to the amazing selection of clothes (from underwear to wedding gowns), shoes (including 6" spikes, such as the ones I'm wearing in the photo below), and accessories (Hello Kitty Camo!) available in RealTree Camo & Pink (not to mention the incredible popularity of Duck Dynasty), that Glunting is THE hot fall trend this year! In honor of The Moose (more on that in an upcoming post...), I set out to attire us appropriately for a big game hunting holiday. And naturally I have to make a Serious Style Statement, too:

Me, wearing RealTree Camo jeans & top (for that slimming "all camo" look), RealTree glittens (hunting mittens with pop-off tops, that have adorable little magnets to hold the tops back), RealTree Pink polarized sunglasses, RealTree Pink rhinestone-encrusted handbag with rhinestone Hello Kitty charm, 6" camo spike platform heels with pink rivets, my Armed Hello Kitty pendant, and, to complete The Glunting Look, Maybelline Color Show nail lacquer in Pinkalicious, & Flirt! lip gloss in Coral Me Fabulous. (Note: You CANNOT mix RealTree and Mossy Oak in one outfit- they clash. LOL) Here's the best part: my US Army Retired, 3.5 tours Vietnam Vet Tough Guy hubs thinks I'm nuts, (of course), BUT he actually went to Wal-Mart to get me the pink nail polish- and got Just the right color! Amazing man! :-) NOTE: Wait till you see the posts of me in my REAL hunting gear: hunting bibs, parka, thermals, Frogg Toggs Rain Suit, wool socks, hunting boots, & Elmer Fudd hat... I look like the Michelin Tire Woman. LOL)

While hubs is a very experienced and successful big game meat hunter, who has hunted in Alaska, Canada, Korea, & Virginia, among other places, I am a newbie huntress, and this will be my first time big game hunting. (I've done some pheasant hunting in upstate NY & with hubs in Korea, but although I shot At pheasants (and ate the pheasants my hunting partners Did land), I never actually landed one myself... Trust me- hitting a bird on the wing ain't easy!) Hunting together is something hubs and I have talked & dreamed about doing for a decade- since we met in 2001, actually- as I've always wanted to seriously learn to hunt for meat, and he is THE guy to teach me! I have "talked the talk" about hunting for decades, because I have hunted and fished, and I know that hunters and fishing folk are THE best conservationists on the planet because they REALLY care about taking care of the environment- but I need to actually "walk the walk" at least once in my life. I need to bring down an animal, butcher it, and eat it. Or find out that I can't. But one way or the other, I have to do this. Steaks do not arrive by magic in your supermarket in a hermetically sealed Styrofoam box. Steaks are animals that are killed and butchered before they wind up on your grill. As carnivores, we owe it to ourselves to "walk the walk" at least once in our lives so we "get it". I've done it with fish, but warm-blooded big game are a whole different kettle of fish, as they say.
But hunting in AK- where we originally wanted to go, as we both Love AK- hubs from living and hunting there for years while in the US Army, and me from 6 amazing weeks with the USCG as an Official USCG Artist (plug in "Elisse Jo Goldstein" and many of my 35 paintings in the USCG Art Collection will come up) and fishing in Kodiak- has become SO expensive that it's now only for the super-rich and independently wealthy: $15,000 PER PERSON for a one week, two person, one animal hunt?! But in Canada, hunts are still affordable for "normal people", and in British Columbia, Canada you can do a 2 person, 2 moose fully-guided hunt for about $8500- which, while expensive, is something that is at least Possible For Normal People to save up for. Over a year ago, when we found what we thought would be a great fully-guided hunt in BC, Canada (through posts I made on TripAdvisor's Canada forums), we decided that we'd better do this ASAP- while 1) we were still in good enough physical shape to do it, and 2) we still Wanted to do it! So Now Was The Time! As soon as we made the down payment on the hunt I went into Serious Trip Planning Mode, which meant plotting the 10-day drive to BC, Canada via www.mapquest.com in such a way that we could both use our 1000s of accrued hotel points for free hotel stays, and see and do a lot of cool stuff on the way! It also meant Shopping. :-) There was a LOT of stuff we truly needed for this hunt, including cold weather sleeping bags (that zip together- because he's my hubs and the love of my life, and I want to sleep in his arms even in the wilderness! ESPECIALLY in the wilderness!), hunting bibs and jackets, long underwear, hunting Glittens (glove-mittens with pop-off-tops), hunting boots, rain gear to go over our hunting bibs, hunting hats and socks, hunting knives, ammo, and a rifle for me that I could shoot accurately, but which wouldn't be so high-powered that it would flip me head-over-arse like Dan's did... (and no, that experience was Not a lot of fun. The blood running down my cheek freaked out a lot of people at the VA winery. LOL) Naturally, I also want to make a Major Style Statement, and so I began hunting on Cabela's and Wingsupply.com, as well as other hunting sites, to find what I Really wanted, and then on eBay & Overstock.com to try to score bargains!
The first thing we did was buy me a rifle- a Lady Savage- at Cabela's. Bob, the really knowledgeable guy at the Charleston, WV Cabela's, was Extremely helpful, and spent a LOT of time giving me a great deal of info and advice over the phone, and so Cabela's won our business. With all my wonderful research I was hoping to buy a used rifle with a short stock at Cabela's- perhaps a "youth" hunting rifle, or a "package" that included the rifle and the scope. Not happening. If you want a rifle with a short stock you have but one choice: a brand, spanking new Lady Savage. I went in expecting to pay $400 for a rifle and a scope, and wound up spending $1000 for the Lady Savage rifle, the Nikon scope, and a "shooting stick", which I can rest my rifle on to help my accuracy. It was great to get it all in one place, but financially it was a Truly Big Ouch... The funny part was seeing the Bubblegum Pink 22 Rifle at Cabela's. It is Too Freaking Cute- the Barbie Rifle to beat all- and I would have opted for it in a heartbeat, but a 22 is NOT going to bring down a moose! So I either have to bling out my Lady Savage with rhinestones and a glue gun, a la Martha Stewart, or just hang my Hello Kitty charm off the strap. LOL
The next thing I did was score the stuff we Truly need for this hunt: After a stupid amount of time-consuming online research (which I actually enjoy, as I am OCD... LOL), price-comparing, & perusing size charts and online reviews, I ordered the following things: zip-together sleeping bags, matching (LOL) RealTree Camo hunting bibs and jackets, pink thermals for me :-), Hunting socks (pink camo for me, normal stuff for Dan), a long-sleeved camo top for me (for that slimming "all camo" look), hunting "glittens" (glove-mittens) with pop-off tops & little magnets... Then I said "wot the hell" and got a roll of camo duct tape (because if I still have to bandage my wounded legs, by gum I am going to do it in style...) & a compact of camo face paint, so I can "be like a tree" and disappear into the woods- or not, depending on where & how I wear it. :-)  WingSupply.com was an EXCELLENT source- best prices, and their customer service was superb- I highly recommend them! Cabelas.com was also great, and so was Overstock.com- I really have no complaints about any of the companies I ordered from!
On eBay I scored the Cabela's HER hunting boots and a fur-lined hunting hat (tres Elmer Fudd) that I really wanted, for Way less than retail (good women's hunting gear is Insanely expensive...), and RealTree Camo jeans (Note: I have No Problem with Gently Used Clothes, dating back to my 1975 NYC Antique Boutique days...), as well as some incredibly cool fun stuff: 6" camo spike platform heels with pink rivets, a RealTree & Pink rhinestone-encrusted handbag, RealTree & Pink polarized sunglasses, a huge Hello Kitty rhinestone purse charm & Hello Kitty Camo shirt, & the classic "Hello Kitty with a Rifle" pendant. Yes, Virginia, they really do make this stuff! Google "Hello Kitty Camo" and a LOT of stuff come up. Google "Real Tree Pink" and even MORE stuff comes up. When I saw the RealTree taffeta ball gown on eBay ($220) I almost wet myself with longing! LOL  I have a dark brown velvet Coldwater Creek gown I got at Goodwill, which I think will look Absolutely Fabulous with those heels and that purse! :-)
Our plan is to drive from WV to northern BC, Canada, which is a 10 day trip, towing a freezer in the pick-up truck to (hopefully) bring back all that moose meat- moose kebabs are EXCELLENT! So naturally our chest freezer up and died, and Dan had to go out and buy us a new one- one big enough to hopefully bring back 1000 lbs. of moose meat!
After Boo-Boo Goldstein got her very own rifle, Hunter Dan and I piled His & Hers into the UTV & rode up into the wilderness of the McDowell County mountains, had a picnic, stuck targets up on a tree with duct tape, and practiced shooting. And, if I say so myself, I didn't do half bad! I learned that yes, I can still shoot, and still make Very Nice Groupings- meaning I can hopefully hit what I'm aiming at when the pedal hits the metal!

Focus!

 

Where & how we ATV! With an axe!

Hubs, doing his thang!

 

His and Hers!

 

Why we live in McDowell County WV! Yes, it is freakin' gorgeous!

"Nice grouping" :-)

And now we're getting ready for our AbFab Glunting trip! Woohoo!

Antigua: Cooking with Chef Nicole!

On our recent CruCon-booked Celebrity Cruise through the Caribbean, we spent a day in Antigua (where neither of us had ever been before), and as hubs is a chef (and I'm his favorite foodie!), we were really lucky to be able to spend the day learning to cook Antiguan dishes with Chef Nicole Arthurton at Nicole's Table in St. Johns, Antigua! (Read her reviews on TripAdvisor and you'll see why I booked!) Nicole is truly delightful company as well as a top food pro, and her kitchen and her home are glorious, with a view from her patio that is "to die for", as they say! Chef Dan and I took her "Cooking with Rum" class, which included THE most excellent rum tasting I've Ever had- I got to taste rums I didn't even know existed!- and we learned to make (and then enjoy) dishes that were so good, and so uniquely Caribbean, that Chef Dan his put them on the menu at the Elkhorn Inn! Dishes we made (and now have on our menu) included Nicole's Rum-Marinated Grilled Steak, served with Onion Jam, a Sweet Potato Soup with Rum and Toasted Coconut Slivers (which are THE best munchie, ever!), Bacon-Wrapped Plantains, and Coconut Rice and Beans. In addition to cooking (and sampling Nicole's delish Rum Punch), we learned a lot about Antigua, as well as about Montserrat, where Nicole's family is from. Thanks to Nicole, we actually got off the beaten tourist path and experienced a little of the "real" Antigua, if only for a few, all-too-short, hours!

The day we had with Nicole is the kind of a day that makes you long to return for an extended stay- not just for 8 hours while on a cruise!  We started the day with a "liquid breakfast" at Hemmingway's Caribbean Café (photo below); hey- it was 5 o'clock somewhere! :-) The truly nice and helpful staff got us a cab out to Nicole's; the driver then came back to pick us up and take us back to our ship later in the day! So many cruisers are afraid to do things that aren't cruise-line sponsored for fear of missing the boat, and that's a shame, because most of the really interesting and unique things to do (such as this cooking day with Nicole, our spearfishing and jet-ski fishing excursions, etc.) aren't available through the cruise lines! 99% of the excursions we've done so far on our 4 cruises were booked independently, and all have been great. If a company has 5-star reviews on www.TripAdvisor.com & www.CruiseCritic.com they WILL see that you get back to the ship on time- if they don't they'll be out of business fast! Great places to look for unique excursions include the Forum boards for different ports on both www.CruiseCritic.com and www.TripAdvisor.com, and just "Googling" for the things you want to do in the places you want to do them! I found Nicole's Table by entering terms like "cooking classes Caribbean", and "cooking Antigua" in various search engines!

Noxicare™ Natural Pain Relief Vitamin B-12 - Review: A+++

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As many of you know, I am allergic to most antibiotics and rely almost 100% on natural supplements to keep my health. My husband Dan and I have the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre, on top of which I'm a FEMA Disaster Response Specialist, and so I travel a Lot, both on disaster response operations and our personal and business trips. All that travel (and often funky conditions, such as floods, hurricanes, mold, etc.), open me up to a Lot of health concerns, but rather amazingly, at the ripe old age of 54 (LOL), I'm evidently in pretty darned good health, as neither Dan nor I take ANY Rx medications for ANYTHING! (I think that's normal, because my mom is 90 and not on any Rx meds either, but according to the doctors I've spoken with over the last 14 years, it is NOT normal- EVERY doctor I've seen since I turned 40 has asked me REPEATEDLY what medications I'm taking- because I "must" be taking something for some "chronic illness", such as high blood pressure, high eholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, etc. When I tell them that I'm not taking anything for ANY chronic illnesses because I don't have any, they ask me the same question again and again- as if I might have memory loss, too. LOL) Because I'm committed to taking charge of my health (and my husband's!), I do a stupid amount of medical research, and am always on the lookout for things that may help us keep our health, and I recently had the opportunity to try Noxicare™ Natural Pain Relief Vitamin B-12.
I take 2 tabs a day with meals, and I have to say that I'm pleased. I have found that my energy levels have increased- and I need all the energy I can get! :-) I'm pleased enough that I am going to continue to keep taking it as a part of my daily regimen of supplements.
The whole point of taking Vitamin B-12 is to maintain energy, as it's an essential vitamin for energy production. Vitamin B-12 is  also important for red blood cell formation, proper nervous system function, and maintaining a healthy homocysteine level, which is important for cardiovascular health. 500 mcg of Vitamin B-12 as a daily supplement provides some extra insurance that you'll get all the Vitamin B-12 you need, and I think that's worth doing. I think Noxicare has some great products, especially their pain-relief products, so I "like" them on Facebook, and you should, too: you can do so here: Noxicare on Facebook

I received the product mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com http://www.tomoson.com/?code=BOTTOM01071362de6fb2ad51d7cfa6e44f0e38">Tomoson.com
>. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Cruisin' St. Thomas: Spearfishing!

We recently had an excellent 2-week Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse- thanks to a GREAT "flash-sale" deal we got on CruCon! (Yes, we HIGHLY recommend CruCon! We're in the hospitality business, and I do a LOT of 'homework', and so far The best deals we've been able to find anywhere have been through flash-sales on CruCon! Sign up for them now!) The first tip I've got to give is: GET A BALCONY! As a travel agent told us (after we'd done two cruises with el-cheap-o inside cabins), once you've had a balcony you will NEVER go back to an inside stateroom, and that is THE TRUTH! Ever since, we have booked a "guaranteed balcony", which usually means a "partially obstructed view", and on Celebrity that has meant a cabin on Deck 6 with a life boat right beneath our balcony, but SO WHAT?! It's fabulous! You will wake up to sunrise and the lovely sound of the waves, and sit out there naked having breakfast looking at the ocean and passing islands in the morning sunshine; you will see your port or a gorgeous sea view the minute you open your stateroom door when you come back from an excursion; you will drink wine out there at sunset as your ship pulls away from the islands you've been visiting; you'll have late night drinks out there (again naked) while looking at the stars and the sea... and you'll fall asleep to moonlight and the sound of the waves... In short, you will love it to pieces! The balcony MAKES the cruise! This time we had 2 whole wonderful weeks to love our balcony, enjoy the ship's many amenities, and have fun in 8 great ports, most of which we'd never been to!

Our first port was St. Thomas, USVI, and we had the opportunity to do something REALLY cool that Dan hadn't done in over 40 years and I had never done: Spearfishing! We booked a day of spearfishing with Capt. Rick of Swashbucklin' Tours, and had a GREAT day! (Read his reviews on TripAdvisor, and you'll see why I booked!) The weather didn't cooperate, and there was a "small craft advisory" when we arrived, so Capt. Rick couldn't take his boat out :-( But he had a "Plan B" (which is what makes him great), and we kayaked out to a place where we could spearfish! Dan had spearfished 42 years ago in Vietnam, so he just grabbed his speargun and took off, but I'd never done it before, (and have the upper-body strength of a gnat), and Rick was The best teacher! The man has the patience of a saint, and he helped me reload my speargun time and time again so I could get as much time shooting as possible! Where we were the fish were small (and very beautiful, too- and it's hard to shoot at pretty fish... LOL), and as I'm a surface snorkeler, I shot At a lot of fish but didn't manage to catch us lunch... but it was SO great, none the less! I honestly felt like James Bondette, hunting beneath the waves with my spear gun, and I didn't want to get out of the water! In addition to all the gorgeous fish, I got to see other cool stuff, such as starfish and octopi (which I told Rick to catch us for lunch, as he dived down to show them to me, but he didn't!), and Rick used my GoPro underwater camera to take GREAT photos of me! (Because, as everyone knows, if it's not on Facebook, it didn't happen! :-) When he finally dragged me out of the water (kicking and screaming LOL), we went to have a delish lunch of conch curry on the beach with his Rasta friends. Rick's wife and kids were delightful, and it was truly one of the best days we had on our entire cruise! We SO want to go back and do it again on his boat in better weather, so we can do some REAL spearfishing and lobster-snaring! Rick said that spearfishing will spoil you for snorkeling, as every time you get close to a great big fish you'll think "Damn! I wish I had my speargun!", and as we went snorkeling many times on this cruise I can say for a fact that he was definitely right! LOL If you are heading to St. Thomas, contact Capt. Rick: this is definitely a must-do excursion!

 

 

 

Road Trip (SC, GA, FL) to a Cruise! And why we choose to cruise!

Chef Dan and his Foodie Wife (me) have just returned from a wonderful, warming, 4 week vacation, 2 weeks of which were spent on the Celebrity Eclipse http://www.celebritycruises.com in the Caribbean, and the other 2 weeks on a road trip to and from Florida, and in the next several posts I will share links to the great adventures we had, including spear-fishing, snorkeling with turtles and manatees, tasting rums and learning to cook Antiguan food, and riding Trikes and ATVs, hopefully inspiring and encouraging you to check them out and put them on your YOLO List! One of the things I'm often asked is why we like to cruise, as a lot of people seem to think cruising is for "old" or "fuddy-duddy" people, and that we're not the "cruise type"! As this was our fourth (and so far best) cruise, I want to start this post with why we really love cruising. I booked our first cruise 4 years ago when we had a last-minute opportunity to get away in the middle of winter, and a cruise was the cheapest warm-weather holiday I could find with no notice! Forewarned by friends in the travel industry, we took a cheapie, discounted inside cabin and went off fully prepared to be disappointed... and were totally surprised to find that we loved it! We went ATVing in Cozumel, Mexico, learned to JetSki in Labadee, Haiti, rode horses in the ocean off Jamaica, played games in the ship's arcade, saw some great shows, indulged in the salon, spa, and Cigar Bar, found the food to be surprisingly excellent, enjoyed the towel animals(!), dressed in gowns and tuxes and reminded each other how good we could look, danced and romanced... and booked our next cruise almost immediately upon returning!
This is our second cruise with Celebrity http://www.celebritycruises.com and it was THE best! We enjoyed a 2-week cruise on the Eclipse, stopping at 8 southern Caribbean ports (St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Martin, Barbados, Antigua, Grenada, Aruba, and Curacao), with 5 (wonderful) relaxing days at sea to enjoy our balcony and many of the great things the ship had to offer, including breakfast on our stateroom's balcony each morning and wine at sunset, the truly excellent and inventive cuisine at Qsine, live jazz and wine on the lawn (yes, a lawn, with real grass!), the ice-covered Martini Bar and Molecular Bar, proffering a yummy assortment of inventive cocktails, the enomatic wine bar, where you can self-service taste dozens of wines from all over the world and enjoy wine and port tastings, whisky tastings in Michael's Pub with an excellent Irish bartender, absolutely Great spa treatments and acupuncture (which keeps hubs totally out of pain), and some great entertainment, including a terrific, talent-filled Le Cirque-style show with amazing Polish acrobats and dancers flying from the ceiling... and some fabulous towel animals, too! The service was great, and frankly, as all the ships are beautiful, service is what makes a cruise great! (RCCL's service, on the other hand, hit rock-bottom (racist, ugly, mean, dangerous) on our last cruise with them 2 years ago, and as a result we'll never Ever cruise with them again). Celebrity is owned by RCCL, but it is Light years ahead of what RCCL deteriorated into. I think that one of the reasons Celebrity's service is so great is that the vast majority of their cruisers Are older- and yes, some of them have walkers or canes or wheelchairs- and they need good service. We're Boomers: I'm 53 and Chef Dan is 66, and we're still "adrenaline junkies"  love "active" excursions like ATVing and spearfishing, but we Very much appreciate good service and enjoy things like whisky tastings, jazz on the lawn, fine cuisine, shows, spa treatments, and just chilling on our balcony naked with a good book and a glass of wine! :-) So our verdict is that cruising is a Great way for folks of all ages to have a fabulous holiday, and there are some GREAT deals out there! THE best deals I've been able to find anywhere (with great perks like on-board credits and pre-paid gratuities) are the "flash sales" from CruCon www.crucon.com and I subscribe to them religiously! (Hint: book a "guaranteed balcony" for the best deal! You may get what they call a "partially obstructed view", which means the lifeboats are directly beneath your balcony, but it is FINE! And trust me: once you have a balcony you will NEVER book an inside cabin again- the balcony MAKES the cruise!) Once you've booked your cruise, a fun thing to do is sign up for the "Roll Call" board for your cruise on Cruise Critic www.cruisecritic.com and "meet" your fellow shipmates; you can exchange information and gather groups for excursions, plan meet-and-greet parties, read recent reviews of the ship you'll be sailing on, check out excursion ideas on the site's boards for your ports of call, and share the happy anticipation! (I think 1/4 of the fun of a trip is in the planning, and another 1/4 is in the blogging and looking at all the photos!) Thanks to the Cruise Critic Boards, "Googling", and www.TripAdvisor.com Forums, I found unique excursions for each of our 8 ports. I booked all but one of our excursions independently of the cruise line, as in the past we were disappointed with many cruise line excursions, finding them way too crowded to be any fun. Many newbie cruisers are scared to book excursions independently for fear of being late and missing the boat, but if a company has 5-star reviews on TripAdvisor and Cruise Critic you can rest assured that they WILL see that you get back to the ship on time!

Chef Dan and I started our vacation with a 4-night "foodie road trip" from Landgraff, WV to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I broke the trip into 4-5 hour driving segments, knowing that we like to stop along the way to see and do things, and that for us it's Never the 4 or 5 hours www.mapquest.com says it is, but we Still didn't have enough time to stop and see all the things we wanted to along the way! Our first stop was Spartanburg, SC where stayed at the lovely The Inn on Main in a beautiful room with a soaking tub for two :-) The charming, helpful Inn-Keepers, Susan and Wayne, have truly created a beautiful place, and this is definitely "the" place to stay in Spartanburg! We were recommended to the inn by Elkhorn Inn guests who've become good friends, and who were the reason we decided to stop in Spartanburg! 

We had a wonderful evening of wine at the Carriage House Wine Bar , followed by a delicious dinner, with our Spartanburg friends!

Our next stop was Savannah, GA, where we stayed at the historic Marshall House (which has a great wine and cheese evening for guests!), and had a wonderful dinner at The Olde Pink House so Chef Dan could "deconstruct" (figure out how to make) their fab "Southern Sushi" that we'd had on a previous stay in Savannah! We'd heard the Marshall House was haunted, and specifically requested a room where we might experience something, but no luck! ;-)

We got to do a little target practice...

I must say that I found the AR-15 to be feather-light and really easy to control, and I liked it a lot. I have to pat myself on the back for being able to to site and compensate properly in short order after all these years! Girly-girl can still make a "nice grouping"! :-)

We had a yummy lunch of fried oysters at one of our fave places: Skipper's Fish Camp on the water in Darien, GA! We couldn't believe we actually found it again! They have a lovely deck with a great view, a turtle pond, and charming service, and we always look forward to stopping there. We got to spend a bit of time at Fort King George Museum, too; Darien is definitely a place we want to come back to and spend a couple of days! There's a hotel next to the restaurant right on the water, there's a wine dinner cruise, and Ft. King George- so much to fun to be had!

We spent the night in St. Augustine, FL, one of our favorite places, staying again at the Bayfront Marin House so we could enjoy a lovely room with a soaking tub and breakfast on the veranda overlooking the water!

We had a truly delish Spanish tapas and wine dinner at our favorite St. Augustine restaurant The Tasting Room...

and anotherfun evening of live music and drinks at Tradewinds, our totally fave, happily smokey dive bar!

In the morning, before getting on the road, we stocked up on the tropical fruit wines we love (Grapefruit, Banana, Key Lime, Mango, Orange/Chocolate, etc...) at Vino Del Grotto Winery, doing a morning wine tasting to get our daily requirement of fruits and veggies! :-) We truly look forward to this all winter long!

We again spent our pre-cruise night at the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Marina (on our Hilton Honors Points! We are loyal for a reason!), which we ESPECIALLY love for their smoking rooms with balconies overlooking the intercoastal waterway, really nice service, and the ability to park our car there for the duration of our cruise for only $10/night!
We treated ourselves to a wonderful dinner of venison and other delectables at the "farm-to-table" gourmet restaurant Market 17 across the street. We found it last year, and spent all year hoping to return!

And then, (after I had packed on 20 pounds in 4 days...) we were off on our cruise!

Next post: Cruising the Southern Caribbean!