YAY! We're Home!

It was nice going away, but equally nice to come home. We left the hotel this morning at 10am eastern time, caught the 12:45 flight to Chicago... altho we sat on the tarmack for 1/2 an hour it was ok with us as we had a 2 hour layover scheduled in Chicago. Somehow we managed to land there ontime anyway. We had plenty of time for lunch, finding it was the problem, but we did. Then we actually managed to get on our plane ON TIME to take off to Peoria! ... Ok, Ok.. we did sit on the runway for another 1/2 hour, waiting for OUR turn to be de-iced, but then we did take off and the flight wasn't cancelled! We arrived only 30 minutes late. That's a record for United Airlines flying from Chicago to Peoria. Normally they cancel the flight... and we get stuck in Chicago. Anyway... we made it home just fine, picked up a pizza on the way and had it for dinner when we got home. Thanks Atlanta... but we've had enough.

Recoup and Regroup

A day of rest... is what we needed. After finding that we should have bought advance tickets to the largest Aquarium in the WORLD... (and we didn't so we didn't get in!), we decided what we needed was a rest from running around. So we did. At the end of the day, we had my birthday dinner celebration at a restaurant with the most beautiful view there was. Atop the Westin hotel there is a revolving restaurant called the Sun Dial. It was a beautiful view and did a full rotation in about an hour. We were there almost 2 hours as we took dinner at a very leisurly pace while identifying many of the buildings outside and admiring the lights. After a wonderful steak dinner, they brought out a birthday treat for me; 1 scoop of chocolate Hagan Daas along with 1 scoop of raspberry sherbet, both nestled in a bowl made of crushed almonds, on a plate drizzled with chocolate and raspberry sauce(s). As a garnish, they sprinkled the plate with fresh raspberries, blue berries and a sliced, fanned strawberry. Absolute heaven.

We walked back to the hotel, walking off that Hagen Daas, and relaxed in the hotel's lounge, Lattitudes, having an after dinner drink before retiring the day. I think we are now ready to come home.

Birthday - The real day

This morning I started the day off with a pretty good cup of coffee... made myself, in our hotel room, sipping it, catching up on email and waiting for Rick to wake up. Once awake, we headed out and stopped at the Concierge Desk to find out where the shopping was. I needed boots to go with the skirt I wanted to wear tonite. We found we could also book our tickets for Annie with him and did. Afterwards we found we were not far from the popular "Underground". So we walked over and perused the shops we found there including the Quilt museum... featuring the Underground Railroad Quilt "Code" . Quite interesting if you ever get the chance to visit!

After the Underground, hunger had us returning to a restaurant near the hotel, the Golden Buddha - who advertised Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Sushi. For the price of admission I'd have to say I was disappointed in their food (quantity AND quality).


An hour later, we were on our way to finding the nearest MALL... I still had those boots to find before curtain time tonite. So we took the MARTA (train)to the Lenox Mall and began our trek thru the stores looking at EVERY store that had shoes in it... and there were plenty. Macy's was even having a Sale! Have you ever put the words Women and Shoe Sale together? Know what you get? Disaster!... it was such a mess you couldn't even walk thru it. By 5:30 pm I simply Gave Up. I figured if we didn't eat dinner soon, we wouldnt get to! So I resigned myself to wearing what I had on to the theater, in trade for dinner.

We found a nice place in the mall called "Micks". There we had a wonderful waiter.... great food... and quite reasonable prices. We left there even with directions on how to get to the Fox Theater ( to see Annie) taking the MARTA again.

We got there in about 20 minutes, timed well for finding the theater, picking up our tickets at Will Call, and finding our seats. I had 3 calls during the performance, probably all birthday wishes. The only one I answered was my daughter calling from England.. . JUST as the curtain was about to go up. During the performance, I had to deal with some pretty rude actions. The person in front of me couldn't decide where to sit.. shift left... shift right, ... lean forward blocking my view entirely... a real nusance. But during Intermission was the "kicker". The 3 people next to us left to get drinks in the lobby...while they were gone, I turned too look at something, and saw the woman behind me had her shoes off and her SOCK FEET up on the backs of the seats (belonging to the people next to me) and practically in my face. How disgusting is THAT? I just couldn't believe the (lack of) MANNERS of these people ? I was GLAD to be one of the first 5 people out of the theater...

We took the MARTA back to the hotel, looked around in the CNN Tower food court where they also have shops but they were all closed... so much for my hopes of an 'after theater coffee'.

The last thing I did for my birthday... was to treat myself to Room Service Desserts. Instead of a single birthday cake, I ordered one each... of the four desserts on the menu. (Photos to follow) Rick and I shared all 4 rotating them around the table that they rolled into the room! (Chocolate souffle (more like a mousse tower), Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (with sliced strawberries strewn around the plate), Georgia Peach Cheesecake (hmmm peach preserve topping on REGULAR cheesecake), and a cornucopia made from a a rolled waffle like cookie, dipped in chocolate with an assortment of berries all over the plate.

and now my eyes are closing.. so i 'll sign off for now.. with 28 minutes left of my birthday...

Nitey nite!

(PS - the time below is wrong... this was originally posted at 11:30 pm on the 28th)

Birthday Eve

We saw the "Merchant of Venice" last nite at the Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, it's a dinner theater... and it was hilarious! The food was very good. I missed out on the intermission treat of Creme Brulee Cheesecake, they warned they had a limited supply of it but a trip to the ladies room became more inportant than the cheesecake! I think I'll have to add that variety to my selection of cheesecakes to try and make, it looked wonderful. However Rick surprised me by bringing a cup of coffee back to the table which he had bought in the lobby for me. That in itself was terrific but add to that the fact that 1) he doesn't drink coffee, and 2) he 'doctored it up' with cream and sugar perfectly. I was impressed.

We had a really good time... not a great area of town, nothing else to see, actually just lots of beggars on the streets, which gets annoying. We did get a taxi quite quickly (with my arms waving around in the air) and got back to the hotel in record time (A 4-min taxi ride...$10 sheesh!) Today we are hoping to see any or all of... the Botanical Gardens, Aquarium (which is closeby, we can see it from our balcony), shopping (I want a pair of boots to wear with my skirt for tonite) and whatever else comes our way. We bought a 'weekend pass' for the Rapid Rail so we can use the MARTA on an unlimited basis. Thought it might come in handy as we chose to NOT rent a car this trip. (How daring of me!).. More later. Ta!

Can you guess this photo?

Today is share-a-photo day.... what do you think these are?

Chocolate and Fruit fans.... Yummmm You Gotta Try It!

I've stumbled across the most delectable breakfast! I love to watch these cooking shows on TV, altho I swear I gain weight just watching them! A few days ago I saw only a snippet of something and can't remember the show exactly, but he was offering these tasty treats to people on the street! So I had to try it.

I went to the store to get the ingredients... all THREE ingredients. However, being that it's January and I live in the Midwest... strawberries are not only out of season, but at $5.99 basket they are also out of the question! So I opted for a less expensive but equally tasty fruit... the Kiwi. At 3 for $1 the price was quite enticing, the trick was to find a ripe one... I did tho, and found 2 others almost ripe. (Had to buy all 3, right?) The next 2 ingredients were easy... a soft loaf of French bread... or is it Italian? I'm not sure; I get them confused, but its the one that's soft. Last on the list and nearest to the checkout.... a plain Hershey bar. So that's it my friends... a Kiwi, Italian/French bread (unsliced), and a plain Hershey bar.

Ok here's the plan..
1) Get a small frypan on the stove and heat it slowly on low.
ASSEMBLE these OUTSIDE of the pan and then we'll slip them in down in Step 9:
2) Slice 4 slices off the loaf of bread about 1/2" - 3/4" thick each.
3) Butter ONE side of the 4 slices. This will make TWO sandwiches.
4) Slice the Kiwi into 4 slices, leaving the ends to snack on.
5) Lay 2 slices of Kiwi on the "NOT buttered" side of only 2 of the bread slices.
6) Break 2 squares of chocolate off the bar for each sandwich and lay on top of Kiwi.
7) Put the other slice of bread on top of chocolate, butter side OUT.
8) Pan is now ready, make sure it's not tooo hot.
9) Grill these babies to a light golden brown, just long enough to start chocolate melting....
Make a cup of tea or coffee while waiting... put on a plate a ENJOY.....!

Ohhh Yummmmm

Celebrating Life... but where?

I'm approaching a milestone birthday... and had decided long ago I wanted to do something special to celebrate. I have certain commitments that prevent me from taking that 7 day cruise thru Alaska...or even the all-inclusive stays in Mexico. I don't hike, fishing and golf are ok, I love looking at water, ocean would be best, but Lakes are good too... I'd love to get some sun but am not a 'beach sun-bather' (too boring), could do withought the mountains, so I'm searching the map of the US for places to go, things to do and sites to see... Any and all suggestions welcome... what would YOU want to do for a milestone birthday. My time is running out... where do I go?