Weeked Happenings

Since I was under the weather last week, this weekend was the perfect break to feel healthy again.

On Friday evening we took Lola to a doggie event hosted by her trainer from when she was a puppy. We wanted to show our faces and let Lola socialize with some other dogs for a bit.

We then met up with some friends for an impromptu dinner at Maxine's on Shine downtown. We love this place because it's dog-friendly and serves an mean brunch with live music. The bruschetta we shared as an appetizer was amazing but our dinner entrees weren't anything to rave about. We still love the relaxed, eclectic atmosphere and the owner Maxine even stopped by our table to chat for a bit.

On Saturday I spent a couple hours at the hairdresser getting highlights done. As they say beauty is pain and upkeeping my blonde highlights is definitely the most painful part of my beauty routine but thankfully I love my hairdresser and we usually spend the whole time chatting and catching up.

 On Saturday evening K and I headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios to walk around and check out a couple shows. Our season passes are expiring in November so I'm trying to hit all the parks when we have a free day here and there.

We didn't go on any rides, just browsed several shops and saw the Muppet Vision 3D show. Finally we stopped off at the Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge for some martinis and a meat & cheese plate followed by dessert. Everything was excellent!

 Sunday was all about relaxing and get my usual house cleaning, laundry, cooking and blogging done. Perfectly productive with some lazy to feel refreshed for this new week. I also finished my last online photography class module on Sunday night so now I just need to sit the exam to hopefully get certified! I've been good about doing the classes but have had little time to practice so that's my next challenge.

How was your weekend?

Another Weekend with the Parents

Hope everyone had a fun yet restful weekend as I did. I kept fairly busy entertaining my parents who are leaving today but also got to catch up on some sleep.

Friday was nice and low key with some dinner at Texas Roadhouse so the guys could get their steak fix. This place always impresses me with how quickly the food comes out and the prices are very reasonable.

On Saturday I got a bunch of cleaning and laundry done before taking my Dad out to Lee & Rick's Oyster Bar which has been around for 65 years in Orlando serving some of the best oysters. The restaurant is the true definition of a hole in the wall but you know it's a staple in the community when you pull up and there's BMW's and fancy cars parked outside even though it's not exactly located in safest part of town.

After lunch we stopped off at Sportstown (another hole in the wall) to hang out for a bit and play some games. The place was a ghost town so we pretty much had access to all the games and K and my dad played a couple rounds of pool. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the UCF game at home and relaxing.

On Saturday night, we picked up my mom from the airport (she was in Puerto Rico for a convention most of the week) and we all headed to Carrabba's Italian Grill for dinner which never disappoints. The sunset was also amazing that night!

The rest of the night was relaxing. K and I watched Dark Places with Charlize Theron which was written by the author of Gone Girl. The movie was quite slow but the plot takes a twist at the end which I thought was quite interesting although K didn't care to watch the rest and fell asleep. The movie has an average viewer rating but that's what you typically get from Redbox.

Sunday was spent shopping all over town with my mom. Seriously, I'm half her age and can't keep up with her shopping agility. I was done after 4 hours...

Back to the grind today!

I enjoyed having my parents here visiting for the past two weekends but it's always nice to get back into the usual routine and also eat out less!!

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Weekend with the Parents

This weekend was pretty busy with my parents in town and we also had our first taste of Fall weather which was perfect for some outdoor fun. On Friday night, K and I wanted to take my parents to somewhere new and different for them so we chose Izziban Korean BBQ and Sushi restaurant. They have a cold bar with different salads, seafood and sushi and then you pick different meats to cook on the grill in the middle of your table. It was a nice time catching up with them and we left overly satisfied and ready to crash.

 

On Saturday the four of us headed to Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. Unfortunately the lines were insanely long for most of the good food and drinks so we opted for the shorter lines and had some drinks in Norway, Canada and Africa.

We saw the Reflections of China movie which my parents really liked.

 And then listened to a really good band in the UK that played songs from Oasis and several other bands.

Since my mom's side of the family is Canadian, they enjoyed exploring Canada and of course had a drink there. If you follow me on Instagram (emilyalisonb), you might have seen my photo from the telephone booth in Canada. I guess they're not just a British thing!

Then we went to the Eat to Beat concert featuring Starship which was perfect for my parents since their music is from the 70's and 80's.



  Finally we settled for some dinner at Chefs de France which was amazing! We had some escargot as an appetizer and shared a bottle of red wine over our meals.

On Sunday, we headed to Wekiva Island. After my mom saw the pictures of our recent trip there with Kate and her husband, she wanted to go check it out for herself. We also took Lola along this time since we figured out it was a dog-friendly place. It was a nice Sunday afternoon relaxing by the river.

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Pig Floyd's & Blog Direction

 Photo Credit

Earlier this week, a friend and I went for lunch at a fairly new restaurant in town called Pig Floyd's. We wanted to check out the menu and see what the hype was all about. We sat down and were chit chatting when the owner stopped by offering us Cuban-style tacos he had just created in the kitchen. Have you ever seen tacos with black beans, rice, pulled pork, plantains and a fancy avocado sauce? They were amazing!! He said he's thinking of calling them The Fidel. (aka Fidel Castro = perfect name based on the ingredients)

We chatted with him a bit and convinced him these tacos needed to be on the menu asap. Not before long, he was back with with a plate of BBQ ribs for us to taste test. Amazing once again! We had such a great time on our lunch break away from work. Thanks cool dude who is the owner of Pig Floyd's for making our experience so enjoyable. We'll be back to try more of your menu options. P.S. sorry I thought you were Canadian when in fact your accent is that of Puerto Rico. #blondemoment 

He posted the #Fidel tacos photo on their Facebook page and we even got some love.

Lucky for him, he was sharing his creations and chats with a blogger and had no clue I would share my experience online.  The Big Floyd sandwich is amazing btw! Tough to finish as the menu says but worth a shot.

So about my blog direction...

I've been thinking for a while now about where I want to take my blog and different avenues I want to explore. Experiences like this at Pig Floyd's solidify what I've actually been leaning towards the whole time. Outside of blogging, I love to write restaurant reviews on Yelp & UrbanSpoon as well as reviews for retail websites and stores. 

I want to create a section specific to Orlando or at least Florida life in general. I love the city in which I live. There's lots to do and I want to be able to share that on my blog. It's part of my lifestyle and what I enjoy. While I know most of my readers and blog friends don't live in the Orlando area, it is a popular vacation spot and I think my reviews will eventually be helpful to both locals and visitors looking for recommendations for different types of restaurants, entertainment, shows, festivals and so on. This won't be the focus of my blog but I plan to do a review here and there based on my experiences and what I think is worth mentioning.

I travel quite a bit and I already have a section for that where I can do my travel recaps and restaurant reviews. I think it's time to create a section for the city I live in and love ~ Orlando. 

What do you think?