Five on Friday

How did this week treat everyone? I'm sure you're thankful Friday is here as I am. I got hit with a 24-hour bug on Wednesday which sucked but thankfully I was able to work from home yesterday and keep quiet. I'm feeling much better already although not 100%. So lets just say I'm more than ready for the weekend to fully recover and relax. 

 A few other bloggers already pointed it out but Trader Joe's has outdone themselves this year with pumpkin any and everything you can think of. 

ONE:

I did fall victim to the pumpkin macarons from the frozen section because I've never tasted a macaron before and always see people raving about them. So I decided to treat my team (and myself of course) to some dessert and they were worth the calories! Very sweet though as I'm more of a savory person.  

TWO:
I also bought some of the cute mini pumpkins to decorate our dining room table for Fall. I just realized that I'll be in Barbados for Halloween this year so there's no need to carve a big pumpkin plus they don't last really long outdoors in the Florida heat.

THREE:

I celebrated my 5th work anniversary this week and received the sweetest card from one of my coworkers. You know who you are! She actually reminded me it was my anniversary since I forgot the actual date.

FOUR:

Work catered Chipotle for lunch on Wednesday since our team hit a major milestone with one of the services I'm responsible for marketing. Let's just say we've built the subscriber base to over 100,000 users in 3 years.

FIVE:

We also celebrated Breast Cancer Awareness Month at work with some Pink Ribbon Bagels from Panera for breakfast. 

Joining Amanda for her Friday Faves linkup. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Trinidad & Tobago

Welcome to Wanderlust Wednesdays which I co-host with two of my faves - Kerri and Kate - on the 2nd Wednesday of every month so please feel free to share your new and old travel adventures.

Today I wanted to talk about Trinidad & Tobago (which is where I was born and raised for anyone new around here). I've posted about T&T several times before since I go there fairly often for weddings, the holidays, NYE and other big events. I've written about my trips (here and here) but never really focused on the beauty of the two islands and what it has to offer visitors.

Let me explain a little bit. Trinidad and Tobago are two sister islands located in the south eastern Caribbean right above Venezuela. Together they make up one country with one government, economy, legal system, etc. I grew up in the capital of Trinidad which is Port of Spain, but spent countless weekends and holidays over in Tobago since the flight is cheap and only takes 20 minutes. While Trinidad has some beautiful beaches it also has a bustling city life with a solid economy. Tobago on the other hand is the true definition of a laid back island that depends heavily on tourism.

The city of Port of Spain. A lot of the cruise ships arrive here but I don't find there's much to see here other than businesses and buildings. The beauty of Trinidad lies mainly on the other coasts. 

via

Macqueripe Bay has a nice and fairly quiet beach as well as a zip-lining facility. I went last year with my extended family to go zip-lining but I was the only one that didn't end up taking the plunge (blame it on my fear of heights). K had a blast though!

The Maracas Lookout which is on the way to Maracas Beach.

Don't ask me why there was an American flag on the beach but it made for a good photo op for K.

Maracas is probably the most popular beach in Trinidad and usually busy on the weekends. We went during the week. There's lots of good food huts to grab lunch or a cold drink.

Sunday stroll around the Queen's Park Savannah and getting some fresh coconut water from the Coconut Truck.

Heading "Down The Islands" with friends. There are several tiny islands off the north coast of Trinidad that have vacation homes which is how I spent most of my childhood weekends. If you don't have access to a vacation house you can also anchor the boat in a quiet bay and hang out for the day. There are several charter boat companies that will take you out for a day around the islands and provide lunch, drinks etc.

The architecture and gardens of Caribbean homes are also a sight to be seen. This house being my late grandmother's which we still have and sometimes stay at when we visit. It's now a rental property for short-term and long-term visitors.

The backyard overlooks the ocean which is perfect for relaxing and watching the sun go down. 

As I mentioned, it's only a quick plane ride to get over to Tobago from Trinidad or you can also go via the Ferry which takes about 2.5 hours but you risk the possibility of sea sickness. 

You land at the airport which is in Crown Point and we sometimes stay at the Crown Point hotel across the street so you walk out of the airport and into the hotel. Otherwise taxis are readily available to take you to your hotel.

We like Crown Point Hotel because it's oceanfront with a nice beach off to the side and gorgeous views. Otherwise there's nothing fancy about the hotel itself which means it's very affordable.





We took a scenic drive to Blue Waters Bay which is breathtaking. There is also a hotel and restaurant in this bay but it's quite far out the way. Definitely worth a day trip.

If you're visiting with a large group, there's tons of beautiful villas you can rent that will accommodate a big party giving you access to a private pool (if it comes with one) and often a housekeeper who will cook and clean. We usually rent a villa around New Years Eve with approximately 5 couples or 10 people. There are tons of beautiful villas such as the one below in the Tobago Plantations and a lot of them are oceanfront with pools and great amenities.

There's SO much more to do and see. I could go on forever but I hope I've given you a good enough idea of what T&T has to offer.

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Easy Fried Rice

We ordered Chinese food the other day while my parents were visiting and had tons of white steamed rice leftover. I usually end up throwing away the white rice but this time I wanted to find a way to create a new dish with it instead of wasting food.

If you've eaten at a Japanese restaurant where they cook on the hibachi grill in front of you, you can see exactly how they make fried rice and all the ingredients that go into it so I wanted to try to recreate that although I switched it up a bit like using coconut oil instead of butter. 

Total cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients: 

3 cups cooked white rice

1 tbsp. coconut oil (or butter)

1 tbsp. sesame oil

4 tbsp. low sodium soy sauce

3 tbsp. water

3 carrots, chopped

1 cup frozen peas

1 tsp. minced garlic

2 eggs (optional)

I had all intentions of adding eggs in this recipe but just forgot to do it.

What To Do:

Heat skillet over medium heat and melt coconut oil with minced garlic. Add chopped carrots and cook covered for approximately 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  Beat the eggs in a small bowl and add to the skillet along with frozen peas, stirring the eggs quickly to scramble. Cook covered for 3 minutes or until peas have thawed fully. Add white rice to the skillet and mix well with carrots and peas mixture. Pour soy sauce, water and sesame oil over rice and mix well (if the rice is still slightly dry you can add more water or soy sauce to moisten). Cover skillet and cook rice on medium-low until fully heated for approx 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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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.