Our First Anniversary : Honeymoon Island & Sea Salt

On day two of our first wedding anniversary festivities (catch up on day one here), G and I journeyed north to Dunedin to visit Honeymoon Island. I had heard it was one of the best beaches around, not to mention its romantic name seemed perfect for the occasion. 

While it was a beautiful beach,  the shoreline was a bit narrower than I had imagined and much, much rockier. The strip of sand was also surprisingly busy for a Tuesday. (Though, the beachgoers were mostly senior citizens, I'll admit. That's Florida for you!) While lounging on chairs in the shade, eating our Firehouse Subs picnic, I noticed that everyone seemed to be wearing sandals or water shoes while slowly, carefully tiptoeing into the surf. And for good reason we learned, when we finally got up to go in. The hubs and I did the eee-ahh-ooh-ouch dance as we stepped into the Gulf Coast waters. Nevertheless, we still had a good time together. Honeymoon Island is a beautiful place and absolutely fantastic for shelling. I could have stayed for hours and hours with my head down, just looking at the sand and picking up interesting shells and stones. (A favorite pastime as a child and still as an adult!) My husband basically had to drag me away.

After checking on the dogs at home and freshening up, we cruised over to downtown St. Pete for an early but long and leisurely dinner at Sea Salt, a new restaurant G and I had visited once before for appetizers (oysters!) and drinks. This time we got the whole experience, starting with a salt tasting. 

A trio of salts was served with the bread and olive oil. Our server explained each salt, including which one to only taste in small amounts because of its incredibly potent flavor, reminiscent of hardboiled egg. (Seriously.) G favored the mild pink Himalayan sea salt while I quite liked the weird egg-y one, as well as the mellow, red Alaea Hawaiian sea salt. 

Since we enjoyed the oysters we tried last time (our first time giving them a go!), we decided to be adventurous yet again and ordered a half-dozen of the sommelier’s choice. The oysters were larger this go-around, a little more imposing for us newbies, but they were still good. After mentioning my observation to our kind server, we learned the selection was from East Coast waters, whereas the smaller ones we had last time were harvested from the West Coast. 

We were presented with a complimentary farro-based amuse bouche before we enjoyed our entrees: the Black Grouper for me, with fava beans, smoked salt fingerling potato, raisin tomato and a black truffle butter sauce that I couldn’t get enough of. G had the Ora King Salmon served with black cyprus sea salt barbecue and chorizo-beluga lentil ragu. The orange-glazed fish looked stunningly beautiful set against the inky lentils.

Before we could even contemplate what to order for dessert, out came a giant cloud of cotton candy. After seeing a few other surprised guests receive a bowl of sugared air, we realized it must just be Sea Salt’s thang. Cotton candy for everyone! But, moments later, another dessert arrived at our table, just for us: a decadent orb of fudge topped with sea salt, of course, and caramel sauce, with the words “Happy Anniversary” written out in chocolate.

Yep, it was a sweet night with G for sure. And I wouldn’t want to share all these adventures (culinary or otherwise, fuzzy selfies included) with anyone else.

Hello, Clearwater : An Evening at Sugar Sand Beach

This past weekend we happily dog/house sat for a couple of friends. After all, they watched Cali for three weeks while we were in California! The least we could do was take care of their (big!) beloved goldendoodle Nelson for three days. But before dog duty began on Thursday, the hubs and I journeyed to Clearwater for a midweek date night that consisted of a quick calligraphy photo shoot on the beach, a low-key dinner at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill, a look at some amazing sand sculptures at the annual Pier 60 Sugar Sand Festival, followed by a moonlit walk on the shore.

Grouper is a local favorite here in Florida and Frenchy's is known to have some of the best around. The popular eatery has several outposts in Clearwater but Rockaway Grill is the largest, and right on the beach. Even though it was a Wednesday evening, there was a 20-minute wait to get a table and while we didn't get a spot on the open-air, beachfront patio, we did get front-row seats to the night's live band. (It would have been wonderful to see the sun set over the Gulf, but perhaps it was best we weren't on the patio since, while we waited outside the restaurant for a table, a gull pooped on my arm! That's good luck, right? Fortunately, there was a beach shower right next to us. Phew.)

When eating at a restaurant for the first time, I like to try what the establishment is known for, the house specialties. Having done a little research beforehand, I knew exactly what to order at Frenchy's. The hubs and I split a half-order of the Garlic Crab Fries, since Alton Brown described the beer-battered fries—which are tossed in garlic butter and parsley and topped with garlic aioli, Old Bay and snow crab—as "food crack." For our entrees, the hubs had the grilled Mahi Mahi Sandwich while I had to have the fried Grouper Sandwich (hold the provolone). I washed it down with the dangerously delicious Rum Runner, a frozen crimson concoction made with Virgin Island Dark and 151 rums, banana liqueur, blackberry brandy and tropical fruit juices. It was good and strong. While G and I often dine out at high-end restaurants and we tend to cook gourmet fare at home, it was fun and kind of refreshing in a strange way to eat low-brow grub like fried fish sammies.

After dinner, we headed over to Pier 60 for the main event: the Sugar Sand Festival, named for Clearwater Beach's nickname. The sand there is so white and soft and really does look and feel like sugar! But what's more impressive is what master sand sculptors can do with it. This year's festival featured a fairytale theme. As G and I walked through the 21,000-square-foot exhibit tent, we were in awe at the size and great detail of the sand sculptures, created with more than one thousand tons of sand. And, having grown up on Disney and fairytales, I truly enjoyed the enchanting subject matter. Because we visited after sundown, changing colored lights helped illuminate the sandy scenes; not always great for photo-taking, but it did add to the festival's fantastical feel.

I couldn't let us leave the beach without a quick moonlit stroll along the shore. Clearwater Beach is truly beautiful and I can see why it is such a popular place to live and vacation. 

Hopefully we can make one more trip to Clearwater before we leave to explore more of what Sugar Sand Beach has to offer.

San Diego Days

During our big California trip, when the hubs and I cruised down to San Diego to see a couple of good friends get hitched, we decided to stay a few extra days and make a long weekend of it, to soak up as much time in our beloved city, the place we fell in love (and got married ourselves!) as possible. G had been more homesick for SD than even he knew, telling me that when he got off the plane at Lindbergh Field he instantly felt like he was at home.

(One day we'll return for good, baby. One day!)

There is much to do and explore in San Diego, so even though G lived there for five years and I for one, we can always find new places to go and see and taste and do. While we visited a few familiar haunts—Mission Bay, Pacific Beach—we checked out some new-to-us eateries, too. (In case it wasn't already abundantly clear: we love to eat and drink.) Here's a few photos, if you'd like to see...

Our friends (family, really) kindly opened up their BayHo house to us for the weekend. This is the view from their back deck. Isn't it incredible? Beats staying at a hotel! Great view and great company.

For dinner the first night, the day before the wedding, G and I went casual and visited a place we'd passed by so many times while living in San Diego but I had never actually been to: PB Fish Shop. It is a relatively small establishment on Garnet Avenue and, like always, the inside and outside patio were packed to the gills. (Bad pun intended.) But there is a good reason; the food is incredible. Super fresh fish prepared any way you like. I hadn't eaten all day so I went big and ordered a plate of fried Mahi Mahi (which I promptly doused in lemon juice and malt vinegar), coleslaw and macaroni salad. Despite the fact that the fillet was as big as a brick, I ate every bite. So good.

Friday was dedicated to wedding festivities, and on Saturday the newlyweds invited all their family and friends to a picnic at Sunset Point Park, located right on Mission Bay. The weather was perfect, it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and looking out on the water all I could think was, "I wish I was on a boat." Not usually an activity I long for but it was just so beautiful out. So I jokingly told the hubs to put "get a boat" on his retirement to-do list.

After soaking up every drop of sun at the park, a group of us were craving Mexican food so we took a short drive over to Casa Guadalajara in Old Town San Diego. G and I love historic Old Town; it's where we had our engagement photos taken! The vibrant neighborhood boasts many wonderful Mexican restaurants—I've been to Cafe Coyote, Miguel's Cocina, Fred's Mexican Cafe and Rockin' Baja—but I had never been to the colorful, large and prominently-located Casa Guadalajara. I was sadly still full from lunch so I just ordered a cup of the albondigas soup, but it was delicious. As were the margaritas. I definitely plan to return one day for a real meal.

On Monday, our final day in San Diego, we decided to go back to Pacific Beach since it was just down the road from our friends' house in BayHo. First, we stopped for brunch at Crushed a new, sweet little restaurant bar featuring killer drinks, small plates and of course, a selection of sweet and savory brunch bites. G ordered up a bloody mary while I simply had to try a mimosa flight. All three glasses were tasty but the Lavender Love easily edged out the Rosemary+Grapefruit and Blood Orange+Pomegranate concoctions. To eat, the hubs and I decided to satisfy our need for salt and sugar by sharing both The SoCal omelette and the absolutely divine Nutella Banana pancakes.

Completely stuffed, we decided to walk off breakfast with a stroll along the beach, by Crystal Pier. G took my best friend and I here when we visited him over Labor Day 2011, the weekend that revealed to us that we could be more than just friends. (The story of us, here, including a photo of us that we tried to recreate, below.) So it was a wonderful, full-circle kind of feeling walking the boardwalk hand in hand, thinking of all that has happened since that day three-and-a-half years ago. Eventually, we made it to The Wood (formerly known as Beachwood), so we popped in for one last drink, a bit longer to admire the view, before saying adios to San Diego and heading back to Simi Valley.