New York, New York

Sunday, in the Big Apple. What a dumb nickname... I'll never use it again.

We started Sunday off early, with church in Brooklyn. That was super fun. Most of the local assembly are from the Caribbean, so the people were really, really friendly (never had so many hugs from strangers as I did that morning), and the worship was lively. I loved it! Motorcycle mama, you would have loved all the over-beat clapping.

After church, 5 of us headed into Manhattan to do a bit of touring. We started with South Street Seaport, a touristy shopping centre. There are old, restored tall ships on the dock, and boats everywhere. It was neat, but not some place I wanted to spend a lot of time. Too many tourists. But, it had a great view of the Brooklyn bridge.

Did you know that the Staten Island Ferry is free? Neither did we, but it is! Instead of paying U$30 to take a ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands, we just took the Staten Island Ferry, and got a great view of the Statue of Liberty for free.

Oh wait, that's not the real statue, sorry.
While we didn't have time to get there, it was neat to see Ellis Island, especially since I had been at Cobh the week before. Pretty cool to be in both places that are so important to immigration in American (and Canadian!) history.

Rest of our Sunday afternoon tour was done driving. While trying to get to 42nd St, and home, all traffic was re-directed through the Lincoln Tunnel. Being a prairie girl, I didn't think the detour was that big a deal. But, we were in New York, and a wrong turn through a tunnel (that leads to New Jersey), added 10km and 2 hours to our trip.

Once we got back to Manhattan, the traffic was horrible. It amazed me how drivers would not move out of the way of siren-blasting ambulances and police cars. Give them room! They are saving lives!

Ooo, one more stop we made on the way home, an exotic car dealership. Lambourghinis, Ferraris, Maseratis, Bentleys, Rolls Royces... I nearly cried at the sight of all the beautiful cars. I'll never be able to afford one, but at least I have pictures.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Saturday on Long Island. Despite the jet-lag, I managed to be up by 8. The day started off a little cool, watching 8-year olds play play flag football. They were pretty good for such little guys!

After a little retail-therapy, we headed for the Smith Point beach. This is the beach where the TWA 800 flight crashed in 1996. There is a memorial that overlooks the ocean, with wild grasses and shrubs growing all around it. Flags of all the nationalities of people who died on the flight line a boardwalk, with several memorials detailing the names of the victims. Very serene.

It was a little breezy, so the waves; were awesome.

We really did try to fly a kite, but the wind just whipped it every which way, and it crashed more often than it flew.

I had the privilege of getting to fly over parts of Long Island. My cousin's husband recently got his pilot's license, and took me and his in-laws up. It was tons of fun. We even flew over the beach we had stood on earlier in the day. You could really see the brilliant red maple trees from 1500 feet in the air.

We finished things off with a visit to a local pizzaeria, where I got to try the Salad pizza. Its a pizza crust with salad on top. Anthony, who owns the place, makes his own salad dressing, and its pretty much the best I've ever had.

Mind your peas and queues

Something funny happened on the way through customs when I started this trip. It should be a lesson to all us smart-mouths out there.
I was standing in the world's slowest line (because I always pick the slowest... thanks Murphy), just observing people. In the faster line next to me, some guy makes a inaudible, but obviously joking remark to the CBP officer walking by him. Next thing this poor guy knows, he's been hauled off to the side, and 2 officers are asking him a million questions, trying to ascertain why he chose to make a joke. They then take his passport, and tell him to sit tight while they take it off to some back room. This guy then spent the next 20 minutes looking quite sheepish, wondering if they were going to send him back to Canada. I am all for making jokes and being funny, but trying to make a funny while crossing the border into another country, bad idea.

Back to Ireland. I was treated to several early morning queues in my attempt to make my flight to NYC. First, the line up to get my pre-clearance customs sticker. Then the check-into-the-flight line. Then the security line. Then the pre-US customs clearance line. Of the 4 hours I gave myself to get to the airport, and checked in, I had a measly 10 minutes to spare before my flight boarded.

Once at JFK, I checked my extra bag, and headed for the train to Long Island. It was raining, so I didn't get to see much of the passing scenery. Once I reached my target station, I hopped off, and looked around for a place to sit and wait for my ride, due in about 45 minutes. BUT, she was early, and arrived 2 minutes before I did. How fortuitous!

Friday night we attended a honours band performance at one of the local private universities. My cousin's second daughter was playing the saxophone in the 3 state and university band. Very prestigious honour. For the parts I was awake for, it sounded really good.

Rock of Cashel and King John's Castle

I think this was one of my favourite stops. The Rock of Cashel is a castle-turned abbey located near the town of Cashel in Co. Tipperary. It is really cool. Local fable says that while the devil was chasing St. Patrick around the island, he spotted him near the town of Cashel (4th Century or so, keep in mind). He took a huge bit out of a distant mountain range, flew over, and spat the rock at St. Patrick. Of course, being one of God's divine messangers, the rock missed. St. Patty was quick to bless it and baptize the local king. Good story. A castle was built on the site, and it was eventually given to the church, and the archbishop lived there. The buildings are incredible. Most don't have roofs, and some of the walls are falling over, but you can see secret passage ways, that would have helped the archbishop escape during a siege and get an idea of how magnificent it would have been back in the day. One of the coolest buildings was a small cathedral near the back of the complex, built by a king or priest... I don't remember. The roof is still intact, and on the ceiling (not the one with all the mould Shannon), beautiful paintings depicting Bible stories were recently discovered, and are being uncovered and restored. The other neat feature was an empty tomb near the door, with Viking carvings covering it.

Ok, one other neat feature. In the front court yard is a replica of St. Patrick's cross. Fable has it, that if you can reach your arms around the cross, and hug it, you will have good health in the coming year. If you hop around it on one foot, counter-clockwise, you will have bad luck in the coming year. If you hop around it on one foot clockwise, you will be married within the year. Steph decided she couldn't pass up the opportunity to look silly (kidding ;) and started to hop around the cross. She was about 3/4 the way around when a passerby remarked that she was hopping the wrong way if she wanted to get married. oops...

Upon our return to Limerick, we dropped off the car, and headed back into town. I wanted to tour King John's Castle, and Steph had errands to do. For those who don't know, King John is the King of England who, according to Disney, stole his brother's crown while Richard was off crusading. There has only been one King John, and they say he was so mean, no one ever wants to be associated with him again. The castle was kitchy, but the archeological excavations below the castle are really cool, and my favourite part. I learned the origin of undermine. During conflicts and invasions. The aggressor would dig (or undermine) a tunnel under the castle wall. They would then light fires in it, weakening the wall, and allow the above ground crew to break through.

And now for the saddest part. I don't have pictures. Nope, I erased all my pictures from that day. I downloaded them Thursday evening, and burned a disc for Steph (because her camera stopped working on our first day of touring). I checked to make sure they were all there before burning the disc... but I guess something went wrong during the download, and they weren't. When I got to NYC, I blew all the pictures off my one memory card to make room for NY pictures, thinking I had them on the computer already. I made the discovery Monday night when I got home. Steph has already promised to visit there again... so you'll have to wait until December.

Newgrange and Dublin

On the suggestion of one of her classmates, we headed to Newgrange first thing Wednesday morning. Now this place was really cool. Built over 5000 years ago by New Stone Age people, it is an intricate passage tomb that has been excavated, and the outside restored to how it might have looked 5000 years ago. There are 2 other sites, Knowth and Dowth (but... wait for it... we didn't have time), but Newgrange seems to be the more important site. Inside there are 3 small chamber that would have been used for various ceremonies. The one at the back is the largest, but there are carvings around it, and they postulate that it was utiliarian in function. The side chambers, especially the right-side one, are covered in carvings, much like this one. It probably took 2-3 generations to build the tomb, as the stones are quite large, and some seem to have come from as far away as 18km. Obviously cars and trucks didn't exist. Horses weren't yet domesticated for work, so it would have been logs and men that moved these stones and placed them on the tomb. The stones overlap forming a small cone at the very top where the capstone is. Even after 5000 years, the inside is dry, and shows very little signs of mould, or decay. Now here's the coolest part. There is a one door, with a light box above it, which lets in very little light (believe me, our guide turned the lights off at one point). For 5 days around the winter solistice, the sun is low enough that it shines into the tomb, illuminating everything inside. Only 100 people a year are allowed to see the event, winning spots through a lottery. Of course, Steph has entered (some 13 times) in an effort to get a couple of tickets. Good luck!!!

The funniest thing about the site; the graffity. Not spray paint graffity, no, its craved graffity from the 1800's. Like "William so and so 1825). The tomb entrance was discovered in 1699, and teenagers through the ages, have left their mark on the inside. Though I don't like it, I will be a little more tolerant of graffity, knowing my great-great-great-great grandparents likely did the same thing to ancient Viking sites.

Back in busy Dublin, we caught a double-decker tour bus to take in some of the sites. I was most pleased to find another fountain, in front of Trinity College, filled with more soap and bubbly foam. Unlike the suds in Galway, these suds hit unsuspecting pedistrians in the head as they crossed the busy street. Classic!

The first bus that picked us up, was driven by Steph's favourite driver/tour guide from the summer. Dude was hilarious, and his story telling excellent. He even sang a little tune about Molly Malone for us. We stayed with him the entire tour, learning about the Guinness family's generosity, especially in church restorations, the legendary writers that have come from Dublin, why the doors of the Georgian homes are all different, and tales rebellion and the Gael (jail). When Dave's tour was over, we hopped onto Bill's bus, who was equally funny and knowledgeable, and teased Dave, who was catching a ride home, mercilessly. Here are a few pictoral highlights from Dublin.

Trinity College
Best door in the world.

The church where Bram Stoker was married. He didn't start writing horror stories until after he got married. Christ Church Cathedral. It is inside old Dublin, and was the church people were allowed to attend. Just outside the city walls was St. Patrick's Cathedral, which people were not allowed to attend, but seemed to anyway. Religious persecution is a favourite topic in Irish history.

And finally, the Guinness brewery, right next to a church. The official Guinness site wasn't working, so you get the wikipedia version.

** Note, to tour Dublin is to tour churchs and breweries. In this picture, they are brought together**

When the Guinness brewery was first established in the 1700s, Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease for a nominal fee, with the city of Dublin. To the delight of most Irish (who don't really like Guinness, but feel a civic obligation to drink it because the family has donated so much to the city and people of Dublin. St. Patrick's Cathedral, restored mostly with funds from the Guinness'. ~ Tour Guide Dave), it will be around for a very long time.

After our bus tour, we had supper at O'Neills pub. Best roast beef and yorkshire pudding I've had in a long time. And the cheapest sit-down meal we ate the entire week.

Then we embarked on a journey to find something to occupy ourselves for the evening. We tried movies, nothing good was playing in the city centre. We tried the theatre, but it took forever to find it, and they were sold out by the time we got there. We walked around looking for something spontaneous to do. But nothing! (outside of sitting in a pub, which after dark, isn't one of my favourite things to do) So, we went to bed early. Oh well.

Tomorrow, the whirlwind adventures end with the Rock of Cashel, and the saddest story of my life. Stay tuned!

This post is long enough, so I will leave you with my 3 favourite Dublin scenery pictures.

Kilkenny and Dublin (or at least the traffic)

I am very thankful that we didn't get a lot of rain on the trip. A number of mornings it would start out raining, but by the time we arrived at our first destination, the rain stopped. It made touring much more enjoyable.

Tuesday was Kilkenny and the beginnings of Dublin. After getting lost again, because Irish traffic signs are just not clear enough, we eventually found St. Canice's Cathedral. Ky and Steph visited this cathedral in the summer, and tell funny stories of trying to reach the top. Being an adrenaline junkie, I was quite excited to get to climb to the top. We get there, and the tower is closed for the winter season! Much disappointment ensued, and I spent a great deal of time gazing longingly at the tower, trying to figure out how to get past the locked door. These towers are really cool. The door is about 10 feet off the ground and were likely used to protect the church's valuable if there was a raid... which Irish history is full of.

Found a place to park, did a little shopping, and then visited Kilkenny Castle and the Butler House. There was a really neat art exhibit at the Butler house, which features works of art by Irish artists. My favourite was Sasha Sykes, and I really admired her use of forest floor gatherings and acrylic.

Because of the 2 hour lunch break common in Ireland, we had to wait a really long time to tour Kilkenny Castle. Another one that was first built in the 1100s, it has hosted the likes of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and too many dukes, earls and other noblity. It was gifted to the town of Kilkenny by the last owner in the 1930s for a handsome sum of 50 pounds.

The tour was only about 1/2 of what it was in the summer. While doing some minor renos in the bedrooms in the late summer, they uncovered a bunch of work that needed to be done, and shut that part of the tour down. But, the castle was really neat; all done up in 19th century furnishings and art.

Ky, we found this sign for you.

After Kilkenny castle, we, once again, got lost. This time I made a wrong turn in an effort to get a picture of a cute guy, and ended up hopelessly lost for 30 mins.

Then it was off to Dublin. We got to the edge of the city around 5, and then spent the next 1.5 hours in stop and go traffic trying to get to our hostel in Temple Bar. Sigh, big cities and their stupid wrong-way, left-sided traffic. By the time we checked in, and wandered around a bit, we were too tired to do anything be go to bed.

In an effort to save a couple euro, we opted for a 10-bed mixed dorm room. It was mostly men, and not even cute ones. I slept great. I've been having trouble with my ears getting plugged, and its especially bad at night, so I rarely hear anything. Poor Steph though is a light sleeper, and was treated to a symphony of snoring. At one point, they were not only snoring in unison, but one would start, and the other would finish the snore on the other side of the room. Wish we had recorded it. Plus her bed was super tilted. In the morning, we drew the broken bed to their attention and they moved us to an all-girls room down the hall. No extra charge.

Cork and Cobh

Before I launch into stories about the ill-fated Titanic, I have to tell you about the scary side of Limerick. It seems to be a big joke in Ireland, that the local Limerickans, wear stab vests like the Garda (police). Apparently there is a lot of gang violence, and stabbing is the choice means of inflicting pain and suffering.

Well, on our way home from Galway, we missed our turnoff at one of the round-abouts and ended up lost, and eventually near King John's Castle. It is sort of close to the town centre, but because of construction, it is difficult to get to the centre for there. So Ang being Ang, I took a turn of faith, which turned out to be one of my least wise turns ever. We ended up in a rough part of town. I was concentrating on the enormous speed bumps in the road and missed the huge floral memorial for a stabbing victim (which according to Stephanie, happened at that spot) and the copious numbers of scary looking people. Even the children looked scary. At this point we hadn't figured out how to lock the doors on the car, so there were a number of worried people in the car. Don't worry though, we received a great deal of divine protection and didn't see or suffer anything.

Ok, back to the touring. Cork and Cobh, like all Irish towns and cities are steeped in history. Cobh was the launching place for hundreds of thousands of immigrants to North America. It was neat seeing Cobh, and then seeing Ellis Island in NYC (though I didn't get to stop and visit there this time). Many of my friends' families left Cobh for Canada, and their names can be found on passenger manifests at the local museum. Though neither Steph or I had family come over from Ireland, we didn't take the time to tour the museum... 8Euro was a little much for 30 mins of touring. There was also a fairly large Titanic exhibit in the museum, as Cobh was the last port of call before the ship left for New York in 1912.

But we did walk around the town, and it is really cute. Lots of colourful buildings.

There was also St. Colman's Cathedral at the top of the hill over looking the town. And of course it was beautiful. First built in the 660s, it has survived, and been recently reno-ed to reflect its former glory.

After our very short walking tour of the town, we headed back to Cork. Cork is the second largest city in Ireland (after Dublin, and not counting Belfast), boasting a population of maybe 190,000. Sounds like Saskatchewan... It is a major seaport, with some of the big boats able to come right into the centre of town. For some reason I love boats, and am fascinated with the big container ships. Every time I go to Vancouver, I love to visit the harbour to see what kind of ships are going through. Crazy for a prairie-girl, I know. Oh, and Cork has lots of hills. I like hills, but Steph insisted that to save time, we should drive to our points of interest instead of walk...

At St. Finn Barre's Cathedral, I had to parallel park my wrong-sided, stick-shift car on should-be-one-way-but-isn't street with a slight incline. Not to brag, but it was one of the best park jobs I did the whole trip.

I think the outside of the building was my favourite. They did a really good job explaining the statuary outside the church. Those sculptors were really clever!

Another interesting fact. In the 1800's, the cathedral yard was used extensively as a cemetary. The literature at the church indicated some 17,000 people were buried through over a period of 30 (or was it 40) years. I couldn't capture it in pictures... but the yard is really small.

Our final stop in Cork was the Cork Butter Museum. This was a really cool stop. The whole museum is dedicated to butter. The history, method of manufacture, and future of Irish butter resides in this small, hard-to-get-to building. If Cork Butter authorities read this blog... offer free samples of your product! We finished watching the 15 mins video, and craved butter. But there was none to be had.

We had to rush back to Limerick for a lecture at the University, so our time was limited in Cork. If anything, this trip has given me an appreciation for Ireland that I didn't have before, and a desire to return and absorb more of the history and culture it has to offer.

Pictures

To start, let's see if the pictures are going to work better for me today...

From Dingle, Dingle Peninsula, Cliffs of Moher and the Burren.

Can you spot the fence to keep the cows from going over the edge?

Steph and Ang the rule breakers... we aren't supposed to get this close to the Cliffs of Moher. As if some sign would stop me.
Dad, you and I are going to Lisdoonvarna next September for the Matchmaker festival. This is only one way to get a husband (more on that later)
The Burren before they cleared the rocks to make farmland.

Motorcycle Mama, this is your inukshuk, built by me and Steph.

And this is where the uploading trouble began. You'll just have to wait another day for stories and pictures from Cork and Cobh.

Uffda

Sorry blog-reading friends. I really did intend to post while in the Shannon airport... little did I know I would spend most of my pre-flight time in lines and queues. Really, European and North American airlines and airports need to learn efficiency from their Asian counterparts. And then I didn't touch a computer for more than 5 mins while in New York.

Now I have to add all of my Long Island and New York trip to the list of things to write about... tomorrow, or the next day. So much to say.

But I will post a few pictures from the places I have already written about, only because I slept on the plane on the way home and am now not tired, even though it's like 2:30am in my head.

Yum, by the way, they sell Timmy's in Ireland. Or at least coffee in Timmy's cups. I nearly attacked a man when I first arrived at the University when I saw him holding a cup of Timmy's. It's not nearly as good as Canada, but a welcome little piece of home.

And, Blogger has decided to hate me and is giving me all sorts of trouble uploading pictures. You will all just have to wait for it is late, and I work tomorrow.

Nearly the End

Again, this has been a whirlwind trip... so I haven't had much time to blog about our adventures. Lots of time in the car, and breezing through sites and historical things. However, I have to be at the airport early tomorrow, and rumour has it they have free wi-fi, so I'll blog about many things then. If not, you'll have to wait until NYC.

To give you an idea of what to expect:
1) A mini-recap of the Galway trip... including a trip to a not-so-great part of Limerick
2) Cork and Cobh
3) Kilkenny and Dublin traffic
4) Newgrange and Dublin (more traffic)
5) Rock of Cashel and Limerick
6) Early morning goodbyes

There might be a limerick or 2 if I can figure out how to write one. But it might be too early in the morning for that we'll see.

Where 2 are good, 5 are better

Decided to start the day a little earlier, as we had a few more places to stop, and wanted to get back back to Limerick before 11.
While eating breakfast, we were talking to one of Steph's roommates, and the mom of another, who was visiting from Spain. The mom hadn't had an opportunity to go anywhere yet, so Steph decided that we should all go to Galway (and points in between). So she woke the other roommate, and all 5 of us were on our way soon after.
First stop, Cliffs of Moher. These are crazy steep cliffs that plunge into the Atlantic. There are 2 short walks that you can take to look at the cliffs, or, you can break the rules like everyone else, and go beyond the signs that say, "do not go beyond this sign" and get a "better" feel for the cliffs. It was awesome.

After the cliffs, we found the Burren. I mis-represented history yesterday. Cromwell did not send the native Irish people to the Dingle Penisula. He actually sent them to the Burren. It really is all rock. There are places where they have picked the rocks to reveal somewhat furtile soil, but only go about half way up the hills. For anyone who has ever picked rocks in a field in Saskatchewan, that is a walk in the park compared to the Burren.

Steph and I built an inukshuk for wayward travellers, and all the rocks are flat, and easy to build with.

After the Burren, we found our way to Galway and visited the city centre and Spanish Arches. Nothing too exciting. Though... someone had poured a who container of soap into the fountain, and there were soap suds everywhere.

Another good day. I enjoyed spending the day with our 3 Spanish travel buddies, and I think they appreciated being out of the apartment too!

Dingle

This town slayed me. For some juvenile reason, the name makes me laugh every time I see or say it. Thankfully I'm not the only one who has found it so funny. The town is a typical pretty Irish town. Though there is this underlying resentment towards the powers that be. Apparently a certain civic politician decided several years ago to do away with all of the English in Dingle, opting for the native Irish (i.e. Gaelic) on all signs. So you see traffic signs with huge spaces missing, where the English used to be. It is the "town that was denied democracy."

Oooo, we rented a car to do our touring. So I get to drive a stick-shift on the wrong side of the car and road, on curvy, narrow coastal mountain roads. Exhilarating. We only got lost once, and managed to only hit a few branches while meeting other cars.

The scenery on the Dingle Peninsula is beautiful. Apologising in advance if my history is incorrect... It is the area of Ireland that Cromwell sent all of the native Irishpeople when he "took over" Ireland in the name of England. The land is rocky and mostly uninhabitable, but the people who live there seem to have done really well. There are rock walls everywhere and sheep dot the mountain sides. My favourite are the walls that border cliffs... I figure they are there to keep the cows and sheep from going over the edge, rather than keeping intruders out.

Another stop we made was at Inch Beach. Despite the cooler temps, I obviously had to dip my feet on this side of the Atlantic. This little dog (who I named Jack) greeted us on the beach, and ran with me to the water's edge. When he realized I was going into the water, Jack stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me like I was crazy. And I was , the water was really cold. He quickly lost interest in my antics, and returned to his owners.

After Inch Beach, we made our way to Killarney. It was dark by this time, so we could only wander around downtown. We ate supper at Hannigan's Pub and Restaurant, and enjoyed listening to the locals cheer on the Irish soccer team in a match against Germany.

It was a good first day! Today's adventures will take us to Galway and the Cliffs of Moher. Hope I don't get blown over!

JFK Gong Show

Hello from Ireland. I arrived in Shannon about 2 hours later than expected. It started with being 2 hours delayed in Orlando because of a severe thunderstorm in NYC. Which meant the Shannon flight (and every other flight in the world it seems) was 2 hours delayed. If that wasn't enough, we were in the queue to take-off, and the storm had the audacity to return and start blowing the wind in the opposite direction of how the planes were taking off. So all 50 planes in the queue had to turn around. Unreal.
But, I did get to see some really cool lightening from the sky once we managed to get off the ground.

Steph came and picked me up at the Shannon airport, and I quickly learned that time in Ireland does not exist. We waited about 20 mins after the scheduled arrival time for the bus to take us to Limerick. Limerick is a cute little city. Lots of medieval arcitecture (King John's castle is here, right on the banks of the River Shannon). Steph is giving me lots of history lessons as we go.

Now comes the tough part... deciding what to do for the rest of the week. Thankfully Steph has no classes next week, so we are free to go whichever way the wind blows.

O-Town

Tonight, we visited downtown Orlando. It is waaaaay different (and better!) than touristy International Drive and points beyond. I liked it way better. Ian, I saw the Orange Blossom Special comin' down the line! There is a portion of Church St., which the city is revitalizing. There is an old train station, authentic Orange Blossom Special locomotive and boxcars, and new restuarants scheduled to open soon. However, there is a little shady money business going on right now. Some local scammed about $100million from Florida residents, and ran his operation from the Church St. district. But, once its done, I think it will look pretty cool!

Not much else to say. This guy named "Shorty" toured us around the downtown, recommending restaurants. We finally chose a tex-mex place with outdoor seating. The food was pretty good, and there was live music. I thought the restaurant across the street "Slingapour" had a pretty clever name which deserves recognition.

I can't walk I ate so much.

It is 30C here every day, and I'm in a tradeshow hall during peak heat hours. Sigh. At least the evenings are pleasant.

I am most disappointed, we tried to go to Universal Studios and check out the rides, the but park closes at 7pm, as we are now in the off season. Pay $70 and you only get to ride the rides for an hour. Not worth it. but we walked around, and enjoyed that sun and heat.

Remember when I said yesterday that I am going to gain 15 pounds here... well tonight I ate the best meal I've had since my Keg steak in Toronto. Texas de Brazil is my new favourite restaurant. Veggies and starters are all served buffet style, but it was by far the most exotic and unique salad bar I've had. Tons of fine cheeses, sushi, lentils. Only 2 small bowls with lettuce. And lobster bisque.. yum... Once finished the first course, each person has a little disc; red (STOP) on one side, and green (GO) on the other. Flip it to green, and the cooks who have prepared beef, lamb and chicken on sword skewers, start lining up at your table to serve the meat portion of the meal. And wow, it was some of the best meat I've ever had. If it hadn't been too weird (as some friends have told me). I would have taken pictures of all that food.

If you ever have the opportunity to eat there, do!

I think I might gain 15 pounds

I'm at a baking show in Orlando right now. Imagine, hundreds of booths sampling the latest in delectable (and sugary etc.) pastries, cookies, cakes, icings, muffins, bagels, bread... all stuff I shouldn't eat, but I will. It's really hard to spend $12 on a tiny grilled chicken sandwich, when I can roam the aisles for free and stuff my face. Sigh. Must not gorge.
The only redeeming factor is the amount of time I have spent on my feet today, standing and walking. So maybe it will only be 5 pounds I gain.