Category: Travel

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Blogging Food Travel

The Search For The Greatest Reuben (Or Pastrami) On Rye – The Saga Continues

During the Summer of 2007 I embarked on an exciting culinary journey to discover, identify, and declare the greatest Reuben sandwich known to mankind (or at least me, myself, and I). I managed to visit (officially) 6 cool places aqui en South Florida as well as a couple of popular joints over in North Texas.

Click on the various hyperlinks below to re-live the Reuben magic that was from my original MySpace blog: 

Part 8 – New York New York Deli – 15 September 2007

Part 7– Bennigan’s – 30 August 2007

Part 6 – Broadway Subs – 28 August 2007

Parts 5 / 4 / 3 – Ruberto’s Pizza & Deli / Bennigan’s / Jason’s Deli – July 2007

Part 2– Arby’s – 22 June 2007

Part 1 – The Original Lots Of Lox Deli – 13 June 2007

I don’t believe that I have even come close to finding that oh-so-perfect Reuben sandwich, and I’m not so sure why I gave up on the endeavour after just 3 short months back then.

In order to right this most obvious wrong I’ve decided to resurrect this madness, and it all starts back up TODAY !

I ate Lunch at Hops at The Falls for the first time in several years. I had eaten there plenty of times in the past ever since they first opened for business. I enjoyed their hot and delicious Reuben sandwich (what a shock) and fries along with cold and refreshing Coca Cola Classic. The Reuben deserved an ‘A-‘ grade (I’m sure I can find better – but this one was rather scrumptious), and the fries I’ll give a ‘B-‘ (hot but a bit tasteless).

Do you know where I can find the greatest Reuben (or Pastrami) on rye ?  Send me the 4-1-1, and I’ll check it out for myself !  MAZAL TOV !

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Animals Bugs Driving Travel

Monday Night Countdown

This past Saturday me and a buddy went exploring deep down into the Florida Keys; hence, continuing my ‘2009 Economic Stimulus Tour’ (of tourist attractions).

We visited the following places (in chronological order):

1.  Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park (Card Sound Road)
– We got eaten alive by hundreds of biting mosquitoes there. I’m still scratching.

2.  Long Key State Park (MM-67.4)
– Nice nature trail that leads to an observation tower.

3.  Curry Hammock State Park (MM-56.2)
– Popular family beach with a couple of tour buses and lots of kids playing.

4.  Sombrero Beach (MM-50.5)
– Nice public beach owned and operated by the City of Marathon.

5.  Crane Point (MM-50.5)
– Museum / Nature Center / Historic Site – My favourite place that we visited.

6.  Bahia Honda State Park (MM-36.8)
– Nice visitor center; We walked on the old U.S. 1 bridge !

7.  Big Pine Key / No Name Key / National Key Deer Refuge (MM-30)
Endangered Key Deer everywhere – right alongside our car !

Categories
History Music Travel

Saturday Night Retro

As I begin this post it’s barely after 7 AM on a Saturday morning, but I’m ready to go all ‘Retro’ on you right now !  The fact of the matter is that I’m leaving for the Florida Keys with a buddy in a couple of hours, and we may head all the way down to the end of the road – Mile Marker Zero – in the heart of Key West. If we reach the end then we probably won’t be back until late tonight, so I wanted to get this posted now in that event.

About 21 years ago during the Spring of 1988 my Mom, Dad, and Brother visited me here in America’s Riviera for the first time ever. We actually stayed at a popular hotel resort in Key Largo (bayside), and we drove all the way down to Key West in our rental car. (I didn’t even own a car at the time.) I think it was the very first visit for all of us into the Florida Keys.

I’ve actually visited Key West via cruise ship more so than via automobile. In fact I’ll be there again on the Tuesday after Labor Day in September as part of another short Carnival cruise that I’ll be on. Key West is a fun town. It’s a nice place to visit every now and then. It seems so far away from Homestead and points north – besides its geographic location. It’s like a whole different world down there.

21 years ago in 1988 when we were discovering the Florida Keys for the first time this tropical song was emerging as a megasmash on the radio. As it turns out it became the biggest-selling (platinum) and longest-running single of their long historic careers. I’m talking of course of the legendary Beach Boys. Here’s their ENORMOUS 1988 smash “Kokomo”.

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Blogging Food God Holidays People Travel

Life Pointe Church Plantation Key Lime Pie

I’m deviating from the normal ‘Mini Thoughts’ format of the ‘Tossed Salad’ to present a very special edition of the ‘Key Lime Pie’ in standard paragraph format with complete sentences !

This was the Life Pointe Church weekend that actually wasn’t supposed to happen. I had planned to be out-of-town during this long Memorial Day holiday weekend, but those plans never really got off of the ground, so here I am – and there I was.

I senior-skipped the 9 AM service this morning, as I slipped in to the movie theatre shortly after 10 AM. I attended the 10:30 AM service up in the ‘stadium’ seating area. I was able to sit with some really good people behind me and on my row, so that was quite the treat. (I’ll be back to serving again next Sunday morning.)

After the service me and most of those same good people headed on over to Mamma Mia (Italian ristorante) to enjoy some food, fun, and fellowship. It was definitely time well-spent with some good food and some good people.

Later on in the afternoon I visited John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park (in Key Largo) for the first time ever. It’s part of my continuing ‘2009 Economic Stimulus Tour’ (of tourist attractions). I mainly checked out the fish tank exhibits within the visitor center, walked a cool nature trail under the hammocks, and sat by the dock of the bay wastin’ time. I plan to do the 2½-hour glass-bottom boat tour of the coral reefs on a future visit to the park.

Following the park adventure I got to experience the 6 PM service at our Plantation Key campus for the first time in over 5 months (since last December). The new church campus is coming along rather nicely, and I was happy and proud to see vibrant Life inside that building. The expansion of God’s Kingdom all around Mile Marker 90 in the Florida Keys is well on its way. Service is done on a more intimate level there than at our Homestead campus. It was rather surreal to experience it all. It had that unique Life Pointe Church flavor to it with that special Plantation Key feel. It was a cool combination. Check it out for yourself whenever you get a chance to head southwestbound.

Pastor Travis spoke to us on the revolutionary woman. It was based on the Good News that is 1 Peter 3:1-6 and Proverbs 31:10-31.

I am looking for a revolutionary woman in my Life that I am attracted to physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Past behaviour is generally a reasonable indication of future behaviour, so one who has disrespected relationships in the past will probably do so in the future as well. This is not always the case – especially if there has been a major life-changing event – such as (in my specific case) – a Rebirthing. Before this journey commenced over 1,000 days ago I always thought that ‘she’ completed me. That will never be the case again. Jesus Christ will always complete me, and He must also complete the revolutionary woman in my Life.

Can you believe it ?  Pastor Travis actually set aside a few minutes earlier today to blog a rare ‘Sunday Wrap-Up’. That’s the cool Travis 2.0 that I know !