Family Vacation Xmas in Florida

In Florida for Christmas with Bob's parents (Daytona!). Factoids learned on our Christmas trip so far: 1) Yahtzee was invented by a couple that played on their yatch; 2) You can save 25 miles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike if you "straighten" the curves while driving; 3) You get circles under your eyes if you stay up past midnight every night to drink.







Our vacation was a Florida culinary, sightseeing adventure and some good old fashion family fun. It started with a dinner stop at Dixie Crossroads, http://dixiecrossroads.com/, where you get deep fried corn fritters with powered sugar as soon as you sit down - should be outlawed in my opinion... Then a visit to St. Augustine the "old city", it was too windy to see anything other than the local shops and to refill our stock of fudge, chocolate covered oreos and other unmentionables.

Deep Fried Fritters from Dixie Crossroad - Should be outlawed

Another trip we took was to Blue Springs State Park to see the manatee's. It was cold and the manatee's were in the spring in big numbers. When the weather gets cold the manatees come into the shallow spring waters to stay warm. You can check them out on their webcam http://www.savethemanatee.org/cs_manatee_cams.html. It is always special to see wild animals in their natural habitat. We saw a great blue heron and a freshwater turtle. We got to see some action (the manatees moved) and a lot of slow close up activities.
We bought the same (?!) manatee Christmas tree ornament we bought last year... well there is some disagreement about this point, but we'll see when we get home.




More Factoids, if you snooze all day you can stay up late to drink and St. Augustine is the oldest city in North America.
 After corn fritters and burgers (I should have mentioned 5 Guys Burgers) we decided to have something a touch healthier so quinoa, kale salad and feta chicken was the chosen menu for dinner. Cooking together a beautiful meal was fun and successful as we cleaned every plate, pot and bowl.






That's all for now, from sunny Florida - have a happy and safe holidays!
Yifat and Bob

P.S
For all the Steelers fans out there: you win some, you lose some and life goes on.