Tag Archives: vacation

Camping fun and food

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Hello, my friends!  I am back from a lovely camping trip to Lake Wallenpaupack, PA with 8 other people.  We had such a blast!!

This was my standard look the entire time:

…kicking back by the lake, beer in hand, cowboy hat on head 😉

We spent lots of time fishing:

…playing silly games:

…..and EATING!!

I swear, I’ve never had so much food in so few days in my life.  I thought it might be fun to share our menus with you, in case you’re planning on camping anytime soon (and I’ve linked to similar recipes that I found online).

All the food was very tasty!  We were lucky, because we had electricity on the campsite (so we could use our crock pot and Keurig coffee maker), and we also had a small propane grill in addition to the fire.  Most of our meals were made using both the grill / griddle and campfire.

Day One:

Day Two:

Day Three:

  • Breakfast – Pancakes cooked on the griddle and breakfast sausage
  • Lunch – Hot dogs cooked on the fire (standard!).  I don’t eat hot dogs, so I had about 47,000 chips and 26 Woodchuck ciders instead 😉
  • Dinner – Shrimp and veggie kabobs, marinated in teriyaki sauce; along with corn on the cob that we cooked in their husks on the campfire
  • Dessert – More S’mores!!

Day Four:

  • Breakfast – Breakfast casserole made in the crockpot
  • Then we came home and I’ve been chugging water ever since trying to get rid of my food baby / sodium bloat.  Lovely 😉

Do you enjoy camping?  What are your favorite camping recipes?

Mexico Vacation – Part dos!

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Hope you enjoyed the first barrage of photos from our vacay, because I’m about to post about a million more!  On our last day in Mexico, we visited Chichen Itza and it was quite an experience.

Our guide, Irving, was not only so funny, but he was incredibly polite, knowledgeable, and helpful throughout the trip:

At the entrance to Chichen Itza:

The pathways are lined with dozens of vendors.  It was a bit disconcerting, really, because everywhere you turn, someone is asking you for “one dollar, ten pesos!!”  But it was interesting to see their wares:

 

I never knew before this trip, but the Chichen Itza area is more than just the famous pyramid – there are dozens of ruins around this ancient Mayan city:

The architectural details are really fascinating:

…and then, of course, there is the pyramid, which is absolutely massive!

 

Unreal, right?  It was a once in a lifetime experience, for sure.  The only drawback was that it was SO incredibly hot.  Fortunately, our next stop was to a “cenote,” or natural swimming hole:

And then we headed to a really cool restaurant that served traditional foods of the Yucatan in a buffet style.  I was obsessed with the assortment of masks on the walls:

 

And check out this gorgeous fountain behind the restaurant:

Finally, we had time for a quick walk around Valladolid to see the town square and church:

My new obsession – day of the dead figurines!

The vendors at this shop were calling Trever “Mister Muscles” and “Arnold Schwarzenegger,” haha 😉

What a fantastic way to end our trip.  We’re already plotting the next one!!

Mexico Vacation – Part uno!

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Hola amigos!!  We’re back from our vacation in Mexico and had such a blasssty!

I have a ton of pics from the trip so I thought it would be fun to share a few.

We headed from Philly to Cancun on a nonstop flight, which was so easy (even though I’m a nervous flyer).  Obligatory plane pic:

We arrived at our resort, Secrets Capri, just a few short hours later!  Our room wasn’t ready for us yet, so we headed straight to the outdoor bar (obvi, haha):

It was a little bit rainy and cloudy on our first day, which worried me – I wanted SUN!  But shortly after we arrived, it started to clear up.

We quickly discovered how much we loved being at an all-inclusive resort, and spent a ton of time by the pool and at the pool bar.

The staff at Secrets was so SUPER friendly and accommodating.  The food was great – they have 5 different restaurants to choose from, and they were all delicious!  I think my favorite meal was at the Italian restaurant called Portofino.  We asked the waiter to take a pic of us there:

Every night, there were different shows around the resort for entertainment.  One night was a hip hop show, one night was a “rock” show, and one night we saw a mariachi trio – they were so talented!

We also took a sushi class – so fun!  Here is my creation (after we ate half the roll):

And Trever making his roll with the sushi chef:

The resort is beatiful – here are a couple of shots I took around the property:

 

One of my favorite parts of this trip was our visit to Xplor.  Such a blast!  You can ride ziplines, drive through caves and jungles on amphibious vehicles, and swim through underground caves.  We had SO much fun there!

We also visited the spa at the resort, which was beautiful.  They have a “hydrotherapy” spa, which is a series of showers and steam rooms that are meant to relax and detoxify you…it.was.glorious.  And we also enjoyed a couples massage and a facial.  Hopefully my skin was glowing after the facial!

 I know my hubby’s was – well, maybe it was due to the tequila shot too 😉

…and now it’s back to reality.  We’re spending the day relaxing, tackling a mountain of laundry, cuddling with the furkids, and cutting our grass which grew about 12 feet in 1 week!

I’ll be back tomorrow with part two of our vacation – see ya soon!