Bahamas

Groupon sometimes has some killer deals and one we bought earlier this year was a cruise on Celebration Bahamas Cruise Line. It was $300 for 2 people on a 2 night cruise which took off from West Palm Beach and stopped in Freeport Bahamas. All in all it was a fantastic trip because 17 of our closest friends were on the adventure with us. This ship was probably half the size of normal cruise ships but overall it wasn’t too bad. It had a small adult pool and a kiddy area with slides, night club, shows and karaoke. The food was fair for 2 nights, our favorite food place being the Trattoria Di Gerry, an Italian eatery, which you could eat at anytime. It had soup, salad, pizza, espresso and delicious desserts. We were required to eat at a different restaurant each night, once at the Rio, a semi buffet and once at the Crystal Dining Room, a sit down served meal. You can make reservations before you enter the ship the first day. The bad thing about cruises in general are that soda and alcohol are typically not included in your purchase price and can be pricey on the boat. Depending on the port of entry they sometimes search your bags so buying off shore and bringing it back on the boat is risky.

The boat docked at around 7 am Sunday into Freeport, we got off after breakfast and took a cab to Lucaya Beach. It was $4.50 per person and 20 minute car ride to the beach, Lucaya was the closest beach to the port. I have been to Nassau in the past and believe there is more to do and see on that island compared to Freeport. In Lucaya we ate at Zorba’s Greek Cuisine in the marketplace which had decent priced and good food. My hubs and our friend RJP did a dolphin excursion arranged by Celebration for $200. They purchased this before when boarding the boat on Saturday and it apparently is a popular attraction which allows 8 people on the tour. This has been KP’s dream to be able to swim with the dolphins. It was about a 5 hour excursion but they thoroughly enjoyed it. The rest of us hung out on the Lucaya Beach for a few hours before the rains started and we headed back onto the boat. Some of the group rode the “banana boat” seen below for $20/person.

The pictures are just of friends, family, the cruise boat and the activities we participated in. All in all, not a bad deal, great for those cruising out of Florida since you avoid flying anywhere. We had a wonderful time with everyone!

Washington DC

I decided to take a last minute trip to our nation’s capital for a fun filled weekend with friends. I absolutely love this city! Not only is it full of history and amazing architecture, the restaurants are delicious too. I arrived Friday morning and took the yellow line train from DCA to RJP’s baller apartment in the heart of it all. The ticket agent was helpful and directed me to the correct platform. Unfortunately I did not get any photographs of the monuments as we did not really get around to walking the national mall because of the rain and cold weather. I have been there in the past and have seen most of the sites, but hopefully next time I can be a full tourist! We did get to eat lots of yummy foods which I enjoy just as much when visiting new cities. So this recent post is mostly about what to eat in DC.

 

 

For lunch Friday, we went to Nando’s Peri Peri restaurant, which originated in London. I have been dieing to go here for a long time and it was worth it. It is a world wide chain restaurant and I enjoyed a chicken breast wrap with yogurt and a jelly sauce. RJP had a vegetarian burger and sides of french fries, garlic mashed potatoes and garlic bread. With our meals we had a dabble of all the sauces below, my favorite being the Garlic Peri-Peri sauce.

 

After lunch, we went ~2-3 blocks from RJPs place to the national mall area and hit up the National Archives Museum. Here we saw the Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta and the Bills of Rights. All the museums are free in DC, which is great and open 364 days a year from 10 am- 5:30 pm. We were not allowed to take photographs inside due to the preservation of all historical documents. If you are taking the metro in the Archives-Navy stop on the yellow line is a good place to get off.

 

Our next stop was the National Museum of Natural History. My favorite exhibits here were of the hope diamond from India, which apparently is cursed. We enjoyed the dinosaur and animal exhibits but were thoroughly disappointed by the mummys.

On our way home we walked through the national scuplture park, the photography below is of a metal tree in the park. We had ourselves some gelato and sherbert at Pitango and for dinner that night we ordered in Thai Chili. It was decent enough but I would probably not go there again. Later that night we headed to the Georgetown Waterfront, but the party had pretty much died down and it was too cold to be by the water.

 

Saturday, we had lunch at Vapianos. I thoroughly enjoyed this London based restaurant. The chefs use fresh ingredients to make pizza, pastas or salads in front of you in just a few minutes. You get a “credit card” when you enter and purchase all your meals on that and pay at the end. I had the ravioli, but the others had an array of foods and all were tasty! We spent the day walking around the Penn Quarter neighborhood but didn’t get too far due to the weather.

For dinner we ordered in from Rasika, an upscale Indian restaurant. If you plan to eat there reserve a table well in advance, we tried reserving two weeks prior and they were full. We were really hoping to make it to Georgetown Cupcakes but didn’t get a chance, I did see a Crumbs Bakery which has also gotten fairly good reviews. Later that evening we went to Public Bar in the Dupont neighborhood to watch the Florida Gator game, let’s not get into that disappointing loss. The best part was the “pitcher” we drank beer out of, which you can see below. The sports bar turned into a night club which we spent the evening at.

Rasika

(Picture above courtesy of RJP, sorry Sohoni, but loved this one of you!)

 

On our departure day we had lunch at Zaytinya, a Mediterranean restaurant that is definitely worth a visit. We ended up doing a pre ordered lunch menu (normally done on weekdays only, but available upon request on weekends) where we each chose a dish from a 4 course menu for $22. Well worth it with a group of 5 and we were able to try a variety of dishes. Some of the dishes we had were a butternut squash soup, chicken shish touk and fresh unlimited pitas, all featured below.

 

All in all I had a great weekend with friends, food and a bit of sightseeing. During our next visit to DC I would love to go to more museums and might even try the Segway tour to see more of the historical aspects of this beautiful and immaculate city. A few restaurants I heard good things about but was not able to get to were: America Eats Tavern, Guapos and Pret A Manger.