Here I am still in Alamogordo, NM.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Here I am still in Alamogordo, NM.

Almost 4 years later…

Still stuck in this town.  Yes, stuck and yes I hate it.  This blog was once upon a time about where to eat and fun travel with photos.  And since I am not anywhere that is really all that exciting, and our lives got busy and I have not written in such a long time I really didn't have much to say about Alamogordo.

Since we have moved here in the spring of 2010, there have been so many things that have not changed, ahem, Alamogordo, and personally for myself, our family has evolved.  Our little boy is now 2!!  We pray, if we did pray, that he is not unfortunate enough to grow up in the New Mexico School system.

What to eat? What to eat?  Chilies?  Applebees? Ohhh Carinos?  BORING! Same old, same old.  This town has not enough variety and thus, I have learned to cook some things.  Still need to learn more, but I'm working on it.

PS. Please send help!  We have become trapped in the land of Entrapment!!  We need supplies.  Target, Sushi, and oh please something fun to do!!

Stella Vita

It has been really rough for me to try to add to this blog since I've moved to New Mexico. There aren't a lot of places to eat really and haven't done a lot of traveling. We mostly stay at home with the 2 dogs, Alley and Roger, and the cat, Buster.

I thought about adding a page of my favorite recipes that I've collected mostly from websites and from grocery stores....but didn't know how that would be. Maybe soon I'll start to add those. For now, I have a restaurant to review here in the loverly, yes I said love-er-ly town of Alamogorodo, NM.

Stella Vita
I recently went there with my husband. They have a seasonal menu that they keep up to date and items that are rare to this area, as well as native to New Mexico.

We ordered a bottle of Rojia and had the artichoke and bruschetta.

For our mains:
My husband had the duck with grits and green chilies. His came with zucchini veg. He had the choice of soup or salad and opted for the tomato basil soup.
I had the fillet with the Burgundy reduction. It came with mashed potatoes and bacon spinach. I also opted for soup, but had the cream of mushroom.

For dessert:
My husband had the Italian Layer Cake.
I had the creme brulee.

Considering that this must be the nicest restaruant in Alamogordo, we still saw people in there with unruly kids and tee-shirts and even a track suit.

New location. New Mexico

So we are now in New Mexico and living in a "city" that has a population of about 40,000. There is a Wal-Mart, 2 Sonics, and to my chagrin zero sushi restaurants. The town is nice and quiet and if you want to do something on the weekends you have to plan ahead.

Really I'm back!

New Year and some more motivation to work on this. If you notice on the left, I have added some gadgets to search my blog more effectively. You can search by Places that I've eaten, Things that I've seen, and Trips I've Taken. Also because I have written some of these long after the actual trip or experience, I have a label that you can search by the year that it, whatever it may be, has taken place.

This year we are moving to New Mexico. I'm excited and have lots to looking forward to--friends & family, a new start and sooo many things to see. I have a long list----so watch out U.S.A!!! I've been waiting a long time for this and I think this may hurt somebody, hopefully not my waistline.

I'm back!

Long time, no post. Since my last post I've been to Edinburgh, Scotland, Rome, Italy, and many places in the UK. I'm going to try to post more articles on the places that I've been, seen, and done. :)

Guten Tag

Location: Stuttgart, Germany
When: May 2008 (long weekend)
Weather Conditions / appropriate attire: Slightly chilly, but beautiful sunny weather
Where we stayed: With my friend’s uncle and aunt

What we did & where we went:
When my friend told me that she planned to go to Germany for a holiday and said that I could meet her I was all for it! It is so nice to see familiar faces. The beginning of the trip didn’t start off so well. My husband was unable to go with but he did drive me to the airport. Unfortunately, we missed the exit and I was 5 minutes late to check in and had to pay £100 (=$200) to change flights. I did get on the following flight to the Frankfurt Hann Airport. From there I had to take a bus to the train station. I was so worried that I was going to get off at the wrong stop. The language barrier was a bit intimidating but most people were as helpful as they could be. Once I made it to the train station where my friend was able to pick me up, with her aunt.

It was great to meet her family and to see her, her husband, and daughter. Our first day we went to Rothenburg which is a medieval walled town that now has many shops. It was very interesting and neat. (Pictured right: the wall that surrounds the town .)


That night we went to the Spring Festival which looked like a carnival with rides and games and beer tents. This was a fair on steroids. The prize booths seemed to go 20 to 25 feet into the air. They had about 5 – 10 beer gardens. We walked by one of the tents that was playing “Sweet Home Alabama” in German. Not something I was expecting. When we found the beer garden where we were meeting some of her uncle’s friends we walked through. Two German guys tried to obtain me from the group. Finally able to break away, we met up with the people we were looking for. Everyone was on the benches of picnic tables singing and cheering drinking maas's which are a liter of beer in a large mug. I have to say that I did drink 1 maas and it was a lot of work. First of all it was very heavy and I had to use 2 hands to hold it. Secondly, by the time I got to the bottom of the the mug it wasn't cold any longer. (Pictured to the left: My friend Kim and I in the beer garden drinking our maas.)

The next day we went to Ludwigsburg Palace. It has a family area for children and it was quite impressive. This photo of me at the bottom and it just shows how large the building is.

Where we ate: Honestly, I cannot say exactly where we ate. I can say that it was good and different. I also had a bratswurst at the fair. I had schnitzel which I’ve never had.

Left: Schnitzel
Right: White asparagus a seasonal delicacy

Overall Impressions: I had such a great time. It was nice to leave England to see some good friends and nice weather. I found it fun to try to speak the language, but I was not very good at it.

Weekend Getaway

Location: Bath & Salisbury

When: April 3 & 4, 2009

Weather Conditions / appropriate attire: B-E-beautiful!!! Sunny and blue skies. Still England but only really needed a jumper.

Where we stayed: RAF Fairford lodging. A perk of being in the military, we were able to stay in a room that was only $40.

What we did & where we went:
It had been a while since we went on a trip and we really needed a change of scenery.

Bath: Bath was very interesting and not what I had expected. The Roman Baths were buried deep below the present level of the city. With my new camera, I was able to play with the light and my new filter. The water was untreated and signs were posted to warn people from touching much less drinking. I was a rebel and touched the water anyway. Another perk of visiting Bath was the audio guides were included in the cost of admission. The admission was £11 per person. (Pictured left)

Woodhenge: We saw the signs and decided to go see Woodhenge on the way to Stonehenge. It wasn't too much of a detour. A definate pro of visiting this attraction was that it was free. Once we were there, there was no wood...only concrete markers where there once were timbers.

Stonehendge: We also did a quick drive by on Stonehenge, but it was crowded so we didn’t go in again.

Salisbury: We decided to go to Salisbury which was only about 7 miles from Stonehenge. First we walked in the park that was nearby and I took some photos and then we went towards the Cathedral. I took a few photos, my favorite was looking through the Cloisters. (Pictured right)

Where we ate: On Saturday we went to the Harvester which was pretty decent. I would compare this to Ruby Tuesdays in the states.

Overall Impressions: I loved, loved, loved the area!! It was everything that I wanted England to be. Spring had sprung. Rolling hill, beautiful landscapes, great weather.

Romantic Dinner

Restaurant: Tuddenham Mill High Street,Tuddenham,Nr. Newmarket,Suffolk, IP28 6SQ

When: April 2, 2009

It was a wonderful dining experience. Some friends told me they had just been there and that it was really good. They said specifically that the steak was really good. We didn’t arrive with a reservation but we were able to get a table. What was really odd was that we were seated in a ‘waiting area’ gave our orders and then taken up to the main dining area.

Drinks: Red Wine and Still Water

Appetizers:
Rabbit, duck and sweet potato terrine with a fresh horseradish and beetroot pesto: This looked very pretty but looked that there were only 3 bites of rabbit (pictured right)

Chicken and bacon with mango chutney: This was a bit heavier than I expected. I did not plan on having a loaf. (pictured left)

Mains:
"Rare breed rib eye steak with marrow and garlic butter, hand-cut chips, slow-cooked tomato, mushroom and pickled horseradish": this was the best steak in England.

Smoked fish including haddock and salmon. This also included prawns. It looked very pretty, but I don't think that I really like smoked fish that much.

Desserts:
Crème brulee: Delicious.
Warm chocolate brownie with vanilla pod ice-cream: as good as could be expected.

Overall Impressions:
I would love to go to Tuddenham Mill again. Next time I’ll be sure to go with a menu choice of items that I’m more familiar with. The ambiance was lovely and everything was presented beautifully. The service was great as well.

Prices: ££££

Menu

Colorado Springs, CO

Location: Colorado Springs, CO

When: May 2007

Weather Conditions / appropriate attire: Sunny, mild temperatures. Long sleeves/hoodie and jeans.

Where we stayed: With my good friends, Nicole and Jaime. Cost $0.00.

What we did & where we went:
My really good friends were nice to play tourist with me. I spent a long weekend there and we crammed as much stuff in that we could afford. We went to the mall, went to a museum, went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End , took scenic photos of Pikes Peak, played in the Garden of the Gods, and went to a cheesy dinner theater show called Iron Springs Melodrama Dinner Theater. Since I was on vacation, I was all about cheesy. I don't mean to tear down the Iron Springs Melodrama Dinner Theater or anything, but I'm surprised that people would go more than once.

Where we ate:
They took me to a great restaurant called Ai Sushi & Grill. It was awesome! The sushi chefs were so nice to us and very entertaining. (Pictured right: My friends and I with the Sushi chef.)

Overall Impressions: I had a great time!! I had so much fun and loved spending time with my friends. Miss them so much.

Stonehenge, 2007

My very good friend came to visit me shortly after I had moved to the UK, which was in November. We decided to go and see Stonehenge which is a 3 hour drive from where we live (well, 3 hours when you end up driving around Windsor Castle 3 times.) We got within 30 minutes of our destination and it starts to rain. I thought that maybe it wouldn’t rain once we got there. It didn’t matter. We had driven 3 hours and we were going to see Stonehenge. There was no turning back.

It was our good fortune that we had brought our umbrellas. Once we paid admission we walked under the underpass and made it to the walk around Stonehenge. The Stones are as large as I had expected, but the circle was much, much smaller. Remember it was raining, windy, and cold. I’ve been told that it is a windy location and even chilly in July. The rain felt like ice as it hit my face. My friend’s umbrella was mangled from the wind, but she managed to put it back together.

All in all, if the weather were nicer, there wouldn’t be much of a story. In the future, we hope not to visit Stonehenge under these conditions.