The Seafood Market, San Pedro

The Seafood Market
San Pedro, CA

Sept 16, 2019

My husband's ship had to visit Naval Station Seal Beach. So I decided to drive up from San Diego to Seal Beach so we could go out to dinner. 

After a little research, my husband picked going to the Seafood Market in San Pedro. We just knew the seafood would be amazingly fresh. 

The menu and the "famous shrimp tray" weren't exactly what we thought. But we had driven there, so we decided to go ahead and eat there. We got the famous shrimp tray and some other steamed shellfish. 

As an East Coast person, the shrimp on the shrimp tray was seasoned weird. Like a Tex Mex kinda seasoning. 

Have these people never heard of Old Bay????

It was fine for the evening, but I definitely would not recommend it to anyone, or go there again. 

It was just like a weird attempt at making shrimp. We were expecting steamed or boiled shrimp, and it was more like stir fried with oil peppers and onions. 

VERY OILY.

Vegas Baby!

Vegas Baby!

I decided to take a solo trip to Vegas at the end of January. I had some freebie days at the Caesars Properties. I decided to stay at Linq. I hadn't stayed at Linq in a long time. My husband and I have stayed there maybe 2-3 times. 

Linq and Cromwell are probably the only Caesars Properties without a Starbucks and with me being a huge Starbucks fan, I probably should have stayed at another property.

I decided to seize the opportunity to see a few shows and go to a few exhibits that my husband would not be remotely interested in. I walked and walked and walked. I swear I got well over 20,000 steps each day. It was at the end of January, so the big conference of January, CES, was already over. But of course, its Vegas, the convention capital, so there still were conventions going on. 

I had a good time, even though I was solo. I enjoyed the weather. It definitely was not too cold or too hot. My husband and I will be back in Vegas together in April.

Cafe Sevilla, San Diego

Cafe Sevilla
San Diego, CA
February 14, 2018
Valentine's Dinner

For Valentine's Day each year, if we are together and I am not out to sea or working, we try to do something different for Valentine's Day. In this crazy military life, there are so many times when it is an important holiday and yet we can't be together.

For Valentine's Day, we decided to check out a place that we have been wanting to try. Cafe Sevilla is in downtown San Diego. It is probably the best authentic Spanish Experience that you can get in San Diego. For Valentine's day, it was a set menu, and a special show.  The food was excellent and we both definitely enjoyed the Flamenco Show. We both have been to Spain, but it has been a long time. We both would love to go back. Cafe Sevilla was a great "mini trip" to Spain for both of us.  It made an Excellent Valentine's Day!

Get Over It

We all make our own choices in life. The best thing you can do in life is make the choices that work for you and what you want out of life. We have chosen to not have children so that we can be free to travel and enjoy our free time. We wanted a life without constraints. 

Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada April 2016

Easter Weekend 

Paris Hotel, April 2016

Living a 5 hr drive from Vegas means we visit more than we should. The goal with playing at so many Total Rewards, Caesars Entertainment properties is to stay at every hotel they have in Las Vegas. 

This was our first stay at Paris.  They have renovated since and we have stayed in another type of room since.  I love the hotel theming.  I just love it. Every detail.  From the flooring, to employee uniforms to the signage. What a great theme. 

We had a pretty good view with our room, although we normally spend little time in our hotel rooms.

It was time for the room to be updated.  The carpet was worn and it was clear that it had been awhile since a renovation.  However,  we still had fun, enjoyed our stay and we came back.

Barona Casino Resort

We enjoyed our Friday night stay at Barona. We checked in on Friday evening,  March 4 and checked out on Saturday March 5.
We had a king room on the fourth floor on the poolside.  We had a great view of the pool. It was way too cold for me to even dream of getting in the water,  but there were people swimming.
Our room was great and we enjoyed our trip. Too bad I didn't win any money.

My husband did ok, and we ended up enjoying Saturday brunch at Sage before we left. 

The food was excellent and the view was amazing as always.

We can't wait to go back to Barona.

Carnival Miracle - Mexican Riviera Cruise - February 2016

We started cruising Carnival in January of 2015. We took our first cruise to the Bahamas, followed by a 2nd cruise to the Bahamas, and then a 3rd cruise to the Western Caribbean all in 2015.

In the process of finalizing the check in procedures for our Western Caribbean cruise, I noticed that due to my husband's regular casino playing, he had several free cruise offers that were what Carnival Classifies as a Premier Cruise. We decided to book the Mexican Riviera Cruise out of Long Beach Premier Event since we would have moved to the west coast by then.

So our cruise in February 2016 was many firsts. It was our first Premier Casino Cruise, Our first cruise out of the West Coast, Our First Cruise on Carnival Miracle and Our First Mexican Riviera Cruise.
Needless to say, we knew before we even boarded that Carnival Miracle was going to be a trip we would never forget.

Mirage Las Vegas, November 7, 2015

While waiting on our furniture to be delivered to our house in Oceanside, we decided to take 2 days and use a casino promo offer for rooms at the Mirage in Las Vegas. It was our first stay at The Mirage Las Vegas. 

We had stayed at other properties in the MGM Family, but just not Mirage. 

When we visited Mirage, they were doing some construction, updating rooms. Our direct room had not been updated yet.

We had a great trip. It was my birthday, we saw two shows, we ate great food and solidified our love for Las Vegas.

This was our first trip to Vegas since moving to the West Coast, technically we hadn't even moved in to the West Coast. We had a 2 night stay at Mirage that was a promo deal from MGM Family. We took advantage of that deal since we really did not have anything to do or anywhere to go while we were waiting on our furniture.  What a great birthday!  

We ended up not getting our furniture as scheduled, and we ended up staying in Vegas two more nights at Bally's with another casino promo deal.

Baltimore May 2015

My husband and I are gamblers, him more than me. I just kinda like being there and playing penny slots. 
We normally go to Dover Downs in Delaware, it is about 4 hours from our home in Virginia. 
We noticed that there were less and less people at Dover Downs and were told that since Maryland Live and Horseshoe Baltimore had opened that many Maryland residents were going there and not coming to Dover Downs. 

We decided to check it out and see what the fuss was all about. For Maryland Live, we decided we would never go back. It was fine entertainment wise, but it was the tightest casino and had the absolute worst food. 

Skeptically, I agreed with my husband to try Horseshoe Baltimore, only if we could combine it with a trip to visit Baltimore's Inner Harbor. At one time many years ago, I had visited Baltimore's Inner Harbor Area on a work trip, and I thought this was a great opportunity to go back and check it out. 

We totally picked a wrong hotel, it was too far away from where we were going, and the staff lost our reservation and did nothing to help us. But besides the hotel, we spent time in the Inner Harbor area and then went to Horseshoe.

We had a great time at both. We picked a great day for the weather at Inner Harbor. We were able to check out the whole area and walk and enjoy ourselves. Then at night we went to Horseshoe and were definitely pleased. Horseshoe has a great environment and it was tons of fun. They entertainment was great and I was amazed by the food choices.

We started our day at Lexington Market. It is a historic place that has been on the food channel. Seafood was on the agenda. The crab cakes and the fresh oysters were definitely not to be missed. 

There was live music entertainment at Lexington Market and plenty of places to shop and dine. It was fun for us to walk around and see a couple of the places that have been on the food channel and try it ourselves.

At Inner Harbor, My husband found Chessie. The legaendary Chesapeake Bay Sea Monster, Cousin to Loch Ness Monster. My husband finds him.

Of course what we saw were just the paddle boats that look like Chessie. 

Now, only if we could have found the real thing.

Horseshoe was fun. Horseshoe is named after the infamous Binion's Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas. It is where the world series of poker actually started. Caesar's Entertainment has now built several of these Horseshoe Casinos and they are great. A great way to add to your Total Rewards points when you are not in Vegas or Atlantic City.