We had a great time this afternoon eating our has through Lafayette LA with Marie from Cajun Food Tours. This is the first food tour that I have been on where you loaded onto a bus, but Marie knows all the local spots and knows that she has to get people to the very best places in town to share her passion and commitment to the very best Cajun food in the community.
I feel that I have experienced a side of the community that I would not have experienced otherwise, meeting the people who are committed to the fine crafted food. We stopped at five different locations at each location we were able to experience at least one food that is unique to the area. Marie has a number of different tour routes so you could take this tour more than once and experience totally different food options.
In addition to introducing us to great food, Marie is very knowledgeable about the history of Louisiana and the Cajun people. She is great at using the time driving from one location to another telling you about the history of the food and the people. I would recommend joining one of her tours when you are in the area.
The Indian River Bridge is a uniquely designed bridge that is gorgeous at night. The spires are all lit in blue light at night. Well worth going this way after dark to get to see 5he bridge lit up.
This is another case where there was a half point option, so I am rounding up here because it is definitely worthwhile. Sitting in the middle of the prarie, the Minuteman Missile silo visitor center is a stop I would encourage everyone to make. The visitor center, exhibits and film are free so you will not be out anything if you do.
I found both the exhibits and the film to be very informative and a great historical reference to the cold war years. If you take the time to explore you can better understand the cold war standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union. You can get a feeling for the life of the 20 - 21-year-old airman who manned the station and the responsibility they held. In the film, you learn about two close calls that were averted thanks to the judgment of the men and women who served in those roles.
There are three sites to this National Historic Site. Buried in the web site you need to find out that tickets for the tour of the launch control are very limited and need to be purchased months in advance, up to 90 days. We found this out way too late and so we were not able to get a tour of the launch site.
Badlands National Park is a fascinating geological site with lots of interesting formations and picturesque views all around the park. We visited in late May and it was already getting hot, and the heat just hits you hard because there is no shade at all.
We hiked on the Castle Trail but were not able to finish it all because it is an out and back. The hike was interesting because you were able to get away from the large groups of people and experience the junction point of the grasslands and the formations all to yourself. There were lots of birds if you are a birder and fortunately, we did not see any snakes on our hike. We really wanted to hike the Medicine Root loop (4 miles) but were told by the ranger at the visitor center that there was no parking where the Castle Trail crosses the road. There was an undeveloped parking area with an RV, a car and room for more. I wish we were told the truth by the ranger because that would have been my prefered section to hike.
In addition to the Castle Trail we took the 0.5 Cliff Shelf trail. This was a quick and easy hike that has a little bit of elevation gain and loss. Not many people were making the full loop but it really is pretty easy.
We then drove the rest of the loop road. Along the way we were fortunate to see a lot of female and baby big horn sheep right along the road. We had a nice trip and everyone should experience the park at least once.
Amazing! Just had a great dinner at The Gyro Hub. I was looking for something that wasn't fried and they came through for me in flying colors. I had the classic gyro with a Greek salad on the side. This was the perfect combination. The gyro meat was delicious, the onion and tomatoes were in perfect proportions and the Taziki was flavor and brought everything together.
The salad was equally good with lettuce onion, red cabbage, tomatoes, kalamata olives and feta cheese. The dressing on the salad was also fantastic with great Greek flavors.
The portions were generous and you better grab a fork because you will need to enjoy some of the meat with a fork before you can successfully fit it into your mouth without making a total mess. You can tell this restaurant is family run with a passion for the food they serve.
The little town of Gurnsey, Wyoming is in a great place for recreational travelers to spend the night. Located by Fort Laramie National Historic Site and Gurnsey State Park, the Cobblestone Inn makes a great place to lay your head for the night. The hotel is located right alongside the Platt River and there are tables out on the lawn where you can sit and enjoy the sunset and the river passes by. This is the best you will find in the town of Gurnsey.
The rooms were very clean and have the common amenities. refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, flatscreen TVand an in-room safe. The room was very clean, smelled good and the air conditioner was set at a comfortable temperature when we walked into the room. The shower was awesome with plenty of water pressure and a great shower head.
The staff was very nice and efficient when we checked in. She provided us some information about how to find dinner, and there are menus for the local eating spots available in the room.
The Cobblestone Inn serves a continental breakfast with the room. We had a nice stay here in Gurnsey.
i really enjoy Zoe's Kitchen for a quick Mediterranean style lunch.
The last two times that I have been here I have gotten the "Live Salad". I have a new favorite in this salad with the large ribbons of squash and zucchini and the farro salad on top seasoned with their dressing and topped with tomatoes. It is just a fresh treat of garden goodness that energizes me for the rest of my day.
I find the service here to be very good. I am able to get my food ordered quickly and it is brought to my table after being freshly made. This new location is doing a great job and I look forward to visiting it many times in the future.
This is going to be an up and coming brewery in the area. They have built one of the nicest tasting rooms of the breweries in the area and they are doing some very interesting things with their beers.
While we were here we tried the Tex's Blonde, Mexican IPA, Golf Coast Gose and Rais'N Texas Dubble. We enjoyed the beers a lot and wished we had more time time to stay and enjoy the place. The lost star is because we felt the staff could have been friendlier and a more informative about the beers.
We were driving back from Oklahoma and wanted to try something new and different. We started search on Yelp for interesting places to eat and we found Pellegrino's Italian Restaurant. We pulled up and there was plenty of seating and we were shown to our table right away.
We had read in a review that they hand make their pasta. It seems that their spaghetti and other noodles are the homemade ones, but the raviolis are commercially made so our family stuck to the basics to get some of that homemade goodness. The wife and daughter ordered spaghetti and meatballs and I asked for spaghetti with brown butter and parmesan. The kitchen was willing to meet the request which was very nice.
In addition to the entree we also ordered dinner salads. This was the only disappointing part. The dinner salad is basically iceberg lettuce with a pepperoncini on it and your choice of dressing. I wish that there had been a little more to it, but the hot fresh rolls were delicious.
If you are on the highway and need to know where to grab a nice bite in a small town, this is better than all the fast food options at the other exit to Sanger.
So we had planned on going to one to the local breweries when we found this place in the middle of down town Norman. The beer list here is amazing and provides those that are serious about tasting different beers a true haven. They offer two flights if you are interested in sampling. I started with the Oklahoma flight which consisted of small craft brews from around the state. I then moved onto the Belgian flight that featured some very unique beers that had been imported from Belgium. Mean while the wife was enjoying some of the seasonal selections that were on special.
The food was also very good. I had the German sausage planner which was very good. Two nice size German sausages were well prepared and served with sauerkraut and brown mustard. This went great with the beer.
The seating here is also unique, and we were located in the loft where there are a total of 4 tables. Our poor waiter got his exercise that night, the young man really needed a fit bit so that he could break records on the number of stair flights climbed on a single shift.
We are going to keep this place booked mark for any future trips to Norman.