Chases on the Beach, New Smyrna Beach, FL

Chases on the Beach
3401 South Atlantic Avenue
New Smyrna Beach, FL
386-423-8787

A Real Change of Attitude and Right on the Ocean

www.chasesonthebeach.com

I can't help humming Jimmy Buffet's legendary song, "Changes in latitude, changes in attitude..." This is one of the best on the beach restaurants and watering holes I have found on my myriad journeys. There is live music twice a day. There are 2/1 drink specials and half-price appetizers at Happy Hour every day. I had the Calamari for $8.99. ($4.50 during Happy Hour.) This is hand cut and battered calamari tubes and tentacles served with a marinara dipping sauce. They were excellent! I had two Yuengling drafts both brought ice cold at the same time for $3.00. I had the Coconut Chicken Wrap Sandwich for $8.99-also excellent. It was crispy chicken fingers in an herb tortilla wrap with lettuce, pineapple, shredded coconut, roasted cashews and provolone cheese. Yummy! And the live music is classic--beach favorites from the Beach Boys to Buffet and beyond. Fire up the blender, Mama! The view is the best one in the Universe--waves rolling up onto the sand with a gentle swish, swish, swish... What more could you ask for? Oh--and if you dare, you can wear your bikini or bathing suit right into the restaurant or even swim in their pool right there in the restaurant. This is beach living at its best!

Coastal Waters Inn, New Smyrna Beach, FL

Coastal Waters Inn
3509 S. Atlantic Ave
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169
386-428-3800, 800-321-7882

Coastal Waters Inn would be lovely if they had more rooms with a view of the ocean and if they had an elevator and luggage carts. The rickety, old-style wood beach steps up the sides of the buildings are dangerous especially if you are elderly or even slightly handicapped in any way. It was raining the day I left and I had to carry my luggage one step at a time down the 17 very slippery and rickety steps from my room on the second floor to my car. When I expressed my dismay at check-in that there were such steep steps up to the room, the tiny check-in attendant offered to help carry my suitcases up the steps for me. She was tinier than the 50-60 pound suitcase that I take on long journeys. I ended up leaving the suitcase in the trunk and bringing up one set of clothing a day rather than make the dangerous trek even more dangerous with 50 pounds of luggage. I didn’t care for this hotel and I would not recommend it to anyone. There was a fully equipped kitchen in my unit, but how do you cook when you have no easy way to get the groceries up the steps to the unit? I guess if I was still in my 20s or 30s, it wouldn’t be such a problem, but I noticed that most of the guests were older than I am. The reservations were made through a company called All One Vacations who do time share tours in the New Smyrna Beach area. I toured a timeshare resort named Coconut Palms while I was there, but I was very unimpressed by the resort and the tour. I will discuss in depth the lack of customer service by All in One Vacations in another post devoted to just that company. There was no restaurant at Coastal Waters Inn. I would not return here in the future.

Shiki at the Beach

Shiki at the Beach
3192 South Atlantic Avenue
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169
386-427-4930

I loved this incredible Chinese-Japanese fusion restaurant. The location is nothing special. It is in a strip mall on the non-ocean side of A1A with Food Lion and some other shops. The decor is very nice and the food is excellent. I had the Gyoza appetizer for $6.50. The Gyoza is 6 pan fried beef dumplings served with sauce. I also had two different types of rolls featured by this restaurant: the Park Avenue rolls for $5.25 which are made up of sushi rice, tempura shrimp, avocado, cucumber, flying fish roe, and mayo. I also had the Florida roll for $6.00. These are sushi rice, fried salmon (or white fish), mayo, lettuce, and avocado. All of the food was incredible and the Soda was inexpensive at $1.75. I heartily recommend this restaurant to everyone.

JB's Fish Camp, New Smyrna Beach, FL

JB's Fish Camp
859 Pompano Avenue
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169
386-427-5747
I loved the rustic look and feel of JB's Fish Camp. Their Oyster Sandwich with fries for $7.50 was piled high with succulent fried oysters. These are the kind of oysters that oyster lovers dream about. I can only imagine that the rest of the seafood was equally divine. This restaurant is open from 11:30 AM to 9:30 PM daily. There is live entertainment on Saturday and Sundays during the summer season, weather permitting. If you love seafood, a laid back atmosphere and great music with your beer, then you will love JB's Fish Camp. I can't wait to go back. http://www.jbsfishcamp.com/

Barnacles Restaurant

Barnacles Restaurant
869 South Atlantic Avenue
Ormond Beach, FL 32176
386-673-1070

4/02/2009 and 4/03/2009

“Barnacles” became my favorite restaurant on Ormond Beach this April 2009. I was very unhappy that the dining room did not have a view of the ocean, but the food almost made up for this. (Who would go to all the expense of having an ocean front property and then not put windows that actually faced the ocean so you could hear and watch the surf while you dine?) “Barnacles” is rustic and seaside looking. The huge salad bar, all you can eat crab specials and the oceanfront location are the biggest stars here. The Stuffed Shrimp Appetizer is incredible. It is actually 4 large shrimp, each topped with a big chunk of first quality crab cake and drizzled with a lobster sauce that was heavenly. I ate here twice while I was at the beach and ordered this appetizer both times. A word to the wise: watch for the coupons specials in the various coupon books for Barnacles. The night I had the Rib-eye steak with my Stuffed shrimp, I met the $25 minimum and received two glasses of free wine with my meal. “Barnacles” also has a two for one Happy Hour and a huge salad bar worth the extra $3. The second night I dined at Barnacles, I tried the Shrimp Pasta Arasgosta which is shrimp and linguine topped with their incredible lobster sauce. This was a bit of a disappointment as they were a bit skimpy on the shrimp and the lobster sauce for my taste.

http://www.barnaclesonline.com/Home_Page.html

Seasons 52 Restaurant, 7700 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL

Seasons 52 Restaurant
7700 Sand Lake Road
Orlando, FL 32819
407-354-5212

Reservations Suggested

A Wonderful Restaurant for Any Reason

Seasons 52 Restaurant is sparkling clean and simply beautiful. The decor is earthy and pleasant: wood, stone, fountains, hanging lanterns, artwork everywhere you turned, and an incredible view of the lake. Everything is spotless in the restrooms as well. The outside of the building is fantastically landscaped in wood, stone, lots of plants, trees, flowers and fountains. This is a very impressive restaurant to see both inside and out.

The food at Seasons 52 was incredible. It more than lived up to its reputation of using only the freshest ingredients. I have rarely had such a wonderful meal as the one I completely enjoyed at Seasons 52. I chose an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms. These were served on a special plate designed for stuffed mushrooms. The tender morsels of mushroomy goodness were stuffed with crabmeat, cheese, and baby shrimp and then sprinkled with more cheese. My next course was a steak salad. The salad was actually a fresh assortment of spring greens, roasted yellow and red peppers, warm, smoky mushrooms and freshly shredded Asiago cheese topped with a freshly made Caesar dressing. This was then topped with a tender, warm pink in the middle, steak cut into bite size cubes and liberally sprinkled on the top of the salad. The entire presentation was hearty and elegant and claimed to be fewer than 500 calories per serving. The finishing coup was the Mango cheesecake. This has to be one of the best desserts I have ever eaten. The Mango puree was heavenly; the cheesecake light and fluffy; creamy and rich; and the tiny cup was just enough to conquer my sweet tooth without blowing my healthy eating plan for the rest of the month. The freshly made Cappuccino was the perfect beginning and end to an amazing meal.

My only question is why don’t we have a Seasons 52 here in Lynchburg, Virginia?

Back in Florida Again--

Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport
9300 Airport Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32827
(407) 825-1234

SO GLAD I AM STAYING IN THE AIRPORT!

When I finally stumbled off the second leg of my flight from Lynchburg, VA to Orlando, FL at 9:30 PM, you cannot imagine how happy I was that I had the good, common sense to book my first two nights in Orlando right at the airport. My flight out of Lynchburg had been canceled and they stuffed us all into a "limo van" like sardines and trucked us off to the Roanoke airport over an hour away. The relief at finally being able to climb into a warm, soft bed was incredible after dragging around too heavy luggage all day. I didn’t even have to hassle with my luggage again after I arrived at the Hyatt Orlando because for a $10 fee, you give your luggage pick-up stubs and a description of your luggage to the bell captain and he sends someone off to pick up your luggage and deliver it to the room for you. (Yes—that monstrous green suitcase is heavy, isn’t it? Thank you—here’s another $5 towards your hernia surgery…You say you don’t have a hernia… Well, you will after you do the same thing for me on the return trip… Ask for Tony, you say…OK John! Thanks and I will ask for Tony on the return trip…) I also hadn’t eaten since breakfast and so I ordered room service, at 10 PM. Sushi—wonderful, incredible sushi—available by room service—at 10 PM! Amazing! I also ordered my breakfast for in the morning and a large pot of Starbucks coffee to wash down my zucchini and cheese frittata. This was served promptly at 10AM when I finally became conscious again. Now I admit to you that all of this luxury isn’t cheap. The least expensive rate is $145.52 a night after they add all the taxes and that is only if you are a Hyatt Gold Passport member and a senior—(Ahhhh… the blessings of AARP… It almost makes being over 50 enjoyable.) Lucky me, I am a Gold Passport member, an AARP member AND I had 24,000 points idling away in my rewards account, so I stayed for free for both nights. Soft, comfy king size bed, marble bath, room service, and a balcony overlooking the inner court of the airport central terminal where you could people watch for days and never get truly bored—ahh—what a life we frugal travelers live! If you can afford it—do yourself a favor and spend the first night or even two of your Orlando vacation at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport Hotel. It was wonderful for me.

On The Road Again

Some of you know I am out on the road again; some of you didn't realize it; and, some of you don't really care. To that last group I say, it IS my blog. I will write what I will write. You can delete now or get your own blog. Anyone can do it--LOL:):) BLOGGER isn't picky, obviously, they let me do it! I left on October 2 and I won't be home until sometime on October 18. Then, I will probably be in for the winter unless I am lucky enough to get a resort audit someplace warm and tropical in January or February.

Having cleared away all those who don't really know me or want to know me, let me say that this trip has been very long and very enlightening. The first week and a half I worked my tail off. I did 4-5 retail audits a day and wrote them up and submitted them every night. While I was doing this, my hotel rooms were paid for (and several of my meals) since I was also doing three consecutive resort audits at two really nice resorts and one not so nice-um-er-hotel. (I can't say where because then I would get into trouble for violating confidentiality.)

Completing the time-share shops is a matter of learning to say, "No," in twenty-one different ways. You are rigged up with a portable tape recorder. They are digital now, the old ones were huge and they gave you a special purse to put them into. Pretty soon all the time-share sales people were onto the purses. ("Watch out for the shoppers with the ugly black purses that they keep fidgeting with. Be careful what you say to them and whatever you do, don't swear, even in fun, during the presentation.”) Now you can drop the tiny recorders into a breast pocket.

The most important part of the resort shops is to tape the sales pitch and see if they violate any of the rules of the industry--like getting nasty when you say, "No." Oh, and some of them do get nasty...very nasty. I am sure some of you have attended one of these pitches to get the free vacation or to get the free gift. Well, they pay me to go and check out the resort and tape the sales pitch. And I get the free vacation too-sometimes a whole week in one place, sometimes 2-3 days. I then add the 4-5 OTHER shops to the days I am on the road and try to make a profit. Sometimes I even do! We have gotten to go to a lot of really cool places this way. It's never boring, that's for sure!

This occupation involves a lot of acting. I loved acting in college. I played--you guessed it--the wicked witch of the west in our Children's Theater program which toured different elementary schools in western PA. I can cackle in three languages. "I'll get you my pretty..." Hey look! There’s a real witch playing the witch!

This trip out, I have been on the road long enough to get homesick. This happened even more often when I was staying at the “not so nice resort.” I was calling home twice a day in tears. (I miss you and my doggy, Keri and my kitty, Rosie--snuffle-snuffle.) Now that I am back at a really, really nice resort, right on the beach, I am much better and needing to write an entry to my blog to describe how what I do dovetails so nicely with my travel bug. So this is a ”blog entry/email/creative writing piece” to keep me occupied while I watch the ocean crash against the shore. I know, it’s a tough job…

These last couple days have been-finally-wonderful. I am done with most of the “other shops.” Now is the time when I can kick back and write, surf, catch up on my emails or get philosophical about life. I see what I do on a regular basis at home so much better from out here on the road. I also have realized that I think more clearly and see everything a lot better when ocean waves are crashing in on the shore where I can hear them. I always said I should have been a water sign. I am at my best near the ocean.

Well—now you have some idea of what I do when I am on the road. Tomorrow, I get to attend yet another sales pitch and complete and submit an oil change shop. Whee! Of course, I also get to watch the full moon over the ocean and the sunrise over the ocean in the morning.

John Duncan, 1866-1945

RIDERS OF THE SIDHE


TRISTAN AND ISOLDA


COMING OF BHRIDE

John Duncan's art is sadly neglected by the art communities of the world. I first discovered Duncan while looking for images of my special Goddess, Bride. He was a Scottish painter and illustrator. Many of his better known works are pictured above. John Duncan was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1866, and studied there at the School of Art. Duncan was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, Celtic imagery, and symbolism. His work included pictures depicting myth and legend, also Symbolist work
in a late Pre-Raphaelite manner. Duncan died on 24th November 1945.

The History of the Sidhe

Riders of the Sidhe, by John Duncan, 19th c. Scottish artist.

(This is an introductory overview of the people known as "The Sidhe" taken from another website. This is not my work and I recommend you check out the title link for more excellent information about the sidhe and the ancient Celts. I am including this here to further enlighten the reader about the legendary inhabitants of Newgrange or Brugh Na Boyne. This is legend and not necessarily fact.)

The people known as the Sidhe, people of the mounds, The Lordly Ones or The Good People were descended from the Tuatha de Danann who settled in Ireland many millennium ago. After being defeated by the Milesians, they retreated to a different dimension of space and time than our own. They were believed to be living under mounds, fairy raths and cairns, and also in the land of Tír na nÓg a mythical island to the west of Ireland. Place names in Ireland with the pre-nouns Lis, Rath, and Shee are associated with these people for example Lismore, Lisdoonvarna, Sheemore, Rathfarnham etc.

Down through the ages the Sidhe have been in contact with mortals giving protection, healing and even teaching some of their skills to mortals. Smithcraft or the working of metals is one such skill. Cuillen (Culann)is one sidhe smith who has been told of in the Legends of Cúchulainn and the later Legends of Fionn mac Cumhail.

The Gaelic word "sí" or "síog" refers to these otherworldly beings now called fairies. The Irish fairy is not like the diminutive fairies of other European countries. The Sidhe are described as tall and handsome in all accounts. They are dressed very richly and accounts of their halls are of richly decorated places with sumptuous food and drink. The Sidhe are generally benign until angered by the foolish actions of a mortal. Many trees and mounds are considered under their protection and if a mortal destroys or damages fairy trees or mounds, then a curse is put upon him and his family. In some parts of the countryside, people would not build their houses over certain "fairy paths" because of the type of disturbances which would ensue. Whenever a host of the Sidhe appears there is a strange sound like the humming of thousands of bees also a whirlwind or shee-gaoithe is caused.

Further Reading: O'Hanlon, rev. John (Lageniensis), Irish Folklore:
Traditions and Superstitions of the country. first published 1870,
republished E.P publishing Ltd., 1973.