Go W/ The Flow

A week ago Friday, I went to the most intense yoga class of my life. It was super cool even though it was super hard!

Tori and Ben pace the two hour session on the skill level of everyone in class... which happened to be about half yoga teachers! The music is amazing and breathing in synchronicity with twenty-some other people is transcendent. I was wiped out physically afterward - in a good balanced way. Slept great that night!!

Go w/ the flow at Hot Yoga Tallahassee!

Official description: Created by Tori Reynolds and Ben Rivet, GO W/ THE FLOW is an immersive collision of music and movement that is designed to get you out of your head and into your breath. Tori’s powerful but playful vinyasa sequence is scored by Ben’s acoustic guitar and vocals, paced by looped beatboxing and dictated by every breath in the room. Improvisation prevails, reminding us the strength of human connection and the benefits of a #gowtheflow outlook on your life and your practice.

Learn more at http://www.gowtheflow.org and https://www.facebook.com/GoWTheFlow. 

Disc Golf Adventures - Tradewinds Park

Last Friday we played our first of two new disc golf courses: Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek in south Florida. It was a gorgeous morning - mid-fifties and sunny with a strong wind, which makes for a fun game.

This is a beautiful park. You can see the lake from the first tee pad!

Luckily that strong wind helped keep us from losing 

our discs in the lake - several of the holes followed the shoreline.

Can you see the basket for this hole? It's to the right

of the three palm trees, out on a little peninsula.

Seriously, it was so lucky that we didn't lose any discs!

Not every hole was a chance to send your disc for a swim.

The park is well cared for; all the grass is mowed

and there wasn't too much brush for your disc to hide in.

Some of the goals were in interesting spots, like this one,

tucked in a little clearing behind tall and short palm trees.

And this one, behind a tree that fell long ago.

(T had fun climbing over it.)

We played all 18 holes and would definitely recommend the park. The course was well-marked and easy to navigate. 

Tradewinds Park

3600 W Sample Rd
Coconut Creek, FL 33066

http://www.broward.org/parks/tradewindspark/Pages/Default.aspx 

Fun with Plumbers... Adventures in Wastewater

Two weeks ago Sunday, T flooded the bathroom while taking a bath. I didn't freak out or think there was a problem until Tuesday evening when it happened again and I realized that the water wasn't draining properly. We opened the clean out cap in the front bushes and out came all the bathwater. Great news - the clog was not in the house! Wednesday I called the plumbers who agreed to come on Thursday, in spite of the fact that they were swamped by broken pipe calls from the Polar Vortex. 

Thursday the plumber spent an hour snaking the wastewater line. He said the problem was out at the street, not in the yard, so I called the city. They sent a couple guys over with a special truck. They snaked the pipe, and checked out the yard and declared they had found the problem. They spray painted the yard, told me it was in space that was our responsibility, and left. Friday the plumbers promised to come back to dig but it rained all day. Monday they came and dug a deep trench. 

Then they made the trench longer, in hopes of finding the problem. No luck.

Next they snaked the line again. With the pipe now exposed, they could hear the snake going by! Looks like the problem is not in the part of the yard that is our responsibility. The plumbing supervisor came to the house to check on things and called the city. They asked for a new clean out cap at this spot that has been excavated to make it easier to reach the problem. 

So now we have this 15 inch tall pipe sticking up out of the middle of the yard, and a promise from the city that they will be by on Tuesday to check on the problem. 

I came home from morning disc golf and dropping T off at school to find a whole construction project in our front yard. 

Seven trunks lined the street in front of our house! The started with snaking and quickly moved on to digging a big hole. The hole got so deep, all I could see was the hard hats of the guys standing in it. The hole grew and out went two sections of our sidewalk. Then they cut new sections of pipe.

Eventually, I saw one of the men raise his arms in a traditional victory pose. Success!

They filled the hole back in (I tried to make a video for T)

There's still work to do but the drains are again draining!

time for some new sidewalk!

Two Days in Tallahassee

What would you do if you had less than 48 hours in Tallahassee? What would you see and do? We had the chance to answer this question in real life in November when Dawn spent two days with us. She arrived on a Friday morning and left early Sunday. Here are the highlights/our recommendations for not-to-miss fun:

1. Make the most of the art that's all around us. Like in the airport!

Dawn signing the guest book at the ArtPort gallery

2. Say hello to the Gulf 3. eat some local food 

Our picnic at St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge
Local cheeses from Sweet Grass Dairy, local chocolate from
Srsly Chocolate, locally grown radishes plus fruit, crackers and water

4. take a selfie

Self portrait at St Marks

5. lunch (or any meal) at Sage 

We both had the lunch special: Marinated beef tacos with avocado butter,
radish, cabbage, cilantro sprouts - ridiculously good

6. dinner at Kool Beanz with friends (Jenn, Britain and ran into Paula!)

Dawn's dinner at Kool Beanz - Cuban style cobia (if I'm
remembering correctly!)

7. visit Tom Brown Park (yes we took Dawn out to play disc golf!)

8. relax! we went for massages at the fabulous neighborhood Sage Spa

9. experience a local tradition 10. support some good causes and

11. have a great time with friends.

We accomplished the last three at Brewfest Tallahassee  

I love that my camera creates these .gifs 

If you had just two days in Tallahassee, how would you spend them? 

Disc Golf Year in Review 2013

T at hole 18 at Tom Brown Park. This is his favorite -
when there's a "moat" around the basket. December 10, 2013

Thomas and I had a great year of disc golf, playing nearly every day. My Garmin records show that we played 269 times in 2013. I don't always have my watch with me so this is a low estimate. (FYI Garmin is my running watch that tracks distance, pace, etc. I wear it during disc golf so I'll know how far we've gone.) Weekday mornings T and I play on our own before school and usually also on weekends. On those 269 disc golf excursions, we covered 312 miles over 196 hours (not counting travel time!).

One of Thomas' goals for this year was to play disc golf in new states (we already had Florida, Ohio, and Kentucky checked off). We ended up playing in two new states in 2013 and on four new courses! In March, we played MacIntyre Park for the first time, in Thomasville, Georgia (I blogged about that here.) In June, we stopped on our way to Ohio and played in Knoxville, Tennessee at Victor Ashe Park. We thought this was a great idea based on this video:


In reality, the disc golf course was not in great shape - mostly it could have used a good mowing... or perhaps a good pass from a hay baler! On some of the fairways the grass was knee to hip high, which made it hard to find your disc. The scenery was picturesque though and the other disc golfers were kind and helped us when we couldn't find the next hole on our own. Eventually we got frustrated enough to quit, but first we played a good dozen holes, and crossed Tennessee off our list!

In addition to hitting our favorite course at Lake Shore Park in Ashtabula, we also played two new courses in Ohio: Glacier Ridge Metro Park in Plain City (near Dublin, outside Columbus), and Veterans Memorial Park in Parma.

Disc Golf in Parma

Glacier Ridge is a challenging course, not because of distance but because the open field fairways are really narrow with tall grass and brush in the rough. It's not the best course to use to introduce friends to the sport, but not knowing that, we took Dawn and her family out to shoot a few holes. The first few are in the woods and beautiful - no brush, open fairways, fully shaded. Definitely playable for all levels. Once out in the fields, though, we spent more time looking for discs than throwing them. It was still fun and good exercise and we appreciated the Petrills being troopers and trying something new!

The course at Veterans Memorial Park in Parma is a fun one. It's well-marked, hilly (not extremely so), wooded but mostly clear of brush. My brother, John, joined us in September and we played the back nine together. The highlight for T was seeing a couple of deer! We really enjoyed this course and will be back for sure.

While we love adventures, we continue to play the majority of our disc golf at our "home course" at Tom Brown Park. Once a week we visit Jack McLean Park (usually on Sundays) and occasionally we drive up to Thomasville and play the 12-hole course at MacIntyre Park. What will 2014 bring? Time will tell but we look forward to more disc golfing fun!

Disc Golf Adventures - MacIntyre Park

Monday morning of Spring Break, T and I drove up to Thomasville, Georgia to check out the disc golf course at MacIntyre Park. The well-manicured course has twelve holes and features a creek that comes into play many times. We picked the right time of year to visit as the azaleas were all in bloom, but it would also be nice in the summer as there are many big shade trees.

The first hole (first photo) is under a gorgeous live oak tree near the corner of Washington and Mitchell Streets.

The holes are well-marked, have concrete tee pads and most have benches nearby. The park also has picnic pavilions and a playground. In the photo below you can see the creek and some of the azaleas. A few of our discs made it into the creek (Kite floats but Champion Eagle sinks!) but it was not hard to retrieve them. The water is not deep nor is the creek wide, except in a few spots. 

The course has great signs at each tee pad with aerial views of the hole and its target as well as directions to get to the next hole (see upper left quadrant of graphic). The older signs - see the blue sign with the yellow 2 peeking out from behind the new sign? - are from an older version of the course and can be a little confusing. Luckily the first two line up fairly well with the current fairways. 

We enjoyed this course - the creek really added to the difficulty and challenge - and it's always fun to play in a new location. We recommend it!

MacIntyre Park Disc Golf

201 North Mitchell Street

Thomasville, GA 31792

http://www.pdga.com/course_directory/course/macintyre-park-dgc

Scallops - from Gulf to Table

Tara, Abe and Sara spent Friday out scalloping. They had quite an adventure (including grounding the boat on a sandbar) but came home happy and with a good catch.

Heading out Friday morning.

Scallops like the fine grasses better than the coarse grasses.

 "The catch."

Tara found this adorable little crab inside the shell while she and Abe were shucking.

 Heading back to dock

Sunday night, we had most of the gang over and I cooked up the harvest for everyone. Recipe follows photos. 

Sauteing the scallops in a little bit of butter in the cast iron skillet.

The final product = YUM!

Angel Hair Pasta with Bay Scallops, Roasted Summer Squash and Browned Butter Cream Sauce

Ingredients

7 small summer squash, chopped into bite size pieces (we used 2 zucchini and 5 yellow squash)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

salt

pepper

1 pound angel hair pasta, cooked al dente (5 minutes)

9 Tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh sage, minced

3 Tablespoons heavy cream

3/4 cup (or more) freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1 quart fresh bay scallops

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine squash, olive oil and salt and pepper in a large bowl, stir well. Pour squash onto a baking sheet (I line it with foil for easy clean up) and roast about 25 minutes or until caramelized, stirring every 10 minutes. Hold in a warm oven until ready to serve.

Cook pasta according to package instructions while preparing the sauce.

In a large pot (I used our dutch oven), melt the 8 Tablespoons of butter with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. When the butter is melted, add the sage and cook, stirring regularly, until the butter browns and begins to smell nutty. Stir in the cream and remove from heat. At this point, you can add the cheese but we used it as a garnish. When the pasta is cooked and drained, add it to the sauce and stir well so that the sauce coats the pasta well. Pour the pasta and sauce into a large serving bowl and spread the roasted vegetables around the perimeter.

Heat a medium size cast iron skillet on high to sear the scallops. Add a half a Tablespoon of butter to skillet and when it's melted, swirl it around and add 1/2 the scallops. Sear them for about 2 minutes, then stir gently. It's important not to overcook them so as soon as they look opaque, pour the scallops and any liquid from the pan on top of the pasta (which is now in the serving bowl). Repeat with an additional 1/2 Tablespoon of butter and the second half of the scallops.

Enjoy immediately. Serve with the grated parm on the pasta and vegetables.

Sauce recipe adapted from this one from Rachael Ray.

Downtown Cleveland - Casino & Club Seats

We spent an evening downtown, checking out the new Horseshoe Casino and taking in an Indians game. [Yes, it's true, Ohio legalized gambling last year - Horseshoe is likely the first of many.] Located in the old Higbee's building on Public Square, adjacent to the Terminal Tower, the casino is beautiful. I have to tell you, though, it's a little unsettling to walk through the doors to what used to be a department store and see slot machines and gambling tables where the clothing racks and cosmetic counters once were!

Horseshoe is not an inexpensive place to hang out. Minimum bet at the roulette table is $15. For comparison, in Vegas, minimums are usually $5 and sometimes as low as $3. We saw a couple of average looking people spend a lot of money. A young guy sat down next to us and bought $600 in chips with cash! The staff was a mixed bag - some were professional and courteous, other perhaps not ready for prime time. The facility is smoke-free (yay!) and Ohio law requires you to pay for your own drinks. In the forty-five minutes we spent there, no one offered to sell us one so I can't comment on their quality or price.

 The gaming floor is on the street level.

We didn't get a chance to explore but I hear the food court and buffet on the second floor are pretty good and feature local chefs. We didn't eat there because, thanks to friends, our tickets to the Tribe game were in all-you-can-eat seats. Turns out there are two types of all-inclusive seats: in one area, hotdogs, popcorn, peanuts and sodas are included; in the Club seats, where we sat, the food choices were much more expansive. In the Club itself, there is a buffet line (which featured pulled pork and buffalo-style macaroni cheese the night we were there) as well as stations for subs and salads and other goodies. Outside, near the seats were all the traditional baseball foods, enhanced. The hotdog cart also had a variety of sausages and all the toppings. There are carts with pizza and with nachos (including three types of salsas - cucumber fennel, anyone?) and ice cream; popcorn, peanuts and snow cones, with a fun dispenser so you can pick your own syrup(s). 

The seats are great too - on the right field side in the infield, between the lower deck and upper deck, straight across from the giant screen over the bleacher seats. What a great game, too. It was all offense, all night - the final score was Indians 10, Reds 9. Go Tribe!

Shelley and me. We had such a good time with her and Mike - thanks friends!!

We ran into my cousins John and Pat - it's definitely a small world.

Saw this video on facebook and loved it. If you haven't visited the area lately, here's what you're missing:

Our Visit to Southern Tier Brewing Company

While we were in Ohio, we drove up to Lakewood, New York, with my brother and sister-in-law to visit Southern Tier Brewing Company. It was an easy drive, about an hour and a half; the southern tier of their name refers to the part of New York state that borders Pennsylvania.We're lucky to get a lot of their beers here in Tallahassee and have developed quite an affection for them over the last few years.

Great glasses, right?

It was a perfect day to enjoy their beautiful outdoor patio - 81 and partly cloudy.

We liked the design of the patio cover with the rustic elements, clear panels and replica bottle cap.

One of the new beers we tried that I enjoyed was their Raspberry Wheat - 

not too sweet, not too strong; a lovely summer beer.

delicious pulled pork sandwich

There was even entertainment.

This is a popular place - by the time we left around 9pm, the parking lot was packed, with cars lining the driveway all the way around the brewery and out to the street. Some folks rode their bikes over and all ages represented. There is lots of lawn space around the patio; people brought blankets and spread them out to enjoy the singer-songwriters and great environment. It's definitely worth the trip.

Southern Tier Brewing Company
2072 Stoneman Circle
Lakewood, NY 14750
http://southerntierbrewing.com/

The View from Here (aka vacation fun so far)

More details coming soon but here is a bit of what we've been up to this week:

The view of Lake Erie from the 4th hole goal of the disc golf course at Lakeshore Park.

Dinner at Madison's newest restaurant (and oldest bank), Vault.

little cousin's first birthday party

the birthday girl

dinner and drinks at Geneva On the Lake

Vacation To-Do List

Mom recommended this fairly new restaurant in Austinburg:

http://www.coffeecreekestate.com/

Abraham Lincoln (one of T's favorite Presidents) source

(behind the Cleveland Board of Education Building; faces the Peace Memorial Fountain on the Mall.)

Horseshoe Casino (in the old Higbee Building, photo from @HorseshoeCLE)

baseball with the Prandis? photo courtesy of wiki

There will also be disc golf and family visits and a big party to celebrate Mom's birthday!

Update evening of 6/6: Estate on Coffee Creek is closed this weekend because the owners are opening a new restaurant, Vault Steakhouse, in the Village in Madison. It doesn't get more convenient than that! It's in Madison's first bank (seen at right (photo source), formerly His Majesty's on the Square, among other things). 

http://www.vaultsteakhouse.com/