To the East!

A couple of weeks ago I flew out to Wilmington, NC for some work training. I've never been to the East Coast, and Wilmington is pretty much right on the coast, so I was excited for the opportunity to be in a beach town and experience their unique food. Typically when you hear about the water from the Atlantic you always hear that it is "so warm", and I was excited to try it out because the water in the Pacific is always so cold! Unfortunately I guess that doesn't hold true in February - the water was frigid! I talked to some of the locals though, and they said it has been colder than usual because of some unusually-cold weather down in the Gulf. Just my luck! It was fun being at the beach though, and of course I had to take the opportunity to send a message to my wife (who didn't miss me fortunately since we're already apart):

Aww... How sweet!

The best part of the trip (besides the training of course... heh heh...) was the FOOD! Check out the awesome cuisine I tried!

A Mexican sushi-roll! Avocados, rice, cheese, tomatoes and shrimp!
And instead of Wasabi they had chipotle/BBQ dressing. So good.

A crab cake INSIDE of a crab! I wasn't expecting this on my seafood platter -
it was more of a WTF moment - but it too was delicious!

Raw Oysters - I always have been curious about them and never sure if I would actually do it, but the opportunity presented itself and I just went for it.
They were saltier than I expected, but overall not too bad.

I also was told by some locals to try out a place called "Smithfield's Chicken 'N Bar-B-Q" and to get the "Chicken and Barbecue" platter. So I went into the restaurant and asked for the "BBQ Chicken" and the lady looked at me like I was a little slow. She replied "You mean the Chicken and Bar-B-Q?" I was a little confused at this point - was "Barbecue" a food here or something? Turns out it was! Barbecue in North Carolina mean pulled-pork in a vinegar- & pepper-based barbecue sauce. It definitely was different, but it was really good! And they even have a mail-order service where you can have "Bar-B-Q" shipped to you front door anywhere in the United States!

Old and Decrepit

Many of you have heard me often complain that my body is growing old way too fast. With frequent sore joints, a "neck of a 60 year-old", and the fact that I started losing my hair in high school, I feel justified making that claim. But when we went to Disneyland last year I had the opportunity to "see what I would look like in 50 years". I just stumbled on these videos that I took and thought they were pretty funny.

I selected the "gain weight" and "tan often" options on this video

So if you see someone who looks like this next time you are in the grocery store, don't be surprised if it is me and my body just decided to age a little on me again!