Sand Castle Days...our fun week-end

Many of you know that my hubby has been in town and we've been having a grand time.  We had a wonderful home cooked meal (if I do say so myself) on Saturday night.  I used the Snapper recipe I wrote about before and this time added 12 super jumbo shrimp to the two large snapper filets I got at Quik Stop to send the dish over the top.  You KNOW you have fresh seafood when you open the package, handle the fish, peel the shrimp...and your hands don't smell like seafood.  The seafood smelled like fresh ocean water.  Simply superb.  I used the chef's pan style of preparation instead of the individual packets.  We gorged!  It was rockin' good food.  We were stuffed to the gills <chuckle chuckle - pun intended>.

Sunday we went over to Sand Castle Days - they said they had 20,000 people there on Saturday.  Considering how long we sat in the traffic jam on Sunday, I'm glad we waited!  It was a gorgeous day and we spent a couple of hours snapping photos and walking around all of the beautiful sand sculptures.  They held up wonderfully, considering the wind.  I put together a little slide show (as I do every year) and posted it on youtube.  It is rather long this year.  They had so many more entrants than I've ever seen before and I snapped multiple photos of everything...so it got a bit lengthy.  I hope you enjoy it if you decide to take a look!

Next stop, lunch!

Cold Shrimp Salad after he dug in

After leaving there we went to PadreRitaVille for lunch since my husband had not had the opportunity to dine there yet.  I've blogged about it a couple of times already so I will just hit the highlights.  A Sunday special - $6 Bean and Cheese Nacho Volcano.  OMG.  The hubby had a cold shrimp salad with excellent avocado slices and some fruit slices on the side.  He said it was pretty good!  I snapped a few photos since I actually had the camera with me this time!  LOOK at the size of those nachos.  They were soooo delicious!

Bean and Cheese Nacho Volcano

Sunday night I prepared the Cornish Game Hens I bought from the SPI Farmer's Market with some squash, carrots, and onions - and baked sweet potatoes...all from the SPI Farmer's Market.  Love a local meal!  Dessert was the Acorn Squash Chocolate Cheese Cake I wrote about...and it was just delicious.  I think my hubby has enjoyed being home - I hope so - I have sure enjoyed him being here! 

I love to cook - but the teen is not very outgoing gastronomically speaking :-)  That's okay though - my husband makes up for the teen's disdain of trying new things and HE is very appreciative when he gets home.

Today, we went back over to Isla Blanca Park to take more photos.  I took my usual pit stop at the Dolphin Point area and YAY - the dolphin tribe was frolicking in full force in the middle of the ship channel.  We watched them cresting and then diving down (I'm sure they were fishing not frolicking) until a Coast Guard Cutter came along and they followed it out.  It was magical for me.  My husband didn't seem as impressed.  He said "maybe if we were closer I'd be more excited" and "you are a water person and I'm not".  Hmmmm....oh well, he couldn't dampen my enthusiasm.  For me - each and every visual encounter is absolutely magical.  My heart literally soars with happiness!

We moved on over to beach front and took more photos of the sand sculptures with some morning light instead of the shadow invoking noon day sun we encountered yesterday.  We were so sad that some idiot had walked through one of the beautiful sculptures on the north side of the pavilion.  Fortunately, most held up just fine.

For breakfast we tried Pier 19 since we'd not gone there for breakfast before.  Service was great and the food was outstanding.  I had a ham and cheese omelet with seasoned country potatoes and a perfectly toasted biscuit.  The mister had a veggie omelet (their whiteboard special) with the same sides.  Several cups of coffee later we had cleaned our plates and enjoyed the excellent morning view. 

It's been a great few days - as I'm sure you can tell from my happy post :-)

I LOVE living la vida isla!