A Walking Tour of Mystic, Connecticut

Unfortunately all my pictures from the Sun Wine Fest ‘12 are on my other computer. Therefore, the beer portion of that post will have to wait until tomorrow. But, tonight I get to share our Sunday adventures with you all!

Sunday morning when we woke up all we could think about was food. Luckily, we were able to enjoy another delicious breakfast at Seasons Buffet, compliments of our Media Pass.

Anne insisted that I give egg yolks a try since the vast majority of an egg’s nutrients are in the yolk. This was the first full egg omelet I’ve had in ages. I’m not sure whether it was the yolks or my hunger but this omelet was far tastier than Saturday’s. My resident R.D. also suggested that we all enjoy some water based fruit (fresh pineapple for me, watermelon for them) and smoked salmon for healthy omega-3.

001 002After enjoying a relaxing breakfast and catching up on the previous day, we all decided what our bodies really needed was fresh air and sunshine. I am so thankful that the Sun Wine Fest was smoke free as that would have really affected our ability to taste the wine, beer, and food. But, after spending 24 hours inside the hotel and casino area, we were ready to say goodbye to the smoke and stale air.

Luckily, a town only 15 minutes down the road, Mystic Seaport, was calling our name. As we drove their, I vaguely remembered spending the day in Mystic with my aunt and brother when I was 10.

033 By the time we arrived, I knew I’d been there before and was thoroughly excited to enjoy the sunshine, sea breeze, and adorable town with the ladies. It was sunny and windy but the cold air couldn’t keep our excitement at bay. 006

When we realized the Mystic Seaport museum was closed for winter we enjoyed a photo stop on the anchor before heading up the street to explore the rest of the town.

IMG_7105 (533x800)

IMG_7103 (800x533)

036 I couldn’t resist popping the gamma by the anchor. After all, I am a Delta Gamma girl at heart!

The sweet lady in the gift shop recommended two places to us, Lis Bake Shop for warm coffee and the Oyster Club for a delicious lunch. Since both were only a mile away, she suggested we take the sidewalk and enjoy the sights along the way.

011IMG_7113 (800x533)

Within minutes we arrived at Lis Bakeshop, an adorable bakery featuring fresh roasted coffee, tea, and a vast array of pastries including scones, cupcakes, and huge cookies. 010While I waited for my tea to steep, I enjoyed the shop’s many signs and sayings. 009 IMG_7117 (800x533)

After our warm beverage stop, we continued meandering through the town. We explored the dock area and spent time perusing the shops which included clothing boutiques, home stores, and book shops.

IMG_1184 (800x600)

The dock area was my favorite, just because of their random and unexpected signs. I wonder how often the submarines drop off and how exactly do they charge for rock throwing?

014

IMG_1189

After our window shopping, we stumbled across the famous Mystic Pizza, made famous by Julia Roberts in the 1988 movie.

Mystic Pizza Poster016After spending almost an hour wandering through town we ended at The Oyster Club, a casual fine dining restaurant which just opened back in October. 018Known for their farm and sea to table cuisine, their menu changes daily, depending on what’s available.

019The inside was just as warm and inviting as the restaurant’s vibrant exterior. Based on the fact that the restaurant was just reviewed by The New York Times, we were elated we were able to snag a table without any wait.

021 While we perused the menu we enjoyed the delicious bread basket, stuffed to the brim with warm fresh, baked bread served alongside salted butter.

025 Anne and I both started with the mixed green salad with roasted apples, feta, toasted almonds, cider soaked raisins, and a delicious ginger-maple dressing. I would love to recreate this salad one evening as it was delicious and the flavors meshed perfectly.

024 For my entree, I went with something lighter since I still wasn’t feeling 100%. The Quahog Chowder was a perfect option since it is not cream based but instead made with a rich stock. In addition to the stock, the chowder included potatoes, celery, parsley, bacon, and fresh cod since they ran out of clams.

042 I wish there was more potatoes, celery, and cod in the soup as it seemed like the ratio between the stock and the ingredients was a bit off. Overall though it was the perfect heart warming winter lunch.

After our lunch we walked the mile back to the car, taking in the last few sites before heading back to New London. 008 006 Theodora and I took Amtrak back to New York City while Anne and Tina embarked on their trip back to Boston. It was a wonderful weekend that passed far too quickly. We’re already talking about our next trip to Mohegan Sun and the beautiful Connecticut shore.

Question: were you in a sorority or fraternity in college? If yes, which one and where? I was a Delta Gamma at University of Georgia!

Share Button
Follow:

Bo’s Healthy Tipping Point: Proof That Health Isn’t Just for Gals!

Happy Monday! In case you missed it, this weekend I enjoyed a fun girl’s weekend up at Mohegan Sun for their annual Sun Wine Fest ’12. The four of us had a blast as you can see from the weekend posts Mohegan Sun Adventures and Sun Wine Fest ’12. It was the exact type of weekend we all needed. Later today I’ll share the beer portion of Sun Wine Fest ’12, which ended up being a very eye opening experience for me. In addition, I’ll share our day trip to Mystic Seaport, Connecticut where we were able to enjoy fresh air and sunshine.

Over the past few months, many of my newer readers have asked about my husband Bo. I addressed his eating habits in Friday’s VLog (which I now know is supposed to be pronounced vlog, like blog, instead of V-log) and today I want to share a throwback post from 2009 when he addressed his healthy tipping point on Caitlin’s blog series.  Enjoy! From Caitlin’s site:

A Man’s Healthy Tipping Point

I’m not going to say it is easy, but I believe I am proof that anyone can better themselves with a combination of personal commitment and outside support. I was never a skinny kid, but I was in fairly good shape in high school. I was on the rowing team and the swim team and lead a generally active lifestyle. The path that led me to that point is a different story, but suffice it to say that by my sophomore year in college, I was living a self-destructive life. I weighed 275 pounds, drank beer every night, and didn’t exercise at all.

I wanted to make changes but the task seemed insurmountable.

Untitled

The first point that I’d like to make is that major life changes are impossible without some sort of support group. This could be family, friends, a church, or a therapist. It doesn’t really matter from where this support comes, as long as it works for you as an individual. Fortunately, I was able to lean on several of the aforementioned sources of support and by October 2003, I had begun to make an effort to curtail my eating and lift weights a few times a week. I don’t know how many of you have actually experienced the level of obesity that I’m describing (I’m only 5’10” so 275 is a particularly large number for me) but, it actually takes work to maintain that much weight. The initial ten to twenty pounds fell off pretty quickly.

 

I’m not going to claim that my life was really together at this point but in January 2004, a truly wonderful thing happened that I will always credit as the single most important moment of my life. I began dating the girl to whom I am now married.

ashbocotillion

Her journey toward a healthy lifestyle is linked to mine, but it’s a separate story so I won’t cover it here. The main point is that she saw something in me that I was unable to see in myself. She was then and still is now, the most important source of support in my life.

After the initial 20 pounds, my weight loss plateau-ed and I was once again convinced that I would be fat forever. Jumping past that initial plateau was more difficult than making the first move as getting past that point required real discipline and also a willingness to open my mind to new ideas. This is the second point that I’d like to make: to live a healthy lifestyle, you have to find things that work for you. Experimentation and an open mind are essential elements of eventual success. Remember too that just because something works for someone else does not mean that it is right for you. This is something that I still to this day have to remind Ashley frequently.

bobike

Opening one’s mind to new ways of thinking is often difficult especially when it relates to a subject that is as sensitive as food is to those that are ashamed of their body. At one point, I met with a nutritionist (this was way out of my comfort zone at the time) and we were discussing the subject of mayonnaise. I need to preface this by mentioning that I grew up in a family that used a lot of mayonnaise. It’s still one of my favorite condiments although I rarely ever eat it. The nutritionist was trying to convince me that small changes in ones diet actually make a big difference and that thinking of things in terms of trade offs is very important. She framed it in this manner: “Would you rather have mayonnaise on your sandwich or a beer in the evening?”This was a poignant question to me. After all, having a good beer is obviously more enjoyable than having mayonnaise on a sandwich.

For me, happiness and healthiness are tied together in a never-ending feedback loop. In other words, when I am feeling down, I have a tendency to slip back into a more pleasure seeking less healthy lifestyle. The opposite is true when I’m in a good place in my life. My problem initially was that I had dug myself into such a deep hole that the lifestyle itself had become the thing that made me unhappy. Thus, climbing out of the hole that I had dug myself into seemed impossible. The key was actually these small changes that I referred to earlier. By senior year of college each small change had stacked on top of the previous change to the point that I would actually wake up before 6AM, run a mile and a half to the gym, row for 30min, run home and still make it to my 8AM class with a large Starbucks coffee in my hand.

halfmarathon

By the end of grad school in 2008, I was down to 185 pounds and had run my first half-marathon. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve gained ten of those pounds back since moving to New York to take a job as an investment banking analyst. It’s not as easy to wake up at 5AM to workout when you were at the office till 1AM the night before. However, I’m currently training for this year’s New York Marathon, which will hopefully prove to be my greatest triumph yet.

Am I at a point in my life where I can truly say that my relationship with my body and food are perfect? The answer is absolutely not. However, I do believe that I’ve learned a great deal about myself and I hope that the point at which I find myself currently is still only the middle of my journey.

wedding

ashbobike

Want to read other inspiring stories?

  • Emily :  A Slow Switch Helped Her Lose Nearly 100 Pounds
  • Kayla :  The Fear of Going Blind Motivated Her to Get Healthy
  • Maria :  A Gallbladder Stone Scare Showed Her The Importance of Real Food
  • Dani :  Learning to Run Through the Couch to 5K Program
  • Maissa :  Finding a New Outlet for Negative Emotions
  • Freya :  A Journey Out of Anorexia
  • Carrie :  Ditched Distorted Thinking and Ran a Marathon
  • Amy :  A Mom Who Lost Baby Weight and Became a Triathlete
  • Jenny :  Saw Lance Armstrong on Oprah and Decided to Ride a Century
  • Lauren :  Stays Active Despite Being a Busy Associate at a Financial Firm
  • Beth :  A Friend’s Serious Illness Inspired Her to Focus on Her Own Health

Are you a man who can relate to Bo’s story?  Do you have a man like Bo in your life?

Share Button
Follow:

Sun Wine Fest ‘12

IMG_0023 (600x800)

Yesterday’s Mohegan Sun Wine Fest was more than I ever fathomed. There was more wine and beer under one roof than I ever thought possible!

IMG_0464

Unfortunately, due to our morning run and breakfast, we missed the Media only portion of the festival in the morning but made it down by 1pm ready for an afternoon of sampling. The event was very well organized, considering the masses of people and exhibitors. There were signs around every corner directing you to token purchases for the food, celebrity chef demonstrations, and most importantly the wine glasses for the tasting.

IMG_0459 (480x640)IMG_0462

Glasses in hands, we entered the festival, which has held in Mohegan’s Convention Center, ready to start sipping.

IMG_7098 (800x533)

Though we realized the festival included food, liquor, and beer in addition to the wine, we decided to start with the wine section and avoid the liquor section all together.

IMG_0488 (640x480)

While the initial entrance was a bit overwhelming, we decided to pace ourselves with a few strategies.

  1. Only go to vineyards that we really wanted to try or seemed interesting.
  2. After one sip of a wine if it isn’t worth it, pour the rest out.
  3. If you love the wine, try and take a picture so you can remember later.
  4. Take advantage of the food and water booths to ensure that we last beyond an hour or two.

IMG_0005 (800x600)

We started near the entrance, perusing the booths for wineries that we recognized. I instantly realized that I wish I’d known a few of my favorite wine’s vineyards in advance. Some wines are part of a larger vineyard and weren’t on the booth sign. If we’d used the guide they provided us with a bit better this may have served us well. IMG_0468 (640x480)

The representatives at each of the booths were very friendly and eager to answer questions or provide suggestions. For example, while we sipped on some pinot noirs, we often asked how the their varietals compared.

IMG_0482 (640x480)

IMG_0504

Some of my personal favorite wines of the day are pictured below, along with links to their website.

IMG_0472

IMG_0487

IMG_0489

IMG_0496

IMG_0497

IMG_0573

IMG_0572

Chateau St Michelle

Valley of the Moon

La Crema Chardonnay

La Linda Pinot Noir

Mac Murray

Entwine

Rombauer

IMG_0499

IMG_0008 (800x600)

IMG_0016 (800x600)

IMG_0491 (640x480)

In between our sips of wine, we were able to taste some delicious food which pairs perfectly with wine: cheese, chocolate, and dips.

My favorite food of the day was the Wicked Natural dips, which are based in Rhode Island and feature all natural ingredients while combining some great flavors to create unique dips and salsas. We couldn’t get enough of the Black Bean Sweet Potato Dip or the Caramel Mustard Dip. In fact, I may have just ordered four of their dips and salsa on the train!

IMG_0473IMG_0485 (480x640)IMG_0486 (640x480)

IMG_0506 (640x480)

Needless to say, we enjoyed every minute of the wine tasting but after two hours, we were ready to change things up with some food and beer.  We took a quick water break and photo stop before heading upstairs for the beer! Who knew that we’d end up enjoying the beer tasting just as much, if not more than the wine portion.

I’ll be back with Sun Wine Fest ‘12 Part 2 tomorrow. Until then, tell me, what is your favorite wine ever that I have to try sometime soon?

Share Button
Follow: