Getting ready for the Clean Program, Year 2

Okay everyone! It's that time of year again: the time to make resolutions for the new year and then promptly forget about them on January 2 :) Last January, Ryan and I did pretty well during our 21 day cleanse and I'm confident that we'll do even better this year and get the same great feeling we did from eating so healthy during that time (we're also hoping to continue many of the habits throughout the year).

Last year, we did not do the suggested 3-5 days of the Elimination Diet before the cleanse. This year we are trying to do better so when we got back in to town today, I went grocery shopping and only purchased "clean" ingredients using the shopping list found here.

About a week ago, I joined every woman's new favorite addiction: Pinterest and started collecting "Clean" recipes in addition to ideas for crafts I'll never make, but have every intention of doing so :) One recipe in particular, Broccoli and Tahini, caught my eye and so tonight I set about making it (pictured above). It so so good!! At first it tasted a bit bland, but with each bite, I discovered new flavors like the tang of the lemon and the creaminess of the tahini. My taste buds just needed to adjust to the lack of sodium, fat and sugar that usually accompanies all of the junk food I have been eating lately! The blogger who posted this recipe also told me of another Clean recipe she has on her blog, Gluten-free Butternut Squash Pasta, which I am hoping to try later this week (later than I originally thought, the broccoli and tahini makes a TON of food, not complaining!).


Another thing I made today came directly from the Clean Program page on snacking, which is going to be crucial for me to get through the cleanse this year. I think my biggest problem in the past was that I was not eating enough and felt deprived. The website clearly states that you can snack on approved foods but that you need to have 12 hours of fasting each night. I misunderstood that last time and I was miserable more than a few days! Anyway, these balls are made up of dates, almonds, sunflower kernels, sesame seeds, a bit of stevia, coconut oil and unsweetened coconut flakes. If you have ever had a Lara bar, they are pretty similar to that. If you have a food processor, you can make these lil snack balls and they are delicious!

Things I learned from the Clean Program last year that I'll use this year:

- Don't get carried away and buy a bajillion different ingredients for a million different recipes. We got carried away last year and bought way too much stuff and spent more money than we needed to. This year, we know to keep it simple!
-Prepare, prepare prepare! The more food you have ready to eat, the less temptation you'll have! We learned last year to make lunch in advance so we could just grab and go.
-Eat snacks! If you're eating healthy snacks and feeling full, you will not be tempted by the office donuts, the popcorn and soda deal at Target or the gingerbread pancakes that IHOP is advertising right now.
-Avoid the weird recipes that include items that you KNOW FOR A FACT you do not like. If you don't eat it, it doesn't do you any good OR if you eat it and hate every bite, you just may be tempted to hit up Pizza Hut the next day to compensate for the torture food.
-ANYONE can do this cleanse. I don't exactly have discipline, it's one of the reasons I can never be a runner (unless half a block counts) but I still managed to complete this cleanse last year with only a few lapses (did not resist the gingerbread pancakes).
-Cleanses don't have to be the scary, dangerous diets that you hear about. If you're only eating lemon and cayenne pepper, THAT'S A BAD IDEA. If you're eating a wide variety of food and receiving more nutrients than you probably ate the entire year before, that's probably okay! When people ask, "don't you miss real food", remind yourself that a McValue meal or Easy Mac is not real food and that during this cleanse, you're finally eating "real" food.

Key West, FL

Ryan has been going to the Keys for all of his life and so you can imagine how incredibly sad my life was by comparison because I had only been once, for 5 hours (between 7 am-12pm) on a cruise stop. So very sad.

This weekend changed that! We made the 9 hour drive in our rental Yaris (our way of prolonging the inevitable breakdown of one of our high mileage cars) and made it to Marathon, FL just in time for a beautiful sunset right next to the 7 mile bridge at Sunset Grille and Raw Bar. The food was okay but I probably wouldn't eat there again. The view was unbelievable though and is great for a drink on the waterfront deck!

After the sunset, we made the final hour drive to Key West and checked in to the Southwinds Motel which was the perfect place for our weekend. The room was only $100/night during the boat races, it was clean, the service was friendly and we were within walking distance of Duval Street...I was quite impressed! (Many other places in the vicinity were either uber expensive or had bad ratings)

After checking in, we wasted no time and headed straight for Duval Street where we were met with hundreds (if not thousands) of people crowding the street to view the powerful racing boats on display from massive hydraulic lifts on semis.

The next morning, we decided to finally test out the inflatable boat that Ryan has been repairing for the past few weeks. Ryan thought it would be a good opportunity to take me lobstering for the first time ever. The photos below depict the series of events that followed:


Hey Brandy! Doesn't this folded up boat look safe?

I just have to blow it up....like water wings with an engine!

Here we go! She's going in the water!

Brandy: Oh dear, why is all that water in there?
Ryan: Well, we both knew this was going to happen.
Brandy: No. No we did not know this was going to happen.

Brandy being forced to get in the boat against her will and all reason.
That's ankle deep water! I'm getting out...

Good luck Ryan! Hope you don't sink!

Ryan: "Maybe there is too much water coming in..."

Moral of the story?: It is difficult to patch inflatable boats with holes in them. Test your repair work BEFORE lugging a boat, giant gas can, diving gear, and engine 9 hours to the Keys.

Quick recap of the rest of the trip:

-Stopped by Kino Sandal Factory, a must for a Key West trip to replenish our Kino supply.
-Walked for miles and miles...the most exercise I've had in years...that is pretty unfortunate.
-Found a neat little coffee shop called Cuban Coffee Queen....delicious cafe con leche!
-Attended the wedding of our friends, then promptly fell asleep at 8:30 pm when we stopped back at the motel to change to go out with everyone on Duval...it started off as a 10 minute nap to rest our feet and ended at 3:40 am when we finally woke up...I want to blame it on the fact that we had been out and about all day and had a few drinks...but I think deep down we all know that Ryan and I are secretly 80 years old.
-Went to the Cuban place (we went when we had been in Key West on a stop for our honeymoon cruise) called Meson de Pepe...plantain nachos are delicious....AND there were baby chickens that stopped by to say hello/beg for food.


Overall, we had a great trip to the Keys and hope to sail there one day soon!

Cape Haze, FL/2 Year Wedding Anniversary

Happy 2 Year Anniversary to me and Ryan! Woo hoo :) We have vowed to visit a place that we have never been each year on our anniversary. Last year, we went to Hostel in the Forest and from there we visited Jekyll Island and St. Simons Island and had an all around adventure. This year, we decided to splurge on a more luxurious vacation and while it was really nice to relax and spend time together, we have both decided that it just wasn't us! We are better suited to hostels and chicken buses :) Anyway, here is a recap of our romantic island getaway:

Cape Haze is situated in between Sarasota, to the north, and Ft. Myers, to the south. The resort where we stayed, Palm Island Resort, can only be reached by car ferry. When we found this out, we expected the car ferry to take us on a long journey to a mysterious place only found by the pure of heart, but in reality, we could have probably jumped the water with our car, possibly even with a running start on foot. The fee for the ferry was included in the price of the vacation package we had purchased (Yeah Groupon!) but if it hadn't been, we may have chosen to stay somewhere else. At $55 r/t, you'd expect to be on the long mysterious voyage mentioned before and not crossing water about 3 arms lengths across. You do have the option of crossing on the ferry as a pedestrian ($6 r/t per person) but then you'd have a pretty long walk to the resort, which is on the opposite side of the island. But, it was included for us, so it wasn't an issue :)

If you drive through Englewood on your way to Cape Haze, like we did, you will find a rare gem that will make your DAY like it did mine: A PASTY SHOP run by a YOOPER! Yeaaah! Pretty good pasty and a root beer from Wisconsin make for a happy Brandy at lunch time. They even sell Trenary Toast! But at $6.50 a bag, I'll just ask my grandma or friends to smuggle some down for me the next time they're in town. If you google "Pasty Shop in Englewood, FL" you'll see exactly where it is and also, a review from some "Brandy" dated October 21.

If the car ferry is not included in the price you pay to stay at Palm Island and you would rather not make a bunch of trips on it, then I would recommend stopping at one of the hundreds of Publix's in the area to stock up on the essentials: ingredients to make monkey bread (or, if you type it wrong into google, it pulls up "Monkey break dancing"...we now have a new name for monkey bread), parchment paper to bake the fish you're about to buy at the Placida Fish Market, ingredients for pina coladas...and that should about cover you.

Recommendation: stay at the resort and just enjoy doing absolutely nothing but eating, drinking and soaking up the sun for a few days. Ryan and I, being Ryan and I, just HAD to try and find some adventure on our second to last day and we were sorely disappointed. Unless you bring a boat, it will take you a few hours to drive anywhere and there isn't a whole lot to see. We had a good time, but we would have had just as good of a time relaxing on the beach with our pina coladas....we would have saved quite a bit of money on gas and eating out too! The only thing I would recommend doing is visiting the Placida Fish Market for some local, fresh seafood and to pay the $5 to cross the bridge to Boca Grande. It's a pretty neat area and there is a lighthouse and beautiful beach to see, plus both of these places are within 10-15 minutes of Cape Haze.


In case you decide to be stubborn like us and TRY to find some adventure, you could follow our 2 hour path to Matlacha and Pine Island. Matlacha is a complete shock while driving down the otherwise very normal road to the end of Pine Island. The buildings are all painted bright colors and there are several neat shops and art galleries. We had a late lunch at Miceli's and sat right next to the water while we listened to live music and Ryan drank a $1.50 beer (They have awesome HH specials and their HH lasts practically all day). Our server was extremely polite and wonderful and it was a breath of fresh air after attempting an earlier lunch at Dean's South of the Border Tex Mex Cantina in Punta Gorda, where we ordered the bare minimum because we were afraid to tell our server that we didn't want to stay for lunch after we had already ordered drinks(If you like Mexican food, friendly service and happiness, this is the absolute last place on earth you want to be!)

If you decide to take my advice and simply enjoy your time at the resort, there are a few different ways to do so. You can play tennis on one of the many courts, ride your golf cart around (also included in our vacation package, awesome!), make shell art on the beach, hold your nose because of all the fish that washed up because of red tide (I really hope this doesn't happen while you're there), visit one of the restaurants, or enjoy coffee from your screened porch while the sun comes up<---by far my favorite moments of this trip

Kingsley Plantation, Amelia Island, Fernandina Beach, Pumpkin Hill State Park

(Sea Island Cotton)

Remember how I mentioned that we were supposed to spend Labor Day weekend on the sailboat, sailing to Cumberland Island? Well, since that was not the safest option without a powerful engine (we have since obtained a 6 HP engine, hooray for Craigslist!) we decided to just get in the car and drive. I had read about the Kingsley Plantation a while ago when I was looking for interesting things to do in Jacksonville and since it was only about 30 minutes away, this seemed like a good start. (Tip for those who don't want to end up in somebody's crab shop in their front yard: don't type "Kingsley Plantation" into Google maps on your phone, instead, google it on the internet, and follow the link from there or else you'll end up buying crab from some backwoods shack.)

Kingsley Plantation is open every day from 9a-5p and there are limited tours of the plantation house, but even if you show up 25 minutes before they close, like we did, you'll still be able to see quite a bit before the park ranger makes you leave. Things like the crops that were grown by Zephaniah Kingsley and his slaves. If you go to this website you can read more about the history of the plantation and the Kingsley's. Interesting fact: Zephaniah's wife and children were his slaves until he "gave" them their freedom. It is sad to think of the lives that slaves had (especially the ones who worked turning indigo into blue dye, they had about a 5-7 year life expectancy) but it is important for us to learn from this period in history, so that we don't make similar mistakes in the future. Even if you have absolutely no interest in history, it is a pretty cool place to walk around and maybe have a picnic, the house sits right on the water and boaters pass by it constantly.




After you leave the Kingsley Plantation, it's about 20 minutes to the Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach area. It's a very beautiful and peaceful place to visit and reminded us both of New Smyrna Beach. There are shops and restaurants and, of course, a gorgeous beach with white sand. The drive from Jacksonville is one of the prettiest drives I have taken; you go from heavily wooded areas to rivers to ocean and I think the drive alone is worth the trip! If you bring a bottle of wine disguised in a water bottle (not that we'd ever suggest such a thing) you could enjoy a very romantic picnic or you could head to one of the local restaurants for a bite to eat and a drink. We went to the outside bar at Sliders, mostly for the view, and enjoyed a few drinks and an appetizer without breaking the bank.


I should probably mention that we came out to this area two days in a row. We wanted to stay overnight but we had a few obstacles: 1. Romeo, our dog and 2. There are no affordable places to stay if you wait until the last minute, during Labor Day weekend.
The second day we brought Romeo and a romantic picnic because dogs are allowed on the beach. It was so romantic in my mind, but Romeo wanted to make sure that no birds, dogs, humans or waves hurt us, so he spent the entire time lunging at any moving thing and barking at, well, just everything. This cut our romantic picnic short but we felt ripped off, so on our drive home, we followed the signs to Pumpkin Hill State Park.



We enjoyed a nice hike on a sandy trail for about 10 minutes before Ryan shouts "HOLY CRAP". This instills fear into my heart and I freeze. This instills Ryan's photographer instinct and he closes in on the following creature:


That, my friends, is a dusky pygmy rattlesnake (it's pretty hard to see in the picture). Once Ryan told me that, I decided that this wildlife sighting concluded our nature hike. We spent the rest of our visit on the safety on our car, listening to the wind blow through the trees, a rooster in the distance and....absolutely nothing else. It was pretty cool.

Please learn from our mistakes

(At least we got to see a beautiful sunset!)

August 29 was my sister's birthday! Happy belated birthday lil sis! Since her birthday fell on a Monday, she asked that we take her sailing on Sunday, August 28. Earlier that week, we thought we might have to cancel because of Hurricane Irene, but Miss Irene ended up going North instead and so the sailing was back on.

My sister and her boyfriend and two friends arrived around noon, so that we could get our sailboat out of the slip while the tide was still pretty high (At low tide, our boat sits in the silt on the bottom). We were planning on surprising my sister by sailing to Fort Caroline, an old fort just brimming over with history (My sister loves history)...but about 2 hours in, Ryan informs us that it would probably take us another 2 hours to reach Fort Caroline, putting us there at around 4-5 pm and not home until 8-9 or even 10 pm. (They had a 2.5 hour trip back to Orlando after the trip ended).....so we all decided that it'd probably be safer to turn around, so we'd be able to take our time getting back to the dock.

We turned around and sailed back towards the curve in the channel (Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that we were in a part of the river that is used by commercial freight boat things?) that we had just passed. Since the wind was blowing towards us, we had to turn to the left (tack) once we reached the far right side of the channel. As we turned to the left, to make the most of the wind, the current pulled us right back to where we had started. Awesome. Since we lost our propeller on the gas motor, we were using a trolling motor that ran off of a battery charged from our solar panel. This motor was so quiet and eco-friendly, we were in hippie heaven until we realized that it is good for maneuvering around our dock but not so much for going against strong currents. We tried changing to a bigger jib (sail that goes on the front of the boat, not the main sail) for more power and we were just about to make it around the corner when a GIANT freight boat (I have no idea what they're called, but they're the size of a cruise ship and blast an ear splitting horn at you if you happen to be in their way) came up and made it very clear, via ear splitting horn, that we needed to move and...lose all the ground we had just made.

This all went on for about 2 hours, with spurts of almost crashing into the rocks on the shore, cursing, one of the little cable thingies that keep the mast from crashing down and killing everyone came undone, more cursing and Brandy's famous "Sailing Induced Nervous Breakdown" (ex: I hate this boat!! We are selling it when we get home!!!) before a really nice couple pulled up in their motor boat and offered to tow us out of the current. They ended up towing us for a good hour to make sure we didn't get stuck again and brought us right up to where our dock is. Thank God for nice people!!

The moral of the story is this: test your boat in the safety of the river to learn all about the kinks and terrible things that can happen. Better to learn them in the river than in the ocean...which is what we were planning to do the following weekend. Thanks to this slight hiccup, we decided to postpone our first venture into the ocean, which could have been a real nightmare.

You know, as this entire day was happening I was thinking "I hope my sister and her friends are prepared to be riverpeople now because we may never leave the St. Johns" but I was also thinking this: "I can't wait to blog about this so other new sailors can avoid our mistakes!"....but now I'm starting to think that making mistakes and learning from them is all part of the sailing experience. We can't possibly plan for every bump in the road! So now, my philosophy is this: once you get your sailboat, do not bring people on it that do not have experience sailing OR if they don't have experience, they don't mind when you get stuck in the river for 2 hours, the propeller falls off, etc.