The Adventures of a Calamari Queen – Page 40 – Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!

St. Maarten, Philipsburg

Our first port on our Caribbean cruise is the Island of St. Maarten, Philipsburg (Dutch side). We’re really excited to be out of the ship after 2 and half days being on the sea. I really liked St. Maarten because it was clean and really tourist friendly. We visited Maho beach. We spent a good amount of time there (it’s also called the “airport” beach) because it’s so close to the airport (Princess Juliana International Airport). It is a must if you visit St. Maarten, I mean how often do you experience having a huge plane just above your head?! We got to see the big commercial plane KML ( looks like everybody was waiting for it too). It was so much fun for me, but the Hubs wasn’t as excited to see this whole thing. He’d rather drink at the bar and lounge! The beach was so nice too, clear and powdery white sand (my kind of beach!).

On our way to Maho Beach (we took the taxi, paid $9 each)

Photo from online (but this is the same plane we saw) that made me super excited!

enjoying some fruity drink at Sunset Bar and Grill

the famous Guavaberry (it was OK for us)

Ocean Blue By Geoffrey Zakarian

We had our Anniversary dinner at the Ocean Blue (Norwegian Getaway cruise) and it was one of the best times on our cruise vacation. The food was superb and the service was amazing ( always anticipating your needs yet not in your face kind of attitude). Although it was a bit pricey because this place is not part of any “free dining” that the cruise offers. The Hubs went all out with the appetizers! He really likes his apps:) They offer seafoods and have selections of raw items like oysters and hamachi. If you find yourself on a cruise and they have an Ocean Blue restaurant, you must try it at least because you will not regret it! The Hubs and I had a great experience in this restaurant.

2015-04-19_DSC_2704 — mascarpone bread and cheeses

yellow tail hamachi — yellow tail (hamachi)

beet salad with caviar (the food presentation is just lovely)

steak tartare (this was Ok for me, had better steak tartare here in Seattle)

Lobster Mushroom Risotto (rich and decadent!) love the flavors!

I had the snapper with some fancy side dish that I'm not familiar with!hehehe — I had the snapper with some fancy ingredients that I’m not familiar with! hehehe

complimentary cake! that we end up not eating because we’re too full. we had some in our cabin the next day though

Caribbean Cruise!

Hello everyone! I’ve been MIA for the last couple of weeks because the Hubs and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary with an Eastern Caribbean cruise (Norwegian Getaway). It’s our first time cruising and we had so much fun! It was such a relaxing time with my Hubs. We visited St. Maartens Philipsburg (Netherlands,dutch side), St. Thomas US Virgin Islands, and Nassau Bahamas. We really liked our cruise ship because there’s always something going on, lots of options/activities so we were never bored and the food was great too. I will be posting more of our amazing dinner experiences in the coming days. Enjoy the pics!

enjoying the view from our balcony room — enjoying the view(Miami port) from our balcony room

Pretty Chandelier from the ships main lobby

animal towel prepared by the housekeeper

Fruit and Veggie carving demonstration (this is so pretty, watermelon flower) — Fruit and Veggie carving demonstration (this is such a pretty watermelon flower)

The cast of Legally Blonde (we did watch it but preffered the real "broadway show) — The cast of Legally Blonde (we did watch it but preferred the real “broadway show)

2015-04-19_DSC_2792 — watched Fireworks on the 4th night!

My hat has a life of its own..lasted for 6 days and I have to throw it out because it was pretty useless. — My hat has a life of its own..lasted for 6 days and I had to throw it out because it was pretty useless.

last selfie before going back to Seattle

Happy Easter!

Today we are celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! One of the most important events in the Christian world. I’m just so grateful for what Jesus did on the Cross, the unconditional love He gave to all of us. The perfect, sinless Son of God suffered and died for all of us, despite our unworthiness. Thank You Jesus for what you’ve done for our sake.

Aside from Easter Sunday celebration, we are also celebrating our 7th wedding Anniversary! We are thankful to God for blessing our marriage for the last 7 years. We cannot wait to see what is in store for us in the coming years! The Best is yet to come:) We took a couple of pictures before going to church this morning. We had brunch after with my In laws in one of the restaurants here in Issaquah. The Hubs and I plan to have a little getaway somewhere to celebrate and we are so excited! I hope you had a great Easter weekend all:)

someone was forced to have a solo picture!hehe

Spring is Here!

Hello everyone! I can finally “see” spring in our own yard! I cleaned some parts of the yard today because the gardener who was suppose to take care of our messy yard got sick and who knows when he will get better. So I just started to clean some parts and will continue to do so in the coming days. I don’t mind because the weather today was sunny and the perfect time to spend outside. I will probably buy some flowers and herbs/veggies next month so I can start gardening. I’m kinda excited!

Cherry Blossoms!

I’ve been living here in Washington State for the last 7 years and I’ve never seen the Cherry blossoms at the University of Washington (the area is called the Quad). This weekend the Hubs and I went to see it, and it was so pretty. It rained a little (for like 5 minutes after we got there) then the sun showed up and it was lovely. Riley had the most fun because there were dogs at the Quad and he loves Springtime;)

After our little Cherry blossom outing, we had sushi and ramen at Genki Sushi in Factoria Mall (Bellevue,WA)

Steamed Clams in white wine!

My hubs prepared these manila clams in white wine sauce early this week. It’s one of my favorite dish because it’s quick and easy to make (aside from cleaning the clams). I make sure that it’s really clean by brushing each clam, it can be time consuming but I really enjoy the broth so I want to make sure there’s no sand in my soup. I normally add flour and soak for 30 minutes then start brushing the shells. Ina Garten says the flour helps remove the sand (I totally agree!). We get our manila clams from the Asian market in Bellevue,Wa.

Steamed Clams in White Wine

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine or dry Vermouth
2 pounds of clams (Littlenecks or Manilla), rinsed and cleaned
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
*optional 1 small lemon cut into wedges

Directions:
Melt butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes until garlic is fragrant but not burned. Add wine and increase heat to medium-high until wine is brought to a simmering boil. Add clams and cooked covered for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until clams have opened. Discard any clams still closed. Add parsley and give the pot a quick stir. Transfer clams and broth to a large serving bowl, serving with lemon wedges on the side.

PokPok / Podnah’s / Salt&Straw!

While in Portland, we visited our favorite places again( we didn’t really branch out). We went to PokPok thai restaurant for their fish sauce chicken wings. I personally love their wings,while the Hubs finds them OK. I’m disappointed with their other dishes though(just like the first time we were there) but I will still go there for the wings alone.

Lunch at PokPok:

Enjoying some Ice cream at Salt&Straw (PokPok and Salt&straw are just walking distance from each other). We sampled 4 different Ice cream flavors and my favorite was the Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black pepper, sounds weird but I really enjoyed it.

Salted Caramel cupcake,Strawberry Honey Balsamic with black pepper,coconut with Petunias salted caramel bars, Rose city riot

Podnah’s Barbeque (we stopped at Podnah’s to get some bbq for my In laws who took care of Riley for 2 days). Podnah’s was featured by Guy Feiri on his Foodnetwork show; we’ve been here before so we know it’s really good bbq).

Ribs,Brisket (my fave),chicken BBQ from Podnah's Pit — Ribs,Brisket (my fave),chicken BBQ from Podnah’s Pit

Portland Trip!

We went to Portland this week for 2 days because I wanted to watch the NBA game between Portland Trailblazers and Dallas Mavericks. I’m a big basketball fan (the Hubs not so much) and Portland is the closest team to watch. I’m still sad that Seattle gave up the Sonics and we no longer have an NBA team. It was a great time with Hubs, this was our 3rd NBA game that we’ve seen (we’ve been to Madison square, San Antonio’s stadium and the Moda center). We stayed at the Marriot which is really close to the stadium. We took a taxi going there so we didn’t have to deal with parking and we took a pedicab after the game to enjoy the City view (it was pricey but fun to see Portland at night!). I do enjoy watching the whole “behind” the scenes at the games because it’s so different when I watch it on TV. You miss the entertainment of the stuff going on between time outs, halftime show and the energy the crowd the whole time. Thanks to my Hubs who took time to bring me to watch the game. Till next time:)

our attempt to take a selfie and about to take a nap before the game! lol

Dirk is the guy wearing gray shirt, he was practicing before the game started! Truly a class act, he took the time to take pictures and sign autographs to fans, you can really tell he appreciates them and happy to do so! — Dirk is the guy wearing gray shirt, he was practicing before the game started! Truly a class act, he took the time to take pictures and sign autographs for fans, you can really tell he appreciates them and happy to do so!

bad angle but I wanted to take a selfie with Hubs!

pathetic cheese burger and an OK hotdog!lol

Yup I caught the Hubs reading his kindle!lol

we had meat and cheese after the game at the hotel bar!

Hawthorne bridge on the back — Hawthorne bridge in the back

Kukai Ramen & Izakaya

The Hubs and I went to Kukai Ramen last Thursday because of the cold weather we have here, a bowl of ramen will just hit the spot! We’ve never been to Kukai before but with all of the good reviews we decided to try this “authentic” ramen from the famous Japanese chain (we learned that they only have 3 restaurants here in the US, two here in WA and they just opened one last year in Portland). We got there early because we wanted to avoid the long lines, lucky for us we were seated right away. The place is kinda small and the tables are really close together. We could hear the other table’s conversations, but it’s OK, after all we are there for the Ramen (which didn’t disappoint!). It’s so GOOD! The broth was so flavorful and the noodles are the best for me, the perfect consistency. It was quite expensive but at least it’s quality ramen. The hubs ordered their special “Garlic Tonkotsu Shoyu ramen”, it was really good. I had the spicy ramen, also a great choice, but personally I preferred the Hubs order. We added pork belly and eggs on our ramen and ordered 2 appetizers. It was a great experience and we will probably go back again if we’re craving ramen (it’s only 20 minutes drive from our place).