Here & There

Here are some of the places I've been since we've gotten to Florida.   Florida's got a lot of the same franchise places as California... but I've noticed that everything feels & tastes better when it's from Cali.  Anyways, let's start with some restaurants:

• Great Wall Chinese Food & Buffet - awesome chinese food, got onto a list of Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in America
• Denny's - same old, same old, still yummy & convenient, California's Denny's food is tastier
• IHOP - another disappointment for the franchises in Florida.
• Yamato Japanese Steak & Seafood - a neat little place where the waitresses wear cute kimonos!!
• Okinawa Steakhouse & Sushi Bar - kind of a fancy place, but I thought the sushi sucked
• Isaribi - a very modernized, artsy-fartsy Japanese restaurant, food is pretty good, but it's the arrangement of the dishes that will leave you at awe.
• Sonic - this fast food restaurant is pretty cool, drive-in style parking/dining.  I think the SuperSonic (double cheese burger) is the bomb!  Plus their tatter tots are yum yum.
• Hardee's - ok... this is the southwest's version of Cali's Carl's Jr. (there's the smiling gold star and everything) Just one word: YUCK!  I love Carl's Jr. in CA, but Hardee's  doesn't have half the good stuff & quality as Carl's.  I asked for a Grilled Chicken Salad and they're like... uh... we only have a side salad (which tasted discussing, how can you mess up a simple salad?).
• Whataburger - lol don't really know what to say about this place other than I think their burgers suck... Hubby said their drink mixer inside the restaurant is really cool & that I'd have like the food better if I'd gone inside.  Well, maybe we'll try another location soon and I'll give a new review.
• Cakemaster Bakery - I was so excited about their pies because of all the awesome reviews!  Then I tried it with a sandwich on the side =(  SO disappointing.   I guess once you've had a Marie Calender French Apple Pie... no other pie'll ever hold up in competition.  Art says that people in the south just aren't that much into bakeries... and I'm like uhm... pies, danishes, donuts, & cookies... are u nuts? who's not into bakeries??  Anyways this places was a disappointment from the pies to their sandwiches (ick).
•  Heavenly Croissants - another bakery... their cheese danish was good, but too sweet for my taste.  The place is kinda small and has little selection.

All we did for fun was go to the Gun Show at the Fort Walton Beach Fairgrounds... it was boring because I'm not interested in guns (though I did get to eat so YAY!).  But man, if you're into guns... there were A LOT of guns... and gun stuff.  Arthur, who is much more gun savvy, said that even though they had a lot of guns for such a small gun show (small? I thought the place was huge for just having guns & all), there weren't very many gun & rifle parts... which was what he was looking for & had seen at many other gun shows... so both Arthur & I were disappointed with this gun show... maybe next time the fairgrounds have a INTERESTING show, we can make an appearance =)

We went to Destin a couple weekends ago and thought the place was really pretty - white sand beaches, clear blue water - the place was just heavenly.  There are so many neat things to check out there, like: Fudpuckers (an interesting looking restaurant), tons of shopping malls, and a bunch of small but fun looking amusement parks!! 

I want to go to all these places before we move away from Florida.