Tag: Lifestyle Blog

DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Allsop & Chapple Restaurant & Bar

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE AND EAT HERE!

I don’t care why you’re in Little Rock or what your budget is, you need to eat at Allsopp & Chapple. I’d love to tell you some great story about me researching restaurants in Little Rock and digging up this hidden gem, but the truth of it is that we googled it after we got there.

I wasn’t sure exactly what time we’d get away from DFW, so I didn’t want to be disappointed. If we ended up getting out of town late and just grabbed Mickey D’s along the way, I wanted to be happy about getting away, not feeling deprived by missing some great restaurant. So, we googled from the un-luxury of our room at Days Inn and lucked into one of our favorite meals ever.

Historical Significance

Allsopp & Chapple used to be the name of the premiere bookseller in the state of Arkansas. It’s located in Downtown Little Rock in the Rose Building, which was built in 1900 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. For six decades A&C was THE bookstore in Little Rock, indeed the entire state. Perhaps the young Bill Clinton, who lived in Little Rock up to 1964 bought a book from there. By the time he was governor, the bookstore was gone.

The Modern Version

Even though it was a Wednesday night, we decided to go ahead and make a reservation, which was a good thing. The place was hopping! Patrons at the bar chatted over bespoke cocktails and most every table in the room was full.

During our first visit, we didn’t know about the complimentary valet, but now you do, so let them park your car. Instead we parked in a nice multi-level lot which was all of $2 and walked to the restaurant, but it was less than 1/2 a block away.

The vibe is good. We were wearing our travel clothes and fit right in. Some people were in suits and dresses, obviously there after a work day, but a pair of jeans would not be out of place. Please don’t show up in your pajamas or your active wear. It’s not that casual.

The dining room and bar are both in the same room and it’s a cozy room. That’s why you make a reservation. The décor is sleek and modern without being cold, and there’s a nod of the head to its previous existence as a bookstore.

The menu is varied but not expansive. I hate when they hand you a book that you have to wade through to find something to eat. There was a little of anything, from soup and salad to steak and seafood, but the choices did not go on and on and on. The wine list is extensive, but not daunting. However, what caught our eye first was the Cocktail Menu.

I’m usually pretty boring when it comes to drinks. Wine, a margarita or a beer are my usual choices. I’m just not that crazy about most hard liquor drinks – no old-fashions, Manhattans, gimlets. martinis etc. They usually look expensive to me and when I get them, I wish I’d just ordered up the usual.

Deborah is the adventurous one of us. She can talk bitters and liqueurs with the best of them and she’s more willing to splurge. When she does, she’s usually happy she did.

This time the Cocktail Menu looked good to me and the prices were reasonable. It also nodded its head to the previous bookseller of six decades. I chose the Don Quixote, which was a blackberry margarita and Deb had Much Ado About Nothing, an old-fashion infused with vanilla and oranges. Both were great. I loved mine and Deb gave me a sip of hers, which was also good – almost like a spiked Dreamcicle.

Amazing Food

So, the drinks were good, the atmosphere was pleasant and the décor lovely, but what about the food? Pull out your list of superlatives and use them all. The food was out-of-this-world good. I had the pork chop, which was cooked to perfection and had a great sauce, but lets talk about the mashed sweet potatoes.

Roasted banana sweet potato mash! The banana and sweet potato were perfectly blended and very smooth. I’m guessing they also had cream and butter and other good stuff in there, but whatever they had in it, it was the best mashed sweet potatoes I had ever had.

Deborah, in the meantime had the Redfish, in Pontchartrain Sauce with fried okra. I had a bite of the redfish and it was delectable. I don’t interfere with anybody else’s fried okra, because I don’t want anyone trying to score some off of me.

We’d observed very generous pours in other wine glasses, so we changed to wine with the meal and were happy as, in my mom’s words, dead pigs in the sunshine. We were so full we didn’t even have a dessert.

The Return Trip

It was so good…how good was it? It was so good we went again as we went back through Little Rock on the way home. Now the restaurant’s area has several nice looking eateries in it, but my pork chop and the drinks had been so good, we only had one destination in mind when we hit Little Rock and that was Allsopp & Chappele.

This time we ventured to other cocktails and while I can’t remember the name of it, this time I had their version of a daiquiri. It was smaller than my blueberry margarita and a lot more potent. I could have drunk several, but I wouldn’t have been able to walk.

Deb did get the pork chop, but I think they’d cooked her longer than they had mine, so she was a little disappointed. Perhaps it was catering to the busy Saturday night crowd that kept the pork chop on the grill too long.

This time the Gouda Mac with Mushrooms looked good to me and I had it with grilled shrimp added. Warning, no one could eat all the mac & cheese with this dish. If you get it split it, but also get it with the shrimp. Very excellent! This time we did share a piece of ricotta cheesecake. It wasn’t Junior’s cheesecake, which we had loved in New York, but it was yummy.

Do not miss this restaurant when you go to or through Little Rock. It’s a great experience with stellar food. Come back next week and we’ll suggest a place to have breakfast.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography

Let’s Talk About the Library

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: THE FOREVER LIBRARY, THAT IS

What’s a FOREVER Library?

OK, so FOREVER is a Digital Media resource that offers everything from Media Digitization to Video Streaming – but if you hang around me much, then you already know that.

The FOREVER Library is the place where all the stuff you’ve uploaded to FOREVER hangs out. It’s not the only place. You also have albums, as well as tags for sorting and finding your photos, but the library is where everything is all at the same time. You can upload directly to the library or to your albums. It doesn’t matter.

What Can It Do?

Your library can do a lot of cool things for you, so I decided to take a few minutes to introduce you to it’s features. Obviously, the great big blue “upload” button is the one you’d use for adding photos from your computer to your storage. If you want to add photos from your phone, there’s a free app for that. If your media is hard copy, we need to talk about digitization. See last week.

Next to it is a search bar. The effectiveness of your search bar is directly related to the thoroughness of your curating. The more information you have about your photos in FOREVER, the more accurately you can search. A sampling of the search terms you could use would be dates, titles and tags, but whatever you’ve got, FOREVER will try to deliver something.

At the end of the upload and search area is a box that says “All Files”, but if you click the blue area you get these choices.

Obviously, All Files is all files. Favorites are photos you have marked with a heart. You can see an example of the heart on the left corner of the photo by the blue and white selection box.

The next are three very helpful choices as you begin to curate your images: “Not in Album,” “Not Tagged” and “Neither Tagged Nor in Album.” As you get your photos organized, labeled, tagged and such, the number of photos these choices will bring up will grow smaller.

I’m proud to say all but a handful of my photos are in Albums and all of those not in albums were taken in the last few days. I have my photos automatically added from my phone, by the app, when I take them. Then I delete them or add them to albums daily or weekly, according to the day and the week.

I’m working on the “Not Tagged”. Tagging is a great tool for searching. Some day I will have all the people and places tagged in every photos, so I can search by name or location to find any photo I want. So far, I have them all tagged as either Travel, At Home, Out & About, etc., but I have a long way to go. FOREVER recommends spending 15 minutes a day on this task and it’s a great idea.

Then there are a series of “Show Only” choices. With them you can see only photos, video or audio. You can also isolate documents in the collection. Projects are cool, because FOREVER keeps a copy of all the projects they do for you – the photobooks, photo gifts, greeting cards and such. These projects do not take up your storage space, but are always available to you.

Under that selection box associated with “All Files” is a section where you can filter by both year and month. So, if you know you’re looking for the pictures of your husband’s 50th birthday, just select the year and the date of that celebration. In this image I chose 2021 for the year and have brought down the month selections.

Moving to the other side, under the “upload” button, you find the “Order By” selections. I tend to leave it on Date Taken (Oldest First) because I think in chronological order, but you can reverse it and as for (Newest First) if you are looking for something taken recently.

Sometimes you aren’t as concerned with when it was taken as you are when it was uploaded and the next choices cover that.

Other Things to do in the Library

Returning to the picture at the top, you’ll notice that each individual photo has a heart and a circle at the top. The heart, as I mentioned above, allows you to mark your favorites and you can always choose to have the Library show those to you. The circle allows you to select images for curating. Let me show you.

On the main Library page, I checked a picture and the screen above opened up, giving me new choices. I went ahead and selected all the pictures I was in, on the first date available, but I could have chosen every picture of me in the library, all the pictures on that date or even just one photo at a time to work on.

If I chose “Add to Album,” I would get this screen. It allows me to either set up a new album, add the selected photos to a top level album or with the “View Nested” arrow, I could actually add them to albums which are “nested” under the main album.

If I chose “Add Tags,” then I could add tags common to all five of those photos. Obviously, since I chose pictures of myself, I could tag them “Jane Sadek,” but you are allowed an unlimited number of tags, so people are only the beginning. And you can do more than one tag at a time, so if I had three ways of identifying all these photos, I would add all three tags. They could either be tags I had already created or I could create them using this tool.

Also from the Library you can share photos with other people. You can select as many photos as you like and then either share the link which is created or create an email or a post or message for Facebook. You can even create a QR code. How cool is that!

There’s a “Download” button next and when you click it, you’ll be linked immediately to your browser. Select where you want the photos to be saved and save. You’ll have a copy of these photos on your computer.

The “Delete” button (at the far end) will bring up a screen which asks if you want to delete photos. If you do, it will put them in your FOREVER delete bin for 60 Days.

Now this is a good one. The “Edit Info” button allows you to change the basic information on a file. You know how photos come from your camera with vague names like IMG 36 or a string of numbers. Well, you can change it to a more specific title like Jane in Dallas 2021 or whatever name would be more useful.

You can also provide a description of the photo here. You could explain who Jane was, what she was doing in Dallas, what your relationship to her is – whatever you want. In fact, while the description boxes you run into with many programs have a 25 word or 100 character limit, this description can go on for as long as you’d like it to.

You can also edit or add a date. Sometimes our devices try hard to fill in blanks and provide a Date Taken which has no basis in reality.

If you’re loading a whole bunch of photos to your storage, the Bulk Organizer could be your best friend. You could do the whole curating job in one fell swoop. You just have to remember that whatever you put here will override anything else you might have in the metadata.

You can make changes to all of these sections or just choose those you want.

One more choice. Perhaps you’d like to select a group of photos for a slideshow. Well, there’s a “Slideshow” button. It will autoplay whatever you’ve selected and you can even put it on “Loop” so you can play it continuously.

Well, there is one more thing you can do from this screen. You see that brick colored square that says “AUTOPRINT”? Well, this could be step one for your next print project. Just select all the images you want to include in a digital photobook, photogift or perhaps you’d just like to print some copies to share.

The AUTOPRINT buttons connects you directly with the various potential projects in Autoprint. That’s where FOREVER does most of the work, like magic. You select the images and the project. FOREVER will do the rest. You’ll be given the opportunity to do some minor editing, if you chose, then all you have to do is pay for it and select your delivery method and address. You can have custom projects ready in seconds!

Wrapping It All Up in the Library

Most of these same features are available in the FOREVER app, as well as on the website, as I have shown them here. You just find them in different places. Personally, I enjoy working on files in the Library when I’m at my desktop or using my laptop, but I’ve heard of people who curate their entire collection of media on their phone, sitting by the pool, drinking a cool adult beverage.

It’s up to you. If, while you are in the Library on your computer, you need a reminder about any particular images, just hover over the “i” in the bottom right of any images. A small black and white screen will pop up to show you what FOREVER knows.

And that’s all there is to it. I plan to write similar posts about Albums, Tagging and the App in the coming months, but next week we’re going to AutoPrint. Start thinking about a project you’d like to have completed quickly – like magic.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

The Three Mistakes

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – WHY I STAYED IN AWFUL ACCOMODATIONS

When I am shopping travel accommodations I have three categories I work with: I just need a place to sleep, I’m going to live it up and this has historical significance.

The historical significant category is easy. I expect to pay more, as in whatever it takes, to stay at the Mena House next to the Pyramids or Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. Places like these will have a strong demand in any season, the location is out of this world and it takes more money to maintain these places in their historically correct state. I say “whatever it takes”, but that’s only up to a point and the point is flexible, depending on what the going rate is in the area and how much of my travel budget I have already eaten up. In some cases, I may have to settle for having lunch there, like we did at the Grand Hotel.

‘I’m going to live it up’ is often coupled with historical significance, such as our stay at The Cecil Hotel in Alexandria, but there are other reasons I will open our pocketbook. Take the Sanctuary Beach Resort for instance, which is all about location, location, location. The rooms are huge, luxurious and your door opens onto the beach. You are so far removed from the every day that you turn your car in for a golf cart. Delightful! I am more likely to live it up when I’m with Bill, because we share a travel budget and I don’t like to hog it for travels without him.

When I just need a place to sleep, I can get pretty cheap. On this particular trip, I figured out how much was too cheap. In fact, I can only think of one time that was worse and that was a Motel 6 on Sunset Strip. Major mistake.

I will blame it, to an extent, on Covid. While I’m no longer sitting around pining for the old normal, the pandemic has made a significant impact on travel. I always thought if you stayed in a well-known, mainstream motel/hotel you’d be OK. In fact, I assumed the biggest concern was the neighborhood. For this trip, I chose Days Inn, Travel Lodge and La Quinta and they were all awful. Here’s what I said on Facebook when I got home:

The Travel Lodge was the best overall, but they allowed some homeless lady and all her belongings in the teeny tiny lobby, which was also the only way in or out of the motel. I felt really sorry for her and made an effort to help her, but management should never have allowed her to be there for hours on end. They claimed they didn’t know how she got there. How does a lady with a stack of belongings taller than I am, a tub of sodas on ice and empty pet crates get into a lobby and management doesn’t know how she got there? Is that what they are going to say when I’ve been chopped up by the axe murderer? And in this day and age, how do you have a multi-story hotel without an elevator???

Self Provided In Room Snacks at the Travel Lodge

The La Quinta was pathetic. Close to the Little Rock Convention Center, it had once been a very elegant hotel. You could tell by the marble floors and elaborate woodwork, but it needed a complete overhaul. Sliding glass doors that didn’t slide, lights out throughout most of the garage, ice machine didn’t work, dirty furniture in the lobby, an empty pool. Our free breakfast was a bowl of oranges and slices of bread. They put out a toaster, but it had an “out of order” sign on it. How ridiculous is that? Our room was OK, but everything else seemed to be falling down around us. As we left in the morning, it seemed as if the local homeless population thought the exterior areas were a great place to hang out.

And then there was the Days Inn! From the outside it looked OK, but our room was in total disrepair. It was clean. I will give them that, but there wasn’t even a rod in the closet to hang my clothes on and some dog had been locked in the bathroom which clawed off the paint and the door frame. How does that happen in a Wyndham Hotel? I posted a picture of the bathroom on Wyndham’s Facebook page and didn’t even get a sad face emoji from them! Then there was the covered pool with plants growing over it. Don’t get me started!!

Jane Sadek: Facebook 9/26/2022

That pretty much covers it. I was targeting rooms for less than $100 a night. In the future, that will be more like under $200 a night. I might have to cut back elsewhere, but I’m not doing this again.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photography

Yes, You Can Digitize That

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: JUST IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING WHAT WE CAN DIGITIZE

We Digitize More and Better

That gray box company that you may or may not be familiar with, which has all the advertisements on the radio and social media about digitization, says this about what video formats they digitize: “We work with many video formats including VHS tapes, VHS-C, Mini-DV, Hi8, Digital 8, MicroMV, Betamax, and PAL.”

You know what? That sounds good until you compare it to what FOREVER says, “We can digitize any and all consumer videotapes including VHS, beta, Hi8, Mini DV, DVDs, and 3/4″ U-matic.” Did you see those three little words? ANY and ALL?

And our more is more. Search around the other guys website and you’ll never see statements like these, which are just everyday jobs for FOREVER:

  • We can digitize standard 12” x 12” scrapbook album pages.
  • We can digitize photos larger than 8” x 10”, historical documents, newspaper clippings, photo albums, books, oversized scans, medium and large format slides, and medium and large format negatives.
  • We can transfer content from picture CDs and data discs, flash drives, external hard drives, 3.5″ floppy discs, flash memory cards, smartphones, and digital cameras with internal memory cards.
  • We can digitize exceptionally large orders, or orders requiring an advanced level of organization and processing.

We Offer More and Better Delivery Options

When your digitization is over, the other guys do not offer permanent storage solutions for the images you’ve just paid so much money to digitize. They want to sell you DVD/CD’s, Thumb Drives or Cloud Storage.

Well, if a DVD/CD or Thumb Drive is what you really want, FOREVER is happy to deliver, but it’s not what we recommend. Why? Because those are just Memory Disasters looking to happen. DVD/CD’s and Thumb Drives are devices – devices which can fail or become obsolete. The other guys are just setting you up for the next time you need to upgrade your technology.

Oh, the other guys will happily rent you a piece of the Cloud, but which Cloud? The one that will bill you monthly or annually for as long as you both exist. The one that can compress your images, transfer them to another company and mine for advertising. The Cloud which has forced you to sign terms and agreements which say if your photos are deleted you have no recourse. The one which has told you they will delete your photos as soon as your account is not active – as in you didn’t pay for your storage or merchanides that month? That’s not FOREVER storage.

Instead, FOREVER offers permanent storage you own rather than rent. You can pay for it with a one time payment or in 24 installments, but then it is yours and your family’s forever – seriously. You’ll never have a device which can be corrupted, fail or become obsolete. You can’t lose it or destroy it. Your online images will never be compressed or deleted. They’ll never be transferred to another company. They’ll never be mined for adverting. Your photos are guaranteed safe for your life plus 100 years, in part because they are triple backed up in diverse geographical locations and protected by a fund devoted to your storage. And the best part, instead of coming back to you when technology once again renders you obsolete, FOREVER will just upgrade you to whatever the new technology is. Doesn’t that sound a lot better?

And one other small item – we’ll send you back all your originals. You are welcome to throw them away if you like, because they are digitized and safe, but most of us would like to keep at least some of them around. But the other guys, when they’re through, so is your stuff. You never see it in the physical world again. Ouch!!

So, if you are thinking about digitizing your photos, then let’s talk 972-971-5263. I want you to have a more and better experience!

DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Meet Me in St. Louis?

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – WHEN GOD SENDS YOU A POSTCARD

My tribe knows when I am struggling with something I sometimes say, “I wish God would send me a postcard and tell me what to do about this.” The summer of 2022 was a tough one and I was looking for a postcard.

Our real estate photography business was exploding, which was good, but it brought new challenges. To make it just a little more difficult, our long time editors went out of business with no warning. One morning we got the day’s delivery of images and when we sent a batch later in the day, they apologized and said they were closed down for Covid and they never reopened.

In addition to this, we had two remodels going on. We were adding a sunroom to our house and we had a rent house we were renovating to sell. As soon as the rental’s renovation was over, we put it on the market and had all the headaches associated with that.

The lethal cherry on top was my health. I got an awful summer cold, improved and then got it back. A week or so later after that was gone, I got hives – maddening blossoms of hives, which itched all the time. As a remedy they put me on prednisone, which was almost as bad as the itching, but was only a temporary solution, because a few weeks later I was back in the doctors office. So they gave me another temporary solution. I was half nuts with it.

Then the postcard arrived. Joyce Meyers was having a Women’s Conference called Love Life. I wanted to love life, but wasn’t quite achieving it. I was making it through my days, but there was little joy.

My first thought was that Bill would never let me go. He’d really had a rough time of it when we went to New York a few months previous and the first thing he said to me when I walked into our house was, “You’re not traveling without me, ever again.” It wasn’t because he loved me so much, but because handling both ends of the business and the remodels by himself had been too much.

But I had gotten the postcard from God. I have not been a consistent follower of Joyce Meyer Ministries, but there had been a season when she was very helpful to me. A guy I’d really been crazy about broke up with me and I was having a tough time with it. I knew, for a number of reasons, he wasn’t the guy God wanted for me, but oh, there were so many reasons I wanted him for me. A cornerstone of our relationship had been having lunch together daily and when the relationship was over, lunch hour was a big gaping hole in my day.

So, I created a new lunch routine. I’d pack a lunch from home, go to a park to eat and listen to the radio. It just so happened that my lunch hour was at the same time as Joyce Meyers radio show, “Enjoying Everyday Life.” I love the “just so happens” with God and now it just so happened, I had gotten a postcard.

I worked up my courage and mentioned the conference to Bill. I’ve always enjoyed Women’s Retreats and Conferences. He’d seen me go away with the world on my shoulders, only to come home refreshed and happy. He knew my struggles and he knew I needed it. He didn’t necessarily want me to be away without him for several days, but he gave it the green light.

The next part was the best bit. I told Deborah about the conference and my green light. She was thrilled. A girl’s trip was on!

Though you are reading this in July of 2023, I got the postcard in July 2022. It’s now the end of September 2022 and I just returned from seeing Joyce. I tell you that, because I just made a discovery yesterday, as I picked up the infamous postcard to scan it for this post. I really did get the postcard from God, because it was addressed to a neighbor. For months on end I have had this postcard on my desk and then I carried it with me to the conference. Only now did I realize God had to reroute it from it’s intended mailbox to get it to me.

This is not the first piece of mail I have ever gotten in error, but for the other letters I knew right away they were not ours. About once or twice a month I’ll get one of theirs and walk down the street to put in in their box. When I saw this postcard, I knew without a shadow of a doubt God had put it in my hands. I just didn’t realize until yesterday it hadn’t been because I was on some mailing list, but because God arranged a very special delivery.

Come back next week and I’ll tell you about our adventures – and there were adventures!

ART, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Beboppin’ to Bebo’s

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE – PILOT POINT HOTSPOT

My husband loves the internet. He lives for his Tik Tok time. He shops there. He researches there. Me not so much. I mean, I spend a whole lot of time on the internet – who doesn’t – but I like my word of mouth to come from real mouths, not Google.

Constantly, as we’re driving, he says, “Look up…” I hate that. This means I am about to get fed information via firehose and most of it I don’t want. If he really wants to drive me crazy, before I can even type in his last request, he has three other things he wants to research. I’ve tried to explain how maddening this is, but he hasn’t quite wrapped his mind around it, yet.

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating here, but I really do hate researching things on the fly. So, when we drove out of Ray Roberts Lake State Park and he said, ” Look up somewhere for us to eat,” I pulled out my phone and started typing, but I was a little nervous about it. Sure enough, the first things listed were a Subway Sandwich stop and a variety of other fast food eateries.

Scrolling down through the long list of unwanted restaurants I finally found a listing for Bebo’s and Kathy’s Cafe. It sounded like a cute place with home-cooked food, but I wasn’t sure it would suit Bill. He’s a lot pickier than I am about what to eat. His idea of home-cooked food is what his momma cooked him in Cairo. I love that, too, but I also like chicken fried steaks, fried chicken, fried okra, dumplings etc. and so forth.

I’m not sure this is the best place for Bill to have lunch, but there’s not much else nearby and he’s feeling adventurous. Google leads us right to the parking lot and we get a good laugh. Someone with a good sense of humor has worked on the setting of this establishment.

Inside it was your basic flea market decorations with a heavy focus on Elvis memorabilia. It’s not Bill’s favorite look, but we’re here and there’s a booth available, so we settle in for a meal.

Now, when I sit down to look at a menu, I think about what the specialties at this particular restaurant might be. If it’s TexMex, I don’t order a burger. If it’s a steak place, I don’t order fish. This method of food selection has proven to be successful around the world. When I travel with groups, I’m the one at the table that everyone stares at when the food is delivered. “What did you order? How did you know what it was?” and other such questions are peppered at me, as well as a lot of, “I wish I had ordered that.” It’s not unusual for people to start asking me what I will be having before they order themselves and then they frequently just say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Bill goes at it a little differently. First, he decides what he would like to have and then he looks over the menu and tries to find something to match his whim. He landed on a Club Sandwich. Now I love Club Sandwiches. The crisp pieces of toast separating delectable cold cuts, cheese and fresh veggies, which are then cut into delightful quarters – and if you’re lucky, they’ll put those decorated toothpicks through each quarter – and maybe there will be homemade potato chips on the side.

To me, this seemed the perfect place to order up something fried and I hadn’t had fried catfish in a long, long time. When they brought it out to me, sizzling hot, on a plate running over with fried okra and cole slaw, I was in heaven.

Then I looked over at Bill and his “Club Sandwich.” First of all there were no dainty triangles of toast with decorated toothpicks in them. Instead, it was a couple of pieces of Texas Toast (I kid you not) and the main ingredient seemed to be bacon. He was not in heaven. His sandwich was served with fries and they weren’t exactly what he’s used to getting at McDonalds.

Though I pitied his dismal food choice, I had hot, fresh catfish waiting on me, so I tucked in to eat it with relish. Bill spent a good amount of time rearranging the ingredients in his sandwich, but I don’t think he was exactly satisfied at the end of the meal.

Now, you may be wondering if you should put Bebo’s on your list of restaurants to check out. I would say that depended 100% on whether you are on Team Jane or Team Bill. Team Bill should stick to Subway sandwiches. Team Jane is gonna love it!!

From Bebo’s Bill and I ran a number of errands related to the sunroom we were furnishing at the time. Meanwhile, I had another trip up my sleeve. Come back next week and let’s talk about a women’s conference in St. Louis.

Accommodations, ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Gardens, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Pilot Point Getaway

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE – JUST AROUND THE CORNER

Why Pilot Point?

About fifteen years of my life was spent in the office equipment industry and most of that with AIS/IKON. There are people I knew in those days which are closer to me than some of my family. So, when I heard about a jam/reunion that was happening up in Pilot Point, I couldn’t resist going. Initially, the jam was supposed to be held in someone’s house, but the attendee list got so long they decided to move it to the Point Bank Community Center. It was also recommended that attendees book a room at the Lone Star Lodge and Marina. Too busy to do much more than let them know I was coming and making a reservation at the Lodge, I wasn’t too sure what I was getting Bill and I into. On the appointed day, Bill and I loaded up the car and headed to Pilot Point, about an hour and a half from our home on the eastern side of DFW.

Lone Star Lodge and Marina

I cannot say enough good things about this little lodge. It isn’t swanky or luxurious, but it was delightful. Most of the rooms are on the ground floor and at least half of them look out into the woods or have a lake view. The rooms are a bit rustic with a western flair – no frills, but nothing to complain about. For $114 we had a great place to stay and beautiful grounds to explore.

Check-in was a breeze. We ran into friends on the parking lot and let them know we would be on our way to the jam, right behind them. We moved into our room, freshened up a little and them headed off to the jam.

Point Bank Community Center and the Jam

If you ever need some place to have an event in the Pilot Point vicinity, I recommend you check this venue out. It’s nothing fancy, but really is nice. There’s a big community room, restrooms and a kitchen, as well as a storeroom. It did a great job as a venue for this jam/reunion.

I had been warned this wasn’t a reunion in the traditional sense, just the outgrowth of something a group of them used to do – get together and play music. I was also warned some of my best friends from those days weren’t able to come, but I still thought it would be worth it – and it was.

Bill and I walked in just as the band was beginning to play. The band was an odd assortment of people playing drums, guitar and keyboard, but I won’t try to convince you they were good. As I adjusted to the light of the room, I began to see faces I recognized, but even more which were unfamiliar to me. We took our beverages to the kitchen, served ourselves and looked for a place to light.

I was soon up again, going around the room to get some hugs from those familiar to me and was introduced to others. I checked back in with Bill and he was ready to go. He knew virtually no one and those he did know were only slight acquaintances. The music was loud, so starting up a conversation was difficult. I thought the music was fun, but mostly because I knew and loved those who were playing. I excused him from further torture and told him I’d either come back to the lodge with friends or call him when I was ready to go.

I enjoyed visiting with those I knew, but with the loud music, it was hard to chat. The performances were not intimidating in the least and guest musicians took over various instruments from time to time. My friend Tammy and I decided that under those circumstances, we should probably contribute to the jam by singing. The picture above highlights our performance which was nothing to write home about, but a lot of fun.

Having hugged all the necks I needed to hug and contributing musically to the jam, there really wasn’t much more to do, since there was really no way to talk to the people I had come to see. I eventually called Bill to come get me. When he stuck his head in to let me know he was there, laughter, cat calls and innuendo bounced around the room.

Back at the Lodge

We had a good night’s sleep and then headed out of our room to explore more of the Lodge. I can see it being a great place for a wedding , reunion or other event.

As you can see, the scenery is beautiful and the grounds are well kept. There’s a nice ballroom, the gazebo and even several levels of patios. The lobby area is attractive, also.

The lake you see is Lake Ray Roberts and the Lodge is a part of Ray Roberts Lake State Park. We had our morning caffeine and a snack as we enjoyed the beauty of the place.

Then we went back to room, got ready for the day and packed up to go. We visited with some of my friends who were also enjoying their stay at the Lodge as we went to turn in our key.

Ray Roberts Lake State Park

Before heading home, we decided to check out Ray Roberts Lake State Park. It was lovely. Deer gazed out at us from the edges of the wood. It was very, very quiet – perhaps because school had just started. We turned off the main road and went to a picnic area. There we parked and walked around the shore of the lake. It was a great way to spend a morning.

It was time to head back home, but first we needed lunch. Come back next week and find out about a great little restaurant you can enjoy if you decide to visit Pilot Point.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

The Rest of It at Sandpiper Bay

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – IT AIN’T NO PUNTA CANA

Our days were blissful and busy at Club Med Punta Cana. Along with the great food, wonderful entertainment and daily water games, Bill had free tennis lessons, free golf lessons and free access to an archery range. He’s an active sort of guy and he loved making the rounds each day. There was so much to do and it was all free.

Sandpiper Bay was a whole different story. I’ve already told you about the non-existent water games. There were water sports, but they were limited to a tiny bay. Their gym was quite nice, but few of us want to work out all day. Instead instead of spending our days going from one entertainment to the next, we were just killing time.

From the moment we arrived until the time we left, it was one big disappointment. We missed the warm welcome we’d gotten in Punta Cana. The grounds didn’t have the same luxurious tropical feel, because the whole property needed re-landscaping. Our room was sub-par. The food was mediocre and the wait staff was worse. The nightly entertainment was awful. In Punta Cana the G.O.’s (employees) had a friendly attitude and a desire to serve. The Florida G.O.’s (for the most part) had a bad attitude and behaved as if they resented our presence.

There was no archery, which Bill really missed. There were tennis courts, but since I don’t play, Bill needed a partner or a teacher. There was a tournament and lessons for kids, but adults were out of luck. Kids could also take acrobatic lessons. Kids could have golf lessons, too, but if you were an adult all you could get was a bucket of balls. Are you picking up a theme here? Sandpiper Bay is great for families with kids. Bill and I were ducks out of water.

They did have a spa, but I never saw anyone darkening that door and while I love spa treatments, it’s not Bill’s thing and the idea is to do things together. And besides, we spent a fortune for those all-inclusive activities we were supposed to be enjoying.

Back to Our Lives

Four nights were more than enough of Sandpiper Bay. Because our flight home was so early, we only had two full days, but we were ready for the comforts and food of home.

Thanks to my battle over our credits, when I was finally able to book a flight home, the only thing available was a very early flight. Our driver was scheduled for 3:30 AM. How obscene is that? At least it was the weekend, so no business stuff to do.

Our driver was Mr. Chatty Cathy. That early we were barely monosyllabic, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care. And there was an hour of that. We were so glad to get out of that car!

Then, even though the employees weren’t even behind their kiosks, we got in the ever-growing line to check our luggage and get boarding passes. Several times someone would come out and fiddle with one of the computers, but they never took down their “Next Window” signs. When they finally came out en masse and began to handle customers, I couldn’t resist starting a round of applause. Several enthusiastic folks joined me.

Never try to get breakfast at the Palm Beach airport. Expensive and bad! And get this, we had to go through Baltimore to get home, but it was a short layover. Really, just enough time to find the gate and board.

Better Luck Next Time

Whether we’re returning from a blissful Mediterranean Cruise or a quick get away here in the Metroplex, Bill and I are always happy to get home, but rarely as happy to be home as we were this time. Our attempt to use up airline credit turned out to be more effort than it was worth and gave us little in the way of memories we could cherish.

Our next adventure was only an overnight about an hour and a half away from home, but we found a treasure I can’t wait to share with you. Come back next week and we’ll go to Pilot Point, Texas!!

Accommodations, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

Fun in the Sun at Sandpiper Bay

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – THE BAY AND POOLS

While the food was mediocre, the entertainment awful, the rooms only serviceable and the internet frustrating, there were good things about Sandpiper Bay. Last week I told you about the morning yoga sessions and there were other things to enjoy.

Once you escaped from your room, the pools and the bay for water sports were lovely. For the most part, our fellow vacationers were families with kids, lots of kids. They’d stake a claim around the pool and stay there most of the day.

The Pools First

There are several pools at this Club Med and if you have a family with kids, lots of kids, then you might be quite happy at Sandpiper Bay. Most of the families seemed to be having a good time.

There was a water park type area next to what was called the Family Pool. We left that pool to the families, but it looked very nice.

The Main Pool was huge and it also had lots of families around it. We spent much of one day hanging out there. I found a cabana under the trees, a little removed from poolside, where I enjoyed reading for a while and Bill hung out in the water. I’m not a big one for swimming, but I did get in the water with Bill and float around a bit. It was later in the day and most of the kids were taking a nap, so it was quite pleasant.

There was one huge disappointment at the Main Pool. During our time in Punta Cana, Bill had really enjoyed the daily water games, so he was really looking forward to the same thing at Sandpiper Bay. If you looked at their schedule of activities, then it appeared as if the same thing was offered and it was offered, but Bill was the only taker.

We can’t really blame Sandpiper Bay for this, because they did offer, but it was a disappointment. Punta Cana just had a much more energetic crowd. Most of the guests were French, which may or may not be the reason. As it drew time for the Water Games, you’d see people coming to the pool from all over the resort. The pool would fill up and the games would begin. Bill, a natural athlete, was in great demand. At Sandpiper Bay, everyone just waited on their lounge chairs for the daily announcement of games to be over and then they’d let the kids go back in the water.

There’s one more pool – the Zen Pool – and it’s adults only. The day we spent at this pool things were really hopping. Perhaps they should have offered the Water Games at this pool instead. They might have had some takers.

The Zen Pool is much smaller than the Main Pool and the edges are lined with cabanas, but there are no trees. It was quiet in the morning when I took the yoga class, but as the day progressed it would fill up. While there is a bar not far from the Main Pool, with both inside and outside service, it is never as busy as the walk-up bar at the Zen Pool.

The Bay

There is a bay at Sandpiper Bay. It’s got a nice beach and plenty of free water sports. I found it amazing that it wasn’t busier. It was virtually the only thing to DO, if you didn’t want to spend all your time lying by the pool.

We took sailing lessons there and then went out for a sail with the instructor. After that, we could have taken the little catamarans out anytime we wanted to, but I don’t think Bill felt quite comfortable as captain and in truth, I wasn’t much help.

On another day, we took advantage of the two-seater kayak and made our way around the bay a few times. And there-in lies the problem. Whatever water sport you choose to enjoy, you have to enjoy it in the small bay adjacent to the resort. You are not allowed out of sight of the water sport attendants on the Sandpiper’s beach, nor can you land on the other shore at the private beaches of the palatial homes. You begin to feel as if you are sailing around your bathtub.

There is a very nice beach on the bay, but few go there. Perhaps because they only have lounge chairs on the beach. No cabanas and no umbrellas. No bar! The palm trees only offer a tiny bit of shade, so after a few minutes you are broiling.

On the other side of the bay there are more exciting water sports offered for a price, such as jet skis and motor boats. Desperate for entertainment, we walked over there, but the prices were prohibitive. Prohibitive enough that people were staying away in droves. I think the most boring job on the resort must have been the jet ski hut.

The pools are the main attraction at Sandpiper Bay, but we explored the other offerings, such as they were. Come back next week and I’ll give you an idea of what you can do when you’re not in the water.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, Photography, Real Estate Photography, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

Mornings at Sandpiper Bay

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – YOGA AND WORK

One of the things I did like about our stay at Sandpiper Bay was the morning yoga. Since I always wake up long before Bill, I am at loose ends until he does. Reading is always a great way to spend my time, but if there’s a gym, I will take advantage of it. What is a hassle at home is a pleasant distraction on the road.

Yes they had a very nice gym at Sandpiper Bay, one of the very best facilities offered there, but they also had morning yoga at the Zen pool. That was my cup of tea. I’d go by the dining room, eat my breakfast bar from home and get a little caffeine to start my day, and then head to the Zen pool.

The instructors were contractors who came and stayed at the resort. Part of their compensation was their room and board. I lucked out the week I was there. Our yoga lady was a pleasant grandmotherly sort who gave us a very pleasant, easy going workout without all the nasty down dogs. I really enjoyed it. Then it was time to go back to the room and work a little.

Time to Work

If the wi-fi is working, my morning tasks for our business are easy. Download the images from the editors, format them for our clients and let Bill inspect them. If anything needed touch-ups or enhancements, he’d do them. Then I upload them and email them off. Easy peasy!

When we’d gone to Club Med Punta Cana, our business had been much smaller and Bill was our only photographer, so we just shut down for a few days. Having to work on vacation is a sign of our success and we are grateful for it, so we don’t like to complain, but I can complain about Sandpiper Bay’s free wi-fi.

Because we were having such a busy season, these tasks were taking up a little more of my mornings than usual, but it was no big deal – if the internet is working. At Sandpiper Bay, the internet was never quite robust enough for downloading and uploading images.

Each day, I’d start the job and it would look as if this time it was going to work, until it didn’t. Then we’d call the office, they’d apologize and tell us they were having technical problems. Then they’d tell us to come down to the desk and pick up a code for the premium internet – which always worked.

Why didn’t we just pay for the premium internet? Why would we pay for premium internet? Wi-fi was supposed to be a part of our package. A Club Med vacation is no bargain. With sub-par food and entertainment that was a joke, why would we want to give them more money? A better question is this, since the regular internet never worked, why didn’t they offer everyone premium internet or at least hook us up until the end of our stay? Nope, that wasn’t the way it worked.

Tricky Timing

We guarantee 24 hour turn around to our clients and usually deliver hours before that. We can do that because our editors are on the other side of the world. We send off the photos at the end of our day, which is the beginning of theirs and they send back the finished product at the beginning of our day. Only those times are based on our activities at home.

To complicate matters, you might remember we’d just lost our favorite editors earlier in the month. They were good editors, but I loved them because they delivered to me very early in the morning. When I hit my office between 5 & 6 AM, they edited photos were always in my inbox. The new editors promised our images by 9:30 and with luck we’d get them an hour or so before that.

On Florida time, everything was running an hour behind and Sandpiper Bay shut breakfast down at 9:30. Crazy right? I’d come back to the room from yoga and crank up my email waiting for the photos to arrive. When they got there, we’d fight the battle of the internet and try to get the images delivered before we started our vacation day, but it was a tight squeeze.

Breakfast is probably Bill’s favorite meal of the day, but he likes it best at say, 11, especially on vacation. At Sandpiper Bay lunch started at 11, so breakfast was truncated. In truth, their breakfast offerings were always mediocre anyway, so I was glad I had my breakfast bar before yoga. Poor Bill was newly disappointed every morning as we ran in at the last minute from all the uploading and downloading.

While I’m on the subject of work, the other end of the day was easier. The photographers email me a link and I email it on to the editors. I could do that from my phone by the pool. There were still phone calls and texts to answer, problems to solve and such, but for the most part, if the darned internet had worked, then handling our business remotely would have been a breeze.

With work done and breakfast behind us, it was time to enjoy the activities offered around the pools and lagoon of Sandpiper Bay. Come back next week and I’ll share some highlights.