Local Places

2013 flew by way too fast. Probably because it was such a great year. So many events!

Just like 2012, our big event was a wedding in our backyard.  Now our family is a bit bigger and our circle of friends is even better.  I got to ride a train for the very first time and how much fun was that?  From Grand Central Station with a raucous party all the way to Niantic, CT.

Then there was the wedding and all of the parties associated with it.  Next we drove to Connecticut for a second wedding reception–on the way up we made a quick stop in Brooklyn and picked up four random family members for the party. Then back to Florida through New York state where I reconnected with an old friend then stopped in to see my brother and sister-in-law that I haven’t visited with in over 20 years.

We made several more trips and had many visitors to Perfect.  One of our favorite was Riley, our ND grandson who stayed for a few weeks.  Drove him back to his home for a nice visit  (ND is so nice in August) and spent a couple days in St Louis on the way back to hot and humid Florida.

Then, just like that, the holidays were here–and this year was the best ever!  We actually got to see all of our kids and grandkids between Thanksgiving and New Years with the exception of Lauri and Riley who stayed in the frozen tundra.

So, besides friends, family, travel, and hanging with the pooch, another big event for me was when I started writing for the Citrus Chronicle online blog. Terry and I, sometimes along with Maggie, are making an attempt to really know the nature coast and then I’m writing about our adventures.

I’ve been watching the “stats” for my blog and have developed a format that seems to work that I’ll attempt to continue. Monday and Tuesday will be devoted to local items such as photos, stories, events, travels, and our big backyard. Wednesday will continue featuring Michelle’s adventures. Thursday will be a DIY project. And Friday will be anything I feel like posting whether it be a photo or my meanderings.

So starting Monday, the blog will be back to “normal”. Hope you’ll keep reading! If you have any suggestions, send me an email! Thanks for being here!

Kathy

KT Green Design

Although Terry and I were crazy busy all of December with friends and family, we did squeeze in three visits to local restaurants for chicken wings. After all, we do have a goal of hitting all of Citrus County restaurants that serve wings and not even the holidays can stop us!

The first restaurant we stopped at this month was Gator Cove which was highly recommended by some friends. They liked the quality of the food, the prices and the service. Gator Cove is a small waterside pub located in the Bella Oasis Hotel in Homosassa Springs. We arrived about 1:00 and we were both surprised at how busy the place was. Almost all of the tables and the bar were full but we were quickly greeted by the server and in no time we were munching on wings and fries. Terry had dry rub and I had medium wings with blue cheese. The beer was served in a very frosty mug which was a nice touch. Our friends were right about their recommendation.

We returned to the Shamrock Inn for our second visit of the month. The Shamrock Inn won our little wing contest in November. But we had a friend visiting us from Houston and I wanted to take her to Floral City plus Terry didn’t get to participate in the previous judging. As usual, Terry ordered dry rub and this time the flavor was blackened–but too much blackening. He had to shake it off before he could eat the wings. Cheryl had hot wings which she said were very good. We also had onion rings, french fries and jalapeno poppers which were all yummy.

Our final wing challenge was at Neon Leon’s Zydeco Steakhouse in Old Homosassa. We went there on Sunday since their wings are 50 cents each on Wednesday and Sunday! So Neon Leon had two things going for it before we even arrived–close to home and cheap! There was a group of five for this judging. We arrived after the lunch hour and before the band starts so it wasn’t very busy. Everyone had the hot wings except for Terry who had cajun dry rub. Our son-in-law Andrew also had the jambalaya and said it was excellent. The french fries were so good that we made a second order after devouring the first. I really liked that they gave us baskets of blue cheese and ranch dressing in little containers. Our server was friendly and was quick to notice when we were out of drinks. Terry said that these were the best wings for the month so Neon Leon’s is our winner!

Any suggestions for wing locations for January, let me know!