Pumpkin and Spice

Since we got into Coral Springs a little late (1:00a) last night, we slept a little late this morning. Well... late for my mom. 8:00ish, which is about normal for me. We ate breakfast (I had raisin bran, coffee, a Silk chocolate soy milk and a banana) and then headed out to a fabulously quirky, odd-ball attraction- The Coral Castle!

The Coral Castle was built in Florida City in the 1920s by a Latvian immigrant named Ed Leedskalnin. As a youth in Latvia, he had his heart broken by his fiancee. Shortly after, he moved to America, where he began work on the Coral Castle. He quarried his own coral, and began building himself a fantasy world. In the 1930s, he moved to Homestead, FL, and spent three years moving the pieces he had already carved to his new home. Once settled in, he continued work on his castle. He carved and quarried all of the coral rock himself, and refused to allow anyone to watch him work. He never told anyone exactly how he carved and moved the pieces, but he did not use any mechanical devices. That is remarkable on its own, but even more so when you take into account the fact that Leedskalnin was only 5 feet tall, and weighed only 100lbs.

Okay, let's try this one more time! (This is a long one! It was a busy day...)

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early... Haha! That was a little joke. I don't wake up "bright and early" unless its absolutely necessary. And it wasn't necessary on Saturday. We woke up about 8:45, which was early enough, got dressed and smeared ourselves with copious amounts of SPF 55. (Yeah, we're pasty.) Before we left, we stopped at the cafe to get breakfast. I tried to get something healthy and filling (I didn't want to be too hungry before lunchtime rolled around.) I wound up having a cup of coffee, scrambled eggs with yummy salsa, most of a biscuit and a cup of fresh pineapple. Kyle had the "breakfast skillet"- eggs, potatoes, cheese, veggies, sausage and more cheese. After our breakfasts, we hopped on the bus to Epcot.

Friday morning, Kyle went into work for a couple hours to get a few last things done before our weekend, which was okay, because I had a salon appointment. I barely beat Kyle home, and then ran around the house like a crazy woman trying to pack. (Yeah, I should probably have packed earlier. I'm a busy Pumpkin... it's hard to find enough time in the day!)

Finally, I was ready to go, so we got in the car, and Kyle asked if I had my Disney annual pass. Of course, I did not, so I got back out and ran into the apartment to get it. Once I got back in the car, we really left.

Last night I went out to dinner at Seasons 52 with a group of fellow food bloggers- Jenn from Eat, Live, Run (whom I also go to school with), Caitlin from See Bride Run, Meghann from The Inner Workings of a College Graduate and Gina from Fitnessista. Jenn, Caitlin, Meghan and I all live in the Central Florida area, and Gina was in town from Georgia with a friend, her aunt and her cousin (who also joined us).

I was super-excited about the get-together, because I couldn't wait to meet Gina, Caitlin and Meghann. When you read people's blogs, you really get a feeling of knowing them, even though you've never actually met, so meeting them was such a great experience.
Here we are, left to right- Me, Meghann, Jenn, Caitlin and Gina. (You will notice that I am so freaking pale I look like I've been photoshopped in the picture. This is no trick of the light, friends; I really am that white.)

There are a lot of restaurants that Kyle and I drive by and remark, "We should go there sometime." There are a lot of reasons we don't go- it's out of the way, we forget... I'm sure everyone experiences this.

For Kyle and I, The Omelet Station is one of these places. Located in the middle of touristy Cocoa Beach on Highway A1A, it's not in an area we really frequent. It always seemed when we were driving by we were on our way to meet friends for dinner, or we'd just eaten. This weekend, however, we came across an ad, and decided we'd put off trying it for far too long. We headed to charmingly touristy Cocoa Beach to have ourselves a late weekend breakfast.