Update! I just learned an e-acquaintance of mine was so inspired by this cake and its gayness that he baked one for his own Very Gay Wedding in Provincetown this week. Congrats to the happy couple!

And then when a dear high school friend came to visit recently, we made this Smith Island-style cake with eight layers:

Check out recipes and more info for this one at Eat.Swim.Shop!

Apparently, I have a preferred angle for cake photography in my kitchen.

So we headed down to the Florida Keys!

Now, I have to tell you guys, the last time I booked a hotel on Hotwire, I ended up sleeping in a conference room with a Murphy bed, but I am so glad I gave them another chance because this time, they delivered me this:

This is the Coconut Palm Inn in Tavernier, Florida, on Key Largo. We had an adorable little room with a private screened-in porch overlooking the pool and the water. It was so lovely we decided to stay three nights!

To the right of the hammocks above, there’s a little breakfast bar thing where the inn serves breakfast on the beach every morning. When we arrived, it was past office hours, so our keys and info were in a little envelope taped to the door (in a much more obvious place than when we had a similar situation in Big Bend, by the way); we didn’t talk to anyone. But there was a little juice dispenser on the breakfast bar with orange juice in it, so we helped ourselves. However, it turned out not to be orange juice, but rather a very strong cocktail!! Long story short, a couple had gotten married the weekend before right there on that very beach, and they were trying to use up their leftover liquor from their wedding reception by sharing it with other hotel guests (luckily — accidental cocktail theft would have been really embarrassing!). It turned out that the groom’s mom graduated from Delta State in 1972!! Small world, right??

Key Largo is the northernmost Key you’ll find on Highway 1, which we took down from the Everglades area, so we drove south to explore a little more.

One of the first things we did was meet Betsy, possibly the world’s largest lobster:

As you can see, Betsy is a Florida lobster or Caribbean spiny lobster… she’s native to the Keys. She lives in front of an art co-op!

Next, we went to visit some tarpon!

Tarpon are the cool-looking fishies you see above. They congregate at this one particular pier in Islamorada, and you can buy a bucket of fish to throw to them. Legend has it that the owner of the pier rescued and rehabilitated an injured tarpon there, then set him back in the water when he was all healed up; the tarpon kept returning back to the pier to get food, and I guess he told all his tarpon friends and now here we are!!

The water is very clear, and the tarpon are pretty aggressively interested in getting fish, so it’s a really unique experience. The tarpon will actually jump up out of the water to grab a fish out of the air or someone’s hand (and you have to be careful — they bite!!). We kept our hands a safe distance from the water, but others are more daring:

Thanks, tarpon!

Of course, tarpon aren’t the only wildlife in the Keys. There is a whole deer sanctuary for the special breed of Key deer:

The Key deer are endangered, but they are protected. They’re small — around the size of a German shepherd. Cute!

Key West (the southernmost Key) boasts a flock of wild gypsy chickens.

The southernmost point in the United States is in Key West.

Okay, so, technically this monument is not located exactly on the southernmost point, which is actually on a military base inaccessible to civilians, but it’s still pretty crazy to be closer to Cuba than to Miami.

I should mention that in our time in the Keys, we had a lot of really great food. We particularly enjoyed the Old Tavernier Restaurant in Tavernier and Island Fish Company in Marathon. Also, we got key lime pie at almost every opportunity (which added up to a lot of key lime pie!!). I really liked the pie at both Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe and at the Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory, but since the woman manning the Blond Giraffe was the rudest, meanest, most horrible customer service person I’ve ever met in my entire life (!), I have to give the edge to Kermit.

Thanks, the Keys!!

We got on the road and before we knew it, we met up with an old friend.

Brian and I both have enormous fondness for the Gateway Arch. Our first trip together (in September 2005) was to St. Louis (for a conference for Brian), and we actually went inside the Arch. It was terrifying but really fun! You guys may also remember that we passed through St. Louis on our way home in the fall. Good times!

An hour or so outside of St. Louis, we saw a sign for the World’s Largest Rocking Chair (in Fanning, Missouri), so obviously we had to go see that for ourselves. And now you can see it for yourself too:

It’s 42 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 27,500 pounds… and was just erected in April 2008! I’m sure it has a great future as a roadside attraction ahead of it. Congratulations, World’s Largest Rocking Chair! And sorry you got displaced, World’s Now Second Largest Rocking Chair, where ever you are.

Another interesting thing we saw on the road today was this:

(We think this is a Google Street View camera car. Can anyone confirm or deny?)

Then, we had our big moment:

HOORAY!

Our first stop in Oklahoma was here:

We came here because we needed to fill the gas tank, but it turned out to be a very special place. Not only does this highway-bridging rest area include the Will Rogers Mini-Museum (the “museum” consists of some posters and one small display case of paraphernalia — seriously), but you’re allegedly looking at the World’s Former Largest McDonald’s. (Brian and I went inside to use the restroom and we both find that claim hard to believe. This McD’s must have held the title a long time ago!)

We continued on to Tulsa, where we went here:

This is Hank’s Hamburgers, which is a Tulsa landmark that’s been operating since 1949. We had a really great time here. Everyone was so nice to us, the place had a wonderful authentic small-town air (despite being in a relatively large city), and they have these homemade chocolate-covered peanut butter candies that are amazing. And also they have tater tots. And they hilariously say “Hank’s” instead of “thanks” on their signage:

After that, we drove for a long time. We made it through Oklahoma City all the way to Ardmore where we are now all set up in our Super 8. Tomorrow we’ll keep heading south. Yay!

We were in New Orleans for less than 24 hours, and the entire time it was freezing cold (which was very, very surreal), but we still totally enjoyed ourselves. As I mentioned before, we stayed right on Bourbon Street — not for everyone, obviously, but we had fun. When we arrived (around 10:30pm), we bundled up in our warmest winter coats and hats and everything and strolled around the French Quarter. It was either totally dead (for the Quarter) or really hopping (compared to everywhere else in the universe), depending on your point of view. We turned in just before our noses froze off and were lulled to sleep by the party noises from the street below.

In the morning, we did the same thing, basically, but we also got food (from Acme Oyster Bar) and visited the New Orleans School of Cooking so I could buy some filé powder. Guess who we saw there?

Yep: John Schneider, best known for his portrayal of Bo on the Dukes of Hazzard (which I didn’t know, actually, but Brian filled me in). He looks more like this now:

He and his family (we assume) had just finished taking a cooking class and were in the shop buying things while we were there. Yee-ha!

And also:

We actually managed to work in two beignet visits in our 15 (or so) hours in NOLA… once when we first arrived (thanks for being open 24 hours a day, Café du Monde) and then again right before we left.

We had to cut our visit a bit short, but we still enjoyed our little taste of New Orleans. And then…

We arrived in Mississippi last night and are now fully entrenched in “family time.” Laissez les bons temps rouler, non?

Happy holidays, everybody!

Hey! I guess I didn’t update the entire time we were in Austin. Sorry! But it was awesome!

First of all, we got more cupcakes:

These are from Hey Cupcake, which is an adorable converted snowball stand. Very nice, Hey Cupcake.

And then we went to the Trail of Lights!

It’s a big event with a very large crowd, especially on the night we went (which was a lovely evening with temps in the 70s — the day before it had been really cold). It’s a walk-through Christmas light display in a large public park.

A couple of my favorites were these local pride pieces — cartoon versions of Austin skyline buildings:

…and future–space bubble Austin (this one was in a display with Space Santa):

I also enjoyed this rainbow/pride reindeer:

We also ventured up to Round Rock to go to Round Rock Donuts:

The donuts get their yellow/orange color because the bakery uses only farm-fresh eggs (apparently most commercial donuts are made with powdered eggs). I have to say, they are very delicious, and the woman who helped us was so nice (like everyone in Austin. Although I guess this was in Round Rock. Anyway.). When she heard we were from out of town and had never been there before, she went back and got us some complimentary freshly made, warm, delicious donuts, even though we had already paid for our order. Thanks, Round Rock Donuts!

Most of our time in Austin was spent walking around and exploring neighborhoods. Very fun and interesting for us, but not so good as fodder for blog entries! So you just have to trust me, I guess. Now we’re in New Orleans in the surprisingly lovely Ramada Inn on Bourbon Street, enjoying some debaucherous street noise.

Speaking of hotels, by the way, we stayed at the Extended Stay America on Guadalupe in Austin and it was great — clean, cheap, plenty of parking, and excellent location. Plus everyone there was really, really nice. (Did I mention everyone in Austin is nice? And well dressed?) We totally recommend it if you need an affordable place to stay downtown!

One more thing… we have been having some serious technical issues… so I will try to keep you guys updated, but unfortunately I can’t have complete confidence in my ability to do that!!

These are cupcakes from Sprinkles, which is actually originally from Beverly Hills and which we meant to visit when we were on the west coast, but it didn’t happen. My personal favorite cupcakery is Crumbs, and although Sprinkles didn’t convert me, they do make an excellent cupcake. What you see above, clockwise from the top right, are Sprinkles’ strawberry, vanilla/chocolate, chocolate/peanut butter, and chocolate peppermint varieties. The strawberry one was kind of like a muffin with frosting (not necessarily a bad thing), but that chocolate peppermint cupcake was a revelation. Good job, Sprinkles.

So, then we went to Dealey Plaza.

In case you don’t know (and I didn’t, so don’t feel bad), Dealey Plaza is the infamous site of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. In this picture, you can see the street JFK’s car drove down and the Texas School Book Depository from which Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot the President. I’m not much of a Kennedy assassination history buff, but Brian is, so he was able to tell me where the grassy knoll was and what people think happened that day, etc. I have to say that even with the unusually cold weather and the rather obnoxious dudes trying to sell us laminated conspiracy theory manifestos in the area, it’s a pretty intense place to visit. And then, when you leave the area, you have to take the same road out of town that Kennedy took:

That picture was taken as we drove along Kennedy’s route; if you look closely, you can see a white “x” in the road marking the site of the assassination.

So, after that, we headed toward Austin. And now here we are! We’re fully ensconced at a downtown hotel and are hoping for some much warmer weather so we can go exploring over the next couple of days. Hooray!

Going on the Ben & Jerry’s factory tour in Waterbury, Vermont, has been a longtime dream of mine (akin to seeing Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon), so it was very exciting to fulfill it today. We got to see them packing coffee ice cream, and we enjoyed a sample of exotic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream at the end of the tour. Plus, we got to stand in a giant pint:

No photography allowed in the actual manufacturing & packing room, but I was allowed to snap through the window of the QC room:

Hooray!

Next, we ventured to Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in Montpelier, Vt. It’s a working maple sugarhouse where they make maple syrup, sugar, creams, etc. We learned all about the sugaring process from a video we watched in the Woodshed Theatre:

Then we got to wander around and look at equipment and buy things (they weren’t making syrup or anything today; the sugaring season is really, really short and it’s still too warm at this point). We had some delicious maple ice cream and a tasting of all four maple syrup grades!

For some reason, I apparently forgot to take photos of all the sugaring equipment and stuff, but never fear because our next destination was also maple-related! It was the Maple Grove Farms maple candy plant in St. Johnsbury, Vt., and they had sugaring equipment there, too, so I got some pictures there and can explain it. Traditionally, maple trees were tapped and fitted with a little spout and a bucket to catch the sap like this:

Nowadays, though, most producers use a more modern setup involving plastic tubing. This saves them a lot of work moving the sap around. By the way, the tree decides how much sap it’s going to yield, and this depends on the temperatures and such; you can’t force the tree to produce more sap than it’s going to do naturally. The sap comes out very slowly (for example, it would take half a day to a full day to fill a typical bucket like the one above, depending on the age of the tree and the temps), and it takes 35 to 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup!

Once extracted, the sap is placed in an evaporator like this one:

The stove part is below (a wood fire burns behind the doors you see at the bottom), and the sap is poured into the trays above and boiled down into syrup.

Maple Grove Farms’ main gig is making maple candy. They get the syrup from local farms and then basically just whip it up into fondant on vintage equipment (all their equipment is vintage); the fondant gets poured into molds, the molds are left to dry overnight, then the candy gets shaken out by hand. After that it is dipped into a vat of maple syrup here:

This forms a crust on the outside of the candy that acts as a natural preservative. Nice! Then the candy is packed by hand and sold. They also make a bunch of bottled products. They weren’t making candy anymore by the time we got there today (around 1:00 or 1:30), but we still had an interesting little tour.

After that, we headed up to Cabot, Vt., to visit the Cabot cheese plant!

This was especially interesting in light of my new cheese knowledge. They make their cheese at Cabot the same way we did at Ricki’s yesterday except (obviously) it’s on a much, much larger scale. Here they are breaking up their curds!

After Cabot, we went back to St. Johnsbury (we had to zigzag a bit today because of the various factories’ tour hours!) so we could go to the Dog Chapel. I think many of you are familiar with artist Stephen Huneck; I have a vague memory of seeing his work in a gallery or shop or something in Annapolis — maybe on State Circle?? He does all this work involving dogs:

So, when I saw a brochure for the Dog Chapel in Vermont and figured out it was also a gallery, I wanted to go check it out. The chapel is a little New England church–shaped building, but instead of the usual religious symbols all around, it has dogs (like the dog angel on top of the chapel):

But I was totally unprepared for the inside. It has dog (and a few cat) sculptures all around and pews with dogs carved into them, but more importantly, there are small pieces of paper and thumbtacks, and the walls are covered with photos, notes, and memorials visitors have written for their dearly departed dogs.

It was, as you can imagine, completely overwhelming and amazing and touching and sad and wonderful. Luckily, there are boxes of Kleenex around. This was just so unexpected but really good and special.

After we picked ourselves up and recovered from that experience, we headed east into New Hampshire!

We didn’t linger in New Hampshire very much, though, because we were trying to get into Maine before it got too dark so we could get a picture of the Maine welcome sign. When we crossed over into Maine, it had gotten pretty dark, and we had to pull over so I could get this fine photograph:

No welcome sign in Maine, apparently. Someone else had pulled over nearby, and we couldn’t figure out why, but then Brian spotted the enormous moose standing right by the side of the road!!! OMG! He was much closer than our previous moose friends, and I guess I already knew the moose was a large animal, but um… he was really big. And I don’t think he was a huge fan of people staring at him, to be honest with you. Because of the lack of light, it was very challenging to get a photo, but Brian did manage to get this one!

I can’t believe we’ve now had two random moose sightings. Thanks, Maine!

Also on the way, we stopped for breakfast at this place:

It’s called the Thunderbird Restaurant (Home of the Ho-Made Pies) and it has a really interesting story behind it; basically this couple came here to the middle of nowhere in Utah in the 1930s and started a gas station. Eventually the husband died, but the woman continued with the business and eventually built up the whole area with hotels and everything to serve the people visiting parks in this area — not an easy feat in a time when female business owners were rare. Kudos, Thunderbird Restaurant. They also had these zines at the tables written by a salty old local grandma in the late 1980s. And, of course, we sampled the ho-made pies!

We continued on our journey and discovered that just outside Bryce Canyon National Park, there is the totally awesome Red Canyon:

We were on a bit of a schedule today because we wanted to get back in time both to eat dinner and to watch the VP debate, so we didn’t stop to learn much about Red Canyon, but it was definitely beautiful.

Around the time we got to Red Canyon, we started being able to pick up the Bryce Canyon National Parks informative radio broadcast and were duly informed by the recording that we should “not feed, agitate, or attempt to befriend any of the wildlife in the park.” I wish you could hear the tone the speaker used because it was pretty hilarious. Brian teased me the rest of the day about how much I want to hug elks and bison now and how I have to be kept in line. We were also cautioned against inappropriate footwear on the trails. Remember, the wrong shoe choice CAN KILL YOU.

Bryce Canyon was really, really awesome. Brian and I both absolutely loved it even though we had a very short visit. Like Zion, Bryce features a shuttle system, but it’s already stopped running for the season (and unlike Zion’s, Bryce’s shuttle is not mandatory). We drove all the way down to the bottom of the scenic drive first, then we drove back up and stopped at viewpoints along the way. One of our favorite stops was at Natural Bridge:

Technically, it’s an arch. Isn’t it pretty?!

Another interesting thing going on at Bryce right now is that they’re conducting a series of prescribed wildfires (apparently natural fires aren’t happening quickly enough this year and they need to help nature along for the health of the plants in the area):

They had signs everywhere saying PRESCRIBED WILDFIRE; DO NOT REPORT. I guess they have a lot of people freak out when they see smoke in the park (understandable). We’ve really learned a lot this trip about how fires are an important natural occurrence and how they are actually healthy for the environment when they happen naturally.

Near the end of the scenic drive, we took a turn to go to Bryce Point, and then things got really crazy. Check it out!

It was absolutely beautiful, amazing, grand, overwhelming — neither my words nor these photos can possibly do it justice. I definitely want to go back when there’s time to go through some of the walking trails in the canyon. But today, we had to get back in time to eat at the Rocking V Cafe in Kanab, Utah. I’m glad we did that because we had a truly amazing meal there! Then we checked into our room at the Shilo Inn (we did move from the Super 8 ) just in time for the debate. We now have laundry in the dryer and are ready to move on tomorrow!

When my parents came in here in 1979, apparently you couldn’t get very close to the presidents. Since then, a lovely new visitor’s center and amphitheater have been built!

You can actually see the carving quite well from this observation deck — the photos make it seem like we are farther away than we actually are:

I learned some interesting things about Mt. Rushmore at the visitor’s center, especially about the significance of which presidents were chosen. This is from an explanatory sign:

The four American presidents carved into the granite of Mt. Rushmore were chosen by the sculptor to commemorate the founding, growth, preservation, and development of the United States. They symbolize the principles of liberty and freedom on which the nation was founded. George Washington signifies the struggle for independence and the birth of the Republic; Thomas Jefferson, the territorial expansion of the country; Abraham Lincoln, the permanent union of the States and equality for all citizens; and Theodore Roosevelt, the 20th century role of the United States in world affairs and the rights of the common man.

On the drive away from Mt. Rushmore, there’s an area where you can pull over to see this:

Right around the bend from the profile view, we saw a mountain goat!

After that, it was on to the Crazy Horse Memorial:

Are you guys familiar with the Crazy Horse Memorial? I’m a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t even know it existed until recently. It’s a fascinating story; basically, in the 1940s, several Native American elders (most prominently Chief Standing Bear) in the Lakota tribe invited (white American) sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (who had worked on Mt. Rushmore) to design and execute a memorial to the prominent Lakota leader Crazy Horse. Korczak started carving that mountain with a single jackhammer. He lived at the mountain and worked on it every day, alone, until his ten children were grown up enough to help him. Korczak died in 1982, but his family continues the work on the sculpture and memorial; the entire project is funded by admissions and the like. Anyway, it’s an absolutely incredible story, and the whole experience of seeing the progress on the memorial so far was truly inspirational. We took a bus trip through the work zone (they’re still working actively on the carving, and the best way to carve a mountain is to blow it up — systematically, of course!) so we could go to the base of the mountain:

Crazy Horse’s face was completed in 1998 (after Korczak’s death); since then, lots more people have gotten interested in the project and visited the site. With the increased interest and the technological advances in the mountain-blasting arena, it’s completely possible that the work that Korczak started completely by himself could be finished within the next few decades. It’s a very worthy cause, so I encourage you to consider making a contribution if you have the means!! The finished sculpture is going to look like this:

The completed project is going to be 641 feet wide by 563 feet high; Crazy Horse’s head is going to be 87 feet high (the heads of Mt. Rushmore are only 60 feet high). Shew!

After Crazy Horse, we drove back to Rapid City. We encountered several deer on the way:

They are really everywhere out here. I kind of wish we had gotten Pearl those deer whistles, but hopefully we will be okay. I guess if she had deer whistles, we wouldn’t get to enjoy seeing them on the side of the road…

On our way back, we had to get a closer look at something we had seen from the road when we were heading towards Mt. Rushmore earlier that day:

If you think that is a giant bust of President Reagan in front of a miniature Washington Monument flanked by giant busts of Presidents G.W. Bush and JFK… you’re absolutely right. What?! Turns out this random roadside um… artwork… is kind of a teaser site to get you to go to President’s Park, which apparently includes giant busts of all 43 presidents. And guess what? It’s close to our next destination: Deadwood, S.D.! We can’t wait!!

All right. So, after enjoying mini-President’s Park, we returned to Rapid City (officially, “The City of Presidents”). We had dinner at The Corn Exchange, which was excellent. Now we’re back home in our Motel 6, resting up and rebuilding strength so we can forge ahead tomorrow. We’re both feeling much better and are looking forward to our next adventure!

Thrasher’s is a french fry stand on the Ocean City boardwalk. It’s been there since 1929, so we’re not the first people to make it a tradition. The fries are cooked in peanut oil, and the stand has apple cider vinegar and salt to dress them with (no ketchup), and they are a delicious, greasy treat.

I also spent a ton of time trying to find Maryland’s official state cake while we were in OC. Oh, you didn’t know Maryland had a state cake? Well, they do. Actually, it just happened in April 2008 (before that, I don’t think Maryland had a state cake, and I also don’t know how many other states have official state cakes, but I think they should probably get on that because having a state cake is awesome). Anyway, Maryland’s cake is called Smith Island Cake. It originated on Smith Island, which is off the Eastern shore. It’s surprisingly challenging to find it in Ocean City, but I guess OC hasn’t had time to catch on to the state cake trend yet. (It is available at a place called Liquid Assets, but Brian was soooo not feeling their menu — not beachy enough — so maybe next time.) But you know where you can get it? Salisbury, Maryland, at Fratelli’s Ristorante. So we went there on our way home last night! And here is the cake!!!

The defining characteristic of Smith Island Cake is that it has these thin layers (8 to 15 of them). Other than that, it’s just a basic yellow cake with chocolate frosting (which is the classic flavor, but they are also made with all kinds of different flavors from banana to lemon to chocolate peanut butter to cookies & cream). Brian and I both opted for the classic yesterday and it was a truly delicious cake! So I’m proud that my former home state has adopted such a lovely official dessert. Good job, Maryland.

By the way, I learned from our waitress at Fratelli’s that the best place to get your very own freshly baked Smith Island Cake is Classic Cakes in Salisbury.

Also, although it was a bummer to cut our beach vacation a day short, I think it was a good call. This is what we were driving through last night:

… and that wasn’t even the rain we were warned about. Sheesh!