I’ve taken the last two weeks off running and I have to say, I don’t miss it. At all. Actually, I’m tired of exercise in general (including crossfit) and have been forcing myself to exercise twice a week, down from my normal voluntary five days a week. I have three more races coming up in January, March, and April and I’m not even excited about them. You know what I’m excited about? Beach drinking and generally not moving.
That’s what I did last weekend and it was quite delightful. A few friends, hubs, and I took advantage of the fact that we have another friend with a dad that owns a condo on New Smyrna Beach. So we went to said condo and hung out for the weekend. This is the second time we’ve been there and this time we made it a point to go on the beach instead of just looking at it from maximum safe distance (a.k.a, the patio with a drink in our hand). Hubs, Jen, and Frank were the first to take the beach plunge.
#proof
New Smyrna is about an hour from Orlando. An hour is a long time to go without eating, so we were all starving when we got there. We stopped at this super cute restaurant called Norwood’s Treehouse.
The bottom floor is an upscale restaurant (we were way under dressed for that) but the top floor was much more casual for our shorts and flip flops. They had really great food and I just love sitting outside, so it was perfect for that. I had a bacon cheeseburger that I didn’t take a picture of because you would just see that I left my fries and bun on the plate because I’m doing a stupid low carb diet to lose the weight I gained over the summer. Hashtag Lindseys. Eating low carb has seriously dropped my fun factor by half. I do not enjoy watching other people enjoy bread and dessert. Thankfully my no carb friends, rum and vodka, have been a big help with that.
After lunch, we stopped at the grocery store for food and drinks for the weekend. I came up with the quite possibly the best idea I’ve ever had: make Jamie cook brats for us.
I have never liked sauerkraut in my life but I liked it last weekend and those were probably the best brats I’ve ever had. I think it was probably a mistake for Jamie to make these because now I’m going to demand them all the time. If you have the opportunity, find a friend and make them cook for you. You won’t regret it.
The rest of the weekend consisted of sleeping, beaching, boogie boarding, pooling, and leisuring.
That’s the Brat Queen.
Before we left town on Sunday, we almost went back to the Treehouse for dinner but ending up trying a restaurant that Jamie had heard good things about called The Garlic instead. And man, I’m glad we did. The place was amazing minus the weird old dude that told us a dirty Santa Claus joke on the way in. The restaurant was built around trees, so it was partially indoors and partially outdoors. It was just the cutest, most quaint atmosphere I’ve ever seen in a restaurant.
I spy Jamie and hubs walking toward me in the pic above.
I feel like none of the pictures that I took really does the place justice. We sat in the outdoor area but indoors was amazing too. The place just had so much detail and personality. And yes, a lot of garlic hanging on the walls. You would be safe from the vampire invasion there.
Anyway, the food. Hubs channeled his inner fat kid and ordered the 16 oz filet mignon meatball.
It was delicious, but it tasted like a regular meatball. Not that that’s a problem. I guess I just expected a different flavor. I got the wood-fired salmon (it was boring, just like my low carb diet) but then ended up eating off everyone else’s plate because everything was just so delicious. Jamie, Jen, and hubs ordered dessert and when you eat off of other people’s plates, there are no carbs. So I tried Jen’s flourless chocolate cake, hub’s lava cake, and Jamie’s tiramisu. All of them were incredible. I must go back.
So long story short, it was a good weekend. And if you’re in the area, go to The Garlic and thank me later.
Eat:Watch:Run 