Lori and I took a mini vacation May 14-17 to attend the annual Police Memorial Day Services at the Police Hall of Fame in Titusville, FL. One of the things we have started trying to do when we are away from our normal stomping grounds is to try the food at restaurants in the surrounding area of our destination. This trip was no different and you’ll be reading some of my critiques of those restaurants in the days to come to go along with what I thought of restaurants from other trips.

I thought though that I would start with the restaurant that I enjoyed the most and then kind of work my way down. Choosing my favorite was quite easy because I am a huge fan of both Irish and English Pub Food. Cocoa Beach, just south of Titusville, has one of the best English Pubs I’ve been to in awhile both for it’s food and it’s pub atmosphere, I enjoyed the whole visit immensely.

The menu at The Pig and Whistle explains:

“The name Pig and Whistle has had a place in British History ever since daily rum rations were issued to all men aboard Royal Navy ships in 1655.

As the story goes, it was the job of the junior midshipman to go below to draw the rum for the ship’s company from the barrels-called “pigs”.

One day the junior officer arrived on deck drunk with rum for the duty officer of the day. The next day the officer ordered the midshipman to keep whistling until he returned on deck with the rum, this way he wouldn’t be able to drink while carrying on his task. Therefore, the name ‘Pig and Whistle’.”

It seems that I tend to always order the Shepherd’s Pie because, well, it’s Shepherd’s Pie and one of my favorites, so I decided to try something else. Lori took this as her cue to order Shepherd’s Pie, I know but somehow it makes a certain amount of sense and besides it allowed me to try The Pig and Whistle’s version.

It was excellent! It was rich enough with out over doing it and Lori ordered it with vegetables which is always the best way. All of the flavors mixed together perfectly and there were just the right amount of mashed potatoes over the top to add to the dish and not over power it. This dish gets raves from both Lori and I and it was reasonably priced at $7.95.

I ordered The Sausage and Chips and was pleased to find that it contained proper sausage and not the cheap kielbasa type sausages that so many places try to pass of as English Pork Sausages. These were excellent! The skin was a little tough but that’s what happens when you grill good sausage and the taste more than made up for any problem I might have had with the skin. The sausage had a wonderful balance of flavor, spicey for taste’s sake and not for hot’s sake. The sausage is served with a small dish of hot mustard which is indeed hot but at the urging of one of the wait staff I mixed in some Pub Sauce that he brought me and the combination of the two was perfect for dipping sausages in. Another winner reasonably priced at $7.95.

Our waitress, Shelley suggested the Bourbon Street Pecan Pie with Ice Cream when she found out that I couldn’t eat chocolate. Lori and I shared it and we were fighting over the last bites. As a rule, I don’t like Pecan Pie much. It’s just too sweet for my palette, but The Pig and Whistle’s version of it is just sweet enough and goes great with ice cream. The crust is a nice thick Graham Cracker that holds it all together. It was a great way to follow up all the rest of the superb food, service and proper draft Guinness.

Talking with our waitress, we found out that the reason that we had such a time finding the place was because we were going by the information that we found on their website, unfortunately it is a very old site and they have no idea how to change the original page as someone else set up the site. So, the correct address is:

240 North Orlando Avenue, Cocoa Beach

phone: 321-799-0724

Give them a try if you’re in the neighborhood and tell them that Traveler’s Tales sent you!

That pretty much sums up my life but anyways.

I had originally set out to keep a running journal of what we were doing during our Washington trip, that didn’t exactly work out. Now, Lori did a wonderful job of journaling and you should really check out her blog at yelowflowersgarden.blogspot.com. I started out pretty good but here we are back at home and I have this giant gap in my entries. I started out today to fill in that gap and go back day by day and write what we did but that’s not going to happen, so I’m just going talk about the places we went in whatever order they come to me.

The Daughters of the American Revolution Library is all about history. A genealogists dream. A whole library about descendants and family trees and such. I could have spent a day or so wandering the stacks but we had other places to go and things to see.

The National Law Enforcement Memorial is simple but elegant. From the bronze lions that guard the walkways to the reflecting pool in the center, it is all about honor, respect and those that have given their lives to protect the citizens of this country.

Way too many names to add to “The Wall” this year.

I decided early on that “Colossal” was my word for Washington. It is one of those places that everything looks normal size until you actually get close and then you realize just how giant things are.

The Capitol Building, which we could see at the end of the street that our hotel was on, is a good example. Especially at night, because of the way the dome is lit up, just kind of hangs in the lower part of the sky similar to the moon. It almost seems like no matter how far away from it you are, it is the same size. I didn’t notice quite how big the building was until I tried to frame the entire thing in a picture. I had to walk quite a ways down the Mall to get far enough away to get the whole building in the shot.

The National Museum of the American Indian is a study in simple beauty. This building is such a calming influence to the perpetual motion that is most of the rest of the city. The fountain out front starts as a waterfall and ends in a slow moving pool that quietly disappears into the ground. Walk through the doors and its as if you’re transported to the Pueblos of the Southwest. The main room was one of the scenes that helped me choose my word for Washington, it was truly colossal. The displays and artwork were beyond words, the beadwork especially, phenomenal.

These are just a few of the places we visited.

There are so many things to see in Washington, D.C.! I could stay there a year and still find more things to do. It is definitely a place that everyone that lives in this country should visit.

Well, we’re up at a decent hour, although I had to get out of bed because I kept falling back asleep. Our plans all hinge on the weather. It seems we are going to have only a few short windows of sun and decent weather and that’s going to be when we get most of our pictures. We also want to go to a couple of museums and a couple places that you’re not allowed to take a camera, so we will try to plan those for the more rainy weather.

Wish us luck!

(more to come)

12/25/2007  11:15 AM

Well, we made it to Orlando! And the important part, we made it through security! For a couple that travels with two laptops any number of cameras and enough electronics to open a Radio Shack store, making it through security can be downright exhilarating. Plus, we allowed enough time to park the truck way out in satellite parking and still have an hour before our flight. I love being early!

2:00 PM

The flight went well and we got in to Dulles early. Took quite a while to get our luggage but not too bad and we were on the bus and headed for D.C.

6:30 PM

Okay, here we are finally, sitting in our room, eating Chinese food. This afternoon didn’t go quite as easy as this morning but we assessed, adjusted and conquered! Maybe conquered is a little too strong of a word but it all worked out.

First, no matter what anybody tells you, Washington D.C. does shut down for Christmas, well the Capitol Hill area anyway. Pretty much no restaurants or pubs are open tonight and cabs can be spied but not caught on the street.

But we’re snug in our room on the 10th floor (we were on the 16th floor but the wifi didn’t work in that room) of the Washington Court Hotel, just north of the Capitol Building. This is a beautiful hotel. The people have been very helpful and nice, so much so that I had to get some more tip money<grin>.

We did get our exercise earlier. We rode the Metro Bus from Dulles into Washington (about 45-50 minutes). The end of that bus route was L’Enfant Plaza. I figured there would be all kinds of cabs, not a chance. It’s a little more than two miles from there to our hotel. Would have been a beautiful walk actually, if it weren’t for the luggage. Oh well, the ibuprofen should take care of the kinked muscles by the morning.

Tomorrow we will start our assault on Washington. More to come.

(to be updated later)(If I remember)<Grin>