An Overwhelming, Emotional Experience

On July 26, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn New York, Photo Challenge13 Comments

When we visited New York City in July of 2015, we went to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Walking through the exhibit was almost surreal. Despite the number of people, it was so quiet that you literally could have heard a pin drop as people walked to each of the displays. The museum is set up so that as you walk through it, you see events in chronological order as they occurred on that fateful day that every American who was alive at that time can remember vividly. At one point, you get to see the remains of one of fire trucks that was crushed in the collapse and your heart can’t help but sink thinking about the first responders that arrived in that vehicle. We have great respect for first responders and the sacrifices that they make. For this week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, Fire Trucks, Fire Houses, and Fire Hydrants, we have a couple of photos that we took during our visit to the museum.

One of the Fire Trucks from September 11

People Viewing the Fire Truck in the Museum

Fire in Colorado Springs is a scary thing as we have had a couple of devastating fires in the area. When a fire broke out in our neighborhood just a few days after the Waldo Canyon Fire burned down hundreds of homes, it was quite unnerving. Thankfully, the fire fighters got it under control quickly.

Chicago-Style Hot Dogs

On July 26, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Chicago, Recipes11 Comments

We love visiting Chicago, it is one of our favorite cities in the United States. For a bigger city, people are friendly and it is easy to get around, at least the downtown loop area. Obviously, there are parts of Chicago that should be avoided and there is plenty of news about the violence in South Chicago, but as long as you are smart about where you go, as with any city, you will enjoy your time there. Having a Chicago-Style hot dog is definitely a must when you visit, whether at one of the hot dog specific restaurants or from our choice, a street vendor. We decided to try and replicate the Chicago-Style hot dog and we think that it turned out very well. We couldn’t get poppy seed buns or find the sport peppers, but that didn’t harm the taste, they were still delicious. We don’t usually boil hot dogs when we have them, but we did in this case to keep them as authentic as possible. Don’t even think about using ketchup, you won’t even find it available when you are in Chicago. Hopefully you enjoy them as well.

Ingredients

4 All-Beef Hot Dogs
4 Hot Dog Buns
4 tbsp Sweet Pickle Relish
1/4 Yellow Onion – finely chopped
1/2 Tomato – cut into wedges
1 Kosher Dill Pickle – cut into wedges
4 to 8 Hot Chile Peppers
Yellow Mustard
Celery Salt

Instructions

Boil or steam the hot dogs until heated all of the way through. Place the hot dogs into warmed hot dogs buns and then add the mustard, one tablespoon of pickle relish, onion, tomato, pickle spear, hot peppers, and a dash of celery salt. Be sure to tuck the tomato and pickle wedges next to the hot dog.

Parasailing – Just for the Thrill of It

On July 25, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Caribbean, Mexico, Photo Challenge10 Comments

If you have ever been to a beach resort, you are likely to have seen the boats pulling parasailers around above the ocean waters. Strapping yourself into a harness that is connected to an over-sized parachute and being hauled by a boat while you float higher and higher, probably sounded crazy when it first started in the early 1960’s. We actually went parasailing during one of our trips to Cabo San Lucas and found it to be a lot of fun with great views of the beach and we could even see the large sea turtles swimming in the ocean below. Apparently, there is now a craze to parasail over water with great white sharks swimming below. That is more of a thrill ride than what we would consider doing. Although it is a lot of fun, having done it once is good enough for us and we probably won’t do it again. Generally speaking, parasailing is safe, but accidents do happen and there isn’t anything that keeps the tour companies from taking people up in unsafe conditions. With multiple companies out in the water at the same time, they can sometimes come dangerously close to colliding with other boats or other parasailers. For this week’s Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge we are sharing some photos of parasailers, including ourselves, from some of our trips to the beach. Have you gone parasailing? Would you do it again?