Planning a Camping Trip

So now that we're married, my husband and I have a tent that we want to use very badly. But it isn't quite warm enough yet, so we just get to make all our grand plans for the future use for it.

And it's driving me crazy. Not the waiting, the trying to plan a camping trip.

You may never camp yourself, but those that do, do it a fair amount. So the campgrounds tend to be pretty full. Combine that with the ability to reserve sites a year in advance for most places, and planning in April for that summer is awful. Some places have walk in reservations for the day of, but I'm also not good with leaving it all to chance. Who wants to pack up an entire car to go camping, drive to the campground you've been daydreaming about for months, and find out all the sites are taken?

So I'm left at reserveamerica.com, trying not to pull my hair out. First of all, you can't sort the campgrounds the search returns by distance. You also can't search them for amenities, like showers (I'm sorry, but any trip longer than 3 days requires a proper bath house. Judge me now, I don't care.) You can't search for multiple weekends at once. You're limited to "specific dates" and flexibility for "two weeks ahead" or "four weeks ahead." But the flexibility will return any night campgrounds have an opening, including during the week which most of the time isn't helpful. Also, back to the not sortable search results, I can put in that we want to travel near Sioux City IA and get results from upwards of 200 miles away.

When you finally find a campground that looks great, you go to reserve your dates. Now, my husband works a normal job with semi normal hours so we are looking primarily at our holiday weekends (Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day). I put in that we want 2 or 3 nights, find a campsite, go to book it, and suddenly then reserveamerica.com tells me that there are stay requirements. And the requirements are all different. And not posted on the website before you make it to the reservation process. Some require you to stay 3 nights, some require 5 (Kansas, I'm looking at you. 5? Who gets 5 nights off for three day weekends???), some require you to stay Friday if you want Sunday. Some require that if you stay a Friday, you have to stay at least one other day past Friday.

I'd like to report that we are done. Our reservations are made and I survived without throwing my computer out the window. But we aren't. We have two weekends out of three, and a plan for the other one. But then one may change because did I also mention we have 3 weddings to attend this summer?

I may end up just putting the tent up in my aunt's backyard and calling it a day.

Donuts around the world

An awesome take on donuts from other countries, courtesy of my bff and The Huntington Post.

I've actually had a couple of them on the list, my local grocery store (Super Saver) makes tons of  Pączkis around Mardis Gras.

*I may have made it sound like my bff wrote it, but I should point out she merely called my attention to it. Should clarify that.

Gregory's Coffee

What: Glazed donut

Where: Gregory's Coffee, Manhatten

When: Friday, March 13th, 2015

After a crazy two days of running around NYC, we met up with my second sister on Friday night when she took the bus in from Philadelphia. As we were walking to find a bathroom (which is sometimes quite the pain in NYC) we walked past a Gregory's Coffee, which I had never heard of before but it was my other sister's favorite, so we stopped in. And of course they had donuts. It was the end of the night, so it probably wasn't the freshest donut. And they only had one kind, glazed, so there wasn't a lot of excitement going on. 

Honestly, I don't remember much about the donut. It was ok, but nothing to write home about. Or a review about. So let's say 2/5.

Dough

What: Chocolate frosted with Cocoa Nips, Raised Glazed, Nutella filled

Where: 14 W 19th St, NY, NY 10011

When: Thursday, March 12, 2015

Website

This is the first Manhattan location for Dough and it appears to be a hit. The hours on the door said they closed at 6, but we got there at 5:50 to a long line and left at 6:15 and the line was still there. They are probably trying to figure out what their hours should be (24 maybe?) and just want to sell their donuts. Which are amazing.

First, the location. There was a large farm style table and displays of other local organize products. Two large cases full of some of the biggest donuts I've ever seen, plus large windows back to where they were still making donuts. That was my favorite part, getting to watch them being made. The tubs of brightly colored frosting looked so delicious. 

We ordered three donuts to try. My sister, who took us here and took me on the great NYC Donut tour of 2014, has previously reviewed Dough for me based on her purchases from a food truck fest. I believe she spoke about the lemon poppy seed last time. This time we got the Chocolate Frosted with Cocoa Nips, a glazed donut, and a Nutella filled donut. It cost almost $10, but was worth it for the size of these things. 

They all got shoved in the same bag, hence the messy chocolate frosting. I was a little disappointed that more care was not taken, some customers had their donuts placed in individual clam shells to keep them fancy. But once we tasted them, I forgot about that. It really is a good thing this place is called Dough because the dough was literally the best donut dough I have ever had. So light and fluffy. All the flavors were amazing. The Nutella was so creamy inside that it just ran out of the donut as soon as I bit into it. I was not a huge fan of the cocoa nips on the chocolate donut, but the frosting was perfect. The glazed was also delicious, perfectly simple while still tasting great.

They also were selling donut holes, but we did not try any of them. I'd give them all a 5/5. Definitely want to go back next time I'm in NYC. They are also sold at some of the Whole Foods in NYC, but I'm not sure how fresh they are when bought off site.

Randy's

What: Lemon filled, and an assortment of other ones I can't remember now, but no maple

Where: Randy's Donuts, 201 Capital Beach Blvd #5, Lincoln NE

When: Saturday, February 21st, 2015

My mom was recently in town for the weekend and I had to take my husband to work early on Saturday while she slept in. I figured that was the perfect time to head out to Randy's since they close so early.

I got there around 8:15 and the pickings were already kind of slim. They focus mainly on wholesale I'm sure, so most of the donuts are spoken for before they're even frosted. They did have a maple cinnamon roll but it looked to be a little much for me. I got a selection of about 5 donuts and rolls and headed home to go back to bed.

I've recently fallen in love with lemon curd and lemon flavored things, so I was really excited to try the lemon filled donut. I loved that it was frosted and not covered in powdered sugar like so many filled donuts are. I'm not a huge powdered sugar fan on donuts. The glaze was amazing and the lemon inside was the perfect flavor. I also appreciated how much filing was in it, this wasn't some donut that was only filled on one half of it or something like that. There was filling in every bite.

I'd give it a 5/5, best lemon filled I've had.

Carnival Cruise

My mother doesn't fly. Hence all the family road trips. But she wants to go to Ireland someday. So we took a practice cruise to see how she and my dad liked it. Before they book a giant mega cruise and end up unhappy in the middle of the Atlantic. Good news, my dad LOVED it and my mom enjoyed it enough that she'd do it again.

We did a three night cruise out of Cape Canaveral to the Bahamas and there were 7 of us total. My parents got a suite with a balcony, my husband and I got an oceanview room, my one sister got an interior room, and my other sister and her husband got an oceanview room. The three of us sisters were fine with our rooms, they were plenty big for one or two people and had what we needed. My parents definitely enjoyed their larger room and it was nice for us to have a meeting place. We all fit in comfortably for pre dinner drinks or late night hang outs, so that was nice. If they had had a small room as well we would of had to hang out in some common areas.

The food is all included on a cruise, including 24 hour room service which was probably my favorite part. The food though was just so eh. It was like college cafeteria level. The food in the sit down dining rooms was better, but I don't think it made up enough for the rest of it. The desserts were especially bland, but we kept trying them all, to the dismay of my husband. He finally asked why we kept trying them if we never liked any of them and my mom responded that we may like one of them and couldn't give up!

On the last full day (our "Fun Day at Sea") there was a chocolate buffet advertised. It was really just a chocolate fountain, but you know we were there to try it. There were apples, bananas, melons and of course donut holes to dip. You know I got a little of everything. And, like the rest of the food, they were just ok. Nothing to write home about. Probably nothing to even talk about again if I didn't have a donut blog.

I guess people don't really go on cruises for the food. Maybe more for the all inclusive nature. I don't know. I would be ok if I never went on another cruise again, but I also wouldn't refuse if that's what everyone else wanted to do.