USA, Alabama, Mobile – USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park

I had read about and seen the Alabama Battleship Memorial when I have driven by in the past. This time through Mobile we planned to stop and visit the site. The Memorial Park is located at 2703 Battleship Parkway
Mobile, Alabama 36602.

The park is a large site. The Battleship Alabama is open for self-guided tours as is the submarine USS Drum. Both are veterans of WWII.

There are three tours on the Alabama. Two below deck and one above. The two below were well marked and easy to follow, though there were a couple of steep stairs. Many signs are posted to explain what you are seeing. The deck tour was more difficult to follow and leads up many stairs.

The Drum tour takes you through the forward torpedo room all the way through the ship and out the rear torpedo room. The entrance and exit is via a stairway instead of a ladder. The walk through the ship is fairly easy as long as you are not claustrophobic and can manage to step through the watertight doors.

On the grounds are a hanger with various aircraft and a gift shop. Outside can be found aircraft, military vehicles, and small ships on display. Exhibits cover a wide range of history. Among the larger displays are a B-52 and an SR-71. Some are currently undergoing restoration. I would have liked to spend more time looking at the outdoor exhibits, but the day we visited the Museum it was cold with a stiff breeze.

If you are in the Mobile area and have a few hours to spare (we were there at least 3 hours) this is a good place to visit.

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If you are interested in the WWII era of history, you may find these three pages of interest. 

• The “World War II Resources” page is a constantly growing collection of more than 510 links to museums, memorials, websites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and other sources with information on the World War II-era in history.
• The “World War II Timeline” page expands almost daily and shows events leading up to WWII, as well as during the war. Events are broken down into the Pacific and European Theaters by date.
• The About WWII page is a collection of links to posts that I have made over the years that are relevant to WWII.

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USA, Alabama, Mobile – Carpe Diem Coffee & Tea Company

(See my other Food and Coffee related posts) – While we were recently returning home from a trip to Disney World we stopped in Mobile, AL. A little searching on the Internet produced the Carpe Diem Coffee & Tea Co. as a popular local coffee house.

We spent two nights in Mobile and we liked Carpe Diem so much we visited it twice. They offer a selection of breakfast and lunch items, but we focused on their baked goods. It was busy both times we visited. Parking can be a little difficult, but a little patience usually yields a place.

Carpe Diem is located in what looks like an old house. It can be found at 4072 Old Shell Road, Mobile, AL 36608. It is directly across the street from Spring Hill College. We tried coffee and an assortment of baked goods on our two visits. We tried their Cinnamon Role, Blueberry Crumble Cake, Mississippi Mud, and White Chocolate Raspberry Scone. We were very pleased with it all.

We have begun to look for and doing flavored coffee. It is not always easy to find freshly roasted and flavored coffee beans. We were able to find some at Carpe Diem and have been very pleased. They offer several types of freshly roasted coffee beans – Medium Roast, Dark Roast, Blends and Flavored. We bought Snickerdoodle, Christmas Morning, and S’mores flavored coffees. We have been enjoying those since we returned home, but sadly all three are almost now gone. We may have to take advantage of they mail order service.

If you are in Mobile and looking for a caffeine hit (or some baked goodies), I recommend Carpe Diem!

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USA, Florida, Orlando – Slate Orlando Restaurant

While we were recently in Florida we stopped at Slate Orlando for lunch. We picked it from an Internet search and we were very pleased with the results. Slate is located at 8323 W Sand Lake Rd Orlando, Fl. It is a little hidden away.

They offer separate Brunch and Dinner menus. We ordered from the Brunch menu. I had the Southwest Burrito (Sausage, Cheddar Scrambled Eggs, Poblano Peppers, Salsa). It was very good. All in our party enjoyed their orders.

There were few people there when we arrived, but by noon it was beginning to fill up. The interior was spacious and modern. The waiter we had provided excellent service.

We plan to visit again the next time we are in Orlando. If you are in the area I recommend it.

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USA, New Mexico, Albuquerque – Swiss Alps Bakery

(See my other Dessert related posts) – We were traveling through Albuquerque, NM a few days ago, and found the Swiss Alps Bakery. It is located at 3000 San Pedro NE, Suite F, Albuquerque, NM 87110. 

It does not look like much from the outside but they have some very good baked goods.

Among the items we tried from the display shown above were: a Cherry Danish (second shelf from top to the left), an Elephant Tail (second from right on the bottom), and an Elephant Toe (second from left on bottom). They were all very good!

They had other items as well. Beyond the baked goods, they offer a variety of breakfast items, Sandwiches, Paninis, Pizza, Quesadillas as well as Soup & Salad. Check out their full menu.

In addition to the baked desserts, the bakery also makes different loaves of bread on a daily basis. They also do specialty cakes and pies. The Swiss Alp Bakery is open 0700-1600 Mon-Sat, and 0900-1500 Sundays.

This will be a place we will visit again! If you are looking for good baked good give the Swiss Alps Bakery a try.

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USA, Nevada, Las Vegas – M&M’S Las Vegas

(See my other Dessert related posts) – We are back in Nevada and took a chance to go to the Las Vegas strip for a little sightseeing. Our first stop was the M&M’S Store. The store is located in the Showcase Mall, 3785 South Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109. Of course we, like everyone else, were masked up. The store was also limiting the number of people allowed in. 

This 28,000 square foot, a four-floor tribute to the M&M was the first M&M’S Store that was opened.

Inside you will find anything and everything related to the M&M. Including these ‘life-size’ figures.

 

As soon as you walk into the building you are confronted with a variety of merchandise – all M&M oriented. There are all sorts of figures, cups, caps, and t-shirts.

On the second floor, you are given the opportunity to select from a wide variety of M&M’S. These are in many flavors you will not find elsewhere.

 

On the third floor is more merchandise. You can also order custom printed M&M’S from the personal printer. You can combine customized messages, a variety of images, and 16 different colors of M&M’S candies.

On the fourth floor is more merchandise and a replica of Kyle Busch’s 18 M&M’S sponsored NASCAR.

 

 

 

 

 

My wife even found an M&M’S themed purse she liked.

 

 

 

 

This was an enjoyable excursion. If you are in Las Vegas, this is a place you should visit, especially if you have kids. And just a short distance down the street is the Coca-Cola Store for more family enjoyment.

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USA, Nevada, Las Vegas – Gama Mexican Bakery & Cakes

(See my other Dessert related posts) – Just by chance, we came across Gama Mexican Bakery and Cakes when visiting Crêpe Expectations next door. Gama is located at 9500 S Eastern Ave, Suite 170, Las Vegas, NV. We thought it was quite the find!

 

 

 

We spoke with one of the pastry chefs and found out that they had been open for less than a month in this location.

 

We have now visited the bakery twice and are planning on stopping by before we head back to Texas.

We have tried more than half a dozen different items and they have all be wonderful!

 

As you can see from these photos, many different items are offered. I just wanted to tell them to give me a couple of everything, but I would have been on a sugar high!

 

Not only are there this large assortment of pastry items, but they also have a variety of cakes. They sounded good too but were simply too much for us right now. Maybe on a special occasion when we return to Nevada.

All of their items are hand made daily. The Gama is a small family-owned business but offers quality professional prepared baked goods. You can check out their full line of food and baked goods on their website. You can also place special orders for custom cakes.

They offer other food items including some very tasty tamales.

 

 

 

 

 

They also have refrigerated items like Flan. I am sure we will be visiting the Gama every time we return to Nevada.

 

In the same strip mall are two other good places: Le Paris Brest Cafe and The Original Rolled Ice Cream.

 

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USA, New Mexico, Grants – Mt. Taylor Coffee Company

We were recently driving across New Mexico and had to stop for gas in Grants, New Mexico. We took that opportunity to get a little more coffee. In our search, we turned up the Mt. Taylor Coffee Company.

The Mt. Taylor is a small, unassuming building located at 201 Central Ave, Grants, NM 87020-3534. While the looks are simple, they had very good coffee and some of the best scones we had ever tasted.

We shared both a Green Chile Bacon Cheddar and a Cranberry Almond scone. We are already planning to stop there again when we head home.

You may want to check them out on Facebook. While there are not many reviews, those they have on TripAdvisor and Yelp are excellent.

 

 

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USA, Nevada, Las Vegas – Crumbl Cookies

(See my other Dessert related posts) – A few days ago a friend here in Henderson, NV mentioned that the best cookies ever came from Crumbl. We had never heard of Crumbl so we checked it out. We are glad we did.

The first Crumbl location opened in Logan, UT in 2017. There are now more than 70 locations in 11 different states. I checked and there IS a location near home in Pflugerville, TX (18817 Limestone Commercial Dr, Pflugerville, TX 78660). Their goal was to bake the best cookies.

After sampling a few I have to say that they are some of the best cookies I have eaten. My brother-in-law had a birthday coming up so we ordered a ‘Party Box’. This is a 12 cookie assortment of your choice for $27.48. Singly the cookies sell for $3.48.

Yes, that sounds a little expensive, but these are very large, very good cookies! We drove over to the location near UNLV (4700 Maryland Pkwy #135, Las Vegas, NV 89178) and let them know we were waiting. A young lady then brought the box out to our car.

These are LARGE cookies. Each is about 6 inches in diameter and half an inch thick. Many have a topping as well. I looked up the Oreo cookie on this week’s list. The nutrition info indicates a cookie is two servings. I agree with that! It comes in at 940 calories, 44 g of Fat, 166 g of cholesterol, 396 g of sodium, 8 g of protein, and 128 g of carbohydrates.

They were still warm when we picked them up. Unfortunately, they had cooled by the time we had lunch and finally started in on the cookies. They were still wonderful!

So what kind of cookies do they have? The assortment changes every week. As I write this post the assortments for last week and this week are shown above. The Peanut Butter (A warm chocolate cookie stuffed with peanut butter dough topped with melted milk chocolate and peanut butter) is shown at the top of this post. There was a different set to select from when we made our order. We remember that there was a German Chocolate and a Carrot Cake in our order. Visit their website and salivate a little over the cookie descriptions.

They also offer their own custom flavors of ice cream. I haven’t tried any of these. Shown to the left are the current flavors (though all sold out).

 

If you are looking for a different treat, and live near one of their locations, give them a try. The results will please your sweet tooth!

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USA, Arizona, Flagstaff – El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant

(See my other Food related posts) – On our drive out west over the past few days we stopped in Flagstaff, Arizona for dinner. We picked the El Tapatio Mexican restaurant from those listed in the Google search as it was close to the Interstate (2004 E. Historic Route 66, Flagstaff, AZ 86004). It was a great choice! As they say on their website:

We pride ourselves as being an authentic Mexican restaurant with all our delicious entrees, dishes, appetizers and drinks. We have a tradition of excellence in our service as well as in our culinary style. Our plates have special recipes that will make you want to come back. We have six locations to serve you better.

The exterior of the restaurant is rather plain, but the inside is very colorful. Because we are both following the Keto Diet, Fajitas are a good meal for us as long as we stay away from the tortillas.

We were amazed at the platter of fajitas that were brought out. The iron platter was flaming when it was placed on our table. The mix of beef, chicken, onion, green bell pepper, orange bell pepper, and red bell pepper. These were the best fajitas we have ever tasted! Unlike many Mexican restaurants, we each got our own plate of rice, beans, and condiments.

If fajitas are not to your taste, the restaurant has many other items on its menu. El Tapatio was started in 2002 with a mobil food truck in Grand Junction, Colorado. In January of 2003 the first restaurant was opened. They now have six locations in Arizona and Colorado. 

We were so impressed with the food that we are already planning to stop there for lunch on our way home. If you like Mexican food El Tapatio is a great place to eat.

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USA, Colorado, Vail – Vail Mountain

(See my other post from our 2019 Road Trip) – While in Vail, CO we took the ski lift up to the top of 11,570 foot Vail Mountain.

The mountain top does not look quite so high in these photos, but Vail itself is at 8,120 feet. There were several people riding up to the mountain peak. Some had bicycles to ride the trails, others were going just for the view.

We saw several people either riding or hiking down the trails on our short ride to the top.

The top of Vail Mountain is host to a very nice facility. It includes restaurants and shops.

There are facilities for the adventurous and those young at heart. Not only were there these rope courses, but there were zip lines and a tobogin ride.

There were nice views from the top of the mountain You could easily see some of the other ski slopes.

You could make out some of Vail spread out in the valley below the mountain. We thought that the cost of the ski lift was well worth it. We wish we had waited to have lunch at the top of the mountain. We will remember that for our next visit.

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