Sugar Shack

Ocean Isle, NC is home to a fabulous Jamaican restaurant called the Sugar Shack. I'm not sure who in our group of vacationing travelers is responsible for finding this gem of a place, but I am sure glad it has become a tradition to visit the Sugar Shack during our vacations over the past 3 years.
The Sugar Shack story is told on their menu as something like this:

Once upon a time, a "corporate type" lady, Linda, took a vacation to Jamaica and fell in love with Dave. A year later, the two were married and moved to New York to try out big city living. Dave's authentic Jamaican style cooking became a favorite among friends and family and the couple decided to trade in their "suits" and head down south to Ocean Isle, NC. In 1996, the Sugar Shack was opened and has been a favorite for the locals and vacationers in the area ever since.

Visiting this restaurant is one of my favorite parts of our beach vacation. It doesn't matter if you go in the middle of the week or on a weekend, you can expect to wait for a table at the Sugar Shack. But no worries, it is totally and completely worth any wait you may encounter! There is a nice outside patio area where you can kick back and sip on a Red Stripe while you let your taste buds warm up to the lovely smells of the Jamaican cooking.

Our group is a huge fan of the Baby Back Ribs. These suckers literally fall off the bone and melt in your mouth. Jamaican cooking is all about spices, marinating, and slow cooking. There's no sauce on these ribs and you don't even miss it. The meat is tender and juicy. I ordered the Ribs & Shrimp special for dinner. It was a half rack of ribs, a half dozen fried coconut shrimp w/ a Mango pepper salsa, seasoned fries, and a tasty Cole slaw.

JJ's dinner choice was the Jerk Pork. A hunk of juicy smoked boneless pork loin served with a Jamaican dipping sauce. For sides, he had the slaw and red beans & rice. The staff at Sugar Shack is friendly and always willing to snap a group shot. I love how happy every one looks after a satisfying, delicious meal shared with family & friends.
Eating at the Sugar Shack, in my opinion, is the best way to wrap up the day during a relaxing vacation to the beach!

Day Tripin'

Last week during our vacation to Holden Beach in North Carolina, we had a few stormy and rainy days. Luckily there weren't any huge downpours that lasted all day, but toward the end of the week the weather was overcast with off and on light rain. On Friday, we decided to jump on the car and head north to the community of Southport, which is a lovely marina town located on the Cape Fear River.

On the way up to Southport, JJ and I stopped off at a few beach towns and enjoyed spending the day together on our last day of vacation. Our first stop was at the Island Brew coffee house in Oak Island. With yummy lattes in our hands, we cruised over to Beach Road and admired all the great ocean front houses and stopped off at one of the public beach access spots to grab a few photos.

Just north of Oak Island, is a small beach called Caswell Beach. JJ's family vacationed here once when he was younger and he remembered seeing lots of wildlife near the houses close to the ocean. This beach is also home to the Oak Island Lighthouse, which sits on property owned by the US Coast Guard. This lighthouse is one of 6 operating lighthouses in NC.

We then headed up to Southport, in hope of catching the ferry over to Bald Head Island. What I didn't know was that the ferry only runs until around 5pm and we didn't get into to Southport until 2:30ish and we were starving for some good lunch! We opted to save the trip over to Bald Head until next summer and make it a day trip, giving us plenty of time to enjoy the island and tour Old Baldy Lighthouse. (A former co-worker and friend is very familiar with Bald Head Island, so Blond Across the Pond, I'll need the lowdown on the must-do's before our trip next year!)

Our first stop in Southport was at the Visitor's Center, where we gathered some maps and then we headed over to the Fishy Fishy Cafe for lunch along the river. This place was great! The lunch menu offers tasty seafood choices and there was a nice selection of beer & wine to choose from making for a relaxing afternoon along the waterfront. I had the Shrimp BLT, which was fresh sauteed shrimp, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and a basil aioli sauce wrapped in a flour tortilla. JJ had the Fried Shrimp platter and this was some very good fried shrimp. The breading they used was a very light and almost had a flaky texture, not like that thick breading you'll find where you can't really taste the shrimp. Fishy Fishy Cafe has a nice lightly seasoned breading that compliments the taste of the shrimp. Not only was the food great, we enjoyed the nice laid back atmosphere out on their covered porch watching the fishing boats getting ready to take to the sea. I'd definitely recommend checking this restaurant out if you ever visit Southport, NC.
After lunch we road around the quaint town, checking out all the cute shops. The town is made up of tree lined streets, and beautiful historic homes. If it hadn't been rainy, we would have probably done the walking tour that the visitor's society recommends. Instead, we stayed dry and drove the streets of Southport to check out this charming community. I did grab this nice picture of one of the many trees that line the sidewalks. The limbs of the tress on each side of the walkway create this beautiful canopy effect as you walk along these streets.

I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour of the Southport, NC area. Check it out someday if you're ever in the southeastern coast of North Carolina, I think you'd enjoy it in person as much as I did.

Updates coming....

Hello All, I'm back from a relaxing week at the beach and plan on posting some updates soon.

Future posts to look forward to:
* The Sugar Shack - a quaint Jamaican restaurant in Ocean Isle
* Fun pictures from our week relaxing at Holden Beach
* A Day Trip to Oak Island and Southport, NC
* Oh, and some video from the aftermath from when our beach house got struck by lightening. (No worries, everyone is safe & sound!)

Okay, time to get to writing and upload pics & videos! Hope you are having a great day :)

My Dolce's Latest Adventure

When I started CincySpin, a majority of the posts were supposed to be about my new bike, which I refer to as "My Dolce", and the adventures I go on while riding this sweet road bike. Well, those of you who check in often already know that I haven't written (or ridden) much about the 'ol Dolce this year.

Busy weekends and a bit of wedding planning have made it a challenge to schedule riding time this summer, but we did have an awesome time on the bikes a few weekends ago at the 5th annual Tour d'Burg in Miamisburg.

We opted for the 25 mile ride and invited JJ's Dad and step Mom to join us on the road as we pedaled through the streets of the Burg and outlying areas. We enjoyed wonderful weather for the ride and had a nice, mostly flat ride.

(JJ, Nan, Jim & LW at the Rest Stop)

(LW in action) (Jim & Nan, cruising along)

Another part of the weekend that made it extra fun was introducing my parents to JJ's Dad and step Mom. In all the years we've been dating they've never met, so it was definitely something we wanted to make happen before the wedding. A great time was had by all! We decided to take Jim & Nan on a "Tour of the 'Burg" restaurant style...dinner at Ron's Pizza & drinks at A Taste of Wine the night before the ride. Then after the ride it was lunch & beers at TJ Chumps. Oh, and we even managed to get JJ's Dad to scarf down a burger from the Hamburger Wagon after the ride (Both JJ & Jim get Pickle & Onions, I'm a no Pickle Hamburger Wagon kinda gal, in case you were wondering!)

(The group enjoying A Taste of Wine)

Cheers to a fabulous weekend with family!

Maui Honeymoon...

Last night we booked our plane tickets for the honeymoon! I have already posted about the second stop we'll be making in Kauai. So I thought I'd update everyone on our first stop, Maui. We've booked a room at the Westin on Ka'anapali beach.

I feel completely blessed to be going back to Hawaii. I'm really looking forward to exploring Maui and all the wonderful things it has to offer. We are staying in the more "touristy" area, but we've rented a car (convertible, of course!), so I know we'll be taking some road trips throughout the island while we are there.

A few things to do that are on the top of our list include driving the Road to Hana, checking out Haleakala National Park for a hike or bike ride, and eating at some good local restaurants. (Suggestions welcomed!)

We've also talked about taking a day trip to Lana‘i, Molokini, or Molokai island, we've heard good things about Trilogy tours. These sailing trips look cool because most of them offer the chance to snorkel once your reach the destination island. (Now, I'm not to big on snorkeling because the only time I tried it I had a really hard time relaxing and getting my breathing under control. I basically freaked out, gave up and spent the day laying on the beach while the rest of the group snorkeled and said it was a wonderful experience. I'm not going to let that bad experience hold me back though, I am going to try it again and I'm prepared to let myself relax in the water and enjoy the moment!!!)

So, the tickets are purchased, the cars are rented, the rooms are booked. Now all we need to do it pack our bags, get married and head off to those wonderful Hawaiian islands for 11 days of bliss!

Mmmm...Cake!

How good do all these mini cakes look.....

My sister-in-law's Mom loves baking and makes cakes out of her home, so I definitely had her in mind when we started talking about our reception. We met with Michele, of Michele My Belle Cakes, last Saturday afternoon and had the best time! She made us several tasty mini-cakes with so many flavor combination to choose from for our wedding cake.

First we went over the design of the cake. A few months ago when I started talking about different cake options, JJ didn't seem to interested in helping with the look of the cake. I wasn't surprised by this because he's not much of a sweets or desserts person. Me, on the other hand, could eat sweets & chocolate for almost every meal. What I loved about our meeting with Michele is that JJ sat down the night before and looked through lots of pictures with me and then he sketched out a design that helped incorporate several elements from the pictures I'd printed out. He was so cute when he showed Michele has drawing, presenting it in a very business-like manner, saying it was just "something he came up with". In the end, I know we're going to have a very fun cake with elements that tie in the design of our invitations and our wedding colors of brown, green, and burnt orange.

On to the tasting part...check out these flavors & names of the different cakes:

Luscious Lemon Cheesecake
Whole Lotta Pina Colada
Key Lime Time
Heavenly Hazelnut
White Chocolate Raspberry
Banana Dream
Chocolate Cake with Peppermint Patties
Chocolate with Vanilla Butter cream

What a hard job on a Saturday afternoon, indulging in tasting all that cake! Good & tasty are not words that describe how wonderful all these cakes were...I'd go as far to say that they were Out of This World, all of them! We each like different ones, JJ like the White Chocolate Raspberry, I loved the Chocolate Mint with Peppermint Patties filling. We also both really loved the cake with Lemon Icing and Cheesecake filling. They were all such good and unique options. Michele told us to pick 3 flavors, one for each tier of our cake, and luckily we didn't have to decide that day b/c it would have been hard!

I'm betting we will go with the Lemon option for sure, and then we'll each pick a flavor for the other two layers. We will soon find out in a few months....maybe another tasting is in order to make sure I loved them as much as I'm remembering!!

Calgon Take Me Away!

There is a place near and dear to my heart has been calling my name for the last few months...
And when a place as beautiful and relaxing as Holden Beach calls your name, I say you must answer as soon as possible!

The countdown is on, we are minus 30 days until our vacation to the beach.

I. Can. Not. Wait.

The group has upgraded this year on the accommidation side of things. We're staying at The Wave, this place is completely sweet! Four bedrooms, all with private baths, a HUGE deck with lounge chairs overlooking the ocean, and drumroll please ..... a Swimming Pool!

Most days at Holden are spent lounging in beach chairs nestled the sand, but I'm willing to bet a few hours for me will be spent lounging on a raft in this pool!

Did I say this already...

I. Can. Not. Wait.