Beach Party Madness

This place is crazy. In fact, it's basically another world, one that holds up to 4,000 people. It reminds me of the sickeningly sweet dessert concoctions I make some nights to make up for the fact that I was deprived of sugar as a child. (Think: cookie dough & peanut butter melted together, plus ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup. Love.) However, this place isn't a "dessert bowl," it's a "spring break lifestyle bowl."

Ocean City, Maryland's Seacrets is a fantastic trip back in time to the world of spring break. You can pull up a stool to a cocktail table that is set a foot into the bay, rock out to reggae bands jamming on the beach stage, lay out with your drink on an inner tube in the water, get down on one of the nightclub dance floors, or eat dinner under tiki torches-- be careful, though, you're probably being broadcast live on a movie screen somewhere else within the grounds!

The best part is that when you finally go home after a night of debauchery, you're not on spring break. That means you can go home, brush your teeth, go to sleep in an actual bed, and wake up for the 9am sun.

Tips:

- Even though you're at the beach, this place has a strict dress code!

- Don't wear heels (flip flops are allowed), since you'll be trudging across sand throughout the club.

- Don't go on the private dock if you've been drinking exorbitant amounts.

- Do dance! Reggae is meant for beach parties!

Senatobia, Mississippi

I wish my hotel hadn’t cast a creepy-I’m-going-to-get-mugged shadow over my stay down south. I actually visited this Memphis outlier for work—one of our magazines prints in the RR Donnelley plant down there. Unfortunately, it worked out that I would stay on the ground floor of the Senatobia Days Inn, with a window facing the parking lot. A parking lot that hosted a few sketchy cars produced in the 1980’s & two loitering men. Since I arrived around 1am, there really wasn’t an available fix to the situation, other than bolting the door, pulling the curtains as tight as possible and decisively using the lights for as short a time as possible as to not attract attention to my room. Oh and praying myself to sleep.

Luckily, the trip turned around the next day (when I woke up alive and well!) In addition to the RR Donnelley plant, which employs around 250 people according to my Customer Service Rep, Senatobia (pop. 6,682) also has the cutest Mexican restaurant outside of Mexico (Rio Lindo Mexican Restaurant)! The inside houses a fountain, patio type floors, and adorable decorations that truly transport you to a vacation spot south of the border. I definitely recommend this to anyone passing through tiny Senatobia – but just don’t stay on the ground floor of a local motel. I certainly never will again.

Kiwi Experience in Arlington, VA

This past weekend I had a delightful brunch in a Kiwi Cafe, Cassatt's, just outside of Washington, DC. Back in New Zealand, I was most fond of their coffees, fried eggs on burgers, and fish and chips. Luckily, you can get all of that at Cassatt's-- and you don't even have to pay 15 cents for each packet of tomato sauce!

Geoff, my boyfriend & Australian souvenir, was excited since Kiwis live kind of close to Oz, and over on this side of the world he'll take what he can get. I was pumped for a new find near to the Orange Line.

Our waiter didn't have an accent, but that's forgivable since he was pleasant enough. The food was fantastic. Delicious not-too-sweet french toast, the Big Kiwi Breakfast (eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomato and fruit all inclusive), and a Medium sized latte in what could be considered a cereal bowl! I cannot wait to go back for dinner.

In addition to wonderful, inexpensive food, Cassatt's hosts Arlington Artists Alliance classes in it's basement. The restaurant's wall decorations rotate monthly, in the form of Artist Alliance exhibits. I definitely recommend trying a bit of the Kiwi life in this quaint Arlington locale!