Log Cabin Pancake House

Not wanting to walk far from our hotel in Virginia Beach, VA, we decided to try breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake House. We didn't have to wait long for a table, which we were thankful for, and, unlike other breakfast-only joints in town, this one never had a line; we soon found out why.

Our waitress introduced the restaurant’s breakfast buffet to us suggesting that “almost everything on the regular menu is there,” then took our drink order and walked off. When she returned, with two waters and a coffee, she took our regular order (no buffets for us!).

We ordered the Hungarian pancakes as well as a Belgian Waffle and a side of home fries.  The Hungarian pancakes – crispy pancakes wrapped around warm pecans topped with strawberry compote – were good, but dense. The restaurant also charged extra for whipped cream on pancakes. The waffle was fluffy, but once we poured syrup on it, it practically melted.

The home fries were just OK – not worth ordering in addition to our meals.

While the food was good, our service was terrible. We could see a number of waitresses attending to the tables around us. Our waitress seemed to have been uninterested in working that morning, in that she never came back throughout our meal to top off coffee, or even to make sure our food was all right. We didn't see her again until we were done eating and asked her for our check.

We also witnessed the hostess seat a large group and in doing so, took a chair from another table where guests were sitting, and the chair was in use by a guest that was up at the buffet. The family tried to tell the woman that the chair is being used, that someone is sitting there, but she paid them no heed and took it anyway. She did, eventually, replace their now missing chair.

Morimoto

We made reservations as Morimoto in Philadelphia as a night out for my birthday. We were impressed with the service from the staff and the delicious food.

The evening began with a fried wonton skin topped with a sweet sauce and a small shrimp. We also ordered two tamago, the egg omelet sushi rolls.

For dinner, we ordered the Morimoto Surf and Turf and the Duck, Duck, Duck platter.

The surf and turf dish is Kobe beef, which I asked for medium well and had a nice crust on the outside and incredibly tender on the inside. It is also served with "hamachi ribbons," which is a raw fish dish mixed with avocado, tomatoes, and soy sauce. The fish is so meaty and the avocado salad and soy sauce mixes so well with the fish that I completely didn't realize that I was eating raw fish for a while.

The Duck, Duck, Duck platter is a duck breast along side duck fried rice, which is topped with a poached duck egg on top. Once you break the egg into the duck fried rice, it makes it a creamy, decadent dish that is at the same time creamy and delicious and thick and overwhelming.

For dessert, we ordered the Green Tea Dulce de Leche cake with red bean paste. The cake had a very strong taste of green tea and was sweet and moist. The red bean paste was sweet and a nice compliment to the cake itself.

Cherry Blossom Festival

We toured the Tidal Basin during the 2014 National Cherry Blossom Festival. Because of the extremely cold winter we had, the blossoms had not quite bloomed, but we still had a beautiful day.

We started out at the WWII Memorial and headed towards the Tidal Basin and then walked towards the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. On this side of the Tidal Basin, there are visitor centers, gift shops, food trucks and food stands and more. Stop into one of the visitor centers for a map of the Cherry Blossom Festival and Tidal Basin and a schedule of the entertainment during the event.

While walking around the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms, which is an approximate 2 mile loop, be sure to stop at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial (clean bathrooms in the basement!) and a wonderful, sweeping view of the tidal basin from the front of the memorial.

Many people stopped at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and headed back to the welcome area for the Cherry Blossom Festival. If you continue on the walking path around the Tidal Basin, you'll walk through the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial (one of my favorites in our nation's capital), which is a beautiful memorial and made only prettier in bloom.

On the north side of the Tidal Basin, near 17th Street, are two of the original planted trees, as well as a Japanese Stone Lantern as well as a Japanese Pagoda.

For more information on the Cherry Blossom Festival, visit the official website here.

Veraisons at Glenora Wine Cellars

Veraisons at Glenora Winery, on Seneca Lake, is one of the most popular wineries during the day, but at night, the dining room was relatively empty.

We went on a Friday in the spring when the restaurant offers a fish fry, so of course we had to order it! We also ordered a carbonara asparagus risotto.

The fish fry was served with rice and the fish had this wonderful, semi-sweet flavor on the breading, which almost tasted like a funnel cake wrapped around a moist, flaky piece of fish.

The risotto was creamy, and once you broke the poached egg into the risotto, it became a decadent delight.

We also ordered a wine flight. I chose a red wine flight, where I was brought four glasses of Glenora wine as a tasting. This was a very nice way to try a few different wines at dinner.