Summer Adventures: Bison, Injera, and Bombs Bursting In Air

Where has the summer gone? I feel like it was just my birthday and now I have been 26 for over three months! Even though I haven't been blogging, I have been working on my new list, and have already checked off a few items.

First, while working on list item #6 and asking my dear future sister-in-law to be one of my bridesmaids (she said yes), we visited a delicious and different new restaurant called Ted's Montana Grill.

Ted's focuses on sustainability, the food of the old American West, and specifically bison. So of course, we had to try the bison. We actually had it two ways, as nachos:

And as a burger:

The nachos were delicious (when AREN'T nachos delicious?) but didn't taste very different from beef. Perhaps slightly richer. The burger was almost too tender and juicy. Sort of like a meatball (and sort of like another burger I tried last year- the steamed burger). Luckily Ronnie was the one who ordered the burger. My salt and pepper trout was much better.

Then, on the technical first weekend of summer (though we all know it begins on Memorial Day), our world-travelling friend Chris visited us in between his trip home from Tunisia and to Ethiopia. We had been meaning to try the Ethiopian restaurant down the street from us and since Chris said he also wanted to try it before he left, we took the plunge.

Basically Ethiopian food consists of various meat, vegetable, and bean-based stews served over injera- a thin, spongy bread with a sour taste. Sort of like a sourdough pancake (if that was a thing). The sauces and the meat and veggies themselves were excellent- exploding with flavor and depth. The bread itself you sort of have to get used to. The texture is a bit off-putting at first.

Next, on our July Fourth trip to South Carolina, I tried Oysters Rockefeller for the first time (though it was not my first time trying oysters in general). According to others at the table who had tried to before, it was not the best Oysters Rockefeller ever. I liked the richness of it, but the oyster was like a salty wet surprise at the bottom. Which was weird.

Also on this trip, as it was July 4th, I experienced fireworks in a whole new and slightly death-defying way. As I mentioned, we were in South Carolina which, as you may or may not know, has famously lax fireworks laws. They're the state that you can shoot off the BIG fireworks in. Which is awesome, right? And we were at the beach, so giant fireworks on the beach is awesome, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

Within five minutes of laying down our blanket and excitedly opening up our adult beverages (also wonderfully legal on this particular beach in South Carolina) we realized that we were in way over our heads. Mostly because within a mile of beach there was approximately one million drunk and rowdy...ahem..."do-it-yourselfers" setting up their BIG fireworks as they excitedly open their own adult beverages. And then all hell broke loose.

I wish I had taken a picture, because it probably actually looked really amazing. A million fireworks in the air popping and exploding within feet of our unsuspecting heads. I've never been to war but I imagine soldiers would probably have been experiencing intense flashbacks on this beach. Also at one point I remember shouting that I finally understood why fireworks represented our independence; particularly the line "the bombs bursting in air."

I lasted about two minutes before I retreated to the wooden walkway above the beach (also probably not the safest place since it was wooden) and the Vega clan followed after another ten. There was a probably six-year-old girl crying next to me and I was slightly envious of her.

But, we did survive, and went on to a continually exciting summer. Up next, the cruise, which definitely deserves its own article. Stay tuned!