A Hot Dog a Day Number 16: Summer Beach Cook Out

For the 16th installment of my eat a hot dog a day to celebrate National Hot Dog Month, I had a Fenway Frank on the grill. We had a big cook out at the beach with family and friends- one of the BEST places to enjoy a hot dog!

The Fenway Franks I used to have as a kid were NASTY. When you got them at the ball park, the hot dog, bun and mustard pack were MICROWAVED inside of a plastic wrapper. It was a pretty cruddy hot dog too. Even back then, I could recognize an inferior hot dog- I think that's why I developed a taste for Italian sausage at the game.

A few years ago, Kayem acquired the rights to the Fenway Frank name and became the official supplier of hot dogs to the concessionaires at Fenway Park. The new Fenway Frank is a skinless, all beef frank that grills up kinda nice and tastes good too.

Here's my Fenway Frank on the grill...

And here I am 

CHOWING DOWN!

HAPPY NATIONAL HOT DOG MONTH!

See a short video of the cook out on Hot Dog Stories

Enter the Dragon

While fishing at the Venice pier, a young lady came along with a bearded dragon. Little Miss was intrigued and I shot some video while another lady asked the gal questions.

Southbound!

After the worst winter in recent memory and a spring season that can't quite get into gear, it is going to be nice to get on a plane this morning and head to sunny Florida for a week with the family! The only one not joining us is the dog-she's staying behind with my brother in law to mind the fort.

As soon as I click "publish" on this post, we are off to the airport and we will be in lovely Venice, Florida by 3PM.

We have a Hot Dog Story or two planned for our trip, a boating excursion to an awesome State Park/Nature reserve, some fishing, a trip to Busch gardens' Water Park and, of course, daily trips to the beach and pool.

I don't know if I will be able to keep on my nutrition regimen, but I do intend to hit the health club every morning.

I'll be posting from Florida, I hope to have a few pictures of HUGE fish I caught for publication too.

Off to the airport....

Ciao!

Beach Wedding Invitations

My wife and I were married on the beach. In the rain. Not just rain, SIDEWAYS rain. We had rented out the beach club near my parents' house which is nothing more than a large, concrete patio with a roof over it and some restrooms.

Early on the morning of my wedding my wife to be, father and I were busy putting up tarps to shield the patio from the elements. We called the tent rental people and had them bring every available heater they had, crossed our fingers and hoped for the weather to clear. It didn't.

We had originally planned for my wife to be paddled around the point in a canoe by her father to shore where we would be married. Six foot swells cancelled that idea; instead it was a mad dash from my brother's mini van to the covered patio.

All the planning was scrapped due to the weather. Dinner was a New England clambake with lobsters and steamers and the open bar was well used! Despite the weather, which cleared after dinner was served, everyone had a good time. Too bad our Beach Wedding Invitations didn't come with rain suits!

We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and went to a special reception for honeymooning couples where we swapped stories about our soggy wedding days (we were all married on the same day). One bride from Maine shared a raucous story about how "pissed off" she was to wake up to SNOW falling on her wedding day! She'd planned her very formal wedding from 1st Class Wedding Invitations down to fancy table settings and half her guests showed up in snow boots, sweaters and winter parkas.

While couples can't choose the weather for their beach weddings, they can choose Beach Wedding Invitations to be exactly how they want them. Each invitation can be customized for style, color and comes complete with response cards, announcements, reception cards AND thank you letters. Weddings can be stressful to plan, particularly if you're into managing every last detail. If you want to take the stress out of the invitation aspect, visit 1st Class Wedding Invitations and take care of that piece of planning quickly and easily. Just don't forget the umbrellas.

Where's the Beach?

The guy who started Mad Gringo, the company that sells Hawaiian Shirts and
beach wear has a lot in common with me.

We both got fed up with the high stress, high energy level of the corporate world to create a "lifestyle business" that allowed us to "Go Slow." My change of heart drove me to selling hot dogs at the Hot Dog Truck, his to selling beach wear online.
Every day I see people who are rushing around and miserable and they stop at my Hot Dog Truck for a quick lunch and hopefully a smile. Most folks would really be better off if they took the Mad Gringo's advice to "go slow." Life's too short to rush through it all and stressing out over stuff that doesn't really make you happy is just not worth the aggravation.

Hawaiian shirts and casual beach wear exemplify this attitude. It should be no surprise that I own about a dozen Hawaiian Shirts and that I wear them regularly, even in the winter time! It's more about attitude than fashion with me. I'm a "go slow" kind of guy. Of course I spend every weekend at the beach during the summer and I usually find some time for a warm weather getaway in February (this year I'm headed to Florida with the kids). Going slow and chillin' out is just so much cooler on a beach than in Massachusetts in the wintertime.

Someday, I will be rolling my Hot Dog Truck to a warm weather climate and slinging dogs beach side. The MadGringo guy lists his company HQ as "Going slow on beach."

That sounds like my kind of neighborhood!

Cruisin for a Gift

Think back to getting your favorite present of all time and how it made you feel. Chances are, the magic of receiving your first bike as a gift is on that list. There's nothing like getting a new bike under the Christmas tree or for your birthday. It's one of those things you never forget.

XYZbikes wants to bring that magic back. They have cruiser bikes for under a hundred bucks! For that kind of dough, you can outfit your whole company! They're pitching a new concept in employee appreciation gifts: give your employees a new cruiser bike! What a neat idea.

We've already established the memory of receiving a new bike as a gift is a fond one. So if you're the boss, get your employees new cruiser bikes this year as a part of their Christmas bonus. You'll get happy, warm and fuzzy employees that will be in much better shape due to riding their new cruiser bikes.

It's a different idea, but it sounds cool to me!

Beach Property

I like the beach and the warm weather. The wife and I have dreams of packing up the old Hot Dog Truck and heading south some day. Living in a beach community year-round would be ideal. Florida is nice, we've been there many times.

Unfortunately, there is not much unspoiled beach front property left in Florida. We've never been to the Florida panhandle. Destin seems like a lovely beach community in that part of the state-its about midway between Tallahassee and Mobile, Alabama. This part of the Florida coast (on the Gulf of Mexico) is called the Emerald Coast and the communities of Destin, Fort Walton Beach and Okaloosa Island are home to some of the best beaches in the world. Sounds like a place I'd like to live someday.

We were looking at Destin real estate sales & rentals the other night and came across the folks at East Pass Realty. They have tons of Destin real estate sales & rentals from modestly priced land and condos to mega million dollar waterfront palaces!

Next winter when we're in Florida, we're going to take a drive up and see them.