| Freedom Parade, Pool, Food and Fun Festivities  Tanya's Daily Scoop CURRENTLY IN: ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA Hellooooo there. Welcome back. Hopefully you all had a safe and fantastic July 4th holiday! Ours was lovely. Thank you very much. And then yesterday we had continued on with the holiday festivities and had extended our celebration for a second day. One day was clearly just not enough or long enough for our gang!  100% VEGAN with quirky names/spelling, a cute menu made by Chaplin (c)travelincousins.com My day had started in the kitchen - as most holidays do. The rest of the gang had taken advantage of the extra snooze time, while I was busy prepping our meal and goodies, while listening to the Yankees game on the boob tube... Ugh another dreadful loss!. The Anaheim Hills parade started at 1pm and we still weren't quite sure who all was interested in coming along with us, but when the time came and pretty much almost at the last minute it ended up being a bigger group than I had originally expected.  Arriving at the parade (c)travelincousins.com  Waiting on a few others to arrive (c)travelincousins.com  The 2024 Parade going gang (c)travelincousins.com  Happy July 4th (c)travelincousins.com  Selfie time (c)travelincousins.com  The girls (c)travelincousins.com We found a nice place to camp out in the shade and it had a pleasant breeze. The weather wasn't quite as hot as I thought it would be, but I did wear my personal neck fan just in case.  Me and these two cuties (c)travelincousins.com  The parade route (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  Corvette crew behind us (c)travelincousins.com  Just a cool vehicle (c)travelincousins.com  Let's here it for the USA (c)travelincousins.com Once we got back from the parade, the "kids" had donned their swimwear and it was time to go for a dip, while the rest of us laid back on the recliners and watched.  Peace (c)travelincousins.com  Brigitte joined the crew (c)travelincousins.com Eventually we had all got rather peckish and had come to the decision that we'd eat at Jet's - The Bee Hive. So I went back to my place to pack up all the food and bring it over. The gang had relaxed and some of them had started playing cards, while I was warming the corn and putting the finishing touches on the sandwiches. Everyone had filled themselves and Cosette had given me grief about testing out a "new" Pasta Salad, instead of our traditional Bow Ties with Poppy seeds, Spinach and a Dijon Vinaigrette. I promised to make that one for Labor Day! With fully bellies, it was time for those of us who were going to the Firework presentation to head on out and to the show!  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com Although the fireworks had their finale, our night was yet to be over. There was still room for dessert! Back to the Bee Hive we went. On Friday (which felt like Sunday to me), I had some work to do on the computer, but the fam had other plans in mind... Mika asked if I could go with her to shop for a swimsuit at the mall. And the rest of the gals had made plans to go back to the pool and for us to do s'mores and continue our festive eating back at the Bee Hive. The shopping excursion at the mall with Mika was successful and then after bringing her back home (because she had a party to attend), it was then time to meet up with the ladies at the pool.  Silly bunch (c)travelincousins.com  Time for s'mores (c)travelincousins.com  Sitting by the fire pit (c)travelincousins.com And finally dinner back at the Bee Hive. Note - I'm still waiting for our AC to be repaired or replaced. Our current appointment is schedules for Wednesday. On that note, I am going to wrap things up here and get ready for my day. Tootles & Ciao 4 Now, -Travelin' Tanya | Ice Cream, Chocolate & A Big Duck in Mattituck, Long Island  Elisa's Daily Scoop CURRENTLY IN: LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK Hey there guys!! I hope you are enjoying your Fourth of July Weekend! I know I am. Before I tell you about my day "out east" on Long Island yesterday, I wanted to tell you about my latest deelish vegan breakfast porridge that I've been enjoying for the past week. I mentioned it to Tanya and I think I got my cuz thinking about trying it herself!  Vegan Quinoa Porridge (c)travelincousins.com Here's what I did - I took quinoa (1/2 cup) and after rinsing, I toasted it for a few seconds in a saucepan. Then I added 1 cup of almond milk, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and a dash of salt. Let it cook down. Then when most of the liquid was gone, I took it off the heat, put it in a bowl and began adding toppings! As you can see, I put alot of yummy goodness on this! I added blueberries, diced up nectarines, shredded coconut, pumpkin seeds, and a drizzle of peanut butter. There are so many variations that I add to this "porridge" in the way of toppings - you can put diced up apples, flax seeds, sunflower seeds and even a dollop of vegan (or dairy) yogurt for some healthy fat. This is just a nice switch from traditional oatmeal. FUN DAY IN MATTITUCK  (c)travelincousins.com Kelsey and I got up leisurely yesterday morning and were happy to see the sun was out. Neither of us had plans, so I said "Hey, let's do something spontaneous today!" After thinking for a bit, Kelsey said "want to go out east?", to which I answered - let's put a cooler together and get on the road!! We really had no idea where we were going, but we decided to head out to Mattituck on the north fork of Long Island. Nothing really in mind to do, but ended up going to two local places for some treats. The first was Magic Fountain Homemade Ice Cream, which we found while doing a search for vegan ice cream. Oh boy!! What a treat!  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  Funky Monkey Ice cream - chocolate with banana and peanut butter with rainbow sprinkles (c)travelincousins.com  Lemon Ice cream (c)travelincousins.com  As hot as it was, it was very windy while we were eating ice cream (c) travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com I was very impressed with the fact that they had a number of vegan flavors - I decided to try the Funky Monkey with red, white & blue sprinkles, which was super good!! Kelsey got dairy-based Lemon ice cream with gummy bears, and she said it was very refreshing. Their non-vegan or dairy-based flavors were quite diverse, with many to choose from!! The one that really intrigued me was the Honey-Lavender - perhaps one day they will attempt to make this flavor non-dairy.! NEXT STOP - NORTH FORK CHOCOLATE COMPANY  (c)travelincousins.com Another great find was North Fork Chocolate Company in Mattituck. What a cute little place with lots of goodies inside - and not just chocolate! They also had a variety of honey, sauces and teas, coffees, in addition to locally crafted items. I was intrigued by their hot chocolate packages and that will definitely be a purchase during our next visit! We could have bought so much, but being mindful of our waistline, we settled on dark chocolate covered grahams. They also have another location in Riverhead, which is good to know!  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com MOVING RIGHT ALONG - THE BIG DUCK  If you've been following us for a while, you know that Tanya and I have a real passion for "road side "attractions, so it was imperative for me and Kelsey to take a visit to one of the North Fork's most beloved attractions - The Big Duck!!  At The Big Duck in Flanders, Long Island, NY (c)travelincousins.com If you can believe it, THE BIG DUCK is listed on the National Register of Historic Places!! Located on the North Fork of Long Island, The Big Duck is a building --- in the shape of a duck!! Built in 1931, it was originally constructed in Riverhead, and has been moved several times to various locations on eastern Long Island, with its current location overlooking Reeves Bay in Flanders. It measures 18 by 30 feet and 20 feet all to the top of the head, enclosing 11 by 15 feet of interior space, according to RoadsideAmerica.com. The building was designed in 1931 by duck farmer Martin Maurer; shaped like a Pekin duck. It was intended as a farm shop as well as for publicity. Reportedly, Maurer was inspired by a building in the shape of a giant coffee pot which he had seen during a trip to California. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.  (c)travelincousins.com  It was closed, so we were unable to go inside (c)travelincousins.com  Our shadows near The Big Duck (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com It was a fun spontaneous mom-daughter day!! Incidentally, here are two other roadside adventures from our Cousins New Mexico Road Trip -back in 2014.  Laughing - in the rain - at the Brontosaurus Roadside Attraction - CLICK PHOTO FOR THE FULL BLOG STORY. (c)travelincousins.com  At the Giant Red Arrow, Albuquerque, NM - CLICK PHOTO FOR FULL BLOG STORY (c)travelincousins.com Time for me to go - have a great rest of your weekend! -Travelin' Elisa |
