Ft. Lauderdale for dance nationals- Photography and Food
Photography:
One of Abby's dance teachers, Kelsei, recently bought a DSLR camera and took some pictures of the girls at the beach. I'm a huge fan of taking pictures with a good e.g. DSLR camera. Camera phones can take good pictures but quality zooming is generally not possible nor is taking pictures in manual mode to utilize the best aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings. I lug my Nikon around on trips despite the inconvenience of my camera and lenses' size because getting good pictures is worth it to me. I'm thrilled that Kelsei is on Team DSLR and took the time to take pictures of the girls by the beach. She posted the pictures that she took on Dropbox so that we could all look at them and download the ones we wanted to view/ share.
Here are some of the pictures that Kelsei took:
These girls all dance together in various routines and do technique together
These are the girls whom Abby does most of her dances with and has for the past several years. Three of these girls just graduated from high school so dancing together in Fort Lauderdale was the last time they danced together. Abby LOVES the girls who just graduated and will miss them a great deal. From left to right: Amy (one of the grads), Hanna, Arianna (one of the grads), Ally, Abby and Skylar (one of the grads).
The girls and Kelsei- one of their dance teachers
Food:
We (the dancers/ moms and whom we stayed with in Fort Lauderdale and Abby and I) ate out every dinner that we were in Fort Lauderdale. Most lunches we ate at the condo or packed lunches if we were going to be at the convention center for the competition for lunch. Two of the moms whom we were staying with at the condo and I went to a Publix grocery store the day we arrived and bought breakfast/ lunch and of course snack items.
Thought I'd do a quick recap of where we ate dinners and what we had:
Sunday- our first evening- all of us staying at our condo/ compound (eleven of us shared two houses that were on one property) ordered food from a nearby Italian place that delivered. The Italian place referred to its tomato sauce as "gravy." This mid westerner had never encountered the word "gravy" instead of "sauce" before. I was not hungry in the least as I'd snacked a lot and just ordered french bread with cheese. Abby got a Caesar salad with grilled chicken.
Monday- A large group of us met at one of the restaurants near Fr. Lauderdale's public beach for dinner. By large group, I mean there were about 30 of us. Although 11 of us were staying in one location (our condo/ compound), many more dancers and their families were in Fr. Lauderdale from Abby's studio for the competition. We all ate at a place across from the beach called Quaterdeck. In order to sit together as a group, we had to sit outside. No complaints from me: while Laudy was extremely hot while we were there, once the sun went down, it felt very comfortable to be outside. Eating shrimp tacos with a view of the ocean and chatting with dance mom friends was a pleasant way to spend part of the evening.
Here was my view at dinner (the empty tabled pictured was where the girls sat when they came back from the beach. This was the evening that Kelsei took pictures of the girls on the beach. Right after they took pictures, they walked to Quaterdeck where we parents had tables waiting).
And, my dinner
Tuesday- This was one of the days that we were at the convention center for several hours (the girls did their solos and duos on Tuesdays). By the time we were finished at the convention center, it was dinner time. No one wanted to sit down at a sit down restaurant; we just wanted to get back to the condo. We got take out from a chain fast food restaurant called PDQ (short for "People Dedicated to Quality"). No beef at PDQ- this is a chicken joint. I ordered a crispy (eg. fried) chicken sandwich that had pimento cheese, potato chips, bacon AND just to be able to label the sandwich as healthy (lol)- it had lettuce on it!! So, practically healthy :). Oh man, I also had fries with my meal. It was a meal whose enjoyment ceased once the food had been consumed. But it was enjoyable while I was consuming it- very enjoyable. Abby got a plain chicken sandwich. We both ordered combo meals which means we got a soft drink, too. I knew that I would get a soft drink the minute I saw that the restaurant had the Freestyle Coke machines- I love those machines!!
Wednesday- This was another day that we were at the convention center for several hours for the competition. However, the girls (Abby and others whom we stayed with- Ally, Hanna and Skylar) were buoyed from their contemporary 1st place finish and wanted to eat at a restaurant by the beach. That meant that we had to eat late but the moms did what the daughters wanted (pretty much sums up the trip!!). We ate at a place called the Drunken Tacos. I had Korean beef tacos- they were tasty :)
Ally, Hanna and Abby at the Drunken Taco
Uh oh, our chips appeared to have been scooped from the bottom of the chip bin- they were mostly broken. But, it was 9:28 pm when we got them so we consumed every broken chip with gusto
Thursday we had dinner after the Battle at the Beach. We decided to do another large group meal, meaning we had to find a place that could accommodate 30+ people. Someone read online that there was a Dick's Last Resort restaurant near the beach. Words cannot express how much I didn't want to eat there. Everything I'd heard about it sounded appalling to me. However, I didn't want to be a stick in the mud so I didn't voice any objections about eating there. It turns out that the restaurant wasn't open yet. We wound up at a Hooters(!) but I was not complaining one bit because it wasn't Dick's Last Resort. While at Hooters, one of the dance moms turned to me and said, "I'm so glad that Dicks's wasn't opened. I didn't want to eat there at all." It made me feel better that I wasn't the only one who was happy to not eat there :). Abby had wings while I had a blue cheese Cajun shrimp salad. The salad was a bit heavy on the blue cheese for my preference but definitely not the restaurant's fault.
Friday we had dinner at a restaurant by the beach again (have to take advantage of being by the water; in Ohio we have no opportunities to dine in the vicinity of an ocean :)). This time it was a smaller group- just us who were staying at our condo. We had a wonderfully relaxing meal- the competition was over at this point and we were leaving for home the next day. It was a great evening to relax and enjoy being in Florida. We ate inside but it was an open air restaurant and I had a small view of the ocean from my seat. Abby and I split calamari as an appetizer and we split a meal of chicken fettuccine alfredo.
A picture of Abby and me shortly before we ate dinner on Friday
Our appetizer
Main dish
The restaurant provided complimentary bread. The girls asked for a box to take these last few pieces of bread back to the condo with us. Our waiter insisted on boxing up FOUR boxes of full servings of the bread for the girls.
Abby and the bread... unfortunately, we'd be on a plane back to Ohio in 13 hours from when we finished up at the restaurant... there was no way we'd consume all this bread before we left for Ohio.
Shockingly, I gained no weight in Florida despite my oft unhealthy meal choices. I ran most mornings we were in Florida- I'm sure I lost a ton of water weight at each run because I would be dripping sweat within the first two minutes of running. Of course that weight would be gained the minute I drank water (which I did). I probably walked more than usual while we were in Florida- I guess that helped to do the trick :).
One of Abby's dance teachers, Kelsei, recently bought a DSLR camera and took some pictures of the girls at the beach. I'm a huge fan of taking pictures with a good e.g. DSLR camera. Camera phones can take good pictures but quality zooming is generally not possible nor is taking pictures in manual mode to utilize the best aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings. I lug my Nikon around on trips despite the inconvenience of my camera and lenses' size because getting good pictures is worth it to me. I'm thrilled that Kelsei is on Team DSLR and took the time to take pictures of the girls by the beach. She posted the pictures that she took on Dropbox so that we could all look at them and download the ones we wanted to view/ share.
Here are some of the pictures that Kelsei took:
These girls all dance together in various routines and do technique together
These are the girls whom Abby does most of her dances with and has for the past several years. Three of these girls just graduated from high school so dancing together in Fort Lauderdale was the last time they danced together. Abby LOVES the girls who just graduated and will miss them a great deal. From left to right: Amy (one of the grads), Hanna, Arianna (one of the grads), Ally, Abby and Skylar (one of the grads).
The girls and Kelsei- one of their dance teachers
Food:
We (the dancers/ moms and whom we stayed with in Fort Lauderdale and Abby and I) ate out every dinner that we were in Fort Lauderdale. Most lunches we ate at the condo or packed lunches if we were going to be at the convention center for the competition for lunch. Two of the moms whom we were staying with at the condo and I went to a Publix grocery store the day we arrived and bought breakfast/ lunch and of course snack items.
Thought I'd do a quick recap of where we ate dinners and what we had:
Sunday- our first evening- all of us staying at our condo/ compound (eleven of us shared two houses that were on one property) ordered food from a nearby Italian place that delivered. The Italian place referred to its tomato sauce as "gravy." This mid westerner had never encountered the word "gravy" instead of "sauce" before. I was not hungry in the least as I'd snacked a lot and just ordered french bread with cheese. Abby got a Caesar salad with grilled chicken.
Monday- A large group of us met at one of the restaurants near Fr. Lauderdale's public beach for dinner. By large group, I mean there were about 30 of us. Although 11 of us were staying in one location (our condo/ compound), many more dancers and their families were in Fr. Lauderdale from Abby's studio for the competition. We all ate at a place across from the beach called Quaterdeck. In order to sit together as a group, we had to sit outside. No complaints from me: while Laudy was extremely hot while we were there, once the sun went down, it felt very comfortable to be outside. Eating shrimp tacos with a view of the ocean and chatting with dance mom friends was a pleasant way to spend part of the evening.
Here was my view at dinner (the empty tabled pictured was where the girls sat when they came back from the beach. This was the evening that Kelsei took pictures of the girls on the beach. Right after they took pictures, they walked to Quaterdeck where we parents had tables waiting).
And, my dinner
Tuesday- This was one of the days that we were at the convention center for several hours (the girls did their solos and duos on Tuesdays). By the time we were finished at the convention center, it was dinner time. No one wanted to sit down at a sit down restaurant; we just wanted to get back to the condo. We got take out from a chain fast food restaurant called PDQ (short for "People Dedicated to Quality"). No beef at PDQ- this is a chicken joint. I ordered a crispy (eg. fried) chicken sandwich that had pimento cheese, potato chips, bacon AND just to be able to label the sandwich as healthy (lol)- it had lettuce on it!! So, practically healthy :). Oh man, I also had fries with my meal. It was a meal whose enjoyment ceased once the food had been consumed. But it was enjoyable while I was consuming it- very enjoyable. Abby got a plain chicken sandwich. We both ordered combo meals which means we got a soft drink, too. I knew that I would get a soft drink the minute I saw that the restaurant had the Freestyle Coke machines- I love those machines!!
Wednesday- This was another day that we were at the convention center for several hours for the competition. However, the girls (Abby and others whom we stayed with- Ally, Hanna and Skylar) were buoyed from their contemporary 1st place finish and wanted to eat at a restaurant by the beach. That meant that we had to eat late but the moms did what the daughters wanted (pretty much sums up the trip!!). We ate at a place called the Drunken Tacos. I had Korean beef tacos- they were tasty :)
Ally, Hanna and Abby at the Drunken Taco
Thursday we had dinner after the Battle at the Beach. We decided to do another large group meal, meaning we had to find a place that could accommodate 30+ people. Someone read online that there was a Dick's Last Resort restaurant near the beach. Words cannot express how much I didn't want to eat there. Everything I'd heard about it sounded appalling to me. However, I didn't want to be a stick in the mud so I didn't voice any objections about eating there. It turns out that the restaurant wasn't open yet. We wound up at a Hooters(!) but I was not complaining one bit because it wasn't Dick's Last Resort. While at Hooters, one of the dance moms turned to me and said, "I'm so glad that Dicks's wasn't opened. I didn't want to eat there at all." It made me feel better that I wasn't the only one who was happy to not eat there :). Abby had wings while I had a blue cheese Cajun shrimp salad. The salad was a bit heavy on the blue cheese for my preference but definitely not the restaurant's fault.
Friday we had dinner at a restaurant by the beach again (have to take advantage of being by the water; in Ohio we have no opportunities to dine in the vicinity of an ocean :)). This time it was a smaller group- just us who were staying at our condo. We had a wonderfully relaxing meal- the competition was over at this point and we were leaving for home the next day. It was a great evening to relax and enjoy being in Florida. We ate inside but it was an open air restaurant and I had a small view of the ocean from my seat. Abby and I split calamari as an appetizer and we split a meal of chicken fettuccine alfredo.
A picture of Abby and me shortly before we ate dinner on Friday
The restaurant provided complimentary bread. The girls asked for a box to take these last few pieces of bread back to the condo with us. Our waiter insisted on boxing up FOUR boxes of full servings of the bread for the girls.
Abby and the bread... unfortunately, we'd be on a plane back to Ohio in 13 hours from when we finished up at the restaurant... there was no way we'd consume all this bread before we left for Ohio.
Shockingly, I gained no weight in Florida despite my oft unhealthy meal choices. I ran most mornings we were in Florida- I'm sure I lost a ton of water weight at each run because I would be dripping sweat within the first two minutes of running. Of course that weight would be gained the minute I drank water (which I did). I probably walked more than usual while we were in Florida- I guess that helped to do the trick :).
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