50 Shades of Delicious: 2 Chewsy for the Catwalk

During our week in the lustrous hillsides of Umbria, we decided to leave it for a day trip to the bustling metropolis of Florence or Firenze.  All 14 women woke up roughly at 6am, packed into the Van Dyke (nickname for our van rental) to catch a 7:30am train from Orvieto to Florence.  This was FloJo's first time riding a train in Europe and she was so excited that she fell asleep right away. We disembarked at the Firenze train station after a 2 1/2 hour ride and met up with our tour guide for the day, Antonia.  Prior to our meeting with Antonia, our hostess Cecilia (who is also a Rick Steve's tour guide) described her collegue as Mary Poppins and we think by the end of the trip most of us agreed with her type casting.  She was an older British woman with her silver hair neatly pulled up in a bun on top of her head.  She held an umbrella at the ready and a large satchel that may have had a floor lamp inside it.  Overall,...

What have we been most anxious for all summer (other than our trip to Italy)?  The highly anticipated debut of the newest Marination outpost in our backyard in West Seattle-- ma kai, which means along, near or beside the sea in Hawaiian.    The new location, ma kai is aptly named, as it sits where the former Alki Fish and Chips was located at Alki's Seacrest Boathouse (owned by Seattle Parks and Rec) right on the edge of Puget Sound with a killer view of the Seattle skyline. Marination is co-owned by Kamala Saxton and Roz Edison.  Their Big Blue food truck shot to national fame when their Korean spicy pork taco won the Good Morning America national food truck contest in 2009.  We've been big fans for a long time as both of us love their Hawaiian-Korean fusion food.  It gives us both that everyday aloha feeling.  Ro even featured their food at her big Flirty Thirty birthday bash this past January. So it shouldn't be any surprise that...