June City life 2023 VLOG: Beyond the Maddening Crowd | Monthly Re-cap | Visits to the Arts Club, Trader Joe's Finds | Collaborations, Hauls, Fitness, & Gluten Free Home Cooked Meals

I had to wait to post any City Life Vlogs this Summer until now.

Summer is not the best time for me as I have talked about many times before. It is in fact a hard time and to my chagrin a lot of times my husband even forgets why Summer is hard for me even though he has spent 22 Summer's with me.

My rule of thumb is and always is to set nt self up for success and happiness always and that does not exclude Summer months. I used to stay inside and shelter and em race the Summer rain patterns and my introverted-ness all while loathing Summer, but years ago, one fateful Summer that mindset changed for me and it changed me forever. Seeing someone pass away young can do that to you!!!

Every Summer since then I just go out and I live my life to the fullest and I sont care how hot it is outside, I don't care if it is raining, nothing is going to stop me.

So, Summer was coming. As of May the unofficial start of Summer (Memorial Day) I was off to a great start. I actually haven't even shared everything that even happened in May, June, or July yet; there really is just that much. If I stay home my hands are idle so I go out.

Ok, so it is like the first week of June right and the usual stuff is starting to happen. Unplanned business trips. People overstepping their boundaries again! I am getting stressed! So, hubs and I just leave. Now, we had another trip planned and I just up and pivoted. All I can say is I am happy that we are in a place in our lives where we can so this. So we left on our first Summer vacation for Juneteenth. Yay. That is actually being posted now which is my trip to country #23 The Dominican Repulic and back to the Bahamas.

I am going to talk about all of that in nt vacation recap, but WOW what fun!

AROUND THE CITY

Sunda Asian

Midtown

The Arts Club

The Tampa Edition

Grand opening

Predalina

Water Street

(Must read review)

Edison Food + Drink Lab

This was 2 separate visits

Grand Opening

Greenlane

South of Gandy

We came in for the grand opening. It was super busy in the drive-through, but the walk up/pick up counter was quick. Ordering was easy even with food allergies. Apon getting my order it was correct. From my first inspection, the salads are pretty large but contain about 3 ounces of meat, so if you rely on a protein heavy diet, you may want to double/triple that up.

For me, the salad size was enough, actually more than enough. I was really surprised at how amazing the MexiCali salad was. I am a salad lover, but I am not really someone who eats Chipotle spices and the Chipotle ranch dressing combined with the charred corn, black beans, and cilantro really set it off. I would highly recommend this salad, and I had it without the tortilla strips due to Celiacs Disease (gluten), so I am sure it is even better with it.

Next, the Tuscan Sun Salad was also great. The mozzarella balls really made this one pop. I will definitely be back to try more salads. The location is very ideal and easy to access, also on Gandy. You can find calorie and nutrition info easily, and they have an app to access their loyalty program. FYI. This location is right by the Applebee's on the right side of Gandy.

HOME LIFE

Well, I had noble intentions, but the ghetto ass birds in my back yard did not. They ate every seed from what I planted! They pulled the pencils from the pots and ate the seeds. Nothing grew! This is supposed to be idiot proof. You just stick the pencil in the dirt and the seeds are in the plastic on the end and they dissolve in the water. However, we have a large amount of psycho birds in the trees and they pulled out the pencils as soon as I went back inside and ate the seeds.

Wat Temple

Tampa

TRADER JOE'S FINDS

So, this month I have some snacks to share withyou all. I often travel and keep little snacks with me in case there is no gluten free food and I need something to snack on. I got a few different flavors of these dehydrated fruit snacks and I found that the apricot flavor made me more hungry when I ate it and they had the least flavor. The apple raspberry however, was delightful and I liked it the most.