The Mason Jar in New Smyrna Beach, FL

Smoothies are a food which I am pretty opinionated about. To me, smoothies are something that I can make myself for much cheaper and usually better than what I can purchase out. That's why I was skeptical when someone took me along to get a smoothie bowl from The Mason Jar in New Smyrna Beach.

I ordered a smoothie bowl called Sunrise Pitaya. The whole concept of a smoothie bowl was a new concept for me. I know they've been a thing, but never anything I payed attention to. I'm assuming there was pitaya/dragon fruit in the smoothie itself, along with other ingredients which were tasty. It was topped with strawberries, bananas, and coconut. The whole bowl did taste really good and was a good portion. Still was a bit pricey though, costing more than a meal at some restaurants...

Tea-Do in Philadelphia, PA

I found myself spending the day exploring Philadelphia. While wandering around the city, I ended up in Chinatown. I honestly had no clue that Philadelphia had a Chinatown before I wandered into the neighborhood, but while there I decided to get something edible. This ended up being boba tea from a place called Tea-Do.

Tea-Do had food on the menu, but I decided to only get a drink here. I had a mango smoothie with boba and mango jelly floating around in the drink. The smoothie was good, cold, and very refreshing. I liked the mango jelly, but the typical tapioca ball boba like this always make me want to brush my teeth badly. It's something about their sticky consistency.

I did enjoy my smoothie from Tea-Do. They had a better selection of drinks available than many other boba tea places I've visited and offering food was nice as well.

Raspberry Crush from Orange Julius

I didn't like my smoothie that I had on my last visit to Orange Julius on their free smoothie day. Someone from Orange Julius' corporate office apparently reads this blog, and they kindly offered to send me a gift certificate to try one of their premium fruit smoothies to see if I like it any better.

I went to the Orange Julius/DQ in the Altamonte Mall this time. I ordered the Raspberry Crush Premium Smoothie, and I liked it much more than my last free smoothie from Orange Julius. The raspberry crush tasted like actual fruit, like it should, rather than artificial sweetners. I'd gladly get this smoothie again!

Thank you Orange Julius for two free smoothies!

Food at the Watermelon 5K

Last weekend (July 4), I ran in another 5K race in Winter Park. This one was called the Watermelon 5K. It started in Mead Gardens, then left the park and went through some of the surrounding neighborhoods. The race passed very close to where the route of the last 5K went, and then eventually returned to Mead Gardens and ended.




Since I paid money to run in this race, I made sure I ran the 3.1 miles somewhat faster than normal. Paying money to run is silly in my opinion, but I keep on getting talked into running in these races anyway. I normally can run 3.1 miles in about 25 or 26 minutes, but today I ended up getting about 24:30. There was no official time, so I am interpolating the time from these two pictures I took of the finish line, just before and after I crossed.


And the food came after the race was over! The first thing I grabbed was a bottle of Whole Foods brand water out of this kiddie pool.

Then I drank a cup or two of this mystery colored drink. I'm assuming it was some sort of powdered Gatorade type drink that was mixed in the Crystal Water bottles.


Bananas came after the drinks.

Since this was the Watermelon 5K, watermelon slices were also given out. I normally don't like watermelon all that much, but after running it's normally sweet juice tasted really bitter to me and I ended up only finishing half of my slice.


They put on a watermelon eating contest to compete with Nathan's hot dog eating contest. Grand prize was a watermelon, hat, and a watermelon shaped wine glass.

Making my way around to all of the vendors that set up tents giving out free samples and trying to sell their products to the runners, I ended up with a smoothie sample and an acai berry energy drink from Planet Smoothie, a bag of dog food, a Track Shack towel, and a backpack from a lawyer.

Several years ago I ran in a few of these 5K races, and bagels were given out after each race. This is the second 5K I have run in recently, and there are no bagels. I don't know what the reason behind this is, but I know that after I go running, I always crave some carbs, so I find the lack of bagels disappointing.

There were big crowds of sweaty people in the area surrounding the finish line of the race.

So I decided to take a walk through the emptier areas of Mead Gardens. On a sign, I came across this really big Lubber Grasshopper. I hear they are good eating, especially when chocolate covered!

I have no plans at the moment to run in another 5K race when I can run at home for free, but who knows. I may be talked into doing another one, but looking at the upcoming races in Orlando, I think my choice would be to do a 10K. This 10K in particular. Free Epcot Food & Wine Festival samples after the race!

Free Orange Julius Smoothie

Friday, June 19 was free smoothie day at Orange Julius if you came in with the proper coupon printed from their website. Always on the lookout for free food, I of course utilized this offer. I went to the Orange Julius in Sanford's Seminole Towne Center Mall and was offered the choice of three light smoothies with 250 calories or less with the coupon. I chose the Berry-Pom Twilight smoothie.

Although it was free, I thought the smoothie was horrible. It tasted like a mix of apple and grape juice that was somehow thickened. Neither of these juices are my favorites so that didn't help the taste. Orange Julius also put all sorts of artificial sweeteners in the smoothie like Splenda. I am not afraid of sugar, so I try to avoid artificial sweeteners, and Splenda especially scares me. Google 'Splenda side effects' and look at all of the results that comes up. I couldn't find any scientific studies on the effects of Splenda, so I am a bit skeptical of all of the claims that come up, but it also seems like a whole lot of people are experiencing negative side effects that they are attributing to Splenda. When I make smoothies at home, I only put juice and fruit in them and the smoothies come out plenty sweet. I don't understand why restaurants always add extra sweetener to make their smoothies extra sweet. I drank about half of the smoothie and threw it away.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Lake Mary, FL

Someone had a coupon for buy one, get one free at Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Lake Mary, FL. If I want a smoothie, I will buy my own fruit and make it myself. Because of this, I don't frequent the various smoothie restaurants in the area often. When the free smoothie was offered to me, I gladly agreed to give Tropical Smoothie Cafe a try.

Upon walking into the store, the first thing I noticed was the horrible smell. Tropical Smoothie Cafe's odor was hard to describe, but reminded me of a combination of rotting meat and gas station bathrooms. If it was just me, I would have walked out right then, but the coupon holder was planning on buying a smoothie anyway. Apparently, I was told that Tropical Smoothie Cafe always smells like this. I was having serious doubts if I should be consuming any sort of food product from a store that had such a foul odor, but since I was investing no money in the smoothie, I figured I could order it and worry about drinking the smoothie later.

The first smoothie was ordered and the cashier took the coupon and money. She never asked what the second smoothie was. She just went on and proceeded to make two of the smoothies that the person I was with ordered. I had to go up and stop the smoothie maker as she started making the second smoothie of the same flavor. This seemed to upset the smoothie maker, but eventually she figured out how to make a second smoothie flavor.

And after all that, my Blimey Limey smoothie was made. It tasted like there was lots of added sweetener in the smoothie, where when I make my own, I only use fruit and juice. Other than that, the smoothie tasted okay. It still doesn't make up for the store's horrible smell and strange service.