A Day at the Races

It's March 11th and this has been an absolutely amazing day. After spending all day on the beach yesterday, we decide to give the beaches a break today and experience a day at the race track. No not Daytona, but the Orange Park Kennel Club Greyhound Race Track.

Neither Stijn or I have experienced Greyhound racing before, so we thought it would be something fun to see and do a little betting while we're at it. Neither one of us had a clue how to place a bet but the staff there was exceptionally helpful and friendly.

So now we have a race book and the 4th race of the day is about to start. We looked over the eight dogs we had to choose from and made our selections for the bets. Sad to say neither one of us won on this race. But it seemed as the day went on we were becoming a little more savvy, or maybe lucky, on picking our dogs. The 6th race I made a Show, Place, Win bet on "Where's Flythang" for $6.00 and ended up winning $15.00!

This is my winning dog.

The next race I won $4.60. I then used these winnings for my next bet (and Stijn's) and ended up winning another $13.60! Okay, I'm loving greyhound racing! The eighth race found both of us picking the wrong dogs, but the ninth race we picked up the winnings again with Stijn winning $4.00 and me winning $3.00. We decided that the tenth race would be our last wager of the day.

Well now I have a theory that I am going to use regarding my betting. There is a dog listed named "Wheres Santiago". This is a sign ! Why? Well remember that I won a race with "Where's Flythang" and if you have been following this blog you know that you can see all my pictures at "Wheres Debbie". You got it! So I bet $6.00 on "Where's Santiago" for Show, Place, Win........and he comes in 1st Place!!!! I won $39.60!!!!

Dinner was great tonight at the Aqua Grill compliments of "Where's Santiago"! This was a great restaurant located in the Sawgrass Village located just across the street from our home exchange location. We sat outside on the deck overlooking the water while we enjoyed our dinner. We started out with some Fried Green Tomatoes along with a glass of wine for me and a beer for Stijn. For the main course Stijn ordered Seafood Jambalaya with rice. This was an amazing rendition of jambalaya with little neck clams still in the shell, fresh fish, chicken and andouille sausage all simmered in a spicy New Orleans red sauce. I had the basil seared Salmon and egg fettuccine tossed with jumbo shrimp, peas and sun dried tomatoes in a pink vodka sauce.

A great way to end a day at the track!

If you would like to see more pictures of the races just go to Wheres Debbie then click on the album "A Day at the Races"