Beachside Banter w/Bee

From Ocean City to Tampa Bay: Erica D'Arcangelo’s Beach Town Stories and Pizza Passions

• Bee • Season 1 • Episode 17

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Discover the vibrant and sandy tales of Erica D'Arcangelo, a true aficionado of beach town life, as she takes us on a journey from the rocky shores of Ocean City, New Jersey, to the sun-drenched beaches of Tampa Bay, Florida. Erica's enthusiasm for the lively city life and pristine beaches of Florida is infectious, and her family's legacy in the pizza world adds a delicious twist to our conversation. With a nod to her Pennsylvania roots, she gives us the inside scoop on her favorite Clearwater pizza spot, Cristino's, promising a mouth-watering experience for our listeners.

Our chat breezes through the cultural contrasts of the fast-paced East Coast and the laid-back charm of the Midwest. Erica and I reminisce about the unique charm of Ocean City with its lively boardwalk and summer crowds, as well as the driving adventures that are part of life in the Northeast. We celebrate the welcoming spirit of the Midwest, painting a picture of the diverse cultural tapestry across the U.S.

Wrapping up, we dive into heartwarming family memories and the joys of raising a child in Tampa Bay's pet-friendly environment. From beach days to dog-friendly venues like Dunedin and Honeymoon Island, Erica and I explore how Florida could be the perfect home for families and pet lovers alike. As we conclude this episode of Beachside Banter w/Bee, I invite you to connect with us on social media, share your stories, and taste local favorites together. Join us for this delightful blend of travel tales, culinary delights, and personal memories, and make sure you subscribe for more sunny adventures!

ABOUT MY GUEST:
After many years away, Erica suddenly found myself home. Her father, at the time, was recovering from heart surgery and struggling to find his place after retiring from his job as an administrator. While working, he also owned and managed their family's pizzeria. It had been open since 1960. Little did she know that her plan to get her father "busy" again would become the inspiration for the book about her family, which set the scene for a legacy created with love, coal dust, and pizza crust.

You can find Erica here:
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Speaker 1:

Hey, hey, hey. Everyone, it is Bea again with another episode of Beachside Banter. With Bea, I am here today with Erica D'Arcangelo. Did I say it right? You said it right. Look at me, go. It's the first time I think I've gotten somebody's name correctly. That's awesome. Anyways, erica has actually been and lived in two different beach towns. She's lived over in Ocean City, new Jersey, and she's also lived in Tampa Bay, florida. So we're going to kind of dive deep into both cities, see which one's better, do a little comparison, and then we're also going to talk a lot about pizza and books, from what I understand. I'm super excited. I can't wait for all of it. So yeah, erica, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 2:

Go ahead introduce yourself and let everybody know why you're here. Yeah, thanks for having me. So I'm Erica DiArcangelo. I just actually wrote a book called A Story About Pizza, and I've lived at or near the beach for a lot of my life and I am from a family that opened up a pizzeria in 1960 that's still open today, and I absolutely love to talk about pizza and Italian culture and also the beach.

Speaker 1:

Yes, pizza and the beach are like two of my all time favorite things. I don't know enough about the Italian culture to call that my third favorite, but I'm sure I'm going to learn some stuff today, so I'm pretty excited about all that Awesome sauce. So, real quick, which one was your favorite between Ocean City and?

Speaker 2:

Tampa Bay. No, I'm going to have to say that my heart is in Tampa Bay, okay, okay. Why is that? Well, mainly I love Tampa Bay because it's a city and there's all these different areas around Tampa Bay that you know. You can go, whether it's Clearwater Beach or Indian Rocks Beach, or, you know, downtown Tampa. So there's no, you never run out of things to do in Tampa Bay.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. So are you living there now?

Speaker 2:

I live between there and New Jersey now I go back and forth. But I mostly live in Tampa Bay.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

So you're super close to Clearwater Beach. What's that kind of like? It's crowded. It's absolutely beautiful. You know, we just had a pretty bad storm here, so there's a lot of cleanup going on in Clearwater Beach, but almost any day you get out to the beach, there's traffic, there's people all over the place in Clearwater Beach and there's people all over the beach, so it's one of the busiest beaches I've ever seen.

Speaker 1:

Is that year round that it's always busy, or is it one of those like during tourist season it gets a little crazier?

Speaker 2:

You know I have never gone down to Clearwater Beach where it wasn't busy, so year round got it.

Speaker 1:

It's warm year round there in Florida, so I guess that does make sense and that's where most of us vacation, especially during the winter time. We all head back down there. Absolutely, clearwater Beach. They both have amazing shorelines. I think, if I remember correctly, I've only been. I've been to both of them once, but I was younger when that happened and, I'll be honest with you, even four years ago, I don't really remember things that have happened anymore.

Speaker 1:

My memory is getting a lot foggier as I get older, but I remember Tampa Bay being a little more. I don't even know, it's not like super bright blue waters, is it so?

Speaker 2:

Clearwater Beach and even like? One of my favorites is Indian Rocks Beach, because it's not like a super crowded beach, the water is so blue and we have ann maria island here, that's about an hour away and it's absolutely beautiful. The beaches are so different in the northeast versus down in florida, so in the northeast, you know, the sand is even different. You have almost like a rocky sand and then the water is like a little bit darker, and then down here we have like a very white sand and not all the water is like super clear blue, but most days like there's patches of it that are just really pretty awesome.

Speaker 1:

So it's like it's very close to the caribbean, so I guess it would be similar beaches or similar to that it started in that sort of thing seafood and pizza. Those are like my two favorite things. What? What kind of pizza places are we looking at down in Tampa?

Speaker 2:

Oh, there's so many good ones. So on the weekends my husband and I often will do a pizza tour, so one of my favorites it's been my favorite for like 20 years down here is called Cristino's, it's in Clearwater and it's absolutely fun. It's my dad's all time favorite pizza place which, funny enough, like he owns a pizza place and he is in Italy right now and he goes to Italy, but he loves Christina's.

Speaker 1:

How is that possible that he does? He rake that above his own.

Speaker 2:

That can't be Cause usually he always says like Christina's is my favorite and I'm like well after your place, though, right?

Speaker 1:

Right, right, okay, that makes more sense. That makes more sense. So tell me a little bit about his place. Is it in Tampa as well?

Speaker 2:

So his place is in a little coal mining town called Wimber PA.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's in Pennsylvania, got it.

Speaker 2:

Pennsylvania. So my grandfather was an Italian immigrant. He was from Abruzzo, Italy, and he came over to the US and he was a coal miner and he had nothing and he began this pizzeria in 1960 when he stopped working in the coal mines. And my dad has kind of kept the business alive and he goes to Italy a couple times a year and all the recipes are authentic and it's just like a very special place.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that sounds awesome. I love that. How old were you when when dad started the pizza business?

Speaker 2:

Oh, it was 1960. I wasn't even born yet. It was when I didn't even you probably said that I didn't even hear you do the math.

Speaker 1:

My goodness, that's typical. Me and math don't get along. Just an FYI no, same same here, Don't ask me a math question I will not say anything. So okay, so that totally changes my question mindset. Then, so you're basically you up in the pizzeria business. Then like right, so did you? Did you work there when you were?

Speaker 2:

young. Oh yeah, I was born into pizza, like it was one of my first things. Yeah, I worked there. Like as a little kid I was a box folder and then, as I got older, I was like making the pizzas and then running the ovens and running the cash register and like our whole family worked there. Like I have four siblings and all my siblings worked there. My mom worked there, my dad, my cousins like like it was the family business.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, yeah. So that's what you guys would do on a Friday, Saturday night just hang out at the pizzeria cooking.

Speaker 2:

Love it, what we did for my whole life. And then on Sunday, my grandparents were Italian and they, we all went to Catholic church and then they made an Italian spaghetti meatballs you know. They made a whole homemade dinner and we all ate together and then we all took naps and we were all, like you know, at my grandparents house.

Speaker 1:

That sounds amazing. I have heard, yeah, the Italian mamas and grandmamas. They make sure that you are full before you leave the house, Sometimes several times before you leave the house. Oh yeah, so you wrote the house oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

So you wrote a book. Tell me about your book. So my book follows my grandfather's journey from to the coal mines in Wimber and and really talks about the you know the treatment of the mine workers. And then closed how he, you know, saved this money and bought this building and I think at the time he spent like the building was like $700 or something.

Speaker 2:

And then he opened up this market and he, as the times changed, he decided to start making pizza and, the next thing, you know, here we are from 1960 and the place is still, you know, alive and well and I do all the marketing for my, for the place, for my dad. We got a viral page and that's been amazing. It's. You know it's open Thursday, friday, saturday, sunday. So the book, really it talks about my grandfather and he's the main character and just you know the family and kind of what happened in his life.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's so neat. So you must have to do a lot of different research and that sort of thing and a lot of stories and all of that. I bet that was fun to gather all of that information together.

Speaker 2:

It really was. You know, I had been in Tampa Bay and my dad had heart surgery and so I decided to go home for a year. And during that time I said to him and he had kind of, you know, wasn't really working too much and I said let's go get back involved in the pizza place again. And so I said I'll help you with the marketing. And my dad said I don't believe in marketing. And I said okay, well, I'll help you for free. So you know, let's go. So we drive in together. You know 20 minutes. We talk the whole time. He'd tell me all the old stories, I'd look at the pictures and then I went with him to get his um, the naturalization records, cause he is doing his Italian citizenship and I was able to see the family tree and I just became like very inspired with the story of it all.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, uh, whole family live over in Italy, so well, my grandfather, he passed away in 1998 or 1999, but, um, my grandparents were from Abruzzo, italy, and, yeah, they, they were Italian immigrants. Their family immigrated to, to Wimber, pa, because at the time Italy didn't offer, I think, what what it has today. Like so many people today like they want to move to Italy and back then you know they were coming to America for a quote-unquote better life so many people from Italy.

Speaker 2:

You know they were coming to America for a quote unquote better life. So they traveled from from there to Ellis Island to New York, just like so many Italian immigrants did, and into Wimber, pa, and worked at the Burr and White coal mines. And my grandmother was, you know. She met my grandfather when they were younger and they opened the pizzeria and she was in the family business, that's so cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it's such a it's such an inspiring story too, because you know it's. It really shows that they had a lot of strength, a lot of motivation, a lot of internal drive in order to make all of that happen. So that's, that's amazing. Have you been to Italy yourself?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I've been there. I was there when I was 16. I lived there for a summer, which I absolutely love.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I've gone back many times with my father. He took our whole family on a trip there about seven years ago and then after that we had gone like two or three other times, and even my daughter who's she's 17 now, but she's gone to Italy like four times.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow, yeah, Well, I mean, it makes sense, you know it's home.

Speaker 2:

Home away from home. Home away from home, it's a big part of our family and we still have family over there, so it's just like very nice to go there and it's a different way of life.

Speaker 1:

I have never been there before, but, my gosh, it is definitely high on my bucket list. Gosh, there's so many different parts of it, too, that I would want to see If you were to recommend something or a place for a first timer. What would you, where would you recommend in Italy?

Speaker 2:

I would go to Levanto or Levanto. There's four different cities or I think it's five different cities right in that general area and if you go there, it's a beautiful place to stay. It's a beach town. There's a place that's called, I think it's called Sink Tear, and it's five different cities and you basically can go from um Lovanto and you can go on to either a ferry or a train and you can go and see all the different cities. So it's just like a very fabulous place to be. And there's a little place called Bonasola and there's a restaurant there where they make homemade pesto, cause they're known for their pesto.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, I love pesto. It's amazing. I'll take your word for it.

Speaker 1:

I hope I get to make it there one day. That'd be awesome. So if you ever need an itinerary, let me know. Yes, yes, yes, yes, that'd be great, that'd be awesome. If you wanted to just throw that over to me. Anyways, I can definitely share it with with the audience. I know they've been kind of, you know, reaching out to me here and there asking me what places I should go to or where they should go to and what I suggest and all of that, and I'm starting to kind of build a little directory, so to speak, of places that everybody suggests and like restaurants and all of that. Definitely Tell me a little bit about Atlantic City. I will be 100% honest with you. I don't know anything about the Northeast area. It's not that I'm like I just it kind of intimidates me a little bit. I don't even know why, but it definitely does. I'm a Midwestern girl, so no, it's.

Speaker 2:

It is a little intimidating. You know, I lived in Oklahoma for five years.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I know a little bit about the Midwest and I lived in New Jersey for a few years um, from Pittsburgh originally, but it's really fast. There's a lot going on. Right. Atlantic City is an interesting town. Like we lived only about 15 minutes from Atlantic City, so when we would go over, like we lived in Ocean City, which is an island, so you'd have to go over the causeway to get there. And when we would go over the causeway, when you look to the right, there was Atlantic City.

Speaker 1:

Real quick. Is Atlantic City and the Jersey Shore close to each other?

Speaker 2:

or are they the same thing? Sorry if that's a dumb question. No, it's not at all. So Ocean City, if you kind of go up the northeast, like the very northeast, you'll see like Delaware, and then you'll see, like you know, cape May, and you can take the. Delaware Ferry and go to Cape May, and then the whole way up that coast are beaches.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, okay, yes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, atlantic city has its own beach, but as you go up that coast there's all different kinds of beach towns. There's like Wildwood and there's ocean city and there's, you know, cape May is another one, and you can basically go to any of the beach towns. So we were in ocean city which, um, I think I said it's an Island and it's the only one. It's a dry island, so they have no alcohol on the island. Oh, okay, that makes sense anyway. So ocean city is like it's sort of a small town, like it's so many blocks. It's on an island and on one side you have the bay and on the other side you have the ocean, and then you have your streets and then, like, you have your labeled streets, like you have west and haven and ocean, and then the other way you have your streets that are like first street to like 60th street.

Speaker 1:

Is it more Airbnb than hotel?

Speaker 2:

It reminds me of Monopoly. There's so many, there's hotels, but then you have beach houses that most of them are built with, like the garages on the bottom because the island floods a lot. So the city is sort of built up and you have these places that are three stories or you know four stories sometimes, and then they're everywhere and it's it's an island, but it's really packed with homes. Then there are certain areas that don't have as many homes, like close together, and in the summertime, like in the winter, you might have, like I don't know, 30, 50, 60,000 people, but in the summertime, like in the winter, you might have, like I don't know, 30, 50, 60,000 people, but in the summertime you have a million people on the island.

Speaker 2:

That seems like a lot. Oh, it's packed. And then it's a bike town. So then you have people biking, you have people walking, you have cars everywhere. You can't. There's no part like it is a packed town, because I think people really want there's an experience that goes with coming to Ocean City like a lot of special things about it, I guess.

Speaker 1:

I think you just explained exactly why I'm intimidated by it is it's just the amount of people. And so here in the Midwest, which you know a little bit about, we're a lot more like laid back. We're not necessarily like island time people like we'll still show up on time for the most part, but we don't go fast. We're real slow moving. We're kind of like snails down here. So when we go to like those big bustling cities like New York, new Jersey, all them, it's just like so many things to do, so many people, and you're just like I just don't even know, like at least that's how it is for me anyways.

Speaker 2:

I can understand that. I was just in Arkansas for work and it was really nice to like. You know, you get there, you get some space and there's something very beautiful about people in the Midwest Just very helpful, very friendly. I've always loved it.

Speaker 1:

It depends upon the person and on the day, I think. No, for the most part, I feel like we are. We're pretty accepting. We will offer a helping hand as often as we can for the most part, but there have been times, especially during rush hour traffic. If you're driving down Highway 270, you are not going to be polite yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's just how it works.

Speaker 1:

But yeah. So my husband and I have talked about going to like bigger cities, like you know, vegas and New York and all of those sorts of things, and every time he mentions that for some reason I just kind of like break into this like little ball and I'm like I'm not really sure it scares me. So I feel like I need somebody to hold my hand in one of those towns.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, I'm totally okay with, like you know, Caribbean countries and towns and cities there, but for whatever reason, something in the US it just freaks me out. I'm a weirdo.

Speaker 2:

I will tell you, new Jersey driving is like it's scary, and even like New Yorkork, new jersey, like we would go out to new york and have pizza on the weekends or drive into philly, and it was like the driving is different than anywhere else I've ever been.

Speaker 1:

My stepfather is actually from new jersey and and he has told me several stories about how it's just. Defensive driving isn't even really the right technique for it or a right word for it, because it's beyond defensive driving. I don't think I would be able to handle it. I'd probably be like as soon as I got on the highway over in an accident because I wouldn't know what to do.

Speaker 1:

Driving down in Texas is very similar to that too, and it's not even that they're super defensive down there when they drive. It's just everybody goes so fast that if you're not keeping up with them you're either going to get run over or run off the road. So I'd imagine that Jersey is basically kind of the same way, but more crowded roads. That's the words I was trying to say, that at least that's how it is in my head. I don't know if you I'm sure you have like amazing memories and stuff from your, your past and and living in um as a pizzeria child, grandchild, tell me one of your most favorite memories of growing up in that area and all of that.

Speaker 2:

Sure. So my aunt and uncle actually had a house in Ocean City when I was growing up, so during the summers our entire family would go for like a week and my grandparents would go and like all my siblings and my parents and that was one of my favorite weeks in the entire year. And I think when you're young, like you don't realize you're not going to have those people forever.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is definitely. That's something I've been trying to tell my kids for a really long time, cause you know they didn't really want to spend a ton of time.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know they're little.

Speaker 1:

I don't understand why you're not wanting, but you know they'll understand. If something ever happens and and they no longer it's, it's whatever you. You don't have you want type thing. But yeah, I agree with that. You guys would go out there. You'd have these amazing summers together. What made it so?

Speaker 2:

amazing. So my family's Italian, so we would. We would cook at you know, and so we would cook at you know, my aunt and uncle's house and we'd all meet, we'd have dinner. We'd have like spaghetti, and my parents would bring homemade bread from the pizza place and it was just like we would all just be laughing and at the table and eating together and then we'd all go out into the boardwalk and go walk and get ice cream after and it was just like such a lovely time with my family Aw.

Speaker 1:

I wish you could go back to that, just for that sentimentalness. I feel like it would be really good for you.

Speaker 2:

I love it. It's so special, like I mean, I still have my four siblings, but we're, all you know, adults now and we're also very close. But it was so different when you know parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, like all together on vacation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. It's a uh, completely different ball game now, once you start like having your own kids and and you know nieces and nephews and all of that. You're still trying to get everybody together but for some reason it doesn't always seem to work out like it did when we were kids. I don't know what that, what that is, but at least that's been my experience with it. You're out at ocean city, you're I. I want to know more about, like the boardwalk and stuff out there. I used to love Jersey Shore. I'm not even going to lie to you, I was one of those people that was totally into that show. I don't know why. I really loved watching Sammy and what's his name get into fights for some reason, but anyway, so when I'm visualizing anything up northeast, that's kind of what I've got in my head. So how does that kind of compare to Ocean City?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so where Jersey Shore was filmed, ocean City is in a little bit of a different location and it's actually it's actually nicer. It's a really like upscale place. But I will say, like you know, there there are a lot of people there. It's really a beach town, like the high school is on the boardwalk and, oh, they have a surf school. In fact, like the high school is on the boardwalk and they have a surf school, in fact, my brother-in-law is the coach of the surf team there. Really, yeah, awesome. And so the whole Island, the boardwalk, stretches, I think, 38 blocks. There's a million different like pizza places, there's stores, there's all this stuff and you can go and you can walk on the boardwalk and then you know, like I said, the school's there, they have volleyball courts there and then it's this just giant beach Like the whole. You know, and the beach is really. It actually is very beautiful. In the summer it is packed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so can you get a lot of good seafood and stuff up there like?

Speaker 2:

lobster. There's a lot of good seafood places. There's a lot in a place called Summer's Point, which is right over the bridge, and they're seasonal. So actually that's the other thing with Ocean City is a lot of the places are seasonal, like some of the pizza places, I think only like one or two are open all year.

Speaker 1:

That's interesting, I guess. I mean, I guess that makes sense. They probably have like a summer crowd that kind of hits them a little bit harder than during the winter, because I would imagine it gets cold up there during winter.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, it gets cold. I will tell you like in the years that we lived there, we had one year that it was like very heavy on snow, and then the other years, you know, we don't get a lot of snow and you're not really supposed to get a lot of snow there, like where my parents live in pittsburgh, they get a lot more snow we get um, about six or so, six to ten inches every year, not usually at the same time, um, but it basically shuts down the entire St Louis area for whatever reason.

Speaker 1:

We get a slight dusting and everybody's like nope, not getting on the roads. Today, I don't know what we would actually do if we got more than you know, a foot or so, even 10 inches at a time. We would literally be down for months, I think. What's it like up there during the wintertime? Have you been to the beach during the winter.

Speaker 2:

I'm curious about that. We sometimes would take our dog out to the beach, but it is very windy because you have a crosswind, you have the bay wind, and then you have the ocean and so it's. I there's a lot of days. I don't like the winter, so there's a lot of days I didn't even leave the house in the winter.

Speaker 1:

I kind of feel the same way in Missouri. I'm like a bear, so I'll hibernate for three or four months out of the year. I feel like that's awesome. Let's flip back over to Florida a little bit. You brought it back up Now. I'm curious what would be like your best memory that you've had in the Tampa Bay area?

Speaker 2:

So I was a single mom when I first had my daughter and I raised my daughter here and my very best memory was like every day after school my best friend, we had kids the same age we would meet at the playground, we'd let the kids play, we would go out to parks, we would take our kids to the beach after school and it was just like my daughter even tells me now like she loved growing up here because like every single day we were at a park or a playground or a or the beach, or we take scooters and we go around the park and I really love like that part of living here, like raising a child here, for me was like it was so fun.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, so it's very family oriented out there. What about like dog friendly Is it? Does it have like a couple of restaurants you can take your dogs?

Speaker 2:

to and stuff, yeah, so Dunedin, which is like you, probably about 20 minutes from Tampa, maybe 30 minutes with traffic, it's like a dog town and they have a big bike trail there and all the restaurants downtown are all dog friendly. They even have this like amazing, like dog mural on one of the walls. Oh, that's cool. Obviously, I found it to be super dog friendly in Florida.

Speaker 1:

That was one of the things. So my husband and I are officially moving. We were looking for somewhere south. We were thinking Florida. I think we've landed on Georgia now I'm not really sure It'll change tomorrow I'm sure.

Speaker 1:

But one of the things that I was looking at and was really excited about and why I was pushing more towards Florida, is because it does seem like there's a lot of places where you can take your dog just anywhere and they don't really seem to care. Like there's a lot of places where you can take your dog just anywhere and they don't really seem to care. My dogs are probably one of no. I mean there's more spoiled, but they're like some pretty, pretty spoiled golden retrievers. So anytime that we can take them out, they think that they're human. So if they can go out to dinner with us or lunch or whatever, they're definitely all for it or whatever, they're definitely all for it.

Speaker 1:

So we try to find places that are more dog friendly instead of really kid friendly, because you know kids are old adults now, so don't really have to worry about them anymore. The Tampa Bay area it's very kid friendly, it's very family friendly. Give me a couple of restaurants that you would suggest for you to either bring your children or your dogs to, besides the one that you did, the little dog town, absolutely so.

Speaker 2:

There's a place in Tampa called Hyde park, italian place called for beachy that has really good pizza and they have an outside seating area. That sounds fancy. It's honestly awesome. Um, I mean, dunedin has a place called Casa Tina amazing Mexican food. They have the same thing outside seating area. You know even St Pete, like if you go to downtown St Pete, there's several different places downtown where you can walk around and these places they have all outside seating and you can bring your dogs because they're all dog friendly, which is amazing. I love that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is amazing. Are there any dog beaches or anything in that area?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's. So Honeymoon Island, which is in Dunedin, has a huge dog beach and it's super beautiful, and Honeymoon Island is like a natural beach, so they have like several regular beaches and then you can take a ferry out to a place called Kaladesi Island and you can be out there and then they have like a separate dog beach.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow, that sounds really neat. I think my dogs would absolutely love that. I haven't made it to the actual beach with them yet. I will literally sit and scroll through beach pictures and show my dog. I'm like, I'm telling you she's like a human. Her name is Khaleesi and she is definitely the queen of this house. She acts like it. But I'll be like, look, look at these pictures and I'm convinced that she's like yes, mom, let's go, let's go to these places.

Speaker 2:

That looks great, I agree with you. I let's go to these places. That looks great, I agree with you. I have two of them. One is a golden doodle and we say he's human all the time. And then I have my same thing. I'm like she's my little child.

Speaker 1:

Yes yes, yes, it's exactly how they are. They they get. You can tell when they're. They're visibly upset with us. They will pretend to bark until they get this Like are you seriously? You're going off on me right now? Okay, you win, as always um that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

Well, we kind of went a little bit off topic with the dogs and all that stuff, but I'm really excited. I I feel like, uh, so tampa's been on my list. I haven't really made it down there, and I know that there's a bunch of surrounding areas too, so it's definitely one of those places where I want to try to make it to. I'm'm a little intimidated by Ocean City, so I will have to call you whenever I come up that way so you can walk me around and hold my hand so that I'm not scared.

Speaker 2:

If you come to Tampa, call me too, because I'm going to take you to Christina's and get you a pizza.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yes, I can't wait. That sounds. Dad has made me convinced that it's the best pizza that I think I'm ever going to eat in my life, especially if he thinks it's second best to his own. So that's awesome. So usually towards the end of every episode I give everybody a little bit of time so that they can plug themselves, their businesses and all that. So if you want to go ahead and do that now, Thank you.

Speaker 2:

So, okay, the main thing I'm working on right now is my book, so it's a story about pizzacom. My book is a story about pizza and if you Google it, you can pretty much find it anywhere that you sell books. You know I have some marketing companies, but I will tell you. You know one of them is called create want, but otherwise I'm really full on doing podcasts and promoting my book right now.

Speaker 1:

Love that. Yeah, it's a little exhausting doing that, but it's very fulfilling at the same time.

Speaker 2:

It's it's it's very fulfilling at the same time. It's it's one of my favorite parts, for sure it's been. My dream is is to be an author and to write this book and to do this, and so I've been working towards this for a lot of years, and I want to create something that really makes people happy and that you know inspires them.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, and I can't wait to grab a copy of your book. I know it's going to be an amazing read. I can't. I'm going to lay on the beach and dig right in. I can't wait. So real quick, mom, how I end every show. Uh, what does paradise mean to you? It?

Speaker 2:

means being with my family.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

Wherever that may be simple answer yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

So anywhere they go, you'll follow them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love my family, you know my parents. I have four brothers and sisters my daughter, my husband, it's.

Speaker 1:

it's really, really important to me and that's really what I was brought up with and that's where you know. That's why I do what I do every day.

Speaker 2:

That's a perfect answer.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Well, thank you so much, erica. I really appreciate you taking the time to join me today and to give me a lots of information about a bunch of different places Italy as well. I would love to see that itinerary if you want to share that with us. Yeah, so we will definitely keep in touch and if I am ever in either of those places, I will be more than happy to give you a call. Can't wait, I'll talk to you soon. Have a good one, all right, thank you, bye, bye, bye, hey there, beach lovers.

Speaker 1:

That's it for today's episode of beachside banter with me. I sure hope you had as much fun as I did. Hey, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the show. You can catch me on all social media platforms at life, love and travel, and if you've got a question or you just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to slide into my dms and I'll make sure to get those answered for you. Uh, big thanks to everyone who joined me today and for all of you tuned in, and until next time, enjoy your week.