August 14, 2009

Elephants and Tigers and Horsies, oh my!


Last night BumBum and I took Violet to the Greatest Show on Earth... The Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus. You might remember that we also took the whole gang last year to the Shrine Circus. This year however, it was only the three of us. Violet is crazy about elephants and horses right now. She was such fun. She was in sensory overload... so were we.

There are two major differences between the Shrine Circus that we attended last year and this one. Costumes & price! That lovely little light up thingy cost me a whopping $22 bucks. I bought a slightly smaller version last year at the Shine Circus for $8. Snowcones and cotton candy were $12 each last night. But our girl only had eyes for... corn dog, popcorn, nachos (note the cheese still on her sweet face) & sugared pecans. This girl loves nuts. Yes, dinner at the circus set us back about $65 bucks. But when you only have one grand girl, it's worth it. Someday when I have a truck loads of these babies, I'm gonna have to rethink my spending habits. But somthing tells me they aren't going to suffer any. This Gigi is gonna spoil them all rotten..... and then quietly send them back to their mommies!

August 13, 2009

Gettin' ready to cruise....


I am going today to get my passport. I am so excited! I am been assured that I don't necessarily have to have it for my cruise will all the girls in November, but I don't want to take any chances. Besides, as my dear friend, Barbara says "you should never be without one, because you never know what opportunities might arise". And she is right. So world travel... here I come!

August 6, 2009

Days 7 & 8.... a bluuurrrrr

We are home safe and sound from our trip to beautiful New England. After 7.5 hours & 3 flights aboard the same aircraft we arrived in Dallas on Tuesday afternoon. Southwest insists that they have direct flights, but as near as I can tell Manchester, NH to Orlando, FL to New Orleans, LA to Dallas, TX is not a direct route!

I joked and said that I was going to eat lobster three times a day. Truth is I never did that and only ate it twice one time. That was enough. It was quite enjoyable, but they constantly wanted to serve it with fries and truth is.... that got old quick. We did have delicious food on numerous occassions.

Our favorite had to be at Red's Eats in Wiscasset, ME which was featured on the FoodNetwork. This was the restaurant (er.. shack) the entire trip was planned around. Yes, we traveled 2500 miles one way to eat here. We were afraid it might not be worth all the hype... we were wrong. It was delectable. They don't dress the lobster rolls at Red's. It comes plain on a warm toasted bun and you get to choose whether you want mayo or buttah! It was devine!

August 2, 2009

29th Anniversary.... Day 6


Bubble Rock, elev. 14,000 ft
Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME

Cadillac Mountain, elev. 16,000 ft.
Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME

August 1, 2009

New England... Day 5

We began our day at the Coastal Coffee House & Internet Cafe just a few blocks down from our campground in picturesque Searsport. The shop is just a tiny coffeehouse but came highly recommended by a lady at the bathhouse. We packed up the mini and decided to try it for breakfast. I ordered Dave's Fire in the Hole. An everything bagel toasted perfectly with a sort of spanish omelet with spicy sausage and peppers and a couple different types of hot sauce. Any how...it was great. So good in fact we went back for lunch and ordered lobster rolls to go so we could picnic on the beach. The owner remembered us and called us the Texas Bluebonnets. What fun.

When we went back for lunch to the little cafe' had about 6 customers on Harleys they were Canadian and were speaking french. The funny part was that they kept opening and closing the screen door that led to the outside dining area... they finaly turned to us and in english said ' we just love that sound' it was the squeaky screen door. French Canadians are everywhere. At home the second language is Spanish. Here when you use the ATM it prompts English or Francis?

We stopped at a few antique shops Jeff bought a sign. Headed on up to Penobscot Narrow Bridge and Fort Knox. We went up the tower at Penobscot which was equilavent to 42 stories and could see for miles. It was a beautiful day. Then we toured Fort Knox. No money there...

Then we headed back to Searsport which is just lovely and ordered our lobster rolls to go and had a picnic on the beach.

After we got back to the campground we decided to take a hike. We walked the water's edge which is not sandy. It is what they call craggy, full of rocks, large and small, much of it granite. The hike took us about 1 mile to Moose Point State Park in search of wild blueberries. We didn't find any, but hiked on out to Moose Point proper and then back again, about 3 miles. We had just enough time to clean up and get ready for our Lobster Bake on the beach.

The campground has a lobster bake on Saturdays and it is only by inadvance ticket purchase. Jeff ordered our tickets when he reserved the campground. There were about 20 or so of us eating down on the beach. The meal began with steamed mussels that were harvested straight out of the bay earlier in the day. I decided you can eat anything if you dip it in melted butter. I tried a few, ok maybe more than a few about 6. I left the rest for Jeff. He enjoyed them all. We got to know our fellow campers, a young couple from upstate NY that had just arrived about an hour earlier, and a family of 6 from Chattanooga. We had a fabulous meal. They unloaded the lobster which had been steamed in an outdoor brick oven. The lobster was covered by seaweed, which they called rockweed which is what they make MSG from. They told us that because the seaweed is a natual flavor enhancer and it is what the lobster is blanketed in it would be tastier. They were right. It was by far the best lobster we have had the entire trip. Our meal included all the clams & mussels we could eat, homemade bread, baked potatoes and corn on the cob. Followed by homemade peach/blueberry cobbler and ice cream from a local dairy.

I am now on laundry duty and Jeff is playing with fire. This will be our last night in Searsport as tomorrow begins our trek southward toward Manchester and then home again. We are having a wonderful time, will greatly miss New England.

BTW, everyone that we have encountered whether it has been service personnel, cafe owners, vacationers, etc has been wonderful, northerner and southerner alike... and a few Canadians too!

Travel New England sometime soon, you will love it!

July 31, 2009

Got Lobstah?



















Howdy from New England ... Day 4

I am exhausted after today's activities but I wanted to share with you what we have been up to day:
  • Woke up @ the campground, showered and headed for the festival in Rockland
  • Drove through Camden, location of the apartment Katherine Heigl's character lived in in the movie 27 dresses
  • Went to the Festival ate lots of lobster, had our picture made with King Neptune & a giant Lobster
  • Walked around this lovely little town
  • Drove over to the Breakwater Lighthouse and walked the 3 miles in the drizzle to get to it, but it was worth it, we packed tennis shoes and rain panchos
  • Arrived back at our campsite to find that it had been raining HARD all day
  • Went to a hole in the wall restaurant in Searsport, called Captain Shorty's and had the best all you can eat Fish Fry EVER!
  • Came back to the campsite to find it still RAINING
  • Played a little table tennis with Jeff in the rec room
  • Came back to the tent and settled in for the night, it's cool outside, slightly raining, but comfortable and dry in our tent. I am sitting here on an air mattress using a battery operated lantern and typing this from my new Dell mini, which I wasn't too sure about before we left but am crazy about it now.
  • Just realized today that we are only about 200 miles from the Canadian border.
  • Having a great time in Maine, wish you were here.

July 30, 2009

New England ... Day 3

Today we awoke in New Hampshire and packed our belongings and headed for Maine. You had no idea how close all these little states are, they are crammed right up next to each other and when you are driving you just weave in an out of them. Our first stop today was a Starbucks in Portsmouth. Just an adorable little town on the coast where the Declaration of Independence was read.

Next we stopped in York. I have ancestors that were born, raised and buried there. I wanted to find their gravesites, but I had already been told earlier in the week that I wouldn't find their graves. They were buried on one of these small islands and erosion has washed most of the graves away (era 1650 - 1700) and add to the fact that there were no stone masons here during that time for markers to be made. That was disappointing, but it was exciting as well. You see my great grandfather X8 & 9 are from the Isle of Shoals, just off the coast of Maine @ York. I did get to copy a number of books that had some information about them and a few more clues about them. I know one was a butcher and that they were colorful characters. Mmmm, I wonder if I am anything like them?

We stopped for lunch in Cape Elizabeth at Two Points Lighthouse. Delicious lobster rolls. Here is a photo of my lunch. Note the picture with the quarter next to it. I wanted to show you how big this sandwich really is... not very big for $13. It was a little pricey, but look at the view. We ate outside with a beautiful view of the Cape with a lighthouses on either side of us. It's Wicked Awesome! To quote a local phrase.

On to Searsport. This was quite a drive, but it will put us very close to Rockland (which is all booked up for the weekend). When we booked this trip we didn't realize that we would be here during the 62nd Lobster Festival in Rockland, but we were very happily surprised. We arrive at this little campground for our first night of tent camping. We unpacked our suitcase complete with tent, 2 sleeping bags, sheets, lantern, flashlights, tablecloth, rain panchos, 4 pillows and bug spray. Which was the first thing that got used. Set it all up and realized that we were maybe 50 yards from the ocean. Beautiful. Jeff started a fire and cooked us a delicious dinner of ..... hot dogs. That's ok, it's the first meal we have had in 3 days that hasn't included seafood and since we are hitting the festival tomorrow, we decided to take a break. It was a great meal complete with s'mores. This campground has WiFi which is great. It is not a large campground and a little quirky... just like us. We are going to sleep tonight under the tall pines and stars.

(Me at our campsite on my dell mini)

Let's chat again tomorrow... same time, same channel.

julie