Showing posts with label Roam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roam. Show all posts

9/30/2012

Maine Eats

Coming back from vacation can be a little crazy

It took me two days to get out from under the pile of emails I had waiting for me back at the office.
They say some people believe that going on vacation is not even worth
 the hassle you have to deal with when you return.

I'll take the hassle any day- thank you.

One of my favorite things about vacation?

The Food- hey I'm honest

Who doesn't love to find a great local (if not local to you) spot.

Here are a few (of the many) delicious things I ate while in the vacationland state.


 We took a super early flight via Birmingham-Atlanta-Portland on Friday morning. So early that security wasn't even open when we got to the airport (NEVER again).

By the time we landed in Portland, rounded up our bags, and picked up our rental car; we were mucho famished. Without any planning or forethought, I googled breakfast in Portland and we ended up at Becky's Diner. It was only 4.5 mi from the airport and on the wharf in downtown Portland.

Ya'll-it was a good decision.

It was almost noon when we got there, so the place was already packed for lunch.
College students, dock workers and a long row of retired men reading the paper at the bar filled the place to the seams.

We got a table on the covered second story porch.

We opted for breakfast and it was enough to feed an army.
Blueberry pancakes, raisin bread french toast, eggs, bacon, and sausage links- oh my!
Dad opted for a fried haddock sandwich (he likes to be different).



Brother seems to have a knack for half-assing things and still getting good results.
(pardon my French, it was necessary for emphasize) 

I can spend all day highlighting recommendations, googling reviews, and reading chowhound forums
But brother can randomly pick a dinner spot off his phone as you can bet it will be delicious.
Go figure- we’ve been like this own entire lives.
We spent one night in Saco, ME just South of Portland
Mainly because the rooms were cheaper there.
With no solid dinner plans on my tentative itinerary
I told Trav to find us a spot to eat-
we ended up at The Lobster Claw
The place is nothing special to look at but what good lobster pound is?
You ordered at the window (typical) then headed to a closed in porch with gravel floors to wait for dinner and pray that the ceiling didn’t fall in or that the building inspector showed up before our dinner arrived.
HANDS DOWN, this was the best clam chowder of the entire trip- and we ate it several places to make sure we had a good test group.
Mom and I settled into cups of chowder and a shared order of fried haddock while Dad and Trav split the two lobster dinner special.




We also spent an afternoon in Kennebunkport, ME as we were making our way up the coast.
We wandered down through the town, looking at old historic homes 
(President Bush, Sr. has a home here)
And popping into shops along the way.
On our way back out of town we stopped in Rococo an artisan ice cream shop
The girl behind the counter had me at goat cheese and blackberries-which is the flavor I picked
Other tempting selections included homegrown mint, and balsamic strawberry.


We also spent an afternoon in Kennebunkport, ME as we were making our way up the coast.
We wandered down through the town, looking at old historic homes (President Bush, Sr. has a home here)
and popping into shops along the way.

On our way back out of town we stopped in Rococo, an artisan ice cream shop.
The girl behind the counter had me at goat cheese and blackberries-which is the flavor I picked.
Other tempting selections included homegrown mint, and balsamic strawberry.

More Maine tidbits to come…


















9/24/2012

ROAM: Photo Overload


  I consider myself a pretty organized person. But one of the areas in my life that needs drastic improvement is my digital filing. More specifically- digital photo organization.

I’m really bad to leave my photos on my SD card for a LOOOOONNG TIME. Not good.

Yesterday I decided to turn over a new leave and get all my Maine Trip pictures where they need to be ASAP. But my 16MB SD card holds a MULTITUDE of photos, so I decided to bombard you with some other trips and random activities from the deeps of my camera along the way.

First up: Trip to Mobile, AL
Back in May I headed down to Mobile with my friends Louanne and Bethany. I've lived in Alabama for three years now and had never visited. Opps.

Our first stop was to see the U.S.S. Alabama. I LOVE this type of thing. You have no idea. Thankfully, the morning was overcast and we got there early, so the ship's interior was only minor stifling.  This is AL, you know.



 I think I crawled into every nook and cranny on this ship. Could you imagine living on a ship like this for months? I'm amazed.


Close Quarters!
Names of the ship's servicemen

You can also tour the U.S.S. Drum (a submarine) that is open right across from the Alabama. But it was almost noon by the time we walked off the ship, and I think I'd pushed Louanne and Bethany to their limit on military history for the day. Hey, not being a native Alabamian- I never got to spend the night on the Alabama as a grade schooler!

We also visited Bellingraph Gardens the next day. We had the place to ourselves! It was beautiful. 
Who doesn't love these deep South trees?!?



What location can beat this?!?


Louanne & Bethany


It may have started raining, and we may have stopped for cupcakes to wait out the weather.


Next Up: July Trip to the DELICIOUS, locally owned
STEEL CITY POPS!


Some of my fav small group ladies: Jennifer, Bethany, Louanne, Jessica

And Me!


 And then in August, we celebrated brother's 25th Birthday.
We've been on a health kick around here, so I made this cake. 
It's called the Cashew Dream Cake from the blog mynewroots 
(for some reason I couldn't;t get a link to work today)

(I promise it tasted better than it looked).


Our granny send a homemade buttermilk cake all the way down to B'ham!
It's a family favorite.



Thanks for entertaining my photo hoarding!
I promise to stay more up-to-date from now on! (maybe)