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…

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)

LIFE: The Path not Taken

Hi folks! I'm back from Maine and it was lovely. I enjoyed every minute of it. I have so many photos to share with you and details to tell you about. I'll do a couple of Maine posts this coming week. So stay tuned.


In other news...

I spent this beautiful Sunday afternoon at a friend's wedding. My friend, Heather, married her sweet, sweet fiance, Derrick this afternoon. Congratulations to them both and best wishes to the future! I met Heather when I joined my women's small group over two years ago. You may remember Heather as my roomie from the India Mission Trip as well.

Remember when I mentioned trying to pick a novel to take on my Maine vacation? Well, I ended up taking neither of the books I mentioned. Instead, I started reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. I am nowhere close to finished yet, so I can't give my complete opinion just yet, but I am loving it so far. The book is about living life fully through the spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts, and realizing that we are 'wildly loved by God.'

Sometimes weddings tend to bring me down (who else isn't tired of being the single girl?) but today was different somehow. I looked around the table, and I saw people who love me, value my friendship, and are walking along beside me in this season of my life. I also realized that I have known all these people for less than three years.

Three years ago I graduated from college. I was dead-set on moving to Colorado and working for an Architecture firm there. My college roommate was already headed to Denver to teach and I wanted to live outside the Southeastern states for at least a few years before 'settling down'.

Call it ironic sovereign when NONE of my plans worked out and I ended up taking the ONLY architecture job I could find...in Birmingham, AL.

Really? This can't be right.

People kept telling me I was lucky. Lucky to have a job in a sinking economy. Beyond blessed to actually be working in the field I studied for all these years.

And I was thankful- sort of.

I found myself in a city where I didn't know a soul. Living alone in an apartment I could barely afford. The only thing I had was my job, and soon that became uncertain too.

I remember being so lonely that I would sink to the bathroom floor in the middle of getting ready and cry off all my makeup.

The weekends went on forever. I couldn't wait to go to work on Mondays, just so I would have someone to talk too.

I would call my mom and get so choked up that I couldn't speak.

And the entire time this was happening, I had the strange sense that I was where I was suppose to be.

I questioned God (a LOT) during that first year. It was NOT where I wanted to be, far from it.

Fast forward three years to this afternoon:

 I have found a church family to call home. And a pastor that challenges me in my walk with the Lord.

I gritted my teeth and introduced myself to strangers. And they turned into friends. Good friends.

I found a small group of Godly women to walk along side.

I was blessed to travel to India, and I met more dear friends through the process.

I have a job that I truly enjoy, and amazing coworkers.

The Lord has drawn me to himself in a way that I could not have anticipated.

So this afternoon, surrounded by people I love, and celebrating the union on our dear friends, I felt my heart lift with thankfulness.  I am THANKFUL that I am not in charge of my plans. Because my plans are less than mediocre. My heart is still being molded and my attitude refined, but bit by bit the Lord is aligning my desires with his own. And his plans are more than I could have dreamed- even if I can't see them all just yet.

 I guess I shared all this just to say- if you find yourself in that very lonely place of uncertainty- take heart! You are not alone and it can only mean that great things are in store.

Megan

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11