Maine Day 2

Wow I’m super behind on this blogging thing… between spending the weekend making Halloween costumes for Matt and Andy (they were super labor-intensive. I even had to dust off my sewing machine) and the cold I got from my mom (thanks, mom) all of a sudden it’s a week later. Oh well… the pictures are still pretty even if it took me awhile to post them!

So Day 2 was the day that we drove around the Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park. The 27-mile loop road is the basic tourist path. It was created by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. as an easy way to allow people access to the park’s best attractions and views.


Unfortunately the weather was kindof crappy for us that day. Although the silver lining was that we basically had the park to ourselves. Some of the highlights...

Fire Overlook:


Trail to the Precipice:

Ok so this is THE trail for Acadia National Park. And when I was reading the guidebooks it was describing how difficult the trial was… and I thought to myself “Bah. Compared to the Inca Trail that’s nothing. We can totally do this... Wait.” Because then I remembered that I can’t even walk up my stairs without gagging and that perhaps going up a treacherous path with giant drops off of cliffs on either side would not be the best of plans for a pregnant lady. So that’s all of the trail we got to see. This time.

Sand Beach:

Apparently even in the summer the water here never gets above around 55-60 degrees. Crazy! Matt had fun playing in the waves, though:


Heh.

Thunder Hole:


This attraction sounds really cool… but it’s kindof… not. Basically an underwater cave creates a big boom when waves crash into it during a storm. It was not storming so the sound was just a lame little gurgle. The area around it was pretty beautiful, though:



Little Hunter’s Beach:



Ok this place was really, really cool. All of these different colors and types of rocks washed up… it was pretty amazing. We spent a good deal of time here just treasure hunting:

Don’t worry – we didn’t actually take any of them home with us. That’s not allowed at national parks.

Jordan Pond:


We stopped at the Jordan Pond House for some tea and popovers to warm us up because by now we were freezing. Popovers with jam are quite tasty. Sadly the view of the hills (named the bubbles) beyond was obscured by the fog:


Carriage Roads:

When John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was getting this park going another one of his grand schemes was a series of carriage roads to allow visitors to see the interior of the park. This system of roads includes quite a few of these hand crafted stone bridges. So pretty!

I think that’s about it for day 2!

Maine Part I – Driving to Acadia

So due to the cost of flying and all of that even though we were staying in Bar Harbor, Maine we actually flew into Manchester, New Hampshire. Not a big deal – and the bonus here was that we got to spend some time driving along the coast exploring all of the little towns along the way! Our first stop on the drive was in Portland, Maine:


It was beautiful. Such a fun town! We spent quite a bit of time wandering in and out of the little shops… and taking geeky architecture-type photographs of brick details:

I did check out one of the yarn stores in town but didn’t find anything that spectacular. It was a very nice and very well organized store – but all it had in it was commercial yarn. I didn’t want to buy yarn on vaca that I could just as easily buy at home.

Anyways from Portland it was on to Cape Elizabeth to see the Portland Head Light:

Which is supposedly one of the most photographed lighthouses in Maine.

I can see why.


From there we went to check out the lighthouses on Two Lights Road:

And more importantly got some lunch at the Lobster Shack:

Mmmmmm… Lobster Roll…. Mmmmm….

Where Matt convinced me that Whoopie Pies are amazing:

They are just like the homemade Oreos only the cookie part is soft. Very tasty. And our view from lunch looked like this:

Yeah.

At that point we basically just cruised up Route 1 stopping whenever we felt like it along the way:



And that was our first day… Such a relaxing trip!

Back

Just a quick note to say we’re back! Our vaca was wonderful. Relaxing and beautiful and just so nice to get away. And I only puked once! Bonus!

Plus:
Maine is really pretty.

Lots more photographs and stories soon!

Stuffed Peppers and the last of the garden

So I’m in Maine right now but thanks to the nifty new “post ahead” feature in blogger I was able to set this up to post while I was gone! Neat!

My garden this year was pathetic. Seriously. In May/June I had such grand schemes. I watered every day, weeded with no mercy, and was completely babying all of the seeds I planted. And this year I planted a lot of seeds. But then at the end of June I got pregnant. And by mid-July I was asleep/throwing up/in migrane hell all the time. By now even my houseplants are looking pretty worse for wear. So much for my grand schemes…

Anyways this past weekend we pulled everything out – it was all overgrown and weedy and just a mess. But I did manage to salvage a bouquet of Dahlias:



And enough peppers to make our annual “end of the garden” stuffed pepper feast.

So very tasty! Here’s what I did (recipe from Carolyn and then tweaked a bit):

Stuffed Peppers

Four small or two big green peppers, or Hungarian wax, or yellow, or whatever you have growing: slice, clean seeds and cut ribs out and set aside
1-2 extra peppers chopped up for the filling – I used a hot pepper in addition to a green one
1 lb. ground beef (ground round is fine)
½ cup-ish of uncooked white rice (just eyeball it)
Shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 onion, shopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
salt
pepper
paprika
all purpose seasoning
can of campbells tomato soup
8oz can of tomato sauce


mix meat, rice, chopped pepper, cheese, onion, garlic, parsley, and seasonings in a bowl:

stuff the meat/rice/ingredient balls into the peppers, but don't pound it in, make it fluffy
put the peppers in big soup pot
put any extra filling around the peppers in the pot. I used it to make my peppers stand up
put a blob of tomato soup on each pepper
add the can of tomato sauce to the rest of the tomato soup
pour around the peppers:

bring up to a bubble over low heat (you don’t want to burn the meat or peppers to the bottom of the pan!)
put lid on
cook for about 45 minutes to an hour

check while cooking, re-pour on soup to keep moist
during the last 5-10 min of cooking add more shredded cheese to the top of each pepper and let it melt.

So tasty!!!!

Old Wives Tales

So have you guys heard of the old wives tale that the baby won’t come until the knitting is done? Because I think it might be true. See Jennifer was past her due date… and I still hadn’t finished her mommy socks. I thought I was exempt since the baby socks were done… but the thought that I might be holding this baby up and leaving her 9 months pregnant for longer than necessary… well… I spent all weekend doing this:

I finished the socks on Sunday night.

And on Monday she had a baby girl.

Coincidence?

Possibly. But if any of you out there are thinking about knitting anything for Gizmo (mom this includes you) please finish it before March 15! More details on the socks are on Ravelry here.

Speaking of baby knitting – last night while watching the Browns kick some Manning ass on Monday Night Football I started a project for ours:

Who, btw, is growing like crazy. Last week (week 17) they were the size of an onion:

Which is confusing since onions are way smaller than avocados. Instead I prefer to think that at 5.1 inches the baby is the same size as Dexter’s head:

That makes so much more sense.

Oh yeah – I got my hair all chopped off! I donated it to Wigs for Kids. Which is a really, really great cause. I highly recommend doing this if you can – and I figure a little good Karma while pregnant can’t be a bad thing.

So this week the baby is the size of a sweet potato:

Which goes very well with all of the lobster we’ll be eating in Maine. We leave tomorrow and at this point I’m just procrastinating all of the packing….

Four

Four years ago yesterday we were doing this:






We spent all day yesterday joking that we now have a degree in marriage. 4 years = degree, right? Matt was all “you’re not going to graduate and leave me, right?” And I was all “nope – we’re headed into marriage post-graduate work – being parents.” Heh.

Anyways we’re actually pretending our anniversary isn’t for another week.

See the plan was always to go on a trip for our anniversary this year. Go somewhere spectacular and romantic and celebrate in style… especially since all of our vacations (and vacation time) so far this year has been spent with family or friends – not that Boston wasn’t AWESOME – but it would be nice to spend our remaining time off together. Just the two (and a half) of us.

Although for obvious reasons most of our normal vacation activities are out. There could be no crazy backpacking, hiking, or camping. And I’m so not up for our usual intense urban tourism where we hit all of the museums and architecture during the day and then go out drinking that night. And our last romantic getaway to wine country wouldn’t exactly work either.

So we searched. And we googled. And finally we came up with the perfect destination:

1. Lighthouse, Acadia National Park, 2. Autumn in Acadia, 3. Boat in Acadia National Park, Maine

We’re going to spend a nice long weekend in Maine. We’re staying and a spa (!) just outside of Acadia National Park and renting a car so we can drive along the coast and check out some of the lighthouses and small towns:

1. Bass Harbor, Maine, 2. Maine - Kennebunkport - Town Center, 3. Maine Lobster Boats rafted together at Milbridge Town Pier waiting for Kyle, 4. fall leaves in a small coastol town in maine, 5. Maine Coast 3, 6. Maine Coast Rocks

We plan on eating lots of lobster (don’t worry – it’s ok for me to eat), getting massages (there is a special pre-natal one for me, and a men’s one for Matt), and just generally relaxing together.

1. Lobster Rolls in Maine, 2. Lobster from Maine from Wayne, 3. Maine Lobster Boats

But thanks to off season rates not starting until after Columbus Day we’re not leaving until next Wed. So this year our anniversary is Oct. 16 not Oct. 9.

I can’t wait.