9.10.11 - Our Overnight Trip to Maine

On Saturday morning my father-in-law, Gil, met us at our house and we headed to Maine for the day.  It was a quick easy drive up there.  We stopped for a quick lunch along the way... at a gas station.  Yep... we ate lunch at a gas station.  They had an Italian place inside and it was good.  While eating we saw these two with their lovely hair dos checking out at the register.

 We also stopped at this HUGE Indian along the way so Maddie could pose for some photos.

We arrived in Freeport, Maine and started to hit all of the shops on foot.  The first thing my husband asked me was if I had brought the camera... oops.  We have a small point and shoot and a larger expensive camera (that I have no idea how to use)... both of those were left at home. 

The weather was gorgeous and this was a beautiful little town.  They had all sorts of big stores like the largest LL Bean store, Gymboree, Coach, North Face, etc... as well as a bunch of little fun shops like the one called Abacus where I bought this calendar at.  They are actually 12 separate prints.  So during the month I will frame the print in an 11x14 print and then I figure afterwards there are several (obviously not the cat and dog ones) that I will frame to display in our house.  The $28 price tag on this calendar was much easier to swallow than the $125 print by this artist I really wanted.

Maddie wanted this duck.  It was $59.  She liked it simply because it was decoupaged with French words.  She is obsessed with anything French related.  Obsessed. I explained to her we could very easily create something similar with a paper mache duck at home.  She seemed satisfied with that.

Then we stopped for Wicked Whoopies. We got a small original, an oatmeal creme pie one, and a chocolate peanut butter one.

Here is Maddie with her favorite Starbucks drink - passion fruit ice tea lemonade.

We stopped at this little shop.  They had funny little things like these onion ring flavored mints-

And this moose hat my husband tried on-

A bit further down we found a small ice cream and candy shop that featured lobster ice cream. Maddie and Chris each had a sample.  They were not impressed.  They settled for cookie dough and strawberry cones instead.

Some more photos of Maddie - 

Then we headed to Brunswick where my husband and his four brothers were all born to surprise Chris' Gram.  I am so glad we decided to do this.  She was definitely thrilled to see us.  We had a nice visit with her.

Later that evening we stopped for dinner to get some yummy Maine seafood before heading back to our hotel in Freeport for the night.

The weather was beautiful and we had a great weekend. 

My Trip to Rhode Island - Part Two

Sunday morning we slept in and then spent most of the morning hooked on the Casey Anthony trial. Then we drove to pick up my mother-in-law.  We took her to lunch at one of her favorite places, Chili's.  Then we hit Kohl's and Home Goods.

After dropping her back at home we headed to get some ice cream at a place called Gray's.  It was fabulous.  I had peanut butter cup and Chris had coffee Oreo.  They had cows behind the place in a small pasture.  We will definitely be going back and taking Madison.

On Monday (4th of July)...we were once again hooked on the Casey Anthony trial and got a late start.  We decided to head to Providence for the day to go shopping at a big shopping center there called Providence Place Mall. I looked it up on my iPhone and saw they had a Crate & Barrel so I was super excited to go.  We got a little bit lost getting there, but eventually found it.  We went to a fabulous place for lunch called Joe's.

We saved Crate & Barrel for last...and wouldn't you know when we got there it was the only store in the entire shopping center that was closed for the holiday.  I was a little annoyed. 

This mall had the weirdest thing... I have never seen anything like this before.  You pay for your parking before you get in your car and leave the garage.  Does anyone else have this where they live?

After leaving the mall we headed to my father-in-law's house.  We watched TV, hung out, and ordered carryout for dinner.  I really enjoyed getting to know my father-in-law a little bit better and listening to some of his funny stories. 

Chris had to get up on Tuesday morning to go to work... although I was on vacation... he wasn't.  Tuesday was the first day his new boss was reporting to work as well as his new team, so he had to go.  I slept in, straightened up the hotel suite, and watched some TV.  I planned on running to the grocery store for him and going to a few stores as well as meeting him for lunch, but was super happy when he texted to say his new boss agreed to let him leave at 11:30.  I was ready and waiting when he got home...and we headed into Newport for the afternoon.

Newport is such a beautiful area.  We found parking and had a tasty lunch at a placed called The Red Parrot.  Afterwards we added some more money to our parking meter and walked around for a bit.  We stopped for a Del's Frozen Lemonade...YUMMY!!

Afterwards we headed to the Christmas Tree Shop where for just $22 I picked up tons of home decor stuff for our new bathroom. 

Then we headed to the grocery store to pick up some items for Chris for the week as he is still in the hotel.  Imagine my surprise when I saw these on the cake aisle!! Score!! I picked them up for $1.99 and cannot wait to make some sort of banana cupcake in them.

To finish up our fabulous time together we spent Tuesday evening in bed watching a prison show called Hard Time and eating this tasty ice cream treats.

My Trip to Rhode Island - Part One

My husband has been in Rhode Island working since mid-June. When I realized Madison was going to go with my parents for a 4th of July beach vacation... I decided to make the drive to Rhode Island to spend several days with my husband.

I left early Friday morning (around 6 AM). For the most part the ride was fine...there were a ton of tolls and lots of bathroom stops (I pee all the time). Connecticut was the worst. The traffic there was ridiculous. I finally arrived around 3 PM.

After showering and relaxing for a bit we headed to a nearby restaurant for an appetizer and drinks. I had two of the margarita specials...

Afterwards we headed to the liquor store to pick up some more drinks and I was able to find this -

I have been wanting to try this forever. It was pretty strong, but good.

We headed to the next town over for our nephew's 17th birthday get together with my husband's family. A lot of his family lives around here and we were able to spend some time with my in-laws and two of my husband's brothers.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Tito's for a yummy Mexican lunch. We ate there in April when we visited and really enjoyed it.

After lunch we used a Groupon and headed to Newport Vineyards. We got to tour the small vineyard. We also got to taste 5 different wines. We went with the Rising Tide, Pinot Grigio, Great White, Bellevue Blush, and the Pinot Noir. We left with a bottle of the Bellevue Blush.

Next door happened to be a bakery. We got a few different things and some drinks. We sat and relaxed for a bit and enjoyed some treats. My husband says I am too picky when it comes to other people's baked goods... I cannot help it if the only thing I really loved was the baklava. I felt like the other choices - strawberry lemonade cupcake, peanut butter cookie, frosted sugar cookie, and chocolate iced brownie were nothing to write home about.

We rounded out the evening with a trip to the Coddington Brewery for a great dinner and drinks. I had some sangria and fish and chips. Chris had India Pale Ale beer and the prime rib.