Merry Christmas from the three of us!
P.S. Please excuse Renly’s gratuitous nudity.
In the Christmas card version of the photo we made him a little more modest with some fancy font and holly berries 🙂 See…
Oh the wonders of photo shop Holy Night.
Wishing everyone the happiest of holidays with family and friends! Merry Christmas!
After a rainy (but fun!) Friday traipsing around Bar Harbor we were thrilled to wake up to good weather Saturday morning and couldn’t wait to get to Acadia! But first, Lobster.
We decided we needed fuel for our hike so we stopped at Jordan’s restaurant in downtown Bar Harbor for a big breakfast. Jordan’s is your typical diner style breakfast restaurant and claims to have the best wild Maine blueberry pancakes in Bar Harbor.
True to form, I couldn’t resist the lobster and ordered a lobster roll. Yes, lobster rolls are traditionally for lunch or dinner but I had yet to order one during the trip and I don’t regret it one bite bit.
Since I am more or less a hiking novice I also ordered a side of blueberry pancakes, you know, extra fuel in case we got lost in the woods. Or something like that.
Thoroughly stuffed we made a quick pit stop down by the harbor for a few photo ops:
Then it was time to hit the road for Acadia and begin our first hike, Bubble Rock!
Bubble Rock was a fairly easy hike, and the hike itself as well as the views of the lake from the top were absolutely gorgeous.
We met some kind hikers at the top of Bubble Rock who suggested we check out Gorham next.
It’s Wednesday! Hooray!
Ok, so Wednesday’s aren’t always the most exciting, BUT this one is pretty great. In just a few hours I’m flying to Maine for a long weekend with my college roommates Anna and Michelle!
We have been trying to plan a reunion/girls trip for at least two years so the fact that it is finally happening is pretty exciting. The fact that we are going to Maine, all as first timers, is also pretty exciting. We are flying into Portland, spending the night and then driving up to Bar Harbor for the remainder of our trip. We have a rough itinerary but would welcome any suggestions! I’m ready to eat all the lobster rolls and Maine blueberry pancakes my little heart can handle!
Segue time…. speaking of lobster rolls and fresh Maine seafood, how about a recipe for homemade seafood stock?
So a few weeks ago, the beautiful island we call home was the unfortunate landing locale for Hurricane Matthew. The governor called for a mandatory evacuation, which we reluctantly followed, and it was a little terrifying quite an adventure.
Robert, his parents, Renly and I all evacuated to our Aunt Teen’s house which is just off the island. She had a generator (lifesaver) and welcomed us and all three dogs into her home. After 4 days together with no power/AC or phone service, she deserves a medal!
Now, this was my first hurricane evacuation, and packing the morning before we left was nerve wracking. Its amazing how little most of your stuff actually means to you in a situation like that. My bag basically consisted of comfy yoga pants, plenty of underwear and our wedding and travel albums. It took me all of 5 seconds to throw together and then it was time to worry about the important stuff: Food.
I packed all the non-perishables we had in the pantry and then made a few careful selections from the freezer knowing that we would probably lose power and all of our food (which we did). *side note: food gone bad was a VERY small price to pay compared to others who had extensive damage to their homes.
Our careful selections: Air-dried sausage that my grandparents bring us and I use sparingly because it is the best sausage ever; a bag of boiled peanuts (Robert’s choice) and last but certainly not least, several pounds of shrimp Robert caught this summer that we were saving for a special occasion. No special occasion like a hurricane party eh?
We bid farewell to Mo and hopped the high speed catamaran from Koh Tao to Koh Samui. The catamaran was more expensive than the ferry we had taken on the way to Koh Tao, but it was both faster and a much smoother ride, totally worth the price increase!
We arrived in time for breakfast at our new hotel, the Waterfront which was in the Bophut district of Koh Samui. Bophut was described as a ‘fishing village’ and had a little more of a quiet, family vibe than other party areas of Koh Samui. The Waterfront (right on the water as it’s name implies) was at the very end of the main street and provided the perfect base.
After a quick breakfast we checked into our rooms and showed ourselves around the hotel.
The rooms were all individual, sweet little bungalows that overlooked the beach.
Robert quickly proclaimed this his favorite hotel yet.
After breakfast we explored the street of Bophut, wandering in and out of shops, restaurants and of course massage parlors.
The streets of Bophut were rather quiet (which I didn’t mind), and most of the shops weren’t especially unique, but there was one restaurant that caught our eye..
This elephant restaurant was huge and looked very touristy (we would find that most of the Bophut restaurants were), BUT it was across the street from this awesome outdoor space..
Elephants Everywhere.
Including some dressed as superheroes.
Happy Tuesday! After another busy weekend away I am back to the grind and ready to recap my super fun extended weekend in DC with my best friend Caite! Caite and I have been best friends since high school and I was so glad she made a trip down to SC to visit me last April, so it was high time I returned the favor!
She lives in Virginia so we made big plans to meet in DC for the weekend, and by ‘we’ I mean ‘she’ because she planned our entire trip and boy did she do a great job!
Caite met me at the airport late Thursday evening and we went straight to our AirBnB in the city. I have never used AirBnB before but Caite is a pro and she was not overly impressed with our digs. We stayed in the bottom of a row house that had been turned into a one bedroom apartment.
It was clean and the location was great but our upstairs neighbors were horrendously loud (or maybe they own horses?). Oh well, it was a bed and a shower which is more or less all we required.
On Friday morning we grabbed some delicious vanilla latte’s at The Coffee Bar, a hip little coffee shop around the corner and hit the streets!
One of my favorite things about big cities is that you can walk almost everywhere. Walking everywhere with a latte that has coffee art in the foam is an added bonus.
We popped into a few cute shops before deciding it was time for a big late breakfast, Ted’s Bulletin to the rescue!
When Robert and I were last in DC a few years ago our friend Bud raved about Ted’s Bulletin and their homemade pop tarts so I was excited to check it out.
Caite and I agreed to split one but were both way too full by the time we actually finished our food… next time!
After breakfast we did a little more shopping and then decided to make up for our missed poptarts and satisfy our sweet tooth with a few macarons.
We ogled all the pretty colors and unique flavors and went all in for the sampler pack.
As always with macarons I thought they looked a lot prettier than they actually tasted (I’m looking at you fruity pebbles…bleh). The almond and salted caramel were pretty yummy but I won’t be converting to a macaron lover any time soon (Ice cream forever!).
Atastytrip 