Category: Maine

Pizza Roundup Pizza Boy

Pizza Roundup Pizza Boy

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To my fellow pizza lovers, I bring to you a post about Pizza Boy in East Wareham, MA.

Pizza Boy is a tasty pizza place with

more than pizza. They have salads,

roast beef sandwiches, pasta,

calzones and wraps. That’s a pretty good menu!

The staff were nice and the food was good! They also have clean restrooms. Pizza Boy has a variety of pizza that include a chicken bacon ranch pizza, but I just got the classic pepperoni pizza. That’s my favorite kind of pizza!

The tables and chairs could have been a little cleaner and there wasn’t any air conditioning. It was very hot!

All in all I will give Pizza Boy a 3.5 star review because of how hot it was and the fact we had to clean our table. If you were just going to pick up your food or have it delivered, I would give Pizza Boy a 4.5 stars.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Pizza Roundup Angelos Pizzeria

Pizza Roundup Angelos Pizzeria

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To my fellow pizza lovers I give you a post about Angelo’s Pizzeria. Angelo’s Pizzeria is a pretty good pizza place in Ellsworth, ME.

Angelo’s Pizzeria has nice staff, clean bathroom and tasty food.

Angelo’s has more than just pizza, they also have big calzones and

steak sandwiches and salads and pasta and bread sticks. Sadly we didn’t get any bread sticks, but I imagine they are good. We really enjoyed everything we got!

Angelo’s Pizzeria definitely deserves a 5 star review.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Hampton Falls Area

Hampton Falls Area

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We used Hampton Falls, NH as our base camp to explore the area. We spent two weeks in NH bouncing around between Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. I usually break these kinds of posts up, but I’m going to smash it all into one this time!

We spent a day in Salem, MA. Salem is a place I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. The whole witch trial thing always fascinated me. Salem is kind of what you would expect. It’s filled with all things witchy…new and old.

There’s so much history in the North East. We made it by the Lyceum Hall where Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call. Extra points if you know what he said!

The Old Town Hall was in a movie you might have seen…Hocus Pocus! I geeked out just a bit here as we walked by. It’s always fun to walk by places that you’ve seen on the big screen…or small screen!

We stopped by the oldest grave yard in Salem. The Witch Trails are such a sad part of our history. It bothered us how touristy Salem is…we feel like they’re being a little disrespectful to what really happened there. I’m not going to go into a history lesson here…we all know what happened. Real people died in some horrific ways here…maybe tone down the touristy vibes a bit.

We made it to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site where the boys earned another Junior Ranger badge! And that was the end of our time in Salem!

We spent a day in Boston, MA walking the Freedom Trail! I love Boston! I’m just going to throw that out there right from the start. I loved it way more than I thought I would…you know, since it’s a big urban area!

Let’s start with the Capitol Building. It’s gorgeous! Look at that golden dome! The inside didn’t disappoint either. We did a guided tour at this SCB and on it we met a lovely family from England! It was interesting to hear their take on the building and America.  When we got to the inside of the dome, we stood there with our mouths open for a minute. Look at that stained glass!! All thirteen original colonies are represented in this stained glass. Love it! I couldn’t leave out the tile floor. It’s so pretty! This Capitol Building is high up on our favorites list. It didn’t disappoint at all. I could do an entire post about it, but we’re leaving the Hampton Falls area tomorrow and I’m not sure I’ll have cell service at our next spot so I’m trying to get all caught up on my posts. If you’re in the area though…make time to visit this SCB!

We found our way to the Paul Revere House and strolled through. It’s a self-guided tour with interpreters around to answer any questions you might have. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside. I think it’s kind of weird not to allow photos of this place as long as you don’t use flash…but, it is what it is. The Paul Revere House is the oldest house in Boston. Looks pretty good for its age.

Another stop on the Freedom Trail is the Old North Church where the two lanterns were hung on April 18, 1775. You can go in and look around. We’d never been to a church where the pews were boxed off like this. Apparently, back when the church was first built, you would purchase your own box. I guess people were very particular about who that sat next to.

 We stopped by one of the graveyards on the Freedom Trail. The one in the pictures above is called Copp’s Hill Burying Ground. One of the things we noticed about the gravestones in both Salem and Boston are that they’re a lot thinner than what we’re used to seeing. Quite a few of the headstones were decorated with the skull and cross bone symbols or a skull with wings. The symbols were supposed to be a reminder to the Puritans of the mortality of the body.

I love the mixture of old and new buildings in Boston!

I may have geeked out a bit here too. I mean, it’s Cheers! Where everybody knows your name! We went in and had some burgers. No, the inside doesn’t look like it does on the show. I was a little disappointed with that. It was a long hot day of walking though and that air conditioned seat felt wonderful! It might not have looked like the Cheers on the television, but there was a wall dedicated to the show!

I had to stop by the Make Way For The Ducks sculpture. Nicholas helped me by standing next to the duck so we could get a size comparison. Super cute! (the duck and the kiddo)

Ok. One more picture of Boston. This is Swan Pond. How lovely is it? We didn’t stick around long here because we were all so tired and ready to be back in the car. I have to take a minute to brag about the boys. It was so hot while we were in Boston and we walked so so many miles…the boys didn’t complain or whine at all They were such troopers!

We snuck out one afternoon to explore Halibut Point State Park. This state park used to be a quarry and you can see the “pond” mining the area made in the bottom right picture above. We saw this pretty little bird while we were heading back to our car. It let me get really close!

Not far from where we stayed was a farm where you can pick your own blueberries! I’m pretty sure some of us (I’m sure you can guess which of us) ate more blueberries than what they put in the baskets. Ha!

We explored the ruins of Fort Constitution. There wasn’t much there. Most of it looked like the picture on the left. I’m not sure the tunnel on the right was part of the original Fort…it was right next to it.

We went to see the Nubble Lighthouse! It was a gorgeous day! We checked out some of the tidal pools at the lighthouse…but there wasn’t too much in them. The boys still had fun looking in them though!

Best of all…we got to meet up with one of my friends! Hey Anne Marie!! One of the things I like the most about our nomadic lifestyle is that I get to go visit friends!

Are you ready for some flowers? I loved seeing the purple and blue ones all over the place…so pretty! I don’t think the purple flowers in the bottom middle picture is fireweed, but it’s really close. There’s sumac all over the place here! The flower in the bottom left picture is called Queen Anne’s Lace and when it’s all bloomed out it’s a really pretty white flower. I know it’s a weed, but it’s so pretty I wanted to include it.

These were in our RV Park! You can’t tell from the picture on the right, but this bush was well over six feet tall!

I think that’s it! We fit quite a bit into the two weeks we had in this area!

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park

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Acadia National Park is one of the country’s smallest National Parks, but it’s also one of the most visited National Parks. More than 2 million people explore Acadia each year and I think they were all there with us. While we loved the park, we didn’t love the crowds. We spent two weeks in Acadia trying to find our own little piece of Down East.

 The first thing we did was drive up Cadillac Mountain to take in the views. It was breath taking! One of the other hikers there offered to take a picture of us! She did a great job! But really, with that view…I’m not sure there could be a bad picture.

The boys got to take their time with the Junior Ranger books since we were there for two weeks. We went to a Ranger Talk where they were introduced to the different sea creatures that could be found in the area tide pools. In the photo above, Alex is holding a sea star and Nicholas is hoping he’s not asked to hold it. Ha! Nicholas isn’t the most adventurist when it comes to holding gross things that come out of the ocean.

Speaking of tidal pools…we found tons of them…but no sea stars anywhere! Bummer!! All of the pools we found had plenty of muscles and periwinkles along with seaweed and sometimes…a few crabs. But, no sea stars. The search continues…

We absolutely loved Maine’s rugged coast line!

We made it to Thunder Hole…I think we must have been there at the wrong time though, because it wasn’t very active. The tide was coming in and it was making a little bit of a thunder noise…nothing big and no water swelling up. Oh well, something to try and catch next time!

The majority of Acadia National Park is on Mount Desert Island. We drove around looking at all of the harbors. I love all of the bobbers on the buildings. The tides play a huge role in the daily lives of the Mount Desert Island inhabitants. Most of them have a boat. One of the things we noticed is that because the tides are so big, they have to anchor their boats pretty far out from the coast. So, they all have these smaller boats to get out to their bigger boat.

We went to see the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. You can’t get to a place where you can get a decent shot of it from the coast line. I guess this light house is better viewed from a boat. The lighthouse was built in 1858 and is still fully functional. Right now someone lives in it, but allows people to come take pictures with it. Which I think is really generous. Can you imagine living in a place that thousands of tourist flock to every year? There would be zero privacy.

My favorite hike in Acadia is the Bubble Rock hike. It was short, but strenuous up to the summit of Bubble Rock where you get to see a huge boulder left over from when the glaciers moved through the area.

The boys tried their hardest to push it off. It didn’t budge. Not really…we just posed for a picture. Can you imagine if that boulder actually fell? It would be devastating for everyone below it.

Look at that view! We actually managed to get this spot to ourselves for a good twenty minutes! It was amazing!! When we were leaving about ten or so people were meandering their way up. One of them was nice enough to snap a picture of the five of us at the summit sign. It was appreciated since we don’t get many shots of all of us.

One of the cool things…and something we hadn’t seen before…is the way Acadia does their trail signs by re-purposing fallen trees.

The Acadia Bridges. There are 16 or 17 of them. I guess a lot of people will spend years getting pictures of all of them. We hiked to three…I hate to say it, but I was over it after the first one. If I’m going to hike, I need the payoff. I need some amazing view at the end. An old bridge in the middle of a forest just didn’t do it for me. The Carriage Roads…sigh. Again, if I’m going to hike…I need something to look at besides a road and trees. There are close to 60 miles worth of Carriage Roads to walk on. You can’t drive on them, but you can walk, bike, or ride in a carriage. And a lot of people come back year after year to experience every one of the Carriage Roads.

I think we were expecting more. Everyone I spoke to…all of the books I read…they all made such a big to do about the Carriage Roads and the bridges. But, guys…they’re just nicely graveled paths and old (albeit neat) bridges. I don’t know… To each his own.

We drove an hour to go visit the Schoodic Peninsula area of Acadia NP and boy howdy, it was totally worth it! We found the top-secret location of the Raven’s Nest. Don’t ask the Rangers about it, they won’t tell you. I guess it’s deemed too dangerous. We went on a Sunday afternoon and had the place to ourselves as we took our time here and really soaked up the views. I bet you’re wanting to know where this magical place is. We might…just maybe…have the GPS coordinates for it. I don’t know if we should give them to y’all. I mean, what if we give them to you and y’all go and fall off the cliff? I would feel terrible! But, if you promise not to go and be boneheads and fall of the cliff, I’ll give you the coordinates.

Promise?

Ok, good. Here are the coordinates 44.352005, -68.074934.

Now go forth and enjoy the splendor that is known as the Raven’s Nest! Ha! Just please be careful and if you have little kids hold their hands.

We made it all the way out to the peninsula and played around on the rocks by the shore where we found tons of muscles and more periwinkles…but still no sea stars.

Nicholas and I had fun trying to get pictures of the waves splashing up on the rocks. It took us a few tries, but we eventually got the timing just right!

As we were leaving the Schoodic Peninsula we spotted some sea otters playing! We sat in our car by the road watching them for a few minutes. We were losing the light and the otters were moving on when we spotted a porpoise! We had such an amazing day filled with nature and wild animals! It happens to be our favorite way to spend a Sunday.

On our last night in the area we met up with another full-time RV family. They showed the boys how to go crabbing. The boys loved it! They had such a great time hanging out with kids their own age. They would catch a bucket full of crabs and then take them back to the beach to have crab races with them. When they were done all the crabs were released back into the water.

It’s so rare to find other full-time RV families that have kids the same age as ours. You can imagine how different their perspective on daily life is compared to non nomad families. So when we find another family with kiddos…it’s a treat for all of us.

This was our last sunset in Acadia. Not a bad way to end our time there. We shared a campfire with some new friends and got to swap stories about living the full-time RV life with kids.

I know y’all are wondering…yup, we had lobstah!!! And we had to have a piece of blueberry pie. I mean, we were in Maine. It would’ve been a crime against nature to not have some blueberry pie. We also had to have a whoopie pie. When in Maine, right?!

There were wild flowers everywhere! I was in flower heaven! This post is already so long though so I’ll just leave you with these two pictures!

Alright! That’s our time in the Acadia area! We already want to go back, but we want to go back when there aren’t 2 million other people getting in the way.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Lobstah Rolls

Lobstah Rolls

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Are y’all ready for another recipe?!

We fell in love with Lobster Rolls while we were in Maine, but they were on the pricey side at around $16 a piece for only ¼ pound of lobster meat. Instead of paying those prices we decided to make our own. I looked on the interwebs and found several recipes, but in the end we did our own thing. Lobster rolls aren’t hard to make. There are very few ingredients because the star of the show is the mild flavor of the lobster meat. If you’re not careful you can cover up the taste of the lobster and you’ll miss the whole reason you’re making lobster rolls to begin with.

I’ve actually got a few pictures to share with you for this recipe. Nope, I’m still not going to do step by step pictures for you (I’m not Pioneer Woman), but I would like to show you a few things.

There aren’t many ingredients to this recipe. It comes together really quickly.

I found this on a place mat at a restaurant. I thought it might give you a nice visual on how to pick apart a lobster. We used leftover lobster meat we had from our Lubec, ME lobster feast. You can use whatever you can find, in fact, if you can’t find good lobster, this recipe would be just as good with crab or shrimp.

We started seeing these weird looking hot dog buns once we got to the Pennsylvania area. I think it must be a North Eastern thing. They don’t even call them hot dog buns, they call them frankfurter buns. Can you see the differences in the pictures above? Lets take a closer look.  Y’all know what hot dog buns are. We’ve all eaten way more of them than we should. There’s nothing really special about them. The frankfurter buns are a bit different. Notice how they look like slices of thick cut Texas toast? The sides are flat and cut. There’s a reason for this. These buns have changed our lives. If you can’t find these buns for this recipe, I suggest you try to cut your hot dog buns to look like them. Trust me on this.

Now do you see why frankfurter buns are essential to this recipe? You toast them! With plenty of butter…I mean, really slather that butter on! Y’all aren’t on a diet, right?

This lobster roll ruined all other lobster rolls for us. We stopped eating them out because we were always disappointed with what we got.

If you can believe it, we had leftovers.  Not much…just enough for a couple of us to enjoy it at lunch the next day. This stuff rocks on a salad!

Ok! There y’all go!! I hope you make these and love them as much as we do!

Disclaimer…we’re not professional chefs or photographers, but we’re doing our best to share our lives with you.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

The Easternmost Point in the US!

The Easternmost Point in the US!

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We only spent one weekend in Lubec, Maine, but we wish we’d spent a couple of weeks.

Lubec was founded in 1811 and was once the home of fishing fleets and smugglers, but is now known for being the easternmost point in the US. The area has 20 foot tides and has 96 miles of coastline…so it should come as no surprise that there were quite a few lighthouses.

Right across the International Bridge is Campobello Island, New Brunswick where you can spend time exploring Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Franklin D. Roosevelt grew up spending summers on Campobello Island and later when he had a family of his own, he took them to spend summers there. You can wander through the 34 room Roosevelt summer home. There are interpreters there to answer any questions. The boys were curious about the huge megaphone you can see in the photo on the right. When the Roosevelt’s were staying at the cottage, the megaphone would be hanging up on the porch right outside the door in the photo on the left. Eleanor would use it to call the children home. We were told her voice could be heard over a mile away.

The first thing we did when we got to Lubec was find a place to eat. We ended up at Fisherman’s Wharf. It was fantastic! The food was amazing and the service was spot on! They talked us into trying some periwinkles. We tried them and guess what…we liked them! Except Nicholas. He stalwartly refused to try one. In his defense, they do look gross.

You can’t come to Maine and not get some lobster…or lobstah!

The RV park we stayed at told us where we could go get some lobstah right from the boat! We drove half an hour to get to Little River Lobster Co in Cutler, ME and let me tell you…it was soooo worth it! We walked right out onto the dock and had our pick of lobsters that had just come in that morning. Talk about fresh seafood! We loaded our cooler up with almost 15 pounds of lobster and then put some seaweed on top of them to get them home. Did you know you can pack lobsters in seaweed? It worked beautifully! And because I know you’re curious…we got all of that lobster for around $80. Lobstah for days!!! Remember that lobster roll in one of the pics above? That one lobster roll cost around $16. We found that price to be pretty consistent throughout the area.

The lobsters were all alive and well when we made it back home and were talking to each other when we opened the cooler. Magnus was not amused. He didn’t like the noises they were making and he wasn’t fond of the smell either. He sat guarding the cooler until we took it outside. Magnus is always certain that his death is imminent. He’s also afraid of his own shadow.

Sunset RV Park has lobster gear to loan out to anyone who stays there. For free. They even came down and told us how long the lobsters needed to cook! We cooked our lobster in sea water. Jerl braved the cold weather and cold water to wade out and fill the pot. He made a few hoops and hollers while doing it. I might have had a good laugh at his expense… The day we did this it was a balmy 57° outside so you know the water was cold.

Let’s talk lobstah. Did you know that lobster used to be so plentiful that they would wash up on the shores of Maine? They could be plucked up right of the shores. In the mid-1800s lobster was selling for 8¢ apiece. The big boy you see in the photo above is on a 16 inch tray. He’s what they call a Select. He was hard shelled while the rest of the ones we got were called Chixs and they were all soft shell.

Vocabulary time!

A Chix lobster is the yougest and weigh 1 pound.

A Quarter lobster weighs 1¼ pounds.

A Select lobster is a choice lobster and weighs at least 1½ pounds.

The one we got was close to 4 pounds! What’s the difference between hard shell and soft shell? A lobster will molt about 14 times before it reaches maturity. Every time it molts it sheds its hard shell and is left with a softer shell until the shell has time to harden.

While lobster was a definite highlight of our time spent in Lubec, we also did a couple of awesome hikes!

Thanks to an Instagram friend we found out about the Bold Coast Trail. I highly recommend it! The trail wasn’t difficult and it spits you out with the view in the left photo above. We had the place to ourselves so we spent quite a bit of time taking in the scenery.

On the way to Eastport, Maine we made a little side trip to a place called Reversing Falls. There’s not a waterfall. It’s called that because you can stand there and watch the current reverse its direction with the tide. Remember those 20 foot tides I told you about? We didn’t get to see it reverse, but we did enjoy another small hike and had the place to ourselves!

Eastport, Maine is the easternmost town in the United States. We spent an afternoon there where we found another lobster roll to try. I mean…we were in Maine…we had to eat lobster, right?

We stopped by Raye’s Mustard Mill. You could try all 20 or so flavors of mustard. I think we tried them all. And then we bought more mustard than one family really needs. Looks like we’re set for a while!

The only thing we didn’t love about the Lubec, Maine area was the road getting there. It was sooo bad. It might have bumped the ALCAN out of our worst road ever spot. It was that bad! Now, having said that…we made it there fine. And we would travel that road again to go back.

There were a few flowers. The wild roses were everywhere and smelled so good! And Guys….we found fireweed!! In Maine! It’s official…Maine is a mini-Alaska!!!

We loved the Lubec area so much we’ve decided that once we’re done with the fifty state tour we could easily spend one or two months there…someday!

#easterloop2016

NH and ME State Capitol Buildings

NH and ME State Capitol Buildings

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I’m combining the New Hampshire and Maine State Capitol Building posts.

We only spent a night in New Hampshire on our way through to Maine, but don’t worry…we’re going to be doing some more things in New Hampshire on our way back down the coast.

The New Hampshire SCB was under some construction so the dome was covered. Dang. I’m sure it’s a lovely dome. I heard that it’s covered in gold leaf.

The inside was very utilitarian, but everything that was there had a meaning or purpose. There were over 200 paintings throughout the building. We didn’t take the tour at the Concord, New Hampshire State Capitol Building so unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of information on it. The door to the Senate Gallery was open so we went in to have a look. You can take a look at it in the bottom left photo. The New Hampshire Senate is the fourth smallest state Senate with only 24 members. So far, each of the New England states has had a Hall of Flags in their State Capitol Buildings. You can see some of the flags in the bottom right photo above. The flags were all in a display case.

I spotted these flowers on the corner across from the State Capitol Building and had to snap a picture. We did manage to squeeze in a pizza place in New Hampshire before we headed on down the road. I’ll let Nicholas give you all the details about that though!

 Next stop was the Maine State Capitol Building! The Maine State House was in line with the other New England Houses. Very basic, clean lines, utilitarian. We saw another Hall of Flags, but all of these flags were replicas. The real ones were at a museum.

This was the first time we saw a porch at a State Capitol Building. According to the tour guide, it’s used often when the Senate and House are in session.

There was a dome and we actually got to see it! It’s…cream colored. As the guide was walking us to the Senate Gallery, she warned us that we couldn’t touch the Senate chairs. That even the Senators weren’t allowed to touch another Senator’s chair. And she watched us like a hawk while we were in there. Jerl dared me to touch one on our way out. I may or may not have accidentally brushed against one of them. Maybe. Maybe not…

The RV park we stayed at while we were visiting Augusta, ME was right by the Kennebec River. It was beautiful and calm while we were there!

Charles had been looking forward to the seafood offered in the North Eastern states. We stopped in at a local favorite called The Red Barn where your meal comes out and is all one color. Ha! You get the three Fs at The Red Barn…fried, fresh and fast! Guys…it was so good! We got the Mixed Seafood Baskets to share. Except Nicholas who opted for a burger. And then Jerl and I got a cup of the Seafood Stew to share. Oh! And I had to try the onion rings! We thoroughly enjoyed everything we got!

We’ll be in Maine for about a month so we’ll definitely get a chance to experience more of what Maine has to offer.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016