Maine – Our RV Trip

Pizza Roundup Pizza Boy

By Littlest | September 29, 2016

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, pasta,

calzones and wraps.

The staff are nice and the food is good, they also have clean restrooms. They have a variety of pizza that includes a chicken bacon ranch pizza, but I just got the classic pepperoni 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.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Pizza Roundup Angelos Pizzeria

By Littlest | September 22, 2016

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

Angelos Pizzeria has nice staff, clean bathroom and tasty food. Angelos has more than just pizza,

they also have 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.

Angelo’s Pizzeria definitely deserves a 5 star review.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

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! Are you ready?

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.

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!

Salem is kind of what you would expect. It’s filled with all things witchy…new

and old.

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.

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.

We made it to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site where the boys got 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!

Let’s start with the Capitol Building. It’s gorgeous! Look at that golden dome!

The inside didn’t disappoint either. We did a tour where we met a lovely family from England!

And then we saw the dome. And 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!

One more picture of the Capitol Building…I couldn’t leave out the tile floor. 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.

We stopped by the Paul Revere House and strolled through. It’s a self-guided tour with interpreters around to answer any questions. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside. You’re looking at 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.

We stopped by one of the graveyards on the Freedom Trail. The one in the picture is 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 here.

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, it’s doesn’t look like 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 it!

I had to stop by the Make Way For The Ducks sculpture. Super cute!

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.

We explored Halibut Point State Park one afternoon.

Halibut Point State Park used to be a quarry. You can see the “pond” it made in the 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! Anyone need some blueberries? We have plenty!

We explored the ruins of Fort Constitution. There wasn’t much there.

Most of it looked like this. I’m not even sure this 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 the tidal pools at the lighthouse…but there wasn’t too much in them.

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 don’t know what kind of flowers these are, but they’re all over the place!! I love love love them!!

I don’t think this is fireweed, but it’s really close. I love the purple.

These are in our RV Park!

You can’t tell from the picture, but this bush is well over six feet tall!

Pretties from Boston.

There’s sumac all over the place here!

I know it’s a weed, but I really like it. They call it Queen Anne’s Lace and when it’s all bloomed out it’s a really pretty white flower.

I think that’s it! We fit quite a bit into two weeks!

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Acadia National Park

By Jennie Simpson | August 25, 2016

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!

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 the boys were introduced to the different sea creatures they could find in the area tide pools. In the photo above, The Dude is holding a sea star.

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.

I love 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 of the thunder noise. 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 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 thing 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 a place where you can get a decent shot of it from the coast line. 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.

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.

But, look at the 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.

One of the cool things…and something we hadn’t seen before…is the way Acadia does their trail signs 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 was over it after the first one. If I’m going to hike, I need the payoff. An old bridge in the middle of a forest just doesn’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. I think I was expecting more. Everyone I spoke to…all of the books I read…they all made such a big to do about the Carriage Roads. But, guys…they’re just nicely graveled paths. I dunno. 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, they won’t tell you. I guess it’s deemed too dangerous. We went on a Sunday afternoon and had the place to ourselves. We took our time here and really soaked up the views.

More views from the Raven’s Nest area. 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! lol! 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.

We found tons of muscles and more periwinkles…but no sea stars.

Littlest and I had fun trying to get pictures of the waves splashing up on the rocks.

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!

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 crabbing! They had such a great time.

They would catch a bucket full and then take them back to the beach to have crab races with them.

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 full-time in an RV 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, y’all. 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?!

Wild flowers! Everywhere! I was in flower heaven!

So. Stinkin’. Pretty!

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

By Jennie Simpson | August 19, 2016

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 pic above? Lets take a closer look.

These are the hot dog buns. Y’all know what these are. We’ve all eaten way more of them than we should. There’s nothing really special about them.

These are the frankfurter buns. 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?

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:2]

Finished Lobstah Roll. 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 y’all make these and love them as much as we do! Let me know what you think if you make them!

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!

By Jennie Simpson | August 16, 2016

We only spent a 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. 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 above. Elaenor 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 (except Littlest) tried them and guess what…we liked them! Except Littlest. 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 on the dock and had our pick of lobsters that had just come in. 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 made it home just fine and were talking to each other when we opened the cooler. Magnus was not amused. He sat guarding the cooler for a while. He’s always certain that his death is imminent.

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. The day we did this it was a balmy 57° outside.

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 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. 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 will 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

By Jennie Simpson | August 12, 2016

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.

Yup, the dome is covered. Dang. I’m sure it’s a lovely dome. I heard that it’s covered in gold leaf.

It’s very basic inside. There are over 200 paintings throughout the building.

We didn’t take the tour at the Concord, New Hampshire State Capitol Building. It’s a very small building. The door to the Senate Gallery was open so we went in to have a look. 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 picture above 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 Littlest 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. 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 their. 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.

Mr. Man has 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. You get the three Fs at The Red Barn…fried, fresh, fast! Guys…it was so good! We got the Mixed Seafood Baskets to share. Except Littlest. He had 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 enjoyed it!

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

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Category: Maine

Pizza Roundup Pizza Boy

By Littlest | September 29, 2016

Pizza Roundup Angelos Pizzeria

By Littlest | September 22, 2016

Hampton Falls Area

By Jennie Simpson | September 1, 2016

Acadia National Park

By Jennie Simpson | August 25, 2016

Lobstah Rolls

By Jennie Simpson | August 19, 2016

The Easternmost Point in the US!

By Jennie Simpson | August 16, 2016

NH and ME State Capitol Buildings

By Jennie Simpson | August 12, 2016