September 2016 – 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!!

Connecticut

By Jennie Simpson | September 26, 2016

We spent one week in Connecticut.

The State Capitol Building is impressive.

The dome was beautiful. You know I’m a sucker for a good dome. I love this one!

The architecture was interesting. I’m also a sucker for a good staircase.

There were stained glass windows and richly painted walls.

It’s called the Charter Oak Chair. Our tour guide called it The Wish Chair. The boys all sat in it and made a wish…There’s a story behind it and please forgive me, but I don’t remember it well enough to tell you. I struggled with connectivity issues so several weeks have passed since we were there. I’m sure you could find the story online if you’re so inclined.

The CT State Capitol Building made it to our top ten.

We caught the blue onion dome on our way out of Hartford. We didn’t really stop or get out of the car because it wasn’t in a safe neighborhood.

The only other thing we did in CT was visit Gillette State Park to see the “castle”.

We enjoyed touring this castle just as much as we did the Newport Mansions. They had nothing in common.

The castle had a very rustic feel. There were 42 doors and all of them were different. The light switches were carved from wood.

If you look closely, you’ll notice the chair is on rails to keep from scratching the floor.

There was even a library. Sadly, they had to add the wooden bars in front of the books because people kept trying to walk off with them.

Gillette loved trains so much he built his own train depot and track on his property.

You might recognize Gillette’s name if you’re a Sherlock fan. William Hooker Gillette was a play writer. Arthur Conan Doyle approached Gillette in the mid 1890s to see if he was interested in writing an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. Not only did Gillette write the play, he also stared in it as Holmes. Gillette gave the iconic character some of the symbols we’ve come to associate Sherlock Holmes with…the deerstalker cap, the pipe, and the catch phrase “Oh this is elementary, my dear fellow”. The phrase eventually developed into the “Elementary, my dear Watson” that we all know.

We didn’t do much in CT. We had zero cell service. And we didn’t really care for the RV park we stayed at. It was a long week of doing nothing and it kind of dragged by for us. I’m sure there are some very lovely and wonderful areas of CT, but we didn’t stay near them.

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

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!!

Newport Rhode Island

By Jennie Simpson | September 20, 2016

We spent one very long, very busy week in the Newport area of Rhode Island. This post is going to be picture heavy. I tried to scale it down, but honestly, I could do a separate post for each of the Newport Mansions. I don’t have time to do that though, so y’all will just have to go visit them. Pictures don’t do these mansions justice anyway. To fully appreciate them in all their grandeur you really must visit them. We ended up getting a one year membership to the Newport Mansions. If you can believe it…it was cheaper for a family of five to get a membership and have access to all eleven locations vs. paying for a bundle or buying tickets at each location.

I really struggled with getting decent shots of the insides of the mansions. The lighting was bad and I’m not experienced with shooting rooms like this. Sorry…I tried.

We started at The Elms. Built in 1901, the house was completely “modern” and had all of the technological advances of the time.

I should mention now that all of the Newport Mansions were considered summer cottages. They were used five to six weeks out of the year.

One of my favorite things to see on the tours were the vanity tables. I love seeing all of the old brushes and combs…everything they thought was necessary to be presentable.

Don’t forget The Elms had all of the modern day technologies of the time…check out the bathroom. No outhouses for these guys.

This is the china closet.

The tours are really well done. They’re all self-guided…kind of. When you enter the “summer cottage” you’re given an audio tour with headphones that guides you through the house. You get to hear about what’s in each room…little stories about the people who lived there…and even some about the people who worked there. At The Elms there’s even a separate tour you can take called Servant Life Tour. I’ll come back just for that and to go through all the mansions again.

The other part of the tour that always fascinated me was the kitchen. Check out that mortar and pestle sitting on the table. It’s hard to judge just how big they are, but you can kind of see a few bowls next to them. And check out those copper pots!! They’ve got spigots on them!

One of the themes we heard in several of the mansions was that “the mansion ran like magic”. You weren’t supposed to see how the place was cleaned or how the supplies got there. You weren’t supposed to see any of the servants except the male butlers. The Elms took it so far as to hide the entrance to where all the deliveries were made.

I somehow missed getting a decent shot of the front of The Elms…but here’s what the back looks like.

The next mansion we toured was The Breakers, built in 1895.

The Breakers is just one of the Vanderbilt’s summer homes. Some of the best things about the audio tours were all of the stories about the inhabitants. The Vanderbilt Family was just that…a family. We heard stories about the kids sliding down the staircases on serving trays. In fact, it wasn’t just the kids that did that. Apparently, they would have parties and everyone would take a turn sliding down the stairs.

There are 70 rooms at The Breakers.

This is the ceiling of the room in the picture above this one. There were so many great details.

I had to share these wall panels with y’all. They’re platinum leaf…so they’ll always be shiny. Platinum. You know…just because they can.

The gardens of The Breakers were all just as showy. I took way too many pictures here. Each house really could have its own post. I’m not even scratching the surface with what we saw here.

The saddest story we heard was at The Rosecliff.

The Rosecliff was built in 1902 by Tessie Oelrich who was a silver heiress. They were considered new money.

Tessie was very into the social scene in Newport and was considered “one of the three great hostesses” in the area. She loved a good party, but as time went on the other big families in Newport moved on. Tessie couldn’t quite let go of her Gilded Age life and stayed. In her later years, Tessie would wander through the empty rooms “serving guests” and encouraging them to have “just one more drink”.

The Rosecliff has been in several movies. You might recognize it from the 1974 Great Gatsby.

I love the view from Rosecliff.

Chateau-sur-Mer belonged to the Wetmore family and was built in 1852.

I love all of the painting in this house. The walls weren’t just decorated with wallpaper…they were artistically painted.

The ceiling in one of the rooms is carved solid wood. Not plaster painted to look like wood…but actual wood. I loved it!

The dining room had leather wallpaper that was stretched smooth and painted.

Here’s a closer look at the leather wallpaper. It’s starting to crack with age. But can you imagine the effect it had back when it was new? Go back and look at the previous picture. The dining room had a fireplace and was only lit with candles. They would put mirrored partitions in front of the doors to reflect the light and pull the curtains closed. With the shine of the leather…I bet it was magical.

Check out all of those different brushes!

Chateau-sur-Mer was the only mansion that didn’t have an audio tour. We had a guided tour here.

The boys’ favorite thing was the European Weeping Beech. They declared it fort worthy. It was pretty awesome.

Here’s what the whole tree looked like.

The last mansion we went through was The Marble House. It was built in 1892 to be the “ultimate statement of Gilded Age privilege”.

This is the Gothic Room it was built to display the Vanderbilt’s Gothic art collection.

The ceiling in the Gothic room. I never really paid attention to ceilings before doing the Newport Mansion tours, but the ceilings in these “summer cottages” were just as detailed and amazing as the rest of the room.

Because we all need a fresco above our dining room table. You know, it was kind of funny to hear how much work it was to summer in Newport for these families. They were expected to be seen doing specific things at the right time of the day, each day, wearing the appropriate attire…which meant changing clothes five or six times a day. And then there were the parties they had to attend. They had zero time to do what they really wanted to do.

And then we would hear how all of those dresses they wore (five or more a day) would have to have the buttons cut off before they were washed (to protect the button and the garment) only to be hand sewn back on. Have you seen how many teeny tiny buttons used to be on those dresses? I can’t imagine being a seamstress for the household.

The stairs up to the servant’s area of the house. The family would never go to the servant area. It was considered taboo.

The Marble House got its name from the 500K cubic feet of marble it’s made of.

We did make it to Providence, RI to see the State Capitol Building!

The dome was being worked on so…I really don’t know what it looked like.

They did have the best library we’ve seen in a state capitol building though!

We also snuck in a tour of Fort Adams.

We got to go into the ruins and hear stories about what life was like there.

They even led us up to the top of the fort where we had a great view!

But the best part was going down into the listening tunnels! I know the picture is a little blurry…we were trying not to be left behind in the pitch dark tunnels that broke off and went in every direction.

It was completely cramped, dark, wet, and you could have easily gotten lost….it was totally awesome.

And for those brave enough to venture in…they were rewarded with a sticker.

We even managed to see a lighthouse! It was one jam-packed week!!

There were some pretties…

we always make time to stop and smell the flowers no matter how busy we are.

Just watch out for the bees.

See y’all down the road!

#easterlooptour2016

Pizza Roundup Constantly Pizza

By Littlest | September 15, 2016

To my fellow pizza lovers, I bring to you another tasty pizza post.

Constantly Pizza in New Hampshire is a very good pizza place and has a large selection of tasty looking desserts, and even better, excellent pizza.

At Constantly Pizza you can find calzones, subs, Pizza and you remember the large variety of desserts I told you about?

Well they have gigantic Lobster Tails! And they’re soooo good.

Constantly Pizza has decent decor and nice staff, with clean bathrooms. With all that I give Constantly Pizza a 5 star review.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Cape Cod, MA

By Jennie Simpson | September 13, 2016

Hey Guys!! We spent one crazy, busy week in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts! I’d always heard how insane the traffic in Cape Cod can get, but it was so much worse than I ever imagined. There was a particular round-about that really mucked up the flow of traffic. It was hard to get in and out of it and it really caused a backup for several miles.

Other than the traffic issue…Cape Cod is a little slice of heaven on a beach.

We spent our first morning there at a Ranger Walk to learn about the beaches and sea life in the area. The boys loved the cool water after walking on the very hot sand.

The Ranger led us down the beach to see around 200 or so seals. Just FYI…great white sharks eat seals so if you see a bunch of seals taking refuge on a sand bar (and you’re in an area known to be home to great whites) chances are…there’s a shark somewhere close. Just something to think about.

We only had one full day in the area and we spent all of it beach hopping…trying to see as much of Cape Cod as possible. I’ll be honest here…we were also trying to get it done so we wouldn’t have to fight the traffic again. Yes…it really was that bad.

If you enjoy lighthouses this is your place. We visited three but spotted a few more.

We happen to be there on International Lighthouse Day. We tried our best to see all of the lighthouses Cape Cod had to offer.

This one was out on a point and it was sooooo windy! Super windy and parking was tight, but look how pretty it is!

We found a burger place…I know, I know… we have a thing about burgers. Some of you might call it an obsession, but we call it a way of life. This place though… It’s called The Knack. It’s definitely in our top 10.

Y’all know we love to take factory tours. We hadn’t been on a potato chip factory tour so we jumped on the chance to visit the Cape Cod Chip Factory!

For some reason, none of the factory tours allow photography. Which is such a bummer because this one was really neat. You shuffle down the hall where you get to watch a potato chip being made from start to finish.

I was allowed to take this picture of the first bag they used.

This tour is a self-guided, free tour and at the end you get this nifty little sample bag! Does anyone recognize the lighthouse on the bag from a picture earlier in this post? You can visit that exact lighthouse.

Besides some great beaches, we saw some amazing sunsets.

We were really close to Plymouth while we were in the Cape Cod area so we took an afternoon and went to visit the place where it all started. I’d heard it’s very touristy, but I really wasn’t prepared for just how much of a tourist trap it really is. We paid the extravagant price to see the MayflowerII. I wouldn’t suggest you do it. Just look at it from the outside and don’t bother going in. It’s really not worth it.

If you happen to be in the area, swing by and take a gander at Plymouth Rock. It’s…a small rock. It’s free to look at though! So, that’s a plus. It’s the only free thing in the area, I think.

So, here’s the thing. I get that people have to pay bills. I do. I get it. But why charge such outrageous prices for things that are being advertised as “family” and “educational”? There were a few other things in the area that were kind of all grouped with Plymouth and the Pilgrims and that whole piece of our history. You can look them up and make your own decisions…but read the reviews on them. Don’t just go to their website because they do a good job of making it look awesome. Read reviews. We chose not to go to the other things after we went to the Mayflower II.

There were a few pretties! I love these…they’re huge!

This one wasn’t completely bloomed out yet, but I love how delicate it looks.

You see the red dots? Those are actually seed pods from some flower that had already finished it’s bloom cycle. I think the red pods are just as pretty as the little purple flowers next to them and then the ocean behind them isn’t bad either.

All in all we loved the Cape Cod area! We will definitely go back…during the off season.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Pizza Roundup Basil’s Pizzeria

By Littlest | September 8, 2016

For my fellow pizza lovers I bring to you a review from Basil’s Pizzeria. Basil’s Pizzeria is a very tasty pizza place in Barre, Vermont.

Basil’s has of course pizza, along with subs, salads and last but not least, calzones.

The bathrooms there are nice and clean and the staff are really nice. Gluten Free crust is also available on the menu.

With all of this tasty and goodness I’m giving Basil’s Pizzeria a 5 star review.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

Hampton Falls Area

By Jennie Simpson | September 1, 2016

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!