Foodie Find – Page 10

A Time Of Firsts

By Jennie Simpson | November 2, 2016

The plan was to stay a week on the outer banks of North Carolina enjoying the Kitty Hawk area. Mother Nature threw a monkey wrench in our plans though with Hurricane Mathew so we only stayed for three days. We crammed everything we could into those three days and in the process totally fell in love with the area.

My main reason for going to the area was to visit The Wright Brothers National Memorial. In the photo above you can see the original buildings the Wright Brothers lived and worked in while they were at Kill Devil Hills trying to get their contraption to fly. You can also see the Memorial up on the hill. This is the first and biggest memorial to be built for someone while they were still living.

Nope. It’s not the original, but it’s a copy right down to every detail, built the same way the Wright Brothers would have built theirs. The original was destroyed when a gust of wind caught it and threw it around before they could get it tied down after the fourth flight attempt.

You can see the stone markers signifying where each of the first three flights landed in the picture above. You can also see on the sign, a copy of the photo that was taken of that very first flight that lasted all of 12 seconds and went a grand total of 120 feet.

There’s a neat little area set up that shows what that first attempt looked like with the Wright Brothers and the few guys they had helping. Notice it’s on sand? That’s because when the Wright Brothers were there the area was more like a desert. Not much grass and no trees. Go look up a picture of it on the interwebs. You’ll be surprised at how different it looked back then.

On our first morning there, we got up to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic. It was pretty spectacular.

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It was an amazing way to start the day! We even spotted a pod of dolphins playing in the surf!

We made it to Roanoke Island where the first English Colony was formed and where the first English child (Virginia Dare) was born in the New World.

You might remember from your history class that the fate of the people of this colony is unknown. The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved in a tree. Nope. It’s not the original tree, but it is a fun picture opportunity!

We only made it to one of the area’s lighthouses since our time was cut short, but it was a really neat lighthouse and it was one of the Visitor Center’s for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. We didn’t make it all the way down to Cape Hatteras either…but, that’s ok. We’ll just have to go back and visit the area again.

After talking to our neighbors (hi neighbors!) we decided to go to Corolla Beach and try to find the wild horses. We didn’t see them, but we had fun driving on the beach!

We did take time to play on the beach. It was right outside our RV park. We could see it from our door and hear the waves at night. It was pretty fantastic! Littlest wanted to fly a kite on the beach so we went and found a kite. It wasn’t hard, they sold them everywhere. It was our first time flying a kite on the beach! You’ll notice we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We didn’t mind.

We spent the entire afternoon building sandcastles, playing in the waves, finding seashells and sea glass and just…relaxing. None of us wanted to leave.

We tried Duck Donuts for the first time. It won’t be our last. We’ve all declared Duck Donuts as our favorite donut place. You walk in and order your donut with the glaze/frosting you want, add whatever toppings you want, and top it off with the drizzle of your choice. And then you get to watch them pull your donut out of the fryer and make it so when you get it it’s still warm!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!! We’ll be in Raleigh, NC next week…guess what donut place is there! Muuwaahahahaha…I’ll eat one for you.

We also got our very first taste of North Carolina BBQ. We’re fans. It’s quite possibly the best BBQ we’ve ever had…anywhere. We went to a place called High Cotton. Guys, we’ll go back to the Kitty Hawk area again just to eat there. It’s really that good. We got to chat with the owner while we were there and he’s the nicest guy. If you’re ever in the area, you have got to stop in and grab a meal. Then get one to go so you can have “leftovers” the next day!

That was all the time we had. The boys managed to earn three new Junior Ranger badges before we had to head inland. We weren’t sure what Hurricane Mathew was going to do and it’s better to play it safe in situations like that, but we’ll be back! We didn’t even scratch the surface of what there is to do there.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Washington DC

By Jennie Simpson | October 11, 2016

Hey Guys!! We spent one week in the DC area and it wasn’t nearly long enough. We had four very crazy, very full, very looonngggg days where we ventured into the DC area and we still didn’t get everything on our list done.

We somehow managed to snag tickets for the White House tour. We heard we were one of only five Texas families since February 2016 that’s been approved.

We got to look through some of the rooms that I’m pretty sure aren’t really used much anymore.

Several of the rooms had a color theme. Can you guess the name of the room above?

There were Secret Servicemen everywhere. Most of them were super nice and full of all kinds of info. We asked them all the questions we could think to ask. From how many colors of green were in the Green Room to how heavy the chandeliers are in the photo above.

Caught this view out one of the White House windows. Not bad, right?

I’m pretty sure they set this up as a photo opp…but it’s a good one.

And check out this piano! Gorgeous!!!

The very first thing we did in the area was visit the zoo. Littlest is panda crazy and has been looking forward to seeing a real, live panda in person all summer.

He was in heaven. We met an old friend of ours and her family at the zoo. *waves at Kiki & family* We got to catch up while the kids all watched the animals.

We stayed at an RV park not too far from DC. They have an orientation about how to get around the area. It was super helpful. We used these two maps the whole time. We never had to actually drive into the DC area. We always utilized the Metro system.

One of the experiences we missed out on in NYC was the subway system. The boys were curious about it and wanting to ride it, but we just didn’t get to do it. So, while we were in DC we rode the Metro often. The first ride was pretty exciting for them.

For those of you wondering what it looks like. Here’s one of the Metro stops.

We found a few foodies… This is a Banana Fosters Shake. It was fantastic! So good!!

And we found a great little hole-in-the-wall Salvadoran place. It too was just fantastic!!

We hit all of the memorials that we could. This is the WWII Memorial.

We had to snag a picture by the Texas post.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Lincoln Memorial. We actually got a decent picture of the boys here without tons of other people in the shot. I think there were roughly a thousand or so people there at the same time we were trying to get the Junior Ranger stuff done.

Korean War Memorial

The Washington Monument was closed while we were there. Something to do with the elevators. We still enjoyed seeing it.

Vietnam War Memorial.

Iwo Jima Memorial.

We found the National Cathedral. It was gorgeous. I love all of the angles and spires around it.

We made it to the Arlington National Cemetery.

It’s a lovely place full of quiet reverence.

We spent several hours here walking around.

We watched the changing of the guard before we left. It changed us all. You can’t watch something like that and not be changed. The boys still bring it up in conversation every so often.

We made it to the Maryland State House!

The dome was ok…

It had some pretty stained glass.

We found the reddest room in the world. If it’s not official it should be. The walls were red velvet.

The Maryland State House is where George Washington resigned from the military.

There was a neat little museum on the first floor. The area around the building was pretty neat too! We enjoyed this one.

We even managed to get in a tour of the Nation’s Capitol Building! We wanted a complete set…

Did you know that if you contact your State Rep that they will set up a private tour for you so you don’t have to wait in the long lines? And you get to go into the tunnels that connect the Capitol Complex. It was pretty cool.

I want y’all to know I got in trouble taking this picture for y’all. Apparently, you’re not supposed to stop in the center and lay your phone down on the ground while you’re at the Nation’s Capitol. I thought for a minute I was going to get kicked out. I made sure to snap the picture before getting up though. I mean, I was already there…and in trouble…might as well get the shot.

Each state gets to have two statues in the building. So…there are statues sitting everywhere. It’s kind of weird.

Our tour guide showed us the Whispering Spot where John Quincy Adams used to have his desk in the room in the photo above this one. We stood over this spot and our guide stood way over across the room and whispered. And we heard him! It was the coolest thing!

This is the old Senate Chambers. It used to have wooden floors. Notice the spittoon. They were everywhere! According to our guide all of the Senators used to chew tobacco and instead of using the spittoons they would just spit on the floor. It became so gross that if you dropped anything at all you just left it. And instead of stopping or using the spittoons they would just rip out the wooden floor every so often and replace it. Talk about a waste of money. Sheesh. Can you even imagine the smell this room most have had??? Bleh!!!

We found a few pretties…

Not too many. It was late in the season.

We walked a lot in the four days we were in DC. Sometimes it pays to be the Littlest.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Foodies, Friends, and Forts

By Jennie Simpson | October 4, 2016

We stayed in South New Jersey for a week so we could see the Delaware State Capitol Building. We struggled with connectivity here too.

The Delaware State Capitol Building looks more like a building you might find on a small University campus somewhere.

It’s very small and sparsely decorated.

It didn’t take us long to stroll through the entire building.

Right across the street from the Capitol Building is this really cool Compass Rose. It took us longer to look at this than it did the building itself.

The plan was to visit Fort Delaware, but when we got to the ferry crossing we discovered Fort Mott. We also discovered that we’d just missed the ferry and would have to wait an hour or so for the next one. Bummer.

So, we strolled around Fort Mott. It’s a pretty neat fort.

There were some great info signs and some great views…but it was super hot and the boys were starting to make some noise about eating so we left before we got to see Fort Delaware.

The best thing about this stay was meeting up with my friend Nicole and her family for some burgers! *waves at Nicole* Nicole and I have been Facebook friends for over ten years, but we’d never met face-to-face. It was so fun to finally get to sit and chat with her!!

We had some great burgers at a place called Burger 21.

And…I found my new ice cream obsession. Crème Brûlée Shake.

So. Stinkin’. Good!!

We also found a really good Mexican place! We were so shocked! Y’all know we’ve been to our fare share of unfortunate Mexican restaurants. We really don’t even try them anymore, but we were wanting something spicy so we threw caution to the wind and tried one. We were not disappointed!

See y’all down the road!!

#easterloop2016

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

Montpelier, VT

By Jennie Simpson | August 9, 2016

Remember back in the Albany post how I told you I had several State Capitol Building posts to do? Montpelier is number two of four.

Vermont has the smallest State Capitol City. It’s tiny. The dome you see on the building is covered with 23.7 carat gold leaf. I had high hopes for this building. It looked so promising from the outside.

I’ve got three pictures to show you of the Vermont State Capitol Building and one of them is a picture of the floor. In the lobby, the floor is made of marble. The white tiles are from Danby, Vt and the black tiles are from Isle La Motte on Lake Champlain. All through the building you can see fossils from the Chazy Fossil Reef. We loved that!

We took the guided tour and saw the Senate Chamber, Representatives’ Hall, and even the Governor’s Office. It was all nice and tidy…and needing some work. There wasn’t anything opulent. It was, in fact, all very modest. In the Reception Room we saw two stained glass skylights. They were both lovely. I’m afraid that’s all I have to tell you about the Vermont State Capitol Building. After seeing the grandeur of the New York State Capitol Building…the Vermont SCB was a little disappointing. I was looking forward to the dome, but we didn’t get to see it because it’s been deemed unsafe. What a bummer.

When you think of Vermont, what comes to mind? Maple syrup and dairy, right? We found a place called Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks to explore the maple syrup making process.

You can walk around and look at where they get their maple. It all starts with the trees. They call early spring “sugarin’ time”. One tap hole can produce up to fifteen gallons of sap each season. Since it takes forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, it takes up to three trees to make a gallon of finished syrup.

Once they’ve collected the sap they run it through a reverse osmosis then it goes into the machine you see above. The whole point is to get as much of the water out of the syrup as possible and bring it to a specific temperature. Interesting fact…way back when Vermonters started working with maple, they actually cooked it longer and made a sugar out of it. When the white cane sugar we all know became popular, the people of Vermont decided to start making maple syrup instead of maple sugar.

Think that stuff you poor over your pancakes every morning is maple syrup? You should check the ingredients. More often than not it’s actually corn syrup flavored to taste like maple syrup.

It’s known as creemee in Vermont, but the rest of the country knows it as soft serve ice cream. At Morse Farm they add maple syrup to their creemee and it is magical! We all got treats. Littlest had the Maple Popcorn Sundae.

We found a Ben & Jerry’s Factory to take care of the dairy part of what Vermont is known for. There’s a guided tour that takes you right by the factory where they’re making the ice cream. Be prepared…I snuck a shot just for y’all…

Oh dang…you can’t really see anything. *giggle* We weren’t supposed to take photos of the factory. The guide said something about corporate secrets…honestly, you can see everything you would want to see from the picture above. I’m not sure what secrets they were worried about leaking. It looked amazingly like any other food factory floor.

They took us down to the original flavor lab. This is the place where Ben & Jerry used to make all of their flavors.

And then they give you a free scoop of the flavor of the day. For us it was Triple Caramel Chunk. Yummo!

And…of course, we had to visit the scoop shop on our way out even though we’d just had some free ice cream!

I forgot to tell you about the Flavor Graveyard where you can stroll through the “graves” of the flavors that have been discontinued. It was a fun tour with a tasty ending!

We only spent a week in Vermont, but we will definitely go back! Beautiful countryside, and a foodie’s paradise…Vermont has some hidden treasures.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

The Niagara Falls Area

By Jennie Simpson | July 26, 2016

IMGP4122 — New York welcome sign next to Canadian border

We spent a week in the Niagara Falls area of New York. The weather was hit and miss…a few days it was more like summer, but mostly it was cool, windy, and rainy.

Our RV park was only half an hour away from Buffalo…and since Jerl and the boys love wings so much…we had to have Buffalo Wings in Buffalo. We found Anchor Bar which claims to be the creator of the Buffalo chicken wings and we couldn’t pass up the chance to try the originals. I kind of wish we’d passed. The place was a dive and was super expensive. Our waitress…I’m pretty sure she was high on life (or something). My friend (hey Dawn!) suggested Duff’s Famous Wings. We gave them a try the next night. I didn’t get any photos…but it was a much better experience! The wings were great, the service was great and best of all…the place was clean!!

While we were in Buffalo, we took a small side trip to the Erie Basin Marina and Gardens so we could poke Erie Lake. We have to touch the water or I can’t put the sticker on our map.

I’m conflicted about the Junior Ranger book here. It’s the Niagara State Park, but there’s a National Park Junior Ranger booklet…but it’s for the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area. This is the first time in almost fifty badges that we’ve encounter a Junior Ranger booklet that required us to travel so far from the park and pay admission to several different places in order to complete the booklet. Sure, they give you the nifty lanyard…and they’re supposed to give you the pins as you visit the places (not every place gave us one)…but, this was the hardest, most involved booklet the boys have done. Now, having said my piece about all of that…the booklet pointed us to a few places we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Hence, the conflicted feelings…

Old Fort Niagara is a place you could easily spend an entire day exploring. We got there right before a storm blew in across Lake Ontario and toward the end of the day so we rushed our visit. The building above is the French Castle built in 1726.

Old Fort Niagara has a history that spans more than 300 years. The area was originally used by Native Americans. Most of the buildings are open and you can freely explore the grounds.

The site has been occupied by the French, British, and American forces through the years.

Old Fort Niagara was restored between 1926 and 1934. The rooms have been made to look like they might have during the time when Old Fort Niagara was in use. They fire off the canons and guns at certain times though out the day. Between the downpours of rain and the timing we missed it. We did hear it though. The boys just about came unglued the first time. They’d been chattering and joking around and when the canon fired they stopped and looked around. We chuckled. They chuckled…but continued to look around for threats. I wish I’d gotten a shot of all of their faces that first time.

We made our way to Lockport where the Erie Canal Locks 34 & 35 are. We shimmied in to the Erie Canal Discovery Center about half an hour before they closed.

IMGP4226 — Jerl and Mr. Man learning about how the locks work

There was a great little museum that explained the history, the building, and the local life of the Erie Canal.

Right across the street from the Discovery Center is the actual Erie Canal. We were able to walk up and down some of the locks and really get a good look at them.

We would have missed this place if it hadn’t been in the Junior Ranger booklet. The New York Power Vista is such a cool place!

When you walk in they issue you a Power Portal ID. You have to register it in their computer and then you head to the museum to earn points by completing tasks. When you’re done with everything you can print out your avatar and the amount of points (watts) you earned (generated).

IMGP4283 — Mr. Man learning about electric circuits

Not everything earned you points. Some things were just for exploration and learning. We were geeking out here. We love experiments and places that let our inner nerd shine through.

Some of the displays were more high tech. The one above really made the boys problem solve and think outside the box while they put together everything they’d learned about electricity and circuits. I want to point out the adult lady watching Mr. Man. This wasn’t an easy activity. Several of the adults couldn’t figure it out.

The object of this exercise was to make a stable electrical grid. There were different pieces you could put on the digital table that would react with the other pieces as well as the environmental elements represented. Get it wrong and your grid blows up. Get it right and you get your points for this activity! We played with this one for a while. One of the coolest things about our nomadic lifestyle is the hands on learning. We don’t have to just read about things in books…

The New York Vista isn’t just a museum, it’s a working facility that produces clean energy.

IMGP4103 — Niagara Falls. American side at night.

Niagara Falls. Our first night in the area we went to see the falls lit up. It was our first time seeing the falls…and we were all extremely underwhelmed by the view. There were a few hundred people there all trying to cram into the one small area where you could actually see anything of the falls.

The First Date burger (sauteed mushrooms, diced tomatoes, garlic and brie cheese) with the Poutini Martini fries (fresh cut fries, cheese curds, gravy, and onion ring)

On our last day in the area we crossed the border into Ontario. We, of course, had to find a burger place. And I wanted to try poutine. We found a place called The Works. We were able to walk there from the American side of Niagara.

The Dead Ringer burger (smoked beef brisket, smokey bbq sauce, jack cheese, jalapenos, and an onion ring) with the Longhorn Poutine fries (fresh cut fries, cheese curds, gravy, smoked beef brisket and bbq sauce)

Guys, this place…it’s officially on our top ten. Everything we had was amazing. Everyone there was super nice. We’re already wanting to go back!!

I told you how underwhelmed we were with the view from the American side of Niagara…well, the view got incredibly better as we were walking across the bridge to the Canadian side of Niagara. The shot above is from the bridge.

IMGP4316 — American Falls from the Canadian side of Niagara

All of my Canadian friends told me the view of the falls is better from the Canadian side. They were right. We’d walked over to Luna Island (that little smidge of land toward the right side of the picture above) a few days before. It was something altogether different seeing it from the other side of the river.

IMGP4329 — Horseshoe Falls and a Hornblower Boat

There’s a wonderful park with nice walkways all along the river on the Canadian side of Niagara. This was our first good view of Horseshoe Falls. Each side of the river has their own touristy things. On the American side you’ve got The Maid of the Mist boats while on the Canadian side you’ve got The Hornblower boats. In the pic above you can see one of the Hornblower boats. The Maid of the Mist boats stop giving rides by 5PM but the Hornblower boats continue to give rides well after dark.

The rainbows changed shape, size, and number depending on where you were standing.

I know, I know…I usually save the flowers for the end…but I wanted to end with a surprise. These purple flowers were on both sides of the Niagara River. I couldn’t get enough of them!

There were some wildflowers here and there too on both sides of Niagara.

On the Canadian side you can walk right up to the side of Horseshoe Falls. The American side was under construction. We couldn’t get close at all.

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Sometimes a picture doesn’t do it justice. We stood watching the water for a while. The water rushing by us so fast gave us a slight sense of vertigo.

We stopped in a Tim Horton’s while we waited for the sun to completely set. The temps dropped quickly outside so we welcomed the opportunity to get in out of the cold breeze and mist from the falls.

When it got closer to 10PM we made our way back to the Rainbow Bridge to watch the fireworks. We wanted to get out of the press of people and wanted to be a little farther away from the show so we could get some better pics.

There weren’t very many people on the bridge. We had our choice of places to stand…and the view was gorgeous!

IMGP4395 — Fireworks from Rainbow Bridge

We ooo-ed and ahhh-ed along with everyone else on the bridge.

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Because, who doesn’t love a good fireworks show?

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Pizza Roundup New York City

By Littlest | July 22, 2016

For my fellow pizza lovers I give to you a double pizza post for New York City!!

The first pizza place is Bleecker Street pizza in Little Italy section of New York. My mom was told that we had to have pizza from Bleecker Street if we wanted a true NYC pizza experience.

Bleecker Street pizza is pretty tasty, but you would expect that in the Little Italy section of New York City. We did not sit down at Bleecker Street pizza so I can’t tell you how the staff is but the bathrooms are nice.

Now I will review Famous Original Ray’s pizza!

Ray’s has super big slices of pizza that are really good. I do not remember if their bathrooms were clean or not so this review is based just on pizza and decor. The decor was ok but the pizza was excellent so that is good.

I give both Bleecker Street and Ray’s 5 star reviews.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!

NYC Times Two

By Jennie Simpson | July 19, 2016

It took us two full days and walking over twenty miles to see what we wanted to see in New York City. And…as you might guess…we still didn’t see it all, but I wasn’t going to talk Jerl into going back any time soon. Big cities aren’t really our thing and New York City is about as big as they come. I’m not into big cities either, but I do enjoy NYC so I could have easily gone back for a third or fourth day to do some more exploring, but I think I would’ve had to go it alone. I’ll post our NYC explorations in the order we had them.

On day one we spent over half the day at Ellis Island and Liberty Island so we didn’t even reach NYC until around one in the afternoon. We used the Statue Cruises ferry to hop from the New Jersey side to the NYC side so we wouldn’t have to drive in NYC at all. We landed in NYC in Battery Park and started our trek north through the city.

The 9/11 Memorial was our first stop. A few things about NYC stood out for me. One of them was the sheer number of NYPD Officers out and about at certain locations. At the 9/11 Memorial, there were quite a few officers keeping watch. Staying vigilant.

The 9/11 Memorial was beautiful. Simple and clean.

Our next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge…along with about a million other people. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and was the first bridge to link Manhattan and Brooklyn. We walked part way across the bridge, but we were pressed for time and watching the weather which was calling for rain. I would love to go back and go to DUMBO to get a good shot of the whole bridge. I’m hoping that one of these days…in a far off future…I’ll be able to talk Jerl into going back.

Our next stop was Chinatown.

The boys were starving so we grabbed some dumplings from Fried Dumpling to eat on our way to our next destination.

I’d been to Chinatown before when I took a trip to NYC with a bestie of mine way back when I was in Junior High…so I knew what we were in for. The boys…I think they had a bit of culture shock. I could have spent the entire day roaming around China Town!

I saw several people taking selfies with the wall above. It’s pretty and I probably would have had one of the boys take a pic of me and Jerl there…but we couldn’t make it across the street and we didn’t want to walk all the way back to it. I know…sounds lazy…but our feet were starting to scream at us so, we walked on. We made it all the way up to Washington Square (which was packed with people) where we grabbed a slice of pizza on Bleecker Street and some tacos from Otto’s.

It was close to five-ish at this point and we were all tired so we called it a day and made our way back to our ferry to head home.

Day two was actually a couple of weeks later. The plan was to ferry up to the 39th street pier. When I glanced online it looked like the ferry we were using went there. It doesn’t. So, we walked. We headed back up to Washington Square.

We were in the city by 9AM this time and the walk wasn’t too bad. We also went during the week which, I think, helped. Washington Square wasn’t nearly as crowded this time and I got a decent shot of the fountain and the arch without a thousand people milling around.

On the north side of Washington Square is “The Row”. Greek Revival homes where some of the elite in New York City of the 19th century lived. Looks so pretty! You’d never know that right next to where I snapped this shot was a huge smelly pile of trash.

We didn’t go up into the Empire State Building. I’m sure the panoramas are enviable. But the line was insane and the price was worse. I refuse to pay that much just for a view. We did walk right by it and look waaayyy up…it is a long way up there. And I did snap this great shot on the way to our next stop!

The Flatiron Building is a 1902 skyscraper. The 22 story triangular building is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper.

We wanted the full NYC experience so we had to try a hotdog from a food cart!

So…we were walking along and I noticed a few people taking pics of something behind us. I turn around to see a great shot of the Chrysler Building! When it was completed in 1931 it held the title of “world’s tallest building”.

I didn’t take this picture because it’s a digital American flag. I took it because of all of the police officers guarding it. It saddens me that they have to guard it. I don’t know if you can see it, but one of the guards is heavily armed. Don’t ask me what kind of gun it was…I don’t know guns…it was really big and looked like it would shoot a missile. Can’t we just get along?

Broadway! I snapped this pic on the way by.

Junior’s Most Fabulous Cheesecake. We had to have some New York Cheesecake while we were in NYC! Right?! We spotted the Junior’s Bakery and grabbed a slice to share. Junior’s has been around since 1950 and apparently, it’s the place to go for great cheesecake. It really was fabulous. It was so good that when we saw a frozen Junior’s at the grocery store, we bought it!

We made it to Times Square! It was packed with people and the all of the signs were flashing up ads non-stop. We stuck around just long enough to snap some pictures and then we were off again.

We grabbed a slice from Ray’s Original as we made our way up to Central Park. I think this is the biggest slice of pizza I’ve seen.

Rockefeller Center! We’re fans of Jimmy Fallon. We stood there for a few moments hoping a chance sighting. It didn’t happen, but it was fun to see the building!

You see it in movies, hear about it on shows, but the number of yellow taxis was astounding! They were everywhere!!

I didn’t know this was here. We were walking by and I spotted it so…I had to have a picture of the boys with it. I’m not sure how many LOVE statues this one makes…I should count those up.

Central Park! I don’t know why…but for some reason my goal was to reach Central Park. I needed to see it. It was so odd to walk out of this huge city and into a forest like setting…but look up and see all of the skyscrapers!

I also really wanted to find this bridge. This particular bridge was on an episode of Doctor Who. If you’re a true Whovian then you’ll recognize it. If not…well, you can still appreciate the beauty in the picture. It was a really wonderful place in the park.

Here’s another shot of the bridge. Notice all of the row boats? There were tons of them out! By this point our feet were screaming at us. And not nice things. So, we headed back toward the ferry terminal. It was about a four and a half mile walk from the pic above to the ferry terminal.

There’s a great park all along the NYC side of the Hudson so we headed to the river and then started the walk south. The Intrepid was on our way. We were way too tired to go explore it, but we did sit on some benches and admire it for a bit. We met a guy at the RV park we were staying at during this time who served on the Intrepid. He told us a few stories so we thought about what it was like for him on that big ship while we sat there listening to our feet scream some very unflattering things at us.

One World Trade Center is presently America’s tallest building coming in at 1,792′ to the tip.

Don’t worry…I’m not leaving out the flowers! Yes! There were tons of flowers in New York City! I was pleasantly surprised by all of the gardens and flowers throughout the city. The pink ones above were in a garden along the Hudson.

This little garden was also in a park along the Hudson. Remember that park I told you about? It had a skate park, playgrounds for kids, playgrounds for furry four-legged kids, basketball courts, tennis courts, splash pads…and it had open green spaces for people to hang out in.

We saw people doing anything and everything you would normally do in your backyard…I guess because they were in their backyard.

These flowers were in Central Park. I love the clean lines and colors. They smelled horrid…but they’re pretty!

It was somewhere around 6PM when we dragged ourselves onto the World Financial Ferry Terminal. Some of us didn’t even wait to get back to the car before they fell asleep. I think we wore them out!

And there you have it. Our NYC times two experience. I loved it. All of it. The rest of us…well, they liked the ferry ride and the food. 😉 I might need to find someone else to go back to NYC with. Any volunteers?

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Pizza Roundup Potsy Pizza

By Littlest | July 7, 2016

For my fellow pizza lovers, I bring to you a review of Potsy Pizza.

Potsy Pizza is a really, really good pizza place in Allentown, PA with more than just tasty pizza.

At Potsy Pizza you can get a half and half pizza and spilt it or a full pizza and split or whatever’s good for you.

While we were at Potsy’s we got garlic knots, very garlicy, very tasty, and comes with warm marinara, yum!

Potsy’s has sandwiches, wraps, pizza, calzones, and Strombolis.

When they found out it was my birthday, they gave me a slice of cheesecake!

The staff at Potsy’s are super nice, the bathrooms are clean, and the decor is nice.

I think Potsy’s deserves a 5 star review.

See you next time on…

Pizza Street!!