the maine event

allen and i rolled in last night from an absolutely amazing 4 days in maine, celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. we slept in, shopped, hiked, drove around a lot, ate a lot, and had a blast hanging out together. we were told the leaves arent near as vibrant right now as they usually are this time of year, but i have no point of reference, so i thought it was gorgeous, especially considering that everything in texas is brown right now.
we stayed in a friends vacation home in the town of saco, about 25 miles south of portland. everything shut down at 5pm, and i mean everything. we were coming back one evening from shopping at an outlet mall about an hour away and as we drove down the main street i noticed both a tattoo parlor and a pub that were closed for the night (this was at about 630pm). really?!? the two establishments that should practically be required to stay open late had closed up shop. i had to laugh to myself. sorry citizens of saco, if youre going to drink too much and make bad decisions you're going to have to do it before 5pm...or go to portland.
and now i will bore you with a ridiculous amount of pictures. :-)

this is the house we stayed in. we were a 5 minute bike ride from the (very cold) beach.






monday we drove over to new hampshire and went to the franconia notch state park where we walked thru the flume gorge, one of the most beautiful and fascinating things ive ever seen.
this first picture is one i took from a 'scenic overlook' stop on the way there. i couldnt tell if that was a house or a little chapel out on that island.




the flume gorge

this waterfall is called the cascade. unbelievable.

new hampshire is famous for its covered bridges. there were two along the trail we were hiking. this one was my favorite.

see? arent the leaves beautiful??

tuesday we went on a self guided tour of 6 lighthouses in the portland area. this is portland head light, the most photographed lighthouse in the country.

allen and i in front of the spring point ledge light

im a food network junkie, and this place was on diners, drive-ins, and dives for its award winning seafood chowder among other things. there was quite a wait, even at 130pm, but we were willing to sit at the counter, so we waited only about 10 minutes. allen and i had a big late breakfast, so we split a lobster roll and a cup of the seafood chowder. oh. my. word. i couldve eaten a gallon of that stuff. allen is absolutely not a fan of any form of soup, but even he thought it was really really good!

YUM, LOBSTER!

i didnt take a picture, but we also ate at the kennebunk in, which was featured on food networks 'best thing i ever ate' for its lobster pie (cat cora's choice). it was delicious, mostly because the puff pastry topping should be illegal.


thursday we flew home, but not before having lunch in boston. i google searched anything in the area that might fit my food network criteria, and lo and behold we found roxy's gourmet grilled cheese food truck from food truck race. it just happened to be parked 6 short miles from the airport. allen had a 'green muenster' (muenster cheese, guacamole, bacon) and i regrettably had 'the rookie', which although very tasty was nothing more than cheese and tomatoes. i wish i had been more adventurous with my grilled cheese sandwich selection. go big or go home.

now we're back home and doing the typical 'ive been gone for a week and now i have to catch up on life' thing. i have so many more pictures, but i suppose this is enough for now.

i'll try to post different ones tomorrow for the 365project.

until then.....