Blueberries & Lobster

After our stay in Vermont, we headed east to Portland, Maine. As a family, it was our first trip to Maine (my second, years ago I went to see Phish at the Great Went - a much different experience this time around!). To sum up our trip - beauty, bluberries and lobster. For every meal, other than breakfast we ate lobster and in every meal, we had blueberries. The food in Maine was delicious! From lobster to lobster rolls, to tons of fried calamari, shrimp, and scallops, we ate pretty decadent and unabashedly so. Lyla seemed to like it too, especially the morning buns from the Standard Baking Company (which btw is an amazing bakery!). Seriously the best sticky buns I've ever had - ridiculously gooey and flaky at the same time.

On a Saturday morning we went to the Portland Farmer's market, which was definitely the best farmer's market I've ever been to, and supposedly one of the country's oldest. Situated in a lush park, there were tons of old school and new school farmers displaying their weekly crop. It was so lovely to walk through and see the wood shingled trucks, and the farmers proudly talking about their product. We were staying in a hotel, so buying lots of produce wasn't really an option - but we did eat a whoopie pie or two, and gobbled down a few bins of blackberries and blueberries as we walked the market.

Maine was the perfect way to end our weeklong New England vacation. As cliché as this sounds, it really looked like the "pictures". The coast was pure beauty and the weather was perfect, nice sunshine during the day with crisp air in the evening. And, I have to say, road tripping with a child is definitely the way to go. Lyla's been on over 10 flights since she's been born, and as wonderful it is to travel, at this age, a slow paced road trip of 7 hours, was much easier for us than a 2 hour flight, if you can believe it! Aside from cost, now I get why family road trips are a common summer time mainstay. Oh and another little treat - every morning around 4 or 5 am, little Lyla Belle would make her way in bed with us. This my friends, was a "when on vacation only" deal. I just don't want that habit to become a part of our daily lives. Although, it's pretty sweet for her to snuggle with us, you just really don't sleep. Most of the time she sleeps sideways, pushing both Patrick and I near the edge of the bed. She's made it clear, she is the queen in this household. And she deserves it. It's amazing how a little 25 lb. child calls the shots.

That's it for now, have a wonderful weekend everyone! The weather in NYC today sure is lovely!

Lovely Envelopes

A lovely collection of envelopes as art by photographer Andrew Bush. The envelopes are just as beautiful by themselves as they are together. Very inspiring...

{photos by andrew bush via another something}

Vermont Fancy

This summer we've had the opportunity to take a couple of vacations. Once Patrick got back from Portugal, after being away for almost a month, we took a road trip up north to Vermont. We had never been and I have a feeling after our amazing trip, Vermont will be a destination we frequent often throughout the years. We stayed up in Stowe and it was breathtakingly beautiful. Surrounded by lush green mountains, with waterfalls and swimming holes off of hidden paths, just sitting outside and staring at the pure beauty or taking a simple hike through the mountains was pure bliss. Lyla was a trooper as well. She loves being outside running and playing with sticks. On some of our more tricky hikes, miss little independence wanted to walk and climb all by herself which of course was a challenge reeling her in. It's amazing how fearless she can be.

As we were leaving Vermont and heading to Maine (I'll share our pics in a couple of days) I realized I forgot to buy some maple syrup. And lo and behold as we were driving we stumbled upon a little sugar shack where a retired husband and wife have been making maple syrup in the back of their property for the last 15 years. We pulled up to the driveway and Patrick got out and rang the owner's doorbell. The owner, Mr. Rogers, graciously welcomed us and gave us a little tour of his sugar shack. Throughout the years he's been in business, he's won multiple awards for his varieties of syrup and we ended up going with the Vermont Fancy & Medium Amber. Since we've been home, we've tried the fancy and by golly it's delicious!

Have a lovely Monday and I'll post photos of our trip to Maine in a bit.

{photos by thoughtful day}