The husband and I have been on the road a lot lately, shuffling from nursing home to hospice and back again. This means a decided lack of cooking at Casa River and numerous meals have been eaten out. While I enjoy my favorite haunts and their prodigious cocktail mixing, sometimes you just have to suck it up and go full on diner.
We’ve hit a few good ones, a few bad ones and a few that offered up some extremely odd selections.
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Yes, I live in Maine. Yes, it’s close to Canada.
But no, I have never embraced the regional favorite known as poutine. As for a hunk of barbecue bologna may I just say…
🤢
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I don’t care what you cover them in… no.
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Leave my burger alone poutine!
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Thankfully diner desserts are usually more appealing.
Take this lemon blueberry cake with fresh blueberry lavender compote. It was so huge and rich I took it home and ate it for 3 straight days.
Any of my Florida friends ever have a drinkie poo here?
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Weird, yes. But I think I’d have a hard time partying under a hanging tree.
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Twigs and leaves aren’t the only things it sprouts…
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To be clear this is not one of my favorite decorating themes. I have enough trouble with bras in every day life, I really don’t need to drink under a ceiling of them.
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Wow.
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The oldest bar in Florida definitely has history.
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Damn.
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I’ve had drinks with my share of dead beats, but this takes dead to a whole new level.
Since we’ve been emotionally overwhelmed and beyond busy with my SIL’s situation over the past month… other things have taken a back seat. And though I hate to admit it, that included visits to my husband’s elderly uncle. We’d been going once a week to visit, bring groceries and run errands but hadn’t done anything other than call in three. And then the other day, we found that his phone had been disconnected.
A visit to his house found it locked up tight, blinds drawn and truck missing.
A few frantic phone calls later….
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We arrived at the V.A. hospice facility.
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A huge campus with a pond and strolling flocks of Canada Geese. And unlike a lot of Veterans Affairs hospitals, a complex with an excellent reputation and amazing care.
It was here that we found my husband’s soon to be 91 year old uncle.
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A recent trip to the emergency room revealed he is riddled with bone cancer and has a mass on his lung.
He won’t be going home.
But honestly? He’s alright.. and has made his peace. He was in good spirits, joking, telling old stories and flirting with the hot and cold running nurses who are catering to his every whim.
This place is amazing.
Private rooms with a fridge, microwave and Bose sound system.
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A large menu. Room service food whenever you want it. An ice cream and dessert cart that goes door to door like the Good Humor truck.
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The high tech bed has Wi-Fi and a USB port.
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With multi colored light reflections on the floor.
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They even hooked up a DVD player and brought him John Wayne movies.
The staff is kind, compassionate and go out of their way to make him as comfortable as possible.
Losing a loved one is never easy, but he’s in a wonderful place and being well looked after. He’s a widower with one son who lives in Florida… so we’re going to do our best to visit as often as we can.
Then the world’s largest lobster roll must be even better.
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The Taste of Maine is a family owned and operated coastal restaurant that’s been a staple for tourists for the past 45 years.
You might recognize it’s giant lobster from my previous posts.
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Yes, it really is that big.
What’s also big is the price tag for that super sized crustacean sandwich.
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You read correctly. $160 for what amounts to two pounds of lobster on a roll.
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No self respecting Maine native would ever order one or pay such a ridiculous price, but a week after they opened for the season they’d already sold quite a few….
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For that price you should get it any damn way you please.
I spent 5 hours following my husband from store to store looking for a new weed whacker last week.
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Don’t believe the people who tell you men hate to shop. When he’s looking for a new toy for himself? My guy will shop until I drop. We hit at least 7 different lawn and garden sections and then went back to the very first place we stopped so he could buy the very first one he saw.
And then?
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The man who owns a giant zero turn tractor and four push mowers… yes, four. Two of them self propelled. … started looking at new push mowers.
For me.
The person who doesn’t want one.
It was at that point I said enough… and made him take me for a nice late lunch.
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A fresh blueberry mojito was a good way to start.
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Every time I see this old tool art installation I want my husband to do something like it in the man cave.
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And every time, he says no.
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To start… it was butternut squash soup for the husband and some fabulous dry rub barbecue shrimp for moi.
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A basil limeade later?
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An amazing Bolognese with fresh pasta and a lamb, beef and pork ragu. It was so good I didn’t even notice what the husband ate.
River's world..... 