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Since our weather has been crazy beautiful?
Road trip!
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York Beach, a popular tourist destination during the summer but wonderfully deserted this time of year.
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It’s a typical seaside community that we avoid like the plague during peak season.
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But on a bright November afternoon?
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These folks had the right idea.
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Across from the ocean?
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Some seriously large pumpkins.
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It’s a lovely area.
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Off season.
😉
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The husband and I made a trip to York recently to visit the Stonewall Kitchen mothership.
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It’s a huge store with a cafe that offers cooking classes as well.
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I’ve always wanted to go because I love their products and this is the only place you can find their entire line in one place. The tasting stations are a helpful way to avoid buying things you don’t like and since the holidays are approaching there were decorations scattered throughout.
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Who knew Santa liked martinis?
🍸
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I admit the husband wasn’t as thrilled with the excursion as I was.
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But he’s enjoying the results all the same.
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Do you Stonewall?
https://www.stonewallkitchen.com/
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Doing dishes the other morning I noticed movement on the farm across the street.
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A young buck had been startled and was running across the field in front of the not yet finished greenhouses.
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They sure do blend in this time of year.
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In other news I saw an advertisement for a product I certainly could have used back in the day.
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Not dying anymore is all you can ask for in a hangover cure…
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Our weather has been all over the place lately. 70 degrees during the day, 27 at night. It’s temperature whiplash but it makes for some interesting foggy mornings.
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There’s something eerily peaceful about waking up to fog.
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It lets me ease into the day slowly.
In other news… my husband went searching for something without asking me the other day and tore everything apart in the process. He laid waste to our utility closet and was halfway though the kitchen junk drawer when I walked in.
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Ironically he organized said drawer in the process and now I can’t find anything.
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🤣
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten caught a mouse yesterday.
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Pulled it out from under the day lily undergrowth just as proud as could be.
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Not that he knew what to do with it.
We have a lot of mice here in the country, and yes… they’re sweet, but they also try to find a way in our nice warm house in the winter and that I can do without.
His Lordship’s mother would prefer he catch and quickly dispatch the rodents to Mickey Mouse heaven but Lord Dudley is a pacifist and prefers to make friends instead.
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He and his new buddy hung out like this for a while … and then went their separate ways.
Sigh.
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I love finding new cocktail recipes but sometimes I wonder where the names come from.
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This is one of those times.
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And since I’m always posting photos of sunrises and sunsets, here’s a different spin.
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Moonset.
🌜
The mosquito is often referred to as the Maine state bird since our state has ample wooded areas and lakes for it to breed. They can get pretty large up north, but I have to admit the one we saw on someone’s front lawn the other day takes the prize.
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I’d hate to be bitten by that bastard.
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Another beautiful fall day, another scenic drive in the never ending search for good beer.
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North to Bangor.
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To the Bangor Beer Company.
Hidden behind the mall, in the back of a Chinese restaurant… it was an odd little place.
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With a line of old pinball machines and some quirky art.
The beer? Maybe we’re too picky… we try a lot of craft breweries and may set our standards too high… but we found this selection dishwater flat and not at all interesting.
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Elderflower grapefruit martini for me.
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We expected the sesame chicken appetizer to be better seeing that it came from the large Asian restaurant in front, but it was so tough and stringy we didn’t bother ordering a full meal.
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The men’s room floor made my husband smile and snap a picture, but that’s not reason enough to ever visit this brewery again.
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Passing through downtown Bangor…
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We grabbed a quick sandwich and took the back roads home.
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😊
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Even when we’re taking a scenic drive…
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Just cruising some fall foliage…
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My husband has to stop.
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And while I don’t mind antiquing once in a while, these overstuffed, packed to the rafters junk stores drive me crazy.
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No room to move and entirely too much crap overloads my senses… but the husband loves them and always thinks he going to find buried treasure.
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Photo of my husband failing to find treasure inside and checking out behind the building.
🥴
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Thankfully they wanted $1,200 for this old wagon, otherwise he’d be building another extension to our shed.
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On a beautiful autumn day we went beer hopping.
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Heading north to Brewer…
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To visit a brewery about which we’d heard good things.
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The space is large and funky…
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With windows behind the bar that look directly into the brewery.
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After sampling a few beers… the current tap selection was too IPA heavy for my taste… I snagged the cocktail list, and Oh. My. God!
I set to work.
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A true artisan was at work here and luckily he was our bartender.
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I started with the Black Seeds which was a fabulous twist on a margarita.
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We could have sat outside on the patio… but it was too far away from the cocktails.
😉
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The menu had a sense of humor.
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And the Truffle Pig pizza was amazing.
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But my second (and yes, okay… my third) drink was a masterpiece.
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Lilith’s Last Kiss was a complex, multi layered flavor extravaganza that I would happily drive the hour and a half for again.
👍
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Leaving Sugarloaf without having secured a late lunch, we changed direction and headed for Rangeley.
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The town is named after the lake, one of Maine’s largest, and I felt sure we could find a decent restaurant there.
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Blog title aside, we parked next to some very green grass and entered a likely looking spot.
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With a welcoming front porch and some stellar trees..
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It was a bit brisk to sit outside so we ventured in.
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There were tables with nice views…
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So my husband headed straight for the bar.
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Where the view wasn’t as nice but the autumn sangria made up for it.
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The staff wore these shirts…
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But I didn’t, so we moved on to tater kegs with chipotle aioli.
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These were great but my husband wasn’t pleased with the pub food only menu, he wanted more of a meal.
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Next stop.
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The cranberry mule was lovely.
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And though I passed on the banana bread old fashioned? I thought of you Mark.
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Sadly, even though the loon/bear totem pole was interesting … the food was not.
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My fish sandwich was so thin it was flipping itself off.
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And not finding much more in the way of full meals here than he did at the first place, my husband’s chicken tenders were flat, over breaded and clearly frozen. He sent them back and we moved on.
Giving up on a good meal, we headed for home.
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Where it started to rain and pretty much put an end to our leaf peeping.
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🥴
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River's world..... 