Providence, RI

New England holds a special place in our hearts.  Not only do we have ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower, my mother was raised there in a quiet little town south of Boston.  Whenever we have the chance to make a visit back there, we jump at the chance. This month Mark had a board review conference in Providence, Rhode Island. Despite the fact that I got sick the first day we were there, we had a really sweet time and really enjoyed the time we shared with family.

 First order of business is lunch at Caserta's!  It's the real deal people! And the pepper pigs!  Yum.  So nice to be with Aunt Gin and Uncle Len. Lots of chatty catching up and Mark had to get back to his classes, I got to go home with Uncle Len and Aunt Gin.

 This is one of my very favorite photos - ever!! I snapped it with my cell phone while I was recording some of our conversation.  She pulled out her tape recorder which is full of her telling stories about her life and singing songs!  We sat and listened and laughed until our sides hurt!  Then she shared stories and recipes.  It was the best!

 I love how she will turn the card over and record what was going on that day while she was preparing the recipe.  What little treasures these cards are. I helped her cook up some crepes for dessert.

 She made us her mother's recipe (which she has tweaked a little) for Goulash and we enjoyed the crepes for dessert with Lens' homemade applesauce and strawberries. Nothing better than dinner at their table.  Such a treat!

 Uncle Len doesn't like to smile for the camera too much but he is the sweetest guy you will ever meet.  The stories these two have!  I need a copy of him smooching me off of their camera!

 On the "hill".  One of our favorite places in Providence.  So Italian.

When we go with a big group of us, everyone orders and we take a bite and pass it around the table.
Today it was a Chocolate Peanut Butter Square for Mark and Lemon Tart for me!

Thursday I rested in the hotel and did some stitching.  Colds are NO FUN on vacation! That evening we went to dinner at Siena's on Federal Hill.  Maddy introduced us to this fabulous restaurant a couple of years ago.  They win "best of" awards every year.  I think they were best in the state for Italian this year.  Fantastic!  If you go...get reservations for the back of the restaurant, it's more quiet.

The architecture up around Brown University is beautiful.  We went to the museum at Rhode Island School of Design - RISD. It was fantastic! It is housed in several old buildings that are all joined together. A neat display of Japanese block printing...

One room full of about a dozen cases of textiles from over the centuries.  The students were given an inspiration piece from which they had to design their own new piece.  This cute girl was so fun to visit with.  Oh to attend this wonderful school of design!!  She knitted the black thread out of a plastic type material and worked it into her piece. So cool!!

Quito's is a family favorite.  Their full bellied fried clams and scallops are the best in the world! 

And the chowda... oh my! So nice to dine on the waterfront.

Saturday we went with Maddy down to Point Judith to get lobsters off the boats!  What a blast!!  She is one of the most delightful people you will EVER meet.  Her sister, Cathy is just as wonderful.  They are Len and Gin's girls.

Questions about the industry...and we learned many things.  A bullet is a lobster with no claws, a cull has only one claw.  If they loose their claw in a fight...they will grow one back! Cool!

Maddy is adding to our collection in the cooler.

 These little necks/quahogs, whatever you like to call them, will be opened up and slurped down raw with lemon juice and hot sauce!  I'm definitely my mama's girl when it come to these treats!

 I don't look too excited, do I?

I think we took home about 12-13 when all was said and done!

 What a gorgeous day!

 You can see Maddy's new outdoor room that they have worked on this past year.  What a place! It has everything you could want from a TV to a fridge with chilled beverages! Her sweet husband and chef extraordinaire,  made us Stuffed Lobsters and we gorged ourselves, enjoying every last morsel!
Can't thank you enough - Eddy and Maddy, for your generous hospitality and love!

***

And last but not least...the BEST part of the entire trip!  We got to meet up with Brady & Dani with the kids at the Baltimore airport on our layover there!  It was such a great refueling visit with them!  We hugged those kids over and over again! Liam showed us his two new teeth and how well he is learning words in French and Elsie is talking up a storm! ADORABLE!

Now...four more days until my Open House!!  Better get busy!

Back To School Time

The day before school started Emily tried out a new recipe she had 

pinned on Pinterest:

S'More Cookies...yep! An ooey gooey s'more wrapped 

with chocolate chip cookie dough.

Talk about indulging!

 Here they sit alongside some normal sized cookies :)

Who looks more excited here?  Yep.  Dad. 

And please hurry with the photo taking, Mom...I'm late for school!

 Last year I didn't even get a back to school photo because she was far away in Brazil.

Time flies and our baby is a Junior in High School.
We are so proud of the beautiful girl she is and so happy to have her back in our home.
Have a great year, Em!! And I'm glad I snagged a photo - even if you were almost late xo

A Visit to Delta

Every once in awhile Mark will cover a shift in the ER at the hospital in Delta.  I decided to come along for the ride this time - I had never been to Delta before and I thought it sounded like an adventure and a quiet weekend to get some handwork done and to study for a final I have next week.

He wasn't kidding when he told me there was not much to do there and it was kind of out in the middle of nowhere.  But I have to say...I sure do LOVE small towns!  LOVE them!!

  The sun certainly knows how to put on a show here...my cell phone barely captured the 

magnificent sunset tonight.  The colors were beautiful and it seemed to last forever!

Last night we enjoyed dinner at a nice little Mexican Restaurant - sorry no photos but the people's interaction

was just as great as our meal was.  Everyone knows everyone here and going out is such a social experience. It's so much fun to people watch!

 Tonight Mark said we had to go to Rancher's Motel/Cafe.  It is pretty much the only sit-down 

restaurant in town and it is where everyone in town suggests you go for dinner.

Look at that tiny little moon in the sky.

As we were walking in this van caught our eye.  Hey, isn't this the guy that was in the news not too long ago? The one who had like 500 reptiles in his house in West Valley?

Mark is very intrigued with this sign and decides he would like one for each of
our cars...maybe it would help keep the RIF-raf away :)

So we are seated, make our selections from the menu and enjoy looking around the cafe. Don't you just love them? Our waitress brought us some warm rolls from the oven - the kind of rolls that are so soft and fluffy but also quite weighty in your hand...oh the love of homemade bread - and two containers full of homemade jam.  "Snap" went the camera.  "Uh  - are you taking photos of your food?" She asks. I humbly answer yes and she throws her laugh out into the room!  "Oh, that's awesome!" she says and starts to tell us about a cruise she just recently took with her mother and how she loves taking pictures of her food, too. Then she goes on to tell us about how she has these little toy animals that look just like her cat and dog.  She takes them everywhere with her and  loves to include them in her photos when she travels. We really got a kick out of her stories.  She got in trouble for posing them in a photo when she was in Greece.  The officials told absolutely  no toys in any photo.  Well I almost got thrown in jail one day myself when I snapped a photo in a fancy deli owned by the mafia in Providence RI - (well not exactly but I did run for my life when I got the look and the guy signaled someone in the back!)

Here comes dinner.  Special of the night - Ribs.  We got the last two portions and boy did they ever pile on the meat.  Best $9.99 dinner we have ever seen....and it included a trip to the salad bar!

Well, before we knew it, this cute lady and our new friend, with her awesome tie-dye shirt, on delivered her two little toy animals to our table....and of course I posed them in a photo.

Meet Blitz and Blue

Yes, she just happened to have them in her purse!  We got chatting with her again and asked her about the van out front with the reptile rescue signs on it.  Sure enough, the owner was there (sitting at the bar when we walked in) and they had just recently moved to Delta.  You can read about it here. She told us several crazy stories that he had shared with her earlier and we looked at each other in disbelief.  These small towns are awesome!

 And if they have homemade pie on the premises...you can bet we usually save a little room for it!

Cococut Cream Pie - a slice divided for two! Thanks cute server lady!  You were a delight!

Are you smiling yet? Don't you just love small towns?

Earlier in the day this little place with the flowers painted on the building caught my eye.

Turns out it is a bakery called, "Eat Dessert First"

We had take out from their earlier in the day - two yummy sandwiches

A Rueben and a French Dip.

I love this window and the paint peeling off the bricks.  If you look closely at the chalkboard inside it says:

"Grandma always said, Eat Dessert First!" and there is a cute photo of the owners Grandma!

So right before dinner we snagged up a box of yummy treats and took them over to the hospital so all those cute nurses could eat dessert first.  (We also brought home a yummy piece of carrot cake for us ;)

Delta is a sweet little place....out in the middle of nowhere.

New Scenery

New scenery is always wonderful! We just got back from a very relaxing trip to Portland, OR. The trip included time with Janell and Ben, a trip to the coast, a sweet wedding of a beautiful couple, delicious food, hours in a bookstore we love and lots of down time.

 Just what we needed. We took our share of photos.

Voo Doo Donuts...an icon in Portland. The lines goes out the door. We won't say they are our favorite bakery treat ever, but they are tasty and it's fun to be apart of the crowd.  Some haul them off by the box full.  Some choose one larger than their own head.  (See that cute little boy?  His mom was going to give him his dollar back if he could eat the entire thing.  I don't think he could) And some choose several and enjoy sampling them all outside as they people watch early in the morning.




The Real Mother Goose.  
Full of beautiful artisan crafted goodness and eye candy galore

 

We met Ben for lunch at Kenny and Zukes for the MOST amazing Reuben Sandwich in the Universe. We kid you not.

 The little pickle plate was mighty tasty. We will be back for sure.

After poking around Powell's for awhile and riding the Max around town, we headed back to the hotel to wait for our ride to dinner.

What a vacation! Our Portland hosts took us to Nicholas' Restaurant for scrumptious Lebanese food.  Such a treat!!




Then it was time to watch the sun set over the pretty city of Portland.  We are having a wonderful time

 Mount Rainier is there - over there...where?

Far away in the clouds.

 

 The sun went down...

 

and the moon came up.

(Aren't they cute?)

Weddings are such happy occasions.
Congrats to Samantha & Brandon!

And the trip continues...Lincoln City here we come.

  Wonder, beauty and tranquility.  Such a gift.

and F U N ... we love the ocean!

So on to dinner, which was amazing and worth every penny spent. Truly. Black Fish in Lincoln City. 

On to the cheese factory - home some of our favorite ice cream and cheddar cheese: Tillamook

The whole factory is fascinating.  Do you think Jiggy Stick will ever get to this point? :)  The old vintage advertising was a blast to see the ice cream was delicious! Of course we had to poke our heads in the holes...the things you do to get your grandbabies to smile (Hi kiddos!)

Is this post long enough yet, Em?

Back to the coast and enjoying some scenery like this on the way:

 Cape Meares Lighthouse and The Octopus Tree.

 The Rose Gardens It's much more fun to dance among the roses than just stand there for the camera.  Roses of every shade imaginable. You just had to smoosh your face in some of them to soak in the scent. We had the perfect weather, everyday.

 Japanese Gardens Very tranquil and zen like. Fun to hear dad talk about his mission memories. We'd love to take a trip there someday.

And how do you end a stay as beautiful as this?  Eat sushi and LOTS of it!

 Oh yea, our crazy little room in the Crystal Hotel. We stayed here our last night. Crazy history.  The McMenamin Brothers are doing very cool things with old buildings.  There was a sweet salt water soaking pool in the basement.

 ***

It's nice to have one more trip documented. Check.

Now to begin sorting through thousands of recovered photos and try to make some order of them all.  
Wish me luck.