Getting Ready for Halloween

Temperature has finally cooled, a bit, in San Diego.

Fall is in the air.

Which means -- skeletons, scarecrows, pumpkins and bats have been unpacked...

Trick or Treaters Welcome!

My Happy Place is on a Lake

Lake Winnipesaukee, new addition to my list of favorite lakes!

View from our room at the Lake Motel in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

In terms of frequency, opportunity and proximity, I should be labeled a beach gal or a gal that spends a lot of time at the beach.

It is less than 3 miles from our home to the Pacific Ocean.

Plus, I grew up in Southern California, so had easy access to a lot of famous beaches when I was a kid.

While in my twenties and living on the East Coast, in Hingham MA, I was so close to the Atlantic Ocean that I could walk to the ferry to commute by boat to downtown Boston.

Which is a roundabout way of saying I should be a beach gal, right?

Well in terms of amount of time spent near an ocean, then yes, I am definitely a beach gal.

But oh, in my heart of hearts, I am definitely a lake girl.

That is my happy place.

Ask anyone who has spent lake time with me over the years (my husband, our friends in Maine that shared their house with us, our fabulous Finnish family that invited us to vacation with them at a lake house in Finland and our relatives in Massachusetts that live right on a lake).

Once I get in the water I practically have to be be coaxed like a whiny young child to get back out on dry land.

It is just such a zen experience.....floating on the lake, letting your mind wander and drift with the current.

Interrupted by short spurts of energy to paddle around or jump off a floating dock before resuming the basic need to float.

Just float.

Not a care in the world...

NEW at Liberty Station

I've talked about this place before.

But it has been in the news again with the addition of Liberty Public Market -- a food court similar to San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace.

Totally worth a visit and do eat in the Mess Hall so you can grab a glass of wine or beer while eating your lobster roll, thai salad, bratwurst, or sushi!

They have also added a theatre/restaurant to Liberty Station called THE LOT, now you can have a cappuccino and croissant before the matinee (and skip the soda and red vines).

Small Town Posts

Outside the pharmacy in Worthington, Massachusetts.



FOUND!!!!
2 CHICKENS
If these are your chickens
please call

Cuz out in the country the cats and dogs don't go missing, it's the chickens out crossing the road!

Ice Cream and Seafood Diet

Vacation started on a Thursday afternoon and went to the following Wednesday night. My plan, besides heading to the East Coast to hang out with relatives, attend a wedding and float around lake(s), was to consume ice cream and seafood every single day.

So, just for fun, I weighed myself the morning I departed and then again when I arrived home. Expecting the worse.

And I LOST two pounds.

Which is rather incredible because by Day 4 I was nervous that I wouldn't fit in my new inner tube (purchased at the Wolfeboro Hardware Store, for $3.99, it was the last one on the shelf and was meant for kids age 9 and up).

I highly recommend this summer vacation eating plan (in combination with hours on the dance floor and swimming)!

Here we go:

Charles Street in Boston. J.P. Licks

Lobster Rolls and Fried Fish and Fries and Soda at Janine's Frostee

Alvin Rondeau's Dairy Bar in Palmer, MA.

Order the Black Raspberry ice cream, you won't be disappointed.

Frekey's Dairy Freeze in Chichester, New Hampshire.

That is a SMALL cone, guess we should have ordered the 'kid' size!

Incredible shrimp cocktail at Shibley's at the Pier in Alton Bay, New Hampshire.

There are always HUGE lines. This photo was taken two hours before they opened.
Bailey's Bubble in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
Fluffer Nutter Sundae is on the menu, only in New England!

Our favorite dinner - grilled swordfish tacos at the Wolfetrap in New Hampshire.

Great view.

Lunch in Portsmouth at River House.

One never tires of lobster rolls in brioche buns.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Until this trip, I only knew MIT from Good Will Hunting, that movie with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Robin Williams.

Turns out that my math whiz of a nephew (junior in high school this year) thinks of this place as his DREAM SCHOOL when pressed to answer the question, "If you could go anywhere you want and money is no object?"

So we walked around campus and soaked up the smarts that lingered in the halls.

Beautiful place. Beautiful location.

Looks out on the Charles River!

Miracle of Science Bar and Grill

Students moving in. What a grand building to call home while you are in college.

Not every building is old and brick...there is a nod to modern.