It's the Holiday Season

I haven’t posted a blog in a long time apparently.  I even wrote a blog back in November about moving, but never got around to posting it. 

Like I said we moved, it was to a cute home in Randolph, we’ve been there over a month now and we love it!  We celebrated our first holiday there in Thanksgiving. Normally I go to any number of placed for Thanksgiving, never going to the same place every year and it depended on my work schedule.  Kate usually goes to her mom’s church for Thanksgiving.

This year Kate wanted to make dinner for me at our house because I worked 3pm to 7am and wouldn’t have been able to go anyplace because I needed to sleep.  So we invited Emma and Caleb and Caleb’s Parents.  It might seem strange meeting people for the first time by inviting them into your home for Thanksgiving but I think it’s great!  Caleb’s parents are wicked nice people and we had a wonderful meal! 

Kate worked so hard and everything was delicious!  The turkey was cooked to perfection, juicy and tender seasoned beautifully!  Along with it we have fresh made yeast rolls, corn, carrots, mashed potato, stuffing, & sauerkraut.  Pies were pecan, raspberry, cherry, and chocolate cream with homemade Oreo cookie crust!  Emma made me the Chocolate pie, it was so good!  Just fantastic!

I’m so grateful for all of Kate’s hard work to prepare us Thanksgiving dinner.  We even ate on our fancy china we got as wedding gifts. 

It’s been ridiculously busy time for me overtime wise in November, it’s thinning out in December, but November was excessive. 

We are officially out of the apartment getting everything out and the place cleaned by the end of the month.  I got my whole deposit back, oil for the house!

Managed to squeeze in two IWE wrestling shows, November 24^th in Palmyra and December 6^th in Fairfield.  I hit the Palmyra one alone that was headlined by former ECW World Champion: Justin Credible.  December 6^th I was accompanied by Canaan and Alex, featuring Justin Credible and indy stand out AR Fox.  I now have attended 6 shows this year, down from 2012’s 21 events. 

With Christmas coming I’ve gotten the majority of my shopping done and I know what else I want to get, I just need to find the time to get it. 

We set up and decorated out tree this past Thursday.  It marks the 7^th Christmas in a row that I purchased my tree from the same lot in Farmingdale run by the British couple who own the Fish and Chips truck. 

Kate and I wanted to start our own tradition so we made popcorn strands for the tree, they are quite labor intensive to make actually!  Between the two of us it took us the better part of 5 hours to complete them.  But they look so nice on the tree!  We will put them out for the birds when Christmas is over.  We let the kids decorate the tree with most of the ornaments.  They did a great job!

I look forward to having the kids on Christmas Eve/Morning this year, who know when I’ll have another one off if ever!

Later Readers!

Evil Dead the Musical!

Saturday October 19^th was a great day!

After working getting out of work this morning I attended Canaan’s final football game of the season.  He had a great time playing flag football this year and is looking forward to playing tackle football next year. 

They combined the 4 teams into two teams to play 40 minutes of game time, and then they had 4 stations of competition where they broke the teams into 4 again.  Canaan won in his group for the throwing and kicking, and did very well in the running punting.

My mom took the kids immediately after the game and I headed home for some sleep.  Getting 3.5 hours of rest Kate and I headed over and picked up John and Ju to head south to Lynn, MA for Evil Dead the Musical!

We’ve wanted to see this, John, Ju & I, ever since we first heard about it back in 2003 when it debuted in Canada.  Last year the Arts After Hours Theatre in Lynn, Ma staged the show and for various reasons weren’t able to go.  When they announced it this year though, I bought tickets immediately!  Joining us on our trip were Emma, Caleb, Johnny, & Magen, in their own vehicle. 

Evil Dead the Musical is based on the original Evil Dead Trilogy combining elements of the 3 films to make an awesome musical horror comedy that features a splatter zone, which we gleefully were sitting in! 

The original plan was to eat first at Hilltop Steakhouse in Saugus.  I have driven by that 68 foot tall Cactus on Route 1 more times that I can count in my lifetime and have always wanted to go.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally do so.  Then I found out that they were closing up shop for good on October 20^th. 

We got down there and discovered that there was a 3 hour wait just to get a number, then the wait was an hour plus after that to get seated.  Don’t want to eat there that bad!  We ended up eating at Polcari’s Italian Restaurant just up the road.  The food was excellent!  Kate had calamari, Ju chicken parmesan, John and I both had the 4 cheese penne with Italian sausage sliced and folded in.  It was so good, the sausage nice and spicy, but not hot. 

The other group was about a half hour behind us and they went to Hooters.

We found the theatre after getting turned around a couple times and made our way in.  This is not a theatre in the traditional sense.  This is a room that I believe was an old bank vault, with risers and stacking padded seat chairs that seat about 100 people.  The show was sold out. 

Our front row splatter zone tickets also netted us free ponchos.  Only Ju and Kate put theirs on over their heads, the rest of us just covered out laps.  Everyone was wearing either white or Evil Dead the Musical white shirts except Kate and me, I had my blue Evil Dead shirt on and Kate had normal clothes. 

The rest of us were looking for some to get coated in stage prop blood, however, they used watered down washable tempura paint so it looked cool for the moment, but will wash out. 

I cannot say enough just how awesome this production was!  The cast was fantastic, the music, supplied by a live band off to the left was amazing, the dance numbers were excellent, and everyone had a stupendous time! 

The actors performed both on the stage and on the floor directly in front of us and each of us has some sort of physical interaction with the cast, mine being an unfortunate ass grinding on my lap by the character Scotty.  Everyone played their roles wonderfully especially the girl that played both Shelly & Annie and played them convincingly as two different people. 

We all got covered, some more than others, with the stage blood.  Near the end during the big Ash vs. the Candarian Demons battle they literally made it rain blood from a sprinkler located in ceiling, John got soaked!  It appears the barrier line was right at between us as I barely got any on me.

From start to finish the show ran close to 2.5 hours with the intermission.  Such a great show!  I only wish this was being performed closer to home so I can go again!

On the way home we all stopped at Sonic Drive in.  Kate wanted a cream-slush and a burger, no cheese.  As I was ordering her burger she screamed out ketchup & mayonnaise, and then got aggravated as to why I found that confusing.  Did she just want ketchup & mayonnaise, no ketchup & mayonnaise, extra ketchup & mayonnaise?  She wasn’t very clear, and then yelled at us that she was out numbered because John, Ju, & I all have the same brains.  I never heard it said that way, but it is a spot on description of how we think alike.

We made excellent time and rolled in the door yard at 1:35 am.

Such a great day!

Later Readers!   

The Honeymooners: The Final Chapter!

Welcome to The Honeymooners: The Final Chapter!

Oddly enough I awoke this morning with some minor back discomfort from sleeping on the cottage bed.  The last two nights I slept on an air mattress on the ground with no issues.  Go figure?

Today was not a busy day for us compared to the last few, we took a big chunk and just relaxed!  We headed downtown for Kate to get a coffee and get an Acadia National Park pass.  We stopped at the Sand Beach which oddly enough had no shells!  It was a beautiful beach; don’t get me wrong, but there were absolutely no sea shells to be found!  It was quite surprising. 

Thunder Hole was next and was not that impressive.  It was cool, but didn’t live up to the hype.  Kate remembered it from her childhood as the water shooting very high and soaking people.  But that was during a storm and the ocean had been very calm for the last several days prior. 

We drove up Cadillac Mountain and took in the stunning panoramic views.  We eventually found the summit marker, there is no sign as it has been stolen too many times, and I bought a smaller magnet version of the marker that is very cool! 

Returning to Bar Harbor Kate picked up her Sea Bag that she absolutely loves!  She had her star done in blue on the way in we saw one in red as well.  The shop owner said that she was inspired!

We ate lunch at Mainely Meats which is on the Atlantic Brewing Company grounds but is not owned by them, they lease the space we heard the waiter telling another diner.  It’s BBQ, but I got a burger that was fantastic while Kate had the pulled pork.  They make their own BBQ Sauce that was so good we bought a jar!

We stopped at the Atlantic Brewing company owned Bar Harbor Cellars Winery.  It is a very nice place! They do not offer tours of the distillery, as they are two years away from producing enough grapes of their own to make their wine.  However, they do offer a free sampling that we partook in tasting 7 different wines.  I’m not much of a wine guy, but the fruit ones were very good! 

They also sell cheese there and I found 7 year old cheddar that was so fracking good!!! So good! Just outstanding!  They wouldn’t tell me who made it other than it’s from Quebec.

We kicked back at the cottage, sitting on the porch playing cards while drinking our coffee stout.  I made us hotdog hash for dinner on the old fancy all in one sink, fridge, and two burner stop top appliance.  On a share plate we put the BBQ Sauce and Raye’s Mustard that we bought to garnish our dinner while we watched the Walton’s.  I’m not gonna lie, it was some good! 

Heading back up Cadillac Mountain we wanted to watch the sunset.  It was very beautiful, but I have seen prettier sunsets in my life.  Apparently the sunrises up there can’t be beat.  It was the day after the full moon though and the moon rise was breathtaking!  The moon was huge and pink before turning to a bright orange!  Simply stunning! 

We called it a night at the cottage both dreading and excited about the drive home the next day. 

We slept in the latest that last morning of honeymoon but still found ourselves ready and out the door quite quickly well ahead of our 11am check out time. 

There was no rush to get home and we took our time stopping at Bucks Grave in Bucksport and Fort Point Lighthouse in Stockton Springs. We also took in a flea market in Searsport scoring an excellent deal on classic Christmas special DVD’s!

I can’t express enough how awesome this honeymoon/vacation was!  We had a great time together exploring places we’d never been and really enjoying nature.   We lucked out with some glorious weather along the way too. 

If I had to pick a favorite place that we visited I would have to lean towards East Quoddy Head Light on Campobello Island.  Not only was it visually stunning, but the adventure one had to partake just to get out to the lighthouse was amazing.

I have always wanted to travel to Aroostook County and travel down like we did exploring a portion of Maine that I had never been to before.  Best of all Kate was excited to do it as well.  Having our passport cards so we could pop into Canada made the trip that much more exciting.  I would plan on getting a passport or passport card if anyone plans on going up there themselves.   

I’ve been planning what will be several day and overnight trips for us to take in the future so we can explore other parts of the State that we can explore together.  And with our passport cards, I see trip to Quebec City in our future! 

Thanks for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed to The Honeymooner Blogs!

Later Readers!

Mike

The Honeymooners Part III

Welcome to Part 3 of our Honeymoon Adventure!

Once again we arose early in the morning, early enough to watch the sun rise over the bay.  We made a breakfast of eggs and sausage to go with our morning fire.  We determined that Kate is a far superior fire starter than I, but I’m stronger. 

We were both in need of showers and we discovered that it was 25 cents for 3 minutes; we only had 5 quarters so we decided the best bet would be to use the handicapped bathroom and share the shower to make sure we both got adequately cleaned. 

Once in the room and in the standard showering wardrobe we took our places.  On one wall was the quarter depository and on the other a dial you cranked to turn on the shower.  I dropped the quarter into the slot and then it hit me.  As an avid pinball playing, vending machine using, Laundromat clothes washing guy, I’m more than accustomed to the sound coin makes when you drop it into a slot where a coin is need to active a device.  This sound was not that sound, this was a loud clank of a coin striking the bottom of a metal cup, or in this case a green impenetrable cylindrical wall mounted storage unit.   That’s right ladies and gentleman, this shower was run on the honor system!  It was too late to turn back now, so I dropped in the 5 quarters and we commenced to showering!

We hit the road smelling fresh hoping to find a Laundromat in Machias, which we eventually did.  It was very nice and clean too!  Once I loaded the washer, we had 23 minutes to kill so we strolled over to Bad Little Falls Park.  It’s a beautiful waterfall right in the heart of the city that is completely obscured by the bridge you travel on going over it. You really need to pull over and walk down to the viewing platform to see it. 

Putting the clothes in the dryers we were able to use the wifi there on the laptop and Kate found us a nice cottage to stay at in Bar Harbor that even had a kitchenette in it.  The rate was so good we decided to book our last two nights there instead of just one and camping the last. 

After folding we popped over the Helen’s for a piece of pie, so what if it was 930 in the morning, it was delicious!  Then we got back on the road. 

Our drive was broken up with stops at Prospect Harbor Lighthouse and the Sullivan Reversing Falls.  Just like in Pembroke we hit the tide wrong at this reversing falls.  It was still quite lovely but not very rapid or reversing.

As we told Sylvia we would, see The Honeymooners part 1, we stopped for lunch in Ellsworth at Sylvia’s Café.  We found Pat and told her that Sylvia sent us and had a good laugh.  Lunch was very good and you could see them fresh breading our chicken, haddock, and onion rings.  Definitely a great place to check out and one I would go back to.  It’s located in a strip mall on State Street and if Sylvia hadn’t told us about it we never would have taken the time to find it and try it out, glad we did!

We checked into Barton’s Motel and Cottages at Cottage number 4.  It was very cute and the perfect place to stay our last two nights.  After unpacking and lounging a bit it was time to hit the road for some exploring! 

First stop was the Atlantic Brewing company for a factory tour and tasting of their fine brew.  What they produce in 1 year, the Budweiser plant in New Hampshire brews in 7 minutes!  But Budweiser tastes like crap and except for the IPA, Atlantic Brewing has some nice, solid brews the Porter and Seasonal Leaf Peeper being my favorites!  After the tour we sampled 6 beers and their root beer and blueberry soda, the sodas were excellent!  The tour and sampling is absolutely free, making it that much better!

Next we drove down to Bass Harbor Head Light.  The light and grounds are maintained by the Coast Guard and while some parts or the property are off limits, they allow you to go right down to the light. 

We drove around the island and into the Bar Harbor so Kate could look at the shops.  This was not mindless browsing though, not at all.  You see while Kate was on her bachelorette overnight excursion in Boothbay Harbor (after she was already Mrs. Labbe) she came across a Sea Bag.  A shoulder bag made from recycled sailboat sails that are pretty neat and come with a hefty price tag too! 

We eventually found the bags, the prices were even higher here, however, she couldn’t fine the one she was looking for.  A wrong turn took us down a lane that brought us to SALT, a gift shop where the owner custom made Sea Bags for about $50 less.  She didn’t have a star pattern, yet, but a quick search of the internet later and the perfect one was found.  We would have to come back the next day to pick it up. 

We strolled down to the Bar Harbor Brewing Company store and I had a tasting of their brews.  Apparently Atlantic Brewing bought Bar Harbor Brewing a few years back.  They both brew their own beers still at their own locations.  The sampling was $3 for 4 brews and that got you a $3 coupon to use in the store.  Again the beers were excellent and after expressing my love for Porters I was offered a fifth sample, this of the limited edition Ellen’s Coffee Stout.  It was excellent.  We bought a 22oz bottle of the Stout and each got a glass as well. 

Earlier in the day we had decided to get pizza for dinner and take it back to the room, the clerk at Bar Harbor brewing recommended Rosalie’s Pizza quite passionately!  We grabbed and xtra large pie, some garlic cheese bread and headed back to the room for dinner and some Little House on the Prairie. 

The pizza was good, I wasn’t blown away by it, but it was very good. 

It was a great end to a full day!

Later Readers!