I tried. I really did. I scoured through all sorts of romance books at Target and at the public library. And I honestly couldn’t pick any of them up without wanting to … well, they just weren’t going to get read. We’ll leave it at that. So I sat and I thought. And then I sat and thought some more. And then I remembered that the author of one of the knitblogs I read had recently published a book, and she mentioned that she went to RWA to promote it. RWA? Romance Writers of America… Bingo!
The day after I got the book at the library, I had a pretty bad day (migraine – ugh!) and slept all afternoon. That meant that by midnight, I was wide awake and not ready for sleep. I picked up How to Knit a Love Song, started reading, finally got tired, and didn’t put the book down until 3 hours later when I was done with it. It was pretty great, not what I was expecting from a romance novel. Thanks Rachel!
There is this great list of 125 places to have a beer before you die, courtesy of All About Beer. It was published way back in 2008, but is a delightfully relevant list 2 years later (which I suppose is a good recommendation for a list like this.)
Amy planned our summer vacation around the list. Isn’t she awesome?
In order of how we visited them on this trip (not their place on the list):
Great Lost Bear, Portland ME
Gritty McDuff’s, Portland ME
Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown NY
Clark’s Ale House, Syracuse NY
The Blue Tusk, Syracuse NY
F.X. Matt Brewery Tasting Room (aka Saranac Brewery), Utica NY
Besides these five, I’ve already been to these places on the list:
- Monk’s Café, Philadelphia, PA
- Hofbrauhaus, Munich, Germany
- The Brickskeller, Washington, DC
- French Quarter during Mardi Gras, New Orleans, LA
- Andechs Monastery, Andechs, Germany
- Goose Island Brewing, Chicago, IL
- Cooter Brown’s, New Orleans, LA
- Sunset Grille & Tap, Boston, MA
Other places we visited on our trip included:
Ithaca Brewery
Empire Brewery
Middle Ages Brewing
Beer is awesome.
Thanks to Stephanie for the mental push I needed to go swimming in what is likely the coldest body of water I’ve ever been in, the Damariscotta River. As it turns out, rivers on the coast of Maine are NOT particularly warm.
After the initial shock, I got out of the water, much to the jeers of my friends. So I jumped back in, and it wasn’t as cold that time. All told, I was in the river for about 15 minutes, just long enough to lose all feeling in pretty much every extremity. Some of the crazy ladies actually swam from the dock over to the area where the lobsters were getting cooked (including lovely Laura W. with her can of Narragansett…) but I was done. Too cold for me.
It was awesome!
On July 16, Amy and I hopped into the car, drove down to Lake Compounce in Bristol, CT, and rode a rollercoaster.
Boulder Dash is a wooden rollercoaster that has been rated very highly by wooden rollercoaster enthusiasts in the past several years. It’s long, it’s fast, and honestly? It’s fun! I’m not a huge amusement park fan, having a tendency towards turning lovely shades of green when I get thrown around too much. However, we got to the park and made a beeline to the ride so we could ride it and be done with it even if we did get sick. The photo above was taken on our second (of 4 or 5 – I forget) ride. We made sure to ride in the middle, the back (this photo – love how there isn’t anyone else in the car behind us since there was a wee bit of a “little kid getting sick on it right before our ride” kind of issue happening), and the front (but not the very front).
We only rode two other rides that day – the log flume that didn’t soak us even though we both really wanted it to (it was about 98F out that day) and the ski lift to nowhere (which was slow, but provided lovely views of the surrounding area on our way down). The rollercoaster was definitely the best part of the day. And now I don’t need to ride one again for a long time.
Libby, Amy, and I went to see the Paw Sox last Thursday evening. It was free baseball cap day, so we made sure to get there early so we could get free caps – thanks Rhode Island Lottery and WEEI! While the Paw Sox didn’t win (hardly – they lost 9 or 10 to 1), the game itself was a blast! Some photos:
Megan and Amy each pose with Sox, the female Paw Sox mascot (yes, there are two).
Me, lurking behind Paws, while he was signing little kids’ programs. Yes, I’m a dork.
My wiffy and our great friend!
Me and Paws. I swear, I didn’t shove any kids aside to get this photo. At least, not too viciously.
Playing with the tilt-shift function on my camera – made the field look pretty cool! And yes, our seats were great – right behind home plate.
Amy and I had such a great time at the game that we decided to base our summer vacation partly on seeing minor league baseball games. The other part? Based on my 40 in 40 list… but you’ll have to wait until the vacation is done for me to tell you what fun things we’re planning on doing!
