Day 4 in Portland, Pt. 2

 After spending our morning exploring downtown Portland, we ventured out to Cape Elizabeth. I wanted to see at least one lighthouse before going home. Actually, we really went there because the food truck, Bite Into Maine, aka the "best" place for lobster, is based there. I made sure that even though Tim doesn't like seafood, we had lobster for one meal. Well, I did-he got their caprese sandwich, which he apparently didn't realize had tomatoes and basil on it lol. He wished he had gotten their grilled cheese. Oh well.

This was my favorite meal on our trip. I will say Tim did try my lobster roll (and hated it haha), so I give him props! I got the Picnic Style Lobster Roll. The roll is grilled in butter, then has a layer of coleslaw, lots of butter, and celery salt. Oh, and THEN you take that container of extra butter and pour it all over. SO delicious. I also got some clam chowder, but the chowder Heather and I had gotten in Boston was way better. This one had sand in it. Wash those clams better! That blueberry soda bottle in the first photo is now in our kitchen. We've got a small collection of different drinks that were special to us-like the wine bottle from Chatéau Chantel from my bachelorette party to a few different pops we've tried while on vacation. Every time I look at them, they bring back good memories :)

 I was so insanely happy eating this roll. I was also thinking of my arteries closing up...I'm pretty sure I took a plant enzyme! I will say that I don't think having this much lobster (or butter) so quickly was a good idea. I got super sick that night. But it was worth it lol.

 It was such a beautiful area! We weren't as impressed as most people though because Michigan has lighthouses and the Great Lakes. Maine is supposedly known for their views, but I think Michigan is almost better.

 I had fun going around looking for shells and cool rocks.

 We were here for a good hour, just roaming around, climbing on different rocks. It was fun!

I loved how these walking trails were right next to the water.

After that we drove around for a while, having no clue what to do next. We thought it would have been fun to drive up the coast, but knowing we had a long car drive the next day made that not so appealing. We ended up going to a few book stores and then found a place for pizza (I was SO disappointed, it was terrible. What a way to end our trip!). We took it back to our hotel and watched some more American Pickers.

We left around 6:30am to drive home. I saw the sunrise as we were packing up the car and sprinted over to the beach, wanting to enjoy it one last time. It was the perfect way to end our trip. Our drive home lasted 17 hours. We listened to the podcast Serial the whole way home-I don't know how else we could have lasted that whole ride! It was also our anniversary, so we got to spend every waking moment with each other, in a car lol.

We got home around 11:30pm and walked in to the smell of cat. The guy feeding our cat for us apparently didn't think of cleaning out her litter box. It smelled SO bad. We immediately cleaned up the house and made it smell good before going to bed. Eww.

The best part of our vacation was we had five days of travel and five days to relax at home. Win-win for Tim and I. 

We spent the first day at home playing Gears of War 4. We've played the first and second ones together, so it was fun :) I made sure I had bought a frozen pizza for dinner before we left because I knew we wouldn't want to go anywhere that day.

The next day was back to working out. The kitty stayed next to me the whole time. She definitely missed us.

I was feeling very baker-like, so I wore my new cupcake socks, my "Bake love, not war" shirt, and ate the lemon shortbread cookie from Two Fat Cats. 

I also ate half the whoopie pie. I was nice and saved some for Tim :)

That's about the end of our vacation! I'm so happy we went, even with my car's oil issue costing so much beforehand. I believe it's more important to travel even when stuff like that happens. The way traveling makes you feel, making you forget about work and the stresses of life and exploring new places and the experience of trying new foods, is worth not having that money saved in the bank. Can't wait for our next trip! I think this fall may finally be the time we go to Seattle :)

Day 4 in Portland, Pt. 1

Day 4 in Portland was awesome :) I woke up around 6:30am and went across the street to Old Orchard Beach. They are well known for their pier, which has a bunch of restaurants and also an amusement park with a ferris wheel by the beach. I can imagine during the summer that this is the place to be. There is also a block of tourist shops that were closed down for the season (our motel was actually closing down four days after we left! we made it the perfect time to go, cheap!). I had such a cold but relaxing time taking photos. There were less than 5 people on the beach, all taking photos or enjoying each other's company while the sun came up. It was so beautiful.

After that, Tim and I drove back to Portland for breakfast. We walked about a mile in super windy conditions-thankful for the sun that day so it wasn't super freezing! We were both laughing because it was just so windy lol. We had breakfast at Marcy's Diner, which was such a unique experience. We were seated at the counter and could watch the chef make breakfast while they blared music Tim used to listen to like 10 years ago, more heavy music. It was such a cool experience, besides the fact that we couldn't really hear haha!

 We then walked down near the harbor. The thing I loved about Portland is there's not just one "downtown". They have all different sections, and they're all busy! You walk downtown Manistee, and there's nobody out enjoying life. You walk downtown Portland in the pouring rain, and you come across 100 people. Imagine when it's sunny, like it was this day. I just loved it!

Tim and I came across this alligator outside an ice cream shop, and I jokingly told him to pose by it, and he did it lol :)

 Tim didn't mind exploring by the harbor, but I know he was doing it especially for me :) 

 haha

Portland used to have a love locks bridge, like Paris; however, due to the heaviness of the locks, also like Paris, the bridge started to fall apart. They ended up taking down all the locks but kept a small portion of them in memoriam. I was so happy we came across them :)

The Standard Baking Co. supposedly makes the best pain au Chocolat in town. Pain au chocolat is literally pastry dough filled with chocolate and covered with some sugar. Sadly, they hadn't made any that day, so I ended up just getting a regular croissant. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't just eaten a massive breakfast :)

We went to a few more shops, including a Christmas shop. It's tradition that everywhere we go on an anniversary trip, I get a Christmas ornament. This year I got one that didn't quite scream us, but oh well :) It's of two snow shoes and it says Portland, Maine on it. 

Here's Tim letting me shop while on his phone lol

 After that we went back to the Holy Donut and got a BUNCH more donuts :) Our favorite is still the dark chocolate donut. We should have just gotten a dozen of those!

 THEN we went to yet another bakery. I had heard of this cute little place from Bakingdom, who had taken a trip to Portland the last year with her husband. 

 I, of course, wasn't hungry after being to breakfast, so I just got a whoopie pie and a lemon cookie, two of her recommendations. SO delicious! Looking back now at the below photo, I definitely wish I had gotten some pie!

I was glad we walked around so much, probably about three miles, because after this, we were off to Cape Elizabeth, where delicious lobster and views of the ocean awaited us :)