Massachusetts: Good Eats!

Clay wanted to go to White Castle since he had seen it on TV and there are none in NC. I had never even heard of it. It is a fast food joint that serves mini burgers! It was a neat idea but the food was greasy and I wouldn't go back. Clay went up to the register a 2nd time to order more little burgers...instead of asking Clay his name, as the clerk did the first time, he labeled the order "glasses" because Clay was wearing his black rimmed glasses. The girl calling out the order called out, "Glasses" not knowing the guy had made it up. He got mad and it was funny funny.\

Teo's Hot dogs in Pittsfield:  Famous for their little hot dogs which are kinda crunchy!  Amazing!  Favorite of my family.  We got 6 dogs, fries and a beer for $12...WOW!  And for the record, it is "with everything" up north, not "all the way."  Oops.


Angelina's Submarine Shop:  Mom's Favie???  I think I remember dad bringing mom back a sub in a cooler from Mass to NC when he picked us girls up one summer.

Friendly's...ever heard of it?  Clay hadn't even though there used to be one in Huntersville, years ago.  For you southerners, it is famous for its ice cream sundaes.

The Apple Cider Donuts were amazing!  Thanks Shelly!

This was new to me.  We went with the Poplaskis

Main Street Cafe in Stockbridge.  Chicken pesto quesadillas.

Berry Pie:  It was Marie Callenders
but tasted home made.

Grandma G cooked for us several nights.  She is a good cook! 

Ok, a few meals passed between here and Cambridge:  the golden arch if you know what I mean.  Back to good yummy food:  Clay and I checked out Mr. Bartley's Burgers in Cambridge.  The menu was huge, as were the burgers.  The menu featured burgers with names like:  Barack Obama (One and Done?) and the iPhone ("siri"ously delicious).  We also sat at a long table next to people we didn't know :)  That was the fun of it!

Here I am getting tipsy off of the equivilent of probably 1.5 beers at 11am.  Thank you, Sam Adams Brewery tour!

Once in Boston, Clay and I pigged out at Mike's Pastry.  They are in North End, or Little Italy.  So of course we tried a Cannoli.  This one here is Amaretto (and above is an Italian cookie).  I had never seen so many varieties of cannolies (nor did I know different versions existed).  They had about 20 types of cannolies in addition to many, many other pasteries and desserts.

The Legal Sea Foods debate:  To go or not to go?  We ended up going and it was worth it!  We got lobster etc, but my absolute favorite was this lobster bisque.  OMG...to die for!  Everything was yummy, the waitress was awesome, and we had an overall great meal!

Here is Clay eating a raw oyster on the half shell.  We were just walking downtown Boston and ran into this HUGE, AWESOME, CHEAP farmers market that apparently lasts 2 days (*Anyone know if it is a weekly thing??*)  They had all sorts of fruits, veggies, fish, seafood, etc.  Clay got 4 oysters for $5 and they cracked them open right there for him.  He said they were the cheapest, freshest, most delicious he has ever had.  Now that is awesome.  I wish we had a farmers market like that here :)

Our Fenley Hot dog! It was sooooo good...more worth the experience than they $5 each :o

 

We stopped at a random bakery in China Town Boston and got 2 weird pasteries.  The one on the left was called a moon cake and it was like a pastry filled with beans mixed with sugar.  It was kinda gross.  The one that Clay is eating was gross too...but he liked it.

We had to get Italian food while we were there, as it is my favie.  We decided on Mother Anna's in North End (Little Italy) which a Dr. recommended to Clay.  It was yummy and neat because we sat outside with a beautiful view of the city as it got dark.

 

Last but not least:  DUNKiN' DONUTS!  Can I just say...OMG...there were more Dunkin' Donuts in New England than McDonalds in the south.  I am NOT kidding.  There were almost 30 in the Boston DOWNTOWN area alone and one at EVERY exit on the interstate everywhere we went in New England.  What is the deal?   Even though we have them here, we decided to get a "New England" Dunkin' Donut and they were pretty good (but not as good as Krispy Kreme).  I was just dissapointed that they didn't have blueberry.  They need to get on that :)

 Needless to say, Clay and I gained a few pounds on our trip, but it was worth it.  We ate like kings and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!  Stay tuned for more posts about our Massachusetts adventures!

Yankee Doodle Dandy

As many of you know, Clay and I took a 10 day vacation last week!!!  It was amazing to take a break from the every day hustle and bustle and just relax.  We began our trip with a 17 hour drive:  Starting in Concord to Beckley, WV to drop Nugget off at her Mimi's house (my mom), then to Pittsfield, MA.

View of Pittsfield from Greylock Mountain:  the highest peak in the area

Both of my parents are from Pittsfield and most of my relatives still live there.  Erin and I spent many summers visiting and spending time with family.  This trip was very different than previous trips.  First, I got to be a tour guide to Clay, who has never spent significant time in New England.  I took him to all of my family's favorite restaurants and places.  Also, I never notice how beautiful the area is until now.  I truly fell in love with the views (even just riding around town) and the quaint little towns scattered everywhere. Clay met members on both my Mom and Dad's sides and I got to see people I haven't seen in over 10 years!!!

Old North Bridge in Background

So we spent 4 days in Pittsfield, then headed to Boston.  On the way, we spent the travel day in Lexington and Concord.  We got to see where the "shot heard around the world" was fired and the Old North Bridge.  We walked trails and saw the Orchid House where Louisa May Alcott wrote/based Little Women.  We even visited Walden Pond and the site where Henry David Thoreau built his home to write Walden. 



Once we got to Boston, we stayed for 3 days and were going non-stop from there. Since there is too much to tell about our trip, I'm splitting everything up and will be doing several blog posts about our adventures. I don't think many people care about the details of other people's vacations, but since this has significance to my family, I'm going in to detail :) I hope you enjoy!


Five years later...

So here is an interesting story!  Growing up in my farmhouse, we had an old, primitive hutch in my kitchen as you can see in this picture.  It mostly housed mom's collection of tea pots, but we decorated it for Christmas, etc.  It is nothing special:  the drawers don't close all the way, the wood is roughly cut, and some of the boards are crooked.  It was obviously hand-made.  Who knows how old it is.  My parents probably bought it for a hundred bucks.  It looked at home in our kitchen though, and I became quite fond of it.



When my mom moved to WV, it moved too.  Without room in the house, the hutch found a place in the dirt-floor barn with the horse stuff and storage.  As you can see in this picture, the hutch got dirty, weathered and just gross.  You can see the paint peeling off on the inside of the top portion.




When my mom moved again, she would not have room for the hutch at all and would have to leave it in this barn.  I, being the sentimental person that I am, had to have this hutch (along with a few other pieces that my mom couldn't bring with her).  So, Clay and I rented a truck, drove to WV, loader it up and brought it home.


The crazy part of the story comes in here:  I have spent the last 5, yes FIVE, years working on this piece off an on.  It has moved 4 times since my mom's house.  I stripped off the paint and the stain underneath, sanded and cleaned this thing.  Sounds easy, like it wouldn't take long...but guess again.  It took forever.

I had initially planned on stripping it clean and staining it.  I gave up that plan early on when I realized that all the paint was never, ever, ever coming off!!!  I scraped and sanded that thing over and over to no avail.  So, I finally decided to paint it.  I wanted it to have the antique look, as this is an antique, so Clay recommended that I use milk paint.  Milk paint is made with natural materials and used to be used "back in the day" before chemical-filled paint made a debut.  When you paint with it, it is supposed to chip off in random patterns (not like crackle, but actually chip off to show what is underneath) to give it an antique, natural look.  It is also very matte, not shiny at all.

I painted the hutch with milk paint, probably 2-3 coats total.  It chipped and cracked in some areas, not in others.  I guess this is because I sanded it well for the most part and the paint bonded better.  I actually would have liked a little more chipping, but oh well.  There is one spot on the side that it chipped a lot.  The outside of the hutch is white, the inside of the drawers are yellow.

 Here is the finished product!  Joe, my landlord, graciously installed new shelves.  I waxed the whole thing.  Wax is a good sealer instead of using polyurethane.  Polyurethane will leave it super shiny while wax lets it keep it's antique, matte look.  I got the pulls at Hobby Lobby and Clay helped me drill new holes for the knobs.  You see, the old holes weren't even centered!!  Love it!

I am so relieved to have it finished!  I put way more money and time into it than it is worth, but it was worth it, being sentimental to me.  Looking back, I probably should have just given it a rough sanding and painted over the old paint.  You live and you learn :)  I can't wait to decorate it...and then start my next project.  I already have something in mind.  Maybe it won't take 5 years!!!

Labor Day Face Lift

Before

I was one lucky girl on Labor Day!  Lets start off by celebrating the fact that Clay did NOT have to work, so I got to spend the whole day with my love.  We started the day with a wonderful breakfast with Kathy, worked on some furniture later, then went to a cookout at Roger and Belinda's.

 The labor came in when Roger used my car's yucky, crummy headlights as a guinea pig for his headlight cleaner.  Here are the before and after pictures.  My car looks like new!!!  Thanks Roger and Clay!!!

After