New England in Review

This Fourth of July we had an excuse to go on the first real vacation we've had in a LONG time. My cousin was getting married, so we took this as a sign to return to the area where I grew up, New England! Just a warning, this post may be a long one, so utilize the Jump Break if you want to keep reading!

Oysters on the Half Shell at Legal Sea Foods

Our trip began in Boston, where we walked the freedom trail, ate lunch at the delicious Legal Sea Foods, and watched the fireworks show with the Boston Pops. 

Fireworks!

At first, the fireworks show was held up because of threatening lightning storms across the river. Even though the crowd had technically 'evacuated', we held our ground and we were glad we did! It turned out we were sitting right in front of the barges, and when the fireworks show finally started, it began POURING. Thankfully, the fireworks continued on and the rain just made it all the more memorable. It was definitely a show I will never forget, and possibly one that won't be beaten. If you'd like, you can watch a short video of it here. Please excuse my exclamations of rain during the video.

PEI mussels at Kitchen Little

We later moved on through Plymouth, MA, Rhode Island, and finally Mystic, CT, where we stopped for some great seafood at a small local restaurant called Kitchen Little. We sat on the patio and watched over the marina at sunset while eating our dinner. Unfortunately there were bugs, so we did sustain some mosquito bites. If anyone ever gets a chance to go, their daily specials seem to be even better than their menu items. The Caldareida, Sardines escapage, and PEI mussels were my favorites.
After a night at a mediocre hotel, we visited the tourist Mystic downtown, which was a lot smaller than I had remembered it at a child. Nonetheless it was fun to watch the yachts and poke around at the small stores. One of my favorites was The Black Dog, a place I'm sure Chuckie would have loved if he was there. They had people clothes, accessories, and tons of cute doggie things perfect for big dogs.

One of the cute treat bags we got!

The next item on the schedule was the rehearsal dinner and wedding for my cousin. For the rehearsal dinner, a pizza truck catered and served delicious and exotic varieties of pizza. All of it was baked in the brick wood burning oven that was in the back of the truck. I'm punching myself now for not taking pictures or remembering the name of the pizza truck.

Garden greens and endive salad

The wedding and reception were held at Saint Clements Castle in Portland, CT. According to the website, it was built in 1898 and is now considered a historic site. The wedding was beautiful and the food was so good. The bartender wasn't bad either, and my aunt and I were able to bond over some amaretto sours, courtesy of the TWO open bars.

Yum!

Following the festivities, we moved on to Massachusetts where we stopped at Gran-val scoop. This place was our go-to for ice cream when I was a kid, and it was owned by some family friends. Back in the day they milked their cows on site and it was their milk that was used to make ice cream. Since Ethel (the previous part owner) passed away, they've been getting their milk from another farm, but the ice cream is still to die for.  After we got our fill on ice cream (I got maple cream), we moved westward to visit some friends in the Berkshire Mountains.
We were graciously welcomed with some more great food, hors d'oeuvres, salmon, marinated steak, and Friendly's ice cream. The next day we went to Bob's Country Kitchen (a classic country diner) for breakfast, and drove to the peak of Mount Greylock. Mt. Greylock is home of the Veterans War Memorial Tower, and bisects the Appalachian Trail. Thanks to our visit there, hiking the Appalachian Trail is now yet another item on my bucket list.

View from one of the scenic outlooks

Prior to rushing to the airport, we stopped by yet another friend's home, the owners of Kendall Food Company. Kendall foods focuses on macrobiotic foods, and can make yogurt, kefir, and other fermented foods.  It was an short, but inspiring visit; I truly admired their way of life. We said our hellos and goodbyes all too quickly, and left with a case of Natto (fermented soybeans - a Japanese foodstuff with numerous health advantages that deserves its own posting) and some cute beaded bracelets she had made.

It was a sad trip home, and I'm already missing how green everything in New England was. But I missed my little Chuckamonster and I'm happy to be back with him. Hopefully he didn't cause too much trouble for my friend who was dealt the task of puppysitting. We'll be looking forward to Colorado in August, which we will be sure to report on (hopefully not at this length).