A trip to visit Lindsey!

Most of you either know Lindsey or know about Lindsey (or ARE Lindsey, because Lindsey reads this too! Hi Lindsey!), but if you don't: She and I have been best friends since 6th Grade, and she lives in Norfolk, Virginia... which is now a 6 hour drive from where I live.  It's a rough drive because I have to deal with Philly traffic, Baltimore traffic, AND Washington DC traffic on my trip there and back... But it's so worth it to get to spend some time with Lindsey!

I drove down very early on Saturday morning (Friday evening traffic in those cities could possibly double that 6 hour drive... so it's better to just wake up super early on Saturday), and I brought my very belated birthday present for Lindsey with me!  Lindsey's birthday is at the end of February, and in late January or early February we decided that we were going to make gifts for each other from now on, rather than buy gifts.  So, my first thought was, "What do I know how to do?", and then it hit me that I know how to cross-stitch, and it's been many many years since I've cross-stitched.  So I started browsing online and I found a cute bird project that I thought Lindsey would like, because she loves birds and always has an abundance of birds in her backyard, and she knows what types all of them are which always impresses me. It was a big project, but I thought I could finish it in a month if I worked really hard, or MAYBE two months worse case scenario... so it might be a tiny bit late. Well... I am an idiot.  It had apparently been so long since I'd done cross-stitching that I'd forgotten how long it takes!  I was 8 months late with her birthday present, and I think I spent more time on this project than I spent on my thesis in grad school.  It was a labor of love though!  I just felt terrible that it was so late. Here are some pictures of it:

The weekend at Lindsey's house was tons of fun, and it was so great to catch up with her!  It had been way too long since my last visit (we figured out it's been a whole year!!).  Lindsey and her family and I all went to a pumpkin patch, and it was awesome! We went for a hayride and there were lots of activities for the kiddos, and we all picked out pumpkins!  I picked out one for me and one for McGee, and you'll get to see more detailed pictures of those in another post (after I FINALLY decorate for Halloween... work has been way too hectic).  We had an awesome day, and that night Lindsey and I did lots of catching up and had one of our Yahtzee marathons.  It was such a fun weekend, and I was so sad to leave on Sunday.  Our time together went way too quickly!  Here are a bunch of pictures from our weekend!

Lindsey and Reagan

Lindsey's husband (Mike) trying to help Colby navigate the rope net

Reagan had to have a turn on the rope net too! 

Colby and Reagan as cute little bugs!

There were tons of cute animals at the pumpkin patch!  My favorite were the pigs.

Colby and Lindsey on the hayride.  It was very windy!  

Mike and Reagan on the hayride.

Lindsey and her pumpkin!  

Our collection of pumpkins!  The two for McGee and I are in there too.

Here's me and Lindsey!!  Best friends for about 20 years!  

Oktoberfest

This past weekend a small group of us went to the Yuengling Oktoberfest, and I'm just now getting a chance to post about it because work has been HELL this week.  And also last week.  But only the hell of this week affects me posting about Oktoberfest.  Anyways, for those of you who may not know about Yuengling (because it isn't sold everywhere, sadly), it's pronounced "Ying-Ling", and it's some very tasty beer.  Actually, it's my very favorite type of beer.  And Yuengling is also the oldest brewery in the country (1829).  I haven't yet toured their very old brewery, but McGee and his friends have and it sounds pretty awesome.  I hope to get the chance to check it out soon.

Anyways, back to Oktoberfest (can you tell my brain is a bit fried from these past 2 weeks of work?  Sorry about the rambling of this post...).  We went to the Yuengling Oktoberfest last year too, and it was a bit smaller this year, but still super fun.  They had dachshund races, beer stein races, contests to see how long you could hold pitchers of beer out in front of you... Lots of fun stuff!  McGee's friend Big Mike (Yes, that's what we call him... and an interesting little factoid about him is that he's an opera singer!  Yes, an opera singer) participated in the contest of holding pitchers of beer out in front of you, and he lasted a long time!  Big Mike is the guy on the left in the pictures, with the reddish-colored pants.  

And here's some pictures of McGee and Big Mike participating in the beer stein races!

They also had beer pong tables set-up, so the group of us played a few games of that!  It was super fun, and the team McGee and I were on won the first game!  

Here's some more random pictures from around the festival.  It's held at a really cool venue called the Steel Stacks, and it's such a nice set-up and location for the Oktoberfest every year.  

Fall activities! And Guinness is 8 months old! And maybe a tornado?

I'm slowly but surely checking things off of my Fall Bucket List!  This past weekend we went to an apple orchard, and we picked our own apples (and that part wasn't even on my list, but it was super fun!).  The apple orchard (Linvilla Orchards) had a cool farmer's market building, and inside they had some local honey (I loooove honey), and above the shelves of honey they had some live bees in a case!  Pretty nutso.

After we got home, I decided to make a pie!  We'd made sure to pick enough apples so that I could make some sort of apple goodness so I could check it off my Fall Bucket List!  I've never made an apple pie before (I think I've helped my mom when I was little though...), and the thought of making one was kind of intimidating.  BUT, I found an awesome recipe and the crust sounded really easy (Yes, I even made the crust!), so I went for it.  And I don't want to toot my own horn... but MY GOODNESS it turned out well!!  I was so nervous when it was in the oven.  And even after I took it out of the oven and it looked great, I was still nervous that the crust would be gross or raw or something.  I'm happy to report that the whole thing turned out great!  It was delicious, and we'll be eating apple pie for days.  Oh, and it was the first homemade pie that McGee has ever had!  I told him he really should come to my family's Thanksgiving celebrations, because my mom makes like 3 or 4 every year.  Here's a picture of the pie (it has a crumble topping):

And our dear Guinness is just over 8 months old now!!  We have no idea how much he weighs (we're guessing around 55 pounds?), but we'll find out for sure what he weighs in December when he has to get a booster shot for one of his immunizations.  Isn't he becoming such a handsome boy?  And his ears are huuuuuuge (he looks so much like a German Shepherd!).  His one ear still flops over a bit though (as you can see in the first picture), unless he's on high-alert (like in the second picture, because he gets suspicious about cameras).  He's quite a happy little guy, and has a great personality - he loves everyone and every dog.  

 So, today we had a Tornado Warning issued, and when Guinness started whining to go outside to go to the bathroom, I looked out the window to check on the weather and here's what I saw:

Is it just me, or does that look slightly cyclone-ish?  Yikes!  It was definitely some nutty weather today. Starting tomorrow it's supposed to get back to Fall weather which I'm quite happy about, because it's been so warm here lately!  It's been in the mid-to-high 80's and humid - not ok for October!  

So here's my updated Fall Bucket List!  We're going to the Yuengling Oktoberfest this coming weekend, and I bought an acorn squash and some gourds at Linvilla Orchards, so I'm on my way to crossing those off!  I should probably decorate soon... Maybe this weekend! 

Roadtrip Day 3: Portsmouth, NH

Our first stop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was the Red Hook Brewery.  The brewery was really cool, and the tour was soooo much fun.  We got to sample a bunch of beers, and they were running the bottling machine during the time of our tour, which they said is very rare!  It was really cool to see.

After the tour, we were both quite hungry so we stopped by the brew pub at Red Hook and each had a beer and some appetizers.  I had Kona Brewing Company's Longboard Lager (in preparation for our upcoming trip to Kona, Hawaii!), and McGee had Red Hook's Long Hammer IPA (you should read the small print on his glass!  So clever).  I learned during the brewery tour that Red Hook is partnered with Kona Brewing Company and Widmer Brothers Brewing, and actually makes all of their beers for them!

We then left Red Hook and drove to the Ale House Inn to get settled in before checking out Portsmouth.  The Inn was soooo cool, and they gave us a few bottles of local beers when we checked in (Smuttynose beer!).  I've never had a hotel or inn give me free beers at check-in!  That was a nice surprise.  

We then left the Inn and wandered around Portsmouth, with our first stop being the waterfront.  There was a really cool drawbridge and lots of tugboats on the water. Here's some of our attempts to capture the scenery and our cool flannel shirts from L.L. Bean!  

Portsmouth was a very cool town, and we learned that it was mainly beer-focused, and most of our activities revolved around beer.  We stopped by the Portsmouth Brewing Company (which is partnered with Smuttynose Brewing Company), and I drank some Smuttynose Vunderbar Pilsner and McGee had some very hoppy beers from Portsmouth Brewing Company.  Then we wandered (or stumbled) over to the Thirsty Moose Taphouse, which has over 100 beers on tap.  They also had the Chargers game on, so I got to see the Chargers win!  After that, it was getting late and we were getting hungry and tired, so we grabbed some dinner at the River House (they've won awards 3 years in a row for their Seafood Chowder - McGee loved it!), and then dessert at Izzy's Frozen Yogurt and Ice Cream Shop, and then back to the Ale House Inn for some relaxing!  

We had such a fun vacation, and I'm so sad it's over!  The only good thing about it being over was that we got to pick up Guinness from the boarding place, and WOW was he happy to see us!!  He was doing his adorable smiling for like 3 minutes, and he couldn't stop wagging his whole body and making his little happy noises (they sound almost like little oinks).  

Roadtrip Day 3: The Drive to New Hampshire

During our drive from Boothbay Harbor, ME to Portsmouth, NH, we decided to stop by the flagship L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine!  McGee's parents and the owner of our Boothbay Harbor bed and breakfast inn had recommended it, and they were not exaggerating when they described how awesome it was.  This place was HUGE, and they even had a huge aquarium inside!

We had to take some cheesy touristy photos in their beautiful outdoor area.  I made McGee pose by their big boot, and then he thought it was only fair that I have to pose in the moose head (which was very low to the ground... almost like it was made for little kids or something? Weird...)

Here's another beautiful tree!  Are you getting sick of me posting pictures of trees yet?  Ok, maybe this will be the last one... 

This next tree doesn't count!  I thought this was so fun.  They carved little bears the whole way around it! 

Here's some strong evidence of Fall!  The parking lot was littered with leaves that had already taken the plunge from their trees.  

The L.L. Bean store was a lovely break on our drive to New Hampshire, and we each purchased a flannel shirt from L.L. Bean because it just seemed like the perfect souvenir (and useful during the chilly months ahead!).  You'll get to see our awesome flannel shirts in the next post!  I convinced McGee that it was a great idea if we both put them on for our day in New Hampshire.  

Right before we'd left Boothbay Harbor we stopped in the Coastal Maine Popcorn Company, and I thought this Rosemary and Sea Salt popcorn sounded amazing!!  It was so delicious.  This little snack got us through the rest of the drive on our way to New Hampshire.