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During mid-Winter break, we managed to get away for a night. We kept it a secret from Sienna until the night before we left but we didn’t tell her who we were meeting up there! What a big surprise to have Sylvie and her family pull into the parking lot after us (timing was a mere coincidence!) She was extra excited when she found out they were also staying at the same hotel as us and we were having dinner together too! I don’t know why having dinner all together is extra exciting. LOL.

Anyway, we left Brooklyn at the insanely early hour of 6 am. I was in the minority about the time so I had no choice but to go with it! We picked the perfect day to go! It wasn’t snowing and the sun was out! None of us have been to the Mystic Aquarium before and it was nice to get there early. The price is hefty compared to the New York Aquarium but there is more stuff there AND there are people stationed by each exhibit to spew out facts about the animals! I loved the Beluga Whale exhibit. I’m sure I could have stayed there all day or at least go between them and the jellyfish and seahorses.

We brought lunch with us and ate at the picnic tables outside surrounded by snow. Yves has a photo on his instagram. After some pool time at the hotel (Hampton Inn), we headed to dinner. Dinner was at the Dog Watch Cafe, a real cute place. I got some New England Clam Chowder (it was ok, the best one is still the one I had in New Hampshire!) and a fish sandwich.

The next day was rainy. After checking out of the hotel (photo here just so you know Nico was there too!), we stopped by the Mystic Seaport but didn’t stay because of the rain. We’ll have to go back there because it sounds like fun. We did a quick stop at a nearby cemetery for some photos and then headed to New Haven to have pizza for lunch! MMMM!

We went to Modern Apizza and it was delicious!! It was then time to part ways although the girls were begging to go over to each other’s houses. LOL.

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We went on another hike! This time with our favorite family (now I worry that Sienna will find hiking with just me and Yves to be boring! LOL). My friend Ingrid, an avid hiker, suggested Sandy Hook, NJ because it opens up onto the beach. We met our friends there. It was really nice, although cold! I found lots of pretty rocks and there were lots of photo ops. The photos say a lot so there probably won’t be a lot of words.

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Yves was {half} joking about how we did not go to Waffle House once during our vacation in Florida. And vacation is the only time we can get to a Waffle House. So, always looking for a reason to go away, I suggested an overnight trip! The closest Waffle House is in Bethlehem, PA. The closest kid friendly thing to do by Bethlehem is the Crayola Factory (now called the Crayola Experience.) We had gone there a few years ago and had a good time but remember thinking it wasn’t something to go back to regularly as I can imagine some of the activities would get too repetitive. We decided to have a go at it and set off. It was a fun time and there were a few new things added since the last time we went.

Afterwards, we went to have pizza at Antonio’s Pizzeria, where reviewers on yelp claimed it was the most authentic NY style pizza in the area. Well, the other pizzeria’s must be terrible because this was nothing like NY style pizza! (Well, now that I have gone back to check out the link, realized that I confused this place’s review with another places! Oops! Oh well!)

We stayed at Hilton Garden Inn in Allentown. It was ok. The pool was really small (just like the other hotel we stayed at last time we went to Crayola, must be a Bethlehem thing!) but there was also a jacuzzi! And the hotel happens to be right next to the Waffle House! We ended up going to dinner next door as well, to Red Robin. We are not fans of chain restaurants (for the most part) but I remembered that their burgers were decent. Plus it was right next door! We decided to order potato skins for appetizers. Bad move, they were terrible! The burgers were really good tho!

After breakfast at Waffle House, of course! I was able to convince everyone to go check out the Steel Stacks in Bethlehem. Sienna had off on Monday for Veteran’s day and Yves had taken off so there was no rush to get home. It was a windy day so didn’t stay as long as we might have but Sienna was pretty good about it!

All in all, a very fun trip! I got to have some fun with the Canon 5D!

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A couple of days after the end of school, we hightailed it outta here and headed south! We went to Fort Myers Beach, FL. and honestly picked the place because Jetblue flies there and we haven’t been there before. Sounded nice! We rented a 2 bedroom/2 bath condo with a screened in terrace and heated pool. We had a really fun time, despite it having rained every day. Yes, every day! At least not for the whole day. Since Sienna just finished swimming lessons, she was quite happy spending most of the time in the heated pool. Which was fine since the beach sand was very shelly. Was pretty disappointed about that. When it was raining, we played a lot of Uno and Sorry (card version) and drew in our journals. Yves became obsessed with fried grouper sandwiches and I think he ordered it at every restaurant we went to. No exaggeration! We ate a lot of homemade ice cream and let Sienna stay up for however long she wanted to each night and she pretty much conked out by 10-10:30. The Independence day fireworks weren’t all that exciting for her but maybe it was too far away.

Swimming in Pool from Lisa on Vimeo.

Again! from Lisa on Vimeo.

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Last weekend, I went on a mini East Coast road trip with my friend Joy. This would be the first time I was every away from Sienna overnight. I don’t know why this was the first time, I guess I just never had (or made) the opportunity to do this.

We left Saturday morning and I had done some research on good places to eat. I’m on a never ending quest to find awesome homemade corned beef hash (the best being what I ate in New Orleans at Quarter Moon restaurant, pre Katrina so don’t even know if it is still around!) We made it to O’Rourke’s diner around 11:30. I eagerly ordered a side of hash and since I already had eggs that morning, decided to go for something sweet and got Babka French Toast. Honestly, I would not order something so sweet for breakfast but this was technically lunch.

The Babka French Toast was super yummy! They make the babka on site as well as some bread they put on the table for us. Their spicy chocolate banana bread was delicious! I was disappointed in their hash. It tasted dry but I wonder if it was because it was late in the morning. Joy got the casino omelet (no photo) that had crab meat and bacon inside. Tasty!

I liked this bridge we encountered as we left the diner. One of the few non food photos I took.

We made our way up to Seabrook, NH and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, which is actually the same one me and Sienna stayed on our way up to Maine last year! It was over 90 degrees so it was HOT! After checking in, we decided to head over to the Kittery Outlets 15 minutes away. I’m not an outlet person but figured hopping into air conditioning would be ok. I ended up buying a nice dress for a late July wedding!

For dinner, with Yelp’s help, we went to Robert’s Maine Grill. I had my first raw oysters and they are delicious!

We enjoyed everything! For entree, I got pan fried cod and little neck clams. Joy got grilled scallops and we shared a side of brussel sprouts with bacon. No room for dessert!

I took a quick dip in the pool after we got back to the hotel and then we just hung out in the room for the rest of the evening. The next morning we had the hotel breakfast before heading to Wal-mart (have to hit a Wal-mart when we are out of NY!) Yves will be proud to hear that there was a Joann’s fabric store in the same shopping complex that I DID NOT GO IN!!

So the main reason I chose Seabrook, NH was to hit either Markey’s Lobster Pound or Brown’s Lobster Pound. They are right across the street from one another and both have good reviews. I’m sure going to either one would be good so we chose Markey’s only because they were on the same side of the street we were driving down. MMMMMM!!!! This is what we shared; lobster roll, crab cake (ok, that was all me), fried oysters, fried calamari and steamers. Enjoyed it all but the steamers were my least favorite as the large ones were not as tasty as the smaller ones. The fries were a sorry state as they barely looked cooked and I love a good fry but really, you’re not going there for fries!

Since we had time to kill before being able to check into Mohegan Sun (Joy’s contribution to the weekend trip), I thought we could be more touristy and check out Portsmouth, NH. Got some yummy ice cream at Annabelle’s, caramel cashew cluster and mint summer night’s dream. It’s a cute little town but honestly, all those port towns look very similar to me (Bar Harbor, Port Jefferson, etc).

At Mohegan Sun we were able to book a massage for 8 pm. Joy went to gamble and I went to the hot tub beforehand. It was so nice and relaxing! The massage was heavenly and always hate it when it’s over as it seems to go so fast. There were quite a few dining options offered in the casino/mall. After the relaxing massage, we headed to Frank Pepe‘s Napoletana pizza, another place I had on my list. Their original location is in New Haven, CT. We ordered the White Clam pizza and original pizza with anchovy. I enjoyed both of them as I am a fan of thin crust. They were both a tad salty which I know is the nature of anchovies.

The view from our floor.

Inside the mall/casino

For breakfast, we went to Hash House a Go Go, a place Joy encountered in Vegas and marveled at the size of their portions. She did not lie! Joy ordered the chicken and waffles and I had to get their original hash with eggs. All was delicious! The hash was shredded and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Still thinking about it. LOL

The journey home on Monday morning included a stop at Bishop Orchards. A place Joy will never let us forget about since this was the place with the fabulous peaches. They have changed! From a small little orchard to a bigger market! Because of traffic, I did not make it in time to pick up Sienna after school. I had a little ordeal with the pick up but basically Jessica and my mother in law picked her up.

All in all, a very fun getaway! Just wanted to note for documentation that Sienna cried when we skyped. Saturday night she was sad and had wet eyes. Sunday was full fledged crying! Yves said she was basically fine the whole time except when we skyped. I guess seeing me was too much! I was feeling guilty about not making it in time to pick her up after school since I promised her I would be there. I wondered how mad she would be but turns out, she was ok and just wanted to play! You never know how upset she will be about things. Usually things that I think won’t affect her so much, she is over the top about and things I worry and guilt about are not a big deal! Sigh! Will I ever figure it out?

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Yves had to go to a GS conference in Chicago in July for a week, leaving the day before MY BIRTHDAY! So, instead of wallowing at home without him, I decided to drive up to Maine to hang out with Geneva and her girls. Remember we went to visit them last year during Hurricane Irene. I was hesitant at first for a couple of reasons.
1. Driving all that way by myself. Got spoiled being the navigator and seeking out restaurants to stop at and hotels with pools, on the go with my Ipad. Not a fan of fast food so stopping at the rest stops to eat wasn’t appealing.
2. Sienna had been driving me nuts the past few months with her attitude, whininess and defiance. Typical 5 year old stuff and still pale in comparison to some others of her age range but again, got spoiled by her usual easy going spirit of her younger years.

Well, finally just decided to go for it and I’m so glad I did. The drive to and from Maine were very pleasant and we both got along very well. I even rented a movie that I downloaded onto my Ipad just in case it was needed. It was not! (And hence, I let it expire as I wasn’t aware it did so after 30 days!) I broke up each trip into 2 days because really, what was the rush? And Sienna loves staying in a hotel with a pool. Plus, she had a real good time having a constant companion to play with between Phoenix and Lennox!

On the way up, stopped in Manchester, CT for gas and since it was lunchtime, ate at a Friendly’s (who doesn’t want ice cream too?) And by luck, there was a shopping center across the way with Michael’s AND Joann’s fabric! Wooohooo! I researched the night before for a midway point and stayed at a Holiday Inn in Seabrook, NH. Investigated some dinner options online and decided on Galley Hatch Restaurant, where I had the best clam chowder ever!! I also had their shrimp and scallop pizza on gluten free crust! It was pretty good!

Chunky, creamy clam chowder!

While in Maine, we got to go to the Children’s Museum in Bangor. It’s actually called Maine Discovery Museum and it was really very nice! Sienna would have stayed longer if she could!

Goodnight Moon Room

Charlotte’s Web pig

On my actual birthday, Geneva took the girls for the day and told me to go enjoy myself. I spent about 2 hours browsing a store called Marden’s, sorta like the closeout store Amazing Savings but bigger! Then I went to Bar Harbor, a cute little waterfront area with little shops and restaurants. Very touristy but still cute. I had a lobster roll for lunch and treated myself to 4 scoops of ice cream from Mount Desert, the very same store President Obama went to! I got Mexican choc, choc raspberry, chili choc and Maine sea salt caramel. The Mexican chocolate was my favorite!

Some other highlights!

lobster!

Layne teaches Sienna how to light a match so she could light a smoke bomb firecracker!

Sparklers at night

Hiking!


Reaching the end of the hike (1.3 miles)

Swimming in a lake

Going to an Estate Sale (Geneva almost bought this doll house)

2 girls in 2 buckets (that’s Lennox on the left!)

Jumping, jumping and more jumping!

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At the end of May, we took Sienna out of school for 3 days and headed down to DisneyWorld for 7 days. It was actually Yves’ idea to take her as I was willing to wait a couple more years! I booked a package via Jetblue and stayed at the Sheraton Vistana Villages, a condo/timeshare place. I wanted to get a place with a kitchen and separate bedroom and as long as you don’t answer the phone, you don’t get hassled about joining the timeshare. The place was really big! Had 3 pools and the one by our building had a slide and a pirate ship. Lots of fun.

We got a 3 day park pass so the first day we went to the Magic Kingdom. HOT! It was in the 90’s. Via my former boss, we signed up for a site called touringplans.com. It tells you how many people are going to be at the park on any given day. They also have plans on which rides to go on and in what order. We followed a plan somewhat in the beginning. And they were spot on when it said to go to Space Mountain first. Sienna LOVED that ride! As soon as it stopped, she asked if we could go on again! We did a few other rides and then met the newest “Princess” Merida from the movie Brave and learned some archery.

but the heat really took a toll on us. Everyone wanted to leave before it was even noon!! I rallied everyone to continue and convinced everyone that lunch would revitalize us. It did for a bit but not for long. I parked everyone in the shade, hoping it would help. I was just not ready to leave! Not at the price we paid for admission! It turns out that the spot we sat at was along the parade route. I convinced myself that if we at least stayed until the parade, I would feel fulfilled. Ok! Only an hour wait! It turned into an hour and a half but we had a good shady spot at least!

Sienna tired of waiting for the parade to start!

It starts!

The Beast! Sienna’s favorite princess is Belle from Beauty and the Beast but Belle was facing the other side.
The 2nd day we went to Magic Kindgom started out well but then it started to pour by late morning. We were prepared with ponchos and had rented out a stroller (SO much easier to get around with one!!). She got to meet Jasmine and Aladdin as well as the White Rabbit.

The 3rd day we went to Animal Kingdom and I really enjoyed that park even tho there was more rain and by late afternoon, still didn’t really let up. They had the BEST roller coaster called Exhibition Everest that even goes backwards! Sienna really loved that one and we went on twice!

This rhino was scratching his nose with the truck we were in during the safari ride
And we met Goofy and Daisy

Sienna even won a giant dragon playing one of the games!

We also visited some family friend’s of Yves, The Simmons.

Dinner at Carrabas with Auntie Margo and Uncle Denis.

All in all, a very nice family vacation!

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The last weekend of August, we drove up to Maine to visit our dear friends, Geneva, Layne and their girls, Phoenix and Lennox. We almost didn’t go because that was also the weekend of Hurricane Irene. I am so glad we decided to go for it. It was nice to get away from the drama of the hurricane (subway closings, flooding, etc.). We missed the major part of the hurricane and only got some heavy rain in Maine on that Sunday.

We left that Friday, early in the morning – 6am! We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Connecticut (my secret plan as I knew there was one up there!). It was pretty smooth sailing all day. There was one point we had to pull over and Sienna used the travel potty (the first time to use it too and we bought it in May for Myrtle Beach!), she just had to go. It worked out well. A cop pulled over behind us and we got nervous but when he saw Sienna, he told us to take our time. Whew! You never know about those CT cops as I always remember it was in CT that I got my first speeding ticket ($285!!)

We stopped off for lunch when we hit Maine and I got my lobster roll!! MMMMMM. Starr had mentioned to me about all the lobster shacks there are as you head up north and I found one! We went to the lobster claw in Saco, Maine. See how big my lobster pieces were?

Posing with the fisherman

We made it to their house around 4:30 and as you can see, Sienna made herself right at home with Phoenix and her friend, Delaney!

Let me say that Maine is a pleasure and such a different place! The girls played all afternoon, going in the house, going out the house, going next door to another girl’s house, etc. Since they all knew to stay out of the street, it was safe for them to play outside and up the street without having to constantly watch them. They don’t lock their doors! Having never lived outside New York, that concept is so foreign to me! Yves even marveled at how he saw a woman pull into a Target parking lot, left all her windows open and went into Target! Wha?! Anyway, I didn’t see much of Sienna the rest of that day as she was so busy playing with Phoenix. It was so great to see! Makes me miss them that much more.

Lennox getting in on the fun!

They had a ball jumping from the giant bean bag to the bed. They were doing this for awhile! Everyday!

Saturday, we went to the American Folk Festival! Food and music!


Too loud for Sienna!

So yeah, I was too busy eating to take photos of the food! Sorry! Here’s a list: pulled pork BBQ sandwich, mini donuts, chicken on a stick, root beer float and fried dough. Sienna got cranky because she was tired and it was humid out. We went into the neighbor’s pool to cool off (how awesome is Ann, her neighbor?!) but we didn’t stay very long as the water was really super duper cold and Sienna did not want to stay in.

Later that night, Geneva’s neighbor (Delaney’s dad), Matt, BBQed some seafood. Bacon wrapped scallops and salmon pinwheels. I made guacamole with tomatillos and Geneva made cole slaw and corn on the cob. MMM!

Matt did a great job and we went over his place later that night and took a walk around the block.

Sunday was the day the rain came, heavy at times. Geneva took the girls to a bouncy house place (sorta like BounceU) so me and Yves could go out. We intended to go to Bar Harbor, a touristy area by the water that is an hour away, but it really was pouring down hard so went to The Lucerne Inn instead. Their seafood brunch was very good!! I was so into the food that I forgot to take any photos!

Later that day my dear Geneva took me to the craft store, how can I say no? We left the brood sitting on the couch playing video games.

Geneva picked up these pirate mask to color for the girls.

Later that night, we took everyone out for dinner, a small gesture to thank them for the hospitality they have shown us.

We promised the girls ice cream so went to another place to get it. They had cute retro decorations all around the place.

They had a ton of ice cream flavors too. They mix it to order and I thought that was pretty neat. Unfortunately, Yves’ butter pecan was pretty flavorless but my creme de menthe and Sienna’s chocolate was delicious! And Phoenix let me try her tutti frutti too! That was also good.

The next morning, we started heading south toward home. We were going to take 2 days to go home so we can stop at one of the beach towns along the way. More on Salisbury, MA in another post. We went to a local bagel place for breakfast. Geneva turned me onto their apple cinnamon bagel. It was very delicious!

Her face shows the attitude I’ve been getting from her lately. Hmph indeed!

I finally managed to catch a photo of Lennox laughing!

Good-bye hug.

Earlier today Sienna told me she was sad because she missed Phoenix. I told her that I missed Geneva too so she asked me if Daddy missed Phoenix’ daddy, Layne. LOL! And how can I forget a photo of their cute puppy, Elsa?

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Being tourists at “the Bean”!


At the Target sponsored Family tent. There were a few giant fans in there and being the hot and humid day that it was, it was a bit of a relief (although not much!)

At the Crown Fountain. If only I wore the right shoes, I’d be in there with her!

We went to lunch at Hamburger Mary’s in Andersonville where I got a delicious chicken salad sandwich (with cranberries in it! yum!), yes, I know, I did not get a hamburger at Hamburger Mary’s! Then we stopped by this cute shopping gallery, the name I did not catch. It was 3 levels of a bunch of little stalls on each floor with handcrafted items for sale. It felt like Etsy in 3D! It was really cool and I enjoyed looking at everything. Most stalls did not have an actual person in it but there were 3 woman that worked there that could help you. I ended up getting a pair of pretty blue earrings.

Sienna and I both liked this WW mosaic.

I thought the Catwoman was really cool. Sienna didn’t like it but only because it was Catwoman.

An interesting WW hubcap art!

Theresa then wanted to check out a shoe store, a real shoe store with salesclerks that measure your feet! I ended up buying another pair of awesome Dansko sandals, Yves bought some Keen sandals and we got Sienna a size 12 sneaker (she’d been walking around in a size 10! Yikes!). Rich also bought a pair of Keen sandals and the only person to not buy a pair of shoes? Theresa! The one who wanted to go into the shoe store in the first place! Ha!

We really didn’t do much touristy stuff this trip but the main reason was really to hang out with Rich and Theresa. Plus the weather was just too energy sucking (hot and humid) to do much. I did manage to take Sienna to a playground that was 3 blocks away from the house!

On our last day, we decided to go out for breakfast and we went to Walker Bros pancake house. Huge omelets and lots of pancakes! Needless to say, we were stuffed!

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We took a long overdue trip to Chicago, we haven’t been there since Rich and Theresa got married and Sienna was a baby. Airfare was outrageous so we decided to drive there. Sienna is a very good traveller (as evident from the Myrtle Beach drive) so we weren’t worried. Google maps said it would take 13.5 hours to get to Rich’s house so we decided to do it in 2 days. No documenting of the hotel but it was a Hampton Inn (our preferred hotel!) somewhere in PA. There was delays on the I80 due to road work so we didn’t get as far on the first day as we had hoped. On Friday (15th), the 2nd day was really long because we were making up time from the first day plus by the time we reached Chicago, it was rush hour. That was torture as it took 2 hours to get through it!! We finally made it! Yay! Our main goal was to just relax and hang out with Rich and Theresa. They got a new dog named Dexter and Sienna really enjoyed playing with him.

Saturday we had lunch at Superdawg, a place I wanted to check out. It’s one of those drive in places where you place your order through the intercom by your car and then they bring it out for you. Even though I ended up eating outside the car standing up because it was so hot, I enjoyed experiencing that concept.

you can’t even see my hot dog because of the pickle. It was very yummy!
We wanted to see Rich’s parents, Bob and Martha while we were there so they came over for dinner. Rich made pizzas on the grill. Last time Sienna saw Bob, she cracked up whenever he looked at her! He didn’t even do anything. I’m glad to say that he still makes her crack up. Sienna had a great time with him playing ball. He’s got great energy for someone in his 70’s! (BTW, last time Sienna saw Rich, she cried every time he tried to hold her. Glad to say that that did not hold up!)

Atta’ Boy! from Lisa on Vimeo.

One of the many grilled pizzas Rich made. Very delicious!

More Chicago to come!

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