{"id":3947,"date":"2012-09-02T02:40:46","date_gmt":"2012-09-02T02:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/2012\/09\/02\/ellsworth-me\/"},"modified":"2012-09-02T02:43:05","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T02:43:05","slug":"ellsworth-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/2012\/09\/02\/ellsworth-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellsworth, ME"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yves had to go to a GS conference in Chicago in July for a week, leaving the day before <strong>MY BIRTHDAY<\/strong>! 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 <a href=\"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/2011\/09\/07\/maine\/\">last year<\/a> during Hurricane Irene. I was hesitant at first for a couple of reasons.<br \/>\n1. 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&#8217;t appealing.<br \/>\n2. 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. <\/p>\n<p>Well, finally just decided to go for it and I&#8217;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&#8217;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!<\/p>\n<p>On the way up, stopped in Manchester, CT for gas and since it was lunchtime, ate at a Friendly&#8217;s (who doesn&#8217;t want ice cream too?) And by luck, there was a shopping center across the way with Michael&#8217;s AND Joann&#8217;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 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.galleyhatch.com\/\">Galley Hatch Restaurant<\/a>, where I had the best clam chowder ever!! I also had their shrimp and scallop pizza on gluten free crust! It was pretty good!<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/clamchowder.jpg' alt='clamchowder.jpg' \/><br \/>\nChunky, creamy clam chowder!<\/p>\n<p>While in Maine, we got to go to the Children&#8217;s Museum in Bangor. It&#8217;s actually called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mainediscoverymuseum.org\/\">Maine Discovery Museum<\/a> and it was really very nice! Sienna would have stayed longer if she could!<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/gnightmoonroom.jpg' alt='gnightmoonroom.jpg' \/><br \/>\nGoodnight Moon Room<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/onpig.jpg' alt='onpig.jpg' \/><br \/>\nCharlotte&#8217;s Web pig<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"http:\/\/mardens.com\/\">Marden&#8217;s<\/a>, 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 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mdiic.com\/\">Mount Desert<\/a>, 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!<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/mtdeserticecream.jpg' alt='mtdeserticecream.jpg' \/><br \/>\nSome other highlights!<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/lobster.jpg' alt='lobster.jpg' \/><br \/>\nlobster!<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/luluvision\/7827428376\/\" title=\"04. LightaMatch by luluvision, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8429\/7827428376_cd4481c328.jpg\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" alt=\"04. LightaMatch\"><\/a><br \/>\nLayne teaches Sienna how to light a match so she could light a smoke bomb firecracker!<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/sparklersnite.jpg' alt='sparklersnite.jpg' \/><br \/>\nSparklers at night<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/luluvision\/7827426358\/\" title=\"07. Hiking by luluvision, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7246\/7827426358_c231c31938.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"07. Hiking\"><\/a><br \/>\nHiking!<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/luluvision\/7827426526\/\" title=\"09. HikingFriends by luluvision, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8422\/7827426526_92bd4a75c5.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"09. HikingFriends\"><\/a><br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/mehike.jpg' alt='mehike.jpg' \/><br \/>\nReaching the end of the hike (1.3 miles)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/luluvision\/7827426742\/\" title=\"11. SwimLake by luluvision, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7138\/7827426742_051048e06d.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"11. SwimLake\"><\/a><br \/>\nSwimming in a lake<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/estatesaledollhouse.jpg' alt='estatesaledollhouse.jpg' \/><br \/>\nGoing to an Estate Sale (Geneva almost bought this doll house)<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/2girlsinabucket.jpg' alt='2girlsinabucket.jpg' \/><br \/>\n2 girls in 2 buckets (that&#8217;s Lennox on the left!)<br \/>\n<img src='http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/jumping.jpg' alt='jumping.jpg' \/><br \/>\nJumping, jumping and more jumping!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,4,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4222,"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions\/4222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thebunnylog.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}