Dee and Cindy

After a night (well, a few hours actually) of listening to the refrigerator and heater/AC unit tick (we didn’t wanna sleep anyway, right?), we crawled out of bed to get ready for our trip home.

Another 12 year old picked us up in his mom’s taxi (that’s the only explanation) and we headed off to the airport. He was a very nice taxi-boy, and had even worked in Phoenix for a couple of months last summer, during which he says he lost 80 pounds and promised to never return. He dropped us off at the airport right behind the only other car going to the airport (this is how horror movies start) and helped us carry our bags and boxes in to the counter where we DIDN’T HAVE TO WAIT IN LINE!! (did we mention the horror movie?)

We knew we were at the right terminal, because there is no left/wrong/other terminal.  Small airport indeed.  At this point we were wondering if the Cessna was going to be too full for us to catch the flight out and wondered if Lowell was gonna come walking in from the hangar.

After speeding through security (again, no line!) things got really crazy! The food court/newstand was clear at the opposite end of the gates from where our plane was… and we needed some breakfast desperately! Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to get from the first gate to the last (ie from 1 to 2).

When flying standby, you have to watch the flights to see which you might be able to catch, and have the patience and schedule to jump to a different destination/time in order to get where you’re going.  We caught the early flight because it looked really good getting into Denver, and pretty good getting from Denver to Phoenix.  And sho’ ’nuff!  We caught the flight (on a real plane even!) to Denver and even got to sit together.  (newlyweds, am I right?)

Then things went crazy.

Somewhere over Utah the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed.  If not for the courage.. oh wait.

The flight got bumpy and therefore Dee’s arm got bruised. Little planes make Cindy nervous, especially when they don’t stay at a consistent altitude.  The weather in SanFran was definitely not the same weather that we left in Denver, but you gotta figure that they’re used to rain and fog and clouds and stuff like that in Seattle San Francisco.  We landed safely at Terminal 3 and hopped the shuttle to Terminal 1 to catch the flight back home.  Yay us!

We really love rain.  I mean love. rain.  Which explains why we live in Phoenix, M-I-Right???  We found a $50 sandwich and a $12 bottle of water and sat to stare out the window and watch the scenery that we never get in the ol’ hometown and wait for our flight.

As in most airports, finding power for your iPad, iPhone, iMac, iAndroid, iLaptop, iVacuumCleaner (or whatever other electronic gadget you have) is very much like fighting the crowds at Walmart on Black Friday.  We found this airport to be surprisingly different.  There were even a few seats right in front of the little status board (which mostly says “you’ll never get on this flight”) that had power attached to the bench, and those seats were mostly empty.  Crazy!!

What we didn’t know is that those seats were mostly empty because the people whose overly large behinds would normally be in them were standing in line at the “customer service” counter (draw your own conclusions as to why that phrase is in quotes) because their flights had been delayed.

Being the savvy standby flyers that we are, we keep an eye on the aforementioned status board, another on the united app on our iDevice, and another on the united.com employee (or family thereof) page.  Imagine our confusion (aka outrage) when the flight to Phoenix disappeared from the app and the website.

The empty seats started making sense.

We started looking for other flights that might get us back to our abandoned cats before thanksgiving, but “canceled” was quickly becoming the word of the day.  We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t fly when it rains???

As we’ve done before, we started looking for alternative routes to home.  Unfortunately, this time there was not a route through New Jersey, or anywhere  else, that would get us home.  And when flights start canceling, future flights start filling up.  Out options were to camp out in SF for the weekend, or drive. Seriously, the flights were full for the next couple of days.

Remember 9/11?  I remember hearing about people at a conference in Utah who actually BOUGHT cars to be able to get back home because the airports were closed and the rental agencies were out of cars.  Dee was ready to purchase. Cindy would have gone for it but Dee was only ready to purchase a scooter.  🙂

We finally found a flight to LA, where we figured we could rent a car to drive back home.  So back on the bus to terminal 1.  And… guess who we (ok… Dee) sat by (across the aisle from)!!!!

You’ll never guess!

And since you’ll never comment to play the guessing game (:-/)… it was Megan Price from… well from everything… but most noticeably from Grounded for Life and Rules of Engagement.

She was very awesome and gracious and famous and stuff.  🙂  She also was tired cuz she worked all night (we know that cuz we bonded on the bus ride), so we settled for the subtle stalker photo you see here.

We actually did catch the flight to LA, probably cuz so many people missed their connecting flights in to SanFran cuz of the drizzle, and only had to sit on the runway for 30 minutes before taking off!  (yay?)

As soon as we landed we started mowing people down so we could get to the Hertz rental place.  Dee was in no mood to buy a car by this time.  As usual, each rental agent who finished with a customer immediately went on break or retired and left us standing there wishing we had chosen any other agency. (yes, another :-/ )

We passed on the all  the upgrades and extra insurance (which we’d totally love to get one of these days and just ruin a car) and ended up with the little red mini-SUV-crossover-wagon-wagon.

So in the pouring rain (which you can drive in but evidently can’t fly in) we headed off from LA to… Buckeye (there’s no abbreviation for Buckeye).  And 23 hours later, at about 2:30 AZ time, we made it home.

A rather rough ride home, but it was such a fun drive up, and it’s so good to see Dee’s home and family and to see Stormy and Spenser settling in up there in the land of the icy/windy spud.  Right now it’s time for us to get some much deserved sleep, and to start looking for cheap direct flights for our next visit.  Anybody have Lowell’s number?

‘I woke up to the sound of pouring rain’

That’s a song by Skid Row, for all you non-metalheads. It’s also what happened here in Rexburg. The Springhill Suites were pretty sweet, and we got a room on the 4th (top) floor away from all the ice machines and elevators and civilization and it was very quiet and relaxing.  And without having to get up early and hit the road, we got to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast. It was almost like being on vacation! Except without the beaches and waves lapping gently at our feet.

For the first time on the trip, we didn’t have frost on the truck windows (yes, that again), because it was raining and blowing.  Strange how we are so much farther north now, but the weather is frost-free.  We only had to travel 2 states away to find the rain, but find it we did!  🙂

Today we got to have some non-travel time, and spent the day playing with Hudson and packing and repacking all of our stuff so we could catch a flight back home tomorrow.  We picked up some extra stuff along the way and might need that moving truck to get back home!  Fortunately, we get to check a couple of bags each for the flight (thanks Noah!), so we won’t have to sell our plasma to cover any airline baggage fees.

We got our resting and packing and playing done, delivered the truck to the Budget place, and headed into Idaho Falls to find a hotel.  There are 2 flights out tomorrow… 5:35 am and 1:33 pm… both through Denver.  So guess which flight we’re trying?  :-/  The joys of standby.  But hey!  The price is right, Bob!

We checked into the Super 8 because they were close to the airport and had free transport and we figured if we had to get up in the middle of the night to get to the airport we were only going to be napping anyway.  We requested a pickup time of 4:00 for our free ride to the airport; gotta be there at least 90 minutes early for the flight, right?   The 12 year-old behind the counter kinda shrugged and said “I don’t think the airport is open then.”

Say whaaaaat?

Ya.  The airport doesn’t open until 4:30.  I didn’t even know airports closed!  Evidently it’s not a very big airport.

We headed off to Applebee’s for dinner, figuring we’d spend our recently aquired gift-card (thank you Garners!) only to find Applebee’s closed for construction.  So off we go into the wild blue (named because the crazy wind is so cold here it turns your skin blue… or maybe that’s just Cindy’s new jeans…) and had a wonderful dinner at the Pelican Club Sandpiper Restaurant.  Very tasty!  I highly recommend you drive there if you’re in Idaho Falls.  But don’t walk or you’ll freeze!!

Tonight we’re packed away in our SuperRoom, with an alarm set for 3:40 am.  Good night Idaho!

Phoenix has some of the most beautiful sunsets on the planet (or at least in Arizona), but there’s nothing like a beautiful sunrise over the snow-covered Wasatch mountains!  Here’s a crisp morning sunrise over the gas station outside our motel window.

And speaking of windows, we found the frost all settled on our windshield again this morning.  We knew you’d want a picture of that, so here ya go.

In Phoenix, if you leave your truck running while you pop into Circle K for 12 seconds, someone will drive off with it. Especially if you leave your child in it.  But here in Tremonton our running truck was just one of a line of trucks idling in the parking lot while the windows clear.  Ice-scraper?!  Psssh… who needs it?

And that’s why we don’t have frost in Phoenix.  Because of the crime rate.

First on the agenda this morning was a trip to the Pie Dump.  This restaurant is a long-standing tradition for anyone who grew up in the Tremonton/Garland area.  Dee fondly remembers all the classes he sluffed while sitting at the Dump eating a small plate (it’s a food item, not an actual plate) and drinking a few Mt Dews… (sluff is a Utah word for ditching school.  Gosh!)

We always try to grab some foods at the Pie Dump when we’re in Town, but for the past few years it’s been kinda tough.  They’ve either been closed for the County Fair (I know, right??) or for cleaning because school was about to open.   But this time we didn’t even tell Mom we were coming into town, so the Dump didn’t have any advance notice and we caught them off guard.  And open.

So some of Dee’s fam, Ben, Becky and Mom, joined us for all the rolls and most of the gravies.  So good!

The next mandatory stop is at MB Meat Packing to get some jerky.  I highly recommend the Teriyaki, Saddlebag, Colorado… oh what the heck.  Just get some of each!

We bid a fond farewell to the… the… (googling) beehive state and headed North towards our final destination.  Actually back home is our final destination, but you know what we mean.

We made it into Rexburg and to the Townhouse there at the UI (that’s what all us hip cats are calling BYU-Idaho) at about 2, which was really good timing because there were some guys walking home from class and the campus code forces them to help whenever they see freezing people unloading trucks.  We were very glad to see them show up, too, because heavy lifting really isn’t in our repertoire.  (Dee had to look that word up twice!)

We did get them all moved in and some of the furniture arranged and a few boxes unpacked and the TV hooked up (that should have been done first IMHO).  And now we’re off to the uber-chic Springhill Suites for a nice night  of R&R.  (resting and Rexburging)

So while we sleep, enjoy these pictures of our trip and try not to think that the scenery looks just like Utah only colder.

That’s all folks!

Tremonton looks exactly the way it did last time I saw it!  Well, in the dark anyway.  We’ll see how it looks tomorrow when it’s light outside.

Speaking of light outside, we woke up in Holbrook this morning.  Not really all that astounding when you consider that’s where we went to sleep last night.  It’s worth mentioning again how much we liked this hotel.  Very quiet.  Very convenient to the freeway.  Very many plugs.  Very good breakfast.  If we ever find ourselves in Holbrook again… well we’ll probably just keep driving.

We loaded up all the suitcases and headed out to the truck, only to find it completely unusable.  There was some kind of white ‘film’ over the windshield… very strange.  We started the truck up and headed into the hotel to call AAA and to get some breakfast.  Yay automatic pancake machine!!  It was very cold outside, so we contemplated using the pancakes as hand warmers while we went to check out the truck.  By the time we finished the free sausages and eggs and apples and muffins (and did I mention the pancakes?) the white stuff on the windshield was gone.  So then we were too!

There’s not really a lot to say about the drive today… cuz it was driving through Northern AZ and Southern Utah.  Hey look… there’s another rock.  :-/  If it weren’t for the sign, you’d never know you went from one state to another.

OK.  We have to talk.  How is it that every house/trailer/shack/outhouse on the rez has a satellite dish?  I mean every structure.  Every.one.

So that was our excitement for the morning.  We did pass a few scenic views, which we’ll hopefully remember to post in this story.  And… we got passed by a truck exactly like ours.  But it was probably empty.  And turbocharged.

The fun part of the trip was coming down through the canyon from price.  Not fun because Dee had to make an emergency roadside stop ((blush)), but because we got to play in the snow!  yay snow!  And by play I mean walk through on our way to the little convenience store.  Not everybody can make emergency roadside stops.   The snow on the railroad tracks is SO pretty.  So of course we didn’t get any pictures of that for you.  We suggest you google “snow covered rails”.

We rolled into Tremonton after dark and headed straight over to Dee’s Mom’s house.  We didn’t even call. Evidently she saw us on facebook, cuz she wasn’t really surprised to see us at the door.  Such a stalker, mom is!

Becky came over to say “hey” and we played catch with the dog (you HAVE to if you’re going to be at mom’s house), and Dee picked up Dad’s guitar and amp to take back with us.  That’s the guitar that Becky and Dee learned to guitar with, and the amp is the same one that Dee played bass through in his very first band.  (memories… light the corners of my mind…)  Remember the scene from Spinal Tap?  You know… these go to 11?  Well it’s right here.

So… Dee’s Dad’s amp goes to 12.  Oh ya.

While checking into the hotel in Tremonton, we got the usual “from the Ted Hathaway Hathaways?”.  Hathaways are kind of a big deal here.  People know us.  Well at least the people checking us in did.  She was the mom of a couple of guys Dee went to school/scouts with a long time ago when he was younger.

Also while we were checking in, the dude in front of us was talking on the phone (not being a jerk,  it was a legitimate call to find out why his company card wasn’t working) and said he was in “Thermonton”.  Never heard it pronounced like that before.  And I’ll bet it’s gonna be hard for whoever was on the other end of the call to find on a map! (hint.. there’s an app for that.  Find My Friends)

So now we’re all checked into the Western Inn, ready to collapse after a day of sitting up very straight.  In the morning we’re going for hot rolls and gravy (yum!) at the Pie Dump.  You’ll have to check in tomorrow to hear/read about that.

Goodnight all!

I’m a truck drivin’ man. ~ Dee Hathaway

Before we get into that, you should know that in this little adventure we are helping Stormy and Spenser (and little Hudson, the cutest baby boy EVER!) move from Pima, AZ to Rexburg ID. Why you ask? Well because it’s the start of winter and the perfect time to move to the great white north.

Well really because Spenser is going to BYU Idaho, which used to be Rick’s but the church decided that sounded more like a grocery store than a college so they had to change the name.

So in preparation for the trip we reserved a moving truck and packed our suitcases and fretted over who we should get to house-sit and whether or not we’d have to catch a flight through New Jersey to get from ID back to AZ (we’re still not sure). The plan was to take the truck to Pima today, load up tonight, hit the road in the A.M. in the morning (wait… what?) and show up in snow-potato country sometime Monday or Tuesday, depending on how many hills there are between start and finish.

Now you’re all caught up and we can start the story (no, we haven’t started yet)

We dropped Gracie off at Cindy’s Ma’s house early this morning (9 is early for a Saturday) and stopped to pick up the truck.
Since we couldn’t take it with us, we dropped Cindy’s car off at the airport, which is convenient cuz then we’ll have a way to get home after this trip. 🙂 While Cindy drove around looking for a parking spot in long-term-short-term parking, Dee sat in front of the airport in a large, idling moving van. Could pretty much feel the laser sights from Homeland Security the whole time.

After averting an airport shutdown, we headed off to Pima. Probably our last trip to Pima. Not all that sad about it. Just so you know, a 16 foot moving truck rides like a truck, and of course we had headwind the whole way. (feel bad for us yet?)

We posted some very hilarious updates on Facebook, and will keep doing that for the trip. So if you’re not friends with us on Facebook you’re only getting half the story and it sucks to be you right now. 🙂

The plan was for Pima peeps to show up and load up at 4, but we got in a bit early so we watched Spenser and Stormy’s dad load up the truck (we’re such good supervisors). As we were sitting around in a house with no food or furniture we really realized our fatal flaw of failing to think about what we were going to do all evening. In Pima. With the TV loaded in the truck. In Pima.

So we decided to head out tonight and hopefully make it to Holbrook, thereby putting us on schedule to be back in my hometown with fam for tomorrow night (yay!)

Cindy and I headed out early (even earlier than originally planned) cuz of the whole truck full of stuff climbing hills, plus that got us out of cleaning the house. 😉

And headwind again. I blame it on the hair and the need to always have a fan gently blowing the hair back. Don’t hate me.

The trip to Holbrook had it’s ups and downs… and we went a lot faster on those rare occasions when there were downs. The truck did really well… cruising along in 2nd gear at a steady 34mph for way too much of the trip!

We have settled into the Travelodge in Holbrook, which is an awesome place right on Route 66 most noted for it’s abundance of plugs in which to charge our multitude of electronics. Seriously… 4 plugs above each nightstand. Crazy.

And now we must head off to sleep because we’re going to hit the road early. Not crazy early like some people we’re traveling with cuz that’s just ridiculous. And in the morning… I’m making waffles!

Get your kicks… on I-40. No wait! Route 66.

(((Yawwnnnn… stretch…)))

What a day!  We woke up well after the sun to the sound of snowplows clearing the parking lot.  It very much beats waking up with/before the sun to the sound of snowplows clearing the parking lot!

We found breakfast at one of the not “closed for the season” (yes, that again.  it’s a theme. deal with it.) places and, on the recommendation of our waitress, headed to the north end of the Cape to a town called Ptown (Provincetown to the tourists).  We were warned that the town was… different… but there was a place there that had the best lobster in all New England.  We really hadn’t had much luck finding lobster so far, so we headed out with great gumption.  And a full tank of gas.

I’m sure by now you’re aware that we’re on our honeymoon (yes, we’re still on our honeymoon) and we don’t really stick to any given route or plan, so we took the scenic route along the coast.  We saw some very coastal images, such as:

and

and of course stopped to see a couple of lighthouses along the way.

It

was

so

cold!!

And of course, every place was… you guessed it… closed for the season.  🙁

We got to Ptown and found the most excellent Lobster place that was recommended to us earlier in the day.  And it was… you guessed it again… closed for the season.  Dee did have someone tell him that he has awesome hair, so the trip wasn’t a total loss.  The only thing “different” we noticed was that there was nobody there.

Also, we saw some pretty cool sights such as…

We continued our coastal tour and mostly did nothing but drive and see really cute houses.  We stopped for dinner at a place called Mezza Luna.  the reviews on TripAdvisor had said this place had some really good lobster, so we stopped in for a bite.  And found… they were out of lobster.  Evidently lobster are a migratory shellfish and head for warmer waters in the winter.  or maybe just when Dee and Cindy are in town.  :-/

We had a good dinner anyway, and stopped to do laundry before settling in for the night, where we found this awesome advice.

We woke up today to another picture-perfect post-card.  The difference today was that the sun was shining… not as impressive as the snowfall but still quite gorgeous!  And a whole lot easier to travel in.  We stood at the windows for a while and watched the snowplows roll through and, as snowplows will do, reblock everybody’s driveways.

We made our way down to the breakfast area to find a new person in charge of the foodses.  Although the noms were just as good as yesterday, it just wasn’t the same not having that nice lady pushing us to eat some waffles.  The new hotel breakfast person was nice enough, but it wasn’t like eating breakfast at home anymore (yes, we’ve gotten that spoiled).  Since we didn’t have ‘mom’ there anymore (and because we know we’re getting close to the end of this adventure and might actually have to start heading back towards the airport) we decided to pack it up and leave Kennebunk (sniff, whimper, cry).

We set off on our merry little way  down the interstate, and found it mostly drive-able.  Our original plan called for meeting the daughter Koree last night at her place in Providence, but the snow had different plans for us, so the new plan was to meet Koree today.  And we accomplished that plan.  Yay!

We met Koree and got the official tour of her place and the resident animals.  If it didn’t sound so… risque… I’d say she lives in a cat house.  Seriously, though.  I’m pretty sure the cats outnumber the people.

The second-best thing about the tour (the first was getting to see the Koree) was meeting Princess Beyonce (PB), Koree’s ferrret.  She’s so cute!  We might have disturbed her sleep a little, so for the first part of the visit she was just kinda lethargic (kinda like the way my day started), but then she perked up and got all wiggly and hyper and stuff.  I expected a bit of a stench, just from having heard about ferrets, but she’s really clean and fun and cuddly and stuff.  Here’s a couple of pics.

The pic on the right isn’t PB in full attack mode, it’s Koree demonstrating that if you grab a ferret by the skin on the back of its neck (much like a mother cat would do with a kitten) it makes the ferret open its mouth.  Such an educational visit!

And speaking of edumacational visits, Koree took us to where she works; 5 Wits in Foxboro MA.  It’s a super-cool action/adventure thing where you’re part of either an Espionage or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea adventure where you have to figure out puzzles and mysteries and brain-teasers and stuff to complete your mission.  We got the behind-the-scenes tour, so if you need any help while you’re there, give us a call.  On second thought, if you need any help, just ask Koree.  She’ll be right there anyway  🙂

It was great to be able to see her again and to see that she’s all happy and healthy and working in a job she likes.  Love you Koree!!!

Since it was fairly late when we left Providence and we wanted to make sure we had a room when we got to Cape Cod we went on line and reserved a room at a cute little place called Inn at Swan River.  It started snowing lightly as we entered Massachusetts and there was little traffic on the freeway and the cruiser was tuned to a cute little softrock station… it was quite romantic, which was really adding to the whole ‘honeymoon’ thing we had going on.  🙂

That lasted right up until we pulled into the parking lot and found the Inn at Swan River was actually Out at Swan River.  We’re really starting to find this whole “closed for the season” thing to be “a bit ridiculous”.  There were lights on in the rooms and cars in the parking lot, so we deduced that it was really a functional motel.  And just for a brief moment, we considered knocking on one of those occupied rooms and seeing if we could borrow their couch.

After ringing the bell and banging on the door and calling the posted “if we’re not here, call this 800 number” number several times to no avail, we set off in the ever-increasing snowfall to find a place to crash for the night.  Mostly what we found was more “closed for the season” signs, but we did eventually run across (well, more like pulled into) the Ambassador Inn.  At this point we weren’t really picky, just exhausted, so Dee went in and rang the bell at the counter a half-dozen times.  Eventually a nice young man came out and said “jes?”… to which Dee replied “can I get a room for the night?”.

Then the nice young man held up a finger (no, not THAT finger!  The just a minute, let me get someone who speaks English finger) and disappeared through a door marked “Private”, then quickly returned with a nice young woman who did indeed give us a room for the night.  And it turned out to be a very nice room.  That story was just as boring when we were living it as it was while you were reading it.  🙂

Sorry there aren’t any more pictures… we were mostly driving through frozen tundra.  Hopefully there will be more for tomorrow’s episode.  Y’all come back now, ya hear?!

We went to sleep last night in Star’s Hollow, but we woke up this morning in a postcard!

Seriously, this was the view out the hotel window this morning.  I’m hoping I don’t need to tell you that with several inches of snow on the ground (and the C&G cruiser) and several more inches on the way, we didn’t pack up and head to Providence (sorry, Koree!)  We decided it would be better to call it a snow day and stay in the room and drink hot chocolate and lay in front of the fireplace.

Well, our room doesn’t have a fireplace (what the crap?!)  Fortunately, the lounge/breakfast room does (yay!) and the nice lady in charge of breakfast and pushing waffles on all the guests (seriously… you are gonna have some waffles!) turned it on for us.  It was even more postcardish to sit by the fire eating strawberry waffles while the snow fluttered around outside.

After breakfast we put on all our warm clothes and parkas and scarves (Cindy didn’t put on all of her scarves, we don’t have that kind of time!) and headed out to play in the snow.  Playing in the snow for us mostly involves walking around and taking pictures and saying “this is so cool!”, and we did a lot of that.  We set out in search of a laundromat (even though we never got around to doing any laundry) and then crossed the river from Kennebunk into Kennebunkport.  Ya see, they ran out of names for towns, so now when they start a new town, they just add “port” to another town’s name and call it good.  or Port.  Whatever.

On this trip we’ve discovered what ‘off-season’ means. We always knew that it was not ‘on-season’ and that it had something to do with tourists and stuff, but it’s taken on a whole new meaning here.  What is means is “no ____ for you!”.  No lobster, no chic clothing, no lighthouse tours… we decided we’ll just have to come back when everything is Open for the Season… now all we have to do is figure out when that is.

After we walked around oohing and aahing and looking in “closed for the season” shop windows, we stopped in the cute little General Store; HB Provisions.  We drank some awesome hot chocolate and sat around in the general sitting section of the general store, and generally watched the locals come in and get some sammiches and coffee and generally just visit.  No generals showed up that we’re aware of.  We did eventually order our own sammiches (yay panini!) and got some water and snacks and headed back to the room to watch the snow falling through the window.  (we were watching out through the window; the snow wasn’t actually falling through the window)

For dinner we headed out to the closest open place and had some Tapas.  Evidently Tapas is another word for expensive appetizers that you normally wouldn’t eat.  Having had a bad experience with duck and all things carpaccio (which means raw, as it turns out), we had some overdone toast and asked our waiter where we could get some lobster (we ask waiters where we should go to get some real food; we’re classy like that).  He suggested we go to the The Pilot House down the street, just past the gas station (at least it wasn’t IN the gas station) and so away we went.

It was such a cute little place (and it was open!) and it looked just like the sort of scene the characters from The Perfect Storm would hang out during a “Nor’easter” (as opposed to a regular Easter, I supposed) and wait to hear word about their mighty seafaring menfolk.  We decided to soak in the atmosphere while we soaked in some tasty steamed lobster.  Oh hey guess what… No lobster.  :-/

Our waitress explained that they didn’t get any lobster in that day, but did let us know that there were 2 lobstermen (guys who catch lobster, not those who are half-lobster-half-man) sitting at the bar, which might explain why there were no lobster. We opted for the chowdah, and it was quite tasty.  And we even got it for free!  (what!?) Yes free.  Evidently they saw us on GMA and wanted to treat visiting celebrities right.  Or they just felt bad for not having lobster.  Or they were about to close and wanted to get rid of the last of the chowder.  Whatever the reason, it was really really tasty!

It was a great way to spend a snow day!  And here are some pictures of the cutest little town we’ve ever seen.

This place just couldn’t be any cuter even if it had dimples!

We got another great, quiet night’s rest thanks to our 4 poster king-size bed (be jealous… you should) and trudged downstairs to the breakfast room.  Very impressive!  There literally was one other car besides the cruiser in the parking lot, but the King’s Port Inn has put out a really nice breakfast. Cereal, hard-boiled eggs, juice, toast, bagels, coffee, pastries, yogurt, a fireplace (for sitting by, not for eating) and made to order waffles.  They were just made if you ordered them, not like medium/medium rare or anything.  Which makes them made when order, I guess…

Anyway… after breakfast we packed up and headed out for a little more of the road-trip/sightseeing part of the honeymoon.  Today’s destination was lighthouses.  And other houses too.  We just love the houses back here!  Each one is so unique and different and… and… New Englandy.

Speaking of New England.  We decided that people who live in Maine are called Mainerds.  You’re welcome, Mainerds.  🙂

So we drove down Maine street (no really) on our travels, and saw some really cool sites… Like these!

And that was just in Kennebunkport!

We did find the lighthouses we were looking for, but it took some searching.  We headed for Two Lights State Park to see the first couple of lighthouses, only to find that there are no lighthouses there.  Not any lights or houses at all!  The park is so misleadingly named because there are two lighthouses nearby. (aren’t you glad that not all landmarks are named that way?)  The cool thing about the park (besides the pics you’re about to see) is that it was actually used as a military battery (the defense kind, not the Duracell kind) during World War II.  (WAY cool!)  Here is said park…

We then drove to the two lighthouses, and they are now private property (although still operational) so we weren’t able to go inside.  (Dee only pouted for a little while)

lobster potsOur next stop was the Head Light.  No, not the one on the front of the car, the one at Portland Head Light.  It’s an old military post next to a lighthouse.  We had planned on mostly driving today and doing very little walking (you know there’s a “but” coming up, right?) but, (told you!) Dee turned too soon and we ended up at the walking trail instead of the actual park entrance (nicely done Dee!!), so we ended up walking a whole lot more that we thought we would.  Wouldn’t be a problem, except Cindy took the “very little walking” to heart and wore Crocs.  Poor frozen wife toes.  🙁

It was a very cool (ha!) place.  The lighthouse was commissioned by old G.W. himself (George Washington, for those not up on their made-up-by-Dee acronyms) and parts of the base were used to guard the coast during WWI and WWII.  We didn’t realize the coast had such an important military history!

Oh!  Here are the pics.

By then we were tired and frozen and hungry and cranky and went in search of food and warmth.  That was pretty hard to come by today, and it’s evidently pretty hard to come by in New England in the winter.(awwwwww 🙁  )  We picked out a couple of nice-sounding places from the ol’ Google map, but they were both “Closed for the Season”.  We ended up at Becky’s Diner (thanks Becky!) in Portland.  They had food, but they didn’t have warmth!  It was so COLD in there (shiver, shiver!).  We felt really bad for the wait-staff, standing there in their shivering wait-attire.  But the Haddock Chowder was way good!  Even Cindy liked it!

After first dinner, it was time for dessert, so we headed for the Chocolate Bar in Portland, which, as it turns out, is more bar than chocolate.  No worries, the cheesecake was still good!  Almost good enough to make up for the parking ticket we got while there!  Hey!  Other people were parked there too and there was no clearly marked signage and we have Florida plates and we’re on our honeymoon and any other excuse we can think of!  Fine. We’ll just pay the stupid fine.  (with the frozen toes and closen sto’es and now this… it hasn’t been Dee’s best day ever)

After the long lighthouse trip, we headed back to Kennebunk (yay!).  We had second dinner at Pedro’s which sounds like a Mexican restaurant, but the food only faintly resembles Mexican-fare.  The tacos were… tolerable… and the rice & beans were… interesting.  Here’s a traveler’s tip for you; when in New England, stick with the chowdah!!

Back in the room now, basking in the warmth and the after-cheesecakeness of the evening.  🙂  It’s supposed to snow tomorrow, and we’re also planning to go into Providence to spend some time with Koree… so we’ve decided if it’s snowing we’ll just stay another night here (and we hadn’t even planned on being here in the first place!!!)

Will we stay?  Will we go?  You’ll just have to tune in and find out!  See you tomorrow!