Adventures of Dale and Carole: Maine 2019

July 9, 2019 By Carole

Let’s take a virtual trip to Maine, shall we? And let’s look at photos of all the things we could do if we were there.

We could look at sunrises.

And rainbows.

And sunsets.

We could eat lobsters.

Lots of lobsters.

And even lobster rolls.

We could have fires.

And relax on the porch.

We could celebrate a birthday.

And have cocktails. So.many.cocktails.

We could walk to a super cute neighborhood library.

And do other things we won’t take photos of, like shop and visit the Farmer’s Market and have ice cream and read and do puzzles and go for drives and take walks along the shore.

And we could do it all from the most adorable waterfront cottage in the world.

After looking at these photos I’m ready to go back. Let’s do it!

A Quickie Maine Post

July 2, 2019 By Carole

Work reentry is a tricky thing at any time of year but work reentry when it’s the end of the fiscal year and beginning of another is it’s own special kind of hell. I had a stack of bills to process yesterday that dismayed me, particularly since I thought I had gotten a lot done before I went away. Those librarians of mine, though, they spent a lot of money in the last couple of weeks in an attempt to make sure we don’t turn money back.

On top of the bills I had payroll to get through. Pay day is every other week around here and I turn in 3 payrolls each time. BUT! Raises go into effect on July 1st so that means 6 payrolls this time around, 3 for the end of FY 19 and 3 for the start of FY 20. It is nice that July 1st was on a Monday as that makes for a cleaner split of the two different pay rates everyone gets.

And then, after work, I had a selectmen’s meeting. #superbusy and #ialreadyneedanothervacation

This is all just a long way of saying . . . I did not get a post of photos prepared to share with you today. I do, however, have a one minute video of one second highlights of our week in Maine.

I hope it’ll keep you satisfied until I have time for a proper vacation recap.

Thursday In New York City

May 21, 2019 By Carole

Today I will wrap up our April vacation in New York City.

After 3 days of being on the go and up early, when Thursday came we all slept in (I was fighting off a lousy cough) and checked out of the hotel at 11. We had a 3:30 train and literally had one goal for the time we had to kill until the train: PIZZA. We took the subway to what is reportedly the best pizza in the city: John’s of Bleecker.

We were not disappointed! They have an original coal fired oven and the pizza is huge with very thin crust in the middle and big chewy edges – perfect for folding! We weren’t the only tourists there but there were also plenty of locals. The pizza definitely lived up to it’s reputation and I’m so glad we made the effort to go there.

After lunch we walked up to Washington Square and then, worrying about the time, we headed back to the hotel to collect our luggage and go to the train station. The traffic was heavy and we were getting nervous but . . . we needn’t have because once we got to Penn Station we saw that our train had a 90 minute delay. That delay kept getting longer and longer and, believe it or not after all that time we almost missed the train because we went down the wrong escalator, but we finally got on and got seats in the quiet car.

Did I mention I was fighting off a cough? So yeah, there’s me, hacking away and making a fair amount of noise while doing so, and getting glaring looks from everyone around me. I’m pretty sure they all thought I was Typhoid Mary. Good times.

All kidding aside, this trip was nothing but fun! It was great to have all that time for exploring the city, going to shows, eating fabulous food and drinking plenty of wine with Hannah and Dale.

I’m already plotting a return!

Thursday Things

May 16, 2019 By Carole

Today I’ve got 3 more pictures from our Wednesday in New York City. And they are all from when we went to see To Kill A Mockingbird. This whole trip was based off Hannah’s request that we all go see this play together and when I was there with Jo-Ann in March I was able to score terrific box seats for the 3 of us. In case I’ve never mentioned it, To Kill A Mockingbird is one of my most favorite books and, because I’ve raised Hannah right and also because I married the perfect person for me, they both agree. We are all also pretty big fans of Jeff Daniels, both from his role in the movie Gettysburg and also from The Newsroom. This is all just a round about way of saying that going to see this play was a no brainer for us.

And it was fabulous. Hannah was so excited she was shaking and Dale was all verklempt and really, it’s just a wonderful wonderful play and unforgettable experience.

So, because we were with our fangirl, we waited outside the stage door for the actors to come out. We saw Jimmy Fallon – who was obviously not in the play but had been in the audience – as well as all of the other actors.

One surprise cast member for us was Dakin Matthews. He played the judge in the play but we have known him for years as Headmaster Charleston from Gilmore Girls. When he came out I urged Hannah to not only get his autograph but to also tell him how much she loved Gilmore Girls. So she did and he immediately stepped back, thrust out his arms to the side, and said in a loud sing-song voice “someone in the fan line said Gilmore Girls!” He then proceeded to pull out a photograph of himself with Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore) and Liza Weil (Paris Geller) which he autographed personally for Hannah. It was a terrific moment and he gave her a huge smile and said, “aren’t you glad you said it?”

We waited for Jeff Daniels, of course, and Hannah got his autograph and Dale said to him how much he enjoyed his portrayal of Joshua Chamberlain (one of Dale’s serious Civil War crushes) in the film Gettysburg. While Mr. Daniels wasn’t as excited about the mention of Gettysburg as Mr. Dakin was about the mention of Gilmore Girls he still seemed pleased that Dale brought it up.

And there you have it. Three pictures, with stories, from our night at To Kill A Mockingbird.

If you wrote a post for today please include your link below and thanks for joining in.

Wednesday In New York City

May 15, 2019 By Carole

Let’s go back a month (I can’t believe it’s been a month!) and talk about what we did on Wednesday in New York City. Ready?

Dale and I got up very early to be in the studio audience of Good Morning America. We waited outside in line for a bit but the process was very easy and everyone was friendly and helpful. We did not get on camera (except for a brief shot of the back of Dale’s head) but I wasn’t really there to be on television.

I was there to enjoy the experience. To see George Stephanopoulos in person. To ogle that day’s celebrity guest, Josh Lucas (he’s pretty cute in person) and to maybe get a free gift. (We did. 2 $100 gift cards to CVS.)

And to meet Robin Roberts. You never know which of the hosts will stay behind for photo ops with the audience members but I was thrilled that it was Robin Roberts and Ginger Zee on this particular day. As Dale was chatting to Ginger Zee he mentioned that we were in NYC for school vacation and that he drives a school bus. Ginger turned to him and said, “did you know that Robin used to drive a school bus?” And then Dale and Robin Roberts chatted about what it’s like to be a school bus driver. (How awesome is that?!)

After the taping we headed back to the hotel room. Hannah had taken a yoga class and she was hungry and we were hungry and so we set off in search of food. We ended up at Mom’s Kitchen and Bar in Hell’s Kitchen, just a short walk from our hotel. Hannah had pancakes with fruity pebbles in them, I had chicken and waffles, and Dale (Mr. Adventurous) had ham and eggs. It was all good, made even more so by a Bloody Mary or two.

After all that gluttony we were ready to stretch out legs so we walked over to Central Park. We visited The Dakota, where John Lennon lived, and also Strawberry Fields. It was a beautiful day and we sat for quite a while watching the people come and go and pay their respects to John Lennon’s special spot in the park. I may have also shaken my head a lot at the people who rode their bikes right up to the memorial despite the signs that were literally everywhere that said no bikes. Sigh.

It was a glorious day, sunny and warm, and we were in need of refreshment and I wanted to see The Boathouse. Now, here’s the thing with me and Central Park . . . I always get lost. I’m not great with maps anyway and when you account for the fact that there are roads and walking paths and biking paths and more . . . I get terribly confused and frustrated and leave. But this time I had Dale and Hannah with me and, despite the fact that I kept telling them we were going in the wrong direction, they were right and we found The Boathouse and I had two wonderful glasses of rosé while watching the row boats. It was heavenly.

Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you about 3 more things we did on Thursday.