Monday, June 15, 2009

New Gloucester, ME. > North Conway, NH. > Saint Albans, VT.

The drive through New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest was beautiful and full of animal encounters. I saw a cute little black bear and helped a huge snapping turtle cross the highway! I'm in Saint Albans, VT. now and when I try to remember when I arrived here my mind fails me. It's been a blur of breathtaking sunsets, cider mills, beer breweries, canoe fishing, unpredictable weather, hoop dancing, dock swimming, and many bottles of beer and wine consumed - all while taking in beautiful Lake Champlain.

But! There has been a change of plans! On Wednesday I will depart for Austin, Texas (Where I plan on unleashing a proper rage. No worries, kids!) making stops in Columbus, OH. and Memphis, TN. This trip is about to got a whoooole lot weirder. Can't wait!


And now some random shots from the last few days...

1. The farmhouse in Maine.
2. Bedroom in the farmhouse with all of my junk.
3. Geoff chasing a rooster after it escaped.

4. Fresh asparagus! So good!
5. Frolicking in a field of purple flowers. Pretty typical. =]
6. Super excited to help a turtle cross the road!
7. Clearly thrilllllllled that the water was so cold.
8. Fishing on Lake Champlain at sunset.










Saturday, June 13, 2009

Lowell, MA. > Ogunquit, ME. > Kennebunkport, ME. > York, ME. > New Gloucester, ME.


And so begins the trek west...with an odd little northern loop first. After scoping out Ogunquit and Kennebunkport and showing Geoff Mt. "Asummit", (A favorite old spot for a peaceful toke. Name has been changed to preserve the integrity of said take spot. You understand.) we finally arrived in New Gloucester, ME where we were greeted by Casey, our receiving party. The house is a beautiful old, white farmhouse with massive vegetable patches, chickens popping out fresh eggs all the live-long day, and (most importantly!) an extra bed for a couple of weary and rain-soaked beatniks. After a refreshing shower I hopped in bed to read but I barely made it beyond a paragraph before passing out. My vomeronasal organ was kind enough to awake me just in time to hear that Molly had lost a tooth and that pork chops and mashed potatoes made by Chris, co-owner of Cold River Vodka (Chyeaaa.), we're ready to be eaten. Two chops, three beers, and who knows how many bowls of the house salad later, and Ben and Molly were ready for bed. I was admiring a proto-bottle of CRV's latest attempt at gin when Chris asked if I wanted to taste "the best one they've made so far". Lemme think, ummmm, YES. It was unbelievably smooth. Time slowed down a bit after that and I suddenly realized I was triple-fisting a gin, a beer, and a chocolate milk. Not kidding. This was a clear indicator (at least to me) that it was probably a good time to get into the Cold River BLUEBERRY Vodka. What a delicious decision that was. Chris stayed up late regaling us with tales of brew equipment deals gone awry and the debauchery of his youth. I went bumbling along up to bed where I was filmed about an hour later sleepwalking and talking about bagels and napkins. Because if you didn't know - I'm fabulous.

The next morning I got up and made the most enormous omelet I've seen in my little life with eggs gathered before I awoke. This was enough to make Geoff put an end to his slumbering and accompany me to the emergency room in Lewiston. I partied so hard before leaving Boston that my mouth decided to fall apart. Not fun. But Dr. Bill got me all fixed up and now I have a deep appreciation for whoever invented viscous lidocaine. Ahh, sweet relief. We had dinner with everyone and then went outside to do gymnastics with Ben and Molly before bed.

Marlborough, MA. > Tewksbury, MA. > Lowell, MA.




After saying goodbye to Marlborough it was time to go see Aunt Toni, Uncle Ed, and Jesse. After that I mosied over to Lowell to meet the newest member of the Cianci clan on Monday. Eddie and Belynda are the proud humans of an adorable and rambunctious kitten named Jaws. Once Geoff was done griping about Lowell thugs stealing our collective material life, she kept us entertained for quite some time chasing a laser pointer, noshing on some big toe, and sticking 90% of her head into the cavernous wilds that are Geoffrey Hale's mouth. Unable to bear watching little Jawsie play with fire anymore, I curled up with some Hunter S. Thompson and was eventually lulled to sleep by the calming sounds of Geoff cursing the videogame gods.


Monday, June 8, 2009

Geoff: Allie doesn't want to write in her blog, which is a good thing, but I will. We stayed at Eddie and B's last night after Allie convinced me that broken wouldn't get into the car. We all played with Jaws for a while then I played Hexic. Today we drove up Mount ("Asummit" -Allie) Agamenticus, and now we're sleeping at Chris and Jean Dowe's place in Maine. We tasted Chris's batch 004 Cold River gin and some blueberry vodka while he told tales of drunken backflips on moving trucks, and stealing his valves from crooked Canadian business partners, Canadian cops and road blocks, and mafioso valve dealers.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

BLOG COMING SOON!