Beautiful Maine

For those of you that read my other blog, skip ahead...you've already heard enough about my recent trip to Maine :)

We've returned home from a recent trip to Maine and I thought I'd share some pictures of the state we love so much. We stayed in Boothbay Harbor again at our all time favorite inn - The Topside Inn where we had fabulous breakfasts consisting of homemade gingerbread waffles, vegetable frittatas, homemade granola and yogurt, various baked goods, fruit salads, etc. - absolute heaven. In the evenings we dined at the tasty Lobster Dock and enjoyed steamers, corn on the cob, buttermilk biscuits, and Coronas while sitting on the deck overlooking the harbor.









Side trips included a jaunt to Wiscasset where we had an amazing lobster roll (on a toasted buttery croissant, yum) and a big, fat slice of blueberry pie at Sarah's Cafe. We also indulged in a Maine whoopie pie (double yum) before browsing some antique shops and picking up some cute souvenirs and books of course.


Next, drove up the coast to Camden, which I think might be my favorite town in America. The library and grounds are amazing and I make a point to stop in everytime I am there. Check out the benches outside of the library and the beautiful flower gardens surrounding the building.

We stopped for lunch at a very authentic Thai restaurant (can't remember the name if it now) - we were so happy to see it was still in business since it had just opened there the previous year. The food was excellent again - I got some wonderful pad thai while my very daring husband tried the "Camden Special"; I don't think he had a stomach lining left after he ate it.

All in all, a great trip despite some dismal weather. We can't wait to go back again next summer or maybe even in the fall.

Reading The Girls by Lori Lansens now and am mesmerized. Sometimes as I am reading this novel it's easy to forget the girls are conjoined twins since it alternates between being narrated by each sister. The sisters are very different from one another and their life experiences have served to shape them into very unique individuals despite experiencing the same things together from birth throughout their entire lives. Definitely one of my favorite summer reads so far.

She's Come Undone

Thank you to everyone for their kind comments in response to my last post. I have since been wearing much more fitted clothing in an attempt to avoid anymore confusion and assumptions. But I must say, those looser, flowy tops are way more comfortable so I don't think I'll ever be able to ban them from my closet completely :)

Thought I'd start this post off with a picture of my newly painted family room and bookshelves. What was once faux wood paneling is now an airy linen white. It brightens up the room tremendously and I love how all of the book bindings look against the white shelves. The books get to be the focal point of the room!

The book I finished most recently was She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. I read this when it first came out and loved it and reread it again last week for my book club. Although there were some mixed reactions to it from the other bookclub members, a lot of conversation was generated which was nice - the group tends to have a hard time staying on topic. The main character Dolores Price suffers from numerous self-esteem issues which are the product of various events that take place over the course of her childhood and early adulthood. While other characters misinterpret her abrupt, harsh nature as an abrasive personality, the reader gets to see a side of Dolores that others don't and recognize her lashing out as insecurity, uncertainty, and self-loathing. Truly unputdownable in my opinion - a great summertime read if you haven't already experienced it.

I know this has been mentioned in the blogosphere several times already, but if you're not in the know yet you might want to check out LibriVox. LibriVox provides free access to audio versions of those books in the public domain. A great way to catch up on some of the classics. For instance, I enjoy knitting, but find that it takes away from my much valued reading time. This weekend while lounging on the porch and knitting up a baby sweater for a friend's baby I listened to the first few chapters of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott on my laptop. It was rather enjoyable - the only thing I'd warn you about is sometimes the narrators voices are hit or miss. Some narrators tend to be monotone which usually kills the story for me, but there are some good ones so it's worth the listen.

And to all those Americans reading - have a happy 4th!