Back in Atlanta

We had a great visit with great food while in Buffalo with Jason and Joanne and Jax.  It included gourmet food and a nice dinner with Joanne's parents, Joe and Donna.

Steak done perfectly

Joanne and Joe

The chef applying the final touches, much to Jax's approval

Jason taking his bows
Jan, Moi, Jax, chef Jason, Joe, and Donna

Even Sophie approves

Even managed to go out for sushi.

Then a final evening and off we went.

We were off to Ohio to meet up with dear old friend's, Larry and MaryEllen who we hadn't seen in many moons.  We go all the way back to college days, you know back when we were just coming out of the Stone Age.  We met for a nice lunch and then went back to see their beautiful home, visited and worked on catching up.  The good news is now we are within a stone's throw of each other and looking forward to visiting much more often.

Then on to Pennsylvania to something we have been wanting to do for years, visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water.  It is truly something.  It was designed for Edgar Kaufmann, owner of the largest department store in Pittsburgh, and built on his vacation land over a waterfall.  It was built in 1936-38 with the guest house constructed in 1939.  The main house is 9300 sq. ft. of which 4400 sq. ft. is outdoor terraces, and the guest house is 4990 sq. ft. of which 1950 sq. ft. is outdoor terraces.  The land surrounding it was originally 1500 acres and since it was handed over to the conservancy to maintain and make it a public attraction, it now encompasses 5000 acres!  It is remarkable how it blends into the land with only two colors, light ocher for the sandstone and Wright's signature Cherokee red for the steel.

Even a 6' deep swimming pool completely spring fed,
the tour guide says it is unusually green, but they are in the midst
of a drought

Narrow stairways, and the protruding stone on the walls
are used as hand holds.

It was fascinating and amazing in its uniqueness, especially in that almost all materials came from nearby.  Well worth a visit.

So now we are in the Atlanta area, specifically Ellijay in North Georgia, we have lots to do, and several goals to accomplish.  Won't be many posts for the next few weeks as we attend to business:-)

Buffalo Now, Atlanta in a Week

So we've eaten, I mean driven our way west through NH, VT, and are now in NY.  We went across the Connecticut River into Bradford, Vermont for lunch at a pretty cool little place called Hungry Bear, had a mix up on the order, but it actually turned out better than we started:-)

Spicy Thai nachos

And actually delicious chicken chunks

 

Obviously a mill town

Then took a ride to Littleton, NH for a very nice lunch at the Littleton Freehouse.

A "greenless" Greek salad with grilled shrimp

And a delicious Chicken Cobb

That's the restaurant on the left

After our lunch we went up north to Lyndonville to a meat market that had good reviews, Libby's, it was a bit of a mixed bag, but we did find some good stuff.

Then we moved over to Randolph, VT to a campground we have been to many times, Lake Champagne, nice place.

We went for a good lunch at the Creek House Diner in Bethel, VT, a very homey, friendly place with down home food, we each got their version of a patty melt with different sides.

Then over to the Woodstock Farmer's Market for some fresh veg and amazing local pork chops.  I should mention Beryl when it spun up into New England did a tremendous amount of damage with a ton of flooding.  In fact all across the NH, VT, and the Adirondacks as we made our way west the damage was extensive, roads closed all over the place, signs of incredible flooding and so many trees down or broken, and literally hundreds of heavy utility trucks fixing the damage, who knew?

We had to spend 2 nights, required, at Villages of Turning Stone, a nice campground packed to the gills in Verona, NY.  We went out to try to find lunch there and weren't nearly as successful as we usually are:-)

Now we are in Buffalo, looking forward to a nice visit with our son Jason, Joanne, and Jax.  We'll be back in Atlanta next post with hopefully a lot to report along the way, we have some great things planned.

Our first lunch together!

Westbound

We moved down to Ellsworth for a week, the hottest temps so far, touching the 90's.  First things first, we wanted to get to Bagaduce Lunch, another favorite.  Nice day, great food and view.

Another thing we wanted to do our last week was have a real lobster feast that we cooked, and splurge on big lobsters.  BTW, the prices this year have been super.  We went to Trenton Bridge Lobster, a lobster in the rough joint just as you hit the bridge to Mount Desert Island, it has been there since 1956.  A few years ago with Jan's sister Karen and Tom, we all bought lobsters from them and cooked a feast, what made it stand out was they put a pile of seaweed in the bag with the lobsters.  When we cooked them, with the seafood, years ago, we all remarked that they were particularly good, the seaweed?  Anyway we wanted to try it again and went to get a 2 pounder and a 3 pounder.  We set up our cooker in our site and steamed them up.

Then the lobsters, Jan put one to sleep.

Two big lobsters covered with a bit of that seaweed

Asleep

Dinner time!

Every last morsel

And yes, we do think the seaweed adds a certain something setting them apart.

Another thing we wanted to do was do the Jordan Pond hike in Acadia National Park, one of our absolute favorites.  In the truck at 0450am, on the hike at 0555am, yes, it is completely light at that time this far east.  So worth it, passed one guy until we were almost done and even then only passed 2 small groups.

Heading down to the pond

The "Bubbles" in the distance

The Happy Hiker

Then on the way back at an overlook above Bar Harbor, two cruise ships in the fog.

Not done with the seafood eating yet, our last week right?  Off to Angler's in Searsport for delicious haddock chowder, grilled haddock, and a haddock sandwich, the trifecta:-)

Then back to Eagle's Nest in Brewer for a last bowl of lobster stew and a whole belly clam roll,

At this point we are counting the hours left in Maine, but we had one more thing in mind, lobster rolls, homemade lobster rolls!  We got enough for 2 lunches, one our last day there and then on our travel day out of Maine and into New Hampshire where we are now.  Right along the flooded Connecticut River in the heat, 90!  The lobster rolls were sublime as we said our goodbyes.

So now we are in North Haverhill, NH at a nice campground, River Meadow for a couple days before Vermont and then Buffalo.

See ya down the road.