Spring Beans

[fbhjr]

My wife and I had no plans for today. We had talked about taking a trip down to NYC to see some museums, but the folks we had thought to go with couldn’t make it.
We thought about going on our own, but we’re doing a trip there with the rest of Phoenix next month, so we thought we’d wait for that.
But, I could use some summer clothes for work. My favorite shirts now come from L.L. Bean. Last time we went to one of their branches I was told I was too fat for the clothes there and would have to catalog order them or go to the main store.
While I didn’t like that much (and, it turned out they did stock my size, but I wouldn’t buy them there after that), but blamed the local sales folk, not the brand.

So, this morning we decided to head up to the main store in Maine. We thought about leaving at 3AM as they’re open 24/7, but we wanted to sleep more than that. So, I read from 3 to 6 and then woke up my wife.

The weather forecast was for cloudy, cool with a chance of rain. As the allergies have been quite bad for both of us this week, we were looking forward to rain.
And, when we left the plants were still going at it.



As we drove along, we were both able to track pollen levels by intensity of headache.

The trip is about 150 miles each way, which boosted the miles my new car has gone by 25%. But, it still got 50 MPG on the trip, so it did OK.
It was built in Japan, so it has crossed oceans to get to me. But, this was the first time it has crossed state lines with me at the wheel.


At first, the weather was just as promised. 65, cloudy with a few rain drops.


We made good time to the land of the giant boot.


They’ve expanded the place quite a bit since the last time I was there. It’s now several different buildings and the main one is twice as large.
But, they still have my department.


They also have put in a little museum, and a large fish tank.


They’ve got some good size salmon there. I wonder if there are plans for employee dinners there?


We bought a lot of new clothes. More than I had intended, but all useful.
Then, we went and walked around Freeport some.

I have to admit, I have mixed feelings on the library being turned into an Abecrombie and Finch Outlet...


We went over to The Mangy Moose store. They have an interesting collection of stuff. But, some of it I know is not from Maine.


My wife was pretty shopped out by then.


So, we ate lunch.


Then, we were ready to leave town.


And, the whole state of Maine.


In the 14 miles of NH we traversed (paying $2 for the privilege) we stopped at the NH state liquor store.
There I found some lobster wine.
Yes, bottled in a lobster shaped bottle in CA, and costing all of $4.


I gave up drinking a quarter of a century ago and am not going to fall off the wagon for a $4 of lobster wine. But, I still bought one. I don’t know what I’ll do with it yet (not drink it) but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

On the way back we stopped and visited the Howards.

We had a nice, if brief due to cat dander, visit and continued on.

By then it was 84 degrees and sunny. Not at all what we had been promised.
So, we stopped for some nice food for dinner.

Comments

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

The lobster roll looks good... The lobster wine looks interesting ;-)

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

A bottle of lobster wine is always handy for a gift. Or, of course, you can dump the wine and just use the bottle!

[kismets-kiss.livejournal.com]

Yay picture posts.

I find myself wondering if I would be allergic to lobster wince, as I'm allergic to wine, and lobster... Not enough to try it tho... Very cool bottles!

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Ooo. I think I might need lobster wine. Or lobster wine bottles!