What I Did On My Summer Vacation

So, I resolve to be better about blogging.  This past month I feel like I haven't had any time.  In my defense, the past couple of weeks have centered around working, working out, and watching the Olympics.  Now that the Olympics are coming to a close (boo!), I'm going to try to update this more often!

But first, some glimpses from our vacation to New England.  While we stayed in Maine, we visited New Hampshire two or three times.  In truth, I preferred New Hampshire to Maine.  We went to the most spectacular place there on our last day, and I'll devote an entire post to it because I have roughly 2 million photos from that destination alone.  

Here are some highlights:

Ireland on the Square!  This was taken in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where we stopped on the drive to Maine.  I took it because my husband and I have a love affair with Ireland.  We took a trip there when we were engaged and fell in love with the entire country.  Since then, we become unreasonably excited when we discover Irish import stores.  Love it!

This quotation was outside of a shop in Portsmouth. Beautiful.

Only one of the best sandwiches ever!  We stumbled open The Works Bakery Cafe in Portsmouth and ordered lunch.  Brace yourself for what this sandwich contained:  ham, vermont cheddar, dijon, green apple slices and almonds!  We loved it so much that we had it again at a location in Portland.  We want to replicate this at home.  It was divinity.

One rainy day, we decided to take a cruise on Lake Winnipesaukee. This was actually the perfect thing to do on a rainy day because the boat was covered so you got the experience of seeing everything on the lake without getting drenched.  I loved, loved, loved this cruise.  Lake Winnipesaukee has so many different islands.  Some of them are so tiny that they hold only a single house, like this one.  Can you imagine if this was your vacation retreat??  Sign me up.

Lobster roll!  We couldn't go to New England without having one.  We had this one in New Hampshire after the cruise on the lake.  It was spectacular.

We took a day trip to Old Orchard Beach.  This was probably my favorite place in Maine.  It's a 7-mile strip of beach with a very cute, old-timey strip of shops and restaurants on the main drag.  We even encountered a discount book shop right there on the beach!  I loved that.  This photo was taken from where we ate lunch.  It was so peaceful to look out over the ocean and all those multi-colored umbrellas while dining.  I am a huge fan of beach vacations, so this was right up my alley!

Our lunch in Maine!  Shrimp, fries and cokes with lemon.  Bliss.

We went back to Lake Winnipesaukee because we loved it so much.  I took this photo while we were sitting on a bench overlooking a lake, eating ice cream.  I had Banana ice cream in a sugar cone, which was super unique and delightful.  This is the boat we took a few days previously to cruise the lake.  We sat there for awhile just eating our ice cream and watching the boats on the lake.  Wonderful.