Sometimes Dinner Tastes Better Outside of The Hotel Room.

Boy, I can't believe our time in Connecticut is coming to an end! We've definitely loved it up here and have felt so at home in New England. We're trying to fit in as many excursions as possible in the next three days (ahh!), but I realized that I had the draft for this fun Connecticut date just sitting there for weeks!

Perhaps the only aspect of our time here that we won't miss is living in a hotel for months. I suppose its nice having someone else clean our bathroom and take out our trash, but not having a kitchen has been difficult. Cooking and baking is a bonding and stress relieving activity (usually!) for us, so at times its been frustrating not really having that option. And while I have come up with some pretty ingenious ways to cook meals in our hotel room that consist of more than microwave dinners (shall I write a post about cooking in a hotel room??), we both always enjoy those nights when we're able to get out of the Chalet and sit down to an oh-so-tasty meal that wasn't made in a rice cooker.

So a few weeks ago we went to a super cute, locally recommended pasta shop, Paul's Pasta. You guys, this place is so great! I probably love it more because the weather was gorgeous (not even 80 degrees!) and they had outdoor seating, so we twirled and slurped our pasta on a cool, covered deck overlooking the Thames River. Eating Outside--my favorite thing!

What better place to indulge in clam linguine and lobster ravioli than New England! It was heaven. Cheesy, warm, garlicy, rich, creamy, tasty heaven. My mouth is watering just thinking about it again. I  think I need to stop writing about such deliciously fabulous food all the time... 

Cannolis--my favorite thing! Ha or at least one of them. But hey, Outdoor dining and cannolis? Talk about double satisfaction. Probably my favorite aspect of this particular cannoli was the pastry shell. Light and flaky but without a taste and crunch that's reminiscent of stale supermarket cream puffs that I so often find with the bakery favorite. But hey, I'm no expert or anything. 

After dinner we decided to take a short drive over to Mystic and do a little window shopping while simultaneously walking off some of that to-die-for pasta.

Oh be still, my heart! We love the whole vibe of Mystic and the other similar coastal towns. Though if we're being specific, Mystic is technically a village---I didn't even realize "villages" still existed!

The cool thing about being an adult is, if you want two desserts, you can have 'em! And we wanted ice cream. We had heard good things about Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream so we decided to give it a go. For our Lexington/Buena Vista friends, it was similar to Sweet Things but far more expensive with a staff that was quite rude---or at least unfriendly at best. And there's no Johnny Cash music either. The actual ice cream was still refreshing and delicious, but we're eager to be back at Sweet Things again.

While sitting on the dock and eating our ice cream, we watched the drawbridge go up for a sailboat to pass through! I suppose its no big deal for residents of Mystic, where the bridge lifts about once every hour, but for us it was quite the exciting experience. Oh and did I mention that meanwhile, there was a man playing bagpipes (the sailor's Hornpipe, no less) from his balcony on the opposite side of the water? New England culture, seafood, water, and scottish bagpipes---my heart is home!

Ok. please hold back your judgmental scoffs. But In addition to pasta, a cannoli, and ice cream, we maaaay have gotten a slice of pizza too.

I know, I know, oink oink. But how could we go to Mystic and not grab a slice from Mystic Pizza? Remember the whole, philly cheesesteak in Philly thing? Its just part of the experience. So we went for it---it being a slice of white pizza with bacon and scallops. It was mighty delicious, although in hindsight we probably over did it as we were a liiiiiittle bit stuffed the remainder of the night. But nothing that relaxing with a movie can't fix! Except perhaps a few hours on the elliptical...

Oh New England, we sure do love you!

Dates Like This Make Us Love it Here.

Last month I was sitting in out little hotel room (which I'm officially ready to get out of and back to our own apartment. If only that wasn't in South Carolina....) and caught a commercial on TV for this place---

So after Joey came home from work I convinced him to take me here for a mid week date, as well as a break from dinner at the hotel. I'm so glad we went because it turned out to be a great pick me up and a fun afternoon!

Seagulls, sailboats, little islands---this place is just flat out cute. We felt very...New England-y. Is that a thing?

The food and experience was just what we had been looking for. I don't know if we just haven't found them yet, but there aren't any cool little oceanside dock restaurants in Charleston, and when we go looking for seafood there, most of the time its fried or paired with southern foods and flavors. And southern food just isn't our thing. So being up here in Connecticut with seafood and flavors that we enjoy better has been really fun for us.

Obviously they're all about the lobster, but they also have some great oysters. Boy, those were some intense oysters! They were incredibly fresh, but the most briny ones I've ever had. Thank goodness for lemon and tabasco sauce for cutting through some of that saltiness. While I enjoy raw oysters, I think its one of those things I can only do sparingly. So after these ones, I think I'm set for a few more weeks!

This. This is what we really came for. We had been dying to find a good lobster roll! Now, such a task is apparently harder than we thought---see, most lobster rolls are like lobster salad on a bun, with lobster meat swimming in mayo and all that. What we wanted was a hot lobster roll. Its warm lobster, butter, sometimes some herbs, and a grilled roll. That's it. And its beyond tasty.

After we ate we stood on the edge of the dock and fed our left over oyster crackers to the giant fishies swimming below---Abbott's actually encourages it! A pretty nasty storm rolled in as we were finishing up, bringing too much wind for my copious amounts of fine, tangle-prone hair to handle. Luckily we got in the car before the torrential rain began--so glad we opted for an early dinner!

I can't help myself, this gave me a good chuckle. 

Thanks Abbott's for a great New England dinner!

A Rainy Day in Philadelphia.

After a couple days in DC and a quick lunch in Delaware so Joey could reconnect with an old friend, we headed to Philadelphia to stay with our good friends from SVU, Rachel and Nelson!

The night we got there the weather wasn't too bad, but of course the next day (and the day we planned on sight seeing and walking around) was grey, drizzly, and cold. I mean pretty much non-stop rain. All day. But hey, at least it was cool and we didn't get sweaty! Glass half full, people.

Rachel had to work (boo!) so Nelson took us out in the morning to see some of the major Philly sites. First stop was the Liberty Bell!

I loved the way the building was designed so that you can see the bell's former home, Independence Hall, behind it through the glass.

Our awesome friend and tour guide Nelson. Thanks for showing us around and getting soaked with us!

Next stop was Independence Hall which was a very exciting and humbling experience.

We're aware this photo's not in focus, but Joey liked it so its on here!

Loved the herringbone brick!

Another favorite part of Philadelphia was the murals throughout the city. Unfortunately because of the weather we didn't get a chance to see most of them, but I think its such a great initiative. The world can always use a little more art!

We got out of the rain for a bit and visited Reading Terminal Market. This place was totally up our alley. There were dozens of awesome artisans and food vendors, including a place called The Tubby Olive that sold a wide (and quite tasty) variety of olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Knowing that we were tentatively planning a trip to Italy in the fall (unaware that our trip would be much sooner than we thought! more on that later...) we decided to skip on the olive oil, but I did beg and plead for a beautiful glass jar of pure, raw clover honey. Joey just can't resist me ;)

Of course we had to try a philly cheesesteak while we were in Philly. Now, Nelson told us that the best one he's ever had is actually in DC near the temple, but you kinda just have to eat a Philly cheesesteak in Philly ("I wanted to eat pigs in a blanket, in a blanket"---can you name it?). You just have to. And though we didn't go on a hunt for the best place in Philly, I'm happy to report that ours was delicious and wonderful.

We also tried an Italian pulled pork sandwich from Dinics, which apparently has quite the reputation---best sandwich in America, in fact! It did not disappoint. While the sharp provolone was a little too overwhelming for my liking, Joey went crazy for that sandwich. Definitely a great eat!

And of course we had to try the peanut butter milkshake from Bassett's, America's oldest ice cream shop. This institution has been making ice cream since 1861! And just like our Italian pulled pork, the peanut butter milkshake did not disappoint!

After lunch at the market we met up with Nelson's mom---well not so much as met up with, more like she pulled up in the street and we quickly hopped in her van---who gave us a little driving tour around Philly. Nelson, your mom is fearless! But we had a lot of fun jumping out to see something then hopping back in the van and driving to the next stop. I don't think we could've had anyone better to show us the highlights of Philadelphia!

One of the stops was a sketchy, hole in the wall chinese cookie place. Now I'll be honest, when Nelson's mom told us that she loves getting their delicious fortune cookies, we were skeptical. All we could think about were the yellow cookies we get at a chinese restaurant that we break open solely for the fortune (which most times isn't even really a fortune) and then toss in the garbage. We were so wrong! I get that not everyone likes fortune cookies, but these were mighty tasty. Nothing like the ones you normally get. They were crunchy and light and so fresh---we actually saw them making some! A whole bag was dirt cheap--what, like $1.75 for a few dozen? Lucky for us we got the rest of the bag to take with us to Connecticut and we ate as many as we could before they started to go stale---it was a big bag for only two people! Oh and ps: try them with a little dab of peanut butter. Mind blowing.

We filled the rest of our time in Philadelphia with warm, dry clothes, naps, water ice (which Nelson swore up and down is not Italian ice), and some really fun dinners with Nelson's family. I was sad when I looked through our photos and realized that we didn't have a single one with Rachel, but so glad that we got to see her and Nelson for a couple days. We love you guys! Thank you again for hosting us and being so wonderful!