45 Results for: ogunquit

DIARY

Biker Girl

September 23, 2015

This is my Dad, racing on the track at Laguna Seca. He is 70 years old.

For many, many years, my primary mode of transportation was a motorcycle. I've been on one since I was about seven months old, tucked into a kind of rucksack contraption on my dad's back with a teeny-tiny helmet on my head (this is obviously pretty crazy - not to mention definitely illegal nowadays - but was apparently more or less acceptable behavior back in 1981). When I turned sixteen, my parents did the opposite of what every other parent in the world would do, and signed me up for a motorcycle training course so I could get my license as soon as possible and join in on the family pastime. I spent the weekend at some kind of army base camp-type place, practicing my turns around orange traffic cones alongside the four middle-aged men and two twentysomething guys who comprised the rest of the class.

My bike was a yellow Suzuki Savage 650. It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen - it was really yellow - but I loved it. I think you always love the first vehicle you own. I rode it to school in the mornings, and on weekends I sometimes took solo drives up towards Bear Mountain, my heart pounding as I took the curves on the Henry Hudson Parkway, my mind screaming don't fall don't fall don't fall. Riding never felt comfortable to me, exactly, but I pretended that it did - because walking into class with my helmet in my hand, I was The Girl Who Rode A Motorcycle.

Lifestyle

Wet Heads & Whirly Pops (And A Wednesday Alamo Twitter Chat)

November 17, 2014

Before we get started: This Wednesday at 8PM EST come hang out on Twitter, where I’ll be chatting family vacations past and present with some other CTMs using the hashtag #AlamoDriveHappy.

Now: let’s talk travel.

My mom, dad and I always traveled together a lot, and kept traveling together way past the age when kids typically enjoy running around the world with their parents. I remember once asking them why they never packed me off to some relative or another so they could take a trip alone together and they said, “Because it’s more fun with you.”

At the time I was a teenager and probably rolled my eyes – goddd you guys are so unromantic – but I get what they were saying now. Because while I do miss (and plan to have) just-us-two trips with Kendrick, once your kids hit the age when they’re actually experiencing things, making memories of their own…you just want them to come along for the ride, I guess. All of the rides.

SNAPSHOTS

Objects Of Affection

October 20, 2014

{ The best-ever (and easiest) banana bread, made in bulk for the many weekend guests we've been having lately … }

{ … The Christmas Music Box (with moving train and lights) that I brought back from Maine, because apparently I have turned into an 80-year-old woman who cannot resist an adorable seasonal knickknack … }

Style

The Dorky Tourist T-Shirt

October 16, 2014

Whenever we went on vacation when I was a kid, my mom would buy one of those tourist t-shirts they sell at beachside stores - not the "IT'S BEER O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE" ones, but rather the pastel-colored ones with the name of the place and drawing of, like, a lobster or a seashell. And I always thought those shirts were sort of dorky (sorry, mom), but then every time I stay at my parents' place overnight - to this day - those are the shirts that I ask my mom to borrow to sleep in: they remind me of being in a hotel room at maybe ten years old, Ace Ventura on the TV, all sunburned and sandy. They make me happy.

Since this might be our last time in Ogunquit - one of my favorite towns since I was a little girl and the place where we got married - for awhile, I wanted to buy a shirt while we were here. When we were in the shop browsing around I picked up various distressed, "cool" (or at least as cool as a tourist t-shirt can get) styles…and then kept returning over and over to this sort of faded yellow shirt that said "Ogunquit" on the front and had a big drawing of a compass on the back, and couldn't figure out why I liked it so much, until I realized: it's the shirt my mom would have bought back in the early '90s.

So that's the shirt that's coming home with us. Because maybe one day, twenty years or so from now, my little girl will come home for the weekend and need something to sleep in, too.

SNAPSHOTS

Bucket List II: New England Leaves & Lobster Rolls Trip

October 16, 2014

I've been visiting Ogunquit, Maine pretty much every summer since I was four years old, so there was no way we were moving without one last trip up north (as a bonus, I had a credit at the hotel I had booked - and then had to cancel - for a vacation over the summer).

October in Maine - or anywhere in New England - is obviously beautiful, but the benefits of visiting during this time of year go beyond the leaves. Sure, it might be a little chilly…but the cooler temperatures mean that hotels that usually run $400+ a night are more in the $100 range, that you can get a lobster roll without waiting on line for an hour, and that the beaches are still gorgeous…but completely empty, perfect for seagull-chasing and such.

Entertaining

Excellent Find: Ikea Juice (Or Wine) Glasses

February 18, 2014

I have a lot of glasses. Moroccan tea glasses, blue-dyed water jars, stemless wine glasses, mismatched floral teacups...even a crazy Mason Jar Wine Chalice complete with little beach souvenirs embedded in the stem (it's true). I like trolling around home furnishings stores, yard sales and thrift stores for cool specimens, and over the years my glasses have become sort of a collection; I worry less about owning "full sets" than making sure that I love (and use) every single one.

But my absolute favorite ones - the glasses I use more than any others, for everything from my morning grapefruit juice to water to wine at a casual dinner - are my tiny, gold-trimmed glasses (a gift from my aunt, who found them at a swap meet in Canada). It's mostly the size and shape - they hold just the right amount of whatever it is that I want to drink, are so delicate and pretty that they look great incorporated into pretty much any tablescape, and are low enough that they're tough to tip over. I love them so much and use them so often, in fact, that I'm starting to get worried that despite their relative stability...I will break them, because that is the kind of thing that I do. Frequently.

When we were in Ikea last weekend (our second trip in two weeks, this time to pick up the bed-slats-that-do-not-come-in-the-package-with-the-bed) these rainbow glasses made me do an actual double take: love the size, love the shape, love the colors (springtime!). And at $1.99 each I figured I could pick up a few, and not have a tragedy on my hands should one shatter.

SWEETS

My Perfect Strawberry “Shortcake” (With Homemade Biscuits)

January 16, 2014

Oh, fine.

Let's talk about biscuits some more. (I can't stop eating them.)

(more…)

Style

Curated Collection: Cream Cable-Knit Sweaters

October 7, 2013

There's this little store in Ogunquit - the town in Maine where we got married and that we visit as often as we can - that's Irish-themed, and I stop in every single summer despite the fact that I've never actually bought anything there (because apparently Irish-themed things are expensive things).

Ever since I can remember, there's been a corner in that store with the same display of piled-up cable-knit sweaters in whites and creams: Fisherman's sweaters, they call them, but to me they look like something that you inherited from your grandfather and wear whenever you want to feel extra cozy...and yet - somehow - also chic.

They're also hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Presumably because they're made by hand, which is nice.

Most of these are not. But that's OK, too, because that means you can actually buy one.

Love

Family Road Tripping

July 22, 2013

We haven't done a road trip video in over a year now (the last one was shot on our drive to Ohio in November 2011)...so we thought it was time for a revisit.

Road Trip to Ohio (Thanksgiving 2011)

Love

Sunset At The Cove

July 17, 2013

Perkins Cove, Ogunquit.