Advertisement
Published: December 20th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Sorry that this has not been put up for a while but my laptop was not online for ages and then the admin part of the site wasn't working so there are going to be a few in quick succession. This one starts on the 26th of November. Thanks, Vick.
After getting some rest in a very comfortable bed I woke up to my first morning at the Newell Residence. Gail and Tony had work to get finished before the holidays so Jess, Bec and I headed out for a drive around and to see some of the area. We took their dog, Parka, to Oxford to walk along the beach. It was stunningly beautiful there but very cold. We picked up some sea glass and tried, in vain, to keep Parka out of the water. We also had a look around the Marina to see some of the boats. There were also a couple of restaurants there, closed because it was out of season, but one looked a lovely little place and the girls told me that the other was an ice cream shop run by a Scottish ex-pat who made all of the ice cream he sold.
Then
we dropped Parka back at the house and drove into town - Easton. We had a walk around and saw the museum and it’s gardens and then went to meet up with a friend of Jess’ in the coffee shop where we sat for a while and chatted. According to the girls both the name and décor have recently changed for the worse but it was still a nice place to be. Then we drove around to a town called St. Michael’s where we were going to have lunch but the place was closed for the season so we headed back to Easton and had dinner at the pub, which made their own very wonderful ranch dressing. I had a turkey club sandwich with chips (English style apparently so I am allowed to call them chips).
The morning of Thanksgiving I woke up and Gail and Tony were already busy cooking. Jess, Becca and I spent the morning looking in the papers and online to see what we wanted to try and find in Midnight Madness at the Mall that evening. I didn’t see anything that really caught my eye and knew I couldn’t carry much with me anyway. Gail
State Capitol
with Me and Bec was making stuffing (vegetarian and non) as well as two types of green bean casserole; Tony was making sausage balls and vegetarian sausage rolls. Needless to say not all of the food managed to make it’s way over to Mr Dan’s house. We headed over to their house at about three in the afternoon for appetisers, which were amazing. Lots of their family and friends arrived at about the same time. It took us a couple of visits to get the food over. They were watching the football - completely over my head but very watchable anyway. We sat around and chatted for a while as the rest of the meat cooked and then sat down to dinner. There was so much food, no exaggeration is needed. Salad, rolls, turkey, ham, sprouts, green bean casserole (two types), stuffing (two types), yams, creamed potatoes…it was stunning. As a side bar for people who have not seen a green bean casserole it is (usually tinned) green beans in mushroom soup cooked in the oven with dried onions over the top. It was pretty wonderful and I say that as someone who hates mushrooms so I can only think how great it is
if you like them. Then we digested for a little while and scratch cards were handed out - this was such a lovely idea as a way of giving someone something to do and also a chance of winning money. Bec, Jess and I each won a little money and then headed back up for desserts. I had been told in advance that I would never be the same again after the cheesecake and it was completely true. I’ve had some pretty stunning cheesecakes but nothing to compare to this one, especially with the raspberry sauce that it was with. Amazingly perfect.
Becca, Jess and I headed back to their house to get ourselves ready for midnight madness that evening. Jess’ friend Gillian joined us and we made sure we knew where we wanted to go and looked for the best deals online. It was so much fun, and very girly! We headed off early to make sure we could get there for the early offers, although when we got there they had started everything early so we missed out anyway. We headed into all of the stores that didn’t have huge lines. Jess got a coat that she had
wanted for a while and we all managed to find some really great bargains. I got a couple of tops and a little cardigan, it was a real pain being limited by how much I was able to pack. We ended up getting back at about three in the morning and were planning on getting up at four to go to the opening of Target at six to get a camera. I told Bec that I would go with them if I woke up but not if I was dead to the world. They ended up not going in and just buying things online instead. I woke up pretty late the next morning. We headed out to get a couple of things that Tony needed from Staples and I, naturally, got sucked into buying more stationary! Then we went into Annapolis and saw the State Capitol building. It was unfortunately under repair and so we didn’t get to go inside but it was great to see it all. Then we headed into the Naval Academy to have a look at the museum and then walked out into the harbour where I got the most huge ice-cream in the world which
was also really tasty. We walked around the marina and then headed back to the car. On the drive home we stopped in at the mall to have a look around during Black Friday and we did a bit of shopping and grabbed a little to eat whilst there before going back home for a dinner of amazing Thanksgiving leftovers.
On Saturday we all went into St. Michael’s and went to the library and walked around the main shopping street. I saw some pretty things but again the size of both budget and suitcase meant that I couldn’t buy anything. We walked around the Marina area as well and saw the old lighthouse. We headed back to their house and then changed to go out to meet some friends of Becca’s from high school for a quick reunion. After a swift drink with them, Bec and I met up with Gail and Tony at a Mexican restaurant where we were joined by Becca’s friend as well. Jess was performing at an Open Mic night and we went there straight after dinner but just arrived too late and caught her friend Kate singing instead, who was amazing. Then the two of
them sang again together which was pretty fab to see. We heard a couple of other people sing, one of whom was a friend of Jess’ and was really really good. When we got home we ended up watching Indiana Jones, well almost all of it, I headed to bed before it finished because I was so tired out!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0273s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Behold the heavens and the horizon
Vicky Linde
Quotation
The title is less than lovingly stolen from Andy Warhol...