Suzee's Afternoon Tea

Grey Goose L'orange with iced tea (yeah, diet.) Need to account for those darn vodka calories! This is a little bit of citrus tea heaven :) Serve with an orange slice or lemon wedge if you have it!

By the way - do you notice the size of my counter? Ah well - If there is not too much space, I tend to keep it clean :)

My all time Favorite - Petey's!!!

Petey's is my favorite place to stop at the beach. Between July 4th and Labor Day you are almost guaranteed to have the deck open where you can smell the salt air, and watch the ocean in a huge screened in porch. It could be that I've had many happy memories here - we used to live less than 3 miles away and had fun stopping by on the motorcycle. Or it could be that when Rick ate here, he noted that they had the best fried chicken sandwich anywhere. He'd order it with lettuce, tomato and mayo. Rick doesn't care for seafood. But as you know, reading my blog, I LOVE SEAFOOD! And this place would cater to everyone in a wonderfully relaxed way that always made me feeli like I was on vacation, even if I was only out for a weeknight nosh. That is truly a gift for a restaurant - in my humble opinion.

Note - soft shell twins were $17.99 at our first trip. With a huge scoop of cole slaw and choice of starch, it was quite a deal! Then, when we went with my family, soft shell twins were $15.99!!  Incredible!!

This last vacation, we stopped in to Petey's on the way to York Beach, and sat at the bar where Rick didn't have to watch me dismember a couple of bugs (aka lobsters). We had a great lunch.

After Water Country, we stopped here as well - just a hop skip to route 1A from there. And the cool thing is that we had just as much fun with my parents and my niece as we did on our own. Because everyone gets what they like here :) Life is good at Petey's!

Rickshaw Dumplings - Yum Yum!!

After perusing the Home Depot and P.C Richards for ideas and thoughts about updating the kitchen and bath, we went next door to Rickshaw Dumplings. Rick loves dumplings. He loves to tell you about how every culture has a "dumpling like" comfort food. Some kind of deliciousness wrapped in a few carbs :) So this place has been on my list for a long time.

We decided we'd each get the sampler - one of each of the seven cool looking offerings complete with the appropriate dipping sauce :) This is the way to go as a first timer!!

As you can see, it is important to have the menu along side because you can't really tell what is inside these little love pillows! As I look at the To Go menu, it is in a different order than the one on the chalk board in the store. Still, I think we can tell which is which :) Rick's fave was the traditional Pork, and I would totally order either the Chicken and Thai Basil with spicy peanut dip or the Peking Duck with hoisin dip. Who am I kidding? I would order both. Yummmmmm!!!!

Tastemakers! Kellogg's FiberPlus

We got a cool looking box in the mail when we got back from vacation, and I took out these 2 boxes of cereal from the Foodbuzz Tastemakers program. Interesting - high fiber cereal with interesting and yummy sounding names! Frankly I have to tell you that Rick tore through both boxes in less than a week. I got a nibble of both, but I will tell you that he would not have eaten them if they were not tasty. The bonus was that the high fiber cereal did what you buy high fiber cereal for! My favorite was the cinnamon flavor - very nice :)

Home Sweet Home

Ri

Water Country, hmmm hmmm have some fun!

After York Beach, we met my parents and Jillian at Water Country! Jillian was SO EXCITED to go! Jilly's Papa had to work, unfortunately, but we went all around the park :)

Jilly quickly understood the relationship of the park to the map we got at the front office, and pointed out the places she wanted to try, starting with the Pirate Ship!Rick and Pa mostly watched. I think my father was trying to prove me wrong because I had told him he would be sorry if he didn't have a swim suit. He borrowed my brothers, but he didn't put it on. He went into the Pirate ship area with Jilly, and didn't need to get wet. Rick went down the big slide with me - Wild Canyon - so much fun! Jilly and I went 4 or 5 times together :)

We stopped for lunch - Fresh Moe's Italian Subs!! Woo hoo!

By the way, I'm still using aloe for my sunburn...

Union Bluff Hotel, Short Sands

Morning at the beach - the sand is empty of all the beach goers (they are still drinking coffee like we are) and the air is salty and fresh. After enjoying quiet time on the balcony, we made our way to the Union Grill for breakfast. Be sure you are ready to relax when you come here in the morning - it's all about relaxation, and a slooooowwww experience. The lobster benedict was divine!

I made plans to hook up with Isabel for lunch at Inn on the Blues. We had the fish burrito - so delish!! The Mojito was pretty awesome too!

We spent lots of time at the Union Bluff patio as in the afternoon there was some shade and a gentle breeze - perfect for a snack and a good book! If you have steamers, be sure you wipe your fingers before you turn the page :)

I also got to meet Kathleen for cocktails and snacks. We started at the Blue Sky - she had the cosmo, and I had the Mai Tai - they have a Mai Tai to die for! We also had mussels - they were really fabulous! Cooked in wine, with a very mild and sweet maple sausage, caramelized onions and pieces of brie, we were seriously considering having a second order! We ended up moving to the aforementioned Union Grill for Lobster Flat bread and Edemame. I'd never had Edemame, and these are really good! They were seasoned with garlic, chives and sea salt. You open the pods, and eat the pea sized soy beans inside. The pods pile up like little carcasses, but you do feel a bit virtuous for such a healthy snack!

Our time at York Beach was full of smiles, good books, good friends and good food! A significant amount of sun too!