I think it's time to head up north for this review...
If you are ever in the Bar Harbor area you should:
1. Take a drive through Acadia National Park, if you don't have the time to actually hike
2. Have some popovers on Jordan Pond and most importantly
3. Head over to Two Cats Restaurant and Inn in the center of Bar Harbor.
We did not stay in the inn but I remembered from my trip last year that if you are looking for a fantastic breakfast then this was the place to be. There seems to always be a line but do not get discouraged.
Saturday morning we got seated without a problem, and this was a table for four! We all ordered different omelets that were incredibly delicious, you can even get some with real Maine lobster in them! You should however expect to wait a little while for your food but as it says in the menu, good food takes time, so you should just relax, have some more coffee and whip out your Maine map to get a better idea of the rest of your day.
Our waiter Liam was great. He was always around with more coffee and helped me out when I tried to name the flowers that were on our table but was stumped.
We spent the majority of Saturday hiking the Precipice and Beehive trails and lounging out on the beach at Sand Beach.
Sunday was our last day and although we were willing to try something new for breakfast we knew that we were hungry for some excellent food and nothing was going to beat Two Cats. This time there was a bit of a wait but because people go off for walks your name may be called much sooner, so a word of advice, even if you are told you may have to wait 45 minutes for a table for two, don't get discouraged. Grab some coffee, sit out on the garden and hope that the people ahead of you have decided to go for a little walk. We were seated out on the patio and ordered the same thing as the morning before and were once again greeted by Liam.
The rest of the day was spent driving through Acadia and then unfortunately seeing first hand what can happen when you are too close to the water. Yes, we were in Acadia when Hurricane Bill hit Thunder Hole...
So...let's review...
1. Bar Harbor may be a pretty long drive away but it is certainly worth the visit
2. If you've already made it to Bar Harbor, take a drive through Acadia and have a few popovers
3. You should never forget Two Cats for breakfast!
First of all I would love to thank the people behind the Big Lake 1/2 Marathon for adding my blog to their website!
This past weekend I attended a friend of mine's wedding dinner. A girlfriend of mine and I took a walk through the South End to scope out some good restaurants where we could have the small get together for the dinner. We stumbled upon Stephi's on Tremont, the sister restaurant of Stephanie's on Newbury Street, Stephi's is located where a comfort food restaurant, the Garden of Eden used to be. Stephi's was opened this year and has a very upscale feel but the benefit of not feeling like you've been robbed after having a light lunch.
The day my friend and I walked in to check out the place and sample some of the food we both had the Turkey Reuben Panini, which was fantastic! The bread was toasted to perfection and the turkey twist was a great one in my opinion. We asked about renting out the back room and were told that there was no deposit or payment required, which is very hard to come by these days. We were also told that if there was a cake we'd like to bring in then we could absolutely do that. We booked the room on the spot.
This weekend we waited at the bar for our friends to arrive and watched as the staff diligently rearranged the big table that could fit up to 12 people into one that would fit 8. We all went in and were given complete privacy by shutting the shades so it seemed like we had the whole place to ourselves.
We ordered some great appetizers (prosciutto and parmesan fritters, salty pretzel crusted crab cake and hoisin bbq chicken). The bbq chicken came with some mandarin pancakes that remind you of flour tortilla's so you could make a little wrap. Be cautious though, the carrots are spicy!
The majority of us then went for some savory comfort food. The macaroni and cheese could not have been better and unless you have not eaten in a while you will most certainly have some delicious left overs to take home to enjoy the next day, the same would go for the meatloaf.
We did bring in our own cake from Vicki Lee's in Belmont which was delicious as well. It was a chocolate genoise ganache cake which for the amount of chocolate it had was extremely light and tasty! I highly recommend going in to Vicki Lee's cafe on Trapelo Road in Belmont.
Overall we had a VERY enjoyable time and our waitress Casey couldn't have been more accommodating.
Thank you everyone for a great time and allowing us to have a very pleasant and memorable wedding celebration.
So...let's review...
1. If you are looking for a great and affordable restaurant for a dinner or a bigger gathering I highly recommend Stephi's on Tremont.
2. If you are looking for a delicious cake consider popping in to Vicki Lee's. Even if you don't need cake, Vicki Lee's has great pastries and coffee you can have on a lovely lunch date.
Please bear with me as there is a story that goes with each review. By not telling the full story I would feel like I wasn't giving you the real me, so here goes...
Each year I go through a lull in my work out routines. I really am a runner at heart, among other sports, but running on that treadmill every single day gets really boring really fast. Come early spring I start looking at some 5K's I can start training for. This year March came around and I went on to www.coolrunning.com and one of the first things that popped up was the Big Lake 1/2 marathon along Lake Winni.
About three years ago I had signed up for the Rock and Roll half maraton in Virginia Beach but never ended up going so I promised myself that sometime in the near future I just had to run the half.
So I started my training in March following Ryan Hall's half marathon training guide. Very quickly I burned out my already somewhat aching knee seeing as instead of taking days off I would just run at least three miles. I ended up having to go see a physical therapist who unfortunately put me out of commission for two weeks due to a wrong stretch move on their part. I then had a massage session with my friend Ginnette Ryan who was studying to become a certified massage therapist. She gave me a new stretch to perform and followed it up by a great massage. Miraculously after doing that one stretch it helped me overcome my knee problem that was actually hindering me from walking down the stairs at this point. I took a few more days off and was back on the tread. By this point I was about two weeks away from the half marathon.
I had booked a beach eficiency room at the Sandy Point Beach Resort right along the route of the half
marathon. I wasn't expecting anything much for $80 a night. We arrived a little late the night before the half marathon but the girl behind the front desk stayed and waited for us. We checked in and the room was pretty much what my boyfriend said he expected "rustic." Meanwhile I was surprised because for $80 you don't really expect a huge room and a full kitchen!
The next morning that we woke up we fell in love with LakeWinni. It turned out that we pretty much had the best room in the whole place, outside our window was a huge deck right overlooking the lake.
I went for my "short morning jog" of 13.1 miles which was also pretty fantastic. The whole course was relatively easy and there were more water stations than I think anyone would know what to do with. The finish line was only a half a mile from the motel which was perfect seeing as driving back along the running route may have been a problem since runners were still coming in pretty strong.
We spent the rest of the day exploring and playing at the arcade on the WeirsBeach boardwalk.
There needed to be some celebrating so we asked the guy at the front desk about the best place to eat out, and quietly joked that he'd probably send us over to the (SandyPoint) Restaurant right next door. Fortunately he did just that. Apparently it had just opened that day and the people were flocking in. There was even a police officer guiding traffic. The prime rib and lobster really did turn out to be fantastic and we deemed this to be the hot spot, Club R.
We got home Sunday afternoon and were incredibly bummed out about not having a lake to walk out onto. This was truly a perfect vacation spot and I have decided that I will most certainly be running the half marathon again next year and we plan on returning to our favorite spot in NH, Sandy Point Beach Resort and Club R.
So...let's review...
1. If you plan on really training for a half marathon for the first time, don't over do it and run 6 days a week.
2. If you plan on taking a short get away to LakeW seriously consider Sandy Point Beach Resort
3. If you have children who need to be entertained outside of doing the usual hiking, which there is a lot of right near the motel, you should definitely take them to WeirsBeach.
4. If you stay at SandyPoint, do not forget to go to Club R!
Well, I should start by telling you how I came up with the idea for the blog I suppose. My name is Linda and I very recently got laid off from my last job as an International Marketing Coordinator. While talking over this type of scenario with my boyfriend he told me that he learned from some business book once that when you think about a situation you should also consider "what is the worst that can happen and what will I do about it?" I then decided that in the case of a lay off I would go to school full time and finish earlier.
Well, clearly the situation did occur and I went into "fix it" mode. I have enrolled at Suffolk University full time so I can finish out my GlobalMBA by May. I also moved into a very quaint and quiet apartment in Newton Corner and had I not had this free time I would still be tripping over boxes and be unhappy that two weeks later it looked like I just moved in.
Today I was sitting out on my "porch" and was reading something for class. As it usually happens, if I am reading about something completely general that I don't see will necessarily benefit me, my mind begins to wander.
As I was reading about the auto industry I somehow wandered upon the idea that I should once again start a blog. I had previously blogged about my year in Spain during my undergrad studies at Northeastern University but this time I knew it had to be something more. Out of nowhere I came up with the title "Let's Review" and decided that I would review the places I visit, eat out at, drive through and frequent on a daily basis.
So, I hope you will enjoy my reviews and I truly look forward to your comments and any suggestions you may have about what I should review next.
I will review everything from my local BSC gym to my vacation hot spots and restaurants I dine in in order to help you make a good choice about whether it's worth your time and money.
