Maine trip

Tara and I returned from our trip to Maine last night. Overall we had a good time, but she caught a nasty cold/sinus infection on Monday and was beat down by it for the rest of the stay. We had great weather for the most part, with lots of sun and above average temperatures.

We have to say that Continental Airlines seems to have miniature seats in their planes. We aren't small people, but sitting in our seats, our shoulders completely overlapped, so that we couldn't get comfortable. This hasn't happened before, yet on both our PHX/Newark legs, we had the same torture. The shorter leg from Newark to Boston on a different plane had more room, but still squished. Luckily she could take one of her Vicadin pills (for her shattered tooth) and she didn't mind the cramped quarters quite as much. Other than a two or three hour delay getting out of Boston and into Newark yesterday, the flights themselves were on time.

Knowing the mercurial weather of my home state during winter, I reserved an SUV for the trip. We ended up getting a Kia Sorento and I actually liked it. It has plenty of power and for a V6 4x4 SUV, not bad mileage. We had plenty of room for our bags, it drove great on the highway, and after getting into a bit of trouble backup out of a friend's driveway, the four-wheel drive let me drive my way out no problem. It had some squeaks and a typically stiff SUV ride, but I wouldn't be upset if I was given one again.

We were able to get our fill of lobster and for the first time in many years, fresh Maine shrimp, thanks to a longer season this year. We had steamed lobsters and boiled shrimp Sunday night and grilled lobster sandwiches with shrimp salad on Monday. I forgot how good fresh shrimp can be. For dessert Mom made an older favorite of coffee mud pie with homemade 3-2-1 chocolate sauce with whipped cream. It was a good as I remembered.

My sister made Christmas dinner. She grilled a couple different beef tenderloins. One was marinated and the more well-done of the pair and I really enjoyed that. She also had glazed carrots and snap peas, baby spinach and strawberry salad, twice-baked potatoes, peas, mushrooms, and stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting. The baby spinach salad had a great sweetness to it. Much bolder than most that I've had. The twice-baked potatoes were addictive. Not a bad dish in the lot. For dessert there were mini lemon cheesecakes, a lemon pound cake, brownies courtesy of my cousin, and ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. No one left hungry, except possibly my nephews, who were more interested in playing with their Nintendo DSs then eating.

Speaking of Nintendo. My sister has this crazy luck when it comes to shopping. She happened to be at the local Target a couple days before Christmas and they had Wiis available. She was in the right place to overhear a lady getting one, so she asked and they let her have one too. We know people who have been dying to get one and little sis just lucks into one. Go figure.

We got a couple LL Bean gift cards (EVERYONE gets them where we live, as it's only 20 minute from the LL Bean mothership-sized flagship store) and did some post-Christmas shopping there. After that we went to my friend Joe's place for some homemade fondue.

Yesterday we got up at 5am to drive to Boston. We got there WAY too early, but there was a storm front coming in that I wanted to miss, as it had the potential of freezing rain. Nothing terrifies me quite as much as driving in freezing rain. But we got to Logan fine and after the delays, made it home safely. Now we just need to catch up on our sleep.