Cake Batter Pancakes!

So I finally had an occasion to make these cake batter pancakes (happy birthday mom!) which comes from this recipe at How Sweet It Is.

The pancakes

The frosting/glaze with lots of sprinkles

The finished product

The only change I made was halving the recipe (which still made 8 pancakes).  It's also really important to cook them on lower heat.  I cooked them at 300 instead of the usual 375.  This keeps them from getting brown and hiding all of the sprinkles.  Next time I wouldn't add any sugar to the batter because with the sugary glaze you won't miss it in the pancakes.  You should try them, they are really fun!

I also made Marissa's amazing chocolate peanut butter cake for my whole family.  It was a big hit and this is all that's left.  It took some serious will power not to eat this yesterday.

 

July Pics

Here are some pics of what I've been up to during the month of July, doing a little traveling around Maine and New Hampshire.

They let me out of the Nut House! Funniest gift shop with great fudge.  Met family here before heading to lunch in Belfast.

Portland Head Light with Erin, Nick, and his family

Sabbaday Falls off the Kancamagus Highway in NH

Rocky Gorge also off the Kanc

Zipline across the Pemi River in NH- so much fun to take a giant leap off the platform!

View of the White Mountains from the Loon Mountain gondola

The passages were really tiny.  The woman in front of us got stuck.  It was comical.

The lake on top of Loon Mountain which helps to explain its name.

Tangy Park?  Spelling wasn't their strong point but the margaritas were fantastic

The Basin at Franconia Notch State Park

Hope your summer is going well.  I'm in total vacation mode and loving it (which explains the utter lack of blogging)

Fourth of July Festivities

The fourth in Belgrade is full of fun.  We got lunch from vendors in the village, stopped for ice cream, saw a neat art exhibit, and toured the new conservation building.  After waiting out the rain and hail storm back at the house we had to hurry to make it down to the parade.  The staging area for the parade was by our road so as we rushed to get to the bridge to watch we actually became part of the parade and got lots of goodies thrown at us from the kids waiting on the floats.  This little girl scout was my favorite.  She ran up to me and said "excuse me, would you like a popsicle?"  I never turn down a blue freeze pop, especially from this cutie.

The little Daisy in her pink sneaks handing out popsicles

The parade is fun and anyone can join in.  Not only did we make out with popsicles, candy, and keychains, but one float representing a farm threw out peas!  Here were some of the things we saw:

Horses

Festive kids on bikes

Festive kid in a wagon

A kayak float

Old cars

Little cars

 

An old lady skipping along!

Dressed up geese

s

Spectators watching from their boats

After all that we had the perfect fourth of July dinner featuring Maine lobster- yummmmy!

Hello dinner

It was a little more work than usual since this guy wasn't a soft shell and we didn't have lobster crackers up at the lake.  We resorted to using scissors to get into the claws and with a little muscle power we all got to eat our lobsters.  When it got dark we headed to the fireworks on Long Pond.  Without being able to watch by boat we had to find a spot on a crowded point.  The only spot open when we got there was between two cars so we stood in a line and joked about how a tree was going to block our view.  That turned out to be a reality so we sneaked over and stood in the last row up against the building.  Well the air conditioning unit was right there and it was blowing out hot stinky air.  My sis and I then hurried and sat a few rows up where there was some room in the grass.  Bad decision, very bad decision.  The stench over there was overwhelmingly horrible.  It came in waves and had both of us dying with laughter.  Even better was a little girl behind us who complained during the whole thing.  "The fireworks are too loud" and "the fireworks are too bright".  Then some kids came out of the icecream shop and one of them whispered, "it smells strange over here" and the little girl chimed in "the fireworks are soooooo long".  I've never laughed so hard during a fireworks show, even though the actual show was really good.  I hope you all had a fun and festive fourth as well.

Take a hike

I've gone on two hikes in the last couple days.  The first was more like a walk in the woods up "The Mountain" which we can walk to from the house.  From the highest point you can't see anything because of all the trees but there is a nice lookout over Long Pond at one point along the trail.  While stopping to enjoy the view, we got to see a hawk or eagle soaring just in front of the tree line.  Of course it flew away as soon as I got the camera out but it was a cool sight to see.  It had rained the day before and the rocks were a little slick so a picture in front of the caution sign was a must!

 

Long Lake from the lookout spot on the mountain

The second hike today took us to the top of Round Top, a total of about 4 miles.  I had remembered the climb as steep and tiring last year but I'm clearly in way better shape because it was a piece of cake.  There was a lot of evidence of moose activity with droppings and tracks but unfortunately we didn't catch sight of one.  The view from the spur trail was great but a little hazy and we even managed to balance the camera on a broken birch tree to snap this photo.

Compliments of the self timer

On a clear day you can see Sugarloaf in the distance

On the descent there is another nice lookout spot complete with a bench for resting the legs.  This view is of Long Pond in the foreground and Great Pond in the background.

The break in the islands on Great Pond is the view we have from the docks

There are several other trails to tackle this summer, all of which my mom and I climbed last summer.  I also tested out one of the quiet dirt roads for running and it was so peaceful for a 2.5 mile jog.  The only thing I had to be careful about was running through swarms of gnats and not swallowing any! 

One downside of all this outdoor time is allergies.  Having survived allergy season already in Virginia I'm facing them again given the lag in the change of seasons here in Maine.  I was hit really hard today and even the surface of the lake has turned yellow with all of the pollen.  I'm hoping it doesn't last too long. 

From sweating to sweatshirts

After sweating to death packing my car to the brim and driving about 700 miles I made it home to Maine.

Just enough room for me to sit & believe it or not I fit another bag in the passenger seat.

"The beast" (huge red bag) just barely fit in the trunk

I'm not sure if it was the lack of room or what but for the first time while actually driving I felt really carsick.  Thankfully I had Advil and Pepto readily accessible which helped.  Overall the drive was uneventful aside from a couple close calls of cars nearly sideswiping me.  Funny enough the perpetrators drove cars just like Marissa's and Erin's which I found ironic.  Here you can see the drive via the major bridges I cross. 

Nice and sunny crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge into NJ

 

Couldn't see NYC from the Tapanzee Bridge because of the fog

Getting close over the Piscataquis Bridge from NH to Maine

As usual I was welcomed with cold temps and drizzly rain and have had sweatshirts on ever since.  Luckily the weather is supposed to warm up into the 70s and 80s soon and the sunshine should return so perfect lake weather is on the way! 

It's so good to be home :)

Birthday Bash

Thanks to everyone for a great birthday celebration!  It was the perfect way to spend my last night in Harrisonburg with all my favorite people.  However my dad reminded me that I'm now at an age where the second number is double the first number and as I quote, "not good".  I would like to point out that this also happened when I turned 12 but it made me chuckle and you bet I saved that voicemail. 

Check out the fabulous cupcakes Erin made for me, complete with Starbursts presents.

The color flame candles were also a hit!

It's hard to believe this is my last night in Harrisonburg.  It's bittersweet but I'm looking forward to some rest and relaxation with family and friends in Maine. 

Take me out to the ballgame

This weekend I got to watch my soon to be home team- the Nationals!

Francine invited me to the game and her mom's company provided a free lunch before the game, complete with Sam Adams Summer Ale...you really can't beat that!  The food was delish and I really liked the stadium.  Luckily our seats ended up in the shade towards the end of the game because it was wicked HOT.

During the game they have something called the clueless cam where they film people and count how long it takes them to notice they are on the big screen.  This guy put on a show for the crowd and had a crab in each hand that were "fighting" each other.  It made for a good laugh. 

Best of all the Nats beat the Orioles 4-2.  I'm hoping to go to some more games in the future...with all of those empty seats it looks like getting tickets won't be a problem.