Our Trip to Maine 2016......Part 6

Part 1 of our Maine trip is HERE.
Part 2 of our Maine trip is HERE.

Part 3 of our Maine trip is HERE.

Part 4 of our Maine trip is HERE.
Part 5 of our Maine trip is HERE.


So Day 6 of our trip to Maine was all about a little shopping and a little eating and alot of great scenery.  What could be better, right?

We took off East from Augusta for the coast.   We passed an OSJL outside of Belfast so we had to stop......

I love poking around in these type of stores.  Sometimes you see the most interesting items.  Like this one.........on second thought I should have picked this up for a few drinking folks I know *cough*......

These napkins were apropos for the area.....everyone up here say's "Wicked Good", even a brand of potato chips have this on the bag..............

Though not in this area of the state, moosie napkins are also apropos....

Here are the goodies from OSJL that did come home with me................                                                

Chinese straw mushrooms, dried mushrooms at $1 a box, Ty-phoo tea, coconut oil, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar, fig flavored vinegar, honey, grape seed oil, hibiscus tea bags, peach tea bags, maple syrup, balsamic ketchup, honey peanut butter, Sesame bar candy, dried hibiscus, dried cantaloupe and olive tapenade.  Great prices on all this stuff!

Driving along Route 1 up the coast through Searsport and Stockton Springs and over the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.....

 We drove over this bridge on our trip back in 2010 and went up into the observation tower on the other end of the bridge.
If you read this post you might remember this photo from the tower looking down on the old bridge they hadn't torn down yet...........

Halfway over the new bridge following a dump truck....

 Once we get over to this area we take Rte. 15 at Five Mile Corners and then onto Rte. 199 so we can drive around the Bagaduce River which is a branch off from the Penobscot River which empties into the Penobscot Bay.

It's a nice scenic drive along country roads and there are two seafood shacks located around the Bagaduce.

First there's the Bayview Take-Out.

Good prices.....$17.50 for a full lobster dinner is well under what you'd pay at a sit-down restaurant, even up heyah.....

Behind their shack are a few picnic tables and this gorgeous view while you eat your yummies.......

A fairly sunny day with a nice cool breeze so why not dine al fresco?

A whole flock of seagulls sunning themselves on a rock out in the water.......

I did finally have my lobster for the trip here.  Much cheaper at a take-out shack and a rustic experience.
I think blogger Linda had posted about licking a knife and cutting her tongue the day before on her blog so I pretended to lick my knife. lolz

Then we drove onto Rte. 175 to another location along the water to here.......

The James Beard Foundation named this place an American Classic in 2008.  It's been here and in this family since opening in 1946 and it's a favorite among locals of the Blue Hill Peninsula.
We were still full from Bayview Take-Out so I just had a salad.
The prices seemed substanially higher than Bayview anyway.

 But they had nice view too as the shack backs onto a spit of land jutting out  into the river.

 Supposedly there is a reversing falls along the river here but I think it was on the other side of the building.

I did see a loon offshore swimming along..

 Another nice place to sit and eat by the water here.......

 It was time to start heading back so we headed north to Bucksport and then up to outside of Bangor to get on I-95 as that was the fastest way back to Augusta.
Before we got on the interstate we stopped in Brewer at this place...........

Another of the stores I like to check out while in Maine.  We've been to this one back in 2010 when we stayed outside of Bangor at a campground.
Marden's(or as they pronounce it up here "Mahden's")is another closeout/salvage store but only located within Maine.

Kim and McVal would go crazy in this place.  I don't know about the other Marden's locations but this one has a MASSIVE fabric department!

Photo from the website because I got so excited just browsing it all I forgot to snap a photo. lol
And the prices though higher from my last visit in 2010(most stuff was $2.99 yd. back then)there were still deals there.

Actually I only bought a few pieces of cloth this time as I really don't need MORE fabric(Ha! What fabricaholic needs more fabric?!?)
And Hubs was tired and cranky and didn't want to stand around waiting on me so I didn't get to properly browse....sigh.

We passed this lumber yard after Marden's but before the interstate entrance.  I didn't think there were many Viking descendants in Maine.....you find Viking Everything in the Upper Midwest/Plains...ask me how I know! lolz

I think we hit Taco Bell near the hotel as we got back late and just needed something in our bellies before bed.  Nothing expensive or memorable or worth talking about, though I have just done a bit of talking about it anyway. lolz

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Well I WAS Feeling Better" Edition--

Then I had my slip and fall.  Too bad I can't sue the idiots who shoveled my backyard. lolz  Well I could but that would be counterproductive.
I can actually use my left arm again so I'm getting back to normal....whatever normal happens to be for me.  8-)

Or maybe I should milk this for another week or so if it gets me out of cooking meals?  Hmmmm
Hubs volunteered to make dinner one night and I am taking him up on it. 8-)

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

1. Sunday--Fend for Yourself/Leftovers

1. Sunday--Lemon Pepper chicken and zucchini, rice

2. Monday--Beef Teriyaki stir-fry w/Broccoli, rice

3. Tuesday--chicken Parmesan, Pear Gorgonzola Salad(Spaghetti too for Hubs)

4. Wednesday--Leftovers

5. Thursday--Beef Stroganoff, rice, mixed Veggies

6. Friday--Fend for Yourself 

7. Saturday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Leftovers or FFY

1. Sunday--Lemon Pepper chicken and zucchini, brown rice

2. Monday--Beef Teriyaki stir-fry w/Broccoli Water Chestnuts and Bamboo Shoots, rice

3. Tuesday--Chicken Parmesan, Pear Gorgonzola Salad

4. Wednesday--Beef Stroganoff, leftover rice, Brussels Sprouts

5. Thursday--Fend for Yourself/Leftovers

6. Friday--Fend for Yourself 

7. Saturday--Chinese Take-Out

Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 1 night of take-out and 0 nights of Eating out. After hurting my shoulder on Thursday morning, St. Pat's Day meal didn't happen and moves to this week.

2 trips to Weis brought the shopping last week to $172.33.  A little shop and a big old whopper of a shop last week.  That brings March's food spending total to $244.63.  There are 12 days left in my shopping month.  

I am now over $200 spent on groceries for March.  We'll see if I can keep it under $300 for the month now(though it's not looking good). 8-(

My savings percentages last week was 52.64% and the monthly savings so far ends up at 51.12%(without Rite-Aid trips added in).

Leftovers going into this week.......some Lemon Pepper Chicken and Zucchini, Beef Stroganoff, Broccoli Beef Stir-Fry, assorted Rice.  Not much of each of these is left so will most probably be lunches or could be dinners since Daughter is away this week at a conference and College Boy isn't home for dinner most evenings.  If we do some "FFY" nights we can finish of these bits and bobs.

Here is this week's "food plan".....

1. Sunday--Corned Beef, Carrots, Cabbage, Potatoes

2. Monday--FFY

3. Tuesday--maybe Lunch Out so Dinner will be whatever(if hungry)

4. Wednesday--BBQ Pork Sandwiches

5. Thursday--Nachos

6. Friday--Salmon, Veggie(who knows, Hubs is cooking this!)

7. Saturday--Leftovers or ?

This week will see 4 new meals cooked, 3 nights of leftovers/FFY and 0 night of Take-out/Eat-Out.
I need to buy nothing to make this menu so maybe I'll stay outta the grocery stores this week.
Fingers crossed(and I highly doubt it).......

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?

Sluggy

The Good, Bad & Ugly Lately at Chez Sluggy

It's been a real mix of things here lately at Chez Sluggy.
Here's a rundown of the past few weeks.

* UGLY  Hubs had to go down to Louisiana and was gone 8 days.  Even though he stayed in the house while there it meant 2 nights of motel charges(1 on each of the way down and the way back), plus lots of money spent on gas and meals.  I did have a few fast food/casual dining gift cards he used and he made breakfast and some coffee at the house so it could have been worse than the $1100+/- it cost OOP for this trip.

* GOOD and BAD The reason for Hubs trip was to access the condition of the house there, clean a bit, fire our old realtor and interview for a new realtor and field some independent offers we got on the property, so that was good.
None of the independent offers turned up a sale so we signed a new contract once he got home and we got an offer with the new agent on the house last week.  Unfortunately, the financing for the people wanting the house fell through so we didn't sell the house. 8-(  But we have gotten a lot more traffic with this new realtor and that paired with a lower(more realistic)price may eventually get us a sale.  Sooner rather than later is my preference. ;-)

*  UGLY We have had 2 snowstorms in 2 weeks since Hubs has come back(plus 1  that arrived while he was gone), so I am blaming them all on him. lolz  And another Nor'Eastern is slated to hit mid week this week, which makes #4 though we aren't suppose to see much accumulation on that one, but still, it's the end of March for gosh sakes.....enough is ENOUGH!
March 2nd.....

I took Chester out before storm #2 hit(4 days after #1 hit and there was melt)and saw that we had had some deer activity in the yard.................

These tracks are much too large to be Chester's.
Then I spied at the top of the middle of this shot a strangely squared shaped track set apart from the other tracks.

A playing card buried in the snow. 
I guess our resident deer enjoy a game of Black Jack every now and again while traipsing through our development.  ;-)

March 7th.....

Hubs came home between the storms and was in charge of taking Chester out again......

* GOOD On March 8th we finally were all well enough to go out to celebrate College Boy's birthday.

My kids insist on going out to expensive restaurants for their birthdays so this time we went at lunch time and paid lunch menu prices for the expensive Hibachi meal.

This is Daughter's idea of "celebrating".....a punch bowl full of liquor!  It came with 2 straws but she wasn't sharing it!lolz  5 types of liquor and gosh only knows what else was in that drink.  She let me take a sip and all I could taste was alcohol so it was light on the fruit juice.

I passed on the sushi roll made with tuna, salmon and red snapple.....lolol

This hibachi master wasn't as crazy as the one we had back in 2011 for my Daughter's Birthday meal but this chef did have a special water bottle to put out the onion rings volcano........

We mentioned that is was CB's birthday so they thoroughly embarrassed him by banging a gong at the table and we all sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew out his candle on his dish or ice cream........

He finally got his Bday card and his check....

Then he posed for a photo with me before he left in a separate car to go to his internship.

Can you tell from my face I'd had a bit of sake by this time?

* GOOD and UGLY
I already blogged about my Rite-Aid trips............

I hit Weis a week ago Friday for some deals and a Friday Freebie which I talked about already.....

Then  I went back for a few deals on Wednesday and ended up doing a big shop.........

 Among the best deals was 4 more bottle of this organic OS juice for free(sale $2 using $2/1 Qs), 2 boxes of Puffs with lotion for .50¢ box after sale/doubled Qs, 2 more Well Yes! soup for .67¢ each after sale/doubled Qs, a can of coffee for $1.99 after sale/Q.............

4 bags of shredded cheese for $1.37 each after sale/Qs.......

 And I hit a bacon deal.  5 packs of John F Martin bacon(the local good stuff!)for $3 a pack after $3 off Instant Stickers on each.  These will go into the freezer for Summertime BLTs.  8-)))

I also bought a fair number of frozen entrees, ice cream(the kids are going through it at a rapid clip!), some Progresso soups for Daughter's lunch, soda 12 packs(stock-up price), devil dogs, pizza bagels, Power-ade, buffalo chicken bites and breaded mushrooms and chips for snacking for the kids, 2 cans of diamonds for snacking for me, some doggie treats for Chester, 2 packs of discounted meat, 2 boxes of muffin mix that was .50¢ after sale/doubled Qs, cole slaw cabbage mix and 2 bags of salad kits.  I also bought reg. milk, a full price container of sour cream(needed that night for our stroganoff dinner).
When that trip was said and done $241.85 if I had paid full reg. retail for all cost me $115.70 after sales and Qs(most doubled).
I spent a lot more than I planned(can I blame the discounted bacon??lol)but this week's shop should be a lot less.
Oh and since it was PI(e) Day on Wednesday I bought a pie............

Lemon meringue for half price. lolz

* BAD And then I had my slip and fall Thursday which has curtailed any going out and spending $ up to this point. 
Good think I got those frozen & prepared foods since I haven't been up to making meals since Thursday(though I am putting a corned beef into the crock pot today-a day later than planned).
I doubt I'll go to Rite-Aid this week other than for any Rxs as the deals are thin now and for next week too as far as I can tell.  I do need to get to Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)in the next week or so as I have a 10% off discount card that is expiring the end of the month.

And let's end with something good.........

* GOOD  I was contacted out of the blue this past week by a 1st cousin 1 x removed on Ancestry.
Her mother and my paternal grandfather were siblings(making her my father's 1st cousin).  I had no inkling she existed because I never met that Great Aunt and didn't know she and her husband had had any kids!!  I don't think she knew I existed either until she saw the same people on my tree that are on hers. lol  We are emailing back and forth now and are sharing info, stories and photos(though she has a lot more photos of that part of the family than I do).

This is a photo of a photo she sent me of  my father with his parents(the baby in my grandfather's arms)I am guessing was taken in 1932 in upstate New York.  This is the oldest photo I have of my grandparents(as well as of my dad).
I'm looking forward to more photos and stories from my newly found cousin. 8-)))

That's about all to report in lately from Chez Sluggy.

What's been going on lately in your world?


Sluggy

Frugal Friday......the March 16th Edition

Let's see what frugal wins we had last week.........

*

Last Friday I picked up a Friday Freebie at Weis-a roll of paper towels. 
I also got 2 more cans of crushed tomatoes for free using doubled coupons and the sale price. 
The Ocean-Spray organic juice was also free-on sale for $2 at Weis and I had a $2/1 IPQ(I printed off more of those Ocean-Spray Qs and went back for more free bottles.). 
The OJ was almost free-on sale for $2 and I had an electronic Q attached to my Weis card for $1.59 off this type of OJ so it cost me .41¢ only.
The Coleman uncured hot dogs were reg. price of $3.50 a pack and I had $1.50/1 IPQs plus they also had peelieQs on the packs for $1.25 off.  The cashier put through both the IPQs and the peelie Qs on each pack so they ended up costing me .75¢ per package. 
So some frees and some almost frees.  ;-)

*  After an arduous day grocery shopping on Wednesday which stretched out to 2 pm I stopped next door at Mickey D's for a Shamrock shake and a small burger.  I found an old book of $1 McDonald's gift certificates in my stash of gift cards pouch that morning so I used that to pay and only had .29 OOP to cover. 
Due to unforeseen circumstances(see the next bullet point)I'll have to blog about any more frugal wins on that Wednesday trip next week.

*  And this is as far as I got yesterday before the "Ides of March" befell me.  I went flying, slipping on ice(invisible ice where Hubs had shoveled over the grass, what was left melted and frozen overnight and was not visible above the grass)while taking Chester outside yesterday morning.  I can attest that the ground here is still VERY frozen. ouch
Anyway, I sort of rolled to my side so dirtied up my left knee, left a wonderful bloody scrape on my left elbow.........

and jolted my shoulder, which did something to my left collar bone which has made my left arm mostly inoperable.  You don't realize how many muscles have to work together when you do anything with your left arm until you hurt something. sigh.

So yesterday after the incident I spent most of the rest of the day/evening in the recliner, icing my collar bone and taking pain killers(leftovers from Hubs broken leg adventure).
Thankfully I was able to find a position that allowed me to sleep without pain(w/a pain killer too)last night.
Nothing is bruised or broken thankfully and I am a little better today but have to type with one hand still.
So that's as far as Frugal Friday will go this week.

It's always something in life, right?

I hope you had a better "Eyes of March". ;-)

And keep on staying frugal out there!

Sluggy