Travelling Lore

One of my favorite types of establishments to visit while traveling are breweries and Boston is no exception.  Having toured the Samuel Adams Brewery , we decided to make the walk through the Seaport District to Harpoon Brewery's Beer Hall .  Coming from Northern Virginia where all of the breweries around me are small and locally owned (and make great beer!), stepping into Harpoon's Beer Hall was nothing short of awesome. I absolutely loved the decor of the place: wooden furnishings; modern but medieval-inspired chandeliers; long beer tables that reminded me of a German Oktoberfest (bucket list item!).  To say it was crowded was an understatement, but we managed to squeeze our way into a small section of table and enjoy a few flights.  I'm not a big fan of their UFO White that a lot of bars carry.  However, I was quite pleased to see that there was so much more to choose from once inside Harpoon's mothership.  Oddly enough, I found myself enjoy...

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope everyone brought in 2016 with fun, good cheer, and--most importantly--good friends!  My fiance and I hosted a small, low key party in our home with some good friends.  This was our third year hosting and, like the two years before, we had a new signature drink ready for our guests.  This year we went with a White Cranberry Martini , which was very delicious and subsequently a big hit! With 2015 now behind us, I wanted to take a look at my top 5 most read 2015 travel adventures on my blog.  I started this blog as a creative outlet, and that's still how I'll continue to run it, but I'm pretty happy with my stats considering I use a free blogging platform.  Most of my readers are, unsurprisingly, based in the United States; but I was surprised to see that a fair amount of my readers hail from Brunei followed by Germany and the United Kingdom.  I've discovered a ton of travel bloggers along the way and I really enj...

While in Maine for our annual Labor Day Weekend vacation we decided to tour  Allagash Brewing Company  in Portland.  My fiance (yes, we're engaged now!!!) and I met an Allagash distributor down in southern Virginia a few months ago who recommended we check out the home base to try some of their beers that aren't widely distributed. For those who haven't heard of Allagash, it was founded in 1995 by Rob Tod as a one-man operation.  He focused completely on brewing Belgian-style beers since at the time British and German styles were the most prevalent.  His first release was Allagash White, which is now their flagship beer that you can find in stores and bars throughout the country. I was very impressed by the amount of detailed information we learned on our tour of the production and brewing areas.  Our tour guide was great and very knowledgeable of the company and she was able to answer questions without missing a beat.  She guided us from ...

Switching gears for a hot second away from my Adriatic Adventure vacation round up (don't worry, I'll resume the recap soon!), I wanted to share my mini vacation to Acadia National Park from Independence Day weekend.  I first got inspired to see Acadia National Park from the U.S. Interior's Instagram , which posts tons of beautiful photos from across the U.S.  Let me just say that what I saw of Acadia NP in such a short time was gorgeous and I can't wait to go back one day!  New England has some really picturesque spots, let me tell you. We arrived the Wednesday leading up to the Fourth of July weekend.  After checking into Hanscom's Cottages , we took the free local bus to Bar Harbor, the main tourist town by Acadia NP.  There we had a delicious lunch at Galyn's .  I had the most amazing crab cakes (caught in Maine!) ever!  And we loved that the owner collected art and displayed it through out the restaurant. Our first day there (more lik...

This is the year of Boston.  A short two weeks after our surprise birthday appearance we flew back for the annual Maine Labor Day Weekend beach and lobster dinner weekend.  The weather (and the company) couldn't have been more perfect considering the initially less than thrilling rainy forecast for the weekend.  So happy to have had so much sun shine down on us in Maine! But first, Harpoon Brewery !  We had a few hours of afternoon fun there trying all of their beers.  Of course I checked all of them into Untappd .  I personally don't think their beers are super amazing, but their UFO flight (except their plain hefeweizen beer) was pretty decent.  Hello UFO raspberry, white (orange and coriander), and big squeeze (grapefruit) tasters!  The UFO white is the one you'll find most often in bars in the area. And then off to Maine!  Proof of the perfect weather: Plus I learned that in nearby Portland, ME there are a ton of craft ...

Last weekend my boyfriend and I flew to Boston to make a surprise appearance for his brother's surprise birthday clambake.  We had such a wonderful time both exploring new parts of the area and surprising his entire family.  Happy tears were shed and of course the fun-filled weekend came to an end much too quickly! We started off our long weekend by exploring the Boston Harbor Islands .  They're just a hop and a skip away on a short ferry ride, which was perfect for a day trip.  We docked at Spectacle Island first, bought lunch, and hiked to the top of the island for a wonderful view of the Boston skyline. There's also a beach by the Visitor's Center where you can scavenge for sea glass (though they do request that you leave what you find on the island for others to enjoy). Then we hopped on over to Georges Island , which is home to the Civil War era Fort Warren, which is truly a magnificent structure.  It's impossible to get a photo of the ent...