Staycation Part I

We are on a staycation!  Paul and I both have the week off so we are taking some day trips and getting things crossed off Paul's our list for projects around the house.

On Saturday we drove to Epping, New Hampshire to the New England Dragway for the Buick Bash event. Paul was out after the third round but we had a nice day hanging out with our friends Rob and Raymond.  Um, no pictures.  I forgot.

Sunday was driving down to Kingston to pick up this:

Paul painted this car last year and the owner wanted him to do a little extra painting that he hadn't wanted done the first time.  It was a nice drive and the rest of the day was spent doing errands, such as Home Depot to get supplies so we could work on Paul's our list.  We also stopped at Kurver Kreme ice cream stand for my latest obsession.... slushies.

Monday was a trip to the old homestead in Bradford, Vermont (yes, we were terribly sick of the car by the end of Monday).  On the way up, we stopped at our new favorite diner, the Blue Benn in Bennington and I had the most yummy cornbread french toast.  O.M.G.    Then we made a stop at the Vermont Country Store:

Always a treat to see all the cool stuff there.  They have everything you remember from growing up.  Remember "Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific" shampoo?  They have that!

Paul got sparklers for today and I got Pine Brothers  throat drops.

I was JUST talking to my mom about these, wondering if they were still around.

Then it was on up to Bradford to see our old house and our old view.

 We really miss our house and our barn and our view.  We don't miss our jobs or the distance from EVERYTHING.  (Excuse the drive-by photos - we didn't want to look suspicious!)

On the way home, we went to the King Arthur Flour Store, Bakery and Education Center:

They are in the middle of a HUGE renovation/addition.  The store is wonderful, the bakery is yummy and someday I will go to a bread making class at the school.  I lived right near there for two years and never went!  ARGH!  So, since I don't know how to make it from scratch, I bought some bread mix:

Not sure what makes it "Alaskan".  Doesn't say on the box.

Then we drove through Woodstock and stopped at our favorite place for onion rings, White Cottage:

Newly reconstructed after being destroyed by Irene last August.

And, well, we couldn't leave there without....

Oh my gosh.  Can you believe we did all this in one day???  We were so tired.

Because we were so wiped out from the previous three days of traveling around, Tuesday was tackling something on Paul's our list.  Ok, this really is OUR list, but mostly made by Paul who likes to "get some things done" on his staycations.  I like to relax and travel on our staycations.  I don't really want to "wash windows", work on the "tile for fireplace" or do "flooring prep".  While I would like that all of these things get done, I don't want to do them ALL during our staycation.  And that's only three of TWENTY things on his list.  TWENTY!!!!  Grant it, not all of the things on the list are for both of us to do.  A lot of them are just for him to do such as "snake drains" (I really don't want to do that) and "work on GS" (I don't know how to work on a car).

So, Tuesday was "tile for fireplace".  Paul got to work cutting and attaching the cement board then we both went to work applying the tile (ok, after a short detour to Corner Ice Cream for a slushie - I told you I was obsessed!  And I'm totally going back today for another one.  What?  It's HOT outside.)  We decided on a stone look, so it was "tiles" of a bunch of stones attached with glue to mesh.  Because the area around the fireplace that needed to be tiled was so small (5") we actually had to take all the stones off the mesh and put them each into place by hand.

Tedious.  Stressful (getting them on there before the mortar dried).  A. Pain. In. The. Neck.

So, now it looks like this:

Top and bottom done.  Waiting for grout.  Stay tuned.

And say hi to Phoebe:

(She was sleeping exactly in this position until Paul took the picture!)

Are you still with me?  I just realized how long this post is!  Today is July 4th and I'm not doing ANYTHING today except blog, read, knit, spin, and get a slushie. (Paul is working on his list.)

Staycation Part II to come... HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!