New England

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They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. A visit to the Brimfield Antique Show definitely illustrates that well. To be fair, the show, which takes up about 1/2 mile of the town of Brimfield, does house some pretty neat stuff, from beautiful old pieces of furniture and vintage jewelry to newer items like the farmhouse table that will be perfect in my Sonoma kitchen. But the show also had it’s share of junk on display, and vendors weren’t hesitant to lower prices to near nothing for some of it.

We started our day early with some Starbucks coffee before picking up my mother in law, the true antique aficionado. She once disassembled an antique spinning wheel and trekked it from New Zealand home to Ireland.

The drive to Brimfield was lovely, and surprisingly, with the size of the event, traffic-free. We parked in the first lot we saw, a church that charged $3 in exchange for a parking space and use of their clean restrooms (as opposed to the banks of portable ones at the show). And then we began our Brimfield experience.

Brimfield

Our 3 minute walk to the show brought us through a wooded path over a stream, past a few historical buildings, and then into a sea of stuff for sale.

Brimfield Antique Show Brimfield Antique Show
Brimfield Antique Show Brimfield Antique Show
Brimfield Antique Show Brimfield Antique Show

It seemed just about every vendor had tons of glass bottles for sale for a dollar each. There were moments throughout the day where I saw something pretty and cheap and then reminded myself of my already cluttered house and my disdain for clutter. A simple “what would I do with this?” was enough to keep me from buying anything.

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The Brimfield Antique Show had just about everything anyone could ever want. Looking for Trump: The Game, with an unrecognizably young and coiffed Donald Trump on the cover? It was there.

Brimfield Antique Show

Need a dress with puffed sleeves for your next Anne of Green Gables outing? Brimfield has you covered.

Brimfield Antique Show

They even had the tall, Anne Shirley style lace up boots from days of yore. I  won’t say I wasn’t tempted.

I found some of the old cooking items interesting, and there were lots of plates I might consider buying if I had a bigger house.

Brimfield

But, at the end of the day, the farmhouse wood table, made with a light wood top and legs painted green, paired with a mismatched bench and chairs, was my big find. It wouldn’t really fit our city kitchen, but if I ever do get my Sonoma farmhouse, I will be looking the vendor up.

Brimfield also offered lots of wide open spaces, pretty architecture, and nature. That, paired with the dusty parking lots made for a nightmare day for the old sinuses, but was nice to look at.

spring flowers

spring flowers

The other thing in great abundance in Brimfield were food trucks. They had everything from falafel to Southern BBQ, fried dough and cider doughnuts to ice cream, fish and chips, lobster rolls, goat curry, fresh-squeezed lemonade, and way more.

Though not normally on the list of things I eat, the grilled hot dogs were calling my name, and this one, topped with cheese, relish, mustard, and ketchup, was totally worth it!

Brimfield food

My closing observations:

1) If you sell it, someone will want to buy it. The antique show made me want to go through everything I don’t want and to set up a stand next time around!

2) I love dogs, but they don’t always belong at every occasion. Many of the dogs there looked scared, and I saw one use an antique painting as his fire hydrant. When the owner was made aware, he said, Oh, sorry. And walked off. You can’t fault the dog for doing what dogs do or for having a stupid owner, but these antiques are people’s incomes. Not cool.

3) I was very, very glad I wore sneakers instead of flip flops. There’s lots of walking in rocky, dusty paths and some muddy fields. Trust me, this is not a dress up event.

4) Antiques people smoke. A lot.

Overall though, the experience was definitely interesting. The Brimfield Antiques Show returns in July and September, and it is worth checking out for a day of fun, food, and some potentially new old stuff.

Have you ever been to the Brimfield Antique Show? Are antiques/ vintage items your thing?

Tags: Brimfield Antiques Show, New England, Travel

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! I really had no idea what I wanted to do for my birthday, mainly because I am completely spoiled and had the option of doing many different things. We pondered a weekend trip to Martha’s Vineyard, but we both really wanted to watch Ireland kick England’s butt in rugby, so we stayed in town. My husband offered up a spa day or a drive to Newport, brunch, etc. I didn’t feel like doing any of those things for some reason.

I wanted to have a simple day that involved some fresh air, movement, food, and shopping at Whole Foods, and as a result we made some fun new discoveries. We hopped in the car in the late morning and headed down toward Hingham, MA which is about 20 minutes from Boston. Our destination was Wompatuck State Park.

Wompatuck State Park

I am constantly amazed at the abundance of beautiful outdoor spaces on all sides of Boston. You really don’t need to drive far to go for a hike, and we really enjoyed the level, easy trails of Wompatuck State Park. There were lots of families and cyclists, and everyone seemed to be in a great mood, grateful for the beautiful sunshine.

Wompatuck State Park

This would be the ideal place to hike if you weren’t looking for a strenuous workout because it was mostly flat. We walked for about an hour and would have walked for longer except I got hungry.

Wompatuck State Park

While Wompatuck State Park is a place I would visit again, we decided on our walk to try to do a different New England day trip throughout the spring, summer, and fall to see what else we can discover.

Wompatuck State Park

Since we were down in Hingham, we decided to check to see if the Hingham Lobster Pound had opened for the season. The Hingham Lobster Pound features some of the freshest seafood around, and we got lucky in that they are open a few days a week for the season!

Hingham Lobster Pound

Hingham Lobster Pound

This place is true New England and has been on this spot since 1958. It’s tiny and gets packed in the summer; in fact there were a lot of people eating there even yesterday. We apparently weren’t the only winter-weary ones!

The platters are huge, and with the sweet smell of fresh sea scallops in the air, we decided on fried scallops with fries and coleslaw. I truly love coleslaw.

Hingham Lobster Pound

We ate in the car overlooking the ocean. In just a few months, this beach will be filled with people, but we got to enjoy it almost all to ourselves. There was one man, laying out on the sidewalk in just a Speedo. . . I kid you not. It was about 35 degrees.

Hull

After lunch and breathing in some sea air, the hubs wanted to check out a boat broker in Hingham which happened to be in the same area as Alma Nove in the Hingham Shipyard. Alma Nove is the restaurant of Chef Paul Wahlberg, brother of Donnie and Marky Mark but also very well respected chef with a beautiful new restaurant.

Alma Nove Hingham

I’d been wanting to visit Alma Nove for some time, and while we were completely full of fried food, I still had some room for a little bit of bubbly. And the folks at Alma Nove were warm and welcoming enough to allow us to sit on their patio with our drinks. The hubs had the Sam Adams Brick Red, a beer I tried on a Sam Adams tour last year.

Prosecco Sam Adams Brick Red

With the fire pit on and the patio glassed in by walls, we were actually completely warm and cozy. There was some great music playing, and it was one of those moments that is so relaxing that you never want it to end.

Alma Nove Hingham

Hingham Shipyard

The rest of the day included some splurges at Whole Foods and Fresh Market. We had dinner plans in Boston, but I decided I wanted to make some snacks, listen to music, and drink bubbly at home. I’ll have a post on our spread coming soon. I am very lucky that my husband planned on a fancy dinner, but it just felt right for me to hang out and relax at home.

When the weather is good, there is seriously nothing better than a New England weekend. Am I right?

I am working on a list of places to visit throughout the summer and would love to hear your thoughts AND to get together for Boston-area day trips as well. I feel lucky to live in such an amazing place.

Hingham Lobster Pound on Urbanspoon

Alma Nove on Urbanspoon

Tags: Alma Nove, birthdays, Food, hiking, Hingham, Hingham Lobster Pound, New England, scallops, Travel

It’s a scorcher out there! Of course I chose yesterday, in all of its 88 degree glory, to do my first outdoor run since the Boston Marathon. I have been focusing on mostly strength workouts and a few spinning classes, but the urge to run struck me and I went with it. It was sooo not pleasant! I didn’t mind the heat at all. In fact it felt really good to have the blood coursing through my veins again and to get a good sweaty workout in. But the air was awful! It felt so smoggy, and there were big, fluffy bits of pollen everywhere. Gotta get those workouts in to get ready for the beach, though, right! Have you started to do anything different to get in shape for summer? I am considering Healthworks’ Beach Body Bootcamp. . .

Now on to the food part of this post 🙂

I love summer salads, corn on the cob, veggie burgers, and fresh fruit, but I also find plenty of time to eat some not-so-healthy summer favorites. This past weekend at the Coastal Wine Trail kickoff (Part 1 & Part 2), it really felt like the start of summer, and we certainly kicked the season off right.

We started at the Box Lunch. The Box Lunch is a summer tradition, and it is always the first place we stop in Provincetown. And I always get the same thing, a whole wheat rollwich with swiss and provolone, tomatoes, sprouts, lettuce, avocado, onion, and hot peppers.  Eaten on a blanket on the beach, Box Lunch might just be one of my favorite summer lunches 🙂

 

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Another thing that I ate plenty of on Sunday were raw oysters. Some people hate them, but I totally crave oysters. Add some spicy cocktail sauce and lemon or a shallot mignonette, and I could easily eat a couple dozen of these!

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On our way home from the wine festival, we stopped at Moby Dick’s in Wellfleet, MA.

Moby Dick's Wellfleet, MA

Freshly shucked oysters

Wellfleet Oysters

And a whole belly fried clam plate. I love my fried seafood! If the batter is light, and the seafood is fresh, it is just perfect. Paired with tartar sauce and crispy fries, this meal tastes like summer. I also love fried scallops, oysters, and shrimp, for the record.

fried clams with french fries and cole slaw

Checkered tablecloths and a pretty view made it taste even better. As we started driving off of the Cape, I had an urge for something sweet. Enter another summer favorite and a childhood tradition. Even though I grew up in NJ, we spent time many summers in Centerville, MA, and we always went to Four Seas Ice Cream. Four Seas is an old style ice cream shop, and they serve up homemade ice cream in many scrumptious flavors.

Four Seas Ice Cream, Centerville, MA

Four Seas has a lot of history as one of America’s most famous families frequent it every summer. We saw members of the Kennedy clan a few times over the years, stopping in for ice cream from their nearby Hyannisport compound.

Four Seas Ice Cream, Centerville, MA Kennedy family

Being at Four Seas always brings back memories and made me a little emotional this time. I had what I have always had, banana ice cream with hot fudge, almonds, and whipped cream. I love all of the contrast of this dish, the homemade hot fudge, cold ice cream, crunchy almonds. It is the perfect summer dessert. And of course it tastes better when you had sand on your feet and a little bit of a sunburn from being out all day 🙂 It truly is like being a kid again.

Four Seas banana ice cream with hot fudge, almonds, and whipped cream  

 Now you tell me, what is your favorite summer treat?

If you have a second, this week I have guest posts on both of these sites, one on Gundlach Bundschu Tempranillo and the other on Travessia Pinot Grigio plus a yummy summer salad:

http://thefoodpassport.com/people.html

http://www.winelife365.com/byob-meghan-brings-tempranillo

Tags: Cape Cod, Food, Four Seas Ice Cream, ice cream, New England, oysters, seafood, summer

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