Tag Archives: Kombucha

June 28, 2010

Portland Getaway – Novel #2

By Pam Schwartz

So, where were we?  I fell asleep last night and slept hard.  In the morning it was raining/thunderstorming outside and Sammi-Cat snuggled up with me in bed, so I may or may not have slept in an additonal hour longer than I’d intended.  Good news is tomorrow I get to work from home which includes me laying in bed reading Civil War letters and diaries all day. Awesome? I think so.

I know you’re all just skimming the paragraphs until I get to the good stuff where I left off from yesterday…the suspense is killing you, right? Well here it is so

STOP!

Whale watching is incredible.  I need everybody to add it to their things to do before they die list (unless you get super seasick or have a water phobia) because honestly whales are fascinating.  They are enormous and beautiful creatures and sing in an equally beautiful language of their own.  On this little trip out of Massachusetts, Merry and I got the pleasure of seeing at two different times a cow (mama whale) and her calf (baby whale).  The first Humpback whale we saw was named Filament. Before our trip, they had not seen her yet this year and were quite excited to learn of her having had a calf. Calf, my butt, they’re born at over a ton!  They’re are able to name the whales by the markings/coloring on the underside of the whale’s tail.  It is sort of similar to how humans have unique fingerprints; each whale has a unique underside pattern.  They generally name the whale  (they have whale naming parties, seriously) something that resembles it’s pattern.  In this case Filament was fitting to the stripey marking of this whale’s tail. We hung around and watched these two for quite some time as they were just out on a Sunday afternoon stroll.

Why do cameras make everything look like they are so far away.  They weren’t too far away.  The boats get fairly close to them and apparently they don’t mind, maybe because their only natural predator is the Killer Whale. Thirty miles out into the ocean we had to begin to head back as the next tour was to leave at 1:30.  On the way we spotted another cow/calf pair and this lady’s name was Giraffe.  Sadly I didn’t get any good pictures of them as it was a sort of spot and run.  We made it back to shore at 1:23, the crew didn’t get much time before their next trip.  Below:  We had some tasty sourdough bread while whale watching!
I learned amazingly interesting stuff about whales and no, I won’t repeat it here because I know how much everybody loves me when I’m in walking history/nature/factoid tour guide mode.  However, if you get a chance to look up Humpback Whale songs on itunes or something you won’t regret it because it’s awesome.
From there we went to Trader Joe’s and then back to Portmouth, NH and had lupper (lunch-supper) at The Friendly Toast where Merry informed me they have the best sweet potato fries EVER.  Indeed, she was quite correct and the Ana Maria Quesadilla was super tasty too! It had vegetarian sausage, black beans, corn salsa, cheese and maple chile sour cream on it.  Then on towards Portland and from there I came on home to good ol’ Union.  Onl the way home I had another bottle of Kombucha, yum!

Today at work I managed to get a couple other jobs out of Suzy I could be working on instead of just attempting to fix their artifact catalog.  Thank goodness, because that is one messed up piece of non-organization.  Thus, my getting to read Civil War letters and diaries tomorrow to create a temporary exhibition for the Founders’ Day celebration later in July.  I also have a ton of Maquoketa Art Experience stuff to work on. Having a full-time internship, a part-time job, and living in Maine is a whole lot of stuff to do.

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June 28, 2010

Portland Getaway – Novel #1

By Pam Schwartz
Friday night after work I left Union for the weekend to travel down to Portland and stay with a friend, Merry. Technically speaking she’s my friend’s mom but I claim her as my own. Upon arrival it was late enough so we just took it easy but Merry had made an INCREDIBLE Blue-Barb Crisp. Blue Barb crisp is made with Maine Wild Blueberries, Rhubarb transplanted from Iowa (Woo WOO), delicious granola and Mimicream (cream but soy not dairy). For those of you that don’t know, Merry is vegan so I enjoyed quite a treat this weekend of a lot of foods unavailable in Iowa and a lot of dishes I couldn’t have at home. I’ve never really eaten rhubarb but apparently I like it in this delicious dish.

Saturday morning we arose and had Cornbread waffles with Maine made Maple Syrup. Everything I’ve eaten this weekend is CRAZY YUM, unless denoted otherwise. Merry introduced me to Kombucha. Kombucha is a fermented tea with mother in it (pro-biotic). I had it in the Strawberry Serenity version twice and loved every second of it. The stuff is really good for your health and if I were rich I would drink it every day because it also addictively tasty. Merry is a fountain of healthful (and many other kinds) knowledge.

Off to the Portland Farmer’s Market, Merry bought some stuff and we had some vegan cookies from 13th Cookie which were delightful. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Almond Butter Chocolate Chip and Nana Ca’Chew (banana and cashew butter). From here we raced out to Cape Elizabeth, BEAUTIFUL. I travelled to Maine with Merry five years ago and she showed be amazing things and she definitely didn’t fail me this time. Maine is beautiful, Cape Elizabeth is beautiful, the ocean is beautiful, the Portland Headlight Lighthouse is beautiful. BEAUTIFUL. Folks, go to Maine.

 

We walked down to a favorite spot of Merry’s on some rocky ground right above the water and enjoyed for a few minutes. Then we hiked up the hill to the field above. Picture this; a luscious field of grass up on a hill (pretty much a cliff) overlooking the harbor and ocean AND Merry pulls out a kite! Flying a kite is such a neat thing to do and I never think to do it, thank goodness someone was prepared. It was a great time trying to keep her going and reminded me that next time I see a cool one I’m definitely going to get a kite. It was sort of one of those surreal moments. I’m in Maine in this amazing place flying a kite. Doesn’t get much better than that, but I love the simple stuff in life.

Unfortunately we didn’t have all day for this; it was onward to VegFest, a Vegan/Vegetarian festival. This is where I received the chance to try an amazing amount of great food, listed here:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Gazpacho – Yuck, I hate cilantro.
Sheese (Soy Cheese) Cheddar and Mexican Pepper Sheese
Tofurkey Sandwiches on Anadama bread (made with molasses, yum!)

A granola mix (too dry)

Creamy Tofu Spread (Meh, I’m weird about tofu)
Miso Spread (So pumped I got the recipe)
Tamarin Sauce
Maine Rootbeer
Potato Bar with toppings, I tried Dr. Cow Cashew Cheese and Spicy Jack Soy Cheese
The Green Elephant had a stand and we had (this stuff was all AMAZING):
Spring Roll with Tamarin Sauce
Fresh Roll with Peanut Sauce
Soy Nuggets with Chili Sauce

Spicy Fried Rice

Pad Thai
I love food and I consider myself a Foodie and a Wino. Any followers will have to except that, including my many photos of food. When something is excellent I want to remember it until I can go back for it again. It was a busy day and we knew we had an early morning coming the next day (whale watching off Cape Ann in Massachusetts!) so we chilled at Merry’s Saturday night. We made semi-homemade (not with Sandra Lee) pizza. Rosemont bakery pizza crust, sautéed onions, fennel, red peppers, spinach, soy cheese and for sauce homemade basil walnut pesto. Super super yum. For our entertainment we watched It’s Complicated, which we had both seen and liked so it was a good choice.

4:30 A.M. Erg! But not really…why? Because we’re going WHALE WATCHING!!!! We pack our snacks for the boat ride (what’s supposed to be a 3-4 hour tour), we have sourdough bread from Rosemont, carrots and red pepper hummus, bananas and the most amazing Lil Lad’s Herbal Corn Popcorn. Anybody who knows me knows how much I love popcorn. I could eat it for every meal. This popcorn is the best and it’s super healthy for you because they use nutritional yeast as part of the herbal seasoning. Fantastic. Delicious AND super healthy, I win. Stopped for coffee in Portsmouth, NH and made our way down to Glouchester, MA. 8:30 cruise, we’ve timed everything perfectly we walk onto the ship and grab seating right up towards the front.
The ocean is so breathtaking. Just water and sky forever. I’m going to make this part short and a teaser… I’m sleepy. Five hours on the ocean and almost six hours of driving today are more than enough to do me in and I have to work tomorrow. So, whale watch is on the agenda for tomorrow. See you then!

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