Celebrating Birthdays from the Road

Welcome back to another week with The Sappingtions! Hard to believe we have been on the road for 13 months.  We appreciate your continued support and hope we have entertained you, educated you a bit, and most of all, made you smile.

When this blog is posted, it will be my birthday. August 6th. Trust me, I’m not telling you this to get birthday wishes.  I’m telling you this because there is more to just me celebrating on August 6th.  If you want to send me birthday wishes, however, I will be glad to accept them!  Thank you in advance.  

I was born on my sister’s 4th birthday.  She wanted a brother and told my parents that she wanted me sent back since it was her birthday present and to get her a brother.  Yep, my welcome into the family!  Many years later, my sister gave birth to her son, my nephew, on our birthdays.  Of course once he was born, it was all about him as a little guy as it should be.   The good news is, we will never forget each other’s birthdays. 

We do not know any differently (other than my sister who had 4 years of just her) and we have always tried to be together on our birthday.  There have been times we have not in the past with vacations or work schedules, but we did succeed more than we didn’t, of course, until Jerry and I started this lifestyle.  

One of our favorite places to celebrate was Fenton’s Ice Cream Parlor in Piedmont, CA.  It is a favorite of ours.  It was our splurge day.  My sister and I would always share their crab salad sandwich, with fries of course, and each get our favorite ice cream. My nephew would get whatever he wanted. It was our annual celebration and we loved every minute of it.  Whoever could join us would.  

Last year Jerry and I were in Oregon just starting our journey.  That was very tough as it was all so new.  The first time away from family is always the most difficult.  We did FaceTime together which was so great.  We then met a wonderful couple, Fran & Greg, who lived in the area we were staying at, and we went out to a fantastic Thai restaurant to celebrate in Eugene, OR.  Thank goodness for Fran & Greg. They made my birthday very special last year.

This year we started celebrating early as this is a BIG birthday for me.  I know you are dying to have me tell you how old I am.  Well, let me give you a hint: I started Medicare Aug 1st.  How the heck did this happen?  Seriously, it’s crazy!  I am not mature enough to be this age.

This is a different birthday as my sister is traveling to the Arctic Circle and will be celebrating her birthday with the people on her tour. She does not have any cell or wifi.  I wished her a happy birthday before she took off.   My nephew will be at a wedding with his fiance’ in CA and, of course, I am in Maine.  Hopefully, we will be able to speak sometime over the weekend.  

Jerry and I started the birthday week festivities last Saturday driving to Auburn, Maine to meet some new friends that live there.  We met Chuck and Angela in Harpswell, Maine at the lobsta shack, called Erica’s, and decided we had to meet up again.  This time we met them at Mac’s Seafood, which is a very funky place. It’s also a fish market that sells amazing lobsta, clams, you name it.  It was awesome.  Both Jerry and I had a whole lobsta, 12 clams, corn, and potatoes.  Great way to start off the birthday week.

That evening we went to the L.L.Bean concert series and were among quite a few young ladies at the Maddie & Tae concert.  Had no idea who these performers were. We quickly learned that their demographics were teen girls.  They were very talented (do I sound like my parents?  I think so) and we actually enjoyed them.  

On Sunday, we went to see the movie Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.  I loved it of course, with the amazing fashion from Dior.  The story line was great.  Even Jerry loved it. No violence, sex, drugs, etc.  Just a plain old feel good movie. 

The beginning of the week was filled with catching up on everyday stuff.  You know, bills, booking dr. appointments, etc.  Real life things you have to do whether your home is stationary or on wheels.  Always feels good when you accomplish the tasks that need to be done.

We had a great pre-birthday breakfast at Inn By the Sea in Cape Elizabeth on Wednesday.  In prior blogs from Maine, we talked about how we had stayed there in 2018 and absolutely loved it.  We went there for breakfast because they have the best breakfast potatoes I have ever had and we needed to go back to see if they were as good as we remembered. YEP, they were.  It was a beautiful day as we had breakfast while looking at the beach.  

We then went to the Portland waterfront area and just walked around and enjoyed Portland.  The best part was going to Trader Joes!!!  It’s the only TJ’s in Maine! Trust me, we stocked up and are planning on going back before we head up to Bangor. You should have seen us when we drove up! We both were doing a happy dance.

Now for the really fun event. We took the train to Boston early Friday morning for a food tour!    We actually had to set our alarms for 5:30 am.  It’s been a very long time since we set our alarms. We drove to our new friends Debbie and Glenn’s home to take the train with them.  The train left at 8:30 am and Debbie and Glenn live about 40 minutes from us.  So, it was an early morning!!!!!!

Debbie was so freaking cute. She brought a cooler bag on the train with Bloody Mary Fixings. You cannot believe all she put into those drinks!   They were delicious!  She also brought cherry tomatoes and cucumbers she picked from her garden that morning. She had a bag filled with treats for the train. All very healthy as we were going on a food tour after all!  It was about a 2 hour train ride which we enjoyed very much.  

The food tour was with Anthony from Boston’s Politically Incorrect Food Tour.  He was a hoot!!!!  He’s a local and was telling us there are only 2 local tour guides and the rest are outsiders as he says. We went to at least 8 different places.  Can I just tell you, we ate until we dropped.  We had pizza, stuffed rice balls, ravioli, caprese salad, lemon slush, Italian sandwich, and two desserts I cannot even pronounce.  YES, I TASTED EVERYTHING AND LOVED IT ALL.  And the best part is we walked over 3.5 miles! That helped a lot with all the food we ate. LOL   It was a bit warm in Boston, over 90 degrees. (You know how much I love the heat)  But who cares, it was so much fun and we learned a lot about the Italian section of Boston.  Highly recommend this tour when you are visiting Boston.  

For my actual birthday, Jerry booked a 90 min massage for me in the morning.  Then we are coming back to clean up and head over to the BlueBerry Festival in Freeport.  It doesn’t get better than that. (More about that next week) 

Honestly, do I have the most amazing husband or what?  I have said this before, I would NEVER have dreamed of living this lifestyle if it wasn’t for my husband.  He has given me the best birthday presents ever by indulging my dream of full-time RVing.  Yes, Jerry is a keeper!!

Just One More….birthday on the road (who knows how many more, but I’m game) 

Also, please make sure to check out our latest YouTube video below! We decided to switch things up a bit this week!