Burlington

Last week Daniel and I drove up to Burlington, VT. Daniel had another training class to attend for work. It was nice to get away for a few days. We enjoyed an evening by Lake Champlain, eating out at great restaurants, and Dakin Farm's fantastic maple soft serve frozen yogurt cones. Dakin Farm is located south of Burlington. They make all kinds of foods, from maple syrup and cheeses to jams and jellies. They also give out free samples of many of their products. The best product by far is the frozen yogurt. At first, you may think that maple flavored frozen yogurt sounds terrible. But, it actually is very good! It's a good thing we don't live near this store because we'd be there every day.


One of the highlights of our trip occurred on the drive up to Burlington. We saw a moose lumbering along in the median of the highway! We were going too fast to get a picture, but it was fun to see it.

The Fourth of July

I had been excited about the fourth of July weekend for a while. I was looking forward to having a few days to spend with Daniel, maybe go to the beach or something. Unfortunately life does not always turn out the way we want. Because the Lawrence office was scheduled to open the following monday, Daniel needed to put in a little over time and help get the new office set up. He worked the whole day on Friday and had agreed to work Saturday morning as well. I was happy to at least have Daniel to myself the rest of the day to celebrate the Fourth. After Daniel left for work on Saturday, I decided to do a little grocery shopping. I wanted to surprise Daniel with a rhubarb cream cake, one of his favorite desserts. So, I headed to the nearest grocery store to pick up some ingredients for the cake. I was really excited to do a little baking. When I got home, I chopped up the rhubarb and mixed up the cake mix. I was getting ready to put the rhubarb and cream over the cake, but I couldn't find the pint of whipping cream that I had bought. I wondered if I had left that bag in the car so I ran out to the parking lot to check. No whipping cream! It was listed on the receipt so I knew I had gotten it. The bagger had not bagged it for me! I had to leave the cake to head back to the store. At least it was the closest store! I rushed back home and finished putting the cake together and got it in the oven. I was disappointed because it didn't turn out as well as it should since the cake batter had to sit for a while instead of going into the oven right away. The rhubarb didn't sink to the bottom of the pan like it's supposed to. I was worried that it wouldn't tasted good. Daniel was thrilled to see the cake cooling on the stove when he got home. It tasted a lot better than it looked!

Saturday evening, Daniel and I went out for dinner before heading to the park to watch fireworks. We decided not to spend $10 each to get into West Beach, so we thought if we were at Lynch park, down the coast, we could watch the fireworks from a distance. We also knew that Marblehead and Salem were shooting their fireworks off the same night, just across the bay. We had a great vantage point at the park! We watched all three displays from our spot, and they weren't too far away. When we got home we caught the end of the Boston Pops concert and fireworks on TV.

Berry Picking

Just before Daniel's parents left, we took them up to New Hampshire to go strawberry picking. Daniel found a great farm in Londonderry that grows a variety of fruits. The strawberry plants looked great and the berries were very sweet and juicy. We picked so many berries! We had plenty of strawberries, so we cut some up to freeze and I also made jam. Daniel and I definitely plan to return in a few weeks for raspberries and blueberries.