Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Maple sweets and Cannoli a-plenty

New England is a unique place, and we made some great discoveries while there for 9 days. The cannoli (right) is one of them. It's an amazing dessert that I tried for the first time. It was a gift from the volunteers at You & Your Girl in Syracuse!

Then upon arriving at the Vermont State Fair we were showered with maple gifts, which was amazing since I had said every day before then that I wanted to take home some maple syrup! I got my wish, times 3! We had to pack the syrup in our merchandise boxes, since the airlines wouldn't give us any more weight in our bags... don't you love flying?

This trip was sooo girl time, and it was great. We found the coolest spots to eat, visited quaint old towns on the coast of Maine, oh, and we did work as well. We had concerts in between all that!

What I loved most about the You and Your Girl conference (our 5th one with LifeWay!) in Syracuse, NY was the open hearts of the women and girls that came. God's presence was powerful during worship, and our heart-to-hearts during the breakouts encouraged me so much. These are girls that are hungry for God! We were all at different places in our journey to know God better, some of us have been on that journey longer than others, but we all share in the common desire to know Him. Nothing else compares!

As I write this, I'm feeling quite stuffed after my mom made this amazing dinner (I helped too people!) and now I'm thinking ice cream would top it off perfectly. My iTunes shuffle just turned to Josh Groban Christmas. I think I'll change it before I start wishing for snow!

~Becca

Sunday, September 5, 2010

What a weekend!

We made our way down a narrow dirt road to find ourselves at a stage overlooking an amazing view where many rivers meet. This was yesterday, at Swiftwaters Music Festival at Chop Point Camp in Woolwich, Maine! We got to know Building 429 (see left, pictured with some of the band), Laura Story and Mark Harris. All of us came on stage for a worship song at the end, and then we enjoyed a lobster dinner! Both Elissa and I have never had lobster before, so it was probably very funny for people to watch us. We were frightened of the creature that landed on our plates, complete with eyes and a hard shell that had to be cracked. It's messy business, people. But the meat inside is well worth the crackin! Thanks to Mark Harris for showing us how it's done.

Even though Laura Story (pictured with us on the left) had a flat tire on her way, we were so glad she made it. The entire festival was awesome and we hope next year we can come back.

Friday we flew into Portland, Maine after a long day of traveling through Denver and New York's airports, and we're loving the calm weather (glad the hurricane missed us) and seeing familiar faces. We were here in December, and though the temperate was much different, the folks were very warm and welcoming.

Maine is one of the states everyone must visit. My mom, Elissa and I just spent time at the Coastal Botanical Gardens and they are gorgeous! So many types of flowers and plants I'd never seen before. I'm figuring some of them won't be popping up in Colorado's rocky soil and high altitude, so its nice to see a variety of plants blossoming together.

We ate lunch today at Sarah's Cafe in Wiscasset. (Learned how to pronouce that one the hard way) Across the street I was so amused to see this huge long line leading up to a small dinky shack they call "Red's". It apparentely makes the best lobster rolls, and tons of TV shows and newspapers rave about it. I definitely wanted to try one, but we timed it to see how long it took one couple to get to the front of the line. 45 minutes went by and they were still waiting!

We have a few days off and then a busy set of dates ahead of us.

Happy Labor day!