the end of summer means popovers!

We ended our summer the way we often do: driving across the state to have popovers and lobster stew at the Jordan Pond House. It's a 3 hour drive to get there, and it seems a lot of others had the same idea because we had a significant wait to get a table... but it is so very worth it. The popovers melt in your mouth, and the homemade strawberry jam and whipped butter are just decadent. The stew can't have much more than butter, cream, and huge chunks of lobster. If you've never gone, you need to fix that, and soon. You won't regret it.

The point is this has become part of our family ritual. We go to Acadia at the end of summer; one of these summers we really should go and stay longer than a day, and spend more time in the park. This year we didn't time it right to visit Thunder Hole, but we did make it up Cadillac Mountain. This massive cruise ship was in town, and it certainly looked to us to be bigger than some of the islands in the bay.

These crazy rituals of ours make me happy. Most of the people we know are not insane enough to log 6 hours of driving in a day just for some popovers.... but we are, and it helps define us. We don't follow routines much, but we have things we like to do at the same time every year. The end of school means take out lobster rolls, although most of us don't order lobster rolls anymore. Memorial Day usually has us on a Family Field Trip somewhere, but who knows where. Girly and Beaner have started a birthday shopping trip, as their birthdays are only 3 days apart... and I'm thrilled they are learning that rituals like that are part of what brings you joy and comfort in this life. That, and when you find a place that has incredible food, it is worth a day's journey for another taste.