Vacation Food

Two days ago we were driving from the rocky Maine coast back across that big state along a secondary road. The kids were getting hungry, Tom and I were hungry, and we'd gone through the bananas, nuts, water, and other miscellaneous snack items that we'd been toting around. 

We passed a few pizza joints that looked like they could go out of business any day (not a lot of cars in the parking lot) and then hit a strip that had some big box stores and a Taco Bell. We made it inside Taco Bell, the girls already choosing a table with high stools, but we soon left feeling that the food choices were unappealing, processed, and greasy -- plus, Kentucky Fried Chicken also operated out of the place so the fried food smell was wafting around.

We took our chances and kept driving. The map showed no bold-lettered towns between our current location and Rangeley, our next stop over. But about 15 minutes later we hit a cute little town alongside a lake. We spotted a general store with a deli and Tom went in to get sandwiches while the girls and I sat at a picnic table out back and watched boats take off from the docks behind the store. Our wraps and sandwiches weren't fancy, but they were fresh. 

It was great to eat outside, to take in the beauty of the lake, and to see the girls' fascination with all of the people that came in and out of this lake in kayaks and motor boats. We forged on with full bellies that weren't bloated from fast food. Thankfully, we're now home to a garden full of vegetables, which our daughters proudly picked.