Hello, Bittens!
We're off to the beach for a few days to unplug, drink some of these, and tear through a major stack of books we're hauling with us. Before we go, we wanted to share a selection of photos and stories from this summer.
Thank you for spending time with us this summer, for your comments, your encouragement and your general awesomeness.
Enjoy the photos below, and we'll see you in a week!
-- Clay and Zach
This photo and the one at the top of this post are from the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair in Maryland. We went on a whim with five other friends one Saturday night. We rode carnival rides, checked out some livestock, and ate our weight in fried foods. Prepare yourself for some fried intensity.
Case in point, a fried Snickers Bar. This was probably the best fried item we had that night, ooey gooey and delicious.
Why yes, that is a window display advertsing both religion and fried Oreos.
This is what the fried Oreos look like. We have terrible news! They were disappointing. Maybe we had built them up in our minds, but they didn't have much taste. The creme filling from the cookies disappears in the fryer, so it was more like a chocoalte wafer surrounded by dough. Not terrible by any means, but not the life-changing fried Oreo experience we were hoping for. (Maybe Christ is the answer?)
America, we have a problem.
Last shot from the fair. We think she's reacting to the idea of diabetic funnel cake.
We loved these gorgeous miniature eggplants at our farmers market. We didn't buy any (we already had eggplant at home) but we hope to after Labor Day.
For a few weeks, Clay had a beard, and then for a hot second, a mustache. Don't worry, it's gone.
While in Tennessee in early August, we planned a day in Nashville just to eat and poke around. We went to Ann Patchett's bookstore, Parnassus Books, and hit the Frist art museum. But really we planned the day around fried chicken. Nashville has a number of restaurants serving "Nashville Hot Chicken," meaning it's been fried and then tossed in spices. We ate ours at Bolton's Spicy Chicken and Fish and loved it, though we are still sweating at the thought of the heat.
Our stalking of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams continued, this time with a trip to her shop in Nashville. We tried 12 flavors (4 adults each ordering 2 flavors, plus samples) and didn't have a single one we disliked. Jeni, you're our ice cream hero.
We don't know these guys, but we snapped their photo on the Fourth of July on Cape Cod and just love the festivity of it all.
Another random snapshot, this one of paddleboarders on the Potomac River, just a few miles from where we live.
See you in September!
