On Vacation

Hi everyone! As I posted about here, we'll be taking a much needed break over the next 10 days to the beautiful Pacific Northwest! We will be putting our Etsy shop on vacation starting tonight until Sunday Sept. 29th. Then we'll be back at it and post more about our newest cards!  If you have any ideas or suggestions of cool places to go while we're out in Oregon and Washington - tweet at me!: @crackeddesigns

Fingers crossed that we see Big Foot!


(Above image of the glorious game: Oregon Trail)

Maine-ly Maine

Paul B.

Lobster Roll

Salem, MA

Fenway Park, before the Red Sox unfortunately choked...

Desert of Maine, Freeport, ME (amazing tourist trap!)

Portland Head Lighthouse, Portland, ME

Dave at MAGPIE!!

Cooperstown Brewing Company, Cooperstown, NY

The Dead Frog Circus in Holyoke, MA


We just got back from 10 amazing days on the east coast. And we must say that we're impressed. New England is filled with lots of our favorite things: Good food, Paul Bunyan Statues, Tacky souvenir shops, and lots and LOTS of very good beer!

We tackled this trip naturally, by car. We drove through upstate New York, making stops in Cooperstown and then explored the beautiful city of Boston. We then traveled north, making stops in Salem, MA, and towns in Maine like, Ogunquit, Portland, Freeport and Bar Harbor. We unfortunately didn't see much of Acadia National Park, due to lots of fog and rain, but managed to hike up Gorham Mountain despite the rain. After leaving the coast of Maine, we traveled through Bangor, and made our way through New Hampshire and then Vermont, making stops in Waterbury and Burling, VT. We traveled back through upstate New York and headed home.

Some highlights of the trip:
*Fenway Park, Boston, MA: It's going to be hard to go to Miller Park and not fantasize about being at Fenway-that's how amazing this ballpark was! Anyone, no matter if you're a baseball fan or not, you should visit this historic ballpark.

*Cooperstown, NY: Cooperstown is home to the baseball hall of fame, which was definitely cool, but the town itself is tucked away in upstate New York and is kind of like a trip back in time. It's also home to two fabulous breweries.

*Desert of Maine, Freeport, ME: This place was a trip. It's a tourist trap in every sense of the term, which drew us there. It's basically an area of land covered in sand, and you get a guided tram tour by a 75 year old man, whom we could barely understand. It was hidden back in the woods and looked untouched by time.

*Portland, ME & Shipyard Brewery: Portland was one cool city, not too big, but definitely not too small, all with cobblestone streets downtown and picturesque views. Despite it's Maine-y vibe, it was pretty urban and reminded us of Milwaukee. Portland is also home to Shipyard Brewery, which was super cool and surprisingly big. It also brews one of my favorite new beers: Pumpkinhead. We stocked up on this before we left.

*Lobster!: I've actually never had lobster before this trip, so I was pretty excited to feast on it, and feast we did! Not only did we try a tasty lobster roll at Spragues in Wiscasset, but I also tried steamed lobster, and I must say that I was a pro at crackin' those claws. It was tasty!

*Secret Caverns, NY: Ok, this place is tucked away in nowheresville New York, and while driving there, I thought we may get murdered multiple times, but boy was it worth it. This was by far the coolest cave I've ever been to. We had a very small tour group, so the guide (who was a perfect amount of corny) turned off all the lights and gave us all flashlights to navigate our way through the pitch black cave. SUPER COOL.

*Salem, MA: Witches galore! I love me some crazy witch souvenirs, and this is the place to get 'em.

Overall verdict....we love Maine, and can't wait to visit again!

New England

You may be thinking, wait, didn't these guys just go on vacation? And you'd be right. September is apparently the month of vacations for us. We are taking one of our of favorite types of trip: a roadtrip!! Our roadtrips tend to always be packed full of destinations around every turn, and this one is no different. We are headed out tomorrow and will make stops in Cooperstown, NY, spend a couple days in Boston, MA, Salem, MA, Portland, ME, Bar Harbor, ME, Burlington, VT and then make our way back home. I've never been out to this part of the country before, so I'm really excited to visit, and eat some yummy lobster. Even more exciting, is that this part of the country seems to be packed with tacky roadside attractions. Holla!

We closed down the Etsy shop during this time, but will be back to open up shop on Monday the 26th. Happy Travels!

San Fran Love

So don't get us wrong, we love Milwaukee, a lot. But there is something pretty special about San Francisco, it keeps drawing us back, and with every time we love it more. Why oh why is it so freakishly expensive to live there? Sigh.

Anyways, we had a great time, and it was our first official family vacation: Tara, Adam and Mr. Beckett! Beck was a pro on the plane (for the most part), and we had a super fun time exploring the city- from old favorites to new places. Some highlights were:

*AT&T Park - a really beautiful baseball park right on the bay, but we think Miller Park has it beat!
*Speakeasy Brewery - an amazing brewery we discovered in a not so great area, but who cares when the beer is that good!
*Sausalito - a quaint little town just a short trip from San Francisco. We had a very yummy breakfast at Cibo Cafe.
*Lagunitas Brewery - Ah yes, this was our second trip to Lagunitas, and dare we say, our favorite brewery ever?! Since we were last there it has expanded into an even cooler brewery, complete with a restaurant & beer garden (all kid friendly too!)
*Musee Mecanique - This place was super cool and right on the pier, kind of hidden away from the other tourist-y places. It is a museum of old arcade games & antique coin operated machines. The best part is that you can play with all of them! It was so cool, we could have spent hours there.

Well San Francisco, we love you and we can't wait to go back.

San Francisco Bound!

We are going on vacation for the next 5 days out to sunny...er, foggy, San Francisco! San Francisco is one of our most favorite cities. We definitely left our hearts there when we visited 4 years ago, so, needless to say, we are super excited to go back. Even more exciting, Beckett is going on his first plane ride! Let's hope it goes well...

We closed down the Etsy shop for the next 5 days, but don't fret, it will be back open next Tuesday the 6th. Happy Travels!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Well we are back from Vegas and had a very nice time. My casino winnings totaled $1.85, and I now have a new found love for video poker. Who knew. Anyways, there is a lot of fun CD news that will be comin' at ya in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Back to it.

The Leaning Water Tower

The many abandoned motels in Tucumcari, NM

The Wigwam Motel in Hollbrook AZ: the best place we stayed! It was awesome!

Giant dinosaurs at the Grand Canyon Caverns

Back from vacation and it's so good to be home! We're busier than ever here at Cracked Designs and are happy to announce that our cards will be available at Paper Source this Valentines Day! It is our first national store, and we are totally stoked about it. But anyways...here are some pictures from our fun filled trip down Route 66. I have a ton more pictures, so more are to come!