The Maine Thing

The main thing about Maine is that it’s beautiful and has great food!!!!!

 Saturday was Dave’s brewery day.  We went to both Shipyard and Allagash.  They were both REALLY good, and really different, but I don’t want to steal Dave’s thunder talking about them so check his blog in a day or two.  Suffice it to say, I don’t have to apologize for buying expensive shoes anymore, and I might get some art soon!  LOL

Later in the day we just took off driving.  We were hungry and were tempted by KFC, but Deb had spotted some lobster stands coming up, and with a little bit of patience, we found a great one!  Lobsters for $7.50 plus 75¢ for the butter! We had gotten several suggestions from folks and just took off to explore the Maine coast.  A couple who had followed us from brewery to brewery told us about a good winery about 2 hr up the coast so we headed there.  The little harbor towns are very quaint but as we were driving past Freeport, the home of LL Bean, we were slapped with commercialism.  They’ve turned the whole town into a strip mall.  While Deb was tempted, but parking was awful and we decided to motor on. 

Cellar Door Winery in Lincolnville (near Rockport) was BEAUTIFUL times TWO!  We first encountered the tasting room in town which is in a restored Victorian complete with wonderful stained glass and a curved staircase with compound curve carved out of one piece of wood.  The wines were good and “interesting”… we bought 3.  Then we found the winery down the road and wished we had gone there first, for it was closing.  It obviously also had a tasting room and maybe a restaurant, but it definitely had a VIEW.  The grounds were beautiful with a view of the mountains and vineyards, but it was getting dark and I’m not sure about the pictures.  The woman who started the winery quit the rat race in NYC after a bout with breast cancer.  Does this story sound familiar?  Good for her!!

Then on to Cappys in Camden for clam chowder….The chowder was amazing, though we liked the whole lobster better than the lobster roll and Maryland’s crab cakes are better.  Ouch! I sound like we are getting picky!! LOL….It was a long dark drive home, but it had been a good day.  We said as soon as the “wanderlust” gets out of our system, we need to go and stay in some of our favorite areas for a couple of weeks and really explore, rather than just hit the high spots.  We are finding many places to come back to!

On Sunday we did the Mail Boat Run on Casco Bay. (another suggestion from someone we met)  Even though the mail wasn’t being delivered on Sunday, the boat still made a tour of the islands and the cost was only $15.  The locals use it to transport freight and mail and themselves to the islands and it was fascinating to look in the carts and see what folks were moving…. Antiques complete with dust, craft supplies, old picture frames, rented chairs from a party Saturday night, and lots of folks on bicycles!  Two of the islands have 1 or 2 room school houses so the folks must stay in the cold and snow.  Many are obvious resort areas, and a few house lobster fishermen.  There are many old WWII bunkers and lookouts where the soldiers were housed while patrolling for German subs.  The day was gloriously sunny and warm and the boat ride was so relaxed!  It was a lot of fun….

My previous blog captures our ride between Maine and Boston… if you’re reading this; you’ve probably already gone there… (If not it should be just below)…We made our first campground in the dark.  At one point Deb was holding 2 flashlights for Dave to see to hook things up… she got a fit of giggles when she realized she was holding them like headlights in front of her…use your imagination!!  The couple next door was helpful, if redneck, but we enjoyed talking with them.   They had just bought a used toy hauler and were planning to take it to Harley meet-ups.  When we said we were from North and South Carolina they immediately adopted us, because they loved going to the Bike Week at Myrtle Beach!! 

We haven’t used the segways at all, so we have decided to take them into Boston.  Dave is now an expert at driving into the city and Ben told us about some “cool” greenways that were created during the Big Dig.  We’ve done the history thing before so this should be fun… Stay tuned…