Jessica & Fam visit Texas

The very next weekend, Jessica, Micheal, and Jason came down to visit.  Jessica and Micheal took Jason to the zoo and went "sight-seeing" at a few other places.  Joe and I went over to spend time with them as well.  Jason is a really happy, friendly boy.  At just over a year old, he's walking around like crazy and in to everything.  Mom let him play with her plastic bowls and he had quite a fun time - even putting them on his head like a hat.  He's not the least bit shy.  Even though he had rarely seen any of us, he was comfortable sitting on his great-grandpa's lap and sharing cereal and also playing with his Aunt Meme.  It's too bad we don't see them more often.  Here is the happy boy...

Jason Eugene Fuentes

Dallas World Aquarium

Mom & Dad's anniversary was actually on Labor Day weekend and since I had Monday off, Joe and I had a couple of days together.  We decided to take advantage of the time by spending a day at the Dallas World Aquarium.  It was pretty packed since it was a holiday weekend, but we still had a good time.  They have a rainforest there and a lot of interesting animals.  The aquarium part is divided by area and is really good, but I actually enjoy the rainforest part more.  On the way out, they have a leopard, flamingos, and penguins.  Overall, it was a fun time.  Even with all the people!

Dallas World Aquarium

Leafy Seahorse - I LOVE these guys!

Leopard

 

After the aquarium, we stopped at a new Triple D place - Maple & Motor.  We both had burgers and they were pretty darn good.  I liked the tater tots, too, and they had some unique pop in the machine. 

I love this sign.  Hahaha!!!!

Maple & Motor

 Ahhhhhh....I miss our weekends.....

This and That...

Our first order of business upon returning from Maine was to dog-sit Oreo.  He just loves Joey.  On Saturday morning after Joe left, he just sat on the bed and whined and whined.  It was too funny for me not to try to capture on video.  Although, he must be a little camera shy because he wasn't whining near as much after I turned it on!

Later in the month, I went to the twins birthday party.  Amy and Whitney hosted a pool party at their house again.  I didn't swim, but I did visit with the boys and their friends.  And, of course, I had some cake!!!  After the party, I met Joe at home and we went to the Aerosmith concert.  Yes, every so often we decide to go to a concert.  Joe's admin had gotten a suite at the AAC and invited us to go.  And since Joe had never seen Aerosmith before, he really wanted to go.  We didn't get as drunk as the rest of the crowd, but we did enjoy the concert.  I tried to take a few pictures with my phone, but they didn't really turn out too well.

In mid-August, Samantha came to visit us.  We had given her a Cavender's gift card for Christmas last year and she came to town to spend it.  She was only here during the week, so we didn't really do anything.  We let her borrow Daisy to do her shopping and she was pretty happy about that.  And, when her shopping was done, she went home.

At the end of August, Joe took a Saturday off and we went to visit his mom in Campus.  I don't recall there being a particular reason for going other than we hadn't been there for a while.  And, it's always nice to see family.

September 1st brought my parents 57th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated at - you guessed it - Babe's.  Hard to imagine being married that long, but my hat is off to them.  And, of course, as their daughter, I'm pretty glad they made it!!

Maine

Our 9th Anniversary trip would take us to the Northeast.  We had originally thought we would spend our time in and around Boston (the city we flew to), but we eventually decided we would take the opportunity to go north to Maine.  We had barely gone to Maine in 2007 and we were excited for a more in-depth look.  It was a great week in a beautiful state.  Here's my travel journal and a few pictures:

7/14/2012 - "Traveling is much easier with a REAL ticket"

I've probably mentioned this before (several times), but we got married in July so that Joe's niece could attend our wedding.  That was very nice of us, yes?  But, it does make traveling on our anniversary challenging.  We've been lucky so far.  Last year (you might recall), we bought cheap tickets to San Francisco.  This year, we did the same.  JetBlue is the airline we have to thank this year.  They started BOS-DFW service and offered some good deals.  AA matched, and here we are.

I wonder sometimes why Joe and I never finish our "To-Do" lists for any place we travel to.  I'm slowing getting it.  The one reason I always realized and blamed for everything was, A) We like to sleep late and never get started before mid-morning.  But now, I realize there is much, much more... 

B) We get lost a lot and seem to go on wild goose chases.

We arrived in Boston after a totally non-eventful flight and retrieved our checked bag before making it to the car rental without event.  But, heading north from Boston, we took a wrong turn.  This WITH a GPS, I might add.  Although in our defense, we decided to take a more indirect route than the GPS would have taken us because it was closer to the coast and we thought it might be a prettier drive.  But then we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up a bit off course.  To be exact, we ended up in Marblehead, Massachusetts.  It is a lovely town where I imagine the rich and famous of Boston have their weekend cottages.  It was not on our to-do list.

After our detour, we made it to our first destination 3 hours after our flight had landed - about 2:00 or 2:30 - Bob's Clam Hut in Kittery, Maine (according to Mapquest, it is 57.48 miles from Logan Airport).  On day one, we were already approximately one hour and fifty minutes behind schedule.

Now then...about Bob's Clam Hut.  There are 5 places in Maine that have been featured on Diner's, Drive-Ins, and Dives and this was one of them.  It's a fun place.  All outdoor seating - walk up to the counter and order and they call your number when it's ready.  You pick up your food at the window.  Atmosphere gets a solid two thumbs up, but we were pretty disappointed in the food.  Joe had a fried seafood platter with clams, scallops and haddock.  I had a lobster roll.  This and 2 lemonades cost us close to $50.  We ate and 2 hours later we were hungry!  Granted, perhaps they were "normal" portions and Joe and I have "abnormal" appetites, but still.  The clams were whole and I did learn that I prefer just the strips.  Overall, we found it disappointing.

 

Our next stop was York, where we visited the Old York Historical Society.  The Museums of Old York are said to represent 4 centuries of life in the coastal village.  There are several buildings generally open to the public, although many were closed today because they are getting ready for an antiques show.  Since we were behind schedule (and only had an hour before they closed), we opted to visit only one – Old Gaol (pronounced “jail”).  We learned about crime and punishment in the 18^th century and saw how the “Gaolers” lived.  It was pretty interesting, but darn hot in there!!!  

Joe was captured at the Old Gaol

Warehouse once owned by John Hancock

Even though we couldn't go in - we visited the rest of the buildings.  And, of course, we got lost again.  Of interest to me was a warehouse that had been owned by John Hancock.  We had to circle twice to find it.  Not far from that was the Elizabeth Perkins house (no, not the actress).  We also passed it on our first try.  Sigh....  Nonetheless, we checked the Old York Historical Society off our list.  Success!!!

 

"Cigar Store Indian" at the Elizabeth Perkins House

Next on our list was Brown's Old-Fashioned Ice Cream near the Cape Neddick Light.  We had seen the lighthouse on our 1st trip to Maine in 2007.  At that time, we merely drove in to Ogunquit, Maine, had lobster, and left.  On the way to Ogunquit, we happened to see this very picturesque lighthouse and stopped for a photo op.  Also, on the way we passed York Beach.  On our first trip, it was completely deserted (since it was October and I was wearing flannel). This time, it was completely packed!!!  Looks like a fairly nice beach, but we didn't test the water.  Back to the ice cream - I think I must have had a kiddie cup and Joe had a Strawberry Shortcake Sundae.  Needless to say, his ice cream was about 10 times the size of mine.  I had a "Maine Modern Family" but in all honesty, I can't even remember what they told me was in it.  I think it had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Toll House Cookies in it, but I'm not for sure.  I just know it was very good!!!  I helped Joe a little with his sundae and we went from being hungry to being STUFFED!

By now, it was after 5:00, and we were fading.  It was probably a combination of the sugar high wearing off, the jetlag, and our early rising.  I forgot to mention that our flight left at 6:25 and that meant a 4:30 wake-up!  We headed to our first hotel, the Hampton Inn at the Portland Airport.  I'm not sure what was going on in Portland, but I had one heck of a time finding a hotel!!!  I finally settled on this one and it turned out to be fine.  Believe it or not, about 7:00 we decided to have dinner.  Becky's Diner was our 2nd Triple D stop and it was really good.  I went in thinking we would have clam chowder and share an entree, but Joe had a different idea.  I ended up ordering shrimp alfredo, which I barely ate.  It was good, but it was nothing compared to Joe's stuffed, baked lobster.  O. M. G.  That was soooooo good!!!!  One of the best meals I ever tasted.  Ever!!!

 

Back at the hotel, we were stuff and tired.  And so we slept.  And slept.  And slept.  Almost 12 hours.  And that put us behind on our to-do list for Day 2!

Unaccomplished on Day 1:  Marginal Way walk in Ogunquit.

7/15/2012 – “A day in Portland…”

C) When the guidebook says to allow a certain amount of time, we should at least double it. 

Our first stop was another wild goose chase.  Somewhere I had read about the “Two Lights” Lighthouse.  On a Facebook “quiz” on 100 places you should see, the Portland Head Light was listed.  But, believe it or not, I had trouble finding much information about it in the guidebooks.  I saw “Two Lights” on a map and I wasn’t exactly sure which was which, or what was what, so I put them both on my list.  As it turns out, “Two Lights” is not accessible to the public.  The Lobster Shack on the beach nearby is (which I had also read about), but the lighthouse itself is not.  Since we had just eaten breakfast, we opted not to eat more lobster.  I took a picture of the lighthouse – one of them anyway.  There are actually two, but the other one was up a residential hill marked “Private” so that was that.

From there, we went south to the very accessible and easy to find, Portland Head Light.  We took a short tour of the museum there and walked the trail for a view of Portland Harbor.  You cannot go in to this lighthouse, but we walked around and enjoyed the cool-ish breeze off the Atlantic Ocean.  The setting is really beautiful and we learned that this lighthouse was actually commissioned by George Washington!

Hungry again, we headed toward downtown Portland.  I tried to use a map instead of the GPS.  Not sure how much time we lost there, but I thought it was only fair to mention it.

Lunch was at our 3^rd Triple D – The Porthole Restaurant.  We opted, again, for the lobster roll (Joe) and the fish and chips (me).  We were pretty hungry since we had only had the free continental breakfast at the Hampton, so Joe also ordered some poutine.  This is a Canadian dish of French Fries with brown gravy and cheese curds.  We should be from Wisconsin because we LOVE the cheese curds!!!  This restaurant gets a solid “OK” from Joe and me.  It was good, but I am not dying to go back and have another.  Although, if I did, I think I would try the breakfast!

We strongly debated what to do with the rest of our time in Portland.  There were a few sites that received mention in the books, but the one thing that consistently received very high marks was the Portland Museum of Art.  Now, Joe and I are not big connoisseurs of art, but somehow, I just couldn’t resist.  We arrived a little after 3:00.  The museum closed at 5:00, but no problem – AAA said we needed an hour.  Yes, you can guess…  They almost had to kick us out.  As a result, everything else that was on our to-do list for the day was closed.  We walked by the Victoria Mansion and the Longfellow House, but that was about it.  We didn’t even try to go to the Portland Observatory, we couldn’t find the Mariner’s Church, and we opted out of a boat tour.  Our showing in Portland was weak to say the least.

With our heads bowed in defeat, we headed north to our first B & B of the trip, The James Place Inn in Freeport.  Freeport and Kittery are both widely known for their outlet shopping.  In Freeport, they are particularly known for being the headquarters of L.L. Bean.  And, there are four, huge, stores in town to prove it.  We are not big shoppers and this is a good thing.  Otherwise, we would still be in Kittery!!!

The James Place Inn was quite nice.  Our hosts were Robin and Tori and they were wonderful.  We stayed in the Pine Room, which is quite lovely and has a real wood-burning fireplace and a private porch.  It is unseasonably warm right now, so the fireplace got no use (in fact, we turned on the a/c), but we did enjoy the porch.  The bathroom was tiny.  A little challenging to shave my legs, but we enjoyed the room quite a bit.

Dinner was at a pub – Gritty McDuff’s.  We weren’t terribly hungry, so we shared a plate of nachos with pulled pork.  Quite tasty, but we could have done without the hair that was baked in to the cheese at the bottom of the pile.  We also tried a couple of their brews, but found them to be quite bitter.  Perhaps that was appropriate after our day in Portland.

Unaccomplished on Day 2:  Most of Portland and I forgot to note the Desert of Maine in Freeport.  I realized we missed that about 2 days later.

7/16/2012 – “North to Canada???”

D) We sometimes fail to check the schedules of places we want to visit and/or arrive at an undesirable time.

Breakfast at James Place Inn was quite tasty.  First there was fruit with yogurt (which would find to be a Maine staple) and granola if you wanted some.  The hot entrées were Cinnamon Bread French Toast made from home baked bread and a Frittata with local vegetables.  Both served with bacon and both were delicious.  And cooked by Robin, I might add.  Tori helped serve. 

Since breakfast was served between 8:00 and 9:00, we were up a little earlier than usual (yea, us!!!).  We decided to have a quick look at the L.L. Bean extravaganza (it’s open 24 hours, so no problem!!).  We perused through the clothes store, but we did skip the kayaks, bike, etc. store and we also skipped the housewares since we had no good way to transport anything like that home.  We didn’t buy anything, but we were able to check it off our to-do list!!!  What a great start to the day!!!  Robin was quite chatty, but interesting.  We had noticed that all of the stores were in houses, so we asked about that.  He said that the CEO of Cole Haan shoes had bought most of the property and a city ordinance prevented stores from changing the appearance of the houses.  Furthermore, there is a restriction on the size of the signs that they can put up.  Even McDonald’s had to observe these rules – the only Mickey D’s I’ve ever seen without the huge golden arches.  I really liked this little town.  Even though we saw most of what we went to see, I would definitely go back.  Especially if I ever get skinny – because then I could do some serious shopping.

From Freeport, we headed north.  I decided we would take an interior route north, stopping in both Augusta and Bangor.  On the way back to Boston, we will drive down the coast.  Our stops in Augusta were to be a photo op at the State Capitol Building and a quick tour of the Maine History Museum.  Only, on the way to Augusta, I happened to read that the Maine History Museum is closed on Monday.  And let’s see….yep….today is MONDAY!  Drats.  That also killed our next Triple D, which was in Gardiner, just south of Augusta.  Since Augusta is only 40 miles away, we weren’t the least bit hungry.

So…on to Bangor!!!  There were two sites on the list in Bangor – the giant Paul Bunyan statue and a drive-by of Stephen King’s house.  The guidebook also mentioned a Stephen King tour, but they only do them once a month and today wasn’t the day (and, for a change, we knew this before we arrived).  Paul Bunyan was sitting amid a ton of construction and so we missed him.  In fact, we had lunch at McDonald’s almost next door to him, but still missed him.  Stephen King’s house was easier – I had found the address online and we popped the address in the GPS.  Pretty cool!!!

 

 

From Bangor we continued north.  I had tried to make reservations in Calais, Maine, but nothing doing.  I had tried a couple of B & B’s with no luck, but one of them recommended a place just across the border in to Canada in St. Stephen.  So, we headed across the national bridge.  It was kind of weird to have to remember to take our passports on a US trip, but we did, and we had no problem finding our way to the Blair House.  We were in Bedroom #5 – the St. Croix Room, which is named for the river that forms the international border.  We found the room to be quite comfortable and David (our host) to be very helpful and kind.

We decided to walk down the hill to the river for dinner.  There was a pizza place down there, Pizza Delight, that is a chain in Canada, but it was pretty good and we sat outside and enjoyed the cool evening before walking back to our B & B.

Unaccomplished on Day 3:  Maine State Museum and the Triple D in Gardiner.  Sigh…

7/17/2012 – “From Canada to Bar Harbor”

Day 4 was actually a pretty good day, I must say!!!  But, in actuality, we got a little help by the lack of sites between Calais and our ultimate destination – Acadia National Park – in Bar Harbor.

E)  I don’t plan for detours that Joe decides on.  I’m the planner, while Joe is more likely to wing-it.  If he sees something he wants to do, the planner gets derailed.

When you check-in at the Blair House, you tell David what time you want to have breakfast.  I think it’s offered every 30 minutes between 7:30 and 8:30 (or there may just be 2 sittings).  We had a wonderful breakfast with a nice couple from Nova Scotia.  Then, after breakfast, we headed back in to the states and down to St. Croix International Historic Site.  St. Croix is the only International Historic Site and part of the reason that we opted to drive this far north.  It was cloudy and damp when we arrived at the site, but it did not rain.  The island is where in the winter of 1604-1605, a French expedition was iced in by freezing temperatures and cut off from fresh water and game.  They had chosen the island because they felt it was defensible and had no idea what winter would bring.  Unfortunately, 35 of the 79 men died.  The park is small, with just an interpretive trail featuring bronze statues of the French settlers and the Passamaquoddy people that ultimately ended up helping the settlers by trading bread for game in the spring.  You can’t visit the actual island, but at the end of the interpretive trail, you can get a great view of it.  It was kind of a long drive for a small site, but for the record, we checked it off our list.

St. Croix Island

Our next stop would be Campobello Island – which is also technically in Canada.  This is where FDR and his family spent their summers.  Campobello is only about 45 miles from St. Croix Island IHP, so we arrived in the morning.

It was still a little damp-ish when we arrived, but we would eventually get some sun before we caught back up with the clouds and rain in Bar Harbor.  We learned a bit about FDR’s life on Campobello at a museum there before we toured the cottage.  The cottage was super interesting with a lot of original furniture and a lot of pictures of the family when they lived there.  I was a bit confused as to why it’s called a cottage since there are 34 rooms, but it certainly looked like a wonderful place to spend summer!  The 3rd floor was not open, but we were able to visit the lower 2, which included bedrooms and living areas.  Included in the bedrooms were lots of servant’s quarters, which I found interesting (you know – to see how the other half lives).  The grounds are just beautiful, too. 

 

After touring the house, we walked over for a visit of the Hubbard Cottage.  This was a quite beautiful home as well.  It was complete with a piano and a billiard table, and a living room that looked like you couldn’t walk in it for fear of messing something up.  The most stunning feature, however, was a large oval window that looked out the back of the house to the water.  It was just stunning, with an incredible view. 

After the cottage, Joe decided we should take a short hike.  This was the thing that was not on the itinerary, but I decided to be a good wife and oblige.  We did the Friar’s Head trail, which leaves from the visitor center parking lot.  It’s only supposed to be 0.6 miles and might have been, but we were never able to see Friar’s Head.  Apparently, the tide was coming in and there is a short window of time when you can actually see the formation. 

After our hike, we drove further in to the island and saw the Mulholland Point Lighthouse, which overlooks the town of Lubec, Maine.  We would go to Lubec after we left Campobello because Lubec is the home of the West Quoddy Light Head.  But, back on Campobello, after seeing the lighthouse, we decided to make our way back to the states (sounds so dramatic, doesn’t it?).  As we were driving, we noticed that in the distance, we could see Friar’s Head, after all.  It was a long way away, but with the super-zoom lens, I was able to capture a couple of shots.  Not quite the same as seeing it up close, but nonetheless, we can say we saw it.

 

The West Quoddy Light Head was our next stop and owns the distinction of being the farthest EAST you can drive in the United States.  It was quite foggy while we were there, but we quite enjoyed this fun stop (we always love the farthest, the biggest, the tallest, … anything!).  This lighthouse is also not accessible, but we got our photo op and hit the road again.

After all that fun, we headed south along the coast to our next destination – Bar Harbor.  We had a bit of a challenge finding our B & B, the Inn at Bay Ledge, because even though we put the address in the GPS, it wasn’t exactly right (not sure which – the address or the GPS).  However, we did find it and after settling in to the Bear Cottage, we went in to Bar Harbor to get the lay of the land and find some dinner.  Bar Harbor is quite a busy, busy town.  We ended up at a pizza place that smelled so good when we drove by that we couldn’t resist stopping.  And it was quite good. 

We escaped being rained on during our short adventure to Bar Harbor, but heard it raining overnight.

Unaccomplished on Day 4:  Surprisingly, nothing really.  Yea!!!!  (Although I had planned on starting Acadia on this day, so that was pushed back to Day 5, and we had contemplated making our way back to Augusta to that Maine History Museum and that didn’t happen either.)

7/18/2012 – “A full day at Acadia National Park”

The Inn at Bay Ledge is quite a beautiful B & B in a gorgeous location.  We opted for a cabin across the street (so we did not have a view of Frenchman’s Bay) because it was cheaper and we just don’t spend enough time in our room to justify spending a lot of money.  Nonetheless, we absolutely loved it.  I loved our little cabin room, even though the bathroom was quite tiny.  The bed was king sized and oh so comfortable.  Breakfast is served between 8 and 9 and is quite fancy.  We walked across the street and found a lovely table overlooking the bay.  It is just a beautiful setting.

After breakfast, we headed in to Acadia National Park to begin our visit.  After the rains overnight, we were greeted with a rather nice day (although the next day would be absolutely spectacular!).  Our first stop was the visitor center for our annual pass and entrance to the park.  We also watched a short film about Acadia and explored the rest of the visitor center.  I should tell you that when we returned to the car, we were met by a friend.  We have not had problems with bugs, but inside the car was a ginormous mosquito!!!  Joe ended its life, but when he did, he deposited a surprisingly large amount of blood on Joe’s shorts.  Fortunately, we had some Shout wipes with us, so we were able to pretty much clean it up, but it was quite a site (sorry, I didn't think to take a picture!  Drats!).

From Mom & Dad’s Scenic Drive book, I had copied a drive with the major sites that Acadia National Park has to offer.  Armed with the GPS, the map from the visitor center, and our sense of adventure, we entered the park.  The East Side of Mount Desert Island is dominated by the Park Loop Road.  The part of the road along the far east of the island is one-way and is where a majority of the sites reside.  We headed that way, making our way, first, to the top of Cadillac Mountain.  Cadillac Mountain is the highest point on the Atlantic Coast at just 1,527-feet.  The road to the top winds around a bit, but it is quite interesting up there with its rounded rock dome.  A short loop trail takes you to the very top, where you can look down to the water and to the town of Bar Harbor.

Self-portrait from the top of Cadillac Mountain

We made our way back to the Park Loop Road where we made stops at Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and Otter Point.  We even walked the trail from Otter Point up to Otter Cliff.  It was a really nice walk and if we had a week just for the park, we would for sure have walked all the way to Sand Beach (or it would have been on the to-do list at least)!!  As the road turns back north, the one-way traffic ends and it is two-way again.  Our next stop would be Jordan Pond House.  This is famous for tea and popovers on the lawn; however, we were hungry, so we opted for lunch and popovers in the restaurant.  The food was actually quite good.  It was a bit expensive, but quite good.  After our lunch we walked the Jordan Pond Nature Trail over to the actual Jordan Pond and it was really pretty as well.

A little bee joined us for lunch.

Jordan Pond is actually quite beautiful.  Not just a place for popovers!

We made our way over to the west side of Mount Desert Island in the afternoon.  While the scenery was lovely and the drive was relaxing, the highlight was the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.  It's actually an often photographed site from Acadia; although we didn’t realize this until we saw it (then we recognized it).  We walked to the east side to get the “famous” view, and then walked to the west side where you walk right up to the lighthouse.

Our final stop would be back to Cadillac Mountain for sunset.  Joe love, love, loves a sunset and Cadillac Mountain is famous for them (also famous for their sunrise since it is the spot where you can first see the sun as it hits the US – another possible addition to our to-do list).  There were quite a few clouds, so it wasn’t a great sunset.  Furthermore, it was quite chilly, so I tried to stay in the car, but kept getting my view blocked.  One rather large man with Ohio license plates and a huge plumber’s crack leaned over with ass right in my way.  For his effort, I took his picture and make loads of fun of him (shame on me, I know!).

Please - for the love of God - don't make me look at this!

That concluded our first look at Acadia.  I won’t even talk about what went unaccomplished any more.  At this point, it’s probably safe to say that we managed to get half of our itinerary completed.  Ha!!!

7/19/2012 – “Happy 9th!!”

After another scrumptious breakfast at the Inn at Bay Ledge (where Jenna Bush and Henry Hagar stayed when they got engaged, by the way), we headed back to Acadia for a carriage ride.  I had originally planned that we would do this yesterday, but they were full and so instead of heading down the coast, we headed back to the park.  We opted for the 2-hour Rockefeller Bridges Tour.  John D. Rockefeller built these roads in the early 20th century for carriages and sprinkled along the roads are magnificent handmade granite bridges.  The tour was really interesting – we learned quite a bit of history of the roads and the Rockefeller’s, who were instrumental in the establishment of many of our national parks.  The day was absolutely spectacular as well.  If ever we make our way back to Acadia, I think it would be a wonderful experience to hike or bike these roads.  ANOTHER future to-do!!!

Our chariot awaits...

 

The girls

After our ride, we headed back to Bar Harbor for lunch.  We stopped at an Irish Pub called Paddy’s that was on the street that looked out to the harbor.  It was a little fancier than most Irish pubs we have visited, but the food was pretty good and it served the purpose!

After lunch, we headed straight to our next destination, which was Camden.  As I mentioned before, I had originally planned to arrive at Acadia on the afternoon of the 17th and finish up on the 18th .  Then today would have been dedicated to driving the 1st half of the Maine coast.  BUT…as we know, that didn’t happen.  In order to get to the B & B in time to check-in, we headed straight there.

Our B & B was the Windward House in Camden.  Our hosts were a family that had relocated to Maine from New York.  They have 3 kids and even though it sounded like they were very successful (financially) in New York, they decided that wasn’t the kind of life they wanted for their children.  I have to admit, that’s a really admirable thing to do.  Our room was the Windrose Suite and we quite enjoyed the room and the B & B.

After checking in, we headed back up the coast and down to Stonington.  I guess now is where I would admit that if I had a month, I would love to explore the towns and the nooks and crannies of the Maine coast and Penobscot Bay.  The scenery is beautiful and the towns are quaint.  I would really, really, really love to be there for the blueberry harvest some time as well, which I believe we were about a month too early for.  We had the BEST blueberry pie in Maine on our first visit down in Ogunquit in 2007.  And, I’ve seen pictures of the blueberry fields before the harvest and it just looks so beautiful (and yummy). 

After that realization, we made our way back to our B & B, where we dreamed of retirement, or even better, winning the lottery.

7/20/2012 – “The Other Coast Highway”

The Windward House is one of the very few (only the 2nd we have found so far) to offer a menu for breakfast.  I, of course, opted for the French Toast – my favorite breakfast.  Joe had a more traditional breakfast with eggs, bacon, and toast.

With our tummies full, we continued our journey down the coast.  We were back on track now, having given up on the things we missed further north.  But, of course, we would – again – find that the time allotted was insufficient to see everything we wanted to see. 

We made three stops on our way back to Boston.  First, we stopped in Port Clyde.  The guidebooks raved about this little town, but the thing that we found when we got there was Marshall Point Lighthouse.  The books never mentioned the lighthouse, but we saw a sign, so we decided to check it out.  The museum was closed, but we got out and walked around a bit.  At some point, Joe realized that it looked a lot like the lighthouse in Forrest Gump.  Port Clyde isn’t exactly a metropolitan area, so my cell phone reception was pretty limited.  But, shortly after we drove away, I was able to look it up.  Sure enough, Marshall Point Lighthouse IS the Forrest Gump lighthouse.  Joe was a little disappointed that we didn’t get a picture of him running up to it, stopping, and turning around.

Our second stop was Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.  This lighthouse is one of the few that you can actually climb the staircase to the top of.  The area around the lighthouse is quite interesting.  It’s rocky and jagged and different from any landscape we’ve ever seen before.

Our third stop was our last Triple D on this trip – the Maine Diner.  Holy Cow, did we love this place!!!  They have a pretty extensive menu and (again) if I ever went back and spent some time in this area, I think I would really like to try the breakfast.  And then after that, I would eat dinner again!!!  I was completely jonesing for the lobster mac & cheese and it was delicious!!  Joe had the Triple D, which was the born from the TV show.  It was Seafood Chowder, Lobster Pie, and Codfish Cake.  The codfish was good, but the lobster pie was, in 3 words:  To. Die. For.  My mouth is watering, just talking about it!!!

 

After dinner, we headed to our final stop – back in Boston.  We opted to stay at the hotel at the airport.  Our flight would be in the afternoon of the next day and getting in to town on the subway and getting to our flight were both easy.

7/21/2012 – “Quack, Quack, Quack … All the way home!!!”

We traveled back in to Boston the next morning for our final “to-do” – a Boston Duck Tour.  The funny thing is that I have wanted to do this for a really long time, but I was pretty disappointed.  We didn’t really have time to do anything before hand, so we just hung around.  Then we went to catch our duck.  Our ConDUCKtor was Sargent Meatball and he just wasn’t that funny.  It was fun to be driving around town and then to cruise around the river, but overall, it was pretty disappointing.  Oh, well…  I guess you never know.  I wish now we would have done something else, but I suppose a Duck Tour was an inevitable.  However, we probably won’t be doing one again.

After our tour, we stopped at an Irish pub for lunch before heading back out to the airport for our flight.  We noticed that the 9/11 Memorial at Logan was just across the street from our hotel, so we walked over to it before heading to the terminal.  It’s a memorial to the 2 flights that departed Logan Airport that morning, AA Flight 11 and UA Flight 175.  These were the 2 planes that hit the World Trade Center Towers.  It was sobering, as always, to remember that day.

So, even though we failed at accomplishing everything we had hoped to do, we still had a great vacation.  We found Maine to be a beautiful state full of diverse scenery and we only saw part of it!!  And, since we didn’t get everything marked off our to-do list, we have many excuses to come back.