After Dad moved me in, we decided to take a little roadtrip and see a part of the country we'd never seen before. We ended up deciding to go to up the coast to see a bit of Maine, since neither of us had ever been.
We had absolutely no idea where to go or what to see, so we really threw caution to the wind on this one! We made our first reservation for Saturday night in Portland, ME, which is about two hours north of Boston. After we checked in to our Motel 6, we headed into town to find a place for dinner. Surprise, surprise, we ended up at an Irish pub, Bull Feeney's. Dad was able to get in another helping of fish and chips, and I decided to sample the local fare and order a Lobster Roll.
OK, so no offense to Maine or the Northeast or whatever, but I do not get the big deal about lobster. It's kind of gummy and chewy. AND, it is served COLD in a traditional Maine lobster roll, which magnifies its disgusting factor by about 100%. I'd rather have shrimp or scallops any day before I have lobster again.
We wandered around the streets a little bit to check out the town. The downtown part of Portland looked really nice to us on this first glance - full of cool-looking bars and tasty-looking restaurants. It was a Saturday night, so the cobblestone streets were packed with people (including two Bachelorette parties), despite the warnings clearly posted on every corner (see below).
We woke up in the morning and headed north on our way to Bar Harbor. We decided to take the more scenic coastal route, which took about 5 hours, but was worth it for all the views.
By mid-afternoon we were in Bar Harbor, ME, and it was worth the long drive. It's a darling town, very upscale, and definitely very touristy. But, after all, we were tourists so that was OK with us! After we checked in at our Inn (such an upgrade from Motel 6), we grabbed sandwiches at this amazing deli on the corner and took a 1 mile walk around the shore line. We finished our walk by sitting on a grassy hill overlooking the pier and just enjoying the sunshine and the breeze!
Bar Harbor Island
Squirrel on the shoreline path
We wandered the town, sampled some local blueberry ice cream (they are almost as in to blueberries up there as they are in to lobster!), and then headed to the pub for a pint (you're surprised? really?). That night we had dinner at a seafood grill on the pier, but it was so windy that I was afraid my camera would blow away if I brought it out!
Bar Harbor is surrounded by the Acadia National Park, which was apparently the first national park east of the Mississippi River. Armed with an audio CD tour from our hotel, we drove the 27-mile loop through the park. What we could see was beautiful, but unfortunately most of the vistas were fogged out. Our CD guide told us that we were lucky that we were fogged out - it was the true "down east" experience.
Dad at Sandy Beach. Yes, people were actually swimming!
From Bar Harbor, we headed back down to Portland for our final night in Maine. We stopped in Freeport on the way, which turned out to big a big outlet mall and the home of L.L. Bean. Dad was thrilled, as you can all imagine. I did get a fair amount of wandering out of him, though I only made one small purchase...
We checked back into our good old Motel 6 in Portland and headed into town to stroll in the early evening. Let's just say in the cold light of day, Portland didn't look so nice. In fact, it looked pretty junky. We looked at the menu of every restaurant, but nothing sounded good. We briefly considered Googling the nearest Outback Steakhouse before deciding to head back to Bull Feeney's. You'll be happy to know that I placed a better order this time (bacon-wrapped filet with garlic mashed potatoes) and Dad enjoyed something other than fish and chips (bangers and colcannon).
The next morning we packed up and headed back to Boston. We made one quick detour at Kennebunkport, which is probably where we should have spent our second night (in retrospect). It was a very promising looking little town that will go on the list for future excursions up north. I didn't get any pictures worth sharing, unfortunately, so you'll just have to take my word for it!
If you'd like to see more from our Maine trip, check out my Picasa album
here.
