Boothbay Mini-Moon, Part 2

I rescued my pictures from my camera! Now I can actually show you what we did and where we were all weekend.

The weather was gorgeous on Saturday and Sunday. Perfect blue skies with just little poofs of clouds here and there, lots of sun, and although it was windy and I was chilly, the 60 degree temps in Maine in April were a welcome surprise.

This is the Welch House where we stayed. Here's a view from the roof deck:

And here's from the window of our room (The Captain's Lady):

Saturday morning after our yummy (and my adventurous) breakfast, we took a walk down the hill into town to watch the morning's Fisherman's Festival activities. We'd missed the Cod Relays (yup--dressed up in fisherman regalia tossing giant fish at each other) but were able to get to the dock for Trap Hauling Contest. In this event, contestants ran down the dock, untied their boats and jumped in. The Skipper hauled that sucker out into the harbor where the contestants raced to find, bait and drop a few lobster traps and then haul ass back to the dock, tie up and run back up the dock. Fastest time wins. Our view wasn't great--we were on the next dock over and two boats were in between us--but we got the vibe. Especially when those lobster boats came full speed into the docks and the wake shook us around a little bit.

I didn't have sweatshirt with me and was getting a little cold, so we decided to walk back up the hill to the inn. We spent some time on the roof deck relaxing, reading and listening to more of the festivities. After a little while, we decided to walk around town again since there were a few other goings on. We did a little shopping, stopped by the craft fair and watched the crowd around the docks some more. Then we decided to take a drive. Stopping by the market, we grabbed some lunch, got some beverages and drove out of town to Ocean Point, a rocky coast on the opposite side of the harbor.

We ate our lunch and hiked along the rocks. It was windy, but really pretty and D took some great pictures. These shots are his--I was using our little point and click camera and it was so sunny, I couldn't even see the screen to know what I was taking a picture of. A photographer I am not.

We came back to town and took another walk around, this time stopping at Orne's Candy Store. This place is awesome. Everything is handmade and they've been in business for 125 years. We thoughtfully chose our favorites (I definitely bought two peanut butter cups because I certainly wasn't sharing one with D) and walked toward the shipyard. Supposedly there was to be a tour of a big sailboat and D was looking forward to it. However, when we got to the shipyard, not only was there no people around, there was no sailboat. Anywhere. Not even a little one. We suspect the boat just never made it. A bit of a bummer for D, but I was ok. I had chocolates.

Later that evening, we finally decided to go to dinner at Robinson's Wharf, a cute pub-style restaurant with seating on the dock (in the warmer weather) and a pub upstairs with a deck and live music. We stayed downstairs and grabbed a seat at the window so we could look out at the water (until it got too dark and all we saw were our reflections). I stopped being adventurous and ordered a burger and fried, but D was in his glory trying the lobster BLT. He described it as a lobster roll topped with a BLT sandwich for garnish. And he was very excited to have gotten two primary vacation food groups in one meal--lobster and bacon.

(See, I told you I wasn't an photographer.)

The next morning we awoke to another wonderful breakfast. This time is was blueberry pancakes the size of the plate and sausage, with good old fashioned New England maple syrup. They were fantastic, as expected. After, we took a brief walk around town, stopping to take some pictures. We walked down to the pier and I remembered that next time we visit Boothbay, it has to be during whale-watching season since they do great whale-sighting cruises out of the harbor. I'm sure my niece will give me a hard time though because she's wanted to come visit for years ever since she learned that I live somewhere close to where she can see whales.

We walked out on the dock and I actually did take one cool shot, so maybe I'm not that bad a photographer after all.

And then I had to share this one. It's a really big shop specializing in magical-dragon-fairy-rainbow stuff. It's hilarious. This tiny little coastal Maine town described by a local as "a drinking town with a fishing problem" can actually sustain this store:

For reals.

Later, we checked out of the inn, thanked Michael for the wonderful stay and hospitality and drove to Pemaquid Point, another rocky coast--this one boasting a lighthouse from the 1800s--a little further up from Ocean Point. It was a great day for a drive and again, D got a lot of great pictures. The lighthouse wasn't open, but we walked around the grounds and hiked the rocks, enjoying the late morning.

After basking the warm sun and chilly breeze, we decided to head back. I teased D about stopping at Subway for lunch. Unamused, I offered that we stop at Red's Eats, a very popular-- and it turns out very yummy--food stand right on the corner as Route 1 goes though the town of Wiscasset.

D had crab cakes and I just got chicken tenders, but the food was yummy. And the people where great. They run a very tight ship, but a great operation. Super friendly staff. It's just a little place, so all the seating was outside and I think part of why they were so busy was the beautiful weather. Everyone was taking advantage. When we sat down, I noticed a sign that listed probably 100 publications/TV broadcasts where Red's had been mentioned or featured. It was pretty impressive and not just limited to New England. Sure the Boston Globe and Phantom Gourmet had noticed Red's, but so had newspapers in Indiana and Alabama, the Food Network and even a PBS special from Pittsburgh. Pretty impressive.

So our mini-moon was a relaxing success and of course we'll be going back to the Boothbay Harbor. I didn't make D stop in Freeport to shop on the way home, but I'm thinking next time, I might just have to do that.

Boothbay Mini-Moon, Part 1

This weekend my husband and I took our mini-moon. And it was a great weekend.

Backing up, D & I tied the knot in September, but chose not to honeymoon right away. We’d planned to go to Lake Tahoe this month, but hadn’t made plans or reservations. We just knew we wanted more time to plan it out, save a few more bucks and do it right. We wanted to do an active vacation with possibly hiking, biking, kayaking and other fun, outdoor things. Unfortunately, when D got hurt in December, that wrecked any idea of planning since we couldn’t be sure he’d be well enough for that type of excursion.

Luckily, in mid February we got a postcard in the mail from the bed and breakfast we’d stayed at the weekend we got engaged. It offered a deal we couldn’t refuse, so we made the best of the situation and took our mini-honeymoon to Maine.

We drove to Boothbay Harbor on Friday afternoon. It was cloudy and drizzled at some points, but was an otherwise ok drive. Well, except for the lunch part of things. We’d left the house at noon and decided we’d stop for sandwiches at Subway somewhere along the way. I knew there was a Subway on the highway about 30 minutes from home, but wasn’t sure which exit. When I saw the sign on the highway, it was too late for D to switch lanes, and since it was so early in the trip we figured no big deal, we’ll see another one. We continued traveling on I-495, and then eventually I-95, and ultimately I-295. And wouldn’t you know there wasn’t a damn Subway anywhere? To be honest, we had gotten to the point where we didn’t really care if it was Subway or something else, but really, we drove for hours without seeing anything suitable for lunch. Finally, we got close to Freeport, ME, and I saw a sign for a Subway, a half mile from the exit to the right(ish) (it was one of those arrows that wasn’t actually pointing in a direction you can describe—halfway between right and straight, but the street didn’t have that many options). So D went that way, but I guess we picked the wrong right(ish) road, because we ended up driving through downtown Freeport.

Now, if you’re not familiar, Freeport is your typical small Maine town, except for the fact that it is home to L.L. Bean company headquarters and its massive outlet store, around which a village of outlets sprung up. Despite this, the town is still very cute and cozy (at least the parts I saw of it)—very Maine. D did ask me if I wanted to stop anywhere, but I resisted and we actually didn’t go into any stores. (My credit score is proud of me.) We eventually came across a Friendly’s and decided that was good enough, so we parked, grabbed a bite to eat (about 3 hours after we left the house), and resumed our trip (which was less than 45 minutes). Of course, on the way back, I was able to locate about 5 Subways.

We got to Boothbay Harbor and pulled into the parking lot at the Welch House Inn, a beautiful bed and breakfast with the most wonderful view of the Harbor. When we stayed a year and a half ago, our room was on the top floor, overlooking the roof deck that overlooked the Harbor. This year, our room (which was bigger) was just underneath the roof deck, but still had a great view. We checked in and got settled into our room. Then we took a quick walk down the hill for some beer, and started our vacation. We decided to unwind with a beer before figuring out where to go for dinner.

For the record, part of the reason we chose this weekend to visit Boothbay Harbor was the events planned for the weekend. The Fisherman’s Festival was taking place, which is basically a lot of hokey, fishing-related events that the locals get really excited for as one last hurrah before the busy summer tourist season kicks off. It’s sort of like the unofficial end of winter for them. So as we walked around town, we noticed a few businesses were opening for the first time for the season, while others were still closed up. And there were few people milling about on Friday night. This may be because they were all at the high school for the Miss Shrimp Pageant. Our decision to go to McSeagull’s for dinner was based in part because our deal at the inn included a $50 gift card for the restaurant and because we figured the locals would swamp the place after Saturday’s festival events.

We wandered down to McSeagull’s which is a good sized pub and restaurant catering to the beer drinking public specializing in local favorites—any kind of seafood, especially lobster. They had a live band that night and we got a seat right on the water (the restaurant is on a pier). The food was great. We ordered drinks and nachos; I had a pulled pork sandwich and D had “popcorn lobster” because he’d never had it before and was curious. For those of you who want to know, I renamed the dish lobster tenders because these suckers were huge. Big pieces of claw and knuckle meat, deep fried and served with French fries.

Now, I don’t eat seafood. I’ve tried different kinds on many different occasions, and I just can get past the fish-flavored aftertaste (yes, I know good fish doesn’t taste ‘fishy,’ but the general flavor of the ocean/seafood is too much for me) and oftentimes the texture. But I was feeling adventurous, so I asked D if I could have a bite. I tasted it, really waited for the flavors and can honestly say it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever had. It was, in fact, the best fresh seafood I’ve ever had. But I didn’t really like it. (D gave me points for trying, though.)

Saturday morning we woke up and were anxiously looking forward to our breakfast. The Welch House is known for two things—the gorgeous view of the water and their a-MAZE-ing breakfasts. They start with a wonderful spread of fresh fruits, pastries (Saturday was cranberry muffins), cereal, yogurt and their homemade granola that is so good and different. D and I call this spread the breakfast appetizers. As we sat on the deck enjoying the beautiful sunshine and warm weather, Michael, the husband part of the husband and wife owners, came over to offer us the day’s breakfast—quiche with crabmeat. Still feeling adventurous, I decided to give it a try. We joked with Michael that I didn’t have to finish it, but it was worth tasting.

Michael brought out our dishes and I must admit it looked very pretty with a little baby green garnish and finely chopped crabmeat you could barely tell it was in there. I took a bite and did ok, but noticed the seafood undertones much sooner than in the lobster tenders from the night before. But I couldn’t decide if I didn’t like it. So, yes, I had another bite. Ultimately, I decided it really wasn’t my thing, but I was proud of myself for testing the waters since that’s something I don’t normally do. I guess that’s part of growing up—I supposed that since I’m 30 I ought to at least try things I’m not sure about before I turn my nose up at them.

D was proud of me too, but I think he was also happy I didn’t eat my breakfast. Michael came over to check on us and asked if I was going to finished it or let D eat it. I told him it was ok, but I was going to give it to D. He thanked me for trying and D definitely finished every bite.

There’s definitely more to the story, but I think the Festival activities deserve their own post. And I have pictures that are currently being held captive by the camera, so I’ll stop here.