My first impression of New England is of Boston. We flew into Logan Airport in the early afternoon, claimed our baggage and rental car, keyed the address of our B &B into the GPS and headed out of Boston. I was excited to drive through the underground tunnels on our way out! It was scary to be enclosed in the tunnel and going interstate speeds! And of course, since the 90's, who can speed along through underground tunnels without visualizing Lady Di's crashed car? But it was still exciting, all apprehension aside! We navigated out way out of Boston and took the back roads along Hwy 1 toward Maine, avoiding all the Toll-Roads in hopes of avoiding traffic and getting a few glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean along the way! Mostly, we drove through quaint little New England towns with Cape Cod type houses and old Victorians. We drove for about 3 hours up the coast, making notes of towns that we wanted to come back to explore.... then decided to track back over to the interstate because we were getting tired of the drive and we wanted to GET there! We drove North through Mass, New Hampshire and FINALLY crossed over into Maine and navigated the narrow streets of Portland to find our Bed and Breakfast, Inn on Carleton.
The Inn on Carleton is an old Victorian Lady, heralding from the late 1890's or so. Steep stoop steps led to a double glass-paned front door and then we had a 2 flight climb of very steep stairs to reach our room on the third floor. We chose this room online, based on the pictures of the quaint bedroom with the clawfoot tub! The room was perfect and even better in person than the pictures! The color scheme was a restful navy blue and white; there was a fireplace (that we didn't need to use, but it added to the ambiance), a separate bath with a blue-tiled shower and the aforementioned clawfoot tub...and a cozy chair with ottoman and antique period furniture pieces completed the look. The bed was soft and comfortable and they even had white terry robes hanging at the ready for us! We ditched our luggage and freshened up a bit and then decided to set out to explore the town on foot and scope out the dinner scene.
We walked for what seemed like miles and miles and finally found our way down to the waterfront. We decided that seafood would be just the ticket for our first night in Maine.....so we found this dive of a place using Urban Spoon called "Jay's Oyster House" and there was a very, very, very long wait. We ordered drinks and stood beside the front door for about 30 minutes and we asked the waitress how much longer and she said, "At least an hour and a half." About that time, another waitress came up to us and said that a group of 2 ladies had offered to allow us to share their table with them if we didn't mind their company....and we literally jumped at the chance!! We were so tired and hungry!! The peanuts from the airplane were long-gone!! We said with the two nice ladies, one from Maine, the other from Boston....and over our dinner they pointed out all the local places that they would recommend. Steve ordered a bucket of steamed clams and a steamed lobster and I ordered a simple house salad and the appetizer plate of crab-stuffed mushrooms. I have never been a fan of seafood. But here lately, my tastes have completely changed. When Steve's bucket of clams came....I decided to throw caution to the wind and try one. They looked slimy, but they smelled divine! I watched him crack one open, pull out the meat, wash it in saline broth and dip it in clarified butter and I thought.....I'm going to DO this!!! I cracked my shell open, dug out the meat and cleaned and dipped it and my first bite was such a surprise!!! It didn't taste fishy at all....it was almost sweet! It tasted a little bit of the way sea water smells, but it was very rich and the texture was (pardon the cliché) just like chicken!! Not slimy at all!! I ate about 10 of them!!! They were so good!! What have I been missing all these years???? Next came my mushrooms, which were also delicious! (I have never really eaten crab before...so I was apprehensive!) But they were sooooo good!!! Then they brought Steve's giant bright red steamed lobster and he cracked one of the claws and gave me the lobster meat and I thought I had never tasted anything so good before!! I've tried lobster in the past and hated it....but this, THIS lobster was AMAZING!!! It was also sweet, slightly briny and very delicately flavored. Not fishy at all! Turned out, our dinner at this dive of a place on the pier was the best meal we had all week!! What a pleasant introduction to Maine! By the time we waddled back to our B &B (a 30 minute walk, mostly uphill from the waterfront!) we were fairly exhausted and ready for some sleep.
The second day of our adventure was Memorial Day. We went to breakfast at our B &B and met our hostess, Cindy.....I'm not quite sure how to describe her, other than the way my husband did (which doesn't sound very kind...but is spot-on accurate!) He said that she looked/acted like a Pekinese Puppy on steroids!! She was very slender, had severely cut, spiked short bleach blonde hair, huge eyes and had more energy than the rest of us put together! She talked non-stop and worried over us and pampered us and made us feel like royalty! We loved her right away! Breakfast was an amazing concoction of home made Greek style Yogurt with a homemade banana granola. Hippie-Breakfast heaven!!! I almost licked my bowl clean!!
With our bellies full, we set out on foot for a bright and sunny day of sight-seeing. We walked along the streets downtown and visited a graveyard that was established in 1638!! Because it was Memorial Day, all the Vetrans graves were marked with flags.....and we saw markers from the Civil War, Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, WWI and so forth. It was very moving.
We walked along the eastern side of town and made our way back down to the waterfront and found the terminal for the ferries and boat tours. We made it there just in time to purchase tickets for a harbor cruise and in less than 15 minutes, we were boarding our boat! I was thrilled that we found a great seat right in front on the top deck of the boat so I had the best picture-taking seat on the watercraft! I probably took 300 pictures during the 90 minute cruise! We saw 3 light houses, a fort and visited 3 small barrier islands, including Diamond Cove (a posh upper-scale resort area where they don't allow cars on the island - it's only accessible by boat!) The sun was bright and gleaming overhead and making the waves shine dance on the water's surface like sparkling diamonds! There was a breeze, but the sun kept us warm enough to enjoy the ride and we met a nice lady from Maine who was on her way to spend the holiday at Diamond Cove with her teenaged daughters. She also gave us tips on where to visit and local spots. Our ride back got cooler and windier and we went below deck to finish our ride back into port under shelter.
After our cruise, we visited Flatbread, a very "Hippie-Dippie" place where everything is organic and local...and tasted AMAZING! We were seated right beside the giant brick-ovens and got to watch the chefs making pizzas. It was a very good and tasty meal....the only thing is that we stood out a bit because we weren't wearing our 'boggins or sporting dreadlocks like most of the Earth-Mother wait-staff. I would highly recommend this place for excellent fresh food!
We walked around some more and decided to go back to our room to rest a bit and then set out in the car to find The Portland Head Lighthouse and then Two Lights State park and the local lobster place that 2 folks we'd met had bragged about "The Lobster Shack". We enjoyed our late afternoon drive out to the state parks and the Portland Head Lighthouse was breathtakingly beautiful!!! We walked all around the grounds of the lighthouse and then took the gravel trail along the shoreline.....which was separated from land by craggy rock outcroppings and cliffs. Steve talked me into climbing down a good ways and I while I was terrified of climbing down, I totally enjoyed the thrill of it once I made it down there! The wind in my face, the smell of the ocean, the sight of the lighthouse in the distance....and of course, the best photo-op of the afternoon! I'm so glad I took the risk and climbed down there!! This trip (and my entire LIFE now) is about taking all the risks I've been afraid to take before! I want to live life to it's fullest....drink life to the lees!!! Suck the marrow out of the bone and laugh at danger!! (Okay, controlled danger....but I'm still laughing!) :) There were families flying kites in the park and the sky was the bluest blue and the sun was warm on my face and I remember thinking, "This is just so good! I want to bottle up this moment and hold it in my heart forever!"
We left the Portland Light on Cape Elizabeth and made our way to Two Lights State Park....a mere 10 minutes away. There were two lighthouses here...and a rock-beach like I had never seen before!! The tide was out, so a lot of rock was exposed. We climbed down the rocks almost all the way to the water. It was really cool to inspect the tidal pools on the rocks...little pockets of marine life, swimming with critters and plants!! The yellow algae was really cool too! (But slippery!!) We stared out into the depths of the Atlantic, held each other close and just soaked up the beauty of the late afternoon sunshine. Holding hands, we jumped and laughed all the way back over the rocks and up the side of the bank to the Lobster Shack, which overlooks the ocean as well. We stood in line for only about 5 minutes and ordered our traditional Lobster Rolls, fries and coleslaw. We ate our feast picnic-style on umbrella-ed picnic tables overlooking the rocks and the ocean. The breeze was amazing (but we had to anchor our napkins to the table with our tea cups!) Best Lobster roll I ever ate! (Hahaha!! ONLY Lobster roll I ever ate because I never knew I liked Lobster!!) and it tasted sooooooo good!!!! :) The lobster was this pretty orange and white color and tasted so fresh and sweet! And was served with mayo and really good fresh fries and some amazing coleslaw that had some kind of apple in it! I don't know if all food just tastes better when you are on vacation and sitting, looking out at the ocean....but it probably does! Thoroughly enjoyed our beach picnic!
On Tuesday, we got up early and had a good breakfast at the B &B, then drove to the outskirts of Boston to a town called (I kid you not):Wonderland. We parked the car and took the train into town. We'd heard that parking was not only expensive, but a tactical nightmare and that traffic was always wicked gnarly in Boston....and the train station at Wonderland only charged $5 to park all day...plus we got the grand experience of riding on the train! Well, Boston's trains are cleaner than Chicago's El trains.....but dirtier than Japan's trains. We had no problem finding our way around the subways and trains. They were well marked and (gasp!) the signs were in English! Haha!!!
We exited the train station at Government Center and walked right out onto the famous Boston Freedom Trail....the walking tour of the historical events in Boston. We began our tour in front of the Mass. State House and followed the red brick trail along the park. We saw the cemetery where Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Mother Goose are all buried. We saw the King's Chapel where the Governor and the Revere's attended church. We saw the North Church where the light in the bell tower signed "One if by land, Two if by Sea" and we saw the site of the Boston Massacre, the site where much of the Revolutionary war was planned and drafts of the very documents that framed our country were penned. We saw the Irish pubs, the North Shore area where Italian bakeries and tattorias were plentiful and also where Paul Revere's home stood. We saw the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) in the Naval Yard and the Bunker Hill Monument. We saw the Cheers Bar (because "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name!") and we had our pictures made in front of it, singing the Cheers theme song. We walked across Boston Commons and saw the Swan boats on the lake and the weeping willow trees with their tendrils dipping into the water's edge. We ate lunch at a Pub and were serenaded by a group of older gentlemen who were drinking beer at noon on a Tuesday and singing the Canadian National Anthem. We walked until we thought our feet would fall off!!! Then we took the train back to Wonderland and drove to Salem, Mass to see the town made infamous by the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's.
Salem was a bit odd. A little history, a lot of creepy. We walked through the graveyard that dated back to the 1600's and saw graves of many of the women who were put to death as witches. We saw historical homes and monuments and we had dinner at a Rotisserie......we ordered rotisserie chicken and Boston Baked Beans, Green beans, Coleslaw and garlic mashed potatoes. The chicken was served with a butter-herb gravy and cranberry sauce (freshly made with real cranberries! No fake-jelly stuff!) and a square of sweet yellow cornbread. The gravy was oddly sweet (not bad, just odd for gravy) and the cornbread and cranberry sauce was sweet.....so I did the only logical thing and had a bit of the cornbread slathered with cranberry sauce as icing and pretended I had cake for dessert! :) We ate outside at a picnic table, overlooking the witches' museum and the graveyard. We thought about doing one of the walking "ghost tours" but there was only 1 operating (since we were off-season) and it didn't begin until 9pm and we were just too exhausted from walking all day to hang around for 3 more hours waiting on night-fall, as it was still a good 2 hour drive back up to our B &B in Portland, Maine. Plus, I'm not too into all the witch-craft stuff anyway.....it really does feel dark and creepy....and Steve feels the same way....so we weren't too heart-broken to pack back up in the car and head north on the Toll-Way. It is cool to have seen it and now I never need to go back again! Haha!!
On Wednesday, we woke up to the sound of rain. It was a gray and drizzly day. We decided to postpone our trip down the coast to the little beach towns and decided to go north instead to the town of Freeport, home of the LL Bean Flagship store. Turns out, there are tons of little outlet stores there....and we spent the entire morning browsing though shop after shop. The LL Bean flagship store was a sight to behold.....it sprawled out across 3 Walmart-sized stores: Fishing/Hunting, Camping, Outdoor sports, Water Sports, and then (my personal fave) the Home and Kitchen store. We walked through all the outdoor gear and I got to see the only Moose I saw while in Maine. It was only his head...and it was stuffed and hanging on their wall! It was still impressive. I can't imagine meeting up with one of these giant beasts out in the woods one day! They look so sweet, but I imagine they could do some major damage.
With all this shop-browsing, you'd think we'd have bought a ton of stuff.....I did buy some Maine Blueberry Tea at LL Bean Kitchen store (only because everything else there was exorbitantly expensive and not in my budget!!) (and wouldn't fit in the overhead bin on the plane right home! Haha!) I did manage to find a few t-shirts on sale at Old Navy. We drove back to Portland and decided that the rain had let up enough to brave a walk downtown to find the haberdashery that was closed when we were out walking on Sunday. We walked downtown with our umbrellas and actually found a hat for ME! It's a combination rain/sun hat in a smart Navy Blue! It's floppy and soft and can fold up into my purse. And it was just perfect for wearing back out in the afternoon drizzle!
On our way back to the B &B we stopped for lunch at another local/organic spot called Aurora's Provisions. They had all these really cool sandwiches made up.....I opted for the Paresian Street Sandwich (Turkey with Dijon and Provolone with cute tiny little green snappy Cornichon pickles!) and Steve got a Southwest Turkey on Multigrain bread and then we cut each sammie in half and shared so we both got to sample flavors! (We often do this with our meals...it's kindda fun!) We got baked chips and some organic brewed weird iced tea and with our tummies happy and full, we decided to go back to the hotel and take an afternoon nap. We were both still pretty worn out from all the walking the day before in Boston and Salem.
After our long nap, we were refreshed and ready to set out again. We decided that we wanted to go back down to the waterfront for dinner because I still hadn't tried the New England "Chowda" yet. We picked a placed called Gilbert's Chowder House and got the last available seat! It was pretty much another local dive of a place....small and crowded, but the reviews were good and once we got our food, I completely agreed! I tasted Steve's clam chowda and found that it's a lot like potato soup! It was creamy and good, but very rich. I opted for the Fish and Chips myself....and the fresh fish was so tender and mild and good that I managed to eat almost 2 entire pieces myself!! The slaw was good too....I don't generally eat many French fries, but the one or two I had were also quite tasty. Once we finished eating, a fog was settling in over the harbor and it looked spooky and eerie. I begged Steve to walk down to the ferry terminal so that I could take some boat-shoreline pictures in the mist and fog and he reluctantly agreed. The problem was the Rap and Hip Hop concert that was happening in the parking lot of the ferry terminal. There was a huge stage and lots of weird-looking music-scene teenagers hanging around, basically looking like skimpily clad prostitutes and thugs with their britches falling down).....all drinking what appeared to be Malt Liquor out of tall-boy cans in brown-paper bags. It was a bit unnerving to walk through that crowd! (Which is code for: MAN, I'm getting OLD!!!) The "music" was very, very loud and almost every other line dropped the F-Bomb or something equally offensive. My first thought was that I couldn't believe they would allow this type of performance in a public venue with children all around! We didn't spend long at the waterfront. I think I snapped about 5-6 pictures foggy pics, barley taking time to focus them..... and we got out of Dodge and headed back up the hill away from the waterfront....back to where the old folks like us were hanging out in blessed silence! :)
Our last day in New England dawned with a brilliant cerulean blue sky and happy sunshine that burned away the fog before 6am! We enjoyed our decadent breakfast at the B &B and headed out, sun hats on heads, sunglasses over sparkling eyes with big goofy smiles on our faces to check out the little beach towns along the Maine Coastline. First stop was Old Orchard Beach. They even had an old-timey amusement park right on the sand, complete with a Ferris Wheel and the whole nine yards! But it was early morning and nothing was open, save a Duncan Donuts....so I bought a Skinny Iced Caramel Latte and sipped it as we walked along the beach! We tried to walk out on the pier, but we got as far as the entrance and were asked to leave because the pier wasn't open yet either. It seems like beach towns don't wake up early......nothing opened until after 11am. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of sea gulls fishing in the rolling waves for a while, walked a bit on the sand and found a couple of seashells and then we decided to get back in the car and drive to the next little town. Our next stop was Kennebunkport. We parked the car in a public parking lot, and walked into the cute little town. We browsed in a few of the shops along the waterfront and decided on a Thai restaurant for lunch that was rated very highly on Urban Spoon. With our bellies full, we walked back through town and then got our car and drove out to Porpoise Point. Here we saw Lobster boats bringing in their traps/lobster pots and we saw another lighthouse. I still can't get over how rocky the beaches are! Well, there isn't any real amount of sand except for the areas where they have it trucked in. It's mostly just rocks right out into the ocean. We got back in the car and enjoyed looking at the quaint New England style houses along the water and the colorful Lobster floats and pots along the way.
Our next stop was in Ogunquit Beach. We found a parking spot and looked in several shops and then walked along a pretty flower-lined pathway between houses down to the actual beach area. This was by far the most crowded of any of the beaches we visited.....but the water must have still been very cool because most of the beach-goers were sunning while only the children braved wading into the surf. We did see quite a few sailboats out on the water. We left the beach area and found a really cool antique store and we browsed in there until it was time to check into our Southwest flight for the trip home the next day.....we always type in the information and then at the very first second we're able to check in, we both click to see how early in line we can be for boarding the plane! Our goal is to get in the A Group seating so we can have our pick of seats because I want a window seat!! We made the A-Group again, but just barely! I was number 60 and he was number 59, the last 2 passengers in the A-Group! We made our way back to the car and it was hot, sticky, sweaty and we were tired and it was pushing into late afternoon. We had done so much walking this week that we were both in hearty agreement that we would find the first McDonald's or Sonic we saw and get a large iced tea to revive our wilted countenances , then head back to the B &B for another afternoon rest.
Our last dinner in Portland was at a soul food place called "Hot Suppa!" which was in a brightly purple Victorian house downtown, but not very far from our B &B. It was highly rated and comfort food sounded pretty good. The outside of the house was painted purple...the inside was purple, bright orange, yellow, red, purple, green, black and just screamed "Mardi-Gras!" They were playing some funky jazz music over the speakers and the menu read like a Southern Pot luck dinner! Steve got Shrimp and Grits and I opted for pulled pork with baked beans and collard greens! Man, those were the best collard greens I've ever put in my mouth!!! I wanted to order a cocktail.....you know, because it sounded fancy. I ordered something called "The Apple Orchard." It was good, but way too strong for me. I took a few sips and Steve had to finish it for me. All in all, the meal was very enjoyable! I took my doggie-bag back to the room with us and feasted on Collard Greens again about 10pm that night as a bedtime snack!
The next morning, we got up early and got everything packed and ready to head to the airport. We enjoyed our last decadent breakfast at the B &B. I sure will miss that Greek Yogurt, homemade granola and fruit with scones every morning!! We made the drive on the Toll Pike from Portland, back through New Hampshire to Boston and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Getting through security was a breeze and then I bought a giant cup of iced coffee and found a rocking chair to sit and rock and watch the planes fly in/out. Our flight was on-time and we arrived back in Nashville in the early afternoon without incident.
It really is always so exciting and so much fun to go away on vacation, to see new cities, new sites and have adventures....but it's also always good to come home too. Some place you can call your own and where you can just be yourself with the one you love. Home Sweet Home! <3
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