Renaissance

I want to try and post a bit more on our blog, so I figure the most newsworthy event we do every week is Football Sundays. We gather our good food, good friends and sometimes good football. Today's meal is chablis ham, homemade bread and asparagus.  I also made a carmel banana cake.

trip to maine

Earlier today we got back from a twelve day trip to Maine.  The main reason for the trip was that two of our friends, Becky and Eddie, were getting married in Boothbay Harbor and we decided to take a week-plus off to travel around the state/region.  Fortunately we were joined for parts of the trip with the Manhoffs and Doug, plus the bookclubbers for the wedding.  Here are a few random thoughts and highlights:

Instead of going straight there, we took a few days, making a lot of stops.  It was just the two of us for this part of the trip, and it proved Clark Griswald's statement that getting there is half the fun.  Our stops included breakfast in Providence, RI; seeing Plymouth rock (although it was kind of disappointing); the witch museum in Salem, MA, which even I liked; a spur of the moment Red Sox game at Fenway that, luck have it, involved the Royals (and the boys in blue won!); and the beach in Gloucester, MA.

As usual, we ate well.  Really well.  Lelaine had eight lobsters or lobster rolls, and I even had a couple.  In the first three days we went to two Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives spots, yet a couple of other meals those days were even better - brunch at Nicks on Broadway in Providence and dinner at Fore Street in Portland, which was one of our favorite meals ever.  If you are going to Portland, go there.  Lelaine's Russian boar and my pork roasted on a spit were tremendous, the service was great, and the restaurant, particularly the open kitchen, looked very nice.

As usual, we, but mostly me, drank really well.  Mainers like craft beer.  Maine Beer Company was the best.

It was great to see the Manhoffs, who had moved to Texas earlier this year.  They were at a wedding in Cape Cod the weekend before Eddie and Becky's wedding, and they joined us in Portland on Monday, so we were with them most of the trip.  It was sad when we had to part ways, but they are visiting DC later this month, so that is good.

Early in the trip, Lelaine determined that New Englanders are "big into wieners."  She meant hot dogs.  I responded that that was probably a personal issue and might vary from person to person, and then brought it up approximately 746 times the rest of the trip.

Outside of being with friends, our favorite part of the trip were the days in Bar Harbor.  We hiked, biked, and kayaked across Acadia, Mount Desert Island, and some of the surrounding islands.  There is no chance we do not go back.  We also got to see my uncle Mac, who lives there.  He took us for popovers at Jordan Pond House and drove us around the island.  It was a very nice afternoon.  I definitely liked Portland, but if I could do it all over again, I would spend one less day in Portland and one more day in Bar Harbor.

Friday afternoon in Bar Harbor we split up and did things individually.  I went on a hike, including going up the Beehive, a short little 500 foot mountain.  While it isn't particularly tall, one of it's faces is relatively steep rock and has a lot of rungs and ladders with very steep cliff faces.  If you were doing this hike and smart, you would ascend that side and then descend on the south side, which is less steep and doesn't involve climbing down ladders.  But I had just gone up the mountain to the south of it and as I came off of Gorham and approached the Beehive trail, I went up the easy side and down the hard side.  While I didn't have any problems, I was happy to safely make it down and was pretty proud of myself...until, a couple minutes after getting down, I came across two old women in their 70s who could barely walk, one of whom told the other that she had done the Beehive at least ten times.  That made me feel silly that I was proud of myself.

Doug managed to befriend a variety of shuttle bus and trolly drivers on Mount Desert Island, and could now probably be a tour guide himself.

We consumed a lot of blueberry pancakes and a lot of ice cream.

We need to purchase a summer home in Maine.  We saw some amazing houses when we went on a sailing trip from Boothbay Harbor.  I will also take a boat.

Becky and Eddie had a really nice wedding and managed to fill it with details and activities specific to their likes and preferences, including softball, shots, and wearing silly props.  Even the singer of the band remarked about how the guests were entertaining them instead of vice versa.

Newport, Rhode Island, where we stopped for the night on the way back, is nice.  It would be even nicer if we had millions of dollars to fit in.  Even the people walking around in a t-shirt and shorts looked filthy rich.  A close second to Lelaine's wiener observation was Doug sarcastically noting the abundance of diversity in Newport.  Who would have guessed that a city built around mansions and yachting attracts mostly white folks.

We drove a total of 1,925 miles over 12 days.

Pics are here.