Sunday, June 26, 2011

We don't do what the tourists do

We did eat A LOT of lobster in Maine, but that was about the only "normal" thing we did as tourists, I think. The first lobster roll dinner we had was in Bass Harbor at an out of the way restaurant on the harbor watching the guys work that probably caught our dinner. Bass Harbor is a working harbor and Ketch Seafood is an outstanding place to eat if you are ever there. We met the owner who has been there for 26 years and he gave us a lot of out of the way places to check out. You have to talk to the locals! This blueberry beer and lobster roll dinner was probably my favorite meal of the trip. I left home with a list of places to eat and things to see and not one of them got done. We even missed the pop overs at the Jordan House which everyone said we HAD to do, just couldn't bring ourselves to do popovers, mostly because I really don't like them and mostly because they were like $18 or some ridiculous price! Sorry, I know we were supposed to do this....
This place might be another favorite. We brought no fancy clothes since we were camping so fancy restaurants were out of the question. We spotted this place on the way out of Boothbay harbor our last day in Maine and stopped for one more seafood fix. The FRESHEST seafood I think I have ever had and they cook it all to order, you just stand there and wait for them to call your name.
We got our lunch and took it over to the waterfront to eat. Wesley the vegetarian had just about had it with all the seafood we were eating, as you can see she is having a peanut butter bagel.
We also missed most of the hiking trails in the park. One morning we quickly rode around the loop drive in Acadia just to make sure we weren't missing anything, up to the top of Cadillac Mt. and then on to find secluded places. I grew up in a tourist town and Gerry grew up a preacher's kid, and well, Wesley grew up with us.... we all have an aversion to people when we are on vacation, we go to the most deserted places we can find. Like this overgrown trail, it led to a magnificent overlook where we laid down, read, had a nap, climbed the rocks, all by ourselves, like it was our very own beach. We found a few more of these trails in the park and had a great time exploring.
This was the most spur of the moment trip we have ever taken. Gerry spent several months planning a really great back packing trip out west to Colorado and Santa Fe for Wesley's graduation present.We bought her a new back pack, sleeping bag, and tent for the trip. What we didn't plan on was Mother Nature and her fury this year. Too much snow in the rockies for weenie backpackers and too many fires in New Mexico for those of us who want to live a few more years. So we picked Maine and planned almost nothing. I went to the library a week before the trip and at least got familiar with the geography. We were supposed to backpack in New Hampshire too but the rain did us in the first week, mama ain't happy when she is cold and wet. Been there done that, too old now! But it was great to look at the map and say "hey, let's go over here this looks cool". And that's pretty much how the whole trip went, we had no idea where we were half the time or what we were doing, we just stopped and talked to people and found things.
For instance, we read in one of the guide books that Schoodic Point is often overlooked by tourists, so our car sped quickly there and we were rewarded with more deserted shoreline and unbelievable freak of nature scenery. The harbors around Schoodic are so cool and we had a great time checking this place out, although there were no tourists to be found anywhere. Just us and a park ranger.
Our summer vacation included our fleece and gortex, it was pretty chilly a good bit of the time. Apparently we timed our trip just before the sun and the tourists hit Maine, late June is a great time to go to beat the crowds and the warm weather!
The first week of our trip was here in Acadia. The first night it rained an ungodly amount of rain. The humidity was so crazy, our tent turned into a terrarium and it literally RAINED inside our tent. Our tent, meaning me and Gerry, Wesley had the new North Face that she got for Christmas, the one with mesh walls that don't form buckets of condensation. She got to lay in her tent all night and hear her mom and dad swear a good bit, lucky girl!
The second week was here, in Boothbay, with dry walls and a lovely view of the harbor. Again, our timing was off, the day we left was the beginning of Windjammer Days, when crowds pour in to see the schooners in the harbor. Sorry to have missed that, but there is the crowd aversion that we suffer from.... oh well......
We were sitting on our nice little front porch when all of a sudden this WWII ship comes pulling in to the harbor, this was before we knew about the windjammer thing. It's a bit freaky to see a battleship come in to a quiet harbor, but sort of cool. The sailors were all on deck but sadly for Wes we left before all of those 18-20 year old boys that had been out at sea for awhile could come ashore, dang I hate that for her!
Somewhere along the way, our daughter turned into Hunter S. Thompson. Tonight she tells us that she has been at a recording session all day cutting a demo of a song she wrote in the room she stayed at when we were at Hollis' place. Who knew....... more later, let me know if you get bored with this, I'll try to keep it as interesting as I can :)

12 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

lobster rolls....not bored yet I love Maine....

Dennis Allen said...

Nope, not bored either.

Hollis Engley said...

Keep it up, Tracey. Like Meredith, I love Maine. And hate crowds. You did the right thing.

Laura Farrow said...

I'm enjoying this!

Tracey Broome said...

YAY! I'm not putting you to sleep :)
I would move to Maine in a minute except for the black fly stories!

Unknown said...

Love Maine and all things Maine, including your trip stories/photos. We head out to Schoodic every year too- it's so mystical in it's foggy isolation~ dreamy... Sounds like you need to upgrade your tent asap, girlfriend!!

Anna M. Branner said...

Keep it coming! :)

cindy shake said...

You have me sitting here wanting LOBSTER ROLLS with my morning tea!! Just showed my foodie-husband the pics.... mmmmmm we want to head EAST right now! what a great way to travel.

Michèle Hastings said...

yes, the black flies are bad... no spring to speak of and a very short summer! my daughters great grandfather lived in Boothbay Harbor when he retired from Lobstering. He started a welding business and nearly every large masted flagpole on the coast of Maine was created and erected by him... he worked at it until he 80 years old! must be that clean Maine air.
you are not boring me... instead bringing back memories of the past!

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Kathy, yeah the old North Face has seen better days, but we love that thing, it has taken us all over the place, it has never done anything like this condensation episode, we talked to others in the campground that were having the same problem. Anna, you got it! Cindy, we did not have one bad meal, all was amazing if you like seafood, Michele, I envy your daughter's grandfather living in Boothbay, I could totally live there, but it sounds like there are some trade offs for the scenery, dealing with nature and all that! My uncle lived on a sailboat for along time and he is 85, still sailing, still flying a plane he built himself, I say it's the salt air, keeps you young!

jakki said...

wow tracey! what an amazing looking holiday. i am so envious! it's so beautiful there and i am absolutely salivating over that lobster roll. it looks the bomb! AHHHH.... someday....

ang design said...

hmmmm fishy stuff....