Maine 2012

Last year I went to Maine in August to visit my friend who is going to P.A. school in Portland. She had a week break from school and so I flew over for a few days to hang out with her and explore the state. I'm not going to lie, it was a quick trip but it was a lot of fun (and much needed) and we actually did a lot with the small amount of time we had but yet still made sure to hang out and relax as well.

I  took the red-eye flight (I like those for flying back east because you can sleep through the night and then just get up and go) and flew into Boston because it is about $200 cheaper than flying into Portland. Melinda was nice enough to drive the two hours down to pick me up.

On our way back up to Maine we made a few stops along the way; lunch at Maine's Voted Best Restaurant and some cute port towns.

Surprisingly, the voted best restaurant in Maine in 2012 was a diner: The Maine Diner. I had clam chowder and a sandwich and Melinda had stuffed mushroom caps with crabmeat. I could have done without the sandwich but the chowder was amazing. We had a lot of of clam chowder on the trip but this place was by far my most favorite... so creamy! AND THE STUFFED MUSHROOM CAPS! Oh... my.... goodness... DELICIOUS! I'm still craving them. In fact, my mouth is watering just typing about them.
Link to Maine Diner Website

Kennebunkport
This port town has beautiful homes and is known for the Bush family "compound." It's a fun place to drive around.

One of my favorite homes we passed by

The Bush "Compound"

Old Port Harbor
This was such a cute port town; I loved it! A ferris wheel and amusement rides right on the beach, fun rustic pier and the water was surprisingly warm. We walked along the beach but didn't get into the water or stay on the beach; something for next time though. We did decided that we had to ride one of the amusement rides and we decided on the roller coaster. While we were waiting in line for the roller coaster there was a little girl in line right behind us and she ended up riding in the car right in front of us. The little girl was looking a little nervous so Melinda and I started joking around that it wasn't that big of a deal (truly believing what we were saying!) and then the first drop came and we both were screaming so loud and were actually a little terrified which eventually turned into fits of laughter. It was so fun but we were also exhausted from it too. Obviously we're getting old.

That night we made it to Portland and decided just to hang out for the night. So we went to dinner at this delicious pizza place, Otto Pizza, and then went to a movie. When we were trying to decide which movie to go to and we had narrowed down to two movies we wanted to see and so we just picked one. After our movie ended I looked up to see if the other movie had anymore start times that we could catch and it did! At a different theater! Who cares! We went for it. Our double hitter movie night was the perfect finale to a great first day!

The next morning we woke up and it was pouring rain. Like literal buckets were being poured. Our plan for the day was church and then drive up to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. We went to church (after two seconds in the rain we were so wet we looked like we had just gotten out of a pool with our church clothes on) and then decided to take naps to see if the rain would settle down before heading north.

On our way, we passed a random barn "yard sale" store. We got out to stretch our legs, look around and take some pictures and I'm glad we did. It was random but I feel like you have to take random stops on trips.

We made it to Acadia National Park Visitor Center in time to talk to the rangers. They were very helpful about hikes to do the next day and if they would recommend other things they thought we might like to do.
Acadia National Park Website

That night we walked around Bar Harbor and went to Stewman's for dinner where we had the "Lobster Experience!" - Clam Chowder, Muscles, Corn, Potatoes, LOBSTER, and fresh Blue Berry Pie. We literally started laughing when they put our food down in front of us and left before we could tell them that we didn't know how to actually eat lobster. Luckily our waiter came back and showed us how and what to crack and eat. We had a ton of laughs and finally figured out what we were doing; I actually liked the meat in the claws better than in the main body.

The next morning we got up early, FOUR A.M. EARLY, to hike Cadillac Mountain, in Acadia Park, and watch the sunrise. Supposedly you are one of the first in America to see the sunrise for the day from that point, so of course we had to do it! When we got up there it was super cloudy and when it got lighter, we realized the sun HAD risen. Bummer! We still claimed we saw the sun rise though.

The sunrise through the clouds

After the sunrise we drive the park loop. We stopped and hiked the Gorham Mountain Trail. This was about an hour long hike and probably on a moderate level. There were so many spider webs on the trail we decided by the end of the hike we could have auditioned for the movie "Entrapment" with Catherine Zeta Jones. Overall it was a beautiful hike and cool because we hiked up into the clouds and could hear the ocean on top of the cliffs but couldn't see it.

 The Nasty HUGE Spider we saw on our hike

 Melinda Listening to the Ocean in the Clouds

After the hike we continued on the the park loop and stopped at Thunder Rock where the water of the ocean would make a loud sucking noise as it pulled in and out from under the cliffs and it sounded like thunder... Thunder Rock.

We made a few more stops along the loop at some lookouts and the historical town of the park and then we headed back to Bar Harbor to go Kayaking. We took a kayak tour around the Porcupine Islands in Bar Harbor. I think the funniest thing I learned on the tour was that sometimes during low tide there is a sand bar the reaches out to the Islands that appears and people will park on it (even though there are lots of signs saying not to park there) and then when they come back later and it's high tide their car is under water or at least starting to go under water. Our tour guide said that at least one car ends up completely under water every summer. And then I'm pretty sure I heard him mumble something to himself like, "Idiots, can't they read."

After kayaking we wanted to drive the loop again and hit some things that we didn't hit the first time around. We were able to get through the loop so quickly the first time because we started it at 5a.m. and everyone was still in bed! We first stopped at a cave filled with tide pools called Anemone Cave which is no longer on the park's map because too many people were visiting it and ruining the tide pools and the park wants to help preserve it. When we stopped at the Visitor Center the day before we asked the ranger about it; he was so impressed that we knew about it he showed us how to get there. We weren't the only ones at the pool so we assumed it wasn't as big of a secret as we had thought. I wouldn't say this was the most exciting thing but it was still a pretty walk and fun to find.

Our next stop was at Sand Beach. No joke, it is called Sand Beach. We had actually stopped here on our first time around the loop but it still had morning fog and wasn't very inviting. By this point we were pretty tired and hadn't had lunch so we sat on the beach and ate lunch and took a nap. After that we looked at the park map and decided we had done everything we had wanted to do for the day and we headed back to Portland. One of many things I think I would like to do the next time I visit Acadia is rent bikes and ride on some of the bike trails.

The morning fog picture of the beach... I guess we forgot to get one when it was sunny and filled with people.

The next day we visited the Portland Headlight at Cape Elizabeth. This was such a beautiful place overlooking the ocean. All we did was walk around but I really enjoyed this stop.

Yes I took this picture :)

After the headlight we headed back to Boston with a quick random walk around Salem. We weren't there long enough to report anything but I think I would stop by there again and eat at a fun "witch" cafe and take a walking tour. After that Melinda dropped me off at the airport and I sadly headed home. This was such a great trip. I would recommend Maine to anyone! Such a beautiful place with many different types of things to do. The company was perfect too.

We laughed that our vacation was actually a very romantic vacation (walks on the beach, sunrise hikes, two-man kayaking, sitting on rocks above the ocean talking and observing light houses) and we both agreed that we'll have to repeat this vacation one day with our husbands.

Sunset at Kennebunkport