The Rain in Maine

French toast - isn't that a good way to start any day? We thought so, so tucked in. Yummm - we'll miss the taste of cinnamon and maple syrup once we're back in the land of semi-skimmed milk and low fat spread.

Thought we'd take a rest from shopping and go to the coast instead today and headed south for Kennebunkport. Love the silly names around here.

Also love the endless ads on the main roads for the upcoming attractions. Summed up by our personal favourite for 2008 - Buddy's Store off route 26: 'Eat Here - Get Gas'.... Irony or no, it's inspired.

And there is apparently no limit to the ways the good folk of Maine will advertise their lobsters.

No chance of top down today, under grey skies and a high of 68. But Kennebunkport turned out to be a lovely little place. Also busy, probably made popular by George Bush senior having his summer mansion here. No sign of the old buffer, fortunately. It's an old town by US standards and some of the buildings were very attractive, built on stilts and clustered round the waterfront.

Kathy keeps trying to make sure John looks tidy when out in public, so brushes off crumbs and fluff as necessary. Took it a step too far and pulled off a stray hair from his shirt. Till he squealed - it was apparently still attached to his chest. Sarah got a glimpse of life in the twilight zone.

As we wandered, news came through that Ruthie had arrived safely in Paree. Hon hee hon hee hon - alo alo. That's where the sun was, apparently. Well done girl - because it had abandoned Maine and the rain had begun. It was to stay for the rest of the day, getting heavier and heavier. The rain in Maine falls mainly when we're visiting Sarah!

The plan had been to return to Portland and stroll round the old port area before having dinner somewhere. We got to the old port area right enough, but the torrential rain put paid to the strolling. A splashy dash to the nearest eatery took us to a creperie and we managed to stay for a record length of time while the rain chucked down outside and the eager staff flapped round us, bringing us menus, rushing food to us, clearing plates, offering refills, bringing the bill. Ha - we're pros at this lark now. They've clearly never met anyone who wanted fast food slowly. Till now. Two hours! Splendid work, team.

And so, sadly, it was time to take Sarah back to camp. We programmed RuthNav and followed her directions through the dark, wet night. Tough to say goodbye again, but we'd had a lovely couple of days and we knew she's having a great time at camp and her little charges would look forward to seeing her back again.

And that's it from the Maine blog for 2008. Tomorrow we fly back home and resume normal life. It's been another great trip to a beautiful part of the world. Signing off now - bye!

Tripp to Sarah's Place

The whole point of this tripp (sic) was to meet up with Sarah at her camp by the lake and today we finally did it.

Following a wonderful breakfast of blueberry pancakes at Wolf Cove Inn we drove 3 miles around Tripp Lake to find Sarah waiting at the gate.

She is looking very healthy and is having a great time once again with the hordes of children who are attending their annual summer camp.

The weather looked very dodgy so we opted for a day at the mall to catch up on some retail therapy.

The Maine Mall provided that to some extent but we managed to finish the day with precisly no purchases! That must be a record for this family. We did manage a nice light lunch at the old Olive Garden and then spent the final part of the afternoon back at Wolf Cove sitting by the lake in the late sunshine.

Sarah also had a nice skype chat with Ruthie who flies off to Paris tomorrow afternoon. Have a great trip Ruthie - we will see you on Sunday!!

In the evening we went to Sandy's restaurant on a nearby lake and saw a paddle steamer paddle by and a sea plane take off so it was an interesting venue.

It has been a quiet day travel wise but fun catching up with camp news and relaxing in the Maine sunshine.

Abercrombie and - ooops

How much did we pay for RuthNav? Well today was the day she proved it was worth it. Two very tricky journeys and no comedy mishaps! What a difference a year makes. She talked us through Camden to Freeport and we thought that was impressive until she took us from Freeport to Tripp Lake - cross country - through backroads and backwaters where we were fairly sure no strangers had been seen for decades. Heads turned, glances were exchanged - ah, but we're getting ahead of ourselves...


The pee-heeing rain had stopped by the time we set off from Camden, so it was top down and off to Freeport for a shopping-fest. We arrived, after a flawless journey a mere hour later. Ha! Who knew it was that close! John did jolly well in LL Bean - next time you see him, spot the new shoes, chinos and shirt. (And big smug grin at the bargains he got). We even stopped for a small refreshment, but he wasn't so thrilled by his choice of iced coffee. His nose wrinkled and he announced it was just as though he'd let a perfectly good coffee to go cold before drinking it. Y-e-e-e-e-s.....


Meanwhile back at the shopping-fest calamity had struck - Abercrombie and Fitch had been closed down by the fire department for some safety violation, and droves of teen girls were fainting and sighing and wailing with dismay. Whereupon the heavens opened again and Christies once more ran for cover.


Top firmly up, we keyed in Wolf Cove Inn, Tripp Lake, to RuthNav and we were off, along miles of tiny windy roads - no other traffic in sight. We would not have been at all surprised to come across the famed Shaker village or, indeed, Amish carriages on these roads. Instead - lo and behold - did not the might Poland Spring Bottling plant hove into view. You remember it surely - it provided a good day out last year!
And straight to our Inn! In a glorious setting beside the tranquil Tripp Lake itself, and across from Sarah's camp. From the breakfast room you can just see the tennis courts. And in the evening, as dusk was falling on this still evening, we could see the twinkling lights and hear the faint songs and cheers carrying across the water from camp. See you tomorrow, Sarah!

Damp Sunday

Up with the lark as usual and breakfast from the motel (bagels and pastries) was a good start to the day.

We drove a couple of miles to Rockport with the Sunday paper and bought a coffee and muffin from the only shop in Rockport and sat in the sun. Unfortunately that was the last we saw of the sun as it clouded over and then started to rain steadily for the rest of the day.

There is no mobile phone signal anywhere in this area but very occasionally T Mobile produces a weak signal for a few seconds. Just enough to allow a text from Ruth who is in Oban this weekend. She had just bumped in to June and Alan. How amazing was that!!

Rockport is a tiny place with a nice bay full of sailing boats. It used to be the centre of the lime industry and the remnants of the limekilns can still be seen. However nothing else has come to replace them and it sits quietly next to Camden which seems to have won the tourist industry prize.

We did our best to eek out a rainy day around here. We visited a lovely winery and had some "tastings". Very nice but we realised that we could not carry any bottles on to the plane home so we could not make any purchases.

Dinner tonight was meant to be salad and dessert at a nice restaurant which dad found on the web. He phoned it to check there were spaces and was told to turn up and take a chance. We arrived and put our names on the waiting list and in about 30 minutes our names were called and we sat at our table. It was only when we opened the menus that we realised that it was the wrong restaurant!! Too late to leave by then so we had another fishy tea which was nice but not the plan.

Moving on to Tripp Lake tomorrow via some shopping at Freeport.

Phew, What a Scorcher

We were woken at 2am by the bucketing rain crashing on to the balcony. And in the morning, Bar Harbor was wet and a little battered. We'd parked the car under a lovely laburnum tree. Most of its leaves and seeds were now on the roof of our car, so we had to clean it up somewhat before putting the roof down again, to avoid dumping the lot in the boot. See - you have to think ahead when you pose this much.

But then it was farewell to Bar Harbor and on to Camden. We programmed RuthNav and she carried us safely and without mishap round the coastline. As we drove the heat and humidity started to rise again. It was top down all the way - even the Harley dudes waved to us. It's the lore of the open road, dontcha know.

Our new home is a very pleasant motel on the edge of Camden/Rockport, looking out to the ocean. It seemed a meander round Camden was the thing - a very lovely small town on the waterfront with a marina and fancy shops and galleries. Oh but it was hot and getting hotter and more humid. Over 100 degrees. And today was the day the ailments of the aged caught up with us - Kathy's bad back playing up, John's jippy tum, Kathy's insect bites (well, I say insect - so bad it might have actually been a snake), so we retreated to the air conditioned room for a cooling rest. Emerged later to eat in the Waterworks Bar and drop in on WallMart!

And then the rain started - all that humidity finally rolled up in one big ball and flung itself at this part of Maine. Maybe Sarah caught some of it too, but there was nothing for it but to run for cover. Luckily, while we may be daft we're not completely stupid and had remembered to put the top back up on the car when we'd parked.

Harboring a Dream

Lots of harbors today. All of them very attractive.

Another good breakfast at the B&B with homemade muffins and excellent granola and yoghurt to start the day. We spent the morning exploring the shops in Bar Harbor and also sitting with coffee looking out over the bay. It was a very pleasant morning. We walked along the coastal path and then cut up a back road into town which had some very nice houses on it - see the pictures here.

We then got in the car to explore the rest of the island. We went to northeast harbor and south west harbor and lots of places in between. They are all very pretty with lots of boats and boating type people. Today was a bit overcast and humid but we still managed to do most of the trip with the top down. We went for a walk along a trail called "Wonderland" which went past strange looking full size bonsai trees and ended up on a deserted beach where we could have spent the rest of the afternoon if we had not to get back for the wine and cheese hour at the B&B!!

We met some nice folk from Florida, managed to avoid a room full of teachers and were introduced to someone from St Andrews althought it turned out that he was born there and then left a few weeks later.

We even met someone who had heard of Tripp Lake. Unlike the owner of the B&B who sounded very sceptical that there was such a place.

We had to move rooms today and are in a smaller but very comfortable room for tonight. Dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant while a thunderstorm raged outside. Hopefully the sun will return tomorrow for our drive to Camden.

Acadia Daze

Thursday in Bar Harbor started fine and sunny and the homemade breakfast on offer was delicious - yoghurt, fruit and granola, then fresh waffles and maple syrup.

We decided to spend the day exploring the national park. Our B&B owner, Marion, lent us a CD audio tour to play in the car and guide us round the park. So, it was top down and off. A beautiful day - mostly in the 80s (25/30 for the decimal kids) and we pale celts had to schlep on the sunscreen. Our CD guide took us gently round the highlights of the park. He spoke clearly and slowly and often repeated his instructions as though talking to a slightly deaf and stupid listener. How well did he know us? An ideal match, really. But with his help we noticed features we'd have missed if left to our own devices - beaver dams, glacial boulders, freshwater ponds in the midst of the ocean waters. And as we stood on the top of Cadillac Mountain he told us we were on the highest point of the eastern USA (at only 1500 feet!) and the first land to the east was France and to the south was Venezuela. Oooh - pretty cool, we thought. The heat had gone to our heads and we'd lost all our sophistication.

Astonishingly we made it through the day without burning and celebrated by relaxing back at the B&B with coffee and cookies.

The big decision then was where to eat in the evening. We mused, over wine and cheese. Yup it's tough here. Eventually settled on Havana - a latin-type restaurant. Of course we've been to the real place and can definitely say no Cuban we ever encountered had such food or paid such prices. They would have recognised the Mojitos though. It was all very delicious indeed and has blown the budget. Sorry, Sarah - expect McDonalds when we visit. Pity, eh?