Sunday Drive- taking time to explore

We drove from NH to Maine (next to Dartmouth-so we immediately got smarter) and were back to the ocean. It is surprising how a girl born in the land-locked mountains can be so centered by the ocean. I feel as if the mountains always provided a giant compass for me to know where I was and the ocean provided the same level of comfort, but with the added bonus of providing delicious food.

We stayed in Portland for a night and fell in love with that city. The food! The people! The food! Oh yeah, I said that but I mean it was unreal. We all went to a sushi place that night and Olive ate her body weight in udon noodles and the sashimi was cut almost an inch thick and was ridiculously delicious. We followed it up with milkshakes made with duck fat from a place called Duckfat (we heard about it from Somebody Feed Phil-an adorably fun travel show on Netflix..go watch it). In the morning we followed it up with a tasty breakfast before heading north to a place near Bar Harbor where we would stay for the week and where I could work.

Where we stayed was cute and old, and like most of the houses in Maine, was built in the 1800’s. It was close to Acadia National Park and had a resident fox and a kitchen to test out our lobster boiling skills so suited us just fine.

If it wasn’t evident by the pictures, we hit up the LL Bean outlet on our way north.

We enjoyed Acadia but were somewhat surprised at how we wanted to go back to the “big city” (it is 1/2 the size of Boise, ID for reference) and so left the tiny town of Hancock and booked a hotel in Rockland which was down the coast about 2 hours and about an hour north of Portland. We picked it because there was a ski area close by. We ended up enjoying this town surprisingly more than expected and it felt like it was an actual town where people worked and lived versus one that was just focused on tourists but with the added benefit of restaurants. Oh yes, more food blogging.

We then headed back to Portland for more food and stayed at a hotel near the airport as our flight left at 6 am the next morning. We had yet another amazing meal and I had the best eggplant dish I have ever tasted at this little place where we were seated in the fireplace at a tiny coffee table. Every ounce of food they served was consumed.

Overall, much like South Carolina, Maine surprised us. The food was incredible and the ocean has an unexplainable draw. Walt was concerned about the amount of New York and Boston accents he may hear however so that is a strike against it 😉.

Neither Walt or I had spent any real time in this area and we were able to scratch off 6 states for the map and eat a years supply of oysters in 1 week. Each place we go gives us more of an appreciation as to the variety and diversity of places that are cool which consequently is making the decision of where to live next more challenging. But we don’t have to make that decision now so we will just enjoy each delightful surprise and appreciate that we get to all gain weight and memories together.