For our 20th wedding anniversary we dreamed of taking the entire family on a Mediterranean Cruise but then Covid hit and ruined lots of travel plans. Then we dreamed of the two of us visiting Prague… until we realized how much it cost to fly to Europe in summer. So next best thing was to find a neat place to visit in summertime for just the two of us preferably somewhere Southwest Airlines could get us to since Hubby still has an active companion pass. After some research and remembering how much my friend liked Acadia National Park, we decided to celebrate in Maine.
From what we were told by several different people our timing was perfect. Apparently we arrived for the first week of nice summer weather they had. Hooray! Funny thing was I had packed for the forecasted chilly and rainy so there were a lot of things in my suitcase I didn’t actually wear and eventually I ended up buying two t-shirts and a knee length skirt so I could dress more appropriately.
Since Southwest doesn’t fly straight to Portland, Maine we got to have a layover in Chicago & eat delicious pizza (even GF & DF) in the airport for lunch. After arriving in the teeny tiny airport and picking up our rental car (turns out Tesla’s are cheaper in Maine), we settled into our hotel near the airport and then went to eat dinner in the warf area. You can get pretty much anywhere in Portland in 15 minutes or less. It was amazing to see a city with such a small population to have so many neat places see, do, and eat things.
Warf Street has an amazing night feel that Hubby said reminded him of Europe. On the next street over is what turned out to be our favorite place to eat. I had found a website about dairy free friendly places in Maine and Gelato Fiasco sounded good. Turns out is was freaking excellent. There were six different sorbettos I could choose from and oh my goodness I lucked out with what I picked. Spoiler alert, we ended up going to this place four times before coming home. Do you know how fun it was for me to have ice cream that tasted better (according to Hubby) than the dairy full stuff. So if you’re in Portland or Brunswick, I HIGHLY recommend grabbing a large horchata & strawberry balsamic combo. Most delicious frozen dessert I’ve ever tasted.
The next morning we visited the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow house, where the famous poet grew up. It was such a great place to see where he was coming from and was so well presented by the Maine Historical Society. Admission to their museum was included with the price of admission to the house so we looked around those exhibits as well. I got a good chuckle out of realizing we were spending our 20th in Maine. If you’re a fan of the movie Gettysburg and loved the portrayal of Joshua Chamberlain leading the 20th Maine, you get it.
On our way during the three hour drive to Bar Harbor we stopped at Bowdoin campus to see the Chamberlain statue and be where he once taught. We could totally imagine Michelle loving going to college there… until we looked up the yearly tuition. Ha! Let's just say there are a whole lot of schools I think my kids could enjoy that aren't as expensive. We stopped for lunch at the #1 rated Winnegance Restaurant in Bath. I got the Captain’s Salad and it was sooo good. I also drank my first Moxie and liked it! I was warned that it has a unique flavor and that I might not like it but I did. Hubby and I have a theory about Moxie. If you are a huge root beer fan, you don’t like Moxie. If you don’t really care about root beer, you like Moxie. So I liked it and Hubby didn’t. Now we know!
We decided to skip the maritime museum in Bath and head up to Bar Harbor so we didn’t feel rushed for dinner. There are so many cute places to stay in Bar Harbor, all within walking distance of the tourist shops and restaurants and the shore. I think the most important part in picking out a place to stay is making sure there is lots of parking available. (There are a lot of places to stay outside of the city as well so there are lots of cars coming in everyday.) We loved being able to walk around this New England town. The shore path is lovely and at low tide you can walk out on the sandbar to Bar Island amidst seashells and naturally polished stones. And our little hotel had a chart of tide times in the office so it was easy to get right. That was actually another night we did that but we did eat at Geddy’s that night and it was great!
The next morning we walked down to get on our LuLu Lobster boat tour. Our guide was amazing — a teacher that made me want to move to Maine so my kids could go to school in such a neat place — until I imagined what winter would be like if people were raving about it being sunny and 75° out. Hubby guessed the right number of lobsters in the first trap they pulled up so he got the privilege of going up with the guide to show the rest of the passengers what to do and he did an amazing job. This boat ride ended up being one of our favorite activities. We could have planned more for that day but ended up just walking around Bar Harbor, taking in all the shops and restaurants and trying out blueberry soft serve. I suppose it had taken so much to get to the point that both of us could be out of town for a week that we just needed a relaxing day.
One thing about the Bar Harbor area is that you can take it as easy as you want or get a work out. Our full day in Acadia National Park was the latter. We got our reservations in advance to drive up Cadillac Mountain & take in the views. We noticed right away that there is much more freedom at Acadia than Rocky Mountain with plenty of space for everyone to spread out in. We enjoyed taking in the rocky shore at Schooner Head Overlook (pictured above) and could have enjoyed staying there much longer than we did but we had hikes to hike. We decided to hike The Beehive, which I had heard was one of the two hardest hikes in the park but us Rocky Mountain folks were just fine. It is wonderful to work your way to the top and see ocean!
After hiking our way back down the easy side, we stopped at Sand Beach. We knew it was a popular spot because you had to be patient to find parking but wow, were we blown away. You could spend an entire California style beach day at that place. We are talking swimsuit, beach towel, sunscreen, sand toys -- the whole deal. I'm not exaggerating. If the waves were a bit too chilly for you, you could walk up this little creek where fresh water meets ocean water and enjoy a warm and orange tinted trip until you feel like stopping and turning around. And there were little tiny fish that would come up to your feet and check you out if you stood still.
Since we weren't prepared for a beach day, we decided to continue on to Thunder Hole and learned the hard way that you need to time your arrival with high tide. But, on the other hand, there wasn't much of a crowd at low tide. And a nice stranger might offer to take your picture too.
Next up was Jordan Pond. The east side has this cute boardwalk going along a large portion along the water. So fun. There were even sections wider than others so that you cold step aside if someone was going the other direction. So cute and so quiet and really more like a nice walk around a lake than a hike.
We ended up taking a short but extremely steep hike to South Bubble from the Jordan Pond trail. These hikes (Beehive & Bubble) are more like huge boulders lined up like a staircase with these little blue rectangles painted on to let you know which way to go. Apparently you can hike up an easy way and go down the steep way, but we ended up doing steep in both directions since we were parked at the Jordan Pond House. Whew. Did my knees start to complain after those two hikes! (For days, it turned out, and again when I pulled weeds after coming home!) We decided after all that we would definitely need time to shower before eating dinner so did so and walked our way to Balance Rock at sunset. Our boat tour guide had told us that three president of the United States had had their picture taken next to that rock, including the entire Kennedy clan. We figured out another one was President Taft but we never figured out the third....
This was the actual day of our 20th anniversary so we asked strangers to take our pictures and went all out on Maine lobster at Stewman's right on the harbor. I had learned that my body can only handle so much seafood at a time so I got the surf and turf and ate and ate and ate. Did you know that lobster used to be considered trash food and that only poor people used to eat it? We heard more than once that prisoners actually hated how often they got fed lobster while in jail back in the day. Oh, how times change. It was actually super interesting to learn about how to make a living catching and selling lobster. One reason why I was glad we began our Bar Harbor tour with that lobster boat trip.
Soon it was our last full day in Bar Harbor. We drove around a totally different part of the National Park and explored places like Echo Lake (which also had a less crowded beach to stick our toes in but Sand Beach remained our favorite) on the way to Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. It was cute and there was plenty of room to walk around on the rocky shore below. We opted to miss the heavy crowds by avoiding sunrise or sundown and going later in the morning, kind of like we did with Cadillac Mountain. I was glad we did because there isn't a huge parking lot close by and lots of private homes to be considerate of, including the lighthouse itself. We kept going along the road and explored the Pretty Marsh picnic grounds and it would be a marvelous place to sit and eat and walk around. Instead, we opted to eat lunch closer to Bar Harbor at The Chart Room on the way back so that we wouldn't be late for our next planned adventure.
That afternoon we spent HOURS on a noisy boat in search of wildlife. We saw plenty but not much more than our lobster boat tour that was much more enjoyable. We did get to see a really weird looking fish called a "ocean sunfish" but really we had to take the guide's word for it because we only saw the top fin poking out of the water and only know what it really looks like because I looked it up online. And those black dots you see in this photo? Those are puffins. Cute, adorable puffins that I was so glad Hubby had brought his binoculars along to see because we could't get close enough to see them with our eyes alone. I cannot in good conscience recommend going on this excursion unless you are totally in love with puffins and want to go farther away from Mount Desert Island. The end of our trip wasn't a total loss, though, because we had excellent Indian food for dinner and enjoyed the coast by trying to walk to Bar Harbor Island at sunset. It was a little too early for completely low tide but we made it most of the way and enjoyed going. And somehow on these lazier of days Hubby got me hooked on the tv show Ted Lasso, for which I am grateful. After working at a middle school for a couple years turns out I can handle swearing and fall in love with a great story while sitting next to my great spouse.
Soon it was time to check out of our room and begin our trip south for a second night in Portland before flying home. We opted to take the interstate back instead of Route 1 like we had taken on the way up so that we could stop in Bangor to take a picture in front of Stephen King's house for our horror loving niece. We listened to his short story (about one hour) Drunken Fireworks along the way because I realized I had never actually read one of his books. It was fun and had a great twist at the end. It was also great to recognize location names and and see in front of us the setting for his story as we went around his homeland. Then we ate at an amazing, allergy friendly deli not far from his house and kept heading south. We stopped in Brunswick to eat at the original Gelato Fiasco for an afternoon snack and went shopping at the flagship LL Bean store in Freeport. We checked into the same hotel we had spent one night at our first day in Maine and headed to the Portland Observatory. I was so impressed by this structure that is the last of its kind. We didn't get to go all the way to the top since there was lightning close by so we got a free trip to the first few floors. A neat place regardless!
Portland Head Light was incredible! Fort Williams Park is around it and you could spend all day walking around, gazing at the beautiful lighthouse from different angles, seeing three lighthouses at one time, going along hidden paths, eating at picnic tables (especially if you go when the food trucks are open), and there is even a beach to hang out at. We timed our visit for sunset and I do have to say one thing, most of our sunsets were overcast so it was a joy to come home to freaking amazing sunsets with Rocky Mountain backdrops.
We finally left when the park closed and headed for dinner & Flatbread Co. did not disappoint! The food and service were great and we could hear a live concert going on outside a bar a little ways down and see the ferry boats arriving and departing from where we were sitting. (This picture is from where we listened to the concert for a little while before heading walking to eat our pizza. I was brought in by the sound of a male voice singing Taylor Swift's Love Story but can only stand around listening to country music for so long.)
I bet you can guess where we went for dessert! Yes, in total we ate at this place four time and yes, Hubby and I both gained a few pounds on our vacation. Maine just has soooo many good places to eat!
After packing our bags for the trip home and checking out of our hotel, we knew we still had some time before we needed to go to the airport. We ate lunch at an allergy friendly but disgusting LB Kitchen. I don't want to describe why it was horrible but let's just say you don't want to go there. We decided to either go to the Portland Museum of Art of visit Hadlock Field and you bet we chose baseball. The Portland Sea Dogs are such a great mascot I couldn't resist! They are a minor league affiliate team of the Boston Red Sox and the field is kind of a mini version of Fenway Park. We were taken around on a private tour by a wonderful ticket agent and spent plenty of money at the team store on the way out. And I had thought the museum was going to be more expensive. Boy, was I wrong. It was pretty unique way to end our trip to Maine and I am grateful we got to celebrate in a new, gorgeous, relaxing place with kind people and great food. I feel sooooo lucky to be married to the love of my life for twenty years now!!! We set a goal to make it to 50 years after we shocked a nice local with how long we have been married & the only thing he could think to say was, "You could go for 50!"
Turns out we didn't need to get to the small Portland airport on time after all. Our flight was delayed two hours, which meant we would miss our connecting flight in Chicago. When they told us we would just have to wait at the Chicago airport until 5am the next morning for a flight out Hubby was smart enough to get on the Southwest app and see if there were any other options. So we got on a plane to Baltimore instead, ate dinner, boarded the plane, and then waited almost an hour to take off. Eventually we made it home after worrying that our luggage was still in Chicago but it showed up at our airport eventually. Instead of making it home by midnight as expected we showed up closer to 3am. But we were home and were able to do all the things at work and at home AND have our annual birthday dinner with Kate's mom -- and be home for an entire day before our 10 year old refrigerator & freezer went kaput. Although Hubby had been able to fix it a few times before, this time he said it was no use and time for a new one. So on Saturday we found ourselves shopping all morning and were thrilled when they said we could have the one we wanted on sale and delivered the next day. Goodbye LG, hello Bosch!
I cannot recommend Doug's Diner but I can recommend the company (Michelle was babysitting & Danny was off with friends) and recommend Lowe's for your refrigerator! And why am I wearing bright pink? Turns out I can recommend the Barbie movie too!
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