Last year, my daughter had the privilege of going to Maine with our church’s high school seniors for a long weekend. She’s not much of a traveler, but when she returned home, she raved about the scenery and the food. Maine has never been on my bucket list, but her zeal for it and the fact that so many other people we know are making trips there did arouse my hubby’s curiosity.
While my daughter planned her outfits for her last year at church youth camp, hubby and I researched blogs on Maine.
On the Friday before last, we hopped on a plane to Portland and procured the last Jeep available to rent that day. Yippee!
After dropping off luggage at an AirBnB, we strolled down to the waterfront in cool 60-ish degree overcast weather, stopping in some cute shops in the Old Port along the way.
A friend had recommended Andy’s Pub as a “must” for the lobster roll. She was right to recommend it! Hubby and I shared a bowl of clam chowder, the (hot) lobster roll, and the “Publican”—asiago mac-n-cheese with pulled pork wrapped in a pan-fried tortilla.
I thought we were good and stuffed, but hubby spied gelato in the hands of some tourists walking past us. The line was out the door at Gelato Fiasco, but that did not deter this frozen-dessert devotee. We shared a medium cup of hazelnut, banana pudding, and Bacio chocolate flavored gelato. It was good, but not quite the same as Italy’s.
THEN we waddled back to the AirBnB to sleep off our food stupor!
Saturday morning was overcast, a tad rainy, with a brisk wind. We decided to visit the iconic Portland Headlight at Cape Elizabeth. The clouds begin to break up as we pulled into the first parking lot, in anticipation of a little climb to the lighthouse.
What a delightful walk through native blooms along a gorgeous, rugged coastline! The picture opportunities were endless!
Any kind of outdoor exercise on a cool morning always puts hubby in a good mood; I sweetly asked him on our way back to the Jeep if we could go next to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (CMBG). He quickly (and happily) said, “Yes!” I had mentioned it to him at least five times before in the planning of this trip, and he’d always respond with, “Or we could do xyz!” He obviously wasn’t enthusiastic about visiting a botanical garden.
We stopped at the Cookie Jar Bakery on our way to CMBG and nabbed a ham and cheese croissant, some day-old bagels, and an amazingly crunchy, yet moist, maple cake donut. As I offered him bites of yumminess while he drove, I reassured hubby that the CMBG was “on the way to our next stop” at Little Deer Island. The only hard and fast plan we had for the day was a dinner reservation at 6:30 at Arborvine, so we had plenty of time.
As we came upon the place where the road diverged from the path to Little Deer to go to CMBG, I could tell he was getting a little concerned. He asked, “Have you noticed that we are the only ones headed this direction?” And, “Just how much further is this thing?”
I patted his hand to reassure him that this was just slightly out of our way and would be worth the trip.
As we entered the area of the CMBG and came around a curve in the road, the most beautiful fox stood to the side, solemnly observing us. We probably looked like Curley and Mo trying desperately to disconnect one of our phones to snap a picture. Alas, the fox had slipped away by the time I’d gotten the camera ready. Another curve in the road revealed not a little shabby community garden, but rather row upon row of CARS parked in a very professional looking parking area!
Hubby gasped, “We’re late!”
Folks, if you ever have a chance to visit CMBG, please go! It is amazing! I can’t tell you how much we paid for tickets; we were too busy gushing over all there is to see and do as the hostess calmly took our credit card and charged it.
We only had a few hours to explore, but I think we saw about a third of it. It was magical, and the food wasn’t bad either! Of course, I love a good gift shop, and this one did not disappoint. Hubby checked out before I’d fully finished exploring, but that was a good thing. We needed to get to our cabin on Little Deer and get cleaned up for Arborvine.
