A Day of Grazing Delights and Beautiful Sights

We woke up this morning to a beautiful blue sky and the sun rising over the ocean. It was so nice and cool over the evening that we slept with all of the windows open. That’s something we sure can’t do at home during this time of the year, unless you’re willing to sweat through your PJ’s!
While one of us decided to sleep in just a bit longer, the other one (me) decided to take a morning run along the sea wall in front of our inn. I ran about 2 miles along the oceanfront before returning just in time for breakfast, which we will call, for the sake of simplicity, food stop #1. But then again, you can’t really call this a food stop, I mean we were already here for the night, so that meal didn’t really count did it? It was a package deal, it came with the room! I had to eat it! If I’d known how these food stops were going to add up throughout the day, I would have been smart to run a marathon this morning!

But I digress, and the day was filled with both culinary and scenic delights! We checked out of the inn after breakfast and headed to Walker’s Point to make one last ditch effort to snap a picture of the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport before leaving the area. We had already made two attempts on the previous evening to get a pic, but the small parking space provided for the photo op was jammed with crazy tourists both times. Lucky for us, most crazy tourists sleep later than we do and we were successful this time.  President Bush celebrated his 90th birthday on Thursday (by skydiving no less!) and his across the street neighbor had hung a birthday banner at the end of his driveway to mark the occasion.

After the photo, we headed north and began our trek up the coast. We stopped in a little village called Cape Porpoise and that’s where we made food stop #2. Cape Porpoise is a working fishing village with beautiful homes, a little library, a combination grocery store and post office, a tiny fish market and two or three little restaurants. We parked the car and walked through the village admiring the homes and meeting a couple of the residents. One older couple offered us paintbrushes as they were painting the picket fence in front of their home. Two ladies sitting on their front porch said good morning to Jimmy (I was lagging behind as usual taking pictures). When they noticed him looking back, waiting for someone or something, they asked him if he was waiting on a child or a pet? He said neither, he was waiting on his wife who was taking a million pictures. The older lady said in a matter-of-fact voice, (after hearing him speak), You’re from Texas! He said with a slight shake of the head, “Kentucky”. She said oh…well that’s close. Lol!
We have found the locals to be so friendly and helpful. They always ask where we are from and usually ask what made us decide to visit Maine. There are nice people wherever you go, that’s for sure!

After our stroll through the village, we decided to have a snack at the Wayfarer. Since it wasn’t quite lunch time yet, and we’d already eaten breakfast, we didn’t quite know what to order. So I had a raspberry oat muffin (the special for the day) and Jimmy wanted to try a side of corned beef hash! It was really good and energized us for more exploring.

We continued on the backroads, and our next stop was in Yarmouth. We stopped at Royal River Park and walked the trails alongside the river to see the four waterfalls. It is a beautiful little park and sits on the site of a once prosperous and booming part of town, since the falls supplied the power for several big factories. They are all gone now, and the only thing that remains are a few brick fragments and the beautiful falls.

As we drove back through Yarmouth, we could not resist a visit to Handy Andy’s General Store. The store sells Shaine’s of Maine ice cream out of a side window and it also contains the town post office. That makes Handy Andy’s food stop #3. I noticed on the menu that one could order a half scoop, one scoop, two scoops etc. I assumed a half scoop would have been a child size, so I ordered one scoop of Maine tracks (instead of Moose Tracks) just to make sure I’m keeping my strength up. It was huge! One scoop of Handy Andy’s equals two scoops anywhere else. But I had no trouble eating the whole thing unfortunately…

We drove through Freeport (home of L.L. Bean) and made a little side trip to the Desert of Maine. We took the short shuttle tour and found it very interesting. The desert is a 40 acre tract of fine sand that was exposed by poor farming practices. The initial small patch of sand that was exposed by overgrazing sheep and failure to rotate crops eventually completely overtook the farm of the Tuttle family. The family abandoned the land in 1919 as the desert grew and all that remains of the farms’ buildings is the large barn that was built in the late 1700s. The dunes covered everything, including a spring house, outbuildings, and trees. The site is preserved as a natural curiosity and has been a tourist attraction since 1925. It was really quite interesting to see and was a neat little side trip.

From there, we continued to drive northward to our final destination for the day, Wiscasset. It is a beautiful little town with picturesque homes, gardens and neat little shops.

We had made reservations at the Marston House. This bed and breakfast is in the carriage house that sits behind the main house where the innkeepers live. They live upstairs in the main house (which was built in 1790) and run an antique shop on the ground floor of the house. The antique shop wasn’t open today, but Sharon (the innkeeper) was inside the shop wrapping birthday gifts for her grandchildren. She welcomed us in and allowed me to look around a little, while she got us checked in. It is a beautiful old home, and Sharon and her husband divide their time between Wiscasset and France! She specializes in French textiles and they live in France during the winter months, buying things for their shop back in the states, then return to Wiscasset for the summer. Our room was in the carriage house, which was built later than the main house. Sharon estimated that it was built at around the same time as the extension on the back of the house, which was during the time of the Civil War. Our room is simple, yet beautiful. There’s no TV, no wifi, and no AC (but it’s not needed here) and the windows overlook the lovely garden. We haven’t missed the TV at all, but thankfully, we got soccer updates by text message from our son as the US played Ghana in the World Cup. (When you see this post, you’ll know that we found a coffee shop somewhere to stop long enough to upload the post to the internet).  Sharon asked what time we’d like our breakfast, that it would be delivered to us in a basket either in our room or in the beautiful garden that her husband tends.

Now for food stop #4 (but at this point, who’s counting?) If there’s one place that has put Wiscasset on the culinary map, it is a little shack beside the bay called Red’s Eats. People drive from miles around and from across the country for that matter, to eat a world-famous lobster roll. Red’s claim to fame is that they put the meat from a whole lobster on one roll. We both had to have one! The lobster was delicious and we enjoyed every bite! Red’s does a booming business and they have lived up to their reputation.

We did as much walking as we possibly could after that, seeing the town and taking photos, and believe it or not, were still able to work in food stop #5 at Sarah’s Café. Jimmy had a great little pizza and I had a salad (after all, I am watching what I eat…)

As we left Sarah’s we ordered two de-caf coffees to go so that we could enjoy food stop #6 when we returned to our room for the night, and that was the blueberry corn muffin and the chocolate almond cookie we’d bought between food stop #4 and #5 from a little bakery across the street from our Bed and Breakfast. But again, who’s counting….?