Maine 2012 - Spring Road Trip

Spring 2012 Photography Road Trip – York, Ogunquit, Wells & Kennebunk, Maine

On the road again, 

Just can’t wait to get on the road again,

Goin’ places we’ve never been,

Seein’ places we’ve never seen,

We just can’t wait to get on the road again.

So here we are back in one of our favorite states.  Traveling around the south coastal region of Maine, exploring the towns of York, Ogunquit, Wells and Kennebunk. This is a region of Maine we’re not that familiar with and have mostly passed by as we were whizzing up the highway on our way to the mid-coast area and the towns of Brunswick and Harpswell – our favorite area of Maine where we’ve spent many of our summer vacations.   

We arrived in good time considering it was Memorial Day, and when we left home we weren’t sure what kind of traffic we might run into as the big beginning weekend of the summer was just winding down.  We are intrepid travelers and decided instead of driving around the city of Boston on Rt. 128, we would drive straight through downtown Boston.  We sailed through the city with the ultimate of ease.  We were traveling north and most everyone else was heading home south, so traffic going in our direction was very light and it seemed like we just sailed from home to Maine (a little nautical lingo for your enjoyment). 

Once we got past Kittery, Maine, we got off I-95 the major interstate highway and hopped over onto Route 1.  Better to see all the sights from the stagecoach road where the cars travel slower and you can read all the store and scenic road signs as you pass by on the road.  And that’s when we drove past the birdhouse place in the town of York.  Had to pull a quick U-turn.  Didn’t drive very far up the street before we pulled into a furniture store parking lot, reversed direction, and headed back to see what was up with the birdhouses.  Just a little gender note here:  The guys would have driven miles down the road until they found a public road where there was room enough to turn around.  Both Bobs are firm believers in not turning around in anyone’s private residential driveway, a place of business, or worship, or on someone’s grass.  So when they drive, we keep on going, going, going until we find a respectful place to reverse direction.

Brenda’s Bloomers.  Cape Neddick, Maine (not York, Maine like Lily (or aka Bev, long story) told me when I started writing this blog).  And that Brenda had every shape, size, color and decoration theme of birdhouses ever to be.  We each bought a little house for our yards back home.  Mine is cuter than Lily’s because the perch just below the entry hole is an old rusty square-headed nail.  I also saw a beautiful white porcelain bird dish with a cherub head and wings hanging on the wall inside the store door and decided I would also buy that.  But Brenda had other ideas.  She uses it to hold her business cards (in my defense, it was empty when I took it off the wall), and Brenda gave it to her mom some four years ago just before her mom died.  It wasn’t for sale.  No way.  No how.  So it’s back hanging on the wall inside Bloomer’s. 

Then we headed up to the Oguinquit/Wells line to the Hampton Inn where we had reservations and registered for our room and unloaded our stuff from the car.  First off, no one laughed at the front desk when we registered.  No one snickered.  So I’m pretty sure our reputation from last spring’s stay at the Hampton Inn in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania had not spread north to Maine (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out our blog from that trip and what happened when we registered there).  And we managed to register this year in good style – no semi-drunken behavior, no crazy luggage buggy driving, no one peed her pants.  It all was good.

It was an absolutely beautiful day up here on Memorial Day.  Sunny, not a cloud in the sky, temps in the mid-70s, dry, no humidity, and the nicest of breezes.  We decided we would head to Perkins Cove in Oguinquit and take Finestkind’s 4 pm ocean cruise out to Nubble Lighthous (Finestkind’s cruises are rated #1 by Tripadvisor).  But first some lunch.  One should never go to sea on an empty stomach, and neither Lily nor I had had time to eat breakfast before we left home in the morning.

We decided to chance it, and Jackie’s Too, located on the small circle on the road in Perkins Cove, looked promising.  It had a beautiful awning-covered deck overlooking the ocean and there was no waiting line at the front door.  So this is where I fill my foodie friends in on where and what we ate.  We started off with a glass of Jackie’s homemade sangria.  It was good.  But it was nowhere near as good as Lily’s and my homemade sangria (and I’m being modest here – we make AWESOME homemade sangria).  Then we shared an appetizer – an order of Maine crabcakes “pan-seared with sided cilantro lime remoulade”.  The crabcakes were nearly all crab with a minimum of filler (crackers, breadcrumbs, etc.).  We both ordered the Crispy Goat Cheese and Ricotta Cake salad with mixed baby greens, toasted nuts, caramelized shallots, dried fruit, and sweet lemon mustard vinaigrette.  We were starved and lunch was excellent.  You can check the restaurant at http://www.jackiestoo.com/  if you’re interested.

Then it was time for the boat trip.  There were only two people in line ahead of us to board the boat.  But then there were only three people behind us in line.  Lily and I had the whole back of the boat to ourselves.  There were a total of 7 people (passengers) on the cruise.  So we took the very back seat in stern of the boat and stretched out on the cushioned seats and really took in the sun, the sea spray, the breeze, and the sights.

A young woman, a crew member on the boat, narrated the tour, and we learned a lot as we traveled out and around Nuble Light and back to Perkins Cove.  We saw lots of gorgeous waterfront homes.  We saw some seals playing and feeding in the water on a mostly submerged group of rocks just north of the lighthouse.  We got views and took photos of the lighthouse from all different sides.  And the biggest, most exciting thing of all was that I got to pilot the boat part of the way back to Perkins Cove.  The young woman who was the narrator came back to ask Lily and me if we wanted to join the captain up in the pilothouse;  she said we could even steer the ship.  Lily immediately said no, no thank you.  But I then superceded her and said yes, we would indeed enjoy that.  So we climbed the stairs up into the pilothouse and Captain Kevin introduced himself.

Lily didn’t do any driving, but I did.  I actually drove quite some distance.  I don’t remember the correct nautical lingo, but fairly good-size waves and swells were driving us from the right rear of the boat.  Since the boat kept trying to go to the port side (left for you land lubbers), I had to keep correcting to get it back to starboard (the right side).  But when I did that, the boat would go too far back to the starboard side and then I’d have make another steering correction to get us back on a central course.  So back and forth we went, zigzagging from port to starboard from starboard to port and back to starboard.  (Capt. Kevin told us the steering wheel - I don't know the nautical term for a steering wheel, can actually make six full revolutions which allows the boat to make a very quick turn.)

It was a good thing there were only 5 other paying passengers. When we reached Perkins Cove, we asked one of the woman passengers if my driving, the constant zigzagging back and forth, drove her crazy. She said she actually started to get a little seasick.  Complaints!  Complaints!  She should have taken Dramamine or Bonine like Lily and I before we left the dock.  Lily will add some photographs of the sites we saw on our trip.  And also perhaps a photo of Captain Judith!  We want to extend our thanks to Kevin who was so generous in letting me steer (like a crazy woman) quite some distance and for the wonderful conversation we had about his life at sea.  That was a great adventure and a lot of fun.

Once our feet were back on dry land, we walked around Perkins Cove and stopped in a few of the shops and made several purchases.  I bought my hubby a new dress sweatshirt (dress sweatshirts are nice, new sweatshirts that he hasn’t ruined mowing the lawn or working down cellar, or painting, and they’re still presentable enough to wear out in public) and three new magnetic notepads for the frig door.  He likes the long skinny ones to write his grocery list on.  He actually writes his list by organizing areas on the page by category per how he travels the aisles in our local Stop & Shop.  Eat your hearts out girls!  He’s all mine.

And then it was back to our hotel.  We hadn’t done much in the way of physical activity over the course of the day, so we decided to go swimming in the hotel’s pool.  Lily swam her laps.  I walked my laps.  I did the arm part of the breaststroke and walked with my feet.  I’m still not sure what happened;  my legs seemed to sink to the bottom and my frog kick didn’t seem to propel me very far or fast forward.  Heavens to murgatroid!  All through junior high and high school and on through college I worked summers as a Red Cross swimming instructor and a lifeguard.  How could I no longer do the breaststroke!  Lily laughed and laughed.  I’m hoping the problem was that the pool was too shallow for my long legs.  The deepest part of the pool was only 5’ deep. 

And then back upstairs to our room and to bed.  We were exhausted and need our beauty rest for the next day.