Anne and I have spent time in Maine for several summers. The last time was before COVID hit, so we were eager to do it again. Ever since I found out about Presque Isle and the subsidized airfares, I have been fascinated by what that part of Maine is like. Presque Isle is right across the border from Canada, so visiting New Brunswick, or even Prince Edward Island, would be quite straightforward.
We are quite "booked up" this summer, and this is the week we can travel. Ellie and her family also wanted to visit the Boston area so the cousins would have a chance to get together. Anne and I would like to participate in some of their activities as we don't get that many chances to get together as an extended family. To do that we gave up the Northern Maine idea, now we plan to spend a couple of days in Somerville, and then drive to Central Maine for a few days. We always enjoyed our Maine trips, so this should turn out okay.
Thursday 7/25. Ellie had left on Tuesday, so we drove up to her place to feed Terra. Terra had just spent about 10 days with us while Ellie and family were away. However, when we got to the apartment, she quickly hid - last time we were in Hoboken we put her in a cat carrier, which she really dislikes. We left our car in the garage, and took an Uber to Newark for our 11:59 am flight. The flight went smoothly (figuratively, it was quite bumpy), and we were upgraded on this 45 minute flight.
Since Joe was picking up Emmie from soccer camp, he wouldn't be able to pick us up. (And it would probably not have been a good idea due to traffic.) We decided to eat at Kelly's at Boston - one of the worst fish & chips I have ever had. Due to closure of the Sumner Tunnel, traffic was horrendous, and it took 55 minutes to get to Somerville - a trip that usually takes less than 20. 20 of those minutes were to leave the airport area.
Joe got back soon after we got to Putnam Road.
Everyone showed up for dinner at the Assembly Square Yakitori Totto.
Kelly's has always been dependable. This Fish and Chips plate was a great disappointment.
Pouring over the menu at Assembly Square Yakitori Totto.
Our four granddaughters.
Accommodations: Putnam Road, Somerville, MA. (2 nights)
Friday 7/26. Spent the day with kids and grandkids.
The older kids love this game "One Night."
The youngest two try their hand at "mini" monopoly.
We ordered takeout from a restaurant in Union Square for dinner. When I scanned my credit card, the "tip" screen came out, and the "recommended" percentage was 25%. I am not an unreasonable tipper, but that was excessive in my judgment. For those who are interested, I did leave a tip, a little smaller than my usual. What's for sure is I will be reluctant to visit the place again.
Saturday 7/27. We booked a Thrifty Car for pickup at the airport at 11 am. Joe dropped us off at about 10:45 am. Most of the car rentals had long lines, including Thrifty/Dollar. There were signs for on-line check in, which was straightforward enough, and was completed just before 11 am. Then the display says car wasn't ready yet, and status would refresh after 15 minutes. One could force the page to refresh, but it didn't matter - it kept telling me the car wasn't ready yet. Anne meanwhile went to the car pick up area and stood in line while I stayed in line for an agent to check in. (Frankly we didn't know what to do.) Well, when it came to Anne's turn, she said she did on line check in, and the agent assigned a Toyota Corolla to her without checking anything. So I left the line and went over there, and it took a while to set things up (GPS, EZ Pass). When we got to the Exit gate agent, he wouldn't let us out saying we didn't have the necessary papers. So we went back to the lot agent who proceeded to "force" the car onto our reservation. It worked, but it was about 12:30 pm that we managed to leave the lot. Today traffic wasn't as bad, and it took about 25 minutes to get to Putnam.
When we rented a car in Florida in March, Thrifty was the speedy agency, so the service level is probably location-dependent. What is inexcusable is there were only two to three agents during the hour I was in line.
One is supposed to wait for this screen to show up. We couldn't take the rental car (assigned by an agent) out of the parking lot, and had to return to the counter so they could manually correct the problem in their system.
Our rental car is a brand new (odometer reading 185 mi) Toyota Corolla.
The 2024 Toyota Corolla had 185 miles on it when we picked it up.
The photo shows ODO reading at 1160 mi, so we drove just shy of 1000 miles for the trip. The average gas economy is a respectable 40 mpg.
We took the three grandkids to Yoki for a very late lunch. Ellie had left earlier in the morning.
The cousins get along very well, but don't get to see each other that often.
Jess's sister is visiting with her family of four, so we checked into a hotel for the night. Dinner was at Five Guys. I was shocked that a cheeseburger now costs over $10.
Accommodation: AC Hotel, Medford, MA (1 night).
Sunday 7/28. AC Hotel doesn't offer free breakfasts for Bonvoy Platinum members, but does give a $10 per person food credit. Breakfast at this places costs $21, the spread may be laid out nicely, but the selection is pitiful. One could order from the kitchen, and we got a ham and cheese omelet. Enough to fill us for the morning.
Traffic was quite busy along the way, especially in the opposite direction. An accident caused a miles-long delay in Maine. This is just like summer traffic pattern along the Jersey shore.
Our original plan was to drive to Erica's for lunch, but we decided to stop by the "When Pigs Fly" bakery for some bread - we ended up picking the maple walnut banana loaf, which was very good. We stopped at the nearby Mackworth State Park and made a lunch out of it. The park also offered nice views of the sea at many vantage points.
We decided to check in first, rested for a bit, and then drove down the Harpswell peninsula and islands. We managed to go down all three "fingers" of the main peninsula. When we got to Erica's, we found out it was closed for the day; it looked like there was a private event. We therefore drove to Sundrenched Restaurant at the south end of the Bailey Island Bridge. It looked a lot different from what we remembered of our first visit many years ago. The food was good but quite expensive. A lobster roll with 4 oz of meat (what one gets from a small lobster) is $29. The large sea scallops reminded me of Atlantic Seafood Company in Boston.
We took a detour to drive by a Chinese Restaurant in Brunswick we may or may not have eaten several years back.
It was 8:15 pm or so when we got back to the hotel.
Breakfast "inspired" by Euorpean continental breakfasts costs $21 at the AC Hotel.
One could order an omelet from the kitchen. Mozzarella cheese and sliced ham.
View from South Harpswell, the rightmost finger of the three at the end of the Harpswell peninsula.
Middle finger view.
Dinner at Sundrenched, at the former location of Cribstone Grill. The four scallops are huge.
Across the restaurant.
Mackarel Cove is at the southern end of Bailey's Island.
Sign explaining the geology of the Giant Stairs.
It takes some imagination to see these as stairs. A slope, maybe.
Northern end of Orr's Island.
A search of the internet returned some interesting facts about the restaurant. It was called Morse's Cribstone Grill until it closed in 2021 (and so identified in my 2015 blog entry). The current owners brought it back as Sundrenched. The Morses, meanwhile, opened a seafood truck in the area after a short break.
Accommodations: Fairfield Inn, Brunswick, Maine. (1 night)
Monday 7/29. We checked out of Fairfield Inn late morning. The day was mostly spent driving around the area, and having lobster for lunch and dinner. Lunch was at Five Islands Lobster Co; dinner at Boothbay Lobster Wharf. Prices were still reasonable, with 2 soft shell lobsters and 2 corns costing $29.99.
We last visited Boothbay Harbor area in 2021, and so far we have noticed a few major changes. First, the footbridge has been redone (in 2023, prior one built in the 1970s). It was probably time, but the bridge lost much of its charm. Second, the house in the middle now has a fence against the bridge to ward off people looking in. Third (and this happened in 2018, we just never noticed it) the Lobster Dock Restaurant is no longer there; it had been doing good business, so not expected.
At Lookout Point in Harpswell are a hotel and a food truck (Morse, described earlier).
View from Lookout Point. On a nice day I can sit here and admire the view for a long time.
Lunch at Five Islands Lobster Co. We were here before.
View from the shack. It got a bit misty during the day.
Eros Oysters farm on the Sasanoa River on St. George Island.
Oyster trays.
Dinner at Boothbay Lobster Wharf.
The "new" Boothbay Harbor Foot Bridge.
The redone Boothbay Harbor foot bridge. The house in the middle is now fenced in.
Some people and businesses are very serious about their flower gardens. Wild carrots (not water hemlock), cone flowers, and garden phloxes.
We walked along the familiar streets of Boothbay Harbor before we called it a day.
Accommodations: Thistle Inn, Boothbay Harbor. (2 nights)
Tuesday 7/30. Today we went on the Puffin Cruise offered by Cap'n'Fish, leaving Boothbay Harbor. We must have been on this same cruise 3 or 4 times before. The swells were quite substantial on the 40 or so minute ride over, although the waters were calm near Eastern Egg Rock. We saw the usual suspects: puffins, guillemots, sea gulls, eider ducks, a seal and a porpoise. While the trip was enjoyable (could use calmer seas), I didn't feel as excited this time. Perhaps time to move on to other puffins sites.
We had lunch at Baker's Way close to the Inn. They serve Vietnamese dishes as well as regular American fare such as breakfast sandwiches. The outdoor sitting area has a good view of the harbor.
After resting for a couple of hours, we decided to visit the lighthouse made famous by the movie Forrest Gump. Turns out we visited Marshall Point Lighthouse on a prior trip. Afterwards we decided to drive to Red's Eats for dinner. The line wasn't particularly long, but it still took about 45 minutes before we ordered our food. We got back to the hotel at about 8:15 pm.
I don't recall seeing these tents on the island the last few times I visited.
Anne took the photo of this raft of puffins.
Two puffins taking flight.
The white spots are probably puffins. Anne's photo.
The captain mentioned this is called the squirrel island ...
... as suggested by an aerial view of the place.
We passed by two lighthouses on the way to see the puffins. This is the Ram Island Lighthouse.
Burnt Island Light.
We drove about 90 minutes to see the Marshall Point Lighthouse, only discussed we had visited before.
The lobster roll at Red's Eats costs $36. Other items are priced quite reasonably.
Ordered after a 45 minute wait. Now to find a seat - not a problems towards the end of the day.
Lobster roll, fried clams, and fried scallops. The scallops are similar in size to the ones we had at Sundrenched.
Wednesday 7/31. We drove from Boothbay Harbor to Bucksport today, stopping at Damariscotta, Rockland, Rockport, Camden, Belfast, and Lincolnville along the way.
This was the first trip where we noticed this "star-pine" combination. This was the Maine State flag used from 1901-1908 (approx). I wonder if there is a political meaning behind the revival.
Damariscotta.
This fish ladder is for alewives which migrate upstream to spawn every spring. The ladder has an elevation of 42', and 1.7 million fish go up every year, with each female producing 10s of 1000s of eggs up to 8 times in her lifetime. These were (are) used as bait for lobster traps.
Evidently a couple of seagulls still find this a good hunting ground.
This osprey nest is right next to a parking lot in Rockland. The parent lets out a curious sound when it sees people approaching. The other bird is a baby (?). The parking lot is close to the Lobster Festival (see below) and is free. The lot across the festival charged $20.
We happen to be here for the Maine Lobster Festival.
The Cooker behind Anne can cook up to 1,600 lbs of lobsters at a time. That's over 1000 lobsters.
These are expensive prices. A 3-lobster 2-corn meal at Boothbay Harbor Wharf costs $37, here it is $85.
We had been here before.
These two rolls cost about $40.
Andre the Seal at Rockport.
Megunticook Falls in Camden.
Megunticook River.
Camden Harbor.
This was our first visit to Belfast. The name of the river is Passagassawakeag, which in the native language means "Spearing sturgeon by torchlight."
This is a 440-ton travel lift. The one at Irwin Marine is 25 tons.
The blue line is the historical high water mark set in 1978. The sign would indicate the water level would be between the green and red markers in 2050 - about 25 years from now.
This is the science behind the claim. I will let the reader decide how credible the conclusions are. First, without the benefit of the calculated projections, most people would extrapolate the actual data out and say the water level rise will be around 6 inches. Two, the blue marker that was in the previous photo marked how high the water was during a storm, no doubt. Most people would misread the green and red markers as how high the "normal" water level would be. There is a disclaimer that the chart was developed for Portland.
Our hotel in Bucksport has a nice view of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.
Thursday 8/1. We made our way slowly from Bucksport to Manchester, NH. Why NH? It's reasonably close to Somerville, MA, and the hotels here cost a lot less. During the years I came to this area frequently, I often flew into Manchester for its convenient location.
We started a little before 11 am, and checked into our hotel at around 6:30 pm. Per Google Maps, this 215 mile journey should take 3:30 hours, if there is no traffic. While we encountered some heavy traffic, there was no serious issues on our way. So what did we do to end up with the extra four hours we took?
We stopped at the Fort Point State Park to take a look at the Fort Point Lighthouse. Second, Google Maps has this habit of taking these less traveled roads, which may shave a miniscule amount of time from the trip, and often end up making bad choices for the routing. For today, instead of simply taking us down US-1, it suggested a route where we passed by a sign "Helen's Farm, 1 mile." We had seen that sign a couple of times elsewhere (US-1, probably), so we decided to visit. Somewhat similar to the "Wall Drug" experience as we drove across the country about 50 years ago. Helen's Farm is a respectable looking outfit, doing reasonable business. We bought a couple of muffins as a snack to eat in Wiscasset, and a pint of blueberries. The blueberries were good sized but had an unremarkable flavor.
By the time we got to Erica's Seafood, it was around 3 pm. I had hoped to eat another one or two boiled lobsters to mark the end of the trip; to my great chagrin this hasn't been offered for several years now. They still sell live ones; today softshells are at $7 a pound, a great price. We ended up having a lobster roll and some fried clams, but without the boiled lobsters there aren't particular strong reasons to take the 30-minute detour to get to the tip of the peninsula. I also had to stop for coffee.
Dinner was at a 99 Restaurant near our hotel.
Same view early in the morning (Anne took this photo).
Fort Point Lighthouse. We drove by some lovely landscape to get here.
Helen's Farm Market.
Erica's Seafood. Alas, they don't sell cooked life lobsters anymore.
So we had a lobster roll, fried clams, and cole slaw.
An example of the great mileage Corolla gets. This is mostly highway driving from when I topped up the gas tank at Waldoborough and stopped at Fairfield Manchester. (Note: the time on the clock is incorrect; the time was 6:43 pm.)
Accommodations: Fairfield Manchester Airport, New Hampshire. (1 night.)
Friday 8/2. Our plan is to stop by Putnam at around 4 pm to say goodbye to Joe and Emmie (the rest plan to be in Lexington). After checking out of the hotel, we drove the 1:15 hours to Flume Gorge. The Flume Gorge trail is a 2 mile walk lasting about 2 hours. Anne didn't want to do the entire length and turned back after 1/2 mile or so. I planned to walk a bit further, found this trail towards the flume, and walked along it until I reached the Avalanche Falls.
The All Trails APP outlines the Flume Gorge Trail. I walked to approximately the lower right hand corner of the triangle.
This covered bridge dates back to 1886.
Glacial rock.
Table Rock.
Explanation of how flume was formed.
Avalanche Falls.
We did get back to Boston at around 4 pm, and then we left for the airport. Traffic was bad when we got close to the rental car area, but we had a lot of time so that wasn't an issue.
With a couple of hours on our hands, we decided to stop by the Chase Lounge. We were told the wait would be about 30-40 minutes, it ended up being an hour. The lounge was busy, and it took us a while to find reasonable seats. Ordering food was quite easy, and it took less than 15 minutes for the food to be delivered.
Food readily available at the Chase Lounge at BOS.
The QR code allows food to be ordered and delivered (in less than 15 minutes in this case).
After we finalized our plan for the day, we decided to change to an earlier flight (7:10 pm instead of 8:45 pm departure). Soon afterwards we got a note that the 7:10 pm flight would be delayed to 9 pm because of weather. The weather forecast didn't show any issues in the morning. As the day progressed bad weather did hit both Newark and Boston, and many flights were delayed, and quite a few canceled. Two flights from Newark to Boston were canceled - one due to weather, the other due to mechanical problems. The originally scheduled plane for our flight (7:10 pm) never made it to Boston, and the substitute was at the airport as early as 2 pm. My guess is there was no available crew for the flight. Also, the flight ended up being a lot emptier than an earlier seat map would indicate. Things can get quite chaotic when bad weather interrupts airport operations. Indeed when we arrived at Newark at 10:30 pm, Terminal A - which would be quite empty by this time - was still busy, and we noticed flights that hadn't taken off after long delays (longest we saw was 8 hours).
A few remarks about Terminal A, which many consider a great terminal. I think looking nice doesn't equate to well-designed. The real test of an airport is when things go awry, and things were chaotic today, as they were when we first encountered the Terminal. The Uber driver was also telling us how bad the traffic design was. I would also add that the bathrooms have these ledges that people easily bump their heads against. If the terminal is designed for travelers, it is inexcusable that many eateries close precisely when delayed passengers need to find something to eat.
We took an Uber to Hoboken to pick up our car. It was about 12:30 pm when we got home.
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