Maine - The Rest of the Trip

Back now from MDI, Southwest Harbor, and the rest of our trip to Maine. All in all, we had a lovely time, ate some incredible seafood, and saw a really impressive part of the U.S.A.

As I posted earlier, we arrived there on Friday afternoon and enjoyed a snack of wine, cheese, fruit, and some nuts on the veranda at the B&B we stayed at (http://www.cranberryhillinn.com/) in Southwest Harbor. We had dinner at Beal's Lobster Pier (http://www.bealslobster.com/), which was a nice, down home lobster pound with picnic tables and lobster on plastic cafeteria trays. Saturday, we did some hiking in Acadia National Park and had lunch in Northeast Harbor, a picturesque, more swanky little town than Southwest. Dinner was at Thurston's Lobster Pound (www.acadiainfo.com/thurstons.htm), a place with a nicer view than Beal's (though you pay a little for it), where I had a pound of steamed clams and a crabcake sandwich to go along with Mina's lobster.

Sunday, we spent the morning doing a little hiking and then wandering through Bar Harbor looking for lunch. We chose a local bar and had some clam chowder and a crab salad sandwich. Following that, we went over to the Atlantic Brewing Co. (http://www.atlanticbrewing.com/) for a tour and tasting. Mina especially liked their Auld Ale, while I thought the Island Ginger, which is made with an amount of pulverized ginger, was particularly interesting. After the tasting, we had a sample of the beers and a little snack. For dinner we went to a third lobster pound, which was a BYOB place, so we had to make a run to IGA to get some beers after putting our order in.

After dinner we dropped by a wine bar in Southwest called Sips that my parents had recommended. A had a taster of three reds, one of which in particular stuck with me. Easton's (http://www.terrerougewines.com/eastonwines.html) 2002 Amador County Zinfandel was one of those wines that you have once in a while that changes your perspective. I long ago became a fan of zinfandel, and would guess that 1 of 3 bottles of red wine that I drink is a zin, so it is always exciting for me to find one that is really impressive. The Easton struck me immediately with a nose that I can only describe as smelling of the ocean, that first whiff of it that you get when you come in sight and roll down the windows. I don't know if my impression was based on actually being near the ocean, so I bought a bottle on Monday morning and will pop it open with my parents the next time we are in Cleveland.

Finally, on Monday, we drove down U.S. 1 along the coast, stopping in Brunswick, Bath, Freeport, Camden, and some other points along the way to do some browsing. The big enchilada, as it were, was a stop at the Kittery outlet mall for a look at the Le Creuset store. Mina grabbed up a butter dish and another little ramekin type pot, and we also picked up a burgundy colored griddle pan that looks like it could be pretty useful. We stopped in Lowell, MA on Monday night and arrived back home in Syracuse on Tuesday afternoon. It was just a nice vacation and I look forward to our next one, whenever that might be.