To fulfill our yearly quota of delicious food and scenic drives, my sister organized an amazing trip to the US state of Maine. End of July, we flew from Toronto to Boston, where we met briefly with P & S, to hire a car for our drive to Maine. The lady at the rental booth was friendly as could be and I think that she upgraded us to a better car, some sort of Lincoln that had a camera on the back and all sorts of sensors that took some getting used to.

We drove up there on a beautiful afternoon, I absolutely love driving on holidays, not so much to work, but holiday road trips are my favourite thing in the world. On the way up we stopped off Wiscasset to have our first lobster roll. We didn’t eat at Red’s probably what looked to be the most popular lobster joint, but at a place across the road, Sprague’s Lobster. Well, it was amazing. I drool over thinking about the first of many lobster rolls that we had while in Maine. Another lobster roll well worth mentioning was at Muscongus Bay Lobster Co.

We arrived at our cottage, which was near Boothbay, on a lake called Knickerbocker Lake. The cottage was nice, but the location was what made it. The lake was so beautiful and clear and the weather incredible. Warm but not too hot, with a nice crispiness in the air. Enough warmth to jump in the beautiful lake for a swim and then hop out and warm up on the verandah of the cottage. There was also a miniature cottage with a single bedroom that one of was meant to stay in. All of us having come from big cities it was impossible for any of us to sleep there alone, it was just way too quiet.

For our first lunch, or I think it was our first lunch, we went up the road to Bet’s Fish Fry. The fish and fries were delicious, something that I have been really missing since moving away from a coastal area. Over the coming days we spent our time kayaking up and down the lake in beautiful sunshine and relaxing with a few road trips around the area. One was Pemaquid, one of the many Lighthouses around which started off grey and gloomy to have it turn within an hour to beautiful blue skies. Another road trip was made to the lovely Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. If there is something else in abundance in the area other than lobster, is the many, and by many I mean tons, of antique shops. Taxidermy is not something I am too keen to remember, but it is hard to forget a collection of squirrel bottoms only.

Our last outing was a trip the Cabbage Island Clambake, thanks to some handy work by P. based in NYC at the time. We caught a boat that took us for a trip among the various islands surrounding the area, finally stopping at Cabbage Island. Here we had their famous clambake which included two lobsters, clams and some potatoes. The meal was good, but I feel as though we had better throughout our stay. The best part about the clambake was the boat ride and the experience of being on the island. The lady who ran the gift shop looked the best part of 3 figures in age and her two sons looked as if they had been on the moonshine since breakfast time. So an interesting experience all in all.
It was sad to eventually have to pack up and head home. Thankfully I had my sister coming to visit in Toronto for a couple of days making the effort of having to go back to work a bit easier.