Maine Trip

Next adventure! Off to visit my cousin in Maine! I always relax a little, after we get the process of packing, getting to the airport, checking our bags, and getting to the gate, out of the way. 

No delays getting to, or going through, the airport, whew… just finished reading the safety card for the A320, my first time on this type aircraft. Nice to have a little extra leg room in the exit row.

After all our concern with the CloudStrike fiasco, our travel day went surprisingly well! The one hiccup was the plugged-up Boston traffic. 

We’re now comfortably ensconced at our vacation lodging near Bath, Maine. We’ve already enjoyed the gorgeous view, and a flyby of the local Heron and Osprey. 

We had a beautiful moonlit view from the living room, just before bed. 

7/21 We awoke to a beautiful Sunday post-travel morning. It was fun to see the uncovered land bridge, from the mainland over to Jenny's Nubble at low tide. Living in Colorado, we don't have much occasion to pay attention to the tides, but here the tidal range is approaching ten feet. Makes a difference!

 

We loved watching the crab boats come pick up their traps, and place new ones, every morning while eating Jennefer's delicious home-cooked breakfasts.

 

The local sailboats also provided us with some fun marine-themed entertainment. This sailor criss-crossed our view of the New Meadows river and Winnegance Bay many times.

 

We spent the day wandering around historic downtown Bath, and exploring the parks, views, and shops, in particular one very fun store named "Now You're Cooking", which is full of interesting kitchen utensils and other delightful gadgets.

 

Close up of the whimsical weathervane on top of the City Hall in the Davenport Memorial Building. Seems appropriate, considering the rich history there, of building sailing ships. 

 

We spent lots of time enjoying the view out of our living room window, especially at sunset.

We tried taking some full moon pictures with our relatively new cameras. The double image was from the two window panes, but I wasn’t venturing outside to do battle with the mosquitoes, just for a better photo.

7/22 We had a delightful breakfast table view of the crab boats managing their traps, at this beautiful place on the Maine shoreline. 

We took a little bit longer Monday walk to the Green Point Preserve, with a fun Barred Owl sighting.

7/23 We enjoyed a cool and rainy, but delightful Puffin viewing cruise! I’m always concerned about the possibility of motion sickness on an ocean cruise, but this went well for me. 

We got well and truly soaked by a widespread rainstorm on our way out to Eastern Egg Rock island, but loved every minute. We sought out a warm local seafood restaurant afterwards to try to dry out a little. 

7/24 We woke up to a wonderfully foggy 69° Wednesday morning, at our rental house in West Bath. This foggy moored sailboat view reminded me of paintings I've seen and loved.

We got back safe, after our winding trip through the Maine back roads, to see the play “Shakespeare’s Will” at the Theater at Monmouth. Beautiful old theater! The actress did such a wonderful job. Man, that theater was cold! Once again, I was thankful to have a good GPS receiver and navigation apps, to guide us safely to a place I’ve never been, and back in the dark of night, with no concerns.

7/25 Beautifully foggy 57° Thursday morning in Maine. Jennefer cooked us all breakfast, for most of the days we were there. We did hop over to Mae's Bakery and Cafe for some different breakfast and take-home dessert choices.

My sister found us a fun afternoon walk at Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, in the coastal forest a couple of peninsulas over from where we're staying. She said, "It's really different from anything I’ve hiked before. It felt like the old forest - closest thing I can think of is the Black Forest in Germany."

7/26 Pleasant start to our Friday morning. It's always fun for me, to watch the boats, and the local wildlife, including a nearby Cormorant on a buoy, drying their wings. 

We had a humid but delightful Friday afternoon at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, which are pretty amazing, with some good trails for hiking, too. 

7/27 Travel day to Boston. We started with a clear and comfortable 70° Saturday morning on the Maine coast. We’re starting to slow down a little, after our initially frenzied pre-departure housecleaning. 

I’m sad to be leaving this place, but looking forward to seeing my cousin's daughter and her family tomorrow.

Our Boston hotel room, on the other side of the hotel, had not quite as pretty of a Boston city view as we had last year, but still nice. 

We had a delicious dinner at The Daily Catch Waterfront restaurant, a short walk from our hotel on Long Wharf. We sat outside, and had an inquisitive visitor nearby. The girls all love birds, so that kept us busy, through the short wait until our dinner came. 

7/28 We awoke to a hazy 71° Sunday morning at Boston harbor... my sister and I went for a walk to the local coffee shop, and I was able to redeem my free birthday item - cinnamon coffee cake, of course!

We kept ourselves busy for the rest of the morning, with a delightful Trolley tour of Boston. They wandered all over downtown Boston, and inundated us with so many facts, I think we all ran out of brain cells to process it all.

That afternoon, we headed over to my cousin’s “new” home in Melrose. It was new to them two years ago, so I suppose now it's routine to them. We enjoyed seeing them in their own house, instead of their old apartment. After we arrived, and the oldest son had given each visitor their own personal tour, I was treated to a happy birthday party at my cousin’s house. 

We got to see everyone we missed last year, when COVID-19 hit their house when we were in town, and finally met their newest son, who arrived during the pandemic. 

 

The older son was very sure of himself, even with all of us rarely-seen family around. I enjoyed having him tell me all about everything. 

After more than a week of failed daily attempts to find my favorite Entenmann’s crumb coffee cake in the local Maine grocery stores, I was ready to admit defeat, and one day away from heading home without it. My cousin and her husband came to the rescue, presenting me with the only box he could find, on my birthday. What a pleasant surprise! 

Once the party and other fun activities with my cousin and her family were done, we headed back to our hotel, and were treated to a pretty sunset view reflecting off downtown Boston.

7/29 Travel day heading home. It was fun to see the old Constitution sailing ship from our room on this cool moist overcast morning. We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant to keep things simple, then picked up our rental car from the valet, and headed off to find gas for the car, and then the car rental return facility. That wasn’t as easy as expected, as there were quite a few road closures, and we ended up going in a circle around downtown once, before we finally were on our way in the Blue Line Bus to the airport. Glad we left ourselves tons of extra time for this part of the trip. 

Quiet, cool & moist Monday at Boston Logan airport, and a mostly relaxed beginning to our travel experience. We had to wait an extra hour for our flight crew to get here, but that just gave us plenty of time to explore the menu at Legal Seafoods. Their crab cake sandwich and Boston Cream Pie were delicious!

And then we were off! We had some fun cloud views out the window during the climbout. According to the map, we saw Lovells Island, just before we disappeared into the cloud layer. I was able to squeeze in exactly two movies. I didn’t expect to enjoy the end credits music as much, so I found myself still listening to them, as they were shutting down our 737-900 at the gate. Perfect timing!

Home sweet home! The kitties were happy to see us, if a little skittish, after our first extended time away from them. We were glad to receive occasional updates from the cat sitter, which helped us enjoy the trip.