Carnivals and Beaches

Maine! Glorious Maine! Windows down, radio up.  It's so cold here that you actually begin to believe that you need to purchase winter gear to survive the dead of summer... so we took the advice of our buddy Kyle Acker and made our way to the L.L. Bean flagship campus in Freeport for some extensive shopping and shoe climbing.

That's a big boot.

 

Mark went crazy at L.L. Bean. He skipped from rugged man clothing section to section, replenishing his aging supply of cargo pants and shorts.  Sure, they're not so popular in "mainstream" stores as they used to be...but, he's keeping the dream alive.

Pockets.  You can keep stuff in them.

He purchased a set of lightweight sleeping bags, a rolling pin and a wooden travel chess set. Everything seemed like a good idea.

Using his aged and torn cargo shorts to store his new chess set and rolling pin, he hauled 4 bags of L.L. Bean merchandise to the truck and bathed in the glory of his purchases as we headed to our campsite in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

A small town located on the outskirts of Portland, Old Orchard Beach will make you believe that you're walking through scenes from a classic 80's movie where modern adolescent life collides with nostalgic turn of the century carnival relics.

Two blocks from the beach, we checked in to Paradise Park Resort, an adorable family-run campground.  The entire family came out to greet us, including Dad and his two sons - all in golf carts and all ready to help Mark back our big rig into the campsite.

Mark, a language chameleon and a sucker for a local dialect, jumped right in to the rapid-fire conversation about "lefts", "rights", "hold its" until they got the 40 foot "monstah campah pahked in the wicked tight space" with the help of the New England natives. 

 

Old Orchard Beach smells like cotton candy and greets you with all of the best memories of your childhood: fried dough, fresh cut french fries, and a pier that juts out into the Atlantic complete with swirling seagulls and schooners sailing lazily by.

 

 

 

The next morning, we headed in to the "big city" (biggest city in Maine), for the The Maine Foodie Tour of Portland. 

 

 

 

 

Portland is a real foodie city, and the best thing we found was the Holy Donut. Donuts made from mashed potatoes and lots of yummy local and amazing flavors. IF we tried them all (and we're not saying we did), we'd tell you that the dark chocolate sea salt is the best. 

 

The kids were begging for a beach day, so we loaded up our L.L. Bean beach chairs and got sandy and sunburned between breaks for hot dogs and fried dough. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our last day in the Portland area, we took a drive out to Cape Elizabeth and practically melted over the divine scenery. 

The Lobster Shack, home to lunch with a breathtaking view, provided an excellent backdrop for lobster rolls and clam chowder. 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, we drove over to explore the Portland Head Light and hike the Cliff Walk. 

 

 

 

We finished off the day with an early 4th of July celebration of baseball and fireworks while we cheered on the Portland Sea Dogs! Let's go Sea Dogs! 

 

 

The Sea Dogs were down by 7 in the bottom of the 9th, so Mark got serious about trying to help them turn things around. What you see pictured below is a "rally cap". April didn't know what that was. Neither did the 9 year old sitting next to Mark. After he explained it, everybody was on board. He said, "We have ONE, and I mean ONE goal - to make an incredible comeback."

Sadly, that goal was not realized. The Sea Dogs were pummeled.

Even though the Sea Dogs lost ...  this stop was a WIN! On to Rockport, Maine! 

Our Mainely Great Destination

Maine!! We're here!! Hooray!!

We finally made it after an exciting and eventful trip up the East Coast.

We kicked off our Maine Event with the bustling little town of Kennebunkport. Which is conveniently attached to the little town of Kennebunk. While we had a tough time remembering which is which, its sufficient to say that both are super cute and super coastal.

We had no sooner parked our camper than the boys hopped out to enjoy the 78 degree weather and the soft grass. It was no sooner that the boys had touched the turf that Mark started insisting on regular tick checks because this is "Lyme Disease: Ground Zero".

 

Our first morning in Maine we embarked on a Maine Foodie Tour (there will be two more of these in other towns). The crack of dawn 10:30am meeting time required an alarm clock..... We will have to cope.

We started the tour with a stop that was hosted by quite possibly the friendliest family business in the history of the land: The Clam Shack. Peeps like Barbara Bush have their bday parties catered by this crew - so you know they must be doing something right! 

 

Mom and Dad run The Sugar Shack down the street, while their 3 daughters hold down their empire at The Clam Shack. Here, they serve their lobster rolls with mayo AND butter "because you're on vacation" or just mayo OR butter if you're a local....because you don't want to become a fatty.

 

 

 

Across the street, our second stop on the tour was home to the best clam chowder ever... Alisson's Restaurant. Yes, they did name it in the spirit of Arlo Guthrie's never ending song. April asked Mark what this reference was about...she had never heard the song "Alice's Restaurant." Too bad for her, because you can get anything you want at....

 

Andrew was not so into the clam chowder but Max dove right in and said "I love it. I love this soup." He then ate the whole bowl. And ate it for lunch again the next day as well. 

 

Next door was the  world famous Rococo.... Which is like gelato but with a much higher milk fat content level. Like 20% milk fat. It's an "occasional indulgence," they say. And that's why we ate it every day we were in town! 

 

 

Goat Cheese Blackberry Chambord or Passion Fruit? Who can decide? 

 

The next day we needed some rugged activity to burn off all those calories, so we boarded the Rugosa Lobster Tours boat for more lobster fun! 

 

 

 

 

As soon as we got off the boat, we stumble upon a free crab catching lesson, hosted by one of the local hotels out on the dock. We jumped right in and totally slayed them, catching 36 crabs in 15 minutes! Because that is how it's done Down East by a bunch of boys from Down South.

 

 

After a quick nap, we headed over to the beach. It was raining and the water was cold. Familiar with the bathtub-like water of the Gulf of Mexico, Andrew was completely perplexed by the frigid near-arctic temperature of the Atlantic this far North. He tried all sorts of things to "warm up the ocean" - sun dances, prayers, and even covering his feet in sand as a wet suit. 

 

He was thrilled when the sun came out :) 

 

 

The next day, we cruised down the street from our campground to the Seashore Trolley Museum. Here, a bunch of really patient volunteers work endlessly to fix up and keep up old Maine trolley cars. They even worked for two years to lay two miles of railroad track in the middle of nowhere to have a means of taking their visitors on a real deal trolley ride. Amazing passion to preserve a piece of the past! Of course, we had to wait 2 hours for the trolley ride to start because of a lightning storm. Apparently, trolleys don't react well to sudden bolts of lightning. 

 

 

 

A good example of what happens during educational trips that involve neither war nor weapons. Andrew gets bored .... 

 

 

Thanks Kennebunkport! You were lobster-iffic! We're off to Portland, Maine