Welcome to the ninth and final installment of the Maid Goes to Maine. If you’ve been keeping track, you are no doubt thinking “it’s about damn time!” Other obligations have forced me to draw out this saga way longer than I intended. We could have walked to Maine and back in the time it has taken me to tell you about it. Anyway, we are at last at the end of the journey.
Before leaving Bar Harbor, we took some time Continue reading
You’d think that after 50-some years on this planet, I’d have learned to go with the flow. Sometimes a detour, a mistake, or a miscalculation can result in something much better than what was originally planned. The universe tried to teach me that lesson again during our vacation in Maine.
We had planned to do some hiking at Acadia National Park after enjoying the views from Cadillac Mountain, but had to cancel when a storm came through. So, the next day, Mr. Maid and I were going to devote most of our day to hiking a few of the trails in the park.
A few years ago we started buying “Best Easy Day Hikes” books from Falcon Guides for our destinations. We’re a bit more advanced than the term “Easy” would imply, but by no means are we experts. Our daily life and our local terrain don’t give us much opportunity to get in tip-top hiking shape. Day hikes of no more than five or ten miles at a time are sufficient for this pair of old geezers with our creaky knees and aching feet. The most strenuous hikes in the “Easy” guides are usually, to steal a line from Goldilocks, “just right.” Continue reading
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Acadia National Park is located just outside Bar Harbor, Maine. This makes it very easy to spend a fun filled day doing something both in town and in the park.
When we decided to go to Maine, Mr. Maid half-jokingly said he wanted to go out on a lobster boat. While researching things to do on our vacation I came across the website for Lulu Lobster Boat. Mr. Maid may have been imagining exciting scenes from The Deadliest Catch or The Perfect Storm. What we got instead was a very enjoyable and educational trip and neither of us had to risk our lives.
Once again I feel I must begin with an apology. A few of my fellow bloggers have chastised me for not getting any photos of the incredible breakfasts offered by The Manor House Inn for my last post. In my attempts to spend my vacation somewhat “unplugged,” I was not thinking about blogging opportunities throughout my journey. I will assume that this is just one more reason why I will need to return to Maine in the near future.
I hope that I will appease the critics with some pictures of the delectable scenery instead. I’ve traveled to several National Parks around the United States, and Acadia National Park does not disappoint. You can visit the official website here.
One thing I love about this park is its proximity to Bar Harbor. Our B&B was right downtown, but it was less than three miles to the park’s main entrance and Visitors Center. If you’ve ever visited any Continue reading
I was going to start this post by apologizing for the delay since my last post, but I’m sure no one has even noticed. It’s not like I left you at a cliffhanger… Will the Maid make it to Bar Harbor? Will Mr. Maid singlehandedly deplete Maine’s lobster and IPA resources? If you have noticed the delay, I’m humbled… but honestly, you need to find a hobby.
Anyway, my saga left off just as we finished our trek up the coast of Maine and arrived in Bar Harbor. As I explained in Part 4, our trip occurred during the off-season, so there were some good prices on lodging. We ended up booking a suite at The Manor House Inn. The house was built in 1887 Continue reading
Monday morning dawned bright and sunny as we said goodbye to Portland. Our visit was short, but we had a good sampling of what this nice little city had to offer. The next leg of our Maine journey would take us to Bar Harbor, where we would spend the majority of our week. This part of Maine is known as “Down East,” something that sounds a bit funny, as it is so much further north, or “up” from the rest of the country. The 175 mile drive Continue reading
After finally escaping our annoying airplane neighbors described in Part 1, Mr. Maid and I landed in Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine. That’s right. Not an airport, a “jetport”. Not sure why they call it that, but it made me feel a bit like Jane Jetson.
Fancy name aside, it is a really nice, small airport only a few miles from downtown Portland. In no time we had collected our bags, picked up our rental car and hit the road for our hotel in the Old Port district of the largest city in Maine. Continue reading
I don’t travel as much as I’d like to, and I definitely don’t travel enough to make this a travel blog. But I recently returned from a lovely vacation with Mr. Maid to the awe-inspiring Maine coast that I mentioned in my post Coastally Deprived. I’d love to tell you about it.
This is what happens when you leave your job. I have no coworkers to talk to about my trip, so I get to play show-and-tell with all of you kind people! So, I will spend the next few posts boring you recounting spine-tingling tales of our journey.
Before I get to the “good stuff” of our beautiful travel destination, I want to tell you about our adventures getting there. Most of our vacations are road trips, but since we only had a week, we decided to fly and rent a car.
We’d heard the recent horror stories about long TSA lines and missed flights. Mr. Maid and I both hate feeling rushed, so we left home Continue reading
I wrote this post a few weeks ago and I’m resubmitting it in response to the WordPress Daily Post prompt of “Water.”
For yet another day (I’ve forgot how many so far) the temperature here in my part of the Midwest U.S. will be near 100 degrees. This is just one reason why I am so thrilled to be heading out on vacation in a few days. Mr. Maid and I are packing up to spend a week in Maine where the high temperatures promise to be in the low 70s. Sounds like absolute heaven!
Our plan isn’t complicated: explore the coast between Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine, hike in Acadia National Park, sample local beer and wine, and eat our weight in lobster.
As a lifelong resident of Illinois, it will be a particular treat to spend time by the ocean. The sea is so foreign to a landlubber like me. I am jealous of those who live near it and wonder if they take it for granted.
The bodies of water that I grew up with were limited to lakes and backyard pools.
The pools in our middle-class neighborhood were not snazzy “c-ment ponds” like on The Beverly Hillbillies, but the above Continue reading
Maid's Day Off 