Maine Road Trip 2020

September 11-23, 2020

Day 0/1 – Portland, Maine (part 1) – We flew into the Boston airport and rented a car to drive to Portland, ME to start our Maine Coastline trip! It was our first time flying since the pandemic, but Delta went out of their way to make everyone feel safe – from required masks, spaced out seating (one party to a row), sanitizing wipes, pre-bagged drinks/snacks (w/ hand sanitizer included) and a changed boarding sequence (back to front). Maine requires a negative COVID test within 72 hours or you have to quarantine. This is enforced by the hotels, and you have to sign a waiver when you check in.

It was dark by the time we got to Portland, due to a 1+ hour car rental shuttle/line, and a dinner stop in Newburyport, Mass. We stayed at the Press Hotel, which was the former home of the Portland Press Herald newspaper. All the décor is 1920’s newspaper themed, it’s very cool!

We slept in and grabbed breakfast at Gross Bakery, and then a second breakfast at HiFi Donuts. Our hotel was at the top of the Old Port district, so it was walking distance to lots of shops and restaurants. Due to the pandemic, Portland made some of the popular downtown streets pedestrian only and allowed cafes to add outdoor seating where cars used to park. A lot of people are wearing masks, even outside, and go out of their way to avoid being within 6′ of another group. It’s a different world up here.

We spent some time exploring the Portland Museum of Art, which has an impressive collection for a smaller museum, from Picasso, Degas & Monet to vintage LL Bean. You had to reserve a time in advance, and capacity was capped.

Day 1 – Portland, Maine (part 2) – Once we had walked all over Old Port, we grabbed the car and headed to Portland Head Light and Fort Williams Park. The lighthouse was built in 1787 at the directive of George Washington. You can walk along the cliffs and get some great views of the lighthouse. There were lots of people were out picnicking and enjoying the cooler weather. Next stop was the Bug Light, a squat little lighthouse with great views of Portland from the other side of the water.

We then drove to the other side of Portland to Allagash Brewing Co. (a classic), but they were doing to-go package only. We did grab our first Maine lobster and whoopie pies at the food truck in their parking lot though. YUM! Peter was on a mission to have lobster EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Since we missed out on beer tasting at Allagash, we headed to Austin Street Brewing’s new tasting room closer to city center. They have a great patio space (with lots of cute dogs), and delicious beer. Well worth the stop. We have noticed that a lot of breweries/distilleries/cideries, etc. are all clustered together here, so you can hop from one to another very easily. All seemed to be doing a booming patio business (socially distanced of course). From there we cruised around a few areas of Portland that we had not walked, to see the sights and then headed back to the hotel early to shower and rest.

Day 2 – Drive to Camden, Maine – It feels like we spent most of our day driving or in food lines. We woke up in time to join the queue at The Holy Donut before they opened at 8AM. We passed it several times yesterday and the line was outrageous all day. We picked 3 donuts. All were great, but my favorite was Maine Apple Cider and Peter’s fav was Chocolate Sea Salt. I’m not typically a big donut fan, but these are made from potatoes and had more of a cake consistency.

Our next food line was in Wiscasset, ME (self-proclaimed “prettiest town in Maine”) at Red’s Eats, a little seafood shack with a huge following. We got there about an hour before they opened and joined the line (first in line!). We split one of their famous lobster rolls and some scallops (Day 2 lobster = check!). It was a cute little town!

We continued our drive through Boothbay Harbor (a very touristy town) and on to Camden. Once we checked into the Camden Riverhouse Hotel, we took a quick nap (essential), before exploring the downtown. The hotel is no frills, but clean, colorful and in a great location. We wandered around town to see the harbor and shops. Many of the shops were closed or for rent, so you can definitely tell the pandemic has had an impact on tourist revenue here. Still a very cute little town and people are definitely masked.

We were still full from a our lunch lobster, so we stopped at the local grocery – French & Brawn, to grab some snacks (and wine!) for our drive up to Mt. Hattie to watch the sunset over the town and harbor (we were looking east so you don’t get the pretty colors, oh well). It was chilly, so we had our picnic in the car with the heater going! Making a cheese plate in a car is hard y’all.

We headed back to the hotel to relax by the fire pit with our wine for a little while longer before heading to bed. The hotel even had individually packaged smores available (We don’t turn down smores!).

Day 3 – Camden, Maine – Today was a very laid back day. We slept in, grabbed a continental breakfast at the hotel (I maintain that cereal is the best breakfast ever). After breakfast, we drove 12 minutes up to Lincolnville, an even smaller town than Camden. We parked, snapped some photos of the tiny beach and hit a gift shop (the only one open). On the way back to Camden we happened upon Green Tree Coffee & Tea, a little log cabin coffee house & shop with a killer matcha latte. We sat in rocking chairs on the front porch and sipped our drinks. SO relaxing.

Camden has a beautiful park on the harbor, with a waterfall and lots of colorful flowers. You can grab a bench or picnic table and just relax listening to the water and looking out over all the boats. Definitely my favorite spot in town! To continue our foodie tour of Maine we started planning our lunch stop immediately after breakfast. We ended up at The Waterfront Restaurant on the Camden Harbor for a late lunch (and for Peter’s day 3 lobster). The wait was long, but we snagged chairs in a sunny spot on the dock for the wait. Our table ended up being right by the water, so we’ve had a lot of dock time today!

To cap off the day we went sailing in Penobscot Bay. We joined a small crew on the Schooner Surprise, a 102 year old wooden boat, for a sunset sail. We brought our wine and cheese provisions, and attempted to have a little picnic on the water (making cheese plates in a car is MUCH easier than on a sailboat – we ended up drinking wine from the bottle and taking bites off the cheese blocks).

Day 4 – Drive to Bar Harbor, Maine – We headed north first thing this morning, and made a second stop at Green Tree in Lincolnville for coffee/matcha. We popped in Dot’s Market across the street for some homemade toffee and treats (second breakfast). Bonus we got to go to Belfast this year after all! (Well, the Maine version – we drove through on Route 1). We stopped at Fort Point State Park to see the lighthouse and fog signal bell.

Next stop was Fort Knox (the less popular one) and the observatory in one of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge towers. The observatory tower is 447′ tall (142′ taller than the Statue of Liberty). It’s the tallest bridge observatory in the world and only one in the US. Built in 2006 and the engineering is absolutely fascinating (Look Dad – triangles!).

We ate all our car snacks, so we went in search of more lobster (day 4). Google led us off the beaten path to Perry’s Lobster Shack in Surry for boiled soft shell lobster and lobster mac and cheese. It was literally cooked in a shed and served on the dock. We got to watch the fishermen unloading the lobsters and take them up to the restaurant. Peter declared this his favorite lobster yet. High praise y’all.

Driving onto Mount Desert Island and into Bar Harbor was interesting. It has a strange mix of cute mountain type cabins/inns – beach style motels. Very weird. We checked into our hotel for the next couple nights – The Moseley Cottage Inn and Motel. We got one of the motel rooms, which is basic, but good for us. It’s walkable to downtown Bar Harbor, so we were able to leave the car parked and explore town (after a nap of course). We walked around downtown for a while. It was much more crowded than I expected! Most people were wearing masks, even outside, but it was harder to avoid people on the sidewalk than our other stops. The downtown area reminds me somewhat of Gatlinburg (touristy type shops selling $9.99 sweatshirts). We grabbed a slice of pizza and wine/beer and headed back to the room early to get some work (and bathtub laundry) done.

Day 5 – Bar Harbor, Maine – Breakfast at Cafe This Way this morning. They have moved all their seating outside and have created a great little alley dining room. The food was delicious!

We popped by the Bar Harbor Chamber in town to grab our 7 day Acadia National Park car pass ($30) and headed up Cadillac Mountain for some gorgeous vistas and to scout for sunrise tomorrow AM. It was an **exceptionally** windy day today – 26 mph sustained on Cadillac Mountain w/ 34 mph gusts. It was hard to stay on two feet (and keep the bangs in-control)!

We headed down the mountain and started on Park Loop Road (a 27 mile driving loop though the park). The park is packed with people. I can’t imagine what it looks like during a normal tourist season with the cruise ships in port. Our pop-over stop at Jordan Pond didn’t happen due to a very long line, so we completed the loop road and headed to the “quiet side” of Acadia for Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound for more lobster and clam chowder.

After lunch, we walked part of the Ship Harbor trail (we’re not calling it a hike since we went less than half a mile), and saw the Bass Harbor lighthouse before driving back up to Ellsworth to the L.L. Bean outlet – to find me some warmer clothes for the AM. We already planned to stop at the flagship store in Freeport, but an outlet is even better! We both got jackets.

We headed back into Bar Harbor for a stop at Ben & Bills Chocolate Emporium for some lobster ice cream for dinner. Thankfully they were only doing samples of the lobster flavor…it was very strange. We got other (better) flavors and sat outside in the cold wind to eat it before we headed back to the motel.

Day 6 – Drive to Rockland, Maine – We started the drive up Cadillac Mountain at 4:50AM. Glad we drove up yesterday to scout it out – the drive is slow going with the dark + fog. We got to the top parking lot over an hour before sunrise (6:15AM today), and the parking lot was already filling up. Unfortunately due to the fog, we didn’t see much of the sunrise today. The landscape was really cool with the fog, almost otherworldly.

Fun fact, Cadillac Mountain is the tallest mountain along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States (1530 ft). Part of the year (Oct- early March) it is the first place in the US where the sun hits (when there’s not fog). We popped by Slice of Eden bakery near our hotel for breakfast bagels and then went back to sleep for a couple of hours…

We headed inland to Bangor to see the Stephen King House and the town that inspired “It”, before driving back roads to Sweetgrass Distillery, home to Back River Gin – the highest rated gin in the US. We happened upon some really cool (and old) farmhouses, a big lake, and saw the leaves starting to turn. A quick lunch stop at a small town general store in Washington and on to gin. Keith the owner/distiller/winemaker at Sweetgrass was working the taproom when we dropped by. We talked about how covid has impacted his business, while sampling his delicious gin, whiskey and hard ciders. All excellent! We even grabbed a bottle of Back River Gin to bring home.

We arrived in Rockland for the night (back down the coast near Camden) and drove over to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. It’s a 7/8 mile walk over huge rocks to reach to lighthouse (we only went part way).We walked through town to reach the restaurant recommend by the hotel. We walked in and the place was absolutely packed with very few masks in sight – so we found somewhere else to eat, and we are SO glad we did! We happened on Cafe Miranda – a funky little back alley pizza/pasta joint w/ a very eclectic menu and outdoor seating. It was definitely more our scene and the food was delicious. Peter got lobster with homemade pasta for lobster day 6. My favorite restaurant so far – highly recommend!

Day 7 – Drive to Freeport, Maine – To celebrate the Creative Arts Guild Festival kicking off tonight (which we are sad to be missing), we had a museum morning in Rockland! We got our timed ticket to the Farnsworth Art Museum last night and walked over from the hotel this AM. The museum had an impressive collection with many works from the Wyeth family and other American artists. They had arrows on the floor to lead you though the galleries for social distancing (like Ikea). We also stopped in the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, which was in a cool modern building, but their collection was very small.

We grabbed lobster stew (and a whoopie pie) to go at Rockland Cafe and had a picnic in the car before we left Rockland. The stew was absolutely amazing, so rich and creamy – 100% highly recommend! This lobster habit is getting expensive with market rate at $20-$25+ per dish.

We left Rockland and headed to the Marshall Point Lighthouse of Forrest Gump fame (where he finishes his cross-country run). We didn’t get a closer photo of the lighthouse, because Gordon Ramsay was filming a show there today. It was cool to watch his large crew in action. We met the nurse that handles his crew’s covid compliance in the tiny museum, and they are certainly taking every precaution (and getting the film/tv industry back working). Stopped by Oxbow Brewing next – an off the beaten path brewery in a farmhouse for some mixed fermentation ale.

We landed in Freeport late afternoon. Home to L.L. Bean and a lot of outlets. It’s like someone dropped an outlet mall in the middle of their downtown, so strange. After checking in we headed to the L.L. Bean flagship store to browse and get photos with the big boot! Freeport is also home to Maine Beer Company – a very popular brewery, distributing to 30 states. We dropped by the brewery to grab a few to-go bottles and thanks to new friends in the beer industry, left with a whole box! A mix of popular distro beers like “Lunch” and some brewery exclusives.

Day 8 – Drive to Kittery, Maine – Downtown Freeport hosts Merchants on Main on Saturdays, where local arts and crafts vendors set up booths scattered through the Downtown. It definitely got us out and shopping again this morning! We enjoyed a coffee/chai tea from Coffee by Design (inside L.L. Bean) at a sunny table near the store. We also picked up some more whoopie pies – in various flavors – from Wicked Whoopies to try later.

We headed 20ish minutes south to Portland to have lunch at Duckfat – we had the Belgian fries with a flight of sauces (hello truffle ketchup, I love you.) and tomato fennel soup to-go. Portland really is a foodie paradise. So much to eat, so little time. We stopped back by Austin Street Brewing to grab some beers to bring home.

We drove down US-1 listening to 92.1 – Seacoast Oldies, taking the scenic (no tolls) route to Kennebunk/Kennebunkport – home to the Bush Family summer home on Walker’s Point. The little downtown was slammed, so we did a drive-through and kept cruising on through Ogunquit (also busy) and on to Kittery.

We checked into the Kittery Inn & Suites – our cute little roadside motel and turned on the Tech game. Neither one of us were really hungry, so we just hung out at the hotel watching football, sampling beers and eating cheese. Sadly, we broke the lobster streak today. Peter was tired of lobster at this point, haha!

Day 9 – Kittery, Maine/Portsmouth, New Hampshire – We drove across the river to Portsmouth, NH this morning (about 5 mins away). We parked and walked around the entire downtown area, filled with cute shops, restaurants and historic architecture. We wandered through Prescott Park – with beautiful gardens, right on the water overlooking the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (est. 1800, where they now work on nuclear submarines). On the way in, we passed the huge salt piles (aka small mountains), shipped in from S. America for the New England winter road de-icing. Glad we don’t live this far north!

We drove out to New Castle Island to see Fort Constitution and the Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse, both were closed for covid, so we found a great spot to view the lighthouse and the small Whaleback lighthouse from the Fort Stark historic site.

We’ve been eyeing a Thai restaurant – 5 Thai Bistro – in downtown Portsmouth, so we called in a to-go order and had a little picnic on nearby Four Tree Island (just fyi there are more than 4 trees, and lots of picnic tables!). After lunch, we headed inland 20 minutes to Dover, NH for Smuttynose Brewing’s experimental outpost – Smuttlabs. They recommend we also stop by Garrison Beer Works – a nanobrewery with a 3 barrel brewhouse (same as DBC) and a female brewer. The beers both places were excellent!

Day 10 – Drive to Salem, Massachusetts – We took the scenic route out of Kittery, though Hampton, Ipswich, Essex, Beverly, & Manchester by the Sea – Singing Beach (for a drive by only – beach was closed to non-residents) before arriving in Salem. We checked into our (haunted) hotel – the Hawthorne Hotel. Supposedly people have seen a ghostly woman walking the halls and heard unexplained noises. We haven’t seen anything….yet. They also filmed part of the Bewitched TV show here in the 70’s. Either way it’s a neat old hotel and in a great location.

We spent some time catching up on our colonial history last night to prep for today. Salem Village is present-day Danvers, MA and colonial Salem Town became what’s now Salem. The early events of the witch trials – the first accusations and pretrial examinations, occurred in Salem Village (Danvers) in March of 1692. This then spread to Salem and the trials/executions were here. The only building left in Salem from the trials is the home of Jonathan Corwin, one of the judges. It’s called The Witch House – ironic, no?

We grabbed a quick bite for lunch at Jaho Coffee before walking on to The House of Seven Gables, a historic home popularized by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 novel. We wandered the downtown and hit some of the shops. We took a Salem history walking tour with Bewitched After Dark, to learn the local spin on the stories. Our tour guide Jeff was excellent! He grew up in Salem and was very knowledgeable about the history sourced from first hand accounts like the trial court documents. The group was small and masks were required. This is NOT a ghost tour, but the stories are just as spooky. Highly recommend if you’re ever in Salem.

Salem definitely attracts a strange sort. I’ve seen more witches and witch-wannabes than I have seen in my entire life. The whole month of October, especially approaching Halloween is apparently one big party here. We grabbed pizza to-go at Flying Saucer Pizza – a funky little sci-fi pizza joint and headed back to the room. Hopefully the ghosts let us have a good night’s sleep!

Day 11 – Leaving Salem, Massachusetts – Have y’all ever heard of a grilled muffin? It may have just upset cereal as my favorite breakfast item. It’s amazing – cut a big homemade muffin in half and pop on the grill (I’m sure there’s some butter involved) – so warm and toasty. We enjoyed this delicacy at Red’s Sandwich Shop in downtown Salem. Voted best breakfast 30+ years running. The building itself was built in 1698 and was apparently once the London Coffee House – a meeting place of the patriots before the American Revolution. Either way, excellent breakfast.

We checked out of the hotel after breakfast (no ghost sightings to report). On the way out of town we dropped by The Ropes Mansion (Allison’s house in Hocus Pocus) and Proctor’s Ledge – a memorial to the witch trials victims on the site where 19 of the accused witches were hanged (Giles Corey was pressed to death with large stones closer to town). They believe the executions were carried out from a large tree vs. a gallows.

Another quick stop on the way to the airport at a Salvation Army Store – packing clothes that you are ready to donate is a secret to packing light (and creating room to bring souvenirs – or craft beer – home)!

Both flights were uneventful. On-time and great precautions taken by Delta. We love to travel, but I also love sleeping my own bed. SO glad to be home. Now to enjoy this cooler Dalton weather for a few days! Thanks for following along on our travels!