Labor Day weekend was coming up and Jeremy found out he had two free nights of hotel stays to use before the end of September. We originally planned on going into NYC for the weekend, since the kids have been asking to go back. But, we decided to do a little exploring in the North East instead. Jeremy has been into Maine for business but the rest of the family had not, so we decided to head north 2 1/2 hours and check out Portland, Maine.
Traffic was Cuh-RAZY on Friday night as apparently EVERYONE in Mass. had the same idea as us! So, it took us an hour longer to get to Portland and with the sun setting earlier, it was dusk by the time we made it to Cape Elizabeth and the Lobster Shack. Cape Elizabeth has the most famously photographed lighthouse in the world - the Portland Head Light Lighthouse. Here you can see it in the picture behind the family.
Obviously, Maine is known for it's lobster. So, we HAD to have it for dinner. We ate here at the Lobster Shack and ordered 2 lobster dinners, 1 lobster roll, 1 bowl of clam chowder (or clam chowdah as they say up here) and 1 cheeseburger - - - for the less adventurous.
Here are the kids checking out the area before heading to our hotel in Brunswick, ME.
On Saturday, we headed to downtown Portland and had breakfast at a little cafe called Morning in Paris. It was good, but the kids all agreed that they'd much rather had Grandma Z's cinnamon rolls!! We then headed to the Casco Bay Ferry. After several recommendations from locals, we decided to visit Peak's Island in Casco Bay for the day. Lincoln LOVED the ferry ride!
Family photo on the windy ride over to the island.
Just enjoying the 20 minute ride.......and the view.
And here is the dock.
The island is only about 6 miles around the perimeter, so we rented bikes for four hours and toured the island while taking lots of breaks to play in the water or climb the rocky coast.
Jeremy dared her to walk over to that little rock island but it got too deep without a swimsuit on and the boats going by were making too big of waves...So she made it half way and then had to come back.
A little different "beach" scene than what we're used to seeing - - - so beautiful though!!
A little tidal pool to get our feet wet and to find kelp snails (we think), shown by Lincoln.
We ate lunch at Peak's Island House, which overlooked the bay.
We returned the bikes, rode the ferry back across the bay and then headed to Freeport, ME to visit the headquarters for L.L. Bean. If you need anything outdoorsy - this is the place for you! It was huge!!
Welcome to L.L. Bean!
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| Here are the kids popping their heads up into a huge fish tank. |
And here's one of several moose we saw in the store.
We then headed to our hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. We decided to eat at a place called Sea Dog Brewing Co. in Topsham, ME for dinner.
The restaurant was in the neatest setting - the deck overlooked a beautiful rocky river. See Fiona's face - it is one of concern. While the scenery was gorgeous ..... we were unable to enjoy it due to spiders. Seriously, as I type this, my stomach has knots in it from remembering the FEAR we lived in as we tried dining here! I'll save you the nasty details...just know that we moved tables three times - twice out on the deck and then into the restaurant.....Scarlett was in tears at one point.....our waitress killed one swinging in midair......and well, let's just say that we all had the hee-bee jee-bee's that night! Bllahhhh!!
Moving on.....Sunday was a rainy and cool day. We ate breakfast at a little diner and then headed back into Portland to do a firetruck tour of the city. Again, Lincoln was SOO excited for this! We were thankful that the firetruck had a little roof so we were able to weather the rain and get to see and hear the history of the port city.....very interesting!
A pink fire hat for Scarlett, how perfect was that???!!!
The rain came and went so we decided to just walk around the city and visit some of the local shops. We found a little toy store so each of the kids picked up a souvenir of sorts - - Lincoln got a Blue Angels Airplane, Scarlett got a bracelet and Fiona got a puzzle of the Head Light Lighthouse. We ate lunch at a pizza place on the bay called Flatbread Co. It was delicious! Here the kids were watching our pizza cook in the brick oven.
We made one final stop before heading out of town....Mt. Desert Island for their famous homemade ice cream. Fiona had blackberry - Scarlett had vanilla - Lincoln had cookies and cream.
We came home Sunday night. Monday was Labor Day so Jeremy made pancakes and Fiona did a little church service for us. She read the story of Jonah and then had coloring sheets for us. We then sang a couple of praise songs and closed out our service in prayer. Oh how precious this time was!
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