Maine: Land of Lobster, Donuts and Ice Cream

My mom and I ventured up to Maine a few weeks ago, a first for both of us!  It was a belated College Graduation trip and we were determined to have a great time, despite the rain that followed us from Boston.

My mom was in charge of trip planning.

On the drive up we meandered along the coastline, taking Route 1 through the outlets at Freeport and Kittery.  We admired clothes, cookware, shoes and of course LL Bean, picking up a few things along the way!  For the night we stayed at America's Best Value Inn in Brunswick.  While the facility itself was nothing special the Owner/Manager was extremely caring and provided us with the best restaurant recommendation ever (!!) even calling ahead to the owner to let him know we were coming.

At Shere Punjab we decided to split the Malai Kofta and Mixed Vegetable Paratha.  Our waitress said that we were having the very meal that she would choose, and man, her taste is good!  I'd never had either dish before but the Malai Kofta was absolutely superb.  The sauce, while only covering four minced vegetable balls, was amazing on rice and the Paratha bread.  My mom and I cleaned both dishes and between the two of us the serving size was just right.

The next day we continued our drive north, and made a lunch break at Bell the Cat which my mom had staked out over the internet, can you see what our vacations normally center around?  This quirky little diner confused us, but we both enjoyed the food.  After wandering in we looked at the short specials menu and ordered our meals.  I got half a croissant egg and avocado sandwich with a Greek salad while Mom got a ciabatta apple/mustard/brie sandwich and Mediterranean Eggplant Soup.  Both of us also received two cookies with our meals, which seems to be what the place is known for.  With dozens of cookie jars filled with cookies the hardest part of the meal was deciding which ones to try but we went with the Chocolate dip cookie, chocolate with coconut, walnut bar and raspberry cookie.

As we were leaving we realized that the full menu was listed on the outside of the door, and there were thousands of options to choose from!  Had we seen that first we may have altered our orders, but regardless we left full and happy.

Our next stop was Fort Knox and the Penobscot Observatory for a little walk and a view!  We enjoyed our cookies and practiced taking panoramic photos with our iPhones.  Don't you love Mother+Daughter trips?

We continued our drive towards Acadia and stopped at some quintessential rocky Maine beach along the way, it was pretty!

Upon arriving we found our Bed and Breakfast, the Acacia House Inn.  It was lovely, they had freshly baked cookies waiting for us and our room was cute and warm!  The following days we were greeted with breakfasts like this:

Stuffed French Toast

Omelet

Goat Cheese + Asparagus omelet 

Cranberry Pancakes

Greek Yogurt Parfait

Blueberry fruit course

Strawberry and Almond Pancakes

And mid-afternoon we enjoyed snacks like this:

Rhubarb Bar

Heavenly.  Highly recommended for rooms, friendly owners and amazing food.

In between eating we went for multiple drives around the park and occasionally eating.  We found a cute one-woman operation titled Sawyer's Lobster Pound and sat down for some onion rings, ugly blueberry pie a la mode and a cup of chowder for Mom.  Also enjoyed a Maine Blueberry Soda which was thoroughly enjoyed by both of us!

Throughout our drives we went on a few rainy hikes, including the summit of Gorham Mtn. where I got to test out my new Gore-Tex rain jacket.  It worked like a charm!

FINALLY on our last day there it stopped raining and we went to the peak of Cadillac Mountain.  Originally we had wanted to hike up the mountain for sunrise but the rain had us consistently pushing back the date and when the day finally came we didn't quite make sunrise....by a number of hours.

Then we drove back to Boston where we were stuck in rush hour traffic for many hours!  This is why I bike.  What a fun trip!