In Which Maine is Pretty Much a Bust



Went to Maine with the O'Hara girls. Our express purpose was to see the puffins. We left on Thursday at four o'clock in the morning (a la Old Skool Meaghers). We meandered through New England, listening to the IPod playlists that Colleen and I had put together for the trip ("Fugees to the Flaming Lips?").
Eventually we found something special that I had mapped along the way:

Yeah, that's right! A Denny's! Long Island and Lower NY are sadly lacking in the deliciousness that is the Grand Slam...and that's a terrible thing.

Then we stopped at Mainely Maine, a tourist-y shop. Colleen found her prizes there--wait for it, wait for it:

The Lobstah hats! We got them almost first thing on the trip, so Colleen wore hers pretty much all the time. One thing I'll say about that girl: if she's feeling a little down, you can put on your lobstah hat and she'll perk right up!
Then we found a wonderful store that had our favorite things: Antiques (Katie), Books (me) and wine ( Colleen)!

Katie got a great cupboard for her collection of antique doll furniture.
Then we checked into the Anchorage Motel, which I highly recommend. It's just a plain old motel, but everything was clean and everyone was super nice. It also was very close to the town of Bar Harbor, so we could walk to everything right quick!
And walk we did, down to the beach even!
This is me:

Got my hair in my face a little, but still jumping for joy!
We shoppy shop shopped in all the little shops (usually with a "moose" in the title - Crazy Moose, Cool as a Moose, Moose Droppings), and then went for an early dinner at Geddy's ,
where we fell in love with the alcoholic beverages, and could not look away from the news about Michael Jackson. Weird.
Then we were home, showered and in bed by 9PM, with the lights out. Had to get up early early early! For the puffins!

Well, we did get up early...at 6:30AM.

But it was too foggy. And the trip was cancelled. They only do the puffin watch at 8:30 AM, all the other times the boat goes out, they only go whale watching. So we switched our reservations for the next morning, and went out in search of the WORLD'S BIGGEST LOBSTER!
With a few wrong turns and some help from Garmin, we were able to find it---("this is it?)

We backed the car up and set the timer and took our pictures!
Then we set out for the World's Biggest Eyeglasses!

Then we went to the Big Chicken Barn, which is a pretty famous antiquing place in the area. It was super duper big and really clean and very organized and we all had a GREAT time!

In a different antique place, I found the exact same glider that we had when I was a kid, but ours was super faded from the sun:

That night we went to Geddy's again. We were hungry and in need of a drink, had seen a psychic, and almost got caught in the rain. We ate great burgers, drank Shipyard Summer Ale, which was soooo good and got into a (small) brawl about whether or not "pinnys" were short for pinafores. We got little people in our drinks, including mermaids, fish, and ninjas:

Ninjahead!

Mermaid!

Lobstah!
The next day we tried again. Woke up early, went to the docks, ate at Grumpy's coffee shop, and waited for the okay. They were going to bring the boat out, but they weren't going near the puffin island. It was too foggy. We got off the line and decided to try the next day. I was pretty much the saddest person in all of Bar Harbor.
We did do a driving tour of Acadia National Park, which was foggy. Katie did her best yeti impression and climbed a tree to make me laugh.

It worked.

A Pastoral Scene.

In the Lupines.

In the woods.

Perfect in the woods.
The Wild Lobstah and friend.
We did make it through the misty misty woods, and ended up getting a little lost on the island. But with help from Garmin, we made it out! That afternoon, to cheer us up, Kate suggested we go see the Hangover, which was hilarious! And just the thing!
After that, it was almost time for dinner!

Back to Geddy's for more Beer and burgers! We wore our lobster hats. We went to different bars in town and got a few people to join our gang!

Lady in lobster hat!

Man in Lobster hat!

LobsterMan in Lobster hat!

LobsterMan's Lobster tattoo!

Lobster sisters!
Then we went back to the hotel.
The next morning we woke up early, ate at Grumpy's Dockside cafe (where we continuously met a grunting Grumpy man who made taxi tours. We liked him very much).
The boat was canceled. We got our refunds and took off--out of Bar Harbor. We stopped at the Tewksberry, MA Cracker Barrel, where the food and service was impeccible! I think our server's name was Karen, but I'll have to check up on that!
So, that's my story, kids.
We ate a lot, I drank a lot, we laughed a lot, but no puffins. I'm pretty okay with it. I had a really good time with the O'Haras...even though they were afraid I was going to crack under the pressure. And that's one to grow on...