The Maine Coast and Lobstah...

The Maine coastline is so beautiful!

The Maine coast is just about the perfect place to be in July and August.  And as we were discovering, a lot of people know this fact.  We had originally planned to go to northern Maine first and up to Canada then back down to the coast.  But we had to change our plans a little.  David had turned too close to the gate at Moose Brook Campground while we were in New Hampshire and though it didn’t put a scratch on the gate, it did some damage to the passenger side of our car.  At first we thought we would wait for repairs until we got back to Texas but the passenger side door wasn’t opening and that had to be fixed.

So instead of heading to northern Maine, we headed to Portland to drop our car off for repairs.  The Portland area was jammed with people and campgrounds were full.  We got the very last place at the third campground we tried. Then we got the bad news that it would take about 10 days to 2 weeks for our car to be repaired.  We had some serious rethinking of our travel plans to do.  But first we needed some lobster.  Not too far away down US Highway 1 near Wells, Maine was the famous Maine Diner, voted best restaurant in Maine for the past several years.  The Maine Diner was also featured on the Food Channel’s show, ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.’  We headed there to have some great seafood and discuss our traveling options.

 

 

Lobster Pie - amazingly good...

 

The Maine Diner was no dive and at 3 pm there was still a 30 minute or more wait to get a table.  This was one popular place.  Breakfast is served all day and fresh seafood is featured prominently on the menu.  David ordered the house specialty – Lobster Pie and I ordered the Stuffed Shrimp with crabmeat stuffing.  Both dishes were wonderful but the Lobster Pie was just about the best thing either of us had ever tasted.  I was expecting some sort of pot pie, but it was not that at all.  The pie was stuffed full with tender and buttery lobster and topped with a crisp, yet tender crumb crust.  Oh, my!

Bar Harbor

Fortified and in a much better frame of mind after such delicious fare, we decided our next destination would be Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor and we would hang out there until our car was fixed.   As we left the Maine Diner, we drove back to our campground following the coastline as closely as the roads allowed going through Kennebunkport and other coastal towns.  We stopped for a short nature walk at the Rachael Carson National Wildlife Refuge along the way.  The coast was so beautiful in the late afternoon light.

 

Looking at Bar Harbor from Cadillac Mountain

 

It was about a three and a half hour drive the next day to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park.  We arrived in the early afternoon and got settled in our campground.  There was a little time to explore, so we went to the park visitor center and collected some information about the park and trails and then went on a nice afternoon drive along the coast. 

 

Lobster stand at the campground

 

 

 

 

Our campground had its own ‘lobster man.’  From 4:30 until 7:30 you could pick out your own freshly caught lobster and have it cooked right there to eat at picnic tables by the ocean or take it back to your campsite.  Of course we had to try it.  Being from landlocked West Texas, lobster is not something that we are used to eating regularly.  But we may be getting addicted...