Vacation Update - A Mixed Bag This Year

We left for Maine 7:30 Wednesday morning.  First stop:  Kittery outlets.  I got what Ii needed – a lot of walking for me.  I was exhausted.  I had a great lobster roll at Bob’s clam shack.  I love having lunch there.  That’s the only time all year that I eat French fries. Theirs are perfect and not greasy at all.

Then on to Sweetser’s apple farm. It was very late in the season so not as many kinds of apples as they have in late September when we usually go to Maine. We had too the High Holidays related events in September, and then when we were supposed to go two weeks ago, I got sick to my stomach just before we were to go. 

It's the absolutely last time for Freeport.  The Harraseeket inn where we had gone since 1985 is no longer under the family ownership but instead was bought by a chain that has turned it mediocre.  Only the Tavern open.  The menu no longer features local produce and seafood and is short and uninviting.  Mostly an equivalent of upper level fast food.  The wait staff did the best they could, but the food came very, very slowly.  No water, no bread.  Drinks now small.  And they charge for breakfast for the first time ever.   Also the TV in our room was busted.  The guy came to fix it and it worked for exactly six minutes and then went black again.  Couldn’t see the news or anything else and was too tired for all the walking to go out for a stroll. The Tavern was full of people from tourist busses. I suspect the chain has a relation with the tour bus company.  We’d never seen a tourist bus there in all the years of staying there once or twice a year. No chocolate on the pillow, no water bottle in the room.  No extra pillows.  But the water was still hot and plentiful, that at least was the same. And it was quiet.

The restaurants we’ve always eaten at are defunct, except for the Tavern, which

was crowded, slow and people waiting a long time for a table. We drove around trying to find a restaurant where we’d want to eat. We were not in the mood for pizza, which was mostly all there was except for brewery pubs featuring the same kind of low rent food as the Tabern now does.

Then the next morning, when we stopped at the When Pigs Fly shop with its 25 kinds of bread, it too has closed down.  I forgot to say that the outlet where I usually buy panties, an occasional nightgown and bra has also permanently left Freeport.  The only thing I’ll miss from there is the Lindt chocolate, but there’s a small outlet in Kittery.

We got our natural lamb from our friend Jean Noon’s Noon Family Farm.  It was good to see her and have a visit.  Then we came back home in time to have a healthy real meal here.  Scallops, whole wheat cous cous, cole slaw made with our own red cabbages  The cats were pissed with us, although I’m sure Scott took care of them and fed them enough.  Willow, who probably hid when he was here, was very hungry.  I feel asleep on the early side and slept  until 7:45 – the longest sleep I’ve had in a long time. Obviously, I needed it. We were both exhausted.