Last month I did something crazy: I went to Maine! Why would anyone go to Maine in February, you may ask? I went with my supervisor Maryanne for training so we could become Certified Interpretive Trainers through the National Association for Interpretation. It was FREEZING COLD while we were there, but it was absolutely beautiful, and I enjoyed seeing a new part of the country.
We flew into Boston, which looked really beautiful at sunset. We then got our rental car and headed north for Maine.
We stopped for dinner in Portsmouth, New Hampshire at a cool restaurant right on the ocean called the Oar House. I had some AMAZING fresh Atlantic haddock, and when they say "fresh" on the coast, they mean FRESH. Little did we know that our food adventures were just beginning.... We then finished our drive to the town of Wells, Maine.
On Monday morning we got up bright and early--it felt especially early because we were on Eastern time--and headed to our first day of training at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm. I had no idea what an estuarine reserve was, but apparently Wells is known for its coastal tide pools, which house some unique marine wildlife that people come and study. All marine wildlife was, however, frozen while we were there :) Our training schedule was very hardcore--we had class from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. everyday, but thankfully they left time for us to eat!
Our first Maine food adventure was lunch on Monday at the Bull and Claw Restaurant. I saw a "Lobster Roll" on the menu, which sounded good, and when I asked the waitress what exactly a lobster roll is, she looked at me like I was crazy. She said, "A lobstah roll has lobstah on it." (I had figured that!) But it turned out that a lobster roll is basically just a po' boy-style sandwich stuffed full of lobstah. It was quite lobstery!
On Monday after class, Maryanne and I wanted to go see the ocean. Wells is cool because it is situated next to this marshy lake area with one road that goes out over the marsh and leads to another strip of land (Wells Beach) that borders the Atlantic Ocean. This is the view from Wells Beach looking back to the west toward mainland Wells...
...and this is the view of the Atlantic, looking east from Wells Beach. It was awesome!
For lunch on Tuesday (and Wednesday) we ate at the Maine Diner, featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives." You can check it out by clicking
here. I had some DE-LISH clam chowder both days. For dinner on Tuesday, Maryanne and I tried some lobster pizza at Alfredo's...also DE-LISH!
After class on Wednesday, we went to the cool town of Kennebunkport with our classmates and instructors for a group dinner. I just couldn't get over how picturesque Kennebunkport was!
We had another amazing meal, this time at Allison's Restaurant. I had LOBSTER mac 'n' cheese!
On Thursday, we only had a half-day of class so that we would have time to work on our Friday presentations (required for our certification). But Maryanne and I decided to put off presentation prep until that night--because we knew that this would be our best chance to see the countryside. We started out by going back to quaint Kennebunkport to see this beautiful town in the daylight.
There was a picture of this fun sign in my hotel room in Wells, and I found the actual sign in Kennebunkport! Such a fun place...
And, of course, lunch was also amazing. We ate at David's on the waterfront, and this time I had a crab roll. It was so tasty! Maryanne and I then headed up towards Portland, Maine, and stopped at a fun antique shop along the way.
Our final destination was the Portland Head Light lighthouse. One word pretty much sums up the Portland Head Light: AWESOME!!!! It was such a beautiful, historic, cool place. It was here that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his poem "The Lighthouse," because he was friends with the lighthouse keeper and would frequently visit. It started to snow while the sun was setting, which looked amazing. It was also REALLY cold. I was wearing gloves, but as I was taking pictures, my fingers went totally numb (and it took them about 20 minutes to thaw out after we were back in the car). But it was totally worth it. I think that seeing this lighthouse was my favorite part of the whole trip. We then headed back down to Wells and ate dinner at Billy's Chowder House which is located along that one road going from the mainland out to Wells Beach. I had some tasty shrimp.
Friday was our last day of class. I gave a successful presentation about tangible resources and intangible concepts, and enjoyed hearing all of the other presentations as well. Our classmates and instructors were wonderful people, and it was fun to meet new friends from all over the world.
At about 5:00 on Friday, Maryanne and I left Wells to head back to Boston. We planned to arrive in the city at around 6:30 and decided that we would eat dinner downtown in historic Boston so that we could see some of the city during our brief time there. Well, we ended up seeing the WHOLE city, but not in the way that we had planned. Most of Boston's roads are tunnels, and unfortunately at least half of the roads, tunnels, and bridges were closed for construction. Our GPS was thoroughly confused because it couldn't get satellite reception in the tunnels, and then the road closures threw it off as well. We kept driving around and around the city, but the traffic was so bad that at around 8:00 we decided to just give up and go find our hotel. To make things more complicated, by this time I really, really needed to find a restroom. In the search for our hotel, we found ourselves driving in circles. At one point we actually passed Faneuil Hall (which had been our original destination for the evening!), but we were already on a road that went the totally opposite direction. I finally reached the critical point where I
had to use the bathroom, so we stopped at a seedy-looking bus station. Their bathrooms were CLOSED. I said, "Seriously, is everything in this city CLOSED!" As I ran across the street, across a bridge, and into a ritzy hotel to find a bathroom, I decided that I did not love Boston. After a rest stop, we were able to spend the next hour successfully finding our hotel, where we arrived at about 9:30 p.m. Needless to say, we were both exhausted, so...
...our only taste of Boston was
literally some Boston cream pie at our hotel. It was okay, but we were pretty much too worn out to truly enjoy it. We left for the airport early the next morning, anticipating getting lost again, but we actually found it quite easily. It was a fun, educational, wonderful trip, but I was really happy to return home :) And, we left just in time because that evening, Boston and Maine were hit with another big winter storm. I think it's time for spring!
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