One of the perks of Spencer's job is that he gets to travel a lot around the East Coast and sometimes we get to join him! A few weeks ago he asked if we wanted to go to Maine with him and I jumped on that idea so quick! This has been on our bucket list, so I started researching things to do in Maine, places to stay and best places to eat! It is so fun for me to plan trips and decide where to go and where to eat. I love it! So I planned out each day and last minute we decided to extend our trip another day since it was General Conference weekend, so we got one extra day to explore which was nice.
So here is our trip to Maine!
We drove to Portland late Wednesday night and stayed in a Residence Inn which is the best place to stay with kids we found out! The rooms are huge with kitchens and sometimes two rooms. We were converted on this trip to always book at Residence Inns.
Thursday we woke up and drove into the city of Portland. Spencer had clients to visit, so while he did his thing, the girls and I walked along the Eastern Promenade Trail. It is a beautiful trail right along the water with beautiful views of Casco Bay and other islands. There was a fun playground that I let Charley play at while I fed Bergen and then we went to an amazing bakery called the Standard Baking Company. My weakness is scones at bakeries so we stopped at quite a few this trip! After getting a scone and some yummy homemade granola bars, we went to J's Oyster to try our first Lobster Roll. It wasn't that good at all which was a bummer, but the next 6 Lobster Rolls totally made up for it!:) J's Oyster is right on the water and so we sat outside and ate lunch. Afterward I took the girls back to the hotel to take naps and while we waited for Spencer to finish up his meetings. When he came back and when the girls woke up, we walked around Portland and did a little sight-seeing. Portland is beautiful and has some really gorgeous architecture and buildings. We walked in the Old Port District and walked along Commercial and Congress Street. We walked along the Warf and ate at Eventide. This place had the most AMAZING Lobster Roll!! It was a brown butter lobster so it was just drenched in the most delicious browned butter, on a steamed bun.. yum!! It was really good! Spencer also got oysters and then we walked around a little longer before heading back to the hotel for the night.
Friday morning we woke up and I went on a quick run along the Eastern Promenade and then we went to breakfast at Bayside American Cafe. It was delicious and Spencer said it was the best breakfast of his life! He was in heaven and absolutely loved it. We got the cinnamon roll pancake, crab cake eggs benedict and beef hash. It was all really good! After breakfast we went to Cape Elizabeth and saw the Portland Head Light and had yet another amazing Lobster Roll at the Bite of Maine food truck. It was our second favorite! The lighthouse was really pretty (but cold) so we didn't stay too long. After that we drove into South Portland and stopped a Scratch Baking Co. Bakery and got some really yummy cookies! Bergen had a huge blowout so we changed her, fed her and let Charley play around before we got into the car and drove a few hours to Bangor. The drive was breath-taking! The trees are changing colors and it was so colorful! I didn't get any good pictures since we were in the car, but tried to capture all the colors and changing leaves! After we checked into our hotel at Bangor we went to the L.L. Bean outlets and then called it a night and went back to our hotel to put the girls to sleep while we stayed up and watch The Blacklist.
Saturday morning we woke up and drove over to Bar Harbor. It's a cute little tourist town with lots of shops and places to eat. We walked around for a bit, found yet again another lobster roll and then drove into Acadia National Park. It's beautiful!! It's this huge National Park with dense trees but it's on an island so it's surrounded by ocean. We drove to Sand Beach and let Charley run around on the sand for a while and then drove down to Thunder Hole. We then drove up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain which is way cool because you have a 360 degree view of the island! Charley napped in the car while we drove around the park for a while AND while we went back into town and got the best ice cream ever at Mt. Desert Ice Cream (win-win!) On our drive out we also found a Lobster Pound and stopped by. You pick out your lobster and they cook it in these big dutch oven wood burning pots for about 20 minutes and then they serve it with a lemon and melted butter. It was AMAZING!!! The melted butter and lemon was so good on every bite! I am really glad we stopped since it wasn't on our list of things to do and Spencer really wanted to. We had passed a few Lobster Pounds but weren't hungry at all but finally decided to stop at one that had quite a few people at it. It was fun to watch them cook it too! After dinner we drove south to a small town called Ogunquit and checked into our hotel for the night.
Our last day, Sunday, we explored Ogunquit and Kennebunkport. They are both small cute and quaint towns. We ate breakfast at Amore and had some really good cream-cheese stuffed banana and walnut french toast and a crab omelet. We also stopped at a bakery and I got a blueberry scone! YUM! We walked around the town for a while and went to the beach there for a bit. Then we drove to Kennebunkport and explored that cute town too! It reminded me of the town that I grew up in- super small and touristy with cute little shops. We stopped at the Clam Shack and stood in line for supposedly one of the best Lobster Rolls in Maine. We liked it but didn't think it was anything too special. We also got some Ben and Jerry's ice cream because... ice cream! I finally tried the Jimmy Fallon Dough!! Afterward we started our long trek back home. We stopped in New Haven for some of the best and most famous pizza on the East Coast at Frank Pepe. Bergen had yet again another blowout in her carseat that I cleaned up in the restaurants bathroom (whoops!).
Maine was such a fun trip! I am so glad we did it and were able to do so much. It was fun to stop at so many different places and stay in different hotels. The girls did so good traveling so much and we are excited to go back soon. We liked it so much, we decided to come back for Christmas with a few of Spencer's brothers!
