This time we opted to try some totally non-Maine food for dinner. We headed for a Pakistani restaurant in Bangor, but let me tell ya- there ain't nothin deader than the wide lonely streets of downtown Bangor on a Friday night. Everywhere we went, we kept ending up at this appallingly tackily lit "ASIAN RESTAURANT". It was the only place open. It was destiny. Destiny turned out to be Thai food and sushi. The menu was full of enticing dishes such as "Romancing the Sea" and "Disco Shrimp", and appetizers of the likes of "Silk of Love" and "Sweety Bity". Our waiter recommended the sweety bities out of those two, which he recorded on the bill as sweetie batties :) , and we got "Jumbo in the pot" for our entree as well as a spicy tuna roll. Perhaps we were a bit on the famished side, but we were happy. Even starving couldn't convince us that Captain Nick's fare was edible, but we were happy with this place.
This weekend was our Maine grab bag of fun- filling in all the gaps of things one must do in Maine that we had not had the opportunity to do yet. (Not that we believe in letting that impede our love of sleeping in...) We started our Saturday by getting out of bed and hearing a wailing horn that sounded like the world might end soon. It didn't. in case you were wondering. and we never got an explanation of the horn either. We then went sea kayaking in the bay. It was a cloudy day, but it didn't rain. We paddled our hearts out all the way to an island and explored the wee edge of it. We found a live sea urchin, and a dandelion in some swampy moss. We also lost feeling in our feet from the freezing bay water. My main goal for sea kayaking was to see a seal pop up near us. We did see them pop up! although not extremely near us. The best photo I took looks like the loch ness monster or some hollow black-eyed creature from one of Hayao Miyazaki's films.
After sea kayaking, we got to wander home through the town with our life jackets on. We stopped by a shop with a very cute door and a less than warm and fuzzy shopkeeper to buy our sailor bracelets. Then we went to the Bah's bakery to get sandwiches for lunch. We got the Mexican BLT, 2 deviled eggs, some curry stew and a pecan cookie. Then we went to the Breeze, home of fried food to get some fried clams. We ate our enormous lunch on the pier and managed to devour it all! We are pretty incredible sometimes.
We dropped the life jackets off at the house and changed into dry clothes and headed to... a mystery location. I was the blind follower on our grab bag of final maine highlights, and soon I found myself at the Penobscot Observatory- the top of one of the bridge pillars- next to Fort Knox (not the famous one). From the top of the bridge we saw a blue heron fishing in the river below, and we got a fabulous 360 view of the region, as well as a birds-eye view of the fort. It was cool. To get up to it, we got to ride in Maine's fastest elevator and chat with a friendly lady who sends people up and down the elevator all day.
We didn't really have time (because of another mystery item on our agenda) but we couldn't resist stopping by the actual fort. Mostly this happened because we saw a sign about the fort that mentioned tunnels, and I recalled the good ol' times running around Fort Stevens in Oregon. So we took a "5 second" tour of Fort Knox and literally ran all over it like maniacs and were delighted at the tunnels and windows and dark dankness before speeding up some trails outside to our car. Those trails went up steep hills so we kind of got our leg workout in for the day.
Exhilerated by our fort adventure, we zipped up to Bangor and went to a theater to see Wall-E. We were just a titch late, and then we lost the debit card in the car and we lost the car in the parking lot, so after we found it, we headed to a theater in the next town that was showing it an hour later. Who knew robots could be so tender.
Much contented with the day's adventures we headed home for the night. No need for dinner because our lunch was so gargantuan. In the morning we went to church in Belfast, and then we headed just beyond the church and away from home to check out the Bat Houses. Maine is so great because they sell everything from their front yards and porches with little boxes for you to drop your cash in then you take your goods. The bat houses were little wood boxes- like the mailboxes some people have stuck to their house- and they said Maine on the front and some had a batman-like logo. Underneath there was a slit and inside there were a few sheets of small square chicken-wire. Apparently bats love it. We then went just up and across the street where there was a big sheep cutout that said "Ewegurt". It was a red house with white trim like a regular farmhouse and a conveyer belt going to a hay loft on the tall part. On the porch there was a little fridge and on the fridge door a list of products you could buy: eggs, ewegurt- yogurt made from sheep's milk, any cut of lamb, various cheeses... we had next to no cash or I might have come home with a few cheeses and more ewegurt. As it was, we got one maple ewegurt. We tried it with our lunch later and it was smooth and delightful. It didn't taste weird and sheepy to me. In fact I loved it! I was dreaming about it the whole way home and all night. :) I'm a fan.
And that is the end of the Maine saga. The last in the trilogy. Maine is delightful and I recommend it for a nice getaway. I love the soft sand of west coast beaches, so I'd be more likely to get my beach home in oregon, but I would stop by maine for some bluebies and ewegurt and lobsters and rural, rocky, pine-y adventures anyday.
