Maine Weekend

Well, we did end up having a good time in Maine, even though the trip was cut short because of Brian's interview at Tewksbury High School for a band teaching position. Although initially upset by this, I got over it and now embrace my extra time at home. So, on Saturday, I worked at the credit union in the morning and we left for Maine at 3:00. Portland is really a short drive from here, about two hours. It was a pretty town, on the harbor. We parked, walked around for a little bit, drank beers, and then realized we weren't in the hip part of town any longer, so we drove over to Old Port and parked in a garage. We walked around for a while, ate dinner at an Irish pub, where I actually commented that it was sad they only played U2 and the Cranberries. Of course, I love U2, but I'm sure they could have played other Irish music (Perhaps Thin Lizzy, Van Morrison, Celtic Woman? ). Anyway, our dinner was really good: I had fried haddock and chips, mixed pub and sweet potato, and Brian had a lobster roll; we shared steamers as well. After dinner, we walked around into lots of shops and I bought a few knicknacks-- postcards, maple syrup, candies.

Anyway, apart from that, we drove up to Pownal, next to Freeport, and set up our tent in the Bradbury Mountain State Park. This time, we had an air mattress, which was much better for our backs than sleeping on the ground. The next day, I woke up fairly early (like today as well) and took a shower in the nicest shower I have ever been to at a campground. The only problem, the camp had latrines instead of toilets and they weren't anywhere near the shower house. Although, the latrines were very nice and had toilet paper and anti-bacterial gel. Okay, enough about toilets. Brian and I drove to Freeport for breakfast at Friendly's and then went to the huge L.L. Bean store to shop. I bought my mom a skirt, Grandad a calendar, and a scented hot pad (?) for us. It smells like balsam fir pines. Brian bought a shirt and a belt for himself. Freeport has really capitalized on the outlet market, so we went to a few more stores. Brian wanted to go to the art museum (as did I ), so we drove back down to Portland and went to theirs, which is a jewel of a museum. They had a nice collection of Winslow Homers and some very different modern art. The Portland museum even had a special Frank Lloyd Wright furniture/architecture exhibit. Very neat. Next, we decided to go back to the state park to do a little hiking. It was quite nice, even though the first hike up the "mountain" wore me out a bit. That night, we drove back into Freeport and had dinner at a barbeque place, which was great, and they even made blueberry bbq sauce! Back at the campground, we roasted marshmallows, Brian took a nap, and I read the second Harry Potter novel. I'm not done yet, but I'm almost finished.

Brian had his interview at Tewksbury high school yesterday and I hope it went well. I have my fingers crossed. We returned home and it rained sporadically throughout the day. I was pretty tired and my stomach hurt, but I did walk at the gym for an hour. We were going to go to see the Bourne Ultimatum, but I was too tired.

Today, we're going to Naragansett beach again. I like living close to the ocean.