As long-term readers know, we go to Maine to visit relatives every other year. We were afraid covid would get in the way of this trip as it had so many others, but luckily everything went according to plan. In 2019, we invited a close friend on the trip, and this time she joined us again along with a new addition, my sister-in-law. As has become tradition in the last few visits, we started in Portland to spend some time there as we love the quaint charm of the city. We arrived late on a Wednesday evening and went straight to bed at our hotel in the Old Port area of the city.
We only had one full day in Portland so we packed it full of activities. We started with a great breakfast at a restaurant called Hot Suppa. We then went to our first recurring must-visit, the Allagash Brewing Company. They have a lot more outdoor seating than I remember, and a huge Connect 4 game that the kids enjoyed. Unfortunately they don’t do beer flights anymore (or maybe for just right now), so we didn’t get to sample as much as we used to. We still had a few of our favorite beers and a lobster roll from the Bite Into Maine food truck in the parking lot. There are a few other breweries in the area, so we decided to try Foundation Brewing Company across the street. There, the girls were entertained by the cornhole bags set while we tried a few new beers. Next, our designated driver drove back to Old Port where we parked and wandered around town. We stopped for a “lunch” at HiFi Donuts and continued towards downtown to do some shopping. We had planned to take a lobster boat tour but it ended up being canceled due to high winds, so instead we took an impromptu trolley tour of Portland. We learned a lot about the history of the city, and it also went to the photogenic Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, which we hadn’t planned on visiting until the following day. Back in Portland, we had a delicious dinner at The Front Room in a neighborhood we like called Munjoy Hill. After a quick stop at the hotel, we walked around Old Port some more, stopping for dessert at Gorgeous Gelato, then ending the evening walking along the coast and strolling down Longwharf Pier.
The next morning, we started with breakfast along the coast at The Porthole, which had lots of outdoor seating, and it was a beautiful morning to enjoy it. We then headed over to the Portland Observatory, where we discovered that you had to book a tour now, so we bought tickets an hour away and drove around town a bit to kill time. The previous times we had been there, we skipped the tour and just climbed the stairs to the top for the view of the city. Being forced on the tour wasn’t bad though as we learned a lot about the shipping trade and a major Portland fire which got very close to destroying the observatory. After the tour, we went to another must-visit, the Root Wild Kombuchery, where we had flights to try every single kombucha they had. We purchased a few 4-packs for the remainder of the trip, and then began our drive to Brooklin for the second half of the trip. On the drive, we stopped at Day’s Crabmeat & Lobster for a fantastic lobster roll lunch. We arrived at our relatives’ house for a quiet evening, and had more lobster rolls for dinner.
We didn’t have much planned for our Saturday in town, so my aunt recommended we hitch a ride on a local mail boat! It was in a town about 45 minutes away called Stonington. We drove there and had breakfast at a diner-like place called Harbor Cafe. We then stopped for coffee while waiting for our tour. It’s literally called The Mail Boat, though it seems that only the first tour includes actual mail delivery. The other 2-3 tours in the day are meant more for tourists to enjoy. The boat stopped at three piers on Isle au Haut. The first was a private stop for locals that live on the island, then there’s a town landing where you can get off and walk around in lieu of going to the last stop. We opted to stay on the boat, where we passed a nice light house before reaching the final stop where you’re able to go camping. After the nice ride back to shore, we drove back towards Brooklin and stopped at the quintessential Labor Day attraction — the Blue Hill Fair. It was a bit muted this year, which we didn’t mind at all. We spent a ton of time on the rides this year as both kids were tall enough for the majority of them. We also ate two lobster rolls (of course), and tried out all of the competing french fry places (our favorite was Stan’s). Back in Brooklin, we spent some time with my family before my aunt and uncle took Jaime and I out to a special dinner. A friend of theirs is a chef and owns a fabulous restaurant named Aragosta. It was voted best coastal restaurant in Maine and was a James Beard finalist in 2020 for best restaurant in the entire Northeast. It was quite a treat!
Our last full day in the area we had planned for Acadia National Park, another staple of our visits. We started with a coffee stop at Bucklyn Coffee, and then continued on to Jordan Pond within the park. We’ve had some bad luck finding parking there in previous years, so this year we got there an hour early. It was still packed but we were lucky enough to get a reasonable parking spot. We then got in line for the restaurant and the person in front of me said he got there at 8am and it was already full! He had to drive back to the entrance and take the local trolley back to Jordan Pond. After putting our names in, we walked down and around a bit of Jordan Pond itself and then went back to the restaurant for their amazing popovers, which didn’t disappoint! Next up, we intended to stop at Sand Beach but there was no parking within half a mile in both directions. We continued on towards Thunder Hole and got a close parking spot, but it was low tide so there wasn’t much to see besides the coastline. We then trekked our way up Cadillac Mountain which required a timed-entry ticket due to being overcrowded. We enjoyed our time at the top, though the clouds were relentless so we didn’t get to take in the normal views. We then left the park and went into nearby Bar Harbor. We stopped at a small market, strolled the main drag to do some shopping, and of course stopped for a lobster roll. We ended our time there getting drinks on the pier at Stewman’s. Back at our relatives’ house, we enjoyed a family movie and dinner to end our visit.
We left fairly early after saying our goodbyes to head back to Portland for our flight home. We stopped at Young’s Lobster Pound on the way, and had our best lobster roll yet, and it’s right on the coast so it made for a relaxing stop and a nice reminder of why we continue going to Maine. Back at the airport I had one final lobster roll near our gate before our trip home.