Three Years Ago Today

I purchased this bear print in Maine.  I got it framed at Frugal Framer in Asheville, NC.

Second Summer

One of the beers we brought back from Maine.

Thirsty Botanist

 

Boothbay Craft Brewery

Click here for a review of Thirsty Botanist.

Mr. Grumpypants

Oatmeal Stout With Coffee

Norway Brewing Company

Norway, Maine

Raw Oysters in Maine

These are places I researched thoroughly for several weeks prior to our trip.  I made notes for the ones we tried.  In all, I ate 15 dozen oysters, and 49 varieties.  Included one New Hampshire oyster bar.

Click here to see all the oyster varieties I tried.

RamBEARtan Martini

These are actually Rambutan Martinis.  You can find the recipe here.  We ended up deciding that the vanilla was not something we liked a whole lot.  Instead, we put more lime.  But adjust recipe amounts to your liking.  We did find that smashing the fresh rambutans in the shaker a great way to release that wonderful fruit juice!

We got the bear art in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 

Bluet

Bluet

Maine Wild Blueberry Sparkling Wine

purchased at Old Port Spirits & Cigars in Portland, Maine

When in Maine

BUY LOCAL

Old Port Spirits & Cigars

I wanted to drink some craft beer while in Maine.  I did just that.  But at the same, I wanted to also bring some home.  We purchased these Maine beers and spirits in Portland, and I did so primarily based on can design/art.

Asheville, NC and Portland, ME are two of America's top cities for craft beer lovers.  They are 1 & 2 in craft breweries per capita. 

Uh, a few imports from same store.  Just had to.

Oyster Tally

 I ate almost 15 dozen oysters, and a total of 49 varieties.  Kade ate two oysters!  Here are all the ones I sampled.  Restaurants in bold.   I used a 5 point scale, with a + and - for a bit more separation.  I gave a 5+ to only one variety: Wolfe's Neck.  I gave out quite a few 5s.  And there were some 3s.  But get this:  The 3s were still very good.  A big Thank You to Kade for keeping track and directing things.  I will keep trying to add more info here - maybe a map, links to restaurants, photos of oysters, etc...  In the meantime, under category Maine Trip in right sidebar, there's info about our days in Maine, including the oyster experiences.  When I started first thinking of Maine well over a year ago, raw oysters pretty quickly became my focus.  It led to this.

The Franklin (Portsmouth, NH)

all sourced from Great Bay, NH

The Franklin (NH)

Bellamy River (NH)

Little Bay Beauties (NH) 4

Lil Sippas (NH) 5

Bay Point (NH) 4

Rising Tide (NH)

I had already eaten The Franklin, Bellamy River and Rising Tide before deciding to start a rating system.  So they didn't get a fair shake.  But they were damn good!

Robert's Maine Grill (Kittery, ME)

Little Grizzlies (NH) 5

Mere Point (ME) 5

Norumbega (ME) 5

John's River (ME) 4+

Glidden Point (ME) 4+

Fat Dog (NH) 4-

John's River Sweets (ME) 4

Spinney Creek (ME) 4

Moon Dancer (ME) 3+

Flying Point (ME) 3+

Robert's Maine Grill (second visit)

Bay Side (NH) 5

Brix & Brine (Ogunquit, ME)

Pemaquid (ME) 5

Sugarloaf (ME) 4

The Maine Catch (Ogunquit, ME)

Moshire Island (ME) 4

Jack's Point (ME) 4

Wellfleet (MA) 5

Seal Cove (ME) 3

Little Bay (NH) 4

Eventide (Portland, ME)

Lemon Stones (ME) 4+

Eros (ME) 5

Bombazine (ME) 4

Love Point (ME) 3+

Long Reach (ME) 4+

Wet Smack (ME) 5

Chebeague Island (ME) 5

Bluff Head (ME) 4-

Wolfe's Neck (ME) 5+

Mine Oyster (Boothbay Harbor, ME)

Appledore (Damariscotta River, ME) 4-

Ebenecook (Boothbay Harbor, ME) 4+

 Glidden Point Oyster Farms (Edgecomb, ME)

Glidden Point Topsiders (ME) 5

Salt Winds (ME) 4+

Robinhoods (ME) 4+

Shuck Station (Damariscotta, ME)

Blackstone Point (ME) 3+

Cora Cressy (ME) 5-

Heron Island (ME) 4

Wild Dams (ME) 5

Scully Sea Products (Edgecomb, ME)

Merry Island (ME) 5

Dodge Cove (ME) 5

Recompense Cove (Freeport, ME) 5

The Shop (Portland, ME)

Abigail Pearl (Scarborough, ME) 5

Wilds (Damariscotta River, ME) 3+

Dingley Cove (New Meadows River, ME) 5-

Getchell's Ledge (New Meadows River, ME) 4

The Way Home

Kade asked, "How will we know we're close to home?"  I answered, "Follow those trucks and look for the Blue Ridge Mountains."

Wow!

And through ten states. 

On the way home, we stayed in Hartford (CT), Harrisburg (PA) and Roanoke (VA).

Last Day in Maine

We said our goodbyes to Boothbay Harbor and drove to a very scenic spot about fifteen minutes away:  Ocean Point.  After enjoying that, it was time to drive south to Portland, where more oysters were calling.  But before reaching Portland, we had to go to Day's Crabmeat & Lobster.  The plan was to spend our last half-day in Maine eating lobster rolls and raw oysters.  We accomplished that!  I will have to say that as we drove past Kittery, we thought about returning to Bob's Clam Hut for a lobster roll, since it had been the best of the trip.  In the end, we just didn't want to chance it not living up that original experience again.  So we drove on.

 

Ocean Point

We saw Red's on our way through Wiscasset.  Tempted us, briefly.  There was barely a line, since they were still a few minutes from opening.  We kept driving.

We chose Day's instead!  How did I learn about Day's?!?  Well, one of my favorite YouTube  vloggers, Mark Wiens, recently was in Maine trying lobster rolls at various spots up and down the coast.  One he and his cohorts really liked was Day's Crabmeat & Lobster.  And I figured, based on location, Day's would attract more locals than tourists, or least that the line would be shorter.  Worked out!

One side was a seafood market.

an idyllic setting

A couple of the mayo-based lobster rolls we had tried in Maine were good.  Our favorite, though, was the toasted bun with warm fresh lobster meat and butter.  I guess you can tell which one we got at Day's?!?!  

We also got fried haddock and chips.  Loved it!

The Shop by Island Creek Oysters

There were some I hadn't tried.  What's great is that the hostess, once I told her of my quest to eat as many varieties as possible in Maine, and that I was approaching 50 varieties, did something pretty special.  The Shop had a couple of varieties that had just arrived and were scheduled to be offered on the next day's menu.  However, she worked her magic and also served me those.  I'm always appreciative of excellent service, but that really, really impressed me.  The raw oysters I ate at The Shop were very good, with or without that extra touch.  But because that they did that, I will always think very highly of them.  To think, though, it was my server at their competitor - Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland - who told me about The Shop.  She did so, because I had also mentioned to her about my goal to sample whatever I could.  I learned from both of them that the oyster businesses do compete with one another, yes, but they also truly support one another.  That's a fabulous thing.

Click here for an article about The Shop.

Who needs KFC when you have NFC?!?

an Alabama car way up north

some of Kade's digital images

This last image is of Western Beach at Prouts Neck in Scarborough, ME.  We returned to Scarborough to hike Cliff Trail and walk this beach - two things, logistically, we just couldn't pull off on our way up.  And this time, due to high tide, it was once again impossible.  If there was a single hiccup on our trip, in terms of execution, it was this.