Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Maine in May




 For quite sometime Dave has always wanted to go to Maine.  He wanted to sight see and mostly see if he could eat lobster every day!!  So we went to Maine from Saturday, (May 4th). through Saturday, (May 11th).
We stayed that the beautiful Samoset Resort On The Ocean located in Rockport, Maine



 

It was a beautiful resort / golf course located on directly on the ocean with spa, restaurants, gym, and other numerous amenities.
The view of our from our balcony out to the ocean was magnificent.  And the weather during our stay was wonderful, it wasn't too hot and the winter cold was finally over.  The busy tourist season hadn't started, so we had come at a good time.  On Sunday, we spend the day relaxing.  We had a magnificent brunch at the resort, spent the afternoon relaxing and catching up on our much needed sleep.
Then that evening Dave enjoyed his first lobster of the week.
Monday morning we headed up North to The Forks to do some hiking and see the waterfalls.  Hoping to see some moose, (but no luck).







 
But we saw some great scenery and wonderful waterfalls. The sun was shining and it was an exhausting day.
On the drive back to Rockport, we stopped for dinner and Dave enjoyed his 2nd lobster of the week.


On Tuesday, we took a Lobster Boat Tour.  We were taught how the fishermen set their traps, pull their traps and catch the lobsters that Dave so enjoys.


 

Most lobster traps are 2 feet by 4 feet, (a few fishermen use 4 X 4 sizes, but not many).  Captain Jack uses frozen red snapper fish to bait his traps.  He finds that the lobsters really like eating that type of fish.  And he has to check all 800 of this traps every 2 days. 
We spent approximately 2 hours on the boat, pulled up 12 traps.  Only 2 traps were empty, the other 10 traps all had lobsters.  We were shown how to tell females from males, how to measure to see if they were large enough to keep, (most were to small and had to be thrown back).  This photo shows a female with eggs.  Captain Jack placed a notch in her tail and told us that because she is a producing female she is now allowed to live her life free and if she is ever caught again the fishermen seeing the notch in her tail will throw her back, (lucky girl).
 












 

When we docked at the pier Captain Jack asked if we wanted to buy any of the fresh caught lobsters @ $6.00 / pound.  Dave bought 4.  We took them back to our room and cooked up lobsters # 3, 4, 5 and 6.  We ate 2 for lunch, shelled the other 2 and I used them  during the week to make sandwiches and lobster tacos - YUMMY.
 Wednesday, we took the lovely drive up to Bar Harbor.  I loved how the forsythias were in bloom all over the whole state.  I remember living in Ohio and how everyone had them in their yards.  It was such a wonderful sight every Spring.  The small back roads made the drive very long - a 60 mile drive takes over 2 hours, (because you have to slow down to 30 miles for all the little towns).
But arriving in Bar Harbor was worth it.  It was a beautiful little town

 The ocean is so blue and the people very friendly.  He had lunch on the pier.  And just enjoyed the view and the atmosphere.



 


 Then we took the Oli Trolley through Arcadia National Forest.  The sights were magnificent, just like photos you see in the sightseeing books.











 
On the drive back, we stopped at a lobster pound and Dave enjoyed lobster #7.  I asked Dave if he was beginning to get tired of lobster.  He just smiled and said "NO, not yet".
 Thursday it was so foggy that we decided to spend the day in Rockport.  We visited the lighthouse Museum and the local vendor shops.  Just walked around the town taking in the sights.

 


 
Then we stopped in a small little local bar/grill/restaurant and Dave ordered their fresh caught large lobster, ($17.95). They brought out a 2 pound plus lobster. Boy did the size of this one put a smile on Dave's face. I was wondering if he was going to finish up lobster # 8, but he did.
 
 On Friday we decided to drive to the neighboring town of Camden for lunch at Cappy's, and to visit the local vendor shops.  Cappy's has great food - but when Dave asked for a lobster, they said they only had one left until the boat came in with a new load.  Since it was only 11:30 in the morning, Dave didn't want to take a chance on the lobster being a left over from the day before so he ordered the clams - his only day without a lobster!!  But he still enjoyed the meal.  Their food was fresh and really good.  And the staff was very attentive. 
 
We drove out to the Rockport lighthouse and walked along the break water and took photos of the lobster boats.  Then we spent the rest of the day finishing up what was left in our room refrigerator, packing up our luggage, and just relaxing.   It was a great trip but we weren't looking forward to a long day of travel on Saturday.   Dave so wishes he could come back for the Maine Lobster Festival July 31st through August 4th in Rockland, Maine, (just a few miles up the road from where we stayed).
 
Oh well - time to get home and start getting the garden planted and get ready for Jared's Memorial Day visit.  Dave hopes to get the grandkids, Shelle and Josh over while Jared is home, for a family cookout and stories about our wonderful trip and all the lobsters he managed to eat.
 
OH - Dave even managed to make a collage of his "little friends"