Maine (sweetheart time cont.)

After we left Boston, we drove up the coast of Maine.  I don't really know why, but I have always wanted to go there.  I don't know what I expected, but it was different than I had imagined.  I loved it!  It was such a great mixture of water and forest.  It had a "wilder" feel than I expected.  I loved how it was so much more its own place than a lot of areas in the United States.  It was more regionalized and didn't have as much of the national chain feel.

Our "home" base was Portland and then we drove all the other places and back.  We never drove farther than 2 or 3 hours away at a time.  Portland's downtown was so cute.  Old, worn-out cobblestones and brick buildings.  I don't know why I didn't take any pictures.  The only one I have is taken through the window of our hotel room - kind of towards the harbor.

We enjoyed ourselves by going to several different lighthouses.  This one was in Portland.  We saw it on Mother's Day and had our first lobster roll outside of it in a little shack.  The wind was so cold!

We climbed around a little bit down below but didn't get wet.  I took a picture of this because it was so interesting.  This rock was everywhere and it looked like wood.  It was really weird.  There was a sign where a boat crashed on these rocks on Christmas Eve in 1886.  It was a great day!  We wandered around the cute downtown of Portland and then went back to the hotel to wait for Taylor's Mother's Day call!  We got to talk to him for 1 1/2 hours - it was so awesome!  We called at the kids at home and did a conference call with all of them.  It was so good to talk to Taylor.  It was the best Mother's Day present ever and he sounded great!

Here are a couple of other lighthouses that we were able to see as we drove around the coast of Maine.

This is the same one as above, but I put another picture to show that it was out on a rock and they don't let you across because it's too dangerous.

One day as we drove up the coast to Camden, I took several pictures of cute old houses (so many turned into bed and breakfasts) and the quaint towns we passed along the way.

This is kind of an ugly picture, but note the old Rexall sign.  Just like we grew up with!

Camden was so cute, but oh so cold that day.  We drove up to a look-out and thought we were going to freeze to death!  I don't know that I've ever felt the wind so cold :)

My camera was zoomed as far as it would go for this picture from the lookout.

I had no idea that there were so many little islands and peninsulas in Maine.  If you look at a map close up it is amazing.  These all were taken at the top of the lookout.

We ate at so many amazing little places on the whole trip - we ate too well!  I think we had some type of seafood almost every meal!  It was awesome!  We had lobster rolls (which we had never had before and now I will crave forever), clam strips, clam chowder, lobster and more lobster rolls :) 

We loved Kennebunkport and Ogunquit.  Here are some pictures in Ogunquit

We were determined to find the little covered bridges that New England is famous for.  Sadly, there aren't that many left.  Yay for Brad who searched out and found this little bridge!  It was so beautiful there.

I loved this little platform with the rope swing!

We ended up the trip by stopping in Salem, Massachusetts on our way to the airport.  It was where they had they witch trials and then the Bewitched TV show was filmed there.  We were surprised to learn that all of the accused were killed within just a 2 or 3 month span.  

Wow!  What a wonderful trip we had!  I guess we are getting old, because we enjoyed the boring stuff...all the history, the driving, the lighthouses, etc.  It was such a relaxing get-away!  We love traveling so much and it was so great to see some new parts of the country that we hadn't ever seen.  I fell in love with both of them - but I think especially Maine.  I can't wait to go back someday and do the fall tour.  Until then, we will be dreaming of the lobster rolls :)