Maine Attraction

After a mid-summer change in plans, we decided to head back to Maine. I was so excited! We love Maine and were looking forward to a change in venue...while we all love "The Big Red House," we love exploring and couldn't wait to experience new adventures. So, off to Searsport we go!

After spending Friday night at the Publick House in Sturbridge, Massachusetts (our 7th time in 9 years) we arrived at our northernmost Maine destination so far. Do you remember how you felt that first day of junior high school, when you really didn't know as many people as you wanted to, and were afraid the people you didn't know where going to turn out to be freakishly awful? That's how I always feel when we pull into a new campground. We pulled into Searsport Shores Oceanfront Campground with our fingers crossed and eyes wide open. It was BEAUTIFUL! Steve led us to our oceanfront location and magically directed John into our site without a single miscue. This is what we see whenever we step out of our camper:

Camper view while the tide is on its way out

Steve and Astrig are excellent stewards of the earth, and the campground shows their love of both Mother Earth and the arts. But we'll get to that later. First we need to talk about food. Serious food. Every Saturday in the summer they have a lobster feast, right on the water. Talk about YUM.

Butter is being delivered

Lucky for us I had snagged reservations for 4 (3 lobstah and 1 steak) dinners weeks ago, so we didn't have to watch the scene from our campsite. The first course was the butter course. You can't have enough butter with your lobstah. Course two was mussels. Fresh mussels, right out of the sea.

These were the ones I ate

I've had mussels right out of the ocean in Prince Edward Island and I must say, these Maine mussels were really the sweetest, most delectable mussels I have ever tasted. Maybe it was the mussels. Maybe it was just my stomach growling. And then, lobster (or as they say in Maine, lobstah):

Steve and crew taking the lobster off the fire, with freshly harvested seaweed below...

and above it.

Astrig told us seaweed has "natural MSG" so cooking/steaming the lobster surrounded by seaweed brings out the food's natural flavor. I didn't google it; I tasted therefore I believed. We lined up cafeteria-style to load our plates with lobster, corn, baked potato, caramelized baked onion, more mussels, clams, and homemade rolls (Astrig has some serious talent with flour). The staff walked around a gave us more rolls, mussels, clams, potatoes and of course, butter. Nature's bounty on our plates and nature's beauty all around. It was heaven.

"I loves me some seafood!"

"Hey there!" dude-style

And it wasn't over yet...Homemade peach and blueberry cobbler in a mammoth cast-iron kettle was taken off the fire and served with vanilla ice cream and the freshly whipped cream that Steve and Astrig walked around and whipped while making small talk with the crowd. And coffee. Fresh, fair-trade coffee. I can't be dead, can I?!?! If this is any indication about how the next week will go after only 3 hours in this campground, I think this is going to be one AWESOME vacation.

Hey Dude

Last stop - East Sparta, Ohio near Canton. Goal for the trip - Pro Football Hall of Fame for the guys, dude ranch fun for the gals. We checked into a KOA on the side of a hill on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. The place was jammed. John used magic to wiggle into the site, and we watched the temp inside the camper creep up to 97 degrees until the campground dudes could replace a fuse in our site's electric box. Luckily they had a pool.

We all decorated mardi gras masks and hats for the big dance party later that night, where Griff and Mackenzie showed everyone their moves. We had a great time even with the unbelievable temps. It was nice to get back to the AC in the camper...even Harry didn't want to go outdoors.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL???!!! The boys visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Sunday while the girls did a little school shopping...or as much school shopping as you can do when you wear a uniform to school. The boys LOVED the Hall of Fame:

Griff and Broadway Joe (or, 'Pantyhose Man' if you ask my mom)

We also accomplished a very important milestone in Canton, Ohio.  Are you ready for this? We had our first Dunkin Donuts coffee in over 2000 miles. It was absolutely delish.

We met a really nice guy, Don, at the campground. His site was directly behind ours, and we learned he was there semi-longterm as a contract worker at the nearby Smuckers plant. He had just built a big smoker and was always cooking something really, really good. While we were admiring his smoker we discovered his dog, Gordy - a Chessie! He was HUGE, like Murf had been, but more brown, like Morgan. Anyway, Sunday night while we were eating our pasta Don strolls over with a rack of ribs and says, "here you go!" We didn't know what to say! So, we said thanks and dug in.  They were even better than the Dunkin Donuts coffee. There are some really nice people in this world of ours.

Sunday night was the Karaoke Party and Kenzie did a great job singing Taylor Swift's 'Love Song.' I was very proud of her.

Look at her youngest fan at the corner of the table...

Sunday night a wicked thunderstorm jolted us right out of bed. I swear the thunder/lightening was directly overhead. I was glad we weren't in a tent, but it was still creepy. It brought to mind a comforting saying, "Sometimes God calms the storm, and sometimes God calms his child while the storm rages." Well, let me tell you, God calmed us because that was some storm.

Practically everyone left Monday so we had a relatively peaceful day. Mackenzie discovered the stable and went for a long trail ride. She was mad she hadn't discovered the barn kittens sooner! They were very cute. I'm not sure I would've called this KOA a 'Dude Ranch' but it had a nice stable with clean, happy horses. The trails had lots of different terrain, and Kenz got to trot her horse, which made her beam.

Alas, Tuesday brought the inevitable...the end of this Journey. We packed everything back into the camper and car one last time and headed East. It rained all day, which matched our moods. We were worried the damage from Hurricane Irene would make it difficult to get home, but luckily all the roads had been repaired. The trip was uneventful and you know, in spite of our resistance, it still felt pretty good to be home.

I must admit, however: I spent the whole way home thinking about our next Journey...