Down East

We are up north, but apparently we’re also down east. The coast of Maine is called “down east” because ships back in the day sailing from Boston to ports in Maine—which are actually to the east of Boston–generally found prevailing winds at their backs. We drove up here for vacation a few days ago, so we didn’t really notice the wind.

Souzz has spent a lot of time down east. Me, not so much, so I’m learning as I go– including the local lingo. For starters, lobsters are often called “bugs,” and awesome things are almost always called “wicked.” In Portland, Souzz’s friend Kim showed us around as only a local can do, with stops at Eve’s at the Garden and Liquid Riot Bottling Company followed by dinner at Street and Company and dessert at Grace, an old church converted to a restaurant/bar. Portland is the liveliest city of 66,000 I’ve ever visited, that’s for sure.

Then we moved onto Bar Harbor, where our good friends Brian and Catherine run a lovely B&B called Hearthside Inn. After lunch down on the water, we took a nice bike ride on one of the carriage roads in Acadia National Park (that were built by John Rockefeller) and then had popovers and tea at the historic Jordan Pond House.

We followed Acadia with dinner at Thurston’s Lobster Pound in nearby Bernard. Thurston’s has been around since 1946, and it’s worth the 20 minute drive around Mount Desert Island. No way would we have found this place without help from our local friends…but it was well worth it. We enjoyed a lovely moonrise on the back deck while being schooled on the art of lobster eating from folks that have done that a few times over the years.

Only two days into our trip, we’ve had the good fortune of great friends, great food, and great adventure. As the sign says, Maine is the way life should be. And yes, the bugs are wicked up here.