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. 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 how to talk like a local. 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, 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.

evesat the garden
Eve’s at the Garden
109793_250858-Liquid-Riot-Bar3
The distillery at Liquid Riot
street and company kitchen
The open kitchen at Street and Company
grace front doort
Is this a church, or a restaurant?
Grace restaurant
It’s definitely a restaurant

  IMG_4817 grace

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 funded by John Rockefeller) and then had popovers and tea at the historic Jordan Pond House.

IMG_1554 IMG_1581 IMG_4883 DSC_0670

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 with folks that have done that a few times over the years.

IMG_4894 IMG_4896 IMG_4897IMG_4899 IMG_4900

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 down east.

IMG_1535

3 thoughts on “Down East

  1. Sounds like you guys are having a great time! I’m jotting down some names (of restaurants, not people) for our next visit to Portland/Bar Harbor. Truly a beautiful part of the world.

  2. thanks for all the pics. restaurants look super particularly “Eve”. Have a lobster roll for me! and send more pics. Hot and muggy here.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: