Tag: hallowell

To the Coast

It was a wonderful sunny day and we had things to do. Kathy wanted to see the coast and I needed to get my shoes replaced and we needed to do some Christmas shopping.

So lets combine them all into one trip.

We headed off early in the morning down the interstate towards Portland. Our first port of call was LL Bean who are a huge supplier out outdoor clothing, hunting equipment etc. They never close and none of the shop doors have locks on them! Part of their guarantee is that if something goes wrong within the life of a product they will replace it. Well the middle of the sole on the right foot of the boots I bought from them las year had separated, the rest of the boot and the left boot were fine. So we took them back.. they told me to get a new pair. So I did and they were cheaper so they gave us a gift card for the difference – which we then spent on other things we needed in the store.

After that we headed to Portland and Tony’s Donuts which does a wide range of freshly cooked donuts. So after a breakfast of donuts and coffee we headed off to Kittery and The Stonewall Kitchen where we picked up Christmas Gifts for people.

We then headed back up Route 1 to Ogunquit and Perkin’s Cove

[Embedded Canalplan Map for Perkins Cove]

where we went for a walk along the Marginal Way which is a coastal path than runs just above the rocky shorefront. I’ll be adding some photos to Flickr soon.

Having had a good dose of ocean views, smells and sounds we continued heading north on Route 1 and stopped for lunch at Maniax Restaurant before continuing up Route 1 through Kennebunk to Portland where we got back on the Interstate and headed back to Sue and Jeff’s.

In the evening we went to Maria Libra’s Italian Restaurant which is just down the road in Hallowell. Extremely good food in a friendly environment – but if you want the Lasagna it’s advisable to book your portion in advance as everything is made fresh on the day and quantities of some dishes are limited.

Just relaxing doing nothing

Sue and Jeff live outside Hallowell, and even though the interstate is quite close there is no direct access and its not actually that noisy

[Embedded Canalplan Map for Sue and Jeff’s]

As you can see from the photo the neighbours are slightly further away than they are at home. When we aren’t here we are spending time over at Kathy’s parents who live on the other side of Augusta. Her Mum makes a mean mug of coffee and always has lots of food to nibble on.

[Embedded Canalplan Map for Kathy’s Parents]

The big tree on the corner of the property by the turning into Sparrow Drive has recently come down as it was leaning dangerously, and the small shed in the garden has also gone.. actually its been gone for a while now so I guess the satellite image is quite old

Flying is never a really good experience

I don’t care what any airline claims – flying is not an overly enjoyable experience : well not in economy any way.

We got to the airport, dropped off our luggage and went through security. All remarkably painless and as we didn’t have to be there 3 hours in advance as we were already checked in we didn’t end up kicking our heels and getting bored sitting in the departure lounge for hours.

Boarding was remarkably painless, probably because the flight was only about half full, but of course we ended up with people sitting in the two seats in front of us: two people who were complete pains – they reclined their seats the minute they got into them and never put them up again (even when food was being served). The woman who was sitting in front of me just didn’t sit still for the entire flight, if she wasn’t going to the toilet she was moving round in her seat making the back move all the time which made watching any film just about impossible as unless you leant forward and twisted your neck it wasn’t actually possible to see the screen properly.

The flight left late but managed, due to 75mph tail winds, to actually land on time at 17:05 EST. Immigration, baggage claim and customs was the quickest it has ever been and we got out of the airport at 17:35, just in time to see the Concord Trailways bus for Portland just leaving…. oh well.

So we waited for the next bus at 18:30 which was a couple of minutes late (if only the previous one had been) and headed for Portland. The movie on the coach was Evan Allmighty, not a film I would have chosen to watch due to the fact that the previous film in the”series” starred Jim Carey and I find his manic behaviour extremely tedious. But it wasn’t a bad film and it filled the two hours of trip up the interstate.

It was about 10:30 by the time we had arrived at Sue and Jeff’s and I have to say that it wasn’t long before I headed off to bed.