Saturday, January 28th
Who says that Northern beaches are only worth visiting in the Summer?
My wife and I decided to take a quick little overnight trip to coastal Maine. Maine is one of our favorite places to visit, and we typically spend time in the Ogunquit area. Wanting to visit someplace new, we headed an additional 20 miles north to Kennebunk/Kennebunkport.
Winter is definitely off-season up there, and while I don’t recommend doing this during the warmer months, we just packed our bags and headed up there with no particular plans or destination. Coastal Maine has had a tough month, getting hit by strong storm after strong storm. There’s been severe beach erosion, coastal flooding, and property damage all up the coast from the north shore of Massachusetts to far DownEast Maine. It was a perfect time to show our support and inject a few dollars into the local economy up there. They certainly need it.
Temps were cool. There was patchy snow on the ground, and more snow was expected on Sunday as we were leaving. …but we weren’t going to let that stop us!
Our first stop on Saturday afternoon on the way up there was the Lindt Chocolate Factory Outlet store in Stratham, NH. It’s just a few miles from I-95, and well worth the stop!
While Lindt is a Swiss Chocolatier, apparently much of the Lindt chocolate made for consumption in North America is made in Stratham, NH. While factory tours aren’t currently available, they do have a very well-stocked factory outlet store. Yum! We often stop at their stores, which are located mainly in the Northeast, and typically found in locations where other outlet store are. In fact, there are several locations very close by to this shop. There’s one in Kittery, Maine. Another in Portsmouth, NH, for example. Being late January, the store was stocked full of Valentine’s Day goodies, but we loaded up on the 50% off section. Can we tell the difference? Nope!
Next up was Dinner. Normally we will grab seafood while we’re up there. The only other time we’ve been in Kennebunk was when we were on a lobster roll quest a few years ago. We often do things like that, where we’ll take a journey for food. We once read that one of the places that’s considered to have THE BEST lobster rolls is The Clam Shack. This establishment’s lobster rolls differ from most because they serve theirs on a grilled round roll instead of the typical grilled New England hot dog roll. I won’t dive too deep into this here, but very soon I’ll post about our Lobster quests in Maine. Just have to give a shout out to Rose Eden’s Lobsters in Bar Harbor. Oh. My. God. Absolutely the Best Evah!
…but I digress. While I had Salmon for dinner, we definitely didn’t search out a typical Maine seafood shack. We ate at Duffy’s Tavern and Grill. Great beer list, fairly small menu, but they do it right. My wife had a Cobb Salad that was enormous. If you go, definitely do not skip the Chicken Tenders. We chose garlic parm, and they were honestly some of the best we’ve had. It’s a place that we’ll without a doubt visit again at some point.
If I’m going to be writing about our food escapades, I really need to start taking pictures of some of the places we visit and plates we get served. I’ll try to do better on that front.
Not only did we find a great new place to eat, we also found a great place to spend the night. We chose to stay at the Seaside Inn right on Kennebunkport Beach.
The room was large and very clean. There was evidence just about everywhere of the recent storm damage, their property had a little bit of water, but none of the rooms were affected at all. There’s a hot tub on a large deck which overlooks the ocean. Our room was on the first floor with an ocean view, and a small patio that had tables and chairs (and sandbags), but that was just them being proactive. Talking to the innkeeper, they were forced to cancel all bookings from January 10th to January 22nd due to the storms.
When we woke up, we decided to grab a quick bite from the complimentary continental breakfast that they serve. Their muffins are warm, and outstanding. I grabbed a cup of coffee in a to-go cup and threw a coat on. We walked the beach in our slippers. The sand was firm (like Long Sands Beach in York). There were several people walking about while their dogs were loving life on the beach. The beach was littered with broken fencing, damaged seawall, snapped pilings, and the occasional lobster pot that had washed ashore. In fact, there were lobster pots littered in the street along the beach, and the sidewalk was closed in several places due to the water undermining the integrity of it.
We showered, checked out, and like a Hobbit we went in search for “second breakfast.” We hit up this great little Parisian Cafe, Mornings in Paris. The crepes were delicious. Sadly, the pain au chocolat wasn’t nearly as good as the place we frequent on Cape Cod. Still, it was a great find.
As my wife was in the shower, I was searching out a place to enjoy our “second breakfast.” I noticed a great church, St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, right on the water with a huge lawn. I figured that since it was a Sunday morning, we’d have no problem getting in. Sure enough, as we drove up to it, the gate was open.
Since it was right on the water, there definitely was storm damage. The gravel driveway was completely washed out. There’s an outdoor chapel right next to the water that is breathtaking. I pulled my car just off the driveway in what appeared to be a gravel lot, right across from the outdoor chapel. As we were getting out of our car to enjoy our warm beverages, a gentleman was walking towards us from the direction of the gate and he was visibly upset. Apparently, the church is only open in the summer months, and he was there just to inspect the damage to the grounds. He was upset that I had just driven in and parked on the grass. I had no idea that the facility wasn’t open, and that I had parked on the lawn since it was covered in rocks and debris from the storm. I profusely apologized, and we left. I felt terrible.
…so plan B.
We drove a little farther down Ocean Avenue but had to walk to our final destination because the road was closed due to the recent storm. We spent some time on a bench at Blowing Cave Park, which is similar to Thunder Hole at Acadia National Park. It overlooks Walker Point, which is the Bush’s family compound. What a beautiful location.
After that, we headed home. I wanted to get going before the snow started flying. I don’t mind driving on snowy roads but am not a fan of the traffic that always seems to be on I-495. That road can be like the autobahn.
So, just another quick 1-day getaway to explore another corner of the world that we haven’t spent a ton of time in.
Of course, on the way home we had to make another stop at Lindt. I guess I had better hit the gym in the morning.
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