A Jaunt to Portland, Maine

Alas, my Maine posts have come to an end! Who knew that I would have so much fun there? I was expecting to have a nice time, but I had no idea that it would as wonderful as it was! Isn't that just the best?

After the rest of the family headed back to the Midwest, the hubs and I were on our own again. We had planned to go to the L.L. Bean flagship store for no reason other than it seems like the thing to do when you're in Maine. On the way down to Freeport, we decided that since we were in the area, we might as well have lunch in Portland.

Hello, man with the yellow bag! Yes, you have indeed walked into my frame. 

This town wins my heart for being a salty seaport with adorable restaurants and cobblestone streets. Seriously, is there anything better?? The hubs and I immediately felt a connection with Portland, and our only regret was that we could not spend more time there. The upside is that we now know that next time we'll have to have our home base in Portland!

As we walked through the streets, we found a precious little Italian restaurant for lunch called Paciarino and decided to check it out. We couldn't get enough of their freshly made pasta and sauces, and the servers were so friendly that it made the meal even better. Our sunny little corner was the perfect spot to warm up and fill our bellies.

 After we had our fill of fresh ravioli and tagliatelle, we had to get back on the road to visit L.L. Bean. The flagship store in Freeport is more of a compound, comprised of multiple buildings for clothing, hunting and fishing goods, and homewares. I had been hoping to walk away with a pair of new snow boots that I've been coveting, but they sadly were out of stock! I was disappointed, but the store had too many fun displays to be sad for too long.

As we started the drive back to Bangor, where we spent the night before flying home, I started to feel a bit tired from all of our exploring, but I also felt very happy. The night started to fall, and as I gazed out the car window up at the stars, the hubs by my side, I felt warm and content. Family means everything to me, and without taking those few days to spend with the hubs' side of the family, we never would have known what wonders were waiting for us to find. This trip had so much love woven throughout all of its parts: love for the hubs, hubs for our family, and love for Maine.

Love Maine? Catch up on my posts here:

Finding Solitude in Maine//Nothing But Snow and Sky

The Maine Details//A Slightly Morbid View of Bangor

A Slightly Morbid View of Bangor

I didn't plan to have my recap post of Bangor to be so... morbid. I was going to be honest and say that due to our limited time, we didn't get much of a feel for Bangor, and the parts that we did see didn't leave much of an impression. I was going to write about the few things we did get to do before returning home to DC and show a few photos. That's when I realized that this was going to be a morbid post.

You see, the only things we did in Bangor other than get a quick dinner at a microbrewery on the water were driving by Stephen King's house and checking out another cemetery. Yes, that makes two cemetery trips in four days.

Facepalm.

I'm not creepy, I swear! I don't lurk in dark corners and and obsess about death. It just so happens that Stephen King has a house in Bangor, and the internet promised that it would be cool. (It was.) And the hubs mentioned that he had also read that there was a cemetery in Bangor that is apparently a tourist attraction, so we decided to see if it was really all that cool. (Mehh.) If we had spent the day in Bangor rather than exploring Portland, I'm sure we would have done normal tourist things like check out museums or visit the Paul Bunyan statue. But... we didn't.

So here you go, dear internet. Here is my slightly morbid time in Bangor.

Stephen King's house. And yes, I did feel creepy taking a picture of his home, especially when there was a car in the driveway.

Wrought iron fence with spider web and bat details.

Bat detail on the wrought iron fence.

"K" for King! 

Three-headed dragon detail.

At the Mt. Hope Garden Cemetery

Mt. Hope Garden Cemetery 

Very old tombstones (some from the 1700s!) at the Mt. Hope Garden Cemetery

So there you have it. Was it a little weird? Yes. But now I know that Stephen King lives in a badass, beautiful home in Bangor and possibly drives a Prius. If we return to Bangor, we will be sure to visit Paul Bunyan and do something a little more mainstream. :)

Love Maine? Catch up on my posts here:
Finding Solitude in Maine//Nothing But Snow and Sky//The Maine Details

The Maine Details

Our trip to Maine last week was only about three days long, but it was such a great experience that I'm not quite ready to let it go. As I was sorting through all of my photos, I realized that I had taken a lot of strange ones of random little details. On Monday I showed you the snow and sky, and today I am going to share the little details that made me laugh and smile.

On the way to Waterville from Bangor, the hubs and I had lunch at a funny little restaurant called The Last Unicorn.  I was a big fan of the unicorn drawn on the chalkboard. :)

We found an amazing, sprawling antique store in Skowhegan that is home to so many glorious treasures that I wish we could have brought home with us. I swooned over the book room and all of the gorgeous cloth-bound books on its shelves.

Also in the antique shop was a stack of old Coca Cola bottles. I love the fading wooden crates they were in.

This sticker from Italy was on an old suitcase covered in travel stickers. Oh, the places it must have been!

My mother has a collection of blue glass, and this window reminded me of her. :) 

We stopped for some treats at a bakery that used to be a bank, and I loved the old safety deposit boxes and vaults that decorated the place. 

Hello, bird friend! 

Wouldn't this be a sweet place to sit under a tree?

The glistening chandelier in the lobby of our eccentric hotel in Bangor.

Oh, Maine, how fun you were! I have just a couple more Maine posts left in me, and then it's on to new adventures and daydreams. Isn't it so special when you find a place with so much joy attached to it? I'm excited to return one day, but I'm also excited for what new places await me. This trip reminded me that  the details, whether they are part of somewhere entirely new or somewhere well-trodden, can bring so much intrigue and happiness. We must not overlook the small pieces and moments in life. Who knows what we will find?

Catch up on my Maine adventures!

Finding Solitude in Maine//Nothing But Snow and Sky

Nothing But Snow and Sky

I enjoyed our time in Maine so much! I don't know if it was the surge of love I felt for the hubs and his side of the family as we gathered to see his grandmother, the beautiful scenery, or the thrill of exploring a new place, but they likely all played a role in how fond my memories of Maine are. 

The hubs' uncle flies his own plane (cool!) and was bringing the rest of the family with him, but due to a delay on the ground after a potential mechanical problem, the hubs and I had to pass the time until meeting them at the tiny airport in Waterville. I would have loved to tromp through the snow and get lost in the trees while we waited, but after dawdling over lunch, we didn't have time to have a true snow adventure. I contented myself with gazing out the car window in awe at the beautiful country roads and hopped out at a couple of spots to snap pictures. 

It was a cloudy day, and the sun was nowhere to be seen or felt. The wind was nipping at my fingers, but I could have stayed outside for hours. Not a soul was in sight, and with the sky melting into the snowy hills, it felt like we were enveloped in a white wonderland, just the two of us.

Eventually, we made our way to the airport, and when we saw the lights of their plane appear in the sky, it was time to put the camera and snowy daydreams away. For a short while, anyway. Just until the next cloud of whimsy takes over. :)

Sunday Currently : 10

We are headed back to DC today after a lovely past few days in Maine. Yesterday involved a lot of driving around between Portland and Bangor, visiting the LL Bean flagship store, meandering through tiny cobblestone streets, and proclaiming my love for salty seaports. As I wrote about on Friday, I enjoyed finding quiet moments in the snow, sometimes in unexpected places. It's been a very fun trip, and I can't wait for our next visit here! Be on the lookout for more Maine adventures on the blog later this week. :)

reading : Beautiful Darkness! The DC library system ordered about twenty more copies, so I was able to get mine just before we left for Maine. I'm putting A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to the side for now, and I am having a lot more fun with my new book!

writing : This post, as well as some photo-heavy posts about Maine for later this week. It will be so nice to relive our time here through these photos, and I'm already envisioning how beautiful it will be up here over the summertime if we come up for another visit. New England has my heart. 

listening :  To airport chitchat of others at our gate. The Bangor airport is tiny, and since our plane is also tiny, it's pretty quiet here right now. Our gate in DC was overwhelmingly chaotic and loud, so this is a nice and very welcome change. 

thinking :  That I don't want to go back to work tomorrow. Our Spring Break last week felt great, but I would like just one more day at home to settle back in.

smelling :  My Jo Malone orange blossom perfume. Even when it's chilly outside it reminds me of springtime. 

wishing : For a weather-beaten New England colonial or a toasty little cottage in northern Michigan... snow is not optional. I've been having lots of house fantasies this past week, and I'm crossing my fingers that some of my dream homes can become a reality at some point in our lives. Even if it's just doing Airbnb. :)

hoping :  That the hubs gets over his cold soon! He was hit hard and suddenly on Friday, so hopefully he'll feel better when we get back home. I'm also hoping that I am spared...

wearing :  My black Minnies (seriously, if you don't have a pair, you need to get them!), my new chambray from J. Crew Factory, and a new-to-me gray cable knit cashmere scarf that my brother-in-law gave me this weekend when I said that I liked it on him. Win!

loving : Maine, snow, New England, and family. Life is really good. :)

wanting : To see friends and family in NYC. I've been trying to pick a good weekend to go up, but it's been harder than anticipated! Hopefully this will happen sometime in March before things get too crazy at the end of the school year. New York, you beckon me. 

needing :  To pay attention to our boarding call. Don't leave without me! As much as I love Maine, I have a kooky cat waiting for me at home!

feeling :  Slightly frazzled from rushing through the airport. We board in a few minutes, and since the pace of life up here is much slower than DC, I started to get frustrated with how slow airport security was moving. Argh!! I need to remember to take deep breaths and tell myself that getting annoyed with somebody's languid pace is unfair to them and that I need to chill. Ommm.

clicking :  On lots of blogs. I haven't been keeping up with my internet reading the past few days, and posts are piling up. The Fresh Exchange is activating all sorts of yearning for Michigan, as is Tina's song post from last week, which is actually pretty amusing to me since when the hubs and I first started dating, I had no interest in the mitten-shaped state whatsoever. As often happens over time, when he won me over, I found place in my heart for Michigan, too. Don't you love it when you find a new blog to swoon over?

Join Lauren's Sunday Currently link-up!

Finding Solitude in Maine

While all the hip college kids are spending their Spring Breaks partying it up in Cancun and the DR, we adults have traveled to a land even colder than where we came from: Maine. The hubs and I are here to visit his grandmother, and while I do love a good sprawl on the beach with an adult beverage by my side, I also love the winter. In Maine there is actual snow! My snow-loving side has been deprived all season in DC, and it is finally getting the satisfying crunch of snow piles beneath my boots. I think I'm in love. It's serious. 

We are staying in a small town called Skowhegan, about an hour from Bangor. There is not much to do, but there are lots of lovely sprawling fields covered in snow, so I have loved just absorbing our surroundings. On the drive here, in between the snow-covered fields and quirky shops, we happened to pass a tiny cemetery, and I pleaded with the hubs to turn around so we could visit it. Is that totally creepy, or do others also get a little thrill when they see those crumbling headstones from over a century ago? I think it's the sense of history and the solemn quiet of cemeteries that I love so much, or maybe the sadness of the weather-beaten headstones whose messages are so faint that they seem no more than a whisper. Either way, I think they can be exceptionally beautiful places. 

I would have loved to spend more time there, but with family members to pick up at the airport, I was only able to indulge for a few quick moments. As I crunched through the snow reading the names on the headstones, I was so moved by how old the cemetery was. Some of the dates I could make out were from the 1870s. Imagining those people's lives at such a different time was bittersweet, and I would have easily lost myself in nostalgia for times I never knew had I been able to walk amongst the stones for longer. As it was, it was an oddly nice way to steal a few moments of solitude on a cold winter afternoon in Maine.