Searsport, Done. Back Down the Coast to Boothbay and Wiscasset

Part of our lobster dinner was to have two extra lobsters for our traveling day lobster rolls, also the first ones for this year.  And man, were they good!

That got us to our new campground in Searsport, Moorings II.  We had years ago stayed at their other, only one at the time, Moorings, and had mixed reviews.  It was on the water, but the sites weren't laid out very well and had numerous sewer connections placed all over the place including right in the middle of our living space.  We can report Moorings II is much, much better, but still has some dings.  It is set up in tiers going up the hill, each tier having a front section with pull in sites and a rear section made up of pull throughs.  Pricing goes up as you get closer to the water, and front of the tiers is more than the rears.  We opted for tier 2, back row, seemed good trade for the money.  We almost picked the front of tier 2, but looking at how they located the hookups, we aren't sure we could have reached the electric plug.  The site spacing is good, the views fantastic, but the sites aren't level, and not even level enough for our air leveling to deal with, so we are on jacks, which we hardly ever do.  And let me say our air leveling can handle quite a bit of not level, but not here.  We would recommend the place, very friendly, good location right off Rte 1, but.......

Right down the road from the park is another one of our favorite restaurants, Anglers, we've been to the one here in Searsport and the one up in Newport many times.  It is a no frills seafood place with excellent food and friendly service.

Excellent haddock chowder

Great haddock sandwich with awesome onion rings

Then we had to go visit another favorite, yeah we have lots of them up here, Bagaduce Lunch, a pristine setting and superb food, what a combo:-)

Whole belly clams, rings, and scallops!

We stopped in Castine on the way back, home of Maine Maritime Academy, lots of history and forts as well.  Walked around for awhile, gorgeous day.

A pretty schooner, and one of the academy's training ships in the background

Also while here we wanted to have our ultimate lobster dinner and get a couple extras for our traveling day lobster rolls.  We went to Trenton Bridge Lobster operating since 1956, I even went there as a kid on a family vacation many moons ago, because they always have a great selection of fresh lobsters, any size, and they are the only place we have experienced that give you some seaweed along with your lobsters.  We cooked them with seaweed years ago for the first time and it was a unanimous opinion that it was really noticeable in a delicious way.  So we picked up 2 huge ones, a 3 pounder and a 2 pounder, and 2 small ones for the rolls.

In went the seaweed followed by the biggest one, then the next biggest and then finally the last 2 small ones.

Jan put the 2 small ones asleep while they were waiting for their time in the hot bath

These are 2 BIG lobsters!

We had to throw in the towel, we were full with these two bowls of meat remaining
Don't worry they won't go to waste:-)

The scene of the crime

Then while Jan was cleaning up the wreckage, I picked the 2 little ones for later.

Then with our time here at a close we went to Belfast and walked their Harbor Walk, it is about 3/4 of a mile and goes right through a working boat yard, gorgeous day, wonderful walk, lots of very cool boats, and a meh lunch, oh well.

Walking across the bridge towards the harbor

This huge, strange looking boat was being repaired as it had gone aground
and damaged one of its stabilizing fins, a local couple we met filled us in

A gorgeous sailboat passing by

Finished our last night with a beautiful evening.

The First Week in Maine

We've been having a great time, and yes, a lot of it hinges on seafood.  We find we really like this campground, it is quiet, dark at night without the hundreds of screaming golf carts and electric things roaring around the campground like at Bayley's, admittedly they are a destination park geared to families.  This Sun Outdoors has some activities, a pool, but not too much else, and yes there are a lot of families, I think they just keep a tighter control on it, oh, and they don't rent golf carts.  It is high season and it is expensive, but the site is huge, enormous patio and fire pit, but it's the quiet and dark that win it for us.

So lobsters were definitely on the list after our initial dinner of grilled swordfish.  We went and picked up 3 smaller ones at a very good price, $9.99/lb any size, and they are all soft shell right now, so very easy to pick, although a bit less meat.

It was delish!  We woke the next morning to 45 degrees, at the end of July!  Amazing, but nice, actually turned on the heat for a bit, and got a chance to use our fire pit.

We drove up to Freeport to have a delicious lunch at Harraseeket Lunch, then went over to LL Bean, lunch was wonderful, great seafood chowder and we split a delicious haddock sandwich, but LL Bean was a zoo!  They have had the flagship store under construction for what seems like 5 years.  They have a huge tent up for some departments, and walking through the other stores is impossible, and still there are tons and tons of people.  Luckily we went for one certain thing, a new raincoat for me, so we found it, bought it, and got out:-)

That brought us to Wednesday, and if you've been following me at all, that means buck-a-shuck day at Billy's Chowder House, and this year with our abbreviated time frame we only get to go once, so 20 oysters for me, 9 for Jan, each a bowl of lobster stew, maybe the best anywhere, and an order of amazing onion rings.

We wanted to walk the beach at Wells after lunch, but the tide was against us, it was too high.  Then around to an Asian market we like in Portsmouth, NH, we haven't found one in Atlanta yet, and a stop at a farm stand we have been going to for over 40 years! 

Then to yet another favorite restaurant, Lord's Clam Box in inland Sanford, ME a fantastic place, fresh seafood, an enormous selection, affordable, no tipping allowed, and friendly, highly recommended.  Got only one picture a superb haddock sandwich, we were too busy eating our whole belly clams, haddock nuggets, and scallops to get any more:-)  We actually ended up there twice!

 

On the way back we took a ride up the coast through Kennebunkport, we unfortunately missed going to W's 80th birthday:-)

Jan has filled our freezer now with fish, swordfish, haddock, cod, halibut, and chowder trimmings, including several packages for Karen and Tom.

A small sampling

Then back for more lobsters for another dinner and enough for lobster rolls for our travel day up to Searsport.  

This guy threw himself on his back to beg for mercy, it didn't work.

Then the aftermath of the feast.

Up to Searsport tomorrow for several days, lots of stuff to do there.  Oh and still not much on the house front, some discussion, some choices, and a lot of waiting.....