OUR QUICK TRIP TO MAINE About This Page:

[TINKN]

OUR QUICK TRIP TO MAINE

DATES: June 30-July 2, 2002

Adventurers: Me (Shelley) 28, DH Jeremy (29), DD Allison (Alli) 9months, DMIL Goldie, DFIL Art, DBIL Artie, DSIL Tina and DNiece Morgan (1 yr)

Resort: Lafayette’s Ocean Front Resort

Day 1

We set our alarm for 6:00 am as we have showered the night before and we sleep well (There is not too much excitement to sleep, like when we are going to Disney). The alarm goes off and we all get dressed and give Alli a bottle to tide her over for breakfast.
We pack a small cooler with some bottles and snacks for the trip. We had packed everything else last night. We are out the door at about 6:30 for the 15 minute drive to Artie and Tina’s. Jeremy drives and I will be the navigator for the trip as well as trying to keep Alli happy. We had decided to leave Artie and Tina’s at 7:00 am so we knew we had a little extra time, that’s the way I like it. I need to be early for everything. The cell phone rings just as we are pulling onto Artie and Tina’s street and they want to know where we are. They picked 7:00 and we had plenty of time so why are they calling? Go figure. Our answer is just look out the front door, we’re pulling up right now. They all come out the front door, so we stay in our vehicle and they all get in the other with Artie driving. Everyone agrees that Artie drives too fast and he has agreed to try to slow down. Off we go and Artie is gone and Jeremy and I decide to go it alone at our own pace. No big deal except we could have left from our house and gotten on the road a little earlier. I was apprehensive about how Alli would be on the drive, but she did very well over all. She fell asleep and slept for the first couple of hours. About 45 minutes into the trip we see that the rest of the crew has pulled over to wait for us. That was nice (I’m sure Art and Goldie had something to do with this as they were driving Art’s truck) and Artie drives much slower the rest of the trip. Somewhere in NH Alli wakes up and starts to get a little fussy. I hand her books and toys and try to keep her happy. The other vehicle calls and says that we will stop for breakfast when the opportunity arises. We stop at a Mcdonald’s (not my choice for breakfast, but Alli really needs to get out of her seat) and pause so Gramma can take a picture in the parking lot. I guess she really wants to document the first vacation with her Grandbabies. We go inside and order our food. Jeremy and I each get the Sausage McMuffin with Egg Value Meal with sodas and Alli has a plain bagel with her bottle. We eat, stretch our legs and change diapers and we’re back on the road again. I get in the back seat with Alii to keep her entertained for the remainder of the trip.

Up next Kittery, ME and the travelers arrive at their destination.

[TINKN]

We arrive in Kittery, ME at about 10:30 am and Jeremy and Art want to browse the guns at Kittery Trading Post. I’ve never been impressed with the trading post, but figure maybe I’ll find something good and Alli could use a ride in her stroller. We get inside and all split up. The place is rather large and a maze if you are pushing a stroller. The stairs might be right there, but the ramp is not. Alli, Tina, Morgan and I find our way to the children’s department and I find a horse puppet for my niece Kayla who loves all things horses and has her own pony. I then pick an owl one out for my nephew Michael. Alli likes to shop as long as she can get her little fingers on some clothes or something, so I usually just start piling my purchases on her lap and she plays with them along the way. We add a cute little yellow T-shirt with a flower and the word Maine on the front to the pile. Artie finds us and we go to the gift area and while I’m shopping I loose them. Being such a big place I decide I should find Jeremy in case he is ready to go. The problem is that I’m sure he is on the second floor where all of the hunting and fishing supplies are. I just need to figure out how to get there with a stroller, and after some exploration find an elevator that has a sign that says it is for the use of customers in wheelchairs or with strollers only. Well, we qualify so up we go and it’s not so hard to find Jeremy and Art. There they are in the middle of the huge room full of guns. I’m not very keen about guns (but to each his own) so as we followed them around and I kept my eyes out for anyone that looked like they could be the sicko that might gun down my entire family. I know that the guns are not loaded, but I still felt uneasy because some of the people didn’t look like they were all there and others acted like they had never held a gun in their lives. Phew! We leave the immediate gun area and I can now yawn as DH looks over all the other hunting related materials. OK, DH has had enough and has not found anything that he wants for a reasonable price. We find the elevator and go down to the main floor. Everyone else has already checked out and is waiting on the benches out on the porch. We cash out and find out that the credit card machines have just come back on line after being down for a half hour. During that time they had to call in all transactions and I’m glad we had not been waiting in line during that. Everyone else had waited 20 minutes in line, while we just zipped through. Everyone is hungry and wants to go to the Weathervane Seafood Restaurant across the street. Again this would not have been my choice. We have Weathervane at home and I like to eat at different places. Weathervane is also not my favorite anyway. But, I’m along for the ride this trip and just go with the flow. We drive across the street and park. We look across the street and think that the other party has not left the trading post. We later realize that the same type and color truck has pulled into their parking spot. Realizing that it will take a little bit to get a table for 8 we go in so that they will get started at setting one up. After 5 minutes we are still waiting for the rest of the group and we look outside and they are waiting for us outside the other entrance. OK, all together again and our table is ready.

Up next: Does the Weathervane measure up to Disney standards?

[TINKN]

Jeremy and I order sodas and Alli gets an apple juice. They bring out some rolls, which are the soft, yellow, potato bread kind. Alli and Morgan enjoy them and the adults avoid them. At least at the Weathervane at home there is a little variety to the rolls, some wheat, some sour dough etc. I ordered the lobster tortellini special, steering clear of the fried food that Weathervane is famous for and skipping the coleslaw that came with it. It was good, but not what I expected. The pasta was obviously homemade, but I couldn’t tell that there was any lobster in it. It was in a marinara sauce, with fresh basil and covered with cheese and baked. Would I order it again? Probably not. It was definitely not worth the price. Jeremy got the fried seafood combo, which was probably a poor choice as it ruined his appetite for seafood for the rest of the trip. If you’ve never been to a Weathervane, they serve fresh seafood, fried in large quantities and while it tastes really good going down, one tends to pig out and leave the restaurant swearing off fried seafood or seafood in general for some time. This is what happened to Jeremy. Alli had the chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese. She liked it well enough, but I tried a chicken finger and they were very bland and dry. The macaroni and cheese was Kraft and barely warm at that. There was enough to share some with Morgan though. I think that everyone else had fried chicken and seafood, but I don’t clearly recall. The service was very slow and while we waited for our check Alli discovered that there was a glass window in the wall behind us that looked into another dining room. There was another table on the other side of the window with two elderly couples sitting at it. Alli is a big flirt and she flirted with them, giving air kisses and putting her hand up to the glass while one lady put hers up on the other side and cocking her head to the side to look at them. They were laughing and having as much fun as she was. Finally our check came so we could head up the coast to Wells and our hotel. We arrive and pull up to the resort check-in and I get out and the coastal air hits me. I love that smell. I go in and pay for our second night (our first night was paid for with our deposit) . The woman at the desk gives me a parking permit for our dash board and a pool pass and our receipt. Our room is not ready yet. It is 1:30 and check-in is not until 2:00 so I make sure and ask that they put the smoke machine (I’m sure it has a more technical term, but that is the term that they used) in our room. When we had called to make our reservations they only had smoking rooms left on the same floor and building as the rest of our family, but they assured us that the machine would take out the smell. The hotel is right on the ocean, so we find parking spots, use the beachside bathroom (Yuck!) and carry the babies and strollers down the stairs to the beach. It is much chillier than I had anticipated and I make a mental note that we will need some more warm clothes for Alli. Alli wants out of her stroller, so we take her out and take off her socks so she can walk (with help) in the sand. She loved it and walked toward the water and walked right in to get her feet wet. The water was chilly and she got the bottom of her pants wet even though we had rolled them up. She could have stood in the water all day, watching the waves. After we thought she had walked in the cold water enough we picked her up and wrapped her in her blanket (affectionately known as Stinky) and walked a little ways down the beach. Morgan slept through it all. At a little after 2:00 we went back to get our keys and go to our rooms. Artie, who could eat enough to make most people sick, had to stop at the snack bar to have a lobster roll and fries on the way.

Up next: What’s our room like?

[TINKN]

We went up to our rooms. They were on the third floor with balconies that looked out on the ocean. The ocean view would have been great, had it not been marred by a public parking lot between us and the ocean. We had been told when we made our reservations that there would be a small parking lot between us and the ocean. No big deal, I thought, guests of the hotel have to park somewhere right? Well, this was no hotel parking lot, it was a public lot and therefore it had constant traffic, day and night. This was a big bummer for me, as I thought we might be able to leave the slider open and listen to the waves at night. The others had connecting rooms and ours was down the hall just a bit (they made their reservations a few days before we did and were rewarded for it). Their rooms were non-smoking and smelled fresh and clean. While our room did not smell like smoke (thanks to the machine) it did smell yucky. Otherwise, all of the rooms were identical. The balconies had two chairs and a small table. Inside the room there were two chairs and a little table, two double beds and a nightstand between, two bureaus, color cable TV, the portable crib we had requested (no charge), a small refrigerator (no charge) and a small bathroom with a separate area with a sink. There was no safe, which would have been handy. The décor was rather dated with 70’s style wood paneling and light fixtures. Not worth $140/ night IMHO, but we were here so we lived with it. Jeremy watched Alli while I carried up all the luggage. Thank goodness for the elevator as they had no luggage service. Alli enjoyed standing up at the sliding screen door and screaming at all of the people down below while I unpacked and put things away. Having a refrigerator, the others decided that they wanted to take a trip to the grocery store and pick up some things. We had brought drinks and snacks from home, but wanted to stop by Ames to pick up some cheap, warm clothes for Alli. I picked up a polar fleece outfit for Alli. It was the only long sleeved and pants type outfit that they had in her size. I also picked up a pretty Maine T-shirt and a Maine hat for Mom and Dad. Our last purchase was some sunscreen for babies scalps as Alli is very fair skinned and we were having a hard time getting her to keep her hat on. While the others went to the grocery store, we went into the little bookstore in the same plaza and came out empty handed, which is really amazing for me and books. I have a BA in English and love literature. Alli fell asleep on the way back to the hotel and continued to sleep when we got back to the room. I decided that I would stay with her, while everyone else went swimming and used the hot tub. I explored the room a little further and then went out on the balcony to do some reading. Jeremy came back quite some time later, bragging about how nice the hot tub was. I said “Good, maybe later you can take Alli swimming and I can enjoy it”. All thoughts were turning towards dinner, so I went down to the lobby to pick up some menus. They had very few that I could bring back with me, but they did have a 3 ring binder on a coffee table full of menus. There was an older woman sitting on the couch looking through some, so I sat down next to her and looked at some too. She asked me if I knew if there were any places that would deliver. I told her that I didn’t know, but I’m sure that one of the ladies at the front desk would and I would find out for her. I asked and was told that Chinese was the only option for delivery. “Not even pizza?” “No, not even pizza”.

Where do our travelers end up getting dinner? Stay tuned to find out.

[wdwlovers]

Great job so far TINKN! Sounds like your first day was packed full! Can't wait to read more!! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[TINKN]

I went back and relayed this information to the woman who thanked me, but doubted she would be able to talk her sister into Chinese. I wished her luck and headed back to the room, where Alli still slept and Jeremy and Artie lounged around in their wet bathing suits. The guys decided to change and head down the road to a take-out place and bring back their menu. They bring back the menu and it is pretty limited and it is very expensive. Alli is awake by this time, so I put her in her stroller and we all go down to the other two rooms. The guys decide they will have Chinese, which none of the girls are pleased with so we decide we’ll get something at the snack bar in front of the hotel (Forbe’s Restaurant). Being frugal, the guys decide they will call the Chinese (Yum Mee Chinese Restaurant) in and then go pick it up instead of paying a tip. Goldie watches the babies while Tina and I run down to the snack bar. I got a couple of slices of pizza and a soda. Tina gets a bowl of clam chowder for Goldie, a clam strip basket for herself and a hot dog for Morgan. We head back up and I run back to the room to grab some supper for Alli. She is having enough junk food by this point and I want her to have something relatively healthy. Back to the other room. I cut up Alli’s chicken and carrot raviolis so she could feed herself. And sit down to eat my pizza. Well, the girl had stacked the slices, one on top of the other, so you can guess that the bottom of one plate was covered in cheese and the bottom slice had no cheese. That was just as well, because the cheese and pepperoni made the pizza too salty to eat, so it got scraped off anyway and just ate the crust. All and all it was the worst pizza I had ever had. Oh, well I wasn’t really that hungry anyway. Meanwhile the guys had gotten back with their Chinese. Jeremy said it might have been a bad sign that the entire restaurant was empty. They open the bag and there was no silverware. Art uses Goldie’s spoon from her chowder. Artie gets the fork from Tina’s food and Jeremy has to run down to the snack bar and pretend that he got food there and never got a fork. The guys eat and agree that the food is not the best Chinese they have ever had, but it was passable. Goldie says the chowder was good and Tina enjoys the clams. I’m assuming that Morgan’s hot dog was good as she ate it all and Alli crawled around on the floor cleaning up her droppings faster than I could take them away from her. We don’t usually give Alli things like this, so it must have been quite a treat for her. We relax a little bit and decide to go back to the room to change into our swimming suits and hit the pool. We grab the pool pass and head down to the lobby. I guess the hotel must have had problems with people coming in from the beach and using the pool, because the only access is with the pass. We show it and they ask how many towels we want (3) and we head in. The pool area was very nice with lots of glass, lounge chairs and tables and chairs. The hot tub is off to the side with a nice waterfall. The rules are clearly posted that no children are allowed in the hot tub. I like this as when we went on our cruise last year, you couldn’t use the whirlpools because of all of the kids using them as a kiddie pool. Jeremy walks in and sits in a chair. Everyone asks “You’re not going swimming?” “No”. So, I think he is trying to get out of taking the baby swimming and wants me to do it so he can go in the hot tub as soon as I’m in the pool. No such luck buddy! I walk right over and hand Alli to him, thinking that he will bring her in the pool as soon as he figures out he’s not going to get his way.

Up next: Will Alli make it in the pool and most importantly , will Jeremy get a tongue lashing.

[September]

I had to laugh at your comments about the Weathervane...I grew up in Waterville, ME and you are SO RIGHT about all that fried seafood (of course, I usually ate it anyway!!).

Thanks for the great memories...can't wait to read the rest of your report.

[Tara O'Hara]

TINKN your report, so far, ROCKS!! Did you know that you are over 1000 posts?!?!

Tara
[img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[TINKN]

Artie, Goldie and I get in the hot tub. Tina and Morgan had stayed in the room and Art was not planning on swimming so he sat in a chair. I’m enjoying the hot tub, but Alli is squirming and fussing because she wants to swim. It is now clear that Jeremy does not plan on taking her in, so Art takes her and starts walking around showing her things. Jeremy immediately gets up and gets in the hot tub. I am furious and if looks could kill, he would have been dead. Well I am not going to sit here and look at him while my baby wants to swim, so I get out and get Alli from her PaPa. We go in the pool and of course she loves it. She loves everything to do with water. She tried to play with the older kids in the pool by splashing and smiling at them. When I think she’s had enough and everyone else is ready to go to the rooms, we get out, deposit our towels in the bins and go back through the lobby toward our room. I decide to bite my tongue and let the whole incident with Jeremy go, as he already knew I was displeased and I did not want to put a damper on our vacation. Alli and I took a nice warm bath together to wash the clorine off and wash the sunscreen and sand out of her hair. We then settled in to watch a little TV before lights out. However, they did not have FOX at the hotel, so we could not watch our normal Sunday lineup of The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle and Bachelorettes in Alaska. Slightly disappointing, but we survived. While we watched something on TV (not sure what we watched), Alli played on the bed before falling asleep at about 9:30. A little later than usual, but not to bad since I was envisioning a baby that was up all night in a strange place. And what do you know, she slept all night. I should add here that she is generally a pretty good sleeper. She slept through the night from 6 weeks old and even before that when she got up at night she would eat and go right back to sleep. I am the first up in the morning at about 5:30. I’m an early riser, vacation, weekend, work day, any day. I grab my book and sneak out on the balcony to read with the sea breeze on my face and the smell of the salty air in my nose. In all actuality I probably did more people watching than reading. Apparently there are a lot of other early risers out there too. People walked dogs, chatted on benches and jogged the beach. Enough of this, I tiptoe into the bathroom and take my shower and get ready for the day. As I am coming out of the bathroom Alli wakes up. I make her a bottle and we relax and wait for Jeremy to get up, which isn’t long as Alli has already woke him up when she was crying for her bottle. Jeremy gets up, showers and gets dressed and we put Alli in the stroller and head out of the hotel, via the elevator. We carry her, stroller and all, down the stairs to the beach and go for a little walk as the tide is going out. We pass and say good morning to quite a few people, but the beach is still relatively quiet at this hour. Jeremy scours the beach for shells and sand dollars, but finds nothing. Guess this is not a good area for beach combing. Back up the beach toward the hotel, up the stairs and across the parking lot. As we are crossing the lot we hear Artie shouting from his balcony. We go up to the other’s rooms, where everyone else is getting ready for the day. The one thing that I really wanted to do on this vacation was visit York’s Wild Kingdom. It’s a zoo/amusement park that I found on the internet. It is in the town of York, just south of where we are staying. We had decided to visit it on our way home Tuesday (tomorrow) morning. Everyone else has decided that they want to get up, pack and head right home in the AM and skip the zoo. I ask “Want to go this morning?” Everyone thinks about it and it’s decided.

Up next: Breakfast and York’s Wild Kingdom.

[TINKN]

I go back to the room to grab everything we might need and we’re off. We decide we will stop somewhere for breakfast along the way as the zoo does not open until 10:00 AM. The other vehicle is in the lead and we follow. They pull into a restaurant called The Egg and I. My MIL and FIL had eaten there once before and really liked it so we though we’d give it a try. We checked in and then waited outside for about 10 minutes for a table. This place was packed and it was Monday morning! We are seated and the waitress takes our drink orders. Sodas for Jeremy and I and apple juice for Alli. She comments that she loves our shirts and likes it when families where the same shirt. Jeremy, Alli and I are all wearing our gray Old Navy flag shirts. We figure it might be a little bit before we get our meals (we hadn’t even ordered yet) so we broke out the raisins for Alli and share some with Morgan. I want to interject here that my SIL never offers to share Morgan’s snacks with Alli, but we always offer some of Alli’s to Morgan and of course my SIL always says yes. What’s up with that? On a tangent here, the same family is putting in a swimming pool next year and had the nerve to ask each of us to contribute $500 to their pool. I don’t think so! They will benefit from the home equity and they live in another town. We will not be using $500 of their pool. In fact we will not use their pool unless invited. That is the polite thing. And besides, we have our own small easy set pool. OK it’s not a permanent pool, but it works for us and Alli likes it. OK, off my rant. When they ask for the money again we will simply say that money is tight and we can’t afford it. We could afford it but won’t! Back to The Egg and I. We order a blueberry muffin for Alli (which we share with Morgan). Jeremy has the hash, eggs and wheat toast. I order an omelet and wheat toast. I share with Alli (except the egg, because babies aren’t supposed to eat egg). Overall, the breakfast is good, filling and the service is good. Nothing fancy, just down home type cooking. As we are getting ready to leave Artie asks the waitress where a good place would be to buy some fish before we head home. She hasn’t got a clue and tells us to ask the hostess because she’s been here about 80 years! OK, the hostess is not even 80 years old or close to that, but we ask and she tells us about the two fish markets that we always buy at. No local secret here (we were hoping she’d tell us to go the some dock and get it when the boats come in or some such thing, but I guess that doesn’t happen around here). Out to the parking lot, into the car and off to York’s Wild Kingdom. We encounter some backed up traffic (normal for Rt1 ) and a small accident before we get there. We take a left turn at the park sign and follow a very long drive into the park, which cannot be seen from the road. On the right of the drive are little animal trivia signs which I knew all the answers to. What is the largest member of the rodent family? Etc. On the left there are trailers and trashy looking shack/barns and we are thinking what are we getting ourselves into? Maybe we should just cut our losses and turn around? We decide that we are here and we are going to see the park. It is 10:00 and the park is just opening. We pull into the front row of parking spaces (no long lines here folks). We all get out and get out the strollers and babies as Artie and Jeremy mumble that they don’t want to do this. I slather the sun screen on Alli and she looks like a little grease ball with the sunscreen in her hair, but if she won’t keep a hat on, I’m not going to let her get burnt.

Up Next: York’s Wild Kingdom