Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Maine Girls Weekend (#20), Sunday, October 8

Twin Maples Outdoor Adventures Lodge
(I stole this picture off the website...we did not have snow while we were here!)
Sunday, October 8 (written by Lori)

Once again, upon arising, the first thing I did was look out the window in hopes of seeing a moose just standing there for me to gaze upon, but alas, I was disappointed.  Darn it!!  Oh well.  Today is the day that we change location from this wonderful, beautiful lodge here at the headquarters of Twin Maples Outdoor Adventures to our reserved Air BNB in Boothbay Harbor.  Rich and Maryanne had told us, however, that they were not expecting anybody in after us today, so we did not have to be in any hurry to leave.  So Kathi and I did one of our favorite things to do on Girls Weekend and made a pot of coffee and planted ourselves in front of our computers to commit our wonderful experiences and memories of Girls Weekend to our hard drives and to this Blog.  We are so very happy that we do this, because we often will go back and read of our past Girls Weekends adventures and usually end up laughing uproariously over some crazy experience we have had on our travels.  Experiences that have slipped out of our minds in our day to day lives, but upon recall, remind us just how very blessed we are.

We did toss the states this morning and we are now down to:  North Dakota and one of the puzzle pieces that has 3 states on it, which are, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts.   So, should it come down to North Dakota.........if anyone can offer up ideas of where we might want to go, we would greatly appreciate it!!  We were thinking that Mount Rushmore was there, but I just Googled it and now know that Mt. Rushmore is in South Dakota.

Anyway, we spent a few happy hours in front of our computers typing up our memories, then started packing up and getting ready to leave here and move on to our next destination.  I should mention here that while sitting around the campfire last night, Maryanne mentioned that one of her favorite places to go in Bangor is a shop called Mexicali Blues and she thought we might enjoy it so we decided that we would definitely make that a stop as we passed through Bangor on our way to Boothbay Harbor.

Once we had our cute little Kia Soul rental car loaded up, we hopped in and were on our way.  We found Mexicali Blues and, boy oh boy, Maryanne read us very well in directing us here.  We LOVED it and spent an hour or so browsing all of their lovely offerings (everything in the store was 20-50% off) and trying things on.  Needless to say, we did not walk away empty-handed.  Thank you, Maryanne, for the tip!!



It was mostly an uneventful drive down the highway to Boothbay Harbor (no moose sightings).  We made one stop at a Starbucks for coffee and to grab our groceries out of the back so we could munch on bread, cheese and apples on the road.

We finally arrived in Boothbay Harbor around 7:15pm and, of course, it was too dark for us to see much, but what we could see of the little harbor town looked very charming.  We decided this looks like it will be a fun place to explore, but for now, we were ready to check into our Air BNB.  Upon arrival our host, Nancy, came out to greet us and invited us into her home to get signed in.  Their house and the tiny house that we would be staying in are on the same property and only yards away from one another.  Now, it needs to be said here that when Kathi made the reservation for this place months ago, a somewhat unusual caveat (at least as far as our current experiences with Air BNB have  demonstrated) was included with the description of this place. We were required to bring our own linens (sheets and towels) OR we could RENT them from her for $50 apiece (2 twin beds).  Ummmm, what??  We're traveling here from far away and we are supposed to pack sheets and towels??  So, Kathi being Kathi, she ordered sheets and towels from Amazon Prime (to the tune of about $40) and had them sent to the hostess to hold onto for us until our arrival.  (I LOVE Kathi and the way she thinks!!)  So, we checked in, signed her register as well as her agreements about how we are to treat the place, put pins in her map of where people have traveled from to come and stay here and collected our Amazon Prime box. Then she led us over to our tiny house to "show us around the place".  Upon entering, we saw the two twin beds, as pictured on the Air Bnb website and she showed us the half bath, toilet and sink only, and that is all that is in the tiny house.  WTF???  I'm pretty sure the description stated that we had a kitchenette and what about a shower?  So, I said, "I thought we had a kitchenette".  She responded with,  "I'm getting to that".  Then after showing us our 15 inch TV, that has "cable", she said "ok, follow me".  So we stepped back OUT OF THE TINY HOUSE, and followed her down a small hill and around to the back of HER house where she showed us our kitchenette.  Which consists of, an outdoor gas grill, with "a burner on the side on which (she was proud to point out),  we can boil our potatoes", and our kitchen sink, which is an outdoor utility sink.  (I am dead serious here)  Kathi and I were doing our best not to laugh out loud while this woman was giving us this tour.  I can only imagine the look on my face.  Next, we were led inside the basement door where we were shown the REST of our kitchen, which includes a refrigerator, a toaster, a microwave, a blender and micro coffeemaker as well as a metal utility shelf on which sat dishes and pots and pans. There is also a small shelf attached to the wall that she stated we could use as our "dining table", should we choose not to eat outside. I swear to God I am not lying nor exaggerating.  Oh, and the rest of our bathroom, as in the shower, is in the basement, too.  The basement.  Which smells like a basement.  You know, damp and moldy.  And we are supposed to prepare food and eat here?  REALLY????  Once we were done with our tour, Nancy headed back into her house and Kathi and I headed into the tiny house and upon closing the door, we both just burst out laughing!!!  Hardly anything about this place is what we were expecting, but, it's Girls Weekend and we will make the best of it.

We brought all of our stuff in.  Unloaded what we thought we are likely to need out of our suitcases and put clothes in the drawers of the dresser that is in the room and hung a few things up on the
hangers provided to hang on pegs in the room, then hauled our suitcases back out to the back of the car.  We made up our beds with our Amazon sheets, then went off to town for dinner.

I had done a little bit of research on places to eat here on the drive and we both agreed that a place called "The Ports Of Italy" sounded marvelous.  So this is where we went.  Us and about half the people in town.  The place was packed and we had about a 30 minute waiting time, but it was worth every minute.  Kathi ordered the "Ravioli Di Astice", fresh Maine lobster and local ricotta filled ravioli in light prosecco and aurora sauce.  I had the "Ravioli di Ricotta and Spinaci", housemade pasta filled with fresh ricotta, spinach and spices in a butter and sage sauce.  I also got some parmesan coated asparagus on the side.  All of it was quite delicious.

We made our way back to our tiny "house", called our husbands with updates and put on our pajamas.  I pretty much turned in for the night while Kathi stayed up and typed away on this journal until about 1:30 in the morning.

Tomorrow, we plan on heading to the nearby town of Damariscotta for the Pumpkin Fest and Regatta.

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