Off to New England

 [Tuesday 8 July]

So it's off to New England for a week. We fly to Boston, rent a car and make our way to Hampden ME (Bangor area) for a couple of nights to visit Susan's sister and her family (part of it anyway). Then it's off to Vermont for an overnight to pay our respects to one of Susan's dearest friends who left far too soon. From there it's off to MA, just south of Worcester to spend our remaining nights with Dick and Dorothy in Douglas, MA. We'll have supper with the MacDonalds in CT, hit Providence for brunch on Sunday and end our trip with dinner at D & D's along with niece Mallory and her dad Steele. 

Our kind neighbor Don T. picked us up bright and early Tuesday morning for an 8:30 nonstop flight on Allegiant to Boston. Allegiant is pretty much a no-nonsense airline; no business class, no first class, no reclining seats and you've got to pay for pretty much everything except for the use of the bathrooms. But it was a quick uneventful flight with touch down at Logan International about 10:20. 

The plane docked at the international terminal and it took some time before we could figure out how to locate the car rental center. After what seemed like an interminable walk past many gates and customer counters we found the shuttle bus outside the terminal. After waiting for only a few minutes in 94 degree heat, the bus came and we were soon dropped off at the rental center. We checked in to Avis and headed off to the garage where we picked up our car -- there was some brief confusion about where the key to the car was (found underneath the driver's seat). Having straightened that out, our next challenge was figuring how to get out of the airport. 

We eventually made our way up Route 1A to Route 1 and on to I-95 north to Maine.

The drive north was uneventful and we were blessed with reasonably decent traffic. Choosing to drive into Maine on a Tuesday after the Fourth weekend was probably one of our better decisions for sure.

Even though our car had a huge touch screen with GPS we had to stop at the Maine Welcome Center to pick up a paper map -- my wife who is also the family navigatrix loves paper maps. As we walked inside I couldn't help but notice a small boulder with a memorial plaque dedicated to the Federal Highway Transportation workers (listed by name) who were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. 

We did make a second stop soon after at the service plaza near Kennebunkport to pick up something to eat. The choices were limited to junk, extra junk, and garbage. We ended up with a wrap purporting to be chicken salad but which, no surprise here, turned out to be flavorless. We were really looking forward to a home-cooked meal at Joyce's "Hampden Inn" that's for sure.

Back on the road we turned onto I-295 just south of Portland. After skirting through Portland we soon found our exit for Freeport and L. L. Bean. That part of town was pretty chaotic since Bean, which already has several large stores downtown is presently working on building a huge new "flagship" store. We checked out the hunting and fishing building, followed by the apparel and home stores. I took advantage of the time to sit on one of the numerous rocking chairs to watch people.

inside the hunting and fishing building

the L. L. Bean boot mobile

Although Freeport was busy, traffic was surprisingly light and we were  soon back on I-95 heading north. The drive was smooth and peaceful, traffic light and weather fine. We did spy several (old?) eagle nests on the power pylons as we closed in on our destination but otherwise there was little else to see.

We pulled into our hotel, a Home2Suites, just short of Bangor and near the airport, at a little before 4:00 pm. After checking in and settling into our room I took a short nap. It was time to refresh and recharge and off to Joyce and Avery's to meet up with the Bergman clan for dinner. We had lovely time together, catching up, hearing about the latest news from this corner of the planet. We haven't spent much time with this side of the family so it was fun to chat with Jon and Naomi with the real bonus being able to watch and interact with their kids. And dinner was wonderful: pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and Joybell treats for dessert.

Tomorrow it's off to Winter Harbor, Schoodic Point and Gerrish's Cafe to relive those glory days of 2007!