Traveling the Back Roads

You've heard that expression - make hay while the sun shines, and if you live in Michigan you know that we say repair the roads while the sun shines.  Maine has the same philosophy.  The winters are long and summers short so the road repairs have to be done and we've encountered the road crews everywhere.  So, we've been somewhat cautious about which routes we are taking so we can avoid as much orange signage as possible.  But yesterday we made a leap of faith and headed out in the evening over roads we did not know in search of the Run of the Mill Public House and Berwery in Saco (or in Biddeford - it depends on the map).  We found spotty directions online and programmed the pub as our destination in the phone's direction-finder program.

When we reached our supposed destination, the fabric-mill-turned-brewery was nowhere in sight.  We went around the block and tried again amid very busy night traffic.  We were glad to see this old mill town was hopping, but we really wanted to find the brewery.  I then googled the address of the pub and we came around the block again.  The "destination pin" was at the wrong address - not even close!  We kept driving down main street looking for the address.  Five blocks down there was a huge, red-brick complex that contained the brewery and several other new businesses. We were glad that we persisted in our search.  Despite the name of the brewery, it was anything but run of the mill.  Their beers were interesting - they had 16 on tap!  The food all sounded wonderful and we were sad we had eaten such a big lunch.  We each had a cup of soup and shared an interesting sounding appetizer.  The soups were amazing and the potato cakes with bacon were delicious.

It was completely dark when we went back to our car and we thought we were taking the same way home that we had taken out.  Wrong!  Totally by accident we got back to the B & B, returning from the opposite direction as that we expected.  The Driving Guardian Angel must have taken pity on us!

This morning we walked on the beach.  It was beautiful with blue sky and sunshine and small to maoderate waves making some noise.  After we had breakfast, we headed south to Ogunquit.  It is a lovely small town on the ocean and it has a lively art scene with lots of galleries and lots of people with money who can afford lots of art.  Ogunquit has a Museum of American Art on the shore of the ocean.  The setting is park-like and colorful with lots of well tended gardens and many sculptures.  When I saw the name of the museum and told Dennis we had to go, I was imagining Mary Cassatt, Andy Warhol, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, and many others.  What we found was an art museum with a much more local approach.

The museum was the brainchild of a wealthy artist/art collector named Henry Strater.  He was a colorful character and a member of one of two art colonies in Ogunquit.  The collection has an emphasis on local artists and artists with local connections to the art colonies and the Maine coastal area.  Many of the pieces on exhibit were beautiful and were portraits or landscapes from the area.  Dennis and I reflected on the whole theme of what money can buy - this was no "starving artist" collection!

 Museum Entrance

 St. Francis of Assisi Sculpture

  Gardens outside of Museum

After the visit to the museum, we decided to see if we could find the Maine Diner.  It was a restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  We saw the featured episode as we were planning our Maine trip and the food sounded too good to pass up.  When we arrived at the diner (on a stretch of road that is being ripped up and replaced!), the parking lot was packed and lots of folks were standing and sitting around outside waiting for a table.  Since we were not weak with hunger, we went in and asked for a table, were given a buzzer and told that it would be about 20 minutes.  We sat in the sun to wait and looked over the menu.  Of course everything that I wanted was tagged "Market Price."

I told Dennis that I hoped we would not find this a disappointing and over-priced experience.  The folks who work at the Maine Diner really work hard for the money!  They were polite, quick, and helpful.  The food was excellent - the lobster pie buttery and delicious.  It was expensive, but I'm glad we went.  

On our trip back to Old Orchard Beach we abandoned the highways and tried to stay as close to the shore as possible, driving through one small town after another.  Tomorrow we will be driving farther north along the coastline to stay in Hulls Cove near Bar Harbor so we can spend time in Acadia National Forest.  The weather is supposed to get cooler, but we are ready for it and looking forward to visiting this natural wonder.