The night before we left for Maine, we told Che we were leaving for Maine in the morning. He asked, "Are we going to see Ferdinand?" (we thought he just wanted to see some bulls, since Ferdinand is a bull from Spain that refuses to fight in the bullfights from a book we read to him). I said no, not connecting the two things. When he wakes up he says, "Now are we going to go see Ferdinand in Spain?" I explained it wasn't Spain, but Maine, and he was a little upset that he wasn't going to get to go to Spain and see Ferdinand-- I then realized the connection. Sorry Che--and Mamita--we aren't ready for that adventure yet!
We left Massachusetts for Camden, Maine on Thursday. It was a gorgeous day; perfect temperature, blue skies, big puffy clouds. The ride was delightful. We stopped in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the town was beautiful. It is right on the water with brick sidewalks, old buildings housing great restaurants and funky stores, and just a real pleasant vibe about it. I managed to take one picture as we were heading out. Then we got back in the car and headed to Maine. We passed by Portland, our eventual stop, and went through a couple of quintessential Maine towns and saw glimpses of the coast and the islands off the coast. We passed by lots of kayak and canoe outfitters and Cesar kept saying, "That is a good sign. Any place that has lots of kayak rentals is a good place." I think he is happy we'll be spending some time in "Vacationland". We arrived at our bed and breakfast and were warmly welcomed by the owners. They have two young boys, so Che was excited right away to play with them and their toys. We had to force him to leave to go check out our room, which is beautiful and perfect and even has a separate little room off of it with a single bed for Che (of course he didn't sleep in it, Cesar did). We then headed into town because they were having some music in an outdoor amphitheater overlooking the bay. The amphitheater reminded us of some Greek or Medieval spot. It had steps made out of stone and soft grass and overlooked perfect Camden Harbor and all of the windjammers. We would have loved to have hung out longer, but Che had a meltdown because he did not have any toys to play with, so we decided to go find him a toy that he could play with outside. We had success and went back to the park area and played in the grass while watching people departing and returning on the windjammer cruises. Che spent quality family time--rolling down the hill, participating in family pile-ups, playing games, sharing toys, and posing in pictures--unfortunately it wasn't with our family. I am not sure where this kid gets his audacity from, certainly not me. He practically jumped in the car with his "adopted family". We had to rip him away and explain that they probably wanted to spend some quality time together; I can only imagine what the people thought of us--"Your kid is really nice, why don't you just give him a little attention and love?" Oh well.
Today Cesar had to work, so I took the kids into town and we played and looked around the stores. There were lots of kids and we had a great time. Then I let Che use my camera and he took a zillion pictures; some of them are featured here. Cesar finished up his work and we headed to this very pretty lake right between some mountains. It was very cold, but Che and I went in. Then we took a drive up to Belfast while the kids slept in the car and attempted to check "sample whoopie pie" off the list. After Cesar bought two horrible gluten-free ones from one store and another huge and disgusting one from another, I swore off whoopie pies altogether. If something is too sweet for me there is a problem. We got back to our hotel as the kids woke up and they played out in the yard with the other kids for quite some time. Then we headed in for dinner where Cesar and Che tried Maine lobster for the first time (neither of them liked it) and Cesar tried a Maine soda called "Moxie", which he also did not like. Che and Cesar then got some lobster gummies, which they did like (phew!), so Cesar is 1 for 4 for the day. At least he tried something new!
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