Anniversary trip

Last weekend we celebrated our anniversary with a belated trip up north. I would have loved to go to Acadia, but I can't sit in a car for that long now. So we went to Wells instead.

We started out with a stop for yummy cider donuts and pumpkin whoopie pie at Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, MA. These goats were really hoping we would share with them.



Afterwards we went to the Southworth Planetarium at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. The projection of the night sky over Maine was stunning, but we both fell asleep briefly during the gas giants segment of "Eight Planets and Counting." :) Still totally worth the trip.

The next morning we woke up to high surf at Wells Beach, just steps from our hotel room.



Here's Ed hanging out on the deck near our room. Obviously this didn't last long.



We did our longest ride ever on the tandem, about 50 miles. We started at Wells Beach and took the coastal route up to Biddeford Pool, then came back inland. (The ride is the Southwest Coastal Challenge on pg. 136.) This stop was near the start of the Fireman Tri in Kennebunkport.



Captain.



Stoker.



We stopped at the Clam Shack in Kennebunkport, a local institution and a place Ed visited many times with his family on vacation. We refueled with clam strips, fries, clam chowder, and clam cakes. We resisted the whole fried clams, about which Ed said, "They fry up sea scavengers, and sell them for $40/pint... and people buy them."



We immensely enjoyed a belated anniversary dinner at Fore Street in Portland. Insanely good. Here we are about to enjoy the dessert sampler. Clockwise from pink splotch: concord grape sorbet, orange-vanilla creme brulee, dark chocolate torte w/caramel sauce, apple tartin with pear-rosemary sorbet, sweet corn ice cream, lemon-ginger pannacotta. Mmmm.



No trip to Wells is complete without a breakfast stop at the Maine Diner.



We walked on some lovely trails at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve.







We finished off our short vacation with a stop at Stonewall Kitchen in York for jam and pumpkin pie soda. Mmm. Then we filled up a couple of growlers with altbier and pumpkin ale at the Portsmouth Brewery before enjoying some lovely tea and popovers. We really enjoyed our last trip as a two-person family.