The Rain in Maine Was Largely on the Wane

The weather for our week in Ogunquit was gorgeous, despite forecasts of rain. Our routine pretty much consisted of an early breakfast, morning on the beach, a late lunch, shopping or sightseeing in the afternoon and a late dinner. And most of those meals, of course, were seafood. Lobster, lobster rolls, crab rolls, steamed and fried clams, shrimp, escargots, fish and chips - if it came out of the water we ate it. In fact we joked "if we sea food, we eat it". My diet starts tomorrow...as long as I don't sea food.

Early in the week we went to Kittery, south of Ogunquit, where all the outlet stores are. I spent the afternoon buying more t-shirts and golf attire than I needed but man at those prices why not. I also saw a most unique outlet. One that specializes in dresses for barn women!

The highlight of our week was when Mrs. D and I drove down to Rye, New Hampshire to meet up with fellow blogger Cheryl Duford. You guys remember Cheryl; from that Million Days of Photos challenge back in April. Cheryl was that fabulous photographer from Deckside Thoughts. Well she and I had been chatting on Facebook and set up a meet at "Petey's Summertime Seafood and Bar" for lunch. Mrs D and I had, yep, seafood. Cheryl, a local, had chicken. Cheryl is an absolutely wonderful person with a gracious demeanour and a killer smile. Thanks for the great conversation and the delightful lunch, Cheryl.

You know, we had fun at the beach each day, visiting Ogunquit, Footbridge and Wells beaches. But no matter where we went we encountered the same phenomena. As the tide came in each day, the people closest to the water would pick up their chairs, umbrellas, towels an so on and quickly scurry back up the beach, like a bunch of lemmings, out of the way of the waves. The opposite would happen when the tide went out. The other thing we encountered were what Mrs D calls Los Tabernacos. This is any group of 8 or more Quebeckers - and there were a gazillion of them - who plop their things right down beside you and converse with each other as though the person they're talking to is 50 yards down the beach. This may be a cultural thing but the ongoing consumption of alcohol under the hot sun might have something to do with it.

Speaking of alcohol we went on a cocktail cruise out of Perkins Cove. The cove is home to local fishing boats, has a couple of restaurants and some jewelry and souvenir shops. The boat wasn't named the Minnow, so it wasn't a three hour tour. But over the course of an hour it was a three beer tour and after the two I had dockside waiting for the tour I was in fine shape at the conclusion of the trip.

And what does one have for dinner at the end of such a day? Well, you can't go wrong with more sea food...and a beer!