It has been a busy week. I began it by celebrating my something-th birthday (I have really stopped counting) and that meant a meal out in Portland with babysitting very kindly provided by Exile #1's parents. We went to Vinland, where local ingredients are transformed into extraordinary dishes with a degree of care that must border on the obsessional. It was wonderful and although I don't think we'll be making it a family go-to, Exile #1 and I am eager to make a return visit someday.
Later on in the week, with Exile #1 taking a couple of days off, we set our sights on the north and headed for Brunswick and beyond. We revisited Frontier for their amazing gluten-free fish and chips (it has been a good week for food!) and then, well stoked up, headed for Reid State Park. It is lovely, rather like stepping into the pages of an L.L.Bean catalogue except, in our case, with shorter people.
The following day we rather energetically took in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and the Maine State Aquarium in Boothbay Harbor. The gardens are very engaging and it is not necessary to be a hardened horticulturalist to enjoy them. The younger Exiles enjoyed the sections specifically for children, including an area for building fairy houses out of forest debris, plus the hands on multi-sensory area. There were also plenty of well-placed sculptures, including the eye catching "Great Basin" sculpture, standing pensieve-like in the meditation garden.
The Aquarium was fairly small but well stocked. E5N1 found out how to trap lobsters and even met one (Claudia). Exile #3 had a close encounter with some sharks and we were all mesmerized by the moon jellyfish.
We had a slightly less successful dinner. I won't bore you with the details but if you go to McSeagulls in Boothbay Harbor, expect them to forget to bring one of your party their food and drink. I did rather hope someone would walk in to tell us we were on candid camera but alas it was no joke. We made up for it with a trip to Gelato Fiasco when we got back to Brunswick.
We made one more trip today on the way home but this is quite long enough and I don't want to steal all of Exile #1's thunder, so I will sign off.
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