Text 1217, 105 rader
Skriven 2006-05-08 13:00:24 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Sat / Sun
=================
We headed up to Maine on Saturday morning and wound up doing an
impromptu weekend, staying Saturday night at a cabin where dogs
are welcome, and there was a lobster pot in the kitchenette (yay!)

Eats:

Flo's Hot Dogs, Rte. 1, Cape Neddick.  Gail and her daughter were
in the kitchen as usual at Flo's, which is open daily but Wednesday
from 11 to 3 these days.  The hot dog business had been good to Flo,
and it's been good to Gail, too.  And there was something new: Gail
has franchised out the name and there are now "Flo's Hot Dogs" stands
in Moody, Sanford, and one coming soon in the Kittery Trading Post.
She's got mixed feelings about it - happy that the Flo's Hot Sauce
is reaching a wider audience and that the accessory income has allowed
her to trim her hours at the original site, but at the same time
unhappy that the satellite stands are putting hot dogs on plates
and serving fries and hamburgers and other non-Flo-like items.  As
for me, I'll keep going to the original site and saying "hi" to
Gail and her daughter on my way up the coast.

= =

After we had decided to stay the night, we also decided to buy some
bugs and cook them in the kitchenette of the cabin.  You may be
interested to know that in all the years we've been going up to 
Maine, we have always brought our own lobster pot with us because no
kitchenette has ever provided one!  Until this weekend.

We went at first to the Cape Neddick Lobster Pound, but found out
that it is no longer really a lobster pound, but a fancy 
restaurant that features high prices and lots of mood lighting.
So it was back to Wells, where we bought three hardshell bugs
at the Beach Plum Farm.  They were lovely, thanks for asking.

= = 

Sunday breakfast:  The Egg and I, Ogunquit.  We parked in back
in the shade and left the dog barking at us in the car as we 
walked around the glassed-in dining patio to the front of the
diner-like restaurant.  The hostess greeted us with a smile and
said, "Someone doesn't like to be left behind, eh?" and led
us to a table where Zim had a good view of us eating; meanwhile
the waitstaff were all pausing at the windows to wave at the 
doggie and tell us how cute he was and how they wished we could
bring him in with us.  Thankfully, we couldn't actually hear
his barking inside, and anyway he shut up after a few minutes
and contented himself with barking occasionally at people who
dared to walk near HIS car and at a crow who was hopping around
in the lot.

Maryanne had bacon and eggs, pretty standard stuff except the
bacon was really exceptional, with an excellent hickory smoke.
We found that it was locally made at a nearby farm, as were
the sausage links (also very good, though with a bit more 
filler than I thought necessary.)

Lynn and I both had hash and eggs: the hash was a homemade
specialty containing corned beef, a little bit of ham in
the grind, with sweet bell pepper, onion, and cubed potatoes
seasoned with a good dose of cayenne pepper and not enough
salt, believe it or not.  Consensus was it was better than
canned but not as good as my homemade.

Toast (between us all we had white, wheat, and rye) were all
sliced from loaves baked at Congdon's, the local bakery/donut
joint, and were uniformly excellent. 

Eggs was eggs.  Hard to get eggcited by them.

The only complaint I had about breakfast was the price; 
with coffee and juice and tip the check came to over $40
and that was pretty steep IMO.

We amused the staff by giving Zim bits of the sausage out in 
the car while some of the waitresses watched.

= = 

We occupied the rest of the time with exploring the Wells area,
since we hadn't made it up there last year.  There were a lot of
changes.  Lots of condo development, and what looks like a huge
luxury hotel going up on Route 1.  Wells is quickly losing its
blue collar.  Not sure I like the idea.  Moulton's Farm (on
the Moody line) is gone.  Nickerson's 9B Ranch, a big greenhouse
and nursery, is not only closed but torn down and the land is
for sale.  The Shop N Save is now a Hannaford's, and there is
a big Dollar General where the Ames used to be.

The dog had a great time on the small harbor beach - no one else
was around while we were there so he had nearly half a mile of 
sand and shallow surf to race around in.  He's not at all like
Leo, who would run into the water and actually swim, but he does
enjoy racing out to the surf deep enough to splash.  By and large,
though, he prefers to run at top speed up and down the beach
until he is nearly exhausted.

Ticks were a real problem, though; I don't think I've ever seen
them this bad.  I couldn't take him for a walk without finding 
two or three on him.  And even though I was using a repellent, 
I was finding them on me, too.

---
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, 
minutus carborata descendum pantorum
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