maine Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Traveling Sitcom

I’m a firm believer that I should make an attempt to try out life as a local where ever I end up. So with that said, apparently those that live in Maine have a thing for lobsters. Which means I will have to make the sacrifice and eat a lobster meal.

It will be tough, but we will just have to do it…

So where to go? Well, I could name fifty restaurants in the Bar Harbor area and hundreds more along the Maine coast that sell lobster. You see signs of that red pinchered thing everywhere.

See all those white floats in the water just off the shore? Everyone of those is a lobster trap. They go as far as you can see in all directions. A passing lobster just doesn’t have a chance in Bar Harbor.

Lobsters, lobsters everywhere. Lobster shirts, lobster signs, lobster salt and pepper shakers, lobster Christmas lights, lobster cookie cutters, lobster calendars…

Even Lobster Ice cream! And yes, it had real chunks of lobster in it. Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium located on Main Street in Bar Harbor has lots of fun flavors in their homemade ice cream selection including Dulce de Leche, Bubblegum, (KGB) Kahlua and Bailey’s Irish Cream base ice cream with a Grand Marnier fudge swirl, Rum Raisin, Root Beer Float, and many more!

My personal goal is to try each flavor before the summer is out. Will let you know how that goes! For the record- I have already tried the Lobster Ice cream. It was ummm…. interesting.

Dave just asked me about that diet I was planning to go on… Ice cream has lots of calcium, right?

And speaking of diet, let’s take in a bit of seafood, why don’t we? For our first stab at eating a real lobster, we checked out Stewman’s Lobster Pound.

Ever eaten a whole lobster? Well, it is an adventure. Our waitress recognized the slightly alarmed looks on our faces as these red crustaceans were set in front of us and took us under her wing. She showed us how to break the the claws off, and then how to twist the tail off the body to get to the tail meat.

After warning us that we needed to remove the “chute” in the tail, she left us to our adventure.

Okay. I’m not thrilled about looking for a “chute”, but here goes…

So, here is what we learned. DO NOT twist the tail off the body while holding it over your plate! Bleh! There is green stuff that will fall onto your plate. This is the lobster tomalley, which is apparently the lobster’s liver and pancreas. Many people, especially in New England, consider it a delicacy, and eat it along with the rest of the lobster.

We did not. I will only take this “eating as the locals do” just so far!

But we both did agree that the lobsters were delicious. Especially the tail and claws. Now that we have officially been broken in, we plan on trying a few more before we leave the area. After all, we are experts now!

On the home front, the dogs are getting used to their new surroundings. Ralph has discovered red squirrels (which are the pretty red cousins to his nemesis the gray squirrel in Georgia). Turns out that they are not afraid of him either.

Ralph now spends an enormous amount of time staring out the window looking for a squirrel sighting so that he can bark like a girl.

It’s a thing.

And Dave is busy breaking in the grill. This week we made Spicy Chipotle Burgers and Grilled Corn on the Cob.

It wasn’t as exciting as the lobster, but it certainly was delicious.

We arrived in Bar Harbor, Maine, about two weeks ago. I’ve been asked by several people why we chose Bar Harbor as our first ultimate destination. Well, the truth is, Bar Harbor chose us.

Last August, I put our resumes on the KOA website. Shortly afterwards, we had five different offers for work camping jobs in the United States! Maine, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana and California. After speaking with the manager at the Bar Harbor Oceanside KOA, we decided to take the leap and head north.

Neither of us had ever been to Maine, and what a great way to start a new life in a beautiful part of the world!

We arrived on April 18. This particular park does not open until May 7 due to the extreme weather in this part of the country. For the first few weeks of our new jobs, we were to help the other work campers on site to clean up the park and make it ready for the grand opening.

I have to admit that the work was tough. This park shuts down in mid October. There was heavy snow this year resulting in many fallen trees. Reopening it involves thoroughly cleaning all cabins, cleaning up leaves and debris from campsites, learning the computer systems and how to take reservations, scrubbing bathrooms, picking up trash, and much, much more.

This is the land of no “R”s! There is lobstah, beyah (beer), and but-tah popcorn!

And the weather? Well, it is has been cold, windy and rainy, punctuated by moments of brilliant warm sunshine. We were told that if you didn’t like the weather, all you needed to do is wait an hour and it would change.

Heavy winds and rain brought down even more trees after we arrived including this one in front of our RV! Dave had noticed a split in the tree and when he went out to warn our coworkers, the tree fell. That was definitely our excitement for that day!

But it hasn’t been all work…

We had a fun gathering with our boss and the rest of our co-workers. We ate burgers on the grill, lots of great homemade food and even met Big Foot! Looks like it is going to be a fun summer!

In the evening when it is nice, we gather up a bunch of wood and make a nice campfire. We have met a whole lot of people here with so many things in common with us. They are also full time RVers and most of them have been doing it a whole lot longer than us.

We are excited to share the sights and adventures of the Bar Harbor area with you over the next few months.

I have to admit that occasionally I get a little homesick. I can’t shake the idea that I’m on vacation and any time now, I need to return home to Georgia. We have been gone a month now. I miss my family, my house and some of the routine that I had over the past 20 years.

But I do love getting up in the early morning and walking the dogs and enjoying the fresh crisp air that this beautiful part of the country has to offer.

And when I get back to the RV, Dave has a fresh cup of hot coffee waiting for me.

Yes, I think I can totally get used to this!