The Lobsterfest.

Although one might argue that the entire trip was a lobsterfest, the true Lobsterfest takes place in Rockland, Maine. As luck would have it, the first day of the Lobsterfest happened to be my and Jamie's last day in town. Even better, our flight out of Maine wasn't leaving until about 6pm (or so we thought) which gave us ample time to partake of the festivities before heading back to Portland.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After a couple detours inland (not intentional), we managed to get to our destination. Despite being the least expensive hotel on our trip, the view from our final room was the best of all.

Granted, the hotel wasn’t all that refined and looked more like a Motor Lodge, but in the end it had among the nicest amenities of all of the ones that we went to. Among the amenities was a fancy-pants game board (that apparently is worth $289 -- yowza), a huge plasma t.v., a desktop computer, a fireplace, a fridge and wine chiller, and binoculars with which to enjoy the aforementioned view. A pretty great value! Thanks Ledges!

We ventured in to Camden to enjoy some New England Clam Chowder. It was tasty! Easily my favorite type of soup out there…and I’m glad we did, because I had been so focused on lobster that I had forgotten that clam chowder was also something Maine was known for. We did some window shopping, and some actual shopping. We laughed at some of the souvenir shirts and placards, oogled some of the Maine fruit spreads, and then ducked into a yarn store. (Incidentally, there are yarn stores ALL over Maine!) Jamie actually requested that I make him a scarf – it should be known that Jamie has not requested that I make him anything since the dreaded gorilla sweater – so he picked out some yarn for me to use.

After a good night’s rest, we went to Rockport for breakfast at a local shop that had a great reputation. Apparently, it was where the lobstermen went for breakfast, and they had Eggs Benedict with crab for $5.99. So excited. Unfortunately, the article where we had read about it was a few years old and in the time since then (probably not long after the article was written) they had commercialized a little bit. The food was still great, but they no longer had the lobstermen or the cheap crab. Jamie did get some delicious blueberry oatmeal pancakes with fancy high-quality maple syrup (he paid extra).

Then, Jamie and I ventured to the U.S. Coast Guard base to tour the facilities – part of the Lobster Festival offerings. A very young and muscle-y coast guard guy (officer?) showed us around and took us on a boat. It was pretty impressive to see these boats up close – they basically are floating tanks. One of them had an engine so powerful that it could propel the boat upside-down for five minutes (it would contain enough air in pockets as well) before righting itself. At least that’s what Officer Muscle-y told us.

We then headed back to the festival and gawked at the giant Lobster Boilers. Since time before we would have to leave was ticking, Jamie and I made our way to the Main(e) food tent to get our Lobster Festival lobster. The way that the line worked out, the batch of lobster that we saw going into the boiler across the fairground also happened to be the lobster that we were served.

So Jamie and I each got a lobster and split an order of steamed clams. Pretty delicious...not as good as Lunch and Lobster (the teeniest bit overcooked) which will remain the best meal in Maine. After our lobster, Jamie and I wandered around the fair for a little longer before heading to the airport.

Of course our flight was delayed by four hours. I have yet to be on an AirTran flight that left on time. So we spent a little more time in Maine (well...the airport) than we had anticipated but in the end we managed to get home intact and with very good memories of our trip.

I then got to check off Maine from my list of places that I wanted to go...although, I do want to go back and backpack for real. That will have to be for another time.