Maine!!! (with a baby)

So, after last week's post about our New England adventure, I wanted to finally get up a post from the last time we were in the northeast, when we went to Maine back in 2010.  I know it was forever ago, but it was such a neat place that I really wanted to have a list of places we tried there up here on the blog.  It was a very different trip than the one I just wrote about, since it was the first we took by ourselves as young parents.  Theodore was 6 months old at the time, and still nursing.  We had a hard time navigating between picking the kinds of things we wanted to do and what would work best with a (potentially) noisy baby.  It gave us some pretty good memories though.

Here's our Rundown:
My mother actually drove with me out to the East coast, since I'd been in Indiana visiting and no one seemed to think I could drive across half the country with a new baby.  I could, and have many times since, but it was nice to have someone on the drive with me.  We stopped at Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier so that she could have a taste of Maine lobster before she caught her flight back.

 And even though it was raining we made sure to hit up one lighthouse with her, as well as the ocean.

The next day, Theodore and I picked up Brian from his conference site, Bates College in Lewistown, ME.  We headed out to Bailey Island, and enjoyed some time ocean gazing and catching up after our time apart.  During the beginning of trips, we tend to stock up on food at local stores so we don't have to eat out so much.  We must have stopped at the "Bigs" general store, since I took a photo of it.

 Our next stop was Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, ME.  I remember enjoying the beautiful architecture of the historic college (charted in 1794), and how different it was from the architecture of our relatively new, dessert college.  And because my husband was fresh off his algae ice days, we had to stop at this exhibit. 

We drove further north, throughout many picturesque towns, and stayed somewhere that night.

Eventually, we arrived the next day at Acadia National Park.  It was finally a national park that was new for Brian, and it was fun exploring together.  We stopped at Jordan's Pond House and were introduced to the baked good "popovers" (the reason that pan is still on my Christmas list every year), took some photos from the top of Cadillac Mountain, and then drove down to explore the tidal pools (one of Brian's favorite things to do in life).  Later we headed to Bass Harbor Head Light lighthouse and enjoyed watching the sun set.

Later that night, because when in Maine, we stopped at a lobster pound, Town East Lobster Pound to be specific, and had our taste of their famous seafood.

The next day there, we stayed in the area and took a somewhat relaxing lighthouse tour.  Being that Theodore was held the whole time, we didn't have to constantly worry about him falling overboard like we have to now whenever on the water.

As in most of our trips, we found a place with really good ice cream, The Old Dutch Treat.

The next day we started heading south, stopping to check out some local places in Portland, ME. I wasn't expecting to be as charmed by the city as I was.  It had a little bit of that Canadian feel to it that I actually like in cities.  While there, we stopped at the Shipyard Brewing Company for a tour, Mousse Cafe for lunch, the Two Cats Bakery for a whoopie pie, and also a charming bookstore called Longfellow Books, to pick up one of my Caldecott books, Blueberries for Sal.  I think we stopped at one more lighthouse afterwards, and then drove through to Delaware.

And between the lighthouses, lobster, and quaint towns, we had a pretty satisfying Maine visit with our six month old.  The only thing I really wanted to see that we didn't were their puffin birds.  But I guess that leaves something for next time.