The gas furnace heating the apartment failed on Friday. We spent Friday night in another unit, amid a couple of attempts to repair the furnace. Parts were on order, but the other unit was not as comfortable as the one we’ve been inhabiting. So, we decided to drive to Bangor for brunch.
We arrive about 10am at the Nest Café. We enjoyed avocado toast with local college students. Clearly, we were the oldest in the room. Afterwards, knowing the furnace was still inop, Deb suggested we drive to either Calais (pronounced “callous”) or Bar Harbor. Calais involved a couple hours longer driving, so we went to Bar Harbor for the first time since the mid 1980s when we camped our way around Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Entering Bar Harbor, the car made an unexpected stop at Fab-ri-Cate, a quilting shop. Deb found some Maine-themed fabric and a pattern or two. We enjoyed chatting with the staff about how central Maine has changed for the worse with the loss of paper mills. Lower employment and prosperity, but lower stink, too!
We moved the car over to the village green and walked around town for a while. Bar Harbor is clearly a tourist town, and hordes of folks from “away” descend on it during th summer. The wind off Frenchman Bay was quite chilly. After a while, we drove the car to a recommended lunch spot.
The green pyramid on the village green seems to be a weather cover over a fountain. We saw a few of them in the two parks/ green spaces.
The Side Street Café had a distinct advantage over the Indian and Thai restaurants: it was open! The season in Bar Harbor starts in mid-April, so we were a couple of weeks early. Deb had the beet salad and a brown ale (American Brewing Company). I had the chicken caprese salad and a Coastal Haze IPS from Baxter Brewery.
Back to Lincoln after lunch. The Master’s golf tourney is on, so it’s on the telly. Furnace is fixed and we’re warm again.
Steve Steele
Hey! You’ve finally made it to someplace I’ve actually visited! Bar Harbor is a beautiful place… even when there are several hundred cruise tourists running around. The last time we were there we came home with a couple of locally-painted oil paintings, one of which is hanging right here in my office. The last time we were there Brenda and I were traveling with my parents. Good times… good memories.
I hope it’s warming up a bit. Have a brew for me!