NorthEast Trip 2018 part 1

John had a 3 days of a conference in Boston.   In between conference meetings, we squeezed in a dinner at Legal Seafood and half of the freedom trail by audio tour, which is a great way to go, if you want to set your own pace and not be herded with 30 other people.  We were surprised that in the 21st century, they just give you the MP3 player to keep !!  

Soon, we picked up a rental car and were winding our way north through neighborhoods via google navigation and landed in Kennebunkport for the night at Nonantum resort.   This place is has been renovated outside, but is a bit shopworn inside.   They are very family friendly with a guitarist doing sing along by a campfire in the evening !  

The Downside in Kennebunkport

We went to a restaurant called The Boathouse and had to try the legendary New England lobster rolls.  Oops.   What we got was cold, soggy lobter on a hot dog bun with no flavor.  The only saving grace as a spicy margarita with jalapeno that seemed to have inspired Linda to share her disappointment with the waitress.   They ended up taking the lobster rolls off our bill.  They were so mediocre I didn’t even feel bad. 

The Upside in Kennebunkport

Back at the Nonantum resort it was still early after our sad supper , so we stopped at the cozy bar with a very congenial local grown bartender.  After in depth conversations about various gins and the trendy new mescal cocktails we are fond of, she gave us a list of breakfast places to try on our way up the coast. The fun conversation almost made up for the pathetic lobster roll.

Up the DownEast Coast

We wasted no time testing out the breakfast recommendations and arrived at a back street hidden dive of a diner called the Palace Diner.  We figure it might be a winner when the funky guy behind the counter told us we had a 30 minute wait.  In addition to the baked potatoes that were smashed, quartered and deep fried to a perfect gold brown,  we also had the great fortune to share our diner stools next to a local couple who coached us on our drive north.  Turns out there are peninsulas that jut out into the Atlantic and you have to drive 12 miles out and 12 miles back at a snails pace for any of them you want to see.   They told us to drive right past the legendary “Red’s “ seafood place ,  the one with 50 or 75 people in line and make sure we make it to Port Clyde. 

Read our post Northeast Trip 2018 Part 2  to see the results of following their advice.