Labor Day Weekend!

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer which is always a little sad. But it's a bit tougher to see it come this year because of the cold and rainy summer we had.  But, Labor Day weekend was great and the weather was perfect ever day. On Thursday, we began our annual road trip to Camden, Maine for the Windjammer Festival and lobsters on the harbor. It was a great weekend!

We headed out in the late morning on Thursday. It was a little cloudy at home and we were a bit concerned that maybe the forecast was wrong....but it wasn't!We started our trip like we have for years - top down in the Porsche, venti lattes from Starbuck's, and Bruce Springstein's "Born to Run" in the CD player. We were off for a great l-o-n-g weekend and some adventures!

On our way up North, we stopped by The Old Stove Bake Shoppe to visit Deb and get some cupcakes. She was doing a brisk business when we arrived - several walk-in's and a couple of large orders. The shop looks really great. If you haven't been by lately, we suggest you check it out!

We spent Thursday in Portland, Maine. We stayed at the Morrill Mansion, a nice Bed & Breakfast about a 20 minute walk to downtown and the waterfront. Originally it was home to the "M" of B & M Baked Beans. We walked all around Portland and found a nice spot for dinner. Portland is a great stopping point on the way up to Camden, ME. It's about 90 miles from home and 125 miles from Camden.

When we got up on Friday morning, we got on the road around 10:00 and headed to Yarmouth, Maine to visit the Maine Cottage showroom. Maine Cottage built the colorful furniture in the master bedroom in KW. We had a great time there and got some good ideas.

Then we headed off to Camden! The ride up was great - sunny blue sky and wonderful small towns to ride through. We went over the bridge to Bath and past Bath Iron Works. In Wiscasset, there is a small lobster shack called Red's Eats where people stand in line (for hours!) to get a lobster roll. There are always, always lines at Red's Eats.

We arrived in Camden in the early afternoon. On the Friday before Labor Day, Camden has a parade of windjammer's as they all find their way into the harbor. You may not realize it but many of these tall ships don't have engines. So, to come into a relatively small harbor like Camden,they have to be guided in by small dingy's. It's pretty amazing to watch.

On Friday night, we had steamed lobsters outside on the deck, under a full moon, with fireworks over the harbor. To quote a good friend of ours (you know who you are!) "It doesn't get any better than that!". After supper, we walked across the street for fresh homemade ice cream. It really doesn't get any better than that!

On Saturday, after a great breakfast at Abigail's Inn we headed off  - to no where! We wandered around the shops and checked out the the activities on the harbor. Not unlike KW, Camden has a strong artist community. While they don't paint everything in sight like they tend to do in KW, this person painted their propane tank to look like a watermelon - pretty cool, huh?

In the afternoon, we took a car ride. We started out by checking out the Camden cows. They are Galloway Belted cows and are the most unusual cows we've ever seen.

Then, we went looking for a winery that was started about 4 years ago by Bettina Doulton, a 40-something woman who turned in her Fidelity Fund Manager job and  became a vineyard owner. She opened Cellardoor Vineyard which is about 6 miles from Camden Harbor. It was quite amazing and absolutely beautiful. She has a special wine which she labeled "Ned Said Red" after Ned Johnson. At Fidelity, when you ask "Why?" about a new product or special project that you don't quite understand, the answer you get is because "Ned Said" - no further explanation is provided about the project! So, Bettina blended a red wine and named it after him!


Abigal's Inn is an old structure built in 1847. It has a beautiful front porch that overlooks the main street. When we got back from our afternoon adventures, we got some wine, cheese and a loaf of fresh bread and sat on the front porch. It was a beautiful warm afternoon and we sat there and read and relaxed. It was really nice.

We checked out on Sunday to head back home. We wanted to be home by Sunday night so we'd have a day to get some things done at the house. But of course no weekend would be complete without some sort of transportation-related activity. And this weekend was no exception. Lucky us, the Owl Head Transportation Museum was hosting the 'Vintage Motorcycle Meet and Antique Aeroplane Show'. And don't you know that the owner of Abigal's Inn, Kip had some passes to the show if we're interested. How lucky, huh?! (ha, ha, ha) It was an interesting take - beautiful old cars in the museum and really old,  classic motorcycles in the show. Old planes, too. Check out the small gun mounted on the hood of the plane below. Can you imagine having to shoot that? I have to say I've never seen so many motorcycles in one place in my life. Between the ones in the show and the ones that people drove to the show it was an amazing site.

After we left the show, we headed south again. We stopped in Freeport and went to LL Bean and some of the outlets. But the only thing we bought was a couple of ice cream cones. But it was fun!

It was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun. And, because after all it was Labor Day, on Monday Neal put the first of 2 finish coats on the back of the house.

We hope that whatever you all did this weekend that you enjoyed the weekend and the beautiful weather!