Pasadena, CA: Fishwives

For some reason, I’ve been craving lobster rolls. It turns out a restaurant near us offers Portland Maine lobster rolls! The roll contained more than one lobster, but they were tiny baby lobsters. Again, I forgot to take a picture until half-way through eating.

We also tried Kumamoto oysters, scallops, sea urchin, grilled octopus, and sushi hand rolls (Maryland blue crab, amberjack, and salmon).

Everything tasted very fresh so we plan to come back to try other things on the menu.

Fishwives
88 N Fair Oaks
Pasadena, CA

Wiscasset, Maine: Red's Eat

Red's Eats is a red shack on the side of busy US Route 1 in Wiscasset, about a 2.5 hour drive from Bar Harbor, Maine.
It has been written about by various newspapers as serving the best lobster rolls.
https://newengland.com/today/travel/maine/reds-eats-lobster-roll/

Red's Eat
41 Water Street
Wiscasset, ME 04578

We first noticed Red's Eats on our first day of vacation, driving to Bar Harbor, after having eaten at Bob's Clam Hut.
What caught our eyes was the long line on the side of the road in the middle of the afternoon.

We were determined to check out Red's Eats, so we drove the 5-hour round trip to Wiscasset on our second full day of vacation.
The lobster roll was definitely the best we have had on our trip to Maine, so we plotted to return a second time, during our drive back to MHT airport.

This was how long the line was on our second visit.

The lobster roll had more than one whole lobster, as we counted three halves of a lobster tail and claw meat and large chunks.
It is served with mayonnaise and drawn butter on the side, for you to use as you wish.
The buttered roll looked undersized due to the pile of lobster meat on top of it.
And the lobster tasted super fresh and sweet. Simply amazing.

On our second visit, we ordered a side of fried scallops, and they were gigantic pieces of very fresh scallops in a light batter.

Red's Eats lives up to its hype.
They open from April to October, and their lobster roll is the best.
If you are anywhere near Wiscasset, you should definitely plan your trip around stopping at Red's Eats for the best lobster roll of your life.

Bernard, Maine: Thurston's Lobster Pound

After another day of hiking on the other side of Mount Desert Island (west side of Somes Sound), we stopped at Thurston's Lobster Pound.

Thurston's Lobster Pound
9 Thurston Rd
Bernard, ME 04612

Thurston's is still on Mount Desert Island but about 25 minutes from Bar Harbor.
If you plan to visit the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, this would be a good day to stop at Thurston's for your lobster meal.

We were able to get here while there was still sunlight, and here are the view of the harbor from the restaurant.

Lobster is sold by the pound, and the lady at the counter picks out your lobster right in front of your eyes.

Today we went back to a 1-1/4 lbs lobster, and added a "meal" which came with corn, cole slaw, bread and blueberry cake.

Once again, if you are against working hard for your lobster meal, the Jumbo Lobster Roll was excellent.  A lot of lobster on just the right amount of roll with minimum lettuce, served with chips.

We also shared a cup of lobster stew.
This may have been the best lobster stew we had in Maine, although our only other lobster stew happened very early on the trip.

While Red's Eats Lobster Roll is the best (another blog will be posted for Red's), Thurston's Jumbo Lobster Roll is a very close second.
The steamed lobster is also the best on this trip, and we also believe it is better to order a smaller lobster not only for the sweeter taste, but to save room for the lobster stew and dessert.

Bar Harbor, Maine: Mount Desert Island Ice Cream

During our stay in Bar Harbor, Maine, we were able to visit both Mount Desert Island Ice Cream locations. And we visited one location twice.

Our first visit was to the Main Street location, which we erroneously thought was the location closer to the center of town.
We then discovered that the other location on Firefly Lane was a much closer location to our B&B

Mount Desert Island Ice Cream
325 Main Street
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
or
7 Firefly Lane
Bar Harbor, ME 04609

Visit #1: Strawberry and Callebaut Chocolate (the strawberry flavor had fresh strawberry chunks and was excellent!)
Visit #2:  Blueberry Sour Cream Crumble and Strawberry
Visit #3:  Blueberry Basil Sorbet and Strawberry Sorbet - less calories but still YUMMY!

Ellsworth, Maine: Union River Lobster Pot

After a full day of hiking in Acadia National Park (Mount Desert Island, Maine), we had dinner at Union River Lobster Pot.

Union River Lobster Pot
8 South St
Ellsworth, ME 04605

Ellsworth is about a 25 minute drive from Bar Harbor, Maine.
Union River Lobster Pot seems to be a very popular restaurant. We arrived at 5:30pm, half an hour after opening times, and already had to wait for about 45 minutes.

As we were famished, we splurged on the "DownEast Shore Dinner", picking a 1-3/4 lbs lobster, which came with New England Clam Chowder, steamers and mussels, fries, cole slaw and bread.

For those not interested in working hard for their meal, a "Lazy Lobster" was offered, which was lobster meat in white sherry wine butter sauce and a side of carrots.

The restaurant is in a nice location (next to Union River) so there is a nice waiting area by the river.  The steamed lobster meat tasted tough and not as sweet as the other lobster meals we have had in Maine.  Maybe we got a lobster that was too big... perhaps the smaller lobsters are sweeter, therefore ordering two one-pound lobsters is better than ordering a two-pound lobster.  We will have to return to Maine to test this theory.

Acadia National Park, Maine: Jordan Pond House

Acadia's Park Loop road is a 27-mile road that takes you in a big circle on Mount Desert Island.
On this mostly one-way road, you can stop to visit the Wild Gardens of Acadia, the Nature Center, and there are many trail heads that allow you to hike and view the gorgeous sceneries.
One such trail head begins at Sand Beach, and takes you to the Beehive (520 ft summit), to the Bowl (a big lake), to Gorham Mountain (525 ft summit), and to Champlain Mountain (1058 ft summit).

With many trails intersecting one another, it is easy to spend a full day hiking on Mount Desert Island.
After a strenuous hike, you can continue your drive on the Park Loop road and stop at Jordan Pond House for a little snack.

Per our friends' recommendations, we stopped at Jordan Pond House to order "popovers" and blueberry lemonade.

The popover looks like a deformed muffin, but it is very light and hollow on the inside.
It is not sweet at all, and it is served with butter and strawberry jam.
It tastes a little bit like bread, and it is quite good after a long day's hike without lunch.

The blueberry lemonade is very sour but is served with sugar water for you to add as needed.

If you have never tried popovers before, you should try at least once.

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

The Ice Cream Store
6 Rehoboth Ave,
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

Sammy went with her girl scout troop to Cape Henlopen which is near Rehoboth Beach.  As one of the activities we spent an afternoon in Rehoboth.  For icecream she went to The Ice Cream Store, a place that has over 100 ice cream flavors!  After sampling a few (all the Harry Potter related flavors) I decided on Hagrid's Rock Cookies...

... and it was delicious!

Recipe for Cinnamon Rolls

For the start of the school year Sammy decided to make cinnamon rolls for her friends since they are relatively easy, can be frozen and therefore made beforehand, as well as there being a large quantity of cinnamon rolls (resulting in lots of friends!).

Recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/freezer-cinnamon-fruit-rolls

Bar Harbor, Maine: Stewman's Lobster Pound

After the multiple stops during our drive from MHT airport to Bar Harbor, we arrived at our B&B, the Acacia House Inn, a little before 8PM.
After checking in, we got a recommendation from our innkeeper to go to Stewman's Lobster Pound for our first lobster dinner.
From our B&B, it was a short walk to Stewman's Lobster Pound, which was located in downtown Bar Harbor, along the waterfront.

Stewman's Lobster Pound
5 West Street
Bar Harbor, ME 04609

Live lobsters were organized by size in their respective tanks.

We could watch the lobsters being steamed in an outdoor cooking area.

For our first dinner in Maine, we shared a half ladle of New England clam chowder, which was excellent and filled with clam bits.

The "Simply Maine Lobster you choose the size" was a 1 1/4 pound steamed Maine lobster that came with a fresh ear of corn.

For those not wanting to do the work and fight the lobster shell, the Classic Maine Lobster Roll was perfect: a butter-toasted roll filled with fresh picked lobster meat with a touch of seasoned mayonnaise, and a side of cole slaw and fries.

For dessert, we could not resist the Maine wild blueberry pie (a la mode).

We were very satisfied with Stewman's Lobster Pound, as the food was excellent, and the location extremely convenient from our B&B.

Portland, Maine: Gorgeous Gelato

The drive from the MHT airport to Bar Harbor was estimated to be between 4.5 hours (fastest route) to about 5.5 hours (scenic route.)
Either way, we would drive by Portland, Oregan.
We stopped at the Gorgeous Gelato in Portland on our way to Bar Harbor for a 'snack'.
Its owners were originally from Milan, Italy, and their gelato are as authentic as you would find in Italy.

Gorgeous Gelato
434 Fore Street
Portland, ME 04101

It was a difficult decision on which flavors to pick, but after multiple samplings, we both settled on the Gorgeous flavor, a vanilla base with caramel swirls and chocolate chunk.
And since the 'small' gelati was allowed to have two flavors, one of us added the Dark Chocolate gelati, a perfect complement to the Gorgeous flavor.

This was a nice snack and break on our way from the airport to Bar Harbor.
The Harbor area has other shops and was nice to walk around (stretch our legs from our drive).

Kittery, Maine: Bob's Clam Hut

Bob's Clam Hut was our first stop after we landed in MHT airport (Manchester, NH).
The reason we picked Bob's Clam Hut was that its location was about one hour from MHT, and it was known for its fresh clam strips.

Bob's Clam Hut is located in Kittery, among a busy stretch of Kittery's outlet shops.

Bob's Clam Hut
315 US-1
Kittery, ME 03904
www.bobsclamhut.com

We started our first meal in Maine sharing a cup of lobster stew and a plate of Lillian style clam strips.

The lobster stew had big chunks of lobster and was delicious.
The clam strips were very tasty, especially dipped in the homemade tartar sauce and spicy tartar sauce.

We highly recommend stopping at Bob's Clam Hut if you have a chance, especially since we discovered a Lululemon outlet down the street from Bob's Clam Hut.