Maine // Adventures with The Goodones
GRACE JONES
Maine has been on our bucket list since the day we got married, but to be honest it's been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. Also, seeing a moose, but that didn't happen :( We decided to go to Maine in November for our first ever vacation together as married humans. So on a cold November morning at 5AM we jumped in Merci, our trusted Mazda and went on our way. The drive from Columbus, Ohio to the beautiful state of Maine was long, rainy and cold, but something from out of this world, just the drive was worth it all! Our trip would take us all over Maine, Massachusetts and upstate New York!
I think it's safe to say we had a great time! Although going to Maine in November may have not been the brightest idea, it was freezing and everything was closed because tourist season was over, but it beats dealing with traffic and crowds; truly an escape to the wilderness, it was exactly what Brandon and I needed!
We brought our big kid cameras, but ended up using our phones most of the time! So a lot of these photos are taken with our phones, just a heads up! :)
You can use the map below to see every where we went, stopped, took photos, ate, got lost, and stayed while we were wandering around the beautiful northeast United States!
PORTLAND, MAINE
Our first stop of our trip was to stay 5 days in a beautiful old farmhouse on the outskirts of Portland, ME. It was the most beautiful AirBnB I think we stayed in up till that point, the beautiful wood floors, the wood burning fireplace, and not to mention all of the farm animals outside! Our hosts were so friendly, we really enjoyed getting to learn about them and the farm/wedding venue they run, check it out - Broadturn Farm - what they are doing is amazing! On our last day with them they gave us a huge box filled with veggies that they grew, SO GOOD!!
A few of our favorite place we ate + went while in Portland
- Tandem Coffee Roasters
- Duckfat
- LB's Kitchen
- Homegrown Herbs + Tea
- Flying Fox Juice Bar
- Urban Farm Fermentory
- Portland Head Light
- Downtown Portland (we walked around for hours the first day we were there!)
- Print: A Bookstore
- Z Fabrics
We spent 2 mornings enjoying LB's Kitchen, they had the most amazing breakfast salads + Turmeric/seaweed infused bone broth, YUM! The staff was so friendly and the food is to die for, if there was one in Ohio, that's where I would be spending most of my time!
I mean, seriously, check out that menu! It was one of the few places on our trip that I could eat at because I am on an Auto-immune protocol diet!
The Flying Fox Juice Bar was probably one of our most favorite places we went, seriously we went almost 1 or 2 times a day while we were in Portland!
The cutest little bookstore in Portland. Print: a bookstore, carries a lot of books about Maine and authors from Maine!
The best bone broth I have ever had, was from LB Kitchen in Portland! Best breakfast ever!
Duckfat, one word to sum that experience up would be DANGGGGGG! Their fries are cooked in duck fat, their salads have duck on them, it's just mind blowing and so goooood! This was the one meal that I cheated and ate something I wasn't suppose to...
The whole time we were in Maine I was on the hunt for a beautiful piece of pottery to get, but I never found one - or maybe I was just being way to indecisive, because to be honest everything was so beautiful I couldn't pick!
The Whole Foods in Portland is amazing! On my diet I can't have grains, so burritos are normally a no-no for me, but they had cassava tortillas at their taqueria! We went there for lunch a lot! Even when we drove back through we stopped. #dedicated
To say Brandon loves Tandem Coffee is an understatement, I think we went there pretty much everyday we were in Portland.
If you want the best Kombucha or Shrub's go to the Urban Farm Fermentory! They are amazing, we took 2 growlers home with us!
Where do I even stat with this wonderful woman!? She's the owner of Homegrown Herbs + Tea, she mixes your tea right there in front of you!
Portland Head Light AKA Cape Elizabeth
We spent an afternoon walking around this beautiful area. It was cold and rainy most of the time, but it was soooo beautiful! I know I could have easily sat and looked out at the ocean for hours. This was the first time I saw Staghorn Sumach in the wild, I wanted to take it all home with us! + this was also the first time I saw a Bay Leaf bush in the wild, you bet I took some of those suckers.
PORTLAND AIRBNB: BROADTURN FARM
Broadturn Farm WAS A DREAM!!! The owners were so lovely, the animals were the cutest, and our room was to die for, seriously; AMAZING! Okay , okay enough. Here's the link to their AirBnB page if you want to check it out and book it for your next trip to Portland, Maine! OH , did I mention that they are also florists AND a wedding venue, so you know, if you want to get married here, I'll come photograph it...wink wink, nudge nudge!
The stars out in the country were so unbelievably bright! This doesn't do it justice, but I could have looked up at them for hours! We also saw a shooting star!!
PINE POINT BEACH: SCARBOROUGH, MAINE
Our gracious hosts at Broadturn Farm told us about this secluded beach that most tourists don't know about that was right down the road from them! It's true, no one was there. I have never seen shells the size of the ones laying on the beach, some were as big as our hands and even our faces! Beaches in winter might be my favorite time to go! (if you know me you know that I really just don't like beaches at all, it's the sand, sand really freaks me out!)
I FORGET...
I had the best intiontions with this trip to keep track of everywhere we went and evertyihng we did, but those dreams were just that, dreams. The following photos are from somewhere in Maine, no idea where, I just remember finding someting in google maps that looked cool, so we went! To make up for the lack of information, I give you a photo of me eating sliced turkey. Enjoy!
ELLSWORTH AIRBNB
This was our starting ground to explore Acadia and all of the surrounding areas. I think out of all the AirBnB's we stayed in this one was our favorite. The owners were so kind and helpful, they live right next door! We had this whole place to ourselves. The owners originally bought a house that sat right where this one is, but due to the poor condition they had to tear it down. They saved a lot of the wood flooring and boards throughout the house and repurposed them in this little cottage! They are hoping to sell their bigger house soon to retire into this one next door! My FAV part of this airbnb, well...there's many but here's two - heated floors in the bathroom + it backs up to a beautiful river that you can hear running through the wilderness when you fall asleep and wake up. Needless to say it's beautiful and you should stay there.
While we were in Ellsworth and surrounding places, we cooked our own food to take around with us, because with my current diet if we aren't in a city it's difficult to find food that I can eat without feeling horrible after eating it! That's part of the reason we chose this AirBnB, because it had it's own kitchen! So that's why there aren't any reccomendations of places to eat!
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK
Acadia National Park was something special. It was beautiful, it's as simple as that, we hit up all the go-to places, then proceed to drive all over the place on the different little islands I would love to tell you where all we went, but honestly I have no idea! We were playing a game of google maps Russian roulette.
A very out of focus photo of us at Jordan Pond, thank you kind sir for offering to take it for us! Sorry my camera is hard to use haha
The view from the top of Cadillac Mountain, we wanted to go for sunrise, but there was no way that that was going to happen! It was beautiful, but also the coldest place ever! We only spent a total of about 5 minutes there because we couldn't take the cold and wind!
Somehow we ended up in the middle of nowhere. And found the most beautiful little hiking trail. Unfortunately we couldn't go on it because it was hunting season and we were wearing all black, Hunting Season 1 Hipsters 0.
Our faithful Mazda!
This was Brandon's first time eating a whole lobster!! We went to Gaylen's in Bar Harbor for dinner! We were the only ones there, see what I mean about going in November? NO ONE IS AROUND!
STONINGTON, MAINE
Like a lot of places on this trip, we didn't plan to go to them, it just kind of happened, that's the case with Stonington. I am so glad we happened upon it, because it's a stunning little fishing village on the coast. I would love to go back during the summer time to see the town hustling around, but the empty streets were a nice change of pace on this trip. I even made a cat friend who looks almost exactly like our cat! After beingg away from our fur ball I was so excited to have befriended a fluff in Maine!
LITTLE TOWNS AS WE WERE DRIVING
BOSTON
We were in Boston only for a short stop over and to crash for the night, we did get to go into Boston (we stayed in Salem.) But after driving through the crazy roads, I was pretty stressed out and completely exhausted . But we tried to make the best of it. We were only in Boston for 3ish hours before we decided to go back to Salem and enjoy a peaceful evening. I would love to go back to explore the more historic parts of Boston! One of my favorite restaurants there is called Dig Inn! It's amazing, definitely check it out!
THE END
I hope you enjoyed looking through our photos from our first vacation!! We are already so excited to back to the east coast and explore some more! Until then, we will be here in Ohio!