Camden, Maine with Molly!

August 30-Sept 3
It's a rainy Sunday in Camden, Maine, the last day of our first official stop on the trip.  Everything up to this point has been family related (and in familiar places).  After one month we are now on our own.  We're staying at the childhood home of our friend Molly Gove.  She has a high school reunion later today and we're helping her construct the components of a lawn game called cornhole.  Hopefully the rain will let up in time for the reunion.  The lazy, rainy pace of the day comes in stark contrast to the past two which have been filled with sunshine and adventure.  We arrived in Camden Thursday night after a full seven hours of driving, with only a quick pit stop at the University of New Hampshire to check in on Kim's younger sister Emily(her first year at COLLEGE!) to break up the drive.

Friday morning started off with a steep hike up Mt. Battie which offered spectacular views of Camden Harbor and the surrounding mountains. Molly encouraged us not to stop at some of the view spots as she said there was a surprise waiting for us. Sure enough, the view was incredible and there was a SURPRISE TOWER!! Driving back to the house after the hike, we made a quick pit stop at a local winery, Cellar Door Winery. Although Curt broke his tradition of only drinking wine at weddings, he may have a new tradition of trying more wine! There was one in particular we were fond of so we picked up a bottle to bring to our next stop on the farm as a little house warming thank you gift. Once we had a nice taste of 6 different kinds of wine, we were feeling good and decided to go on a little adventure to a camp Molly frequented while growing up: Tanglewood 4H.  Our ultimate goal was to find her CanJam set so we could bring it to her high school reunion. We traversed the camp and finally found the game which kept moving from one spot to another as a group who was there on the camp was using it. Well worth it though! What a beautiful spot! After that we headed back to Molly's house, grabbed some bathing suits and went for a swim in the lake a couple miles from her house.

Saturday morning kicked off with a veggie scramble including eggs from Molly's neighbor and veggies from their backyard. We were greeted that day with Sunshine and warmth and wind which was perfect for SAILING!! We met Molly's dad Jeff soon after breakfast at Rockport harbor and got to go SAILING! What an adventure. It was very obvious we did not have our sea legs under us but never-the-less, it was sunny, there was good company, and we got instructed on some basic sailing terminology, not to mention Jeff shared his famous homemade venison jerky with us (YUMMM!!!). All in all it was a very memorable morning!

We also tested out the video camera on the new phone.  If a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words imagine how many words a video must be worth!  After sailing we picked up supplies for cornhole and began the construction before Molly had to go to work.  After we dropped Molly off at work we walked around downtown Camden, got some clam chowder, watched as a wedding took place on a boat in the harbor, and then took off to find some lobster to cook up! We were instructed to go to Graffam Bros. to pick up the lobster. This place was great! We got three lobsters and a 6-pack of Geary's Pale Ale.  Once we told them we were not from around here, they hooked us up with EVERYTHING! We got a claw cracker, bibs, magnet, pen, a how-to-eat lobster guide and some wet naps! When we got back to the house, Jeff set up his outside boiler and we had a lobster feast.  Best way to eat a lobster: eat it with someone who has had HUNDREDS so they can tell you where and how to get to all the meat; Thanks JEFF!

Back to Sunday- The rain did let up right when the reunion came! What a cool place! Molly and two of her old high school friends had rented out the SnowBowl which was the local ski resort. It was pot-luck style food and they had a keg of Geary's Pale Ale! Oh and don't forget the CORNHOLE!

Monday Morning: Bye Bye beautiful Maine!  Time to get on our first farm and get to work! See more pictures from Maine here.  And one more sailing video while we're at it.