Sterling Notes Goes on Vacation

I guess a three month lapse in posts is vacation in and of itself. I find it too hard to blog continuously. But I think about blogging....does that count?

We actually took a real vacation to New England last week. Neither of us had ever been to Maine or Rhode Island (or New Hampshire or Vermont, for that matter.) Our first destination in our trusty, crusty rental car was Portland, Maine. We stopped for a great lunch at the Portsmouth Brewery in cutesy, touristy Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is just across the Piscataqua River from Kittery, Maine. In the sunny back patio, we clinked our glasses of microbrews to Kari and Rob, who were getting married that very day in California; since Kari is from New Hampshire we figured it was an especially appropriate toast.

We then continued on to Portland, about a 40 minute drive up the coast from the Maine/New Hampshire border. We stayed in an extremely comfortable inn, the Percy Inn. I highly recommend it if you ever make your way up there: www.percyinn.com. We spent three days cruising around the area, taking day trips up to the "fingers," as we took to calling the beautiful small peninsulas that jut out from the southwesternmost coast of the state. We visited such delightfully seaworthy sounding places as Pemaquid Point, East Boothbay Harbor and the Harpswells. Andres ate lobster rolls, mussels, and some more lobster. We had a fantastic meal at a very Bay-Area style restaurant called Fore. We took long drives up and down the coast accompanied by golden oldies and classic rock radio stations (our unofficial trip anthem became "Margaritaville" due to sheer number of times we heard it played.) We visited the much-overrated L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport. From Orrs Island in the Harpswells we went sea kayaking for the first time in our lives, a very meditative experience. Although our guide was busy flirting with the two college-age girls on our tour and not paying much attention to us, we had a great time paddling in and out of sunny green coves. We were sad to leave Portland, it's a very quiet, slow-moving town with a good, eclectic mix of shops, cafes and organic food and seafood restaurants (though completely lacking in diversity otherwise.) We definitely expect to return to Maine so we can continue exploring the many nooks and crannies the state has to offer. Oddly enough we didn't take any photos up there! Mistake.

We then made our way down to Point Judith, Rhode Island, after a pit-stop in Providence for a burrito just off the Brown campus (while noting with amusement that every college has its own ubiquitous little stretch of cheap eateries, stoned-looking students and "ethnic" clothing stores.) Reaching the coast in record time (perhaps because Rhode Island is only 48 miles long,) at Point Judith we took a 55-minute ferry ride to traverse the 13 miles of the Rhode Island sound to Block Island. Above is a photo of Andres enjoying the view from the upper deck of the ferry, Corona in hand. Settled by English settlers in 1661 (who overran the native americans who had inhabited the island for centuries,) Block Island is quite beautiful, if marred by roads traversing its petite 7 mile circumference. Many of its hotels were built in the Victorian era and have a particular creaky (and at first creepy) charm. We rented bicycles for a couple days and pedaled our way around the island, enjoying the quietude we finally found once we hiked down some bluffs to a beach that the hordes of moped and car riding families and rowdy college kids seemed
uninterested in and/or unable to visit.

These are the very gorgeous bluffs above the beach. Once we made our way down the 150-step wooden staircase and across some rocks to a relatively secluded and extremely sunny spot, we realized we would either have had to ride back into town to purchase a sun umbrella....or construct our own shade structure to keep from (further) burning to a crisp. Here is Mr. Robinson Crusoe Montoya enjoying the fruits of our labor.


We stayed at that beach as long as possible, until nearly dusk. After bicyling back into New Harbor, where our non-descript, non-Victorian, non-charming and overpriced hotel was, we showered up, rested and came back into Old Harbor for one last memorable dinner at the lovely Hotel Manisses. More lobster for Andres...and more fish for me. We weren't sorry to leave Block Island, but all in all, it was a relaxing spot to visit.