Friday, August 9

Where We Went/What We Did

Downtown Kennebunk/Brick Store Museum: There’s a little area of downtown Kennebunk that we hadn’t been to yet, so we went down in the late morning to walk around. We ended up finding the Brick Store Museum, which is a museum of the history of Kennebunk and featured artwork by local artists. Admission was $5, so we figured why not?

The Port: Fun fact—Kennebunk and Kennebunkport are two separate towns. When we say we’re going to “The Port”, we go to the Dock Square area with all of the shops and restaurants. I’ve been here every time we’ve come to Maine but I always like to go back and wander through the shops. Here’s a photo from a few years ago of what it looks like:

What We Ate

Breakfast: made at the trailer. Eggs, toast, yogurt, and fruit again.

Lunch: Bev’s Cafe. I found this cafe on Google Maps while looking in the downtown area, and it was super cute. Josh got a roast beef sandwich, and I got a turkey with sprouts sandwich. I’d totally go back there again.

Dinner: Federal Jack’s. Our original plan for dinner was to go to another restaurant, but it was mostly seafood and I was a little unsure after the incident the night before. So we opted for Federal Jack’s (I’d include their website link but it seems to be broken), which we went to two years ago. I got a blueberry ale, and Josh got an IPA; I got a chicken sandwich (with a spicy ranch that was a bit spicer than I thought it would be), and Josh got a Philly cheesesteak. 

Other Notes

Saturday, August 10

Where We Went/What We Did

Bug Lighthouse: We continued our Maine lighthouse tour by stopping in South Portland at Bug Lighthouse. Its actual name is the Portland Breakwater Light; it was first built in 1855 as a wooden structure, but in 1875, a new lighthouse was constructed made of curved cast-iron plates. There’s a park right next to the lighthouse where we saw some people having lunch or biking through. 

Spring Point Lighthouse: Just a short drive basically down the road is the Spring Point Lighthouse on the campus of Southern Maine Community College. It’s at the end of a 950-foot breakwater (or a really long jetty made of rocks) that you can walk out on and see the lighthouse up close. The lighthouse was built in 1898 and the only lighthouse accessible by land.

We walked all the way out to the lighthouse, and it felt like I had to take the little kid path because you have to step from rock to rock, and I couldn’t step over the larger gaps like Josh could because he has longer legs. He waited for me and/or held my hand to make sure I didn’t fall.

Downtown Portland: One thing I always look forward to when we go to Maine is heading to downtown Portland to walk around. I love all of the shops and restaurants and the brick/cobblestone streets.

We stopped into Novel, a new book bar that opened up last fall. They have a full bar for alcoholic drinks and coffee, plus some snacks, as well as a full book selection for sale. I got The Guncle by Steven Rowley (I read it from the library earlier this year and loved it) and Josh got a cold brew. We definitely want to go back next year and get drinks there.

And then we went to Longfellow Books, a repeat from last year. I like that they have a selection of new and used books. I got Glass Houses by Louise Penny (used) and Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (new); I’m trying to build my own collection of Louise Penny books since I read all of them from the library, and I read Bright Young Women before and, again, loved it. Lately I’ve been into buying books I’ve already read from the library so that I own them now.

Our last stop was Shipwreck and Cargo, which is a Portland/Maine merch store. I got a t-shirt with the Maine flag on it. In our original plans, we wanted to stop and get ice cream, but we were still full from lunch so we skipped that.

Portland Sea Dogs game: It’s our third year in a row going to a Sea Dogs game! They’re the double AA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, so obviously we go, but I think we’d go regardless of the affiliation. 

Gates opened at 4:30 p.m. for the 6:00 p.m., and we usually park in a garage a block away from Hadlock Field. The Sea Dogs were playing as the Maine Bean Suppahs, so they had custom jerseys and a logo takeover on the big screen. They were playing the Altoona Curve, the Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate. Josh hit up the team store to get himself a Sea Dogs shirt.

By the sixth inning, the Curve were winning 1–0, until the bottom of the sixth when the Sea Dogs scored 10 runs (which included three home runs). On the scoreboard in the inning column, it couldn’t fit a 10, so they put a 9 in the sixth inning and a 1 in the 10th inning column. The Curve had a bit of a comeback toward the end of the game, but the Sea Dogs won 10–4. In the top of the ninth, the Curve had one of their catchers pitching to finish up the game. (A guy behind us was trying to explain to his girlfriend that the pitcher was a knuckleballer because his speed was in the low-50s, but I told Josh it was a position player pitching; I looked up the Curve’s roster and saw the guy was a catcher.)

Then after the game they had fireworks! The show was actually postponed from Friday night (because of winds/rain from tropical storm Debbie moving through New England) so we got a surprise fireworks show. And it was awesome. The Sea Dogs mascot, Slugger, came out to start the show and then sat on the ground to watch the entire thing. (BTW: Slugger seems awesome and I don’t think I’m afraid of him.)

What We Ate

Breakfast: made at the trailer. Eggs, toast, yogurt, and fruit yet again.

Lunch: Bissell Brothers. It was really crowded by the time we got to the brewery after 12:30 p.m., but we were able to snag two seats at the bar on the 21+ only side called The Garden. We each got a beer (Lux for me and Here’s To Feeling Good All The Time for Josh) and sandwiches (caprese for me and KBBQ for Josh) plus we split some fries. The Olympics were being shown on a projector behind the bar, so we watched some of the track and field events. 

Something that would only happen to me: I was in the bathroom waiting for a stall to open and accidentally shut the lights off; the switch was right behind my back and I leaned against the wall. I freaked everyone out in the bathrooms and immediately apologized. We got a good laugh out of it, though.

Dinner: Sea Dogs game. We got beers and bottles of water before finding our seats. Just after the National Anthem finished, we went and got hot dogs and pretzels (which I forgot to take a picture of, but I think you can imagine ballpark hot dogs and pretzels). 

Later on in the game, I got a second beer and got us Sea Dog biscuits, which are ice cream sandwiches with chocolate chip cookies. I saw a ton of people getting them last year and wanted to get them the next time we came back. They were good! Would get again.

Other Notes

Whenever I buy game tickets, I’m usually really good about putting them into my Apple Wallet right after. I guess I didn’t do that with the Sea Dogs tickets, but I knew I had ordered them and charged Josh for his. It was around 10:00 a.m. as I was trying to get ready for Portland and I couldn’t find the confirmation email in my inbox. I tried logging into my MiLB account but it wasn’t working/loading. I was freaking out, and Josh was like, “Why don’t you call the ticket office?” and I was like, “I’d rather walk into traffic than make a phone call” but I called and a nice young man answered (probably an intern). I explained my issue and he was able to look my name up in the system; I did buy two tickets, and he said I could stop by Will Call before the game and they would print them for me. Great, can do.

I got a “Know Before You Go” email from the Sea Dogs that morning and I was poking around in it; I found an “Accessing Your Digital Tickets” section and was able to get my tickets! I was trying to log into the wrong section to get my tickets. So crisis averted.

I guess my dad is onto something with printing out baseball tickets instead of using digital ones… (Don’t tell him I said that, though.)