Back to the Good LIfe

Yesterday (Wednesday), I awoke with a cool Maine breeze gently blowing across my face and looked outside to see a calm campground lake – a pillow with a view! Jane spent a large part of the morning on the phone with State Farm, Ford customer service and the Ford dealership. So, everything is officially filed and in the books. It appears that some combination of insurance and warranty will cover some portion of whatever the cost of repairing our car is, i.e., nothing is resolved. Jane and I decided to put that aside and biked around the campground before eating a snack for lunch.

In the afternoon, we ubered into Old Port. Our driver was a native and described the sites of Portland (pop. 65k) as we passed by them. We were deposited into the heart of the waterside tourist district. 

We walked around the area taking in the sites; docks, restaurants, boats, and shoppes. We purchased roundtrip ferry tickets to cross the Casco Bay to Peaks Island. While awaiting departure, we walked around some more and enjoyed maple ice cream cones.

While we were waiting at Gate 5 to board, someone from Ford called Jane and starting asking again for information that she had already provided. She patiently answered question as we and the crowd lined up, waddled up the gangplank, and took our ferry seats. Soon after taking our seats the caller was satisfied and we enjoyed the 20 minute ride to Peaks Island.

Regatta on Casco Ba

Peaks Island is home to about 1k permanent residents and many more summer visitors. There are a lot of tourist shoppes and restaurants near the ferry terminal. We explored around the terminal by foot (although bikes and golf carts were available for hire). Unfortunately, the Umbrella Cover Museum, were they “Celebrate the Mundane” had just closed when we arrived. 

We finally settled down with a couple of beers on a covered deck of the Island Lobster Company that overlooked the water. I had a Coal Porter and Jane had some piney IPA. After about an hour on Peaks Island we took a return ferry and made our dinner reservation en route.

Once disembarked, we wandered around until our reservation at Boone’s Seafood restaurant. We ordered tuna tartare with a couple of beers as an appetizer and shared a 2 lb stuffed lobster (the house specialty) for the entree. Jane tore into the lobster like a monkey on a cupcake. 

After dinner, we ubered back to camp. Our driver was Somalian and had come to Maine 19 years ago to escape the violence in his home country. Before retiring, I had a nightcap while we sat in our chairs enjoying the lake view and stars.