Hola from Maine!

Last Thursday, I read about some great little inns in the Boston Globe Travel Section - so decided to take a last minute trip to the southern shores of Maine for the holiday weekend. Because of gas prices and the economy, several places were offering deals. The one I utlimately chose is the Sea Cliff Motel, which offered an oceanview, HBO, a year round hot tub, and private balcony all for less than $90.00 a night. So here I am in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, which has 7 miles of sandy beaches, just north of Kennebunkport and just south of Portland.

When I arrived on Friday ngiht, I was alittle skeptical about the resort (and town) at first. My room had the "kitschy" feel - peach sponge painted walls, older-style linens, narrow, rickety outdoor wooden stairs up to it on the side of the building. The town has an amusement park right on the beach, lots of tee-shirt stores and tattoo parlors. But, I thought, sigh, you get what you pay for. So I headed to town in search of a martini and some seafood. Found a great spot on the beach - and had a yummy dinner of scallops and coleslaw. When I got back to my room and settled in a bit - it had grown on me. While small and having the atmosphere of a 3rd floor dormer of a large house, I in fact have a GREAT view of the ocean - which I can see while lying in my bed. There are no other rooms on the top floor so I don't have "neighbors" and kind of have my own private little, oddly shaped nest with a great view of the dune grass, shore, and islands off in a distance. So it's ok now!

Saturday I rose early and took off to explore. Went to Kennebunk port and had breakfast on the water at the mouth of the river at the Breakwater Inn and Spa. Lovely. All the lobster boats were going out, it's a beautiful restaurant, and I was surrounded by several "mature" couples (men dressed for the holiday in blue blazers and khaki pants - on Saturday). I was hoping to eavesdrop on some fabulous political dish - but didn't really hear any. Kennebunkport is nice. I don't know that I like it better than Cape Ann. But it is pretty. So browsing through the little towns all day was fun. Had a lovely broiled haddock (with cracker crumb and dill crust) lunch in Ogunquit - which IS fabulous - lots of little shops, well laid out, oozing charm and character. The day was fairly overcast and off and on rainy so I wasn't in a rush to head back for beach time. Around 3pm it really started rainy and it just so happened I came upon a cinema in Wells, ME so pulled in a had only a 15 minute wait til the new Indiana Jones movie was showing. So caught the show (not bad, not great) and then grabbed groceries and headed back to Old Orchard Beach. Not having figured out the cable/satellite thing at the house yet, we are sans tv except for video rentals. So it was a real treat to lounge around and have 100 channels at my disposal.

This morning I rose at 5:00am in order to see the sunrise (yes, it had already started by 5am). Had a quiet couple of hours drinking coffee on my balcony and watching the sunrise. It's breezy today - but clear skies and supposed to be a high of 75. I think I actually got a little sunburned on my face from a few hours sitting there from 5am-8am! So today will be a beach day and then tomorrow I will grab a few hours in the morning as well before heading back to Vermont.

Hope you all are having a relaxing holiday weekend! Would love to hear from you.
Love,

Marilee