The second best meal of his life

After leaving Portland, we drove up to Rockland to spend the night. We actually stayed at a little place about 20 minutes outside of Rockland, called Spruce Head. It was out on a kind of peninsula in the middle of nowhere. Derek didn't believe I put in the right address because were just so far out of civilization. Little did we know, that was pretty much Maine all together. For the rest of the vacation we were pretty far from civilization. We found quite a few WalMarts though!

Anyway, we stayed at a bed and breakfast type place called Craignair Inn. We had a hard time finding dog friendly places and this one fit the bill and was not 400 dollars a night. It was nothing fancy, though the view was amazing, and the area was cute. Our room was tiny, but the bed was comfortable. We opted for the shared bathroom, which was two feet down the hall, and never ran into another person or had any issue using the bathroom at all. Of course, we didn't shower there, because something about that is weird to me, but even if we had I don't there would have been a problem and it saved us a good chuck of change.

I'm not usually a B & B type of girl. The intimacy of the whole thing kind of weirds me out, but we had a pretty nice experience here. We tried to drug the dog up on benadryl so he would go to sleep and not bark when he left for dinner, but we had no luck. I talked to the owner about it and she actually arranged for her son's 9 year old friend (and his grandmother) to dog sit for a few hours. That is something you wouldn't find at a Holiday Inn. Of course, at a Holiday Inn you can get away with leaving the dog in the room. Still, it was nice, and saved our whole night.

The whole point of being in Rockland was to eat at a restaurant called Primo. Our BFF Mr. Bourdain was there on his trip to Maine (we tend to copy pretty much everything he does...send me to China, I'll eat a snakes heart just because Tony did it). The chef there was actually really successful and then just decided she was tired of city life and moved to Maine. They do have other locations, but I think this one was the best. Its a restaurant that tries to make everything local and fresh, growing their own veggies, and getting their proteins from local sources. Then menu is totally seasonal and changes everyday.

The best part about it, in my opinion, was the fact that it was in this old Victorian style house. It was small and cozy but it was still really nice inside. Upstairs they have a cool bar area that is dark and almost seems like a separate part of the restaurant. We sat in an area with super comfy bench seating around the walls. It all felt very intimate without being all up in everyone else's table small. Plus, it didn't feel like the type of place you had to get super dressed up for, despite the price tag.

Derek ordered foie gras and we shared a salad appetizer. He had duck for dinner with this amazing cornbread with bacon in it and I had what seemed like an entire chicken, made something like chicken parmesan but without any of the same ingredients. For dessert he had a cheese plate (because he is sooooo French) and I had the most amazing, delicious, rich chocolate hazelnut ball thing. Since I have a rather massive sweet tooth, I tend to judge restaurants by their desserts, especially super expensive restaurants, and this one got an A plus plus. Derek said it was the second best meal of his life and he probably could have just eaten the foie gras and died happy.

Did anyone even care this much about dinner? Probably not, but I'm documenting here people. Its important to remember foie gras and chocolate hazelnut balls for posterity.

Pictures my slightly inebriated husband took of the restaurant

They grow the food literally steps from the restaurant

Our hotel

Dark but part of the view around sunset

I can't remember the last time I saw so many stars. Derek is a total astrogeek and he could have spent all night out there, despite the mosquitos.  We tried to get some good pictures of the stars, but this is about all we got. The timer setting wasn't going to work for the exposure and we didn't have a remote, so everything came out a little blurry. But I don't think a picture would have captured how incredible it was anyway. Besides, my camera battery was dying, we had a whole day left in the trip, and we still hadn't found a replacement charger.

 

Cassiopeia

 

The blurry milky way

Dizzyyyyy

Our hotel and looking out at the Atlantic at sunrise. Derek got up super early to take these.