Remember last month when Andy and I went up to Portland to see the Avett Brothers and stayed overnight sans kids? Well, a getaway that was 7 years in the making just got followed up by another one this past week! Yes, it's true, we once again headed north, but this time to Ogunquit.
Steph is still at sleepaway camp (she comes home on Sunday). I dropped Pete and Julie at day camp on Wednesday morning, and then my in-laws picked them up at the end of the day, took them out to the Biltmore (lucky kids!) and JP Licks (really lucky!), brought them back to their house to sleep, and dropped them off at camp again on Thursday morning. We were back in time to pick them up after camp, so it all worked out great!
We arrived in Ogunquit just as the heat wave was rolling in. First we got surprisingly good lobster rolls at the Village Food Market. Then we headed over to the Juniper Hill Inn even though it was too early to check in. They let us change into our swimsuits there, and we grabbed our gear and made our way down the path behind the inn that leads to the beach. It was just a 10-minute walk, and mostly in the shade. That was a real plus, because then we didn't have to pay to park in the beach lot (assuming we could get even get a spot!).
We got to the beach around 1:30, and it was nearly high tide, so we found a spot way up top. It was beautiful, as always, and we just lounged and read and looked at people's tattoos for about 3 hours. Then back up to the inn, and we got to our room. It is a large motel, and our room was modern and spotless—and cool! The inn has indoor and outdoor pools that we didn't even use, but there were lots of families taking advantage of them.
We showered and changed and drove down to the Cliff House, which is a gorgeous old hotel right on the water between Ogunquit and York. From everything I've heard, the accommodations are nothing great there, and it's quite pricey, so we didn't choose to stay there even though the view is nothing short of spectacular. We were surprised that there was just one small terrace bar with only a few people there. We had a drink overlooking the ocean and crashing waves—lovely.
Then we drove into Perkins Cove for our dinner at MC Perkins Cove. The dining room overlooks the water; every seat has a lovely view. The food was great too! We split a calamari appetizer, which was fine although nothing special. Then we split a really good Caesar salad. Andy got the sesame-crusted rainbow trout and I got the plank-roasted Arctic char. (Last year I edited a cookbook all about planking, so it was fun to finally taste it!) We both ate every morsel. Then Andy got a dessert of coconut tres leches. The same duo that owns MC Perkins also owns the famed Arrows, which is frequently named as one of the best restaurants in the country. That menu is all prix fixe and extremely fancy-shmancy, and we were too intimidated to go. Anyhow, we were very happy with our meal at MC.
I slept really well that night (nyah-nyah, Mr. Insomnia, you couldn't find me in Maine!), and the next morning we got a quick complimentary breakfast at the inn (they have a breakfast room with muffins, bagels, fruit, cereal, and so on). Then we checked out and walked back down to the beach. It was already really hot, so we stayed only about an hour. This time it was low tide, so we went all the way down by the (frigid) water. And instead of walking back, we hopped on the Ogunquit trolley with our chairs and umbrella and beach bag. We changed back into our clothes and then went looking for fried clams for lunch.
We ended up at York's Best Seafood and decided to split the seafood combo platter, which was fried clams, scallops, haddock, Maine shrimp, onion rings, and fries. We finished off the whole thing. It was definitely one of the best clam shacks we've ever been to.
Then back home, to find that our air conditioning was broken again (we'd just had it fixed on Monday!). I am now sweating here in my office waiting for the repairman to come back. Last night was unbearably hot and today is supposed to get up to 100° too. Yuck.
No walk along the Marginal Way? Maine is my favorite place in the whole world. I especially love going farther up the coast to Bar Harbor, but Ogunquit is so much closer for a quick fix! Will have to check out your recommendations next time for sure.
Posted by: Elena | July 22, 2011 at 10:43 AM
I chuckled at your comment about looking at tatoos - we have gawked at people's tatoos all summer long, whether at the beach or floating the river!
I should not have commented on twitter this morning about your AC being out - the AC in my car went out due to a collision with a bird and ensuing investigation by our dog shortly after my reply!
Posted by: Kelly W | July 22, 2011 at 03:19 PM