The next morning the breakfast basked contained a warmed baguette, butter, jam, fruit salad and orange juice. This day was sunny and warm. (Yeah!) After all this nature and history, we thought we needed some retail therapy. We had heard that there was a large outlet plaza in Kittery, and so we set out south again. But first we stopped in town to take a look at this unusual house.
The Wedding Cake house
The wedding cake house was an ordinary house when the connected stables and carriage house burnt down in 1852. The owner had just been to Europe and was very impressed by Gothic architecture. The stables were rebuilt with so much detail added that the main house looked odd, and so the over-the-top trim was added to it as well.
In order to keep the travels interesting, the photographer found a different route...........on the map, that is. All went well until a badly signed detour had us utterly confused, and actually going in circles. In the end we changed the route and passed through York and by Fort McClary again. We stopped to take a picture of this traditional center chimney cottage, dating back to 1763.
Traditional colonial style cottage with center chimney
The beach at York
Once in Kittery we located the street where the outlets are. Parking was hard to find, but in one small lot we found a space and a Starbucks. We sat down with a coffee and used their wi-fi to figure out how big the shopping area actually was. It turned out to be pretty big and pretty busy, and crossing the street wasn’t the simplest task. The streets were filled with impatient drivers scouting for a parking spot, honking at nothing, and giving pedestrians a hard time.
After we finished our coffee, we managed to cross the street and wandered in to a huge outdoor sporting goods store. Unexpectedly, I managed to score a new pair of rugged winter boots. Not the kind you wear to work, but the kind you use to shovel the driveway or to go snow shoeing. (My current pair is cracked and leaks.) Upstairs in the same store is the hunting equipment department, with row upon row of guns and rifles of all kinds, including black powder muskets. None of the rifles are secured to the racks. Ammunition sits on the shelves completely accessible. In Canada all this would be under lock and key and behind a counter.
Once back outside we crossed the street again with the same level of difficulty. The plan was to put our purchase in the trunk of the car, and figure out where we should relocate the car to. And then it all went wrong. Next to us was a man waiting in a minivan for his wife, who was in one of the stores. While we were looking at a map of the area, (with all the windows of the car down) a boy of about 8 years old came to tell the man that mom needed another quarter (yes, $0.25) to pay for her purchase. The man subjected the kid to the third degree and made him go back into the store to ask questions more than once. All the while traffic honked around us. I was tempted to go out and give her the quarter myself.
Suddenly we looked at each other and said: do you want to stay here? We’d had totally enough of the atmosphere of the mall area, and chose to go look for a cute place to eat lunch in an area with less people and concrete, and a much calmer feel. We extracted our car from the parking lot, and were going to the town of Kittery itself, to what looked like a cute bakery and eatery, when it turned out they had a “factory store” with a restaurant on a large manicured lawn just beyond the area of the outlet stores.
At “When pigs Fly” they make a fantastic lamb, tapenade and goat cheese pizza with spinach and onions. Service was excellent, and the patio was very relaxing. We took our time with lunch. There was no danger of any serious walking being done later in the day, so we sampled a local wheat beer and a nice Shiraz. After lunch we nosed around in the factory store where they sell an impressive amount of different breads.
Pig do fly!
Having decided we were not that desparate to shop, we made our way back to Kennebunkport via yet another set of roads, and this time ended up going through Ogunquit again, which was even busier than the day before. We stopped at several places to take some pictures of the shore. Once back in Kennebunkport, earlier in the day than expected, we realised it was the first time we were in the town at high tide, and so we reshot some of the pictures we took before. It looks quite different with all the muddy inlets filled.
Blue water, blue sky, high tide.
What we saw from the cottage doorstep.
Pretty autumn afternoon light.
We went to One Dock for the final dinner of the trip. They had fresh oysters on the menu, and so we each had six. They were served with cocktail sauce and a green apple champagne granita, which was absolutely to die for. We had fish for the main course, and split a dessert sampler. The food was excellent. We were lucky that we had the good server, because the table next to us had a guy who was just an awful klutz.
We had already told the cottage people that we would leave before they delivered breakfast the next morning, and that is exactly what we did. We took the interstate back and stopped in Montpelier, Vermont for lunch at the Skinny Pancake at Marilyn's suggestion. Green living is very big in Vermont, and the restaurant proudly displays its 100 mile diet suppliers. No disposable knives and forks here. There are so many different pancakes on the menu, it is difficult to choose. I had a veggie monster with pesto sauce that was heavenly.
After lunch we took a stroll through the town. Montpelier is very unassuming considering it is a state capital. Old buildings line the streets, and then suddenly set back from the street is the State Legislature.
Vermont's legislature.
French influenced architecture in Montpelier
Town street, mountains in the background.
Reluctantly we went back on the road. We could have enjoyed spending time looking at the little shops, but there were many miles to go. We chose to drive through Swanton to the Canadian border this time, we had not seen it in many years, and the town seems to have been extensively spruced up. Storefronts were redone, and it all looked neat and tidy.
Main intersection in Swanton Vermont.
Near Rouses point we stopped to find out what the deal is with this fort we see from the road. It is overgrown, and it has sat like that for decades. It is nicknamed Fort Blunder. If you are curious, you can read here why.
Fort Montgomery (aka Blunder)
After experiencing no delays at the border we lost an hour in a stop and go detour for a closed on-ramp to the Champlain bridge. Two hours after that, we were back home.
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