East Coast Trip - Maine

 After many, many hours of planning, it was FINALLY time to take our East Coast Trip to see the leaves!  Would they be turned?  We had no idea but everything was booked and we were hoping there would be reds and golds and oranges and yellows - and there WAS!  It wasn't peak by any means and some of the people we talked to said the colors weren't as vibrant this year because of all the rain but to me, they were just perfect!

We drove to Denver the night before and stayed at the Keppys' house for a 5:30am drive the next morning to the airport - a big thank you to Jessi for taking us so we didn't have to pay for car parking!  And before we knew it, we were off!

Layover was in Chicago  - a couple of hours so plenty of time to eat some lunch and get ready for the next flight into Portland, Maine!  I was surprised how small the airport was - only 17 gates I believe - I LOVE the smaller airports!

Just had to have a picture of me by the moose at the airport!

After getting our luggage, we made our way to the car rental counter where there was quite the line - wow - they sure needed more help!  We finally got to the counter and since I had booked online, it was a breeze to do the paperwork and head out to our Chevy Malibu which would be our car for the duration of our trip!

I had booked a hotel about 20 minutes away south as there was a walk along the ocean that I wanted to do the next day so wanted to be 1/2 way close to that!  We stayed in the town of Saco in a nice place and the guy who checked us in gave us recommendations for dinner and breakfast the next morning!

Dinner was at Sea Salt Lobster - you can usually tell if a restaurant is going to be good by how busy it is!  And this place was busy!  There was no discussion on what we were having - being in Maine, I KNEW we were going to have lobster!

In lieu of getting a whole lobster and trying to figure out how to eat it (I haven't eaten but a couple in my entire life!) I had read a lot about lobster rolls and that's exactly what we ordered!  It's basically a large sub roll filled to overflowing with lobster bites and a sauce - and oh my gosh, it was fantastic!  Add to that a cup of clam chowder (the BEST we had on the trip!) and sweet potato fries and we were BOTH smiling!  It sure was an excellent meal!  And just in case you're wondering, whole lobsters served at a restaurant were going anywhere between $30 and $40 for a meal.  Lobster rolls were about the same everywhere - $32.   We stopped at a Walgreen's after we ate to pick up water bottles and some chocolate!  

Breakfast was more in the downtown area, at a locals spot - they even had crepes!!  And then we were back on the road for another 30 minutes or so till we arrived at a place called Marginal Way, located in Ogunquit (they have quite the names of some of their towns!).

The walk along a paved path up above the ocean was 1.25 miles long - the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day to walk!    On one side was the ocean and the other side was expensive inns and huge beautiful homes - WOW!

I was surprised to see surfers out there, knowing the Atlantic is a whole lot colder than the Pacific!

The Maine Coast is rugged - lots of rocky ledges!

Between the sun and something on my camera lens which I wasn't aware of till later, some of the pictures didn't come out great - oh well!

There are 39 benches along this walkway - and beautiful places to sit and just reflect!

The walkway sure had a lot of walkers on it - and almost every one of the people we saw while walking spoke hello or Good Morning!    I had hopes of carrying a coffee with me while we walked but we sure didn't see any coffee places!  

The walk was amazing and a great start to our trip!  Next up - Pemaquid Point!