Some folks endure life with certainty and aim, their upheavals mere blips all through the grand scheme of factors. Others dwell their lives looking for the an similar certainty, solely to understand that they’ve been ants scurrying on a sidewalk all this time, mere fodder for an infinite outdated foot that has descended down upon them from out of nowhere. I merely at the moment acquired proper right here to return all through this massive outdated foot myself, and as tempting because of it’s been to wallow all through the “why?”, I uncover it much more helpful to seek out out a method into the “how?”
A part of the “how?” A go to to America that I can’t afford! On the very least, I am going to gorge myself on fattening American meals, revel all through {the summertime} bounty of Western tomatoes and corn, and ferment on worldwide couches whereas watching heretofore-unheard-of actuality TV reveals. There was furthermore the lure of the Pine Tree State — I’m speaking about Maine, in any case — land of L.L. Bean, considerable lobster, and improbably chilly lake water all through the prime of summer season season season.
Steady Maine summer-er Gen invited mates Trude, Felice and me to an impeccably deliberate tour of what she often called the “three sides of Maine”: the “massive metropolis”, aka twee, charming Portland (what chances are you’ll get if Wes Anderson and a seagull had a child); the islands additional north alongside the coast near Acadia Nationwide Park; and the deep Northern woods near New Hampshire and Canada. After this, we would know Maine together with anybody can perhaps depend upon to, after solely per week there.
However first, Portland. As touristy as a result of it is, it furthermore harbors (get that?) an unbelievable consuming scene, filled with earnest waiters in suspenders and tasteful lighting with wood-burning ovens. After a lobster tour the place we snacked on an “afternoon tea” of $10 lobsters, we cherished elaborate cocktails al fresco before heading to Fore Road for dinner, when a sport of “fuck, marry, kill” over rice, pasta or bread grew to show into unexpectedly heated. The subsequent morning, we broke our fasts at a spot the place everybody in Portland, be they vacationer or native, inevitably finally ends up: Becky’s, residence of the lobster benedict and mammoth blueberry pancakes.
Subsequent cease, additional north alongside the coast, we cherished nevertheless further lobster close to Bar Harbour at Archie’s, the place my monetary establishment card was declined:
Masses is fabricated from Maine lobster, nonetheless it’s in exact fact not hyperbole. Not like Canada’s try to claim maple syrup and Singapore’s try to claim all fried noodles ever made, Maine really is awash in lobsters at summertime, when the water stays chilly (take into consideration me) and the rocky seabed and kelp defend the crustaceans well-fed and hidden from would-be predators. Even elevated, summertime is when these guys shed their frequent carapaces for his or her model of “white summertime capris”, by which I point out bigger and softer shells, making them simpler to crack to study from the sweetness inside. We ate them with drawn butter, nonetheless the Thai seafood sauce I had launched with me (Dek Somboon model) was too candy for my tastes.
That evening time time, as a replacement of getting pleasing with our rented cabin’s fire-pit for which I risked my life by darting all by a freeway for $5 firewood, we watched “Fifty Shades Darker”, a film that moved Trude to tears due to she “couldn’t take into consideration anybody would watch this unironically.” Evidently, we didn’t do justice to Acadia Nationwide Park.
On to the subsequent cabin, this time in Rangeley, set subsequent to a glowing, clear lake carved out by a glacier tens of tons of of hundreds of years before now. We didn’t have wifi or tv. How did I survive, you ask? Correctly, I napped, loud evening time respiration my afternoons away whereas the others went paddle-boarding, fishing (I wasted $25 on getting a fishing license), and shriek-swimming, a novel technique of navigating the icy waters and slippery rocks of Rangeley Lake.
We roasted lamb shanks and sausages, downed further ridiculously candy corn, drank whisky like pirates and even made som tum out of a semi-green papaya obtained at Full Meals. We cooked residence fries and extra pancakes for breakfast, dotted with an ample current of the wild Maine blueberries which develop naturally all through the mountains and are far sweeter than the blueberries present in Thai markets.
Ultimately, did I neglect that I had been squashed by an nameless massive foot from on excessive? No, in any case not. However I did benefit from some little little little bit of what should have served as ant heaven, a minimal of before returning as shortly as further to actuality as soon as extra in Bangkok.
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