Mom & Dad come to Maine!

We were on the road from Maine to Colorado as I started typing this, and now we are back in Colorado Springs. I have a couple blog posts yet to finish about our time in Maine. So here we go!

My parents visited Maine for a week in October. It sounds funny to say they "visited" because my mom lived in Lincolnville, Maine until she went to college and my parents have been coming to Maine multiple times each year longer than I've been alive. Nonetheless, my parents visited us in Maine.

After I picked them up in Portland, Maine we made a quick stop at LL Bean in Freeport, Maine to see if they had the exact item my mom has been on the search for. And we grabbed our touristy picture by the large boot outside before leaving.

For the week we stayed at our family cabin on the water, and the fall colors were at their peak. If you read my previous blog post then you read fall colors in New England weren't as brilliant as most years. There was still plenty of oohing and aahing over the bright spots of color we did see.



One evening we had my mom's first cousin and his wife come to camp for dinner and a visit. We get together with them whenever we can in Maine. It was so great to catch up with them. It's always a lively fun time having their company especially when we add in a card game. Darrell and Louise, I'm sorry I didn't get a picture with you to include in my blog post. :( What was I thinking?!

We had a family lobster dinner at camp with all of my aunts and uncles and my aunt's friend from Houston. It was fun to have the whole group together again and to have Harriet get to experience a Maine lobster boil coming from Houston. Everyone brought food to contribute so it was a feast of hors d'oeuvres, lobster and sides, and tasty dessert. My parents and I picked up the live lobsters from local lobstermen.

-Our selfie picture at the Lobster Pound- 

When we got back to the camp Dad and Caleb started building a roaring campfire. They kept a fire going to build up a good base of hot coals so the water would boil in the pan we put on the campfire. Years ago my uncle Steve started using this old black wash tub for cooking lobsters for our large family crowds. You can't really cook 6-20ish lobsters in a boiling pot of water on the stove. No kitchen pot is big enough for that. Here's a short 20 second video which shows the campfire set up (and my uncle Ben in the background about to throw a stick for Timber to jump in the water). Click on the lower right icon on the video to enlarge to full screen. 

My mom was wearing her shirt most appropriate for cooking the lobsters. It is a cartoon showing one lobster saying "Bob, how's the water? Bob?... BOB?.... BOB?!!?!"And yes Bob is in the pot. 

^^Before picture of getting dinner ready^^

^^After picture of dinner ready^^

We bought extra lobsters so we'd have leftover ones to pick the next day to make lobster rolls. Mom and I made fast work at cracking and picking the meat out so we'd have it ready for lunch.

Caleb and I say lobster rolls are even better than eating the fresh hot cooked lobster meat dipped in butter. Lobster meat is so tasty with a little bit of mayonnaise lightly mixed in and layered in a buttery-toasted bun. Yuuummmmmm. 

Caleb enjoying his homemade lobster rolls

Caleb was able to spend 4 days with my parents and then headed back to our place about 1.5 hours away to work. That evening mom and I got to work on steaming clams and shucking them. We were making clam chowder from scratch! I adapted my recipe from my previous efforts of making clam chowder. The original recipe was a little thinner than I liked. So this time around I made a roux out of flour and butter and the consistency came out thicker the way I wanted. We invited another aunt and uncle of mine for dinner to help us eat the clam chowder. It was great to spend a little more time with them because they live near Boston, Mass. We only saw them a couple times while we were in Maine when they came up for long weekends. 

Many of our afternoons were spent out for a canoe or kayak ride and then spent sitting around the campfire enjoying each others' company. And of course plenty of s'mores were consumed during the week with my parents. My Aunt Gretchen brought the best s'more toppings -crushed Butterfinger and shredded coconut. So good! She has revolutionized my s'more experience forever. I don't ever eat the hershey anyway, but by adding the butterfinger candy it was a perfect touch for me of chocolate and peanut butter flavor with the coconut.

The previous blog post shared pictures and videos from our canoeing and kayaking to check out the fall colors.

Our last hoorah in Maine was a lunch stop at Amato's on the way to the airport. This is a New England restaurant and was always a tradition for our family to eat on our summer trips in Maine. It is an Italian sandwich shop which started in Portland, Maine as a small sandwich cart. 

Mom and Dad, we loved our time in Maine with you! I'm thankful Maine is a place we enjoy together and have many memories made and many more memories to be made here in years to come. I love that you're a Maniac, Mom.