We started off Wednesday morning with some homeschooling in the hotel. The kids have largely been doing their school work during the car rides and they seemed the enjoy having a good chunk of time to lay on their beds to spread out and work. Eilidh declared the hotel room as “too noisy to concentrate” and found a more quiet place to work in the bathroom.
The first place Brian had on our itinerary for the day was Red Eats, a famous and well-loved seafood shack. Due to some construction, the kids and I arrived only a few minutes before the place opened. By that time, the line was already stretched from the order window, around the side of the shack, and down to the railroad tracks. Aware that Brian would deem our deviation from the itinerary to be a failure, the kids and I still opted to skip Reds and continue towards our next destination, hopefully finding something to eat on the way.
Several miles down the road we happened on a rural coffee and ice cream shop. I left Noah and Eilidh in the car to check things out. Emmie and I determined it to be a suitable stop and we enjoyed egg sandwiches, fruit smoothies, and some scones for “brunch.” On the road again, we found a quaint little farm stand at which to purchase some berries and maple seasonings.
The Kenneth Stoddard Shell Museum is a quaint home-grown little museum located within a covered bridge randomly situated adjacent to an ice cream shop and a mini-golf course. Kenneth Stoddard was a Navy veteran who began collecting seashells as a young man while on tour in the pacific. The hobby stuck, and over the years he amassed quite a collection of shells from around the world. As he neared the end of his life, his sons vowed they would turn his collection into a museum for others to learn from and enjoy.
Following an epic tantrum from Eilidh, because I would not buy her ice cream, we made our way to Laverna Preserve for what we thought would be a short hike to some “dramatic coastal rocky views” as described by Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, the hike was much longer, hotter, and buggier than anticipated and we turned back towards the car at the halfway point.
Pemaquid Lighthouse is situated at the end of Pemaquid Point above a bunch of rocks. The lighthouse and immediate grounds had a fair amount of visitors and thus immediately lost the interest of the McMillin children. They were, however, captivated by the idea of traipsing about the slabs of rocks jutting out into the ocean beneath the lighthouse and enjoyed themselves immensely while doing so.
On our way bath through the town of Wiscasset, we noticed the line at Red’s Eats was decidedly shorter than it had been previously that day. The kids waited at a distant picnic table while I waited in line to order a lobster roll and a few concoctions called “puff dogs.” After an hour of waiting, we had food. The kids all devoured their puff dogs. My $36 lobster roll was served cold and I found that I much prefer lobster warm. Noah helped me get most of the lobster eaten, though he reports that he prefers crab.
