Ogunquit, Maine November 17, 2007

Me and the Great Pumpkin

Rena at the Rockmere Lodge

Hi everyone. This is my first blog.
Hope you enjoy it!
Daktari

Ogunquit is the southernmost resort area on the Maine Coast with a significant sand beach. It's just 37 miles from our Amesbury, Massachusetts home but still qualifies as a target for a getaway weekend.


In the second week of August, Ogunquit is known to locals like us as "the Canadian Riviera". In sunny weather, bare chested French Canadian males stalk the shore in black speedos while their wives and girlfriends herd shoals of shivering 'enfants' into the waves. The water is very shallow, relatively warm and the sand is so soft it squeeks! Ici parlez Francais!


But in the second week of November, Rena and I are just thankful that the sun is shining and it's not snowing. It's only 40 degrees F. and the surf sparkles under a sky of crystal blue. Our destination is the Rockmere Lodge - a gambrel Victorian home converted to a delightful and quirky bed and breakfast by our hosts Doug and Andy. The place is chock-a-block with bric-a-brac. Even Queen Victoria would be amused!


Our room is the 'Anne Marie' decorated in yellow, green and salmon wallpaper with creamy French provincial furniture. Opening the door for the first time I exclaim, "Wow this is so ....." And I halt, at a loss for words.
"Over the top?" supplies Rena.
"That too!" I reply. " But you really gotta love a getaway retreat where even the wallpaper is busier than you are."


The Rockmere is situated on a beautiful walkway called the Marginal Way that hugs the rockbound coast for about 2 miles. Before dinner we stroll along it, taking in the sights and smells. Very bracing. We dine nearby at the Five-o Restaurant and then check out the Marginal Way by moonlight until our noses and toes are frozes. There's no fireplace or hot tub in the 'Anne Marie' but the room is as quiet as the wallpaper is loud, so we sleep exceptionally soundly.


The next morning, the sea air gives us an appetite and Andy and Doug give us fresh fruit, vanilla pancakes with cranberry marmalade and homemade blueberry muffin-ettes with unsalted local butter. Yummy!


A gentle post-prandial stroll takes us to downtown. Downtown Ogunquit is small and features friendly natives, scattered off-season tourists and a leftover display of very large Halloween pumpkins. I sit down with the largest - the so called Great Pumpkin - and wish for world peace and a hot cup of coffee. I settle for the coffee.


We also take in Kennebunkport - home of George I, the father of our current Bush. We fear at any moment we may be surrounded by Republicans and run out of town. (Rena's car sports a prominent Obama for President bumper sticker.) Our excuse is that the shops in Kennebunkport have more stuff. Also a Great Pumpkin prayer is maybe a little more efficacious if you say it in a seat of Presidential power like Kennebunkport. We drink some more hot coffee.


Ogunquit, small as it is, boasts one of the truly outstanding restaurants in the U.S.A. Arrows Restaurant on Berwick Road may just have the best food I've ever eaten. We meet our friends Bob and Vicki from Augusta at Arrows for the six o'clock seating. Rena has a main course that features halibut prepared three different ways - including a tomato lasagna. And I eat partridge for the first time - stewed in apples and fresh prunes and served with a spiced cranberry puree. If you've never had partridge, it tastes a lot like ostrich only smaller. Also, the 23 layer Napoleon crepe dessert is to die for!


Night life does not exist in Ogunquit in the winter. End paragraph.


Sunday morning we awaken to another bright blue, sunny day with the thermometer at 32F. The fountain in front of the Rockmere has sprayed the area with ice crystals. Our breakfast features Doug's special cheese omelet, fresh fruit with yogurt and pumpkin muffin-ettes.


After breakfast we skip the Marginal Way and proceed directly to the beach. We cover about 2 1/2 miles of the Canadian Riviera at a brisk pace. I do not wear a speedo. I wonder if George Bush, the elder, ever wears a speedo. I wonder what Barbara Bush wears to the beach. Why do I not like this picture?


We drive home by way of Mt. Agamenticus. This is the only real mountain in Southern Maine and was a holy place for the local Abenaki indians - who were known as the Pennacooks.
I believe the Pennacooks are now extinct. Needless to say, we didn't do any hiking. Not in Maine in November where the same people who extinguished the Pennacooks are still out in the woods trying to do the same thing for Bambi.


Happy Thanksgiving!



Daktari