Kayaking and Pizza, Kennebunkport Maine and Lobstah!

Kayaking on the Thames River

USS Nautilus

We have been toying with the idea of buying kayaks and thought it would be a good idea to investigate a little more before making a decision. So we made a day trip to New London and the Thames River. We found a rental location just across the river from Naval Submarine base where the Nautilus is berthed. For those who don’t remember, USS Nautilus (SSN-571) is the world’s first operational nuclear powered submarine. She was the first vessel to complete a submerged transit to the North Pole on 3 August 1958. She is now a memorial and museum.

Started our voyage in a tandem kayak, after getting some directions from the marina operator. Her main point to us was to stay on our side of the river and away from the guys with the 30 caliber machine guns. We were convinced. We rented for a two hour period, so we set a timer for one hour. The thought was to turn around when the timer went off, and head back.
The River was calm and there was no wind. We are not an efficient rowing pair and we tangled paddles several times, but we made progress upstream. The scenery was pleasant as we passed along an heavily wooded island with a rocky shoreline. When the alarm rang, we turned and to start back downstream and decided to attempt to pass down the opposite side of the island. We found that it was not possible and headed upstream again to gain the upstream end of the island.

USS New Mexico

USS New Mexico

We were jolted by horns emanating from the far side of the island, and after a short discussion about what they meant, we cleared the tip of the island to see a submarine being pushed by two tug. We later found the sub to be the USS New Mexico returning to the shipyard from a 6 month deployment.  After a pause for pictures, we proceeded to the marina. Our conclusion on kayaks? We need to investigate more. We may try individual kayaks next outing. http://www.ussnewmexico.net/     

We ended the day by returning to Mystic and Mystic Pizza. We would give the food 4.5 out of 5 stars. They have a truly unique  pizza sauce. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystic_Pizza









KENNEBUNKPORT, MAINE

One of the things I set as a goal coming to the Northeast was to experience as much lobster in as many ways as I could in three months.  We could not have picked a better year to be here, as there is an abundance of lobster off the coast of Maine due to warmer waters and oversexed lobsters (that was a news headline....not my observations). 

Signs like this are all
over the town

We wanted to see some part of Maine within a day drive, so we opted to visit Kennebunkport.  Yep,  the same Kennebunkport where the President Bush's have a complex.  It is a small little town, full of boutique shops and restaurants.  It's also a 'seasonal' town that pretty much shuts down starting December 1st until late spring.

Lobster bisque

We opted to do a food walking tour of the town, hoping to experience the local flavors of the area.  We were not disappointed!  Started out visiting a general store for a sample of local preserves and mustard's.  Then moved to Gran's Chowder House where we had a choice of sampling of lobster bisque, lobster corn chowder, haddock chowder or a shrimp bisque. 
Lobster bisque was wonderful and she offered us seconds! 



Third stop was the famous Clam Shack where we had a lesson on lobsters, how they shed their shells, how to tell boy from girl, and then a tasting of their meat from different parts of the

Lobster meat from knuckle, claw
and tail

lobster.  One bit of trivia we learned, was that back in the 1700 and 1800's, lobsters were so prevalent, they were not considered the delicacy they are today. They were fed to prisoners and used as feed for livestock.





We then headed to Federal Jack's, a brew-pub where we tasted three of their crafted ales and a peekey crab sandwich. Peekey crab is very different from Dungeness.  Next we moved to a Dry Goods store where we were offered homemade fudge and a sample of Kennebunkport Brewing company's ginger beer and root beer.  From here we walked across the street to Mornings in Paris, a coffee shop famous for their homemade pastries.  We were given a sample of their wonderful coffee cake. 

Red Velvet Whoopie Pie

Starting to feel a bit full, we waddled a little further down the street to H.B. Provision that has a motto "if you can't find it here, you don't need it".  Here we got to taste what the state of Maine tried to call their invention, but was trumped by Pennsylvania, for the Whoppie Pie. Pennsylvania would not let Maine name the Whoopie Pie as their State Dessert, so Maine opted for State Treat!  The Whoopie pie we tasted here was red velvet.

Now we are really walking slower, to our eighth and last stop, Rococo's Ice Cream shop.  Owned by a young woman who has some truly creative ideas for flavors of ice cream, like Olive oil, rosemary infused carmel & toasted Pepita's, strawberry basil and curry carrot. www.rococoicecream.com   



After all that wonderful and rich food, there was only one thing to do to help digest everything before

Goose Rocks beach

 the 2 1/2 hour drive back home.  We headed to the beach.  Found Goose Rock Beach and a parking spot on the street (where we found we should have had a permit to park...ooops!).  We grabbed our chairs and headed to the sand and water where we plopped ourselves down and almost immediately fell into a food induced coma.







Searching for shells

We figured this might be the last time we see the Atlantic Ocean, so we just kicked back and enjoyed the slight breeze, sunshine and people watching.