ME Day 2 - Goos, Views, and Brews
Little Video:
The Goos: Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies. As far as I am concerned this is a must see weird little place. Something for everyone. 14 different jams, jellies, and chutneys (I guess chutney didn't have a good enough ring to it to make it into the store name) all available to sample. I tried a Blue Raspberry Conserve, a blackberry peach conserve, a rhubarb ginger chutney, and a cranberry peach chutney. The full selection can be found on their website, but I'd recommend any of the four I tried and because it's a hippy art store everything is all natural, healthy and local. They also had specialty coffee that was only $2 easily the cheapest I've found thus far.
Of course the main attraction though is all the crazy things in the woods:
A few of the building on the property are actually renovated historical sites, such as a jail and a saloon, and a couple such as the church and castle (oh yeah of course there's a castle) were completely constructed by the artist Peter Beerins.
It really needs to be seen to be believed, and in keeping with the whimsical nature of the place I somehow bumped into an older woman who grew up in the town just over from my hometown. I know I'm still in New England, but the odds of that had to be low.
The Views:
There's very little point in trying to explain the 420 foot high 360 degree view of Maine that you can get from the Penobscot Narrows Over Bridge and Observatory so here's a picture:
The tower also happened to be right next to Fort Knox, and $8 admission covered both. Unfortunately trying to find and steal gold is still frowned upon.
In the parking lot, one of my buddies from my college standup club called me to run some premises by me. I'm sure some comics get insecure about helping other comics because of the whole competition thing, but I love it and I honestly think I'm probably better at advising comedy than performing it. My ear's just a little sharper than my voice. If any comics read this and wanna run stuff by me, shoot me an email!
The Brews:
I'm talking both coffee and beer here, because I am a master wordsmith. The Coffee Hound in Bar Harbor was very good and friendly, but on the pricier side because Bar Harbor and they did not have free wifi which is very much a first world problem but an inconvenience for vagabond bloggers nonetheless. They did have a wide selection of specialty coffees though that seemed really tasty if you're willing to shill out the cash.
The West Market Square Artisan Coffeehouse in Bangor was much cozier and more reasonably priced, though I'd say the coffee was of pretty comparable taste. Great location though right in the center of Bangor so it was pretty easy to walk around and see other shops and restaurants.
I'd say honestly the best coffee actually came from Nervous Nellie's, and their cafe also had a pretty good looking selection of scones and pastries.
For beer, I was pretty disappointed by the Hazlenut Porter (two things I am a big fan of individually) from Seadog Brewing. Kinda of watery for a porter, and not very hazlenutty for a hazlenut.
Much better was the Strong Soulpatch Porter from Strong Brewing in Sedgwick, ME. I had it in the Nocturnem Draft Haus in Bangor, which was a great little bar with really funny, friendly servers and a pretty wide rotating draft selection of local beers. Tuesdays also featured $2 tacos which really sweeten the deal.
For dinner, my friend from Maine recommended Dysart's in Bangor. His description was "trucker food, but good trucker food and the portions are huge" He was not wrong. I ordered a mini meatloaf, and it was the size of any reasonable loaf of meat and came with two sides and a giant homemade roll all for $10.99. It also gave me a stupid amount of pleasure to be able to use the pun Bangor and Mash.
After that I retired to Wayne, Maine, to stay with a friend's parents. They absolutely spoiled me, and treated me to what they considered the best ice cream in Maine, Fielder's Choice. I haven't had enough Maine Ice Cream yet to know for sure if this is the best, but I can say the peanut butter cup ice cream had the largest chunks of peanut butter cup I have ever had in a peanut butter cup ice cream (say that one three times fast) which will surely figure prominently into my final ice cream ruling
Favorite Random Sightings: A street sign for Erratic Way; A sign outside a store that said Crabmeat ATMs. I think the goal was to imply they had both, but a boy can dream; A road worker with a big bushy beard that he died blue; "The Dirt Dude"; A sign outside a restaurant saying matter of factly, "Everybody Loves My Cooking"
Regional Observation: Much more free parking in Maine than New Hampshire or Mass.
Travel Tip: If you want to see Acadia National Forrest, skip the priciness of staying in Bar Harbor and stay at Deer Isle. It's just as pretty , and they have a bunch of hostels for poor schmucks like me.
Albums Listened To: Anthology: The Best of the Rascals; Anthology: The Best of the J. Geils Band; Anthology the Best of the Jackson Five (just ABC); Anti- Records 2012 Fall Sampler; Antipop by Primus; Apostrophe (') by Frank Zappa; The Aquabats vs. The Floating Eye of Death by the Aquabats!; Aqualung by Jethro Tull; Are a Drag by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (just Over the Rainbow); Are You Experienced? by the Jimi Hendrix Experience; The Argument by Fugazi; Art Brut vs. Satan by Art Brut (just DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes)
People's Favorite Jokes:
A bunch of guys put all the letters into a hat and drew one by one to decide the name of their new country. The first guy drew and said, "C, eh?", the next guy drew, and said, "N, eh?", and the third guy drew and said "D. eh?", and that's how we got Canada.
The monkey got drunk and climbed up the elephant's trunk. The elephant sneezed and fell to his knees and that was the end of the monk.
Hellen Keller clapping at a show
Why did the old man fall down the well? He couldn't see that well.
An old blind man is walking by a fishmarket. He takes in a deep breath through his nose, and says, "Hellooo, Ladies". (Much funnier in the heavy Maine accent I heard it in)
