Vacation in Maine: First Real Day

Saturday, June 24th - my notes read as follows:

Up at 9 a.m.
Tony's Donuts, Old Portland
Merchant Marine ship "State of Maine"
Amato's for lunch - 1st time!
Back at 11:30, woke up girls
Out again at 12:30 to run errands & get lunch for the girls
Maine Mall
Chris got haircut
Picked girls up from mall, went to Scarborough Beach
Girls played in ocean, Chris did metal-detecting on the beach
Party for Kevin @ Elks Lodge, 7 p.m.
Stopped at Rapid Ray's for late night food

Whenever we visit Maine there are several "must do" items: get donuts from Tony's in Portland and eat Italians (subs) at Amato's, home of the Real Italian. The donuts have been family favorites for ages - the plain cake donuts are best eaten with raspberry preserves (Chris' favorite) or molasses. My favorites are the cinnamon sugar cake donuts - mmmm. As for Amato's - well, the sub shops in Cincinnati aren't even close to making Italians the way they do at Amato's. I get mine "no pickles, no olives" and Chris gets his "no olives." The girls don't care for subs, but they proclaimed the cheesy Pazza bread to be heavenly. We ate at Amato's 5 time while we were in Maine and will be dreaming of Italians until the next time we visit.

The trip to Maine Mall was needed to buy a gag gift for the surprise birthday party we were attending that evening - we hunted down a Spencer's Gifts and found just the right items to insult someone who's hitting the big 5-0. (Spencer's is always good for that, aren't they? I've never bought anything else there.) A comment to the management of Maine Mall: Either a) turn ON the air-conditioning in the summer, even if it's not that hot outside - it's still MUGGY; or b) if you don't have air-conditioning, invest in it. We visitors from the other 49 states in the union are accustomed to a/c in malls! (And in our homes, for that matter.) Sheesh. I got so warm in the mall we had to leave before I passed out. It's a very nice mall, don't get me wrong - it just needs a little ventilation.

After the girls got their feet wet, then their ankles, then their knees, they decided to go for it. The water is still icy cold but they gradually went all the way in and played in the waves like little kids! You should have heard all the screeching and laughing as they enjoyed the (ice cold) water.

The surprise party was fun and we got to visit with many of Kevin's family and friends. Lots of goods snacks and a live band - the girls actually had some fun dancing and thought the elk head mounted on the wall was cool. It was probably against all rules to touch it (!) but oh well, we couldn't stop them from admiring it! And I had to encourage them by taking pictures of course. Bad mom. Now we probably won't be invited back.

The evening ended at a legendary hamburger place called Rapid Ray's, in downtown Saco. It's evidently been around forever and it's the kind of place you go after a rough night of drinking. Not that we had been. Chris just has fond memories of the place from the old days.

And so ended Day 2 of the Great Vacation to Maine.