March 2018

TRAVEL
Bar Harbor at nightfall.
The
Maine
Event
by Martin Lenkowsky
confess, I was
never much
of a lobster
person. My
wife — and pretty
much her entire
family — enjoyed
feasting on this
marine crustacean
way before our
lives became
entwined. I never
could understand
the attraction for this particular choice of fruit de mer. It was
expensive, rather ugly, and took a bit of work to eat. Suffice it
to say, whenever Amy (my wife) was busy chowing down on a
lobster dish, I would be stuffing my face with wings and washing
them down with a pint or two of beer.
Then something changed dramatically. Amy and I took
a vacation in coastal Maine and Provincetown on Cape
Cod. Actually, our trip began in New York City where
we attended a family get-together. Afterward Amy and
I flew into Bangor, Maine, rented a car to sightsee and
eventually return to New York.
First stop: Bar Harbor, Maine. But first, let me digress a moment.
The helpful young clerk at the Budget car rental counter at
Bangor airport told us he lived a long time in Bar Harbor. Amy
I
asked if he could recommend some good lobster restaurants.
He said most of them are good, but we should look for places
with huge metal lobster kettles — chimney and all — cooking
outside. He described them as being the real deal.
He was right. We found a little lobster restaurant a short distance
from the motel. These tails were rather small, but incredibly
sweet and tasty; prepared with the eatery’s own special butter
sauce. (And yes, they had huge metal containers with steam
pouring out right in front of the establishment.) The tails were
served with the traditional corn-on-the-cob as a side dish, with
more of that hot, scrumptious butter. Of course, I washed down
my lobster with a local craft beer: Bar Harbor Real Ale, made by
the Atlantic Brewing Company.
Yes, this old dog learned a new trick after all; I finally
became a convert to the rank of lobster lover.
And for the duration of our travels through Maine and
Massachusetts, we sort of ate lobster for all meals except
breakfast. (I dreaded the arrival of our credit card statements.)
Bar Harbor is a fun little seaport city, located adjacent to Acadia
National Park. We took a guided bus tour of the park. Being
a bird watcher, I had hoped to see some breeding peregrine
falcons on the cliffs overlooking the always cold bay waters, but I
batted a zero. We continued our lobster quest, and I proceeded
to quench my thirst with another local beer: Thunder Hole Ale,
named after a natural rock inlet where a booming sound — like
distant thunder — is heard when waves crash into a beautiful
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MARCH 2018