Blue Hill Inn breakfast, ME

Brooklin Inn ME breakfast review
We had a breakfast of eggs, granola and pancakes in the Inn. The breakfast here tend to sound better than they taste. And, strangely enough, they burn lots of stuff. We are wondering if people in Maine like their food burned. At first, we thought maybe this was just how they cooked the bacon. I mean it is hard as a rock. When Lauren took a bite out of hers I thought something was breaking at her end of the table. And the first course bread was also so overcooked it was inedible. This was a trend.
Rakesh liked the plain pancakes on day one and two but said they weren’t very good on day three. Now, we ate at 9:30 the first two days and were the last people to eat and service was much more competent. On the last day, we were trying to get going so we ate at 8:30 and that was a chaotic mess. They forgot several things we ordered. They are very apologetic and helpful and quickly try to remedy what they’ve forgotten but Asha’s eggs had not salmon in them, Rakesh didn’t get his sausage, Lauren didn’t get her yogurt, we got apple instead of orange juice, etc.
We sampled a wide variety of breakfast items. I had granola and yogurt with maple cream the first morning. The granola had big flakes of coconut, other than that it was fine. The yogurt is unsweetened and the maple cream really adds to it. Chicken sausage, when it wasn’t burned, was good. On the last morning, they had spicy chorizo which was burned but seemed like it would have been good if it hadn’t been.
Each breakfast started with juice and/or tea, a bread serving an entrée and you can add toast and/or sausage. The breads we got included lemon poppy seed (which was burned), ginger scone (which was good and a little over cooked), honey muffin (which was burned and could have knocked someone out). Entrees that we tried included poached eggs (undercooked from my perspective), omelets (a bit undercooked as well), salmon with multiple things (really lox which I did not like but Marci said was okay), oatmeal which was a bit overcooked and needed more accompaniments (it came with banana) and granola. Overall, I think they either should extend their breakfast time so they can do a better job, get a new stove or cook whom or whatever is responsible for burning all the breads and meats and undercooking the eggs, and perhaps reduce the number of offerings so they could do things a bit better.
Having said that, they are very gracious and you almost don’t want to complain about the food. The dining rooms is nice and very peaceful when we are the only people in it but very chaotic and service is slow all the time so don’t expect to get in and out in a hurry. They were also accommodating in adapting dishes to the kids tastes.

Arborvine, Blue Hill, ME

Arborvine, Blue Hill, ME
After much debate, Marci and I decided on Arborvine for dinner. It is within walking distance of the inn and seemed to have an interesting menu. It’s an older home nestled in the trees. When you enter, the bar is on your left and there are several rooms for diners. Outside is a small garden where people can have a drink while they wait. We didn’t have a reservation and the hostess told us it would be about 15 minutes, so we looked at the wine list to pick out a bottle. It’s a diverse wine list with a selection of Italian, South American, French and California wines priced between $30-100.
We tried a Malbec but it was too heavy on the fruit and not very complex so we talked with the bar tender, explaining we’d like something a bit more earthy, medium bodied but with some fruit. She recommended a Sicilian wine which immediately made me happy because I love most southern Italian wines, Furat 2005. It was exactly as we’d asked for.
The menu includes about 7 appetizers and 7 entrees with a list of an additional 4 or 5 entrees on the back as specials for the night. It took us a long time to decide, but finally we selected a crab and mango salad, a leek and potato soup, a pappardelle pasta with clams and shrimp in a cream sauce and a halibut with lemon butter and polenta.
The crab and mango salad is served stacked with a hearty serving of peekytoe crab on the top. It needed salt, but once we added that it was excellent except for the cantaloupe which I hate and would have asked to not be included had I known. Marci’s soup, on the other hand, was pretty tasteless. We added salt to that but it didn’t perk it up much and that remained uneaten. My pasta was a large portion with lots of perfectly cooked shrimp and two clam shells and then some clams (I think) in the actual sauce. I don’t know clams well, so I wasn’t sure exactly what the little brown things were in the pasta. It tasted very good and flavorful but very rich.
Marci’s halibut was nicely cooked, moist and flaky. The small serving of saffron sauce surrounding the fish was tasty but there wasn’t enough, and I just didn’t think the halibut had enough flavor on its own. The polenta was a rather odd preparation. It was shaped like a triangle and seemed to have been fried or baked so the outside was crisp and the inside was very soft and airy but it almost seemed like an egg preparation rather than polenta.
We didn’t finish all of the entrees, but we did get through the halibut. Our waiter was very helpful but almost too ingratiating or something. The hostess was very helpful and everyone was very nice.

Blue Hill Inn, ME

Blue Hill Inn, Maine
The Blue Hill Inn is located just off Main st in Blue Hill on Union street. There is a large white main building and if the construction and doors are any indication of age, the place is quite old (18th century?) and a carriage house immediately next door (which is where we were housed—thank goodness). When we walked in, we were greeted by a relaxed proprietor but as we observed the few other residents coming in (they were all elderly) and the living spaces (they were all quiet with classical music playing) we were thinking that the kids were NOT going to fit in here. But the hostess made us immediately welcome and didn’t seem concerned about Brian and Rakesh’s rambunctiousness. These boys have a very difficult time keeping their hands off each other and are constantly wrestling, ramming into each other and practicing their hockey/lacrosse moves.
We were shown around the house. In the evening there are refreshments served in one of the common rooms (our first night they served crackers, fresh tomatoes, goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes and olives) and they have a wine list from which you can order (and pay for) a glass of wine. Tea and coffee and other non-alcoholic refreshments are available all day. The kids went over later and ordered spritzers. Breakfast is served in a large back dining room from 8-9:30. We indicated we wanted the latest seating possible which was good because by then all the elderly patrons were done eating and we didn’t have to worry about disturbing them.
They have wi-fi in the main building as well as a computer for guests to access. They have binders filled with area information and menus and books and puzzles and games. The carriage house was quite spacious. It was one large room with two pull out couches (which were already made into beds when we checked in) and one large queen or King bed. There is a full kitchen and a large bath as well as a back deck that is just for our use. On the deck is a big old tree which the kids immediately set about climbing. There is a tv and separate puzzles and games. The girls played monopoly, and today we got the puzzles out to do in the rain.
The inn is very accommodating to children. Last night, they started a fire and did smores with the kids. The kids really enjoyed it.

Blue Hill, ME

Blue Hill Maine
Blue Hill is a small town with a quaint downtown with all the usual amenities you would expect (not the tourist shops, however). There are art galleries, a few restaurants, bookshops and a couple of bakeries. We made it to The hearth which was located behind the Blue Hill bookstore. The baked goods were fresh and continually coming out of the oven as we drank our stash tea. They looked good, but we weren’t hungry. The bookstore is a mix of used and new books. The Hearth has a couple of tables in the back but not many.
You can walk the downtown in about 15 minutes if you don’t stop anywhere. But, you could also meander for an afternoon, having ice cream, checking out the chocolate shop and browsing for books or clothes. There is also a Laundromat where Marci needed to do laundry and we availed ourselves of the Laundromat on our second day because it was pouring down rain and the kids were building puzzles and wrestling and hanging out in the room.
Blue Hill seems to be right on the bay and rumor has it there is access to a stone beach but we haven’t made it there yet. Blue Hill is not filled with inns or bed and breakfasts, but there was a ton of traffic which made me think that it was more of a day destination than an overnight stop for most visitors. It’s only about 45 minutes from Acadia.

Cleonice Cafe, Ellsworth ME

Cleonice Café, Ellsworth ME
We started our visit in Ellsworth at the local toy/kitchen/crafty/t-shirt store on main street. The store was great just for looking at all the stuff. Ithink we could have hung out there for an hour or more but in one of those weird coincidences the Butlers were just around the corner and came to meet us so we only spent a brief time there. It was enough, however, to get a rock and roll puzzle, colored pencils for Rakesh and a postcard.
I asked the salesperson where we should eat, and she recommended Cleonice Café next door. Marci said that had also been recommended in her book. So, we waited patiently for about 15 minutes for a table (okay, Rakesh and Brian did not wait patiently). The restaurant is a long room with a bar as you enter and booths along the left wall and a few tables in the back. Wood is the dominant décor. Smartly, they sat our large party of 6 in the way back corner where we could wreck little havoc on the other diners.
The place is known for using local ingredients, having their own garden, and apparently started a fish coop for the locals (not really sure what that means . . .). We didn’t know this before we ate, however, so we didn’t order fish, which probably would have served us better than our orders. We were almost universally disappointed in the food we got. Rakesh got pasta with red sauce which he said was fine but it didn’t look remotely interesting. Brian got a hamburger which also looked pretty dry and neither of the boys finished their half. Lauren had the Caesar salad with chicken which she ate, but we didn’t ask her about it. Asha had the best dish, a salad with blue cheese, onion and hazelnuts. As usual, it was overdressed, but it was tasty and fresh. I ordered the flatbread with buffalo chicken and a blue cheese sauce. It was fine and the chicken was perfectly cooked, but it didn’t have much flavor. The flatbread was yummy and probably would have been good even on its own. Marci had a horrible beet and gorgonzola salad. The beets were way overcooked and she couldn’t even eat it.
Later we found out from the Blue Hill Wine shop that this is also the place they would recommend. So, we are wondering if we didn’t order the right things or if dinner is better?

Driving to the USA from St John New Brunswick

Driving to the USA
We headed out from Saint John after finishing laundry. I had looked up a Laundromat on google, and it had said it was 1.6km, so I headed out at 7:15 to walk to the Laundromat, thinking I’d put it in the washer, walk back and get the car and move it to the dryer. But, it ended up being 2 miles, so it took me much longer than I thought (this happens pretty regularly for me but I haven’t seemed to learn a lesson). But, we did manage to get the laundry done.
We paid our toll for the third time because of getting lost one the way here and hoped we wouldn’t screw up this time because it was literally our last canadaian .50. I’m not sure what happens if you go to a toll and don’t have the money but I didn’t really want to find out. After leaving Saint John, the westward drive toward the border is through rolling hills of forests with occasional glimpses of water. It was sunny but with lots of clouds. The drive to the border was about 75 minutes. We made a slight detour trying to find a restroom and a place for Kesh to change out of his new pants which apparently are very uncomfortable when sitting in the car. Kesh says they “too tight” but this is so unlikely that I was wondering how they were bothering him.
Unfortunately, however, the road signs do not indicate how far off the path one has to go to find the stops that are indicated on the road signs. In the past, visitor centers have been a good place to use the restroom. So when we saw an exit with a visitor center sign, we pulled off only to discover the visitor center was 8 miles back the way we’d come. We did find a national park, however, and stopped there using their outhouses. The National Park has no services, no visitor center, just a view over the river and some interpretive signs.
When we reached the border, we stopped at the chocolate shop on the main street to the border crossing. It’s called something like Gagogne or something like that and I’d read about it. But the people inside weren’t friendly at all and the samples were gross. Kesh tried a mint they had out and whispered to all of us that it was hard as a rock and threw his away. The chocolate I tried was yucky with some strange taste in the caramel. So we left without purchasing anything.
The border line was pretty long but went quickly, and it probably only took us 15 minutes to get through. It goes right through the downtown though so it’s kind of a mess. You’ve got local traffic trying to get places, people trying to park or get out of street parking and all this border traffic coming through.
We were very glad to be back in the USA and the crossing was uneventful. Maine from the border to Ellsworth is almost entirely rural and it’s mostly backroads to Blue Hill. It’s beautiful driving through these areas though, with rolling hills, forests and expansive views.

Asha's shopping

Today in Saint John we had a "lazy day". We had to take the car in to get an oil change at the Walmart (Rakesh's favorite store.) We hung around for awhile there, but once we found out it was going to take longer than expected, since we had to get all new tires, we decided to go have lunch. We had lunch at the same place we had dinner the night before, we ended up eating there three times! After lunch, we walked back to get the car and then over to a little shopping area across from our Hampton. There were only about 5 stores, but I hit the jackpot! There was a store called Urban Planet, and we went in there to look around, I found a bunch of really cute shirts and leggings there! Even mom got some stuff. Kesh was disappointed because he couldn't find anything. After shopping, we went to a book store and then Starbucks. We went back to the hotel and I took Rakesh to the pool. We spent about an hour there, then came back for dinner. On the way to dinner, we stopped at Urban Planet, again, I got another shirt and Rakesh ended up getting a pair of jeans! It was a very good shopping trip! Pictures will follow!