The "Maine" Event

Our road trip was a little random and mostly designed around the fact that we wanted to see some baseball games at new to us stadiums and, for some reason, I really wanted to eat lobsters in Maine! And that, my friends, was the impetus for this whole trip! Hahaha!!! So we drove from New Hampshire to Maine and hit another beach! I think I've mentioned that we picked one of the hottest weeks of the summer to travel.

 

We really enjoyed the Maine ocean too!

 

The next day we had planned to explore downtown Portland but it was too hot so we headed north to Freeport, and the home of LL Bean. We had so much fun exploring the flagship store and Dave and I bought backpacks for our next trip :) I also ended up with three new "boat and tote" bags. I LOVE those things and carry my lunch to work in one every day. I also got one to be a carry on for when we fly and a smaller one to be a purse.

Dave was excited to find backpacks for our trip. Sam was not thrilled that I forced him to take a picture with me! Hahaha!!!

There are many, many options for taking a tour on the water around Portland, but after going back and forth on a few options, I was thrilled to find a tour on a working lobster boat.

We got a tour, we got to learn about lobster fishing, and we got to participate!!! Above are Rachel and Dave filling the bait bags. Each trap gets a bait bag with four fish.

For this round, I had the job of tying the bait bag into the trap.

Rachel and I showing off our "working attire" and Rachel banding a lobster which was was in one of the traps.

Sam tying the bait bag into the trap. Not pictured: Dave picking crabs out of the trap and tossing them back into the ocean. His comment: "They are surprisingly grippy on the trap. It's difficult to loosen them and not get pinched."

Pushing the traps overboard.

A break to watch seals (left) and a seagull eat a crab (which Dave had removed from a trap and tossed into the ocean). Some seals were swimming near us and one of the regular crew commented that they had never seen a seal get so close to the boat.

A family of happy (temporary) lobster fishers!!!

Dave picking lobster for our dinner.

Portland, Maine from the water.

After we picked our lobster from the boat, we took it to a restaurant on the riverfront and they boiled it up for us. It was sooooo fun to "catch" our lobster and then eat it.

I don't have a lot of experience eating lobster so I was having a lot of fun trying to get all the meat. This was such a fun experience and absolutely exceeded my expectations for "eat lobster in Maine"!!! If you are ever in the Portland area, we highly recommend Lucky Catch for the full lobster experience. (This is not sponsored -- we just had the BEST time!!!)

And then we finished the evening off with some local ice cream. Yum yum!!!

When I think of our summer travels, this day stands out as an absolute highlight of our summer and I'm so thankful we were able to have this experience!

Linking up with Joanne for "Talking About It Tuesdays." Click on her name to visit her blog. If you're stopping by from there, thank you and welcome.