After sleeping until nearly noon and enjoying a deliciously late start, Kris and I ventured out of the resort in daylight to see what this Maine place is like. Turns out, to my delight, there are a lot of lilacs in this area. I wasn't expecting to see lilacs since they're not still blooming in the Bay Area.
Our first task of the day was, "Find coffee." No, wait, that's not quite right, it was "Fine good coffee." Our journey took us a long the main street, where we stopped at light. On the four corners of this main street where a Burger King, a McDonalds, a church and an abandoned building. I thought it telling of how representative of American culture that street corner is.
We eventually found our way around the town, and, to Kris' delight, found a coffee shop right next to an easy parking space. Turn, zoom, screech, brake, flip, open, close, hustle, and Kris was right at the door of the coffee shop.
It was closed.
While part of me was a little annoyed, the other part of me appreciated that even coffeeshop owners can want a life, one that includes doing something else on weekends than wait for the not-quite-tourist-season trickle of tourists to come into the shop for a $3 cup of coffee. Of course, I'm not the one addicted to the caffeine of those cups of coffee, so it was easy for me to express appreciation.
So, off we wandered, back on the original plan of checking out the small town we're in. We passed a couple restaurants that seemed good, the menu had lots of tasty items on it. Kris made a note of them, then kept going.
Until we approached the Brass Compass. The place was PACKED!
Knowing that locals always know, Kris turned to me and said, "Here. Let's go here." "Because it's packed?" "Yes. The locals always know."
In we went.
As we stood near the door, waiting our turn to be seated, a small girl walked up, a look of concentration on her face. She knew exactly what she wanted, the yellow ones from the jar. I was amused by the recollection of the number of times that I, as a child, had done the same thing.
I was also a little impressed with the conversation that happened at the table next to us. There were three men seated at a large table. They had already ordered and were waiting for their meals to arrive. As we stood waiting, a waitress walked up to the table, and said, "Gentlemen, I have a favor to ask." Without hesitation, one of the men asked, "Would you like us to move, to give this table to a larger party?" No pause, no thinking it over, the three of them stood up to move.
Clearly, we weren't in a metro area.
We were seated quickly after that. Looking over the menu, one of the items was listed as Lucy's Triple Deckah. Not a Decker, a Deckah. Yeah, I pretty much had to order it, even if, well, it ended up to be TOO MUCH FOOD. It did, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless.
It reminded me of the interview I read about recently that went something like, "Why can't more people become vegetarian?" "Bacon." That pretty much sums it up. I'll be vegetarian for the rest of the day, but for this meal, mmmmmmm, bacon......
Oh, and Kris managed his coffee.
