Day Trip to Bath

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The best part of a last minute get out of town getaway, is the itinerary is very loose. This allowed us to choose to sleep in this morning, instead of get up and set out for our normally jammed packed day. All three of us enjoyed an extra 90 minutes of sleep all the way until 8:30 am. No breakfast today, just some weak coffee from the pantry down the hall, only one cup as the machine stop working as it needed to be cleaned.

We got on the road to Bath around 10:45 a quick 45-minute drive on Interstate 295 then on to U.S. 1. Bath is most known for its ship building industry, Bath Iron Works makes most of the U.S. Navy destroyers. It is also home to the Maine Maritime Museum, which preserves the oldest shipyard in the country. Percy shipyard stopped building wooden schooners in 1924, the largest being the Wyoming.

Before we headed to the museum, we had lunch at J.R. Maxwell & Co. It was in the heart of main street and about a block from city hall which houses a bell made by Paul Revere in 1805 (still in working order). The restaurant was nothing special but good old fashion small city food. There was a table of three older women having their annual lunch and a handful of other scattered tables. We got there 9 minutes before the opened for the day, but they were very pleasant about it. Jerry had a capicola and ham with white cheddar on sourdough and a side of local baked beans. I had what else, a lobster roll, this one was mayo based. It was good, but not the best or worst I have had.

After lunch Jerry got a quick picture of the City Hall. As we were walking back to the car, I noticed a small shop, what caught my eyes was the word Macaroon. I had to go in, the macaroons were locally made and they had not received the day’s shipment but did have one box left. When I first walked in the owner’s children were working the counter and very friendly. The eldest son asked if I was looking for anything in particular. I notice on the sign you had macaroons and I had to stop in. The owner, immediately not only corrected my pronunciation, but then in a very condescending way informed me that they were not the coconut version. I politely informed him that I knew the difference. He continued to talk down to me about them, then it was game on. Yes, I know the difference between the two types, I have taken classes on how to make them in Paris (I should have mentioned that one class was in fact at Cordon Bleu), still with his arrogant little smirk on his face, I then said “and by the way the coconut version actually originated in St. Emillion” I still bought the last box of macaroon, Parisian they were not.

We were then off to the museum. If you are ever in Maine, this is really worth the day trip to visit. There is so much to see the ticket is good for 2 days and lasts for a week. We were the only ones there much of the visit, one other family did eventually show up. There are several original buildings still standing on the site of the original shipyard. The main museum has several exhibits including ones on shipping, ship wrecks and salvage and a lighthouse simulation. The outer buildings are the various different building used to build a wooden schooner. Perhaps the most interesting exhibit was the lobster building. The entire two-story building was dedicated to the lobster industry, including a video presentation on the lobster it self and another on the day in the life of a lobsterman.

We spent 3 hours at the museum, just at the upper level of our museum limit. There was a lot more to see, but we moved on. We then decided to drive to Wiscasset. This required us to drive past the Bath Iron Works factory, fortunately we just missed the shift change, otherwise we would have been in traffic for a while. Wiscasset is about 25 minutes north of Bath on U.S. 1, according to the city folk it is Maine’s prettiest village. It did have many nice houses but the church on the hill was for sale.

After that we headed back to Portland taking U.S. 1 instead of the interstate. The most interesting town we drove thought was Freeport the home of LL Bean. They must have a very strict building code because both the McDonalds and Starbucks were in structures that matched the architecture of the city and not strip malls or the traditional Golden Arches. The drive took about 45 minutes.

Currently, it is wine-thirty in the room, as we relax for dinner tonight.

Before I continue on to dinner, I think I have to take one of my aside’s and talk about travel in general during the time of Covid. We are a year out since the pandemic began and it is clear it is going to be a very long and slow end. The total lack of concern for other people in this country has never been more evident to me then during this world-wide health crisis. The sheer volume of people that simply will not wear a mask, or at least wear it correctly, is simply appalling. At least 40% of the people are not wearing masks at all, except when forced to inside and 40% don’t wear them correctly. Does not really help when it is under your nose or worse yet your chin. Social distancing is pretty much out the window as well. Most restaurants do a fairly decent job at distancing the tables, but the customers, most don’t put on their masks when they get up from the table until they have walked half way through the entire place. Last night was a perfect example. We were walking back to the hotel after dinner, there was a couple behind us with no masks on, or being held in their hands. They passed us by, at least at an appropriate distance from us, but then they enter the same hotel we were staying on, still no masks on. I was not going to even go in the lobby until they were out of side, but Jerry walked in and stood as far away as possible. Only then did the man put on his mask, the woman did not put her mask on until she stepped into the elevator. What took the cake, was the man then turned to us and motioned us to get in the elevator, “No thank you we will wait” I firmly replied. I am not going to get in a 4x4 space with people that do not, has my grandmother always said, “don’t have the sense god gave a goose.” My point here is, people are still dying, and contracting this virus every day, people have to suck it up and mask up, it is just life for the near and realistically probably distant future.

With that bit of venting now behind me, let me turn to the night’s dinner. We dined at Fore Street, yes, we were here the last time in Portland, but it is one of the top restaurants in the city and worth a trip every time we are in Portland. The menu changes frequently and is entirely sourced from local Maine farms. The restaurant was very busy and we were very lucky to even have scored a reservation so last minute. Unfortunately, we were in the back dinning room so did not have a view of the open kitchen. The restaurant is known for the wood oven sides and the grilled meats, including a half chicken. The meal was memorable enough for me to return to a classic way of blogging about our meals.

We started with our traditional glasses of prosecco, the champagne was a bit pricy, while we surveyed the menu. They had one off menu started, beef carpaccio, it took us no time at all to determine that is what we would start with. It was served with rustic sourdough bread from the bakery below (which we tried to get croissants from earlier that day before we left for Bath, but the line was really long.) While we enjoyed our starter, we continued our review of the menu and the wine list. After about 20 minutes of discussion and decision making, we finally made out choices.

First Course

I had the mushroom soup, what something so simple, but oh was it so good. The depth of flavor was incredible and it was perfect when you dipped some of the rustic sourdough in it. Jerry had wood oven grilled mushrooms, again, so simple but so very good, he saved some for his entrée.

The Entrée’s and Sides

I was torn between the roasted half chicken and the spit roasted pork loin. Both sounded really good and both needed some modification on the garnishment. I finally opted for the pork loin minus the fermented cabbage (otherwise known as Kim-Chee). Jerry went with the fire roasted hanger steak, perfect medium (normally would have ordered medium rare, their version of medium rare is really rare. And medium is a perfect medium rare.) My pork was moist and just really possibly the best pork I have had. I would however not call it a pork loin; it was really a thick cut pork chop. The jus on both were outstanding.

We ordered to sides; duck fat roasted new potatoes and wood oven grilled parsnips. Both were really good. The potatoes were not only roasted in duck fat (yes can you say heart attack) but served over caramelized onions. Everything was really good, and the best meal of the trip so far (a French bistro is on slate for our last night, so that could be tough competition). All of this was accompanied by a 21-year-old bottle of Chateau neuf-de-papa, one of my favorite French wine regions.

Dessert

We were stuffed, but when the server brought out the dessert menu there was one that could just not be resisted. A chocolate torte, with butter pecan ice cream and a mocha carmel sauce. It was a great end to a wonderful meal.

The dish of the day was very hard to choose, but Jerry’s Hanger steak is the winner.

The end of another good day in Portland Maine. A bit of a hodge podge tomorrow.

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Photos

Bath City Hall
Paul Revere Bell

Pit Roasted Hanger Steak
Dish of the Day

Dessert
Yeah we had a few bites before the picture