Rockland

 

 

One thing we quickly learned about our cruise: at 65 and 67, respectively, my wife and I were among the younger people on board.  

There were a lot of scooters on board. You'd be amazed at how many scooters were on board the ship. I would estimate about four million scooters.  That is a conservative estimate. 

But I will say, everybody on board was, as we used to say, "chilled".  There was no hoopin' and holler. No overdrinking from what I could see. 

It was kind of hard for the cruise entertainment.  We older folks don't respond to the various commands from entertainers like STAND UP, CLAP YOUR HANDS.  Listen, we just sat down; we'll clap when we want. 

Our first stop was Rockland, Maine.

I have always wanted to go to Maine.  I remember looking at a map when I was in elementary school.  Georgia was way down here, and Maine was way up there.  Plus, there was a rumor that Maine had a lot of snow during the winter.  When I was a kid, I thought living in a place that had snow would be so cool.  Then I learned they went to school when it snowed. Bummer. 

I still wanted to go to Maine, even though I no longer wanted to live there. It just seemed neat to be able to tell people that you've been to Maine.

Rockland, Maine, is known as "the gateway to Penobscot Bay", "the lobster capital of the world", and "a town in Maine". It's a quaint little city that has a donut place called "Ruckus Donuts," which former Georgia Bulldog kicker Rex Robinson says has the best donuts in the world.  The place was closed when we went by at 11:00 in the morning because they had sold out of donuts.  That means something. 

The cruise ship could not dock in Rockland because of shallow waters, so we had to "tender" to shore.  According to Scoutboats.com, "A tender boat (or simply “tender”) is a compact support vessel that assists a larger “mother ship.” It performs tasks the main vessel cannot, such as navigating shallow waters, ferrying passengers, carrying supplies, or acting as a lifeboat in emergencies."

Getting on the tender was interesting, considering me and my wife were the most spry of the passengers.  It took a while, and there were no scooters on board. But it was clear that some of our senior passengers would make it to Maine no matter what.  I've never seen such grit and determination.  They were going to get their money's worth off this cruise.

 On shore, there were several buses to take us to our various excursions. Our bus was going to take us to Camden, Maine (Where Don McLean used to live-really) and to Mount Battie.

I'm pretty sure the bus driver was hired that morning, and our tour guide was hired from Dimwits 'R' Us.  I named her Dimwit Debbie.

She wasn't that bad, except she laughed at all of her jokes, even though they didn't sound like jokes. 

It is cold in Maine in winter:  Hahahahahahahahaha.

It is expensive to live here:  Hahahahahaha.

There's a farm over there with cows: Hahahahahaha.

She was a great audience for her humor, which was observational. 

We really didn't go to Camden, Maine.  We went through Camden, Maine.

I did not know this, but most of the exterior shots in the movie "Peyton Place" were shot in Camden. This would have been interesting if I (1) had seen the movie "Peyton Place" which came out in 1957, almost seventy years ago (2) or cared about the movie "Peyton Place."

Dimwit Debbie said Bette Davis appeared at the premiere of the movie in Rockland.  Why, I don't know. She wasn't in the movie.   

We soon went to the biggest deal in Camden.  Don Mclean's house.  Mount Battie. We were told we had 8 minutes to look at Mount Battie, which offered a view of Camden, Maine, and a nice little bay. It was okay, I guess.  

Back on the bus and soon we were back in Rockland. We spent the rest of our time in Rockland walking in its downtown before we did something we had never done before:  we had a lobster roll.

I was well into my adulthood- I mean, married, had a house, had a kid, and everything- before I heard that a lobster roll is MUST dining. For some reason, I never heard of or paid any attention to lobster rolls.

 Before the trip, people kept telling us that "we had to get a lobster roll".

Okay, there are two types of lobster rolls.

One is the Maine lobster roll, which is chilled with mayonnaise and is creamy and refreshing.  The second type is the Connecticut lobster roll, which is warm with melted butter. 

We stopped in a little downtown Rockland diner called "The Rockland Cafe" to get a lobster roll. I will say "The Rockland Cafe" was a good place to eat. 

The first thing you need to know about lobster rolls.  You are charged at the market rate.  In other words, you don't know what a lobster roll costs until you get the bill. The average cost of a lobster roll in Maine is around $33.00. 

My wife and I decided to share a lobster roll. Good call, financially speaking. It is an expensive little roll, but we got French fries and coleslaw with it. 

Our waitress was a nice lady who seemed like she had seen plenty of Maine winters.  She brought us our lobster roll.

I don't know what I expected.  It was good. I mean, it was too expensive to be a regular choice for lunch.  I guess I expected both my wife and me to do "a Sally" like Meg Ryan did in "When Harry Met Sally".  I'm not putting it down.  If you want to eat a lobster roll, have at it. 

It was no Chick-fil-A sandwich.