Vermont & Maine (Days 5 & 6)

Our next stop was York Beach, Maine. It's a long story, but basically we rented a new car in Burlington, Vermont (apparently rental car companies don't like you renting a car and taking it across the border and leaving it) and drove from Burlington to York Beach. On the way, we stopped in Sharon, Vermont to see the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial.

It was absolutely wonderful. This was one of our favorite things of our whole trip. There's not a ton to see, but it was definitely worth going out of our way a bit. When we got to the Visitor's Center, a sweet senior missionary spent about an hour with us telling us stories about the Mack family and the Smith family. It was really interesting, even for the two of us that have grown up in the Church. There's still so much we don't know!

After talking with the sister missionary, we went out and walked around the monument. It's 38 1/2 feet tall, one foot for every year of Joseph Smith's life, and has Joseph's testimony written on the back.

The sister also told us the story about getting the monument to the property-- it took 33 days, 22 horses, a team of oxen to move it 5 1/2 miles.

I can't even begin to describe the feeling on that property. It's just so peaceful. I wish we'd had more time to explore some of the other Church history sites in the area. And I'd love to go back sometime when all of the tulips have blossomed.

After our stop in Vermont, we finished the drive through Vermont and New Hampshire to Maine. (For the record, there are lots of trees in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, etc., but I was okay with it because it was the northeast and that's what you expect.) We were staying in York, which is a little bit south of Portland, Maine.

On our first night there, we briefly checked into our hotel and then went straight to a local restaurant for dinner. I'd never had lobster before so we asked the hotel where to go for the best lobster, researched a bit more online, and went.

(We forgot to take the camera with us, so all you get is me tired from driving and frustrated that Mitch is laughing at my lobster. And for the record, I didn't actually wear that bib thing. I just held it up for the picture.)

Here's the thing. I don't think I really like lobster. First of all, you're supposed to like... crack its body to get the meat out. Luckily, when I told our server it was my first time, he agreed to have the kitchen... de-meat it? for me, so I didn't have to do that part. But instead, they put the top half of the lobster face up on the plate next to my lobster meat and sides. ...Just imagine that for a second. And remember that they have those antennae things. And beady little eyes. Not my fun. I don't like my food watching me as I eat it, thank you.

Mitch thought the whole thing was hilarious.

The meat was fine. I guess it was good for lobster (not that I personally have anything to compare it to), but it was kind of chewy. I mostly ate my french fries instead and Mitch (bless his heart) ate lots of my lobster so that it didn't look liked I didn't like it. (Our server had insisted that I would LOVE lobster. I didn't.) It was a good experience though. You should have lobster in Maine.

The next morning, we went and visited a couple of lighthouses.

You can see another lighthouse in the background of the second/third lighthouse. There was one in the background of the first one too, but you can't see it in that picture.

Lighthouses are super fascinating to me lately. Well, not exactly the lighthouses themselves so much as the lifestyle of the people that live(d) there.

Maine was incredibly relaxing. It was one of our favorite parts of our trip. After the lighthouses (and seeing a bit of Portland), we hung out at this little beach in York for a bit. We even marked the location in our GPS as "Mitch's favorite beach" so that someday when we move to Maine, we'll remember where it is.


It was a little gloomy that day (okay, and most of our vacation), but we were glad it wasn't rainy, windy, or cold and we were able to imagine what it would be like on a hot summer day. (Lesson learned: if you're going on vacation in April, stick with the south.)