Happy Fourth of July! Today, at the cottage, it is pretty cool, damp, foggy and rainy--in other words, PERFECT! Bob is making a surprise dinner in the crockpot and I am playing the keyboard and reading magazines.

Yesterday, we spent the early morning straightening up because the cottage is for sale and the realtor was coming by to show it. She was very nice and said, "Don't clean up--no problem" informing me that we, as renters, had a right to refuse her request to show the cottage. "No problem," said I, until I looked around at all our STUFF! Four or more plastic boxes filled with art stuff, camping stuff, water stuff, and about four or five canvas bags filled with tools, electronics, books, magazines--etc. and that was just in the front room. The bedrooms had their own collections of junk which I attempted to cover up with quilts, towels, blankets. Oh well.

We were able to leave around 10:00 AM. Destination, Bangor, a city we had not yet visited. The traffic was much heavier than usual, but we were in no hurry, so that didn't matter. Because of the traffic, it took longer to get there, so by the time we arrived (after passing many things of interest), we were hungry. I had found a microbrewery called the Sea Dog Brewery, right over the bridge and on the Damariscotta River. Since we wanted a table on the outside deck on the river, we waited at the bar for the next available space. While there, I tasted a brew called Sunfish, with a peaches taste and Bob had a brown IPA, Summer Brown. Both of us liked our beers a lot and knew that our stay would be longer than a quick lunch. We were seated and licked our chops while viewing the very extensive menu. I ended up ordering a crab-salad and havarti sandwich with a side of Caesar salad and Bob had --you guessed it--A Sea Dog bar cheeseburger (pickle, lettuce, and fried pork bellies). He had very delicious sweet potato fries with that. I ordered a raspberry ale (also delicious) and he had their regular IPA. It was a long wait (we were in no hurry and the view was pretty) and our poor waitress, Abby, kept apologizing even though we kept reminding her that we were in no rush and we didn't care how long it took. Everything was delicious. We ordered dessert, even Bob did. He had a chocolate terrine with chocolate and raspberry sauce and I had a very delicious creme brulee.

 Bangor Municipal building.

 Damariscotta River

 Bridge over the Damariscotta River

 One of our neighborly red squirrels that has managed to steal almost every bird feeding device Bob has put out for the birds.

 Another view of the Damariscotta River.

 You all know Bob loves trains, so this is a picture of one as it traveled through town.

A view of the river from our place on the deck of the Sea Dog Brewery (from which we bought a few t-shirts).


We drove around the city and went into a number of shops on Main Street. There were quite a few cool restaurants, but it looks like their downtown area had suffered from the newly installed shopping malls a little bit outside of the city. That's too bad as it was another quaint, though small, downtown. I ended up buying some things at a kitchen shop (food items for company coming next week) and spending some time at a little boutique and a darling antiques shop. However, there was not much to see in Bangor, sad to say. There was a children's museum we would have loved to have visited with Ana, though.

At night, we played some music. Bob made grilled cheese sandwiches. I drank some wine and read and we were visited, once again, by Stinky, the baby striped skunk. Bob kept getting closer and closer in order to take a picture. I was sure there was a night in a bathtub full of tomato juice in his future, but he got away unscathed this time.