Today is our last day. We got up to cloudy skies (nice we weren't going to the covered bridge) and then crossed the border without incident and arrived in Houlton, Maine. It's only about 10 miles from Woodstock, NB, Canada. We stopped at the information center which looked closed but really wasn't.
Check out these great signs. Here's one but there were at least 3 different suggested exercises. My favorite part is the disclaimer at the bottom. (In case you can't read it, it says, "Produced by the State of Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT). MaineDOT assumes no liability for personal injuries suffered by travelers who try the exercises.")
We were driving into town to tour the historic downtown when we saw Marden's! I made Karen stop just so she could see what the lady in Canada was talking about. It doesn't take long to figure out what kind of place it is and it's really not my kind of place to shop, but then I found a stainless steel salad bowl for $6.99 and I've been looking for one for a long time, so it was doubly worth the stop.
Historic Houlton is old and quaint. There's a cute pedestrian bridge in town. Not sure what it's really for but there it is. And at the bridge is Houlton's newest attraction, the statue of the moose. We were hoping for the world's largest statue of a moose but we didn't even find a lifesize statue. This little statue is probably 3/4 lifesize. Oh well. It is, however, realistic, with the ribs showing through. (The bridge in the background is the pedestrian bridge.)
We drove (and drove and drove) around looking for a place for breakfast/brunch/lunch. They either didn't look good or we couldn't find them (places that Lee listed) or they were closed. So we settled on the famous (and it is famous . . . I've heard about this from Mainers) Irving diner. It had the most cars out front of any of the places we looked at as well--another good sign.
It did not disappoint! This is the steak tips and eggs breakfast. I couldn't eat it all but everything I ate was delicious.
AND I had heard that the best whoopie pies in the state were available at this diner, so I had to get one. I've had many whoopie pies now and I must admit, this one was pretty good! (I actually couldn't eat it after breakfast, so much later in the day, I finally broke it out and ate half. I finished the other half the next day).
And then we got to Bangor and suddenly we were unpacking the car and Karen was on her way back to Richmond.
