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On a beautiful fall day in Maine, we drove up the coast to Stonington.
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A picturesque village… quaint and quite pretty.
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With the feeling you’ve stepped back in time.
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Stonington is a fishing town and known for being the largest lobster port in the state, if not the world.
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Last year they hauled in $43.26 million dollars worth of the glorious crustacean.
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And though I can’t eat it anymore… cue the random sobbing noises… I was still hungry after the two and a half trip.
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Enter the Harbor Cafe, one of only two restaurants in town.
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It sits right across the street from the harbor and at first glance seemed like a good choice.
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There were cocktails and my Pimms cup was delightful.
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The clam chowder was thinner than I like, but had a wonderful flavor as well as being loaded with clams.
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$23 seemed a bit steep for my crab roll but it was delicious, not the overly dressed crap that passes for crabmeat elsewhere. Husband was less than thrilled with his fried haddock as it was extremely thin and arrived in a plastic basket. Want to piss off my spouse? Charge him a high price and serve him a meal without a plate. The mashed potatoes that accompanied the fish were truly inedible. Real, but so over whipped as to be nearly liquid with an overpowering taste of margarine. Epic fail for what turned out to be a $102 bill with tip.
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But back to Stonington. Tourism has tried but thankfully failed to change the flavor of the town.
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And so we explored….
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River's world..... 
Pretty depressed area these days. With Lobster trapping regulations and the warming Atlantic both issues up that way, I hope they can regroup and find the beauty they are surrounded by and build on that for generations to come. So many drugs and alcohol being abused in areas of beauty have them unable to find help, look at Salem NH they are begging people to not go down for the festivities, that is nuts, Salem is Halloween lol
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Stonington does well and seems to be holding its own. An influx of tourist dollars helps.
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Lobster is about to take a big hit sadly, well maybe we must wait for voting day to see what happens in Washington, for our coastal area fishermen. I love the Phippsburg area for long rides and day long visits up into Maine. Boothbay and Bar Harbor of course are fun.
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They’ve put a two year moratorium on that law to allow for more research. Maine won’t give up its lobster without a fight.
🦞
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NH is the same fishermen up and down the coast from Canada to FL depend on the Atlantic
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Mashed potatoes with margarine? ANYTHING with margarine? I’d be pissed off, too, that’s just gross. Nice town, though, I hope the other restaurant is better.
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We didn’t try that one. It’s a lunch counter type of place… we like to be served.
😉
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A neighbor summered in Stonington for years. She loved to buy lobsters right off the boat!
Sorry the meal didn’t pan out.
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Most people bypass it when visiting Maine, which is probably a good thing.
😉
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Beautiful photos. “$102 bill with tip…” Thanks for not holding the server responsible for the badly cooked food and the plastic basket.
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Never.
😉
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I have to agree if you charge me a ton of coin and hand me a plastic basket, that’s a violation. I liked reading that you don’t blame the servers for bad performance otherwise. We have that “rule” too.🙂
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We never take bad food ( or basket policy ) out on the waitstaff. That’s so wrong.
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I’m sure I’ve said this before but, that place is just beautiful! Being a girl from the Texas Far Southwest I’ve longed to be near the sea if only for a couple of days. One of those pictures did remind me of Jaws though, what can I say? It’s close to Halloween and I’ve been watching scary movies a lot lately. I’m sorry the hubs lunch wasn’t up to snuff. that must have sucked. But at least one of you got a great lunch out of it.
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The Maine coast is glorious and so varied. Each area has a slightly different landscape and vibe. Endless days of exploration.
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$102?!?!?!? And I complain about $20 per person for lunch—oh wait!! We don’t drink alcohol!!! That’s $25 alone for 2 people–$10.99 +tax + tip
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It’s very rare we can get away with less than $100 for lunch these days. That used to be dinner, soup to dessert.
🥴
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Cute town. But in your 2nd picture, it looks like a deck is about to fall.
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That deck is a pier, and it was quite stable.
😉
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I got smart this time when I saw there was a Part 3 and decided to read in order for once. What an odd experience this might turn out to be. Or, you know…maybe it’ll actually make better sense.
The crab roll looks marvelous, but margarine in the mashed potatoes? That’s an unforgivable sin.
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I despise margarine. In anything.
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Crazy price for lunch! The town looks idyllic. Is the water really low or is that my imagination?
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It was low tide. Happens twice a day…
😉
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Is that how it works? 🤣🥴
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So I’ve been told.
😉
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