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Another beautiful fall day, another scenic drive.
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To a festival called Apples and Artisans.
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Crafters, pumpkins, apples…
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And gorgeous foliage.
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Had to laugh at this license plate.
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No dogs allowed.
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The trees really put on a show last month.
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🍁 🍂🍁
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Leaving Sugarloaf without having secured a late lunch, we changed direction and headed for Rangeley.
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The town is named after the lake, one of Maine’s largest, and I felt sure we could find a decent restaurant there.
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Blog title aside, we parked next to some very green grass and entered a likely looking spot.
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With a welcoming front porch and some stellar trees..
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It was a bit brisk to sit outside so we ventured in.
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There were tables with nice views…
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So my husband headed straight for the bar.
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Where the view wasn’t as nice but the autumn sangria made up for it.
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The staff wore these shirts…
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But I didn’t, so we moved on to tater kegs with chipotle aioli.
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These were great but my husband wasn’t pleased with the pub food only menu, he wanted more of a meal.
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Next stop.
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The cranberry mule was lovely.
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And though I passed on the banana bread old fashioned? I thought of you Mark.
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Sadly, even though the loon/bear totem pole was interesting … the food was not.
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My fish sandwich was so thin it was flipping itself off.
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And not finding much more in the way of full meals here than he did at the first place, my husband’s chicken tenders were flat, over breaded and clearly frozen. He sent them back and we moved on.
Giving up on a good meal, we headed for home.
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Where it started to rain and pretty much put an end to our leaf peeping.
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🥴
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I saw something online the other day and need to ask my Arizona readers if it exists…
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What say you southwestern friends….
Is the #1 place for #2 for real?
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This begs the question .. why?
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His Lordship.
I’d like to say he’s leaf peeping but he was actually bird stalking.
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Remember the old Hugh Grant movie Four Weddings and a Funeral? These words were spoken in the eulogy and always choke me up.
❤️
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Continuing north through the Carrabassett Valley on our leaf peeping day trip we passed Sugarloaf,
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A popular ski resort I’ve often heard of but never visited.
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First impression?
It’s huge.
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Long winding valley roads filled with spectacular autumn color.
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It took us a while to find the main lodge..
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And though we were hoping to stop in for lunch and a toddy their annoying restaurant was only serving breakfast and dinner.
Boo to that.
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So we explored instead.
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Past golf courses and condos and glorious trees.
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I love this time of year!
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😊
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🍁🍁🍁
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Heading for the mountains in Maine is never a bad idea this time of year.
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So we took a leisurely drive and did some leaf peeping.
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These were taken near Kingfield.
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Which is an area known for logging.
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Apparently by bears.
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I do love autumn.
The cool temps, the crisp air, the apples, the pumpkins.
And yes, the color.
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Mother Nature puts on a wonderful show if you take the time to look.
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Albert Camus said…
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower”
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Surrounded by this scenery, it’s easy to see what he meant.
😊
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As I said before, the fall color in my area has been less than spectacular this season. Not wanting to miss the full glory of a Maine autumn, we headed north for some serious leaf peeping.
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Ah, that’s better.
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The Carrabassett Valley rarely disappoints.
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I have a friend who hates the fall and sees the changing of the leaves as a sign of death. She says it’s depressing because it means winter is right around the corner.
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Winter is coming, ‘tis true, but the last gasp of nature’s beauty before the temperatures plummet is a show I never want to miss.
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And no, that’s not dirt on my lens, they’re falling leaves.
❤️
To be continued…
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I realize I haven’t posted many photos of our fall foliage this year.
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The reason being it hasn’t been a very good leaf peeping season.
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Oh, there’s color…
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But by Maine standards it’s been very muted this autumn.
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Too much rain late in the summer and an early mini cold snap that forced the trees to turn too soon could be the reason.
Anyway…
After running a few errands down south, we realized we’d skipped lunch and headed to a very popular Wells restaurant for an early dinner.
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Off season, on a Thursday… and there was a line half an hour before they opened. We weren’t going to wait, but.
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It’s a steakhouse and my husband loves a good steak.
When the doors opened and the mad rush for upstairs dining was in full force, we took the road less traveled and headed for the bar on the first floor.
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This place is impossible to get in during the summer, jam packed every night so we were expecting amazing things.
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My appetizer was not one of them.
Shrimp and crab stuffed mushrooms. Dry uninteresting balls of stuffing they must have waved a crab over and called it good.
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Two overly sweetened cocktails in, my salad was basically a bowl of iceberg lettuce drenched in bottled blue cheese.
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We both ordered the filet mignons, which were decent enough… though nothing to gush over.
Places like this always make me wonder why people are willing to stand on line for basically nothing special.
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Since we were unable to ride the actual train, we had to check out the little Cog Railway museum while we were there. I won’t drone on about the engineering wonder it was….
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But I will draw your attention to this…
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I simply can not imagine flying down the mountainside on a small piece of wood.
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And trust me, it was small. It’s hard to tell from that picture but look closely and you’ll realize big butt people need not apply.
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Although that dog seems to be enjoying the ride.
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A few more foliage pics from our drive home.
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Bye bye Mountains.
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We certainly enjoyed the show.
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When you exit the Kancamagus Highway…
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You find yourself in the town of Woodstock, and when you’re in Woodstock?
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You have to visit the Woodstock Inn and Brewery.
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Of course if you visit this time of year.. you can expect to search endlessly for a parking spot, be unable to sit outside due to the high crowd volume, and find that the only indoor space available are two stools at the end of the bar.
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The brewery is a funky place, filled with all kinds interesting eye candy.
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But it was extremely crowded as well as extremely loud, so we decided to have a drink and an appetizer and be on our way.
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Pomegranate margarita and some fabulous duck wontons with sweet Thai chili sauce for me.
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And a French onion soup so loaded with cheese for the husband I thought he’d never get through it.
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After our snack we headed to Franconia Notch…
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Where the fall color was a bit past peak but still impressive.
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Trees.
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Fall leaves.
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And mountains.
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No narrative required.
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Fall foliage and deer in the backyard.
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It’s a view I never get tired of.
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This is our dark doe. She’s a big girl, and I swear if you put a rack on her she’d easily be a healthy buck.
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The difference between her and our old doe is striking, and sad.
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But to each thing there is a season…
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River's world..... 