The Heber Creeper Train

The day after Christmas, the kids, Derek and Joe and I went on a train ride.  We drove to Heber City and boarded the "Heber Creeper" so named because it creeps along the countryside.

National Lobster Day

Lobster is considered a delicacy all over the world, especially in the United States. This explains why lobster fishing is a $1.8 billion industry in Maine alone. In fact, New England is known for its lobster. The crustaceans were so plentiful in the 1800's that New Englanders could simply walk down the shores of beaches to find lobsters for dinner. Indentured servants were fed lobster so often that one community in Massachusetts instated a law prohibiting lobster dinners from being served more than three times a week. Nowadays, many of us, including myself, would gladly enjoy this seafood seven days a week!

Back in November of 2006, I had to fly to Boston for about 4 days to do some trainings.  Since I was going to be gone so long and I found an inexpensive ticket to have Joe fly there, I took him along with me.  It was almost like a paid vacation for the both of us since my rental car, hotel and food was paid for and all we had to pay for was the ticket and Joe's food.

Since I had almost a full day from one training to another, we took off one day exploring.  Since I'd never been to Maine that was our objective.  (If we'd had one extra hour I would have made it to Vermont and had the entire northeast visited).  I always tried to eat local food so that meant I was going to eat me some lobster!

We stopped at the rest area in Maine.  It was so nice on that November day that we were even driving with the sunroof open on the rental car.

Well, it was cool enough to wear sweaters and wool caps.

We drove along the coast of Maine, but finding a restaurant open during the winter season was really difficult. Most everything was closed and there was not even any fast food restaurants where we drove. We were beginning to think we would never find an open restaurant, but we finally did. It was the Maine Diner and I spent every bit of my company food money on everything lobster that I could order. We had lobster macaroni and cheese, lobster pie, lobster roll, etc. And, everything I ate was FANTASTIC!

The menu describes the hot lobster roll as FANTASTIC! The menu is correct. It is a Connecticut-style roll, nothing but sweet, lobster meat falling out of a grilled weiner bun. You cannot eat it with your hands, because the bun is soaked with butter.

This was the Lobster Pie.  I got an individual ceramic dish which contained whole big portions of lobster tail, claw, knuckle meat-drenched in butter, topped with a mixture of breadcrumbs and tomalley. What is tomalley? It's the liver of the lobster, which turns green when boiled and is considered a delicacy. Yes, this was unbelievably delicious.

The furtherest north we could drive to was Kennebunkport.  This is where the first President Bush and Barbara used to vacation while he served in the presidency.  These are pictures either in Kennebunkport or on the outskirts of the quaint little town. 

I also discovered a very old cemetery, but unfortunately could not explore it since time was quickly passing and I needed to get back to Boston.