A friend and I went on a road trip yesterday to collect some Christmas presents for ourselves, and others, from a variety of interesting places found along a 186 mile loop through Maine’s Midcoast area. This is what I brought back:
After eating our fill of waffles at the Seabreeze Restaurant on Verona Island, we headed to our first destination – the Sweetgrass Farm Winery & Distillery. There, for $2.50 we tried a variety of fruit wines, port (Peach Smash is delicious), rum, brandy, and their Back River Gin, which has gotten some excellent reviews, and was even to me – a generally non-gin consumer – quite interesting and tasty.
From there in Union, ME, we bebopped over to Morse’s Sauerkraut & European Deli in North Waldoboro. That is a store you can spend excessive amounts of time in. I have yet to actually try their kraut, but I usually come away with fun English tea cakes or Turkish Delights.
Since we were so close, from there we had to buzz up the road to Moody’s Diner for a piece of pie. Moody’s has been a Rt. 1 tradition since 1927, and their pie is really quite excellent.
Headed back in the direction of home but by no means finished shopping, we went to Rockport to check out the State of Maine Cheese Company. After snacking on delicious cheese curds, I got some Kennebec Dill in the “Dinghy” box for my boss, and an “oops” block (less than 8 oz.) for myself.
It gets dark by 3:30 p.m. here, which made for excellent Christmas lights viewing as we came back up Rt. 1 through Camden and Belfast. It occurred to me as we drove along that many more metropolitan areas have specialty shops like these collected onto one lovely street, while we had to spend a day driving around Maine, going to somewhat obscure little towns. I can’t complain though. A day of Christmas shopping with a friend is fun any way you turn it, whether you’re walking from shop to shop, or making a 186 mile tour of your state in brilliant sunshine and the warmth of a cozy car. I suppose I prefer the latter, actually! 🙂
what we have here is a failure to communicate 
What a fun road trip for good food & drink! The wine, rum, port and brandy all sound good to me! I’m not a fan of gin but would have tried it, and like, you probably wouldn’t have minded it. I tend to stay away from the stuff after a few bad experinces in college but the tatse doesn’t bother me! lol Too bad you didn’t have any cheese with you when you stopped to sample wine etc.!
You day of Christmas shopping with a friend sounds like it was fun & successful. Glad you enjoyed yourself!
By: Amy on December 17, 2009
at 4:39 pm
This sounds like such a lovely day! I always think of the Chronicles of Narnia when I see Turkish Delight; I still have basically no idea what they are, but I remember the enchanted ones of which the young brother character couldn’t get enough. 🙂
By: Emily on December 17, 2009
at 10:03 pm
Amy – I can now say from experience that this is a particularly good gin – I like it! It mixes especially well with ruby red grapefruit juice. 🙂
Emily – I’ve had the same deal with Turkish Delights for the longest time, until I discovered this shop. They are quite a unique candy – soft and chewy and full of all kinds of fruit or nuts, with a powdering of sugar on the outside. Yummy. 🙂
By: tuulenhaiven on December 18, 2009
at 1:06 pm