Happy Monday….Life is but a dream!

I’m writing this at 5am just after dropping Miss Terri at the airport. My playmate has departed and will have a restful day on her travels home. I will do my best to recap our last 2 fun-filled wet Maine day’s. Thank you Mrs. Fancy for leaving behind your rain coat, as it came in handy yesterday. Terri will return it to you in Phoenix.

We started Sat morning at our neighborhood farmers market. Today was a packed day with lots of plans. We walked all over Deering Oaks park, there were so many street performers playing music, beautiful turquoise water kids were playing in, lots of dogs, and tents overflowing with fresh veggies & fruit. We walked up and down and knew we were headed to another farmers market in Kennebunk that we opted for a 88 donut run. We tried the lemon- zinger and the cinnamon sugar this time. This is a 2nd time for T and sadly I have lost track for me, ha. We jump back in the car and make the drive to Kennebunk & Kennebunkport. We are scheduled on a Trolley Tour to learn the history of this republican town that has SO much money. The homes in this area were over the top mansions. Many with water views, and this beautiful road, Summer Lane with one white picket type manicured estates after the other…..the yards were out of a magazine. The flowers, front doors, and all so different with style. We started at the Kennebunk farmers market and craft show. These main streets make you feel like your walking down a movie set, and with such a patriotic feeling. The amount of American flags on display is unreal. Funny Portland is filled with Pride flags, yet this area is covered in the USA. Terri can’t believe my luck always in the parking dept, I have parking angels everywhere we go. We venture to our next stop and continue driving through luxury around each corner, before we arrive in Kennebunkport to catch the Trolly by the marina. We were early and got to go in/out of all the shops in this cute town. We did another photo op at a fancy Inn, our favorites. The unruly sisters act like we are guests and sit in the breakfast area drinking the bottled water chatting with an old man/grandpa type. Always meeting people. Lol.

We meet Dennis, our tour guide. He is a school bus driver, has 3 grown kids, he is on a break, 30 min before our tour starts. I had packed us sandwiches from home again, we sit on a bench and have our sack lunch with Dennis who has his sack lunch made by his wife who he tells us all about while we all sit and eat lunch. It was so nice…..CUJ, since you compared this to me and Mis Terri re-living 7th grade-high school in 1 week, this was like waiting at our childhood bus stop. Always excited for the next adventure with huge smiles on our giddy faces. We boarded the Trolly and had 2 other families on it with us.

Dennis starts his narration…..I learned many facts….. the lowest price for a home in Kennebunk starts at $400K, where the lowest in Kennebunkport starts at $900K. We got such an up close and personal view of The Bush compound which values at 45 million today. It was purchased in 1902 for $20K. They are there now for the summer….you can tell because the Texas flag is flying. There are 11 different homes on the property as each son, and the secret service have their own. And some of the kids, along with learning Barbara Bush had 17 grandkids who called her Ganny….we drove by Ganny’s Garden which had 17 different type of colorful flowers to represent all her kids. It was a gift to her that is in a park nearby the compound which jets out into the water, like its own island. We learned they arrive by helicopter after flying into Portsmouth private airport. We saw the church Barbara & George were married and attended ever Sunday for the 95 years he was staying here. The town loved them. They were normal kind people according to Dennis. The cutest thing, was a lemonade stand set up across the street from the entrance of this private compound. Im sure it is a tourist destination and you could walk along the water for up close views. I bet those kids rake it in at their lemonade stand. Smart kids!

The crazy fact is that these homes/estates we passed by again and now learned so much about are each at least 5000 sq ft and considered summer cottages, as they are only lived in for 8-10 weeks per year by the owners. Like, Mrs Fancy’s Mike said, no one wants to live IN Maine beyond these glorious summer months. I cannot image a Maine true winter. No frigid cold for me, and with rain & wind, sounds yucky! The majority of the cottages are $5-7 million, occasionally he would point out a $10+ million, but most under $7 mil, not bad-lol. The more exciting residents on Kennebunkport is Dr McDreamy, yes Patrick Dempsey bought a mansion here 10 years ago and is also in town for the summer. We drove by his driveway, his estate is hidden. Turns out he is from Lewiston, ME. I mean, seriously who doesn’t want to spend the summer in Maine. This is where I want to be every summer. The amount of things to do is endless, and the weather is PERFECT!!! The population in Kennebunk is 13,000. A small quaint prestigious town. A fun Maine fact, we learned 90% of the state is covered in trees, hence why it is SO green in the summer and turning into my favorite New England state. Thinking Maine has beat out Connecticut for me, although my peeps are in CT. Excited to be with them soon. The tour ended with more views and history about the Colony hotel and a few other fancy Inns.

We jump back in the car to drive through Ogunquit, ME, another beach town on my list to explore. Well we approach another busy beach town, cute Main St, lovely clam shacks, they are all so cute. We had on tye list another luxury 5 star resort property to checkout, look up The Cliff House. Holy SHIT……THIS PLACE makes me feel like a hotel crasher similar to wedding crashers, the place is gigantic and fancy. It overlooks cliffs of tye ocean. There is no beach access and no kids. It is a 5 ⭐️ place. We walk in and checkout the views, the pool, spa, restaurant, bar, grassy area. We pass by a gorgeous bride taking photos. I get a cocktail and Terri goes to put on her bathing suit. One of her students mother told her about this place. She gets all the credit for this magical find. We learn the rates start at $900 a night and the ocean view rooms/suites are $3000 a night. The people watching at this place and eavesdropping to conversations was serious entertainment. We are hanging around, lifestyles of the rich & famous, flowers are everywhere, waves crashing, and this pool area feels SO quiet and beyond fabulous. It doesn’t compare to our AZ resorts, like this place blows tye Sanctuary & Phoenician away. We ended up getting chairs, towels, and crashing this pool area. The unruly sisters are professionals at fitting in at these places, and I doubt many people even think to disobey the signs that say for hotel guests only, lol. Minus the fact we forgot our flip flops, wearing sneakers with bathing suits. It was quite comical, lots of laughter and memories made to last a lifetime. It was a dreamy day and we tipped well! Relaxed reading our books, enjoyed the jacuzzi, the views, and soaking up this beautiful-magnificent day that was supposed to be a rainy day. We got lucky!!

We were an hour away from home, get back to Portland to get ready for our progressive dining extravaganza planned. You know we still had a few must eat places and she is leaving in less than 24 hours. We are walking, don’t you worry……still had a 15k step day. We started at Crispy Gai, (the Thai place Tracy and I loved), we had the chicken wings and waterfall salad with yummy mushrooms. Miss Terri despises mushrooms, but trusted me and her tastebuds were not disappointed. She plans to buy oyster mushrooms at home and to try to recreate this delicious dish. We had cocktails and made our way to The HighRoller for her last lobster roll. This time we had it on a cheese crisp taco instead of bread. Delish and a much healthier version, at least less carbs. Next up, Izakaya Minato- a Japanese place we learned about from our DuckFat waiter. Miss Terri loves oysters, which I wont touch…he raved about these ones that are baked with all sorts of flavorful creamy goodness on top. According to her they were the best she has ever eaten, I had the tuna crudo, fresh and marinated in a sweet yummy sauce. We are beyond satisfied and chose to end the night at our favorite Ice Cream shop, Beall’s. Max works here and has told me his favorite flavor is Banana Cream Pie, yet they have been out of it every time. He told me to come back Saturday night and it would be on him as he thinks shipment will arrive. I have been frequenting this ice cream shop too often, and he is my friend. Well we walked in, and had such a warm welcome….he is the sweetest guy, out of a 1970’s John Hughes movie as the sweet ice cream shop guy who has a summer job as a teenager. He gives us our free, along with the friends we made in line, as we think he thought they were our true friends. Lol They were a young couple from Mystic, CT. Of course we told them all about our visits to Mystic. We leave and say our bye’s to Max, Miss Terri says Max your the MAN, Max- we adore him! 😂

A walk home from the Old Port, and it’s bed time. Sunday is Miss Terri’s last day. We have a BIG morning walk planned. Rain or Shine, the rain coat was put to good use today, as we have both graduated to real Mainer)s. Everyone walks no matter the weather. Hats, hoods, rain coat cover…..we walked from my house to the blueberry muffin place, and completed the entire Eastern Promenade starting from the other end. All along the water and taking in the neighborhoods on the East End. The Munjoy Hill area is so pretty. Made our way to the Westin, Canopy, and have seen all the nicer hotel lobby’s. We stumbled into a Cheese, Caviar, Smoked Fish market. Yummy……they were sampling all their smoked fish, cheeses, crackers……we have planned for dinner at home tonight. We bought stuff here for our spread. I face-timed Scott to let him look at the huge sardine selection. He picked out a bday present from me, lol. We venture homeward bound. Fyi- it rained off/on the entire walk. As we are walking all the items break through the bag due to the wet rain making the bag fall apart. We each have fish, cheese, crackers, sardines stuffed in our rain coat pockets, laughing up a storm, as her kids would think she is nuts, and no one would walk in the rain like this. Lol.

We dropped off everything, changed, grabbed umbrellas and walked to the movie theatre. Rainy day activity, we saw ‘Past Lives.’ If I have not mentioned enough times that my sister is funny……well she kept dozing in the movie. I have worn her out. When it was over we were in the public bathroom, she says it was so dark in there she couldn’t keep her eyes open, duhhhhh ur in a movie theatre. We were giggling so hard in our own stalls, also discussing the fact that a man was laying on the ground in the back of the movies, so bizarre. Well a lady in another stall, says I don’t know you guys, but what was with the people in that theater. She joined in the convo of the man laying down, plus told us a guy behind her was on his laptop. She was laughing with us and I can’t get over as everyone everywhere talks to us, even in bathroom stalls. Well we get out and as we are all washing hands Terri asks if her daughters name is so and so. I have a heart attack, life who does she think she knows. It was not her reality TV stars mom, don’t worry….like seriously I have not laughed this much in 1 week since my youth. We made our way home for her to pack before our promised nail appt. Terri got the best pedicure while I had a manicure. It was a cozy night at home. We had wine, cheese, smoked fish, salami, a mish mosh charcuterie board. She got all ready for the departure from this magical week. We face timed family and laughed SO much with lil Whitney and Jackie.

A 430am wake up, I dropped her off at 5 am and she is already in Philly awaiting her final flight home to melt in the 118 record heat. I am SO grateful, blessed, thankful, and beyond lucky to have not only this one, but 2 amazing sisters. Thank you to my mommy & daddy for giving me life’s greatest gifts. Sisters ROCK!! I will cherish these past 7 days for eternity. Back to work for me until my mom arrives in 4 days. She is coming with my Aunt & Uncle to visit. We will have 2 days with everyone and then 1 day together solo before she ventures home. My mother has been living her own east coast tour. Until next time DTG fans.

Keep the comments and replies coming…… I love and miss you ❤️XO

Love Laurie Sue…..AKA Dora 💫🧚🏻‍♀️😉💕🎉🙏🏻🌟✈️🐷🥰