Mountain pose: Yoga at 1500 feet

I saw a photo in a recent Downeast magazine that I couldn't get out of my mind: a woman in the yoga half moon pose on top of Cadillac Mountain. Even though something in Downeast really can't be called undiscovered, I was so intrigued by the thought of yoga, outside, on top of a mountain, that Drew and I drove over last week to give it a try.

Yoga in the Park does yoga classes at one place or another every day in Acadia. See here for the summer schedule, but be sure to check to make sure any class you want to attend is actually going to happen. The home page has notices of cancelled classes. I emailed to make sure that the Sunday evening class was happening, since we had to drive at least an hour and a half to get there from Deer Isle. It was, and we headed out, with a picnic to enjoy beforehand.

Here's the site, the Blue Hill Overlook, just a short ways from the summit, an hour or so before class -- that bump on the horizon, right side, is Blue Hill:

Right on schedule, just before 6:30pm, our teacher Karen and about a dozen yoga folks showed up. A couple of people wandered by, asked if this was a class and could they join in, and they did. Karen said it was the biggest class she had had yet for this Sunday evening session.

Karen warned us that we would be dealing with wind, a hard and uneven rocky surface, curious people, children, dogs, and even a religious service nearby. She was correct. She started by talking us into a lovely extended mountain pose, the connection unmissable, and then a number of poses that went in and out of down dog, made ironic by two gorgeous canines nearby, doing their own playful doggy thing:

We were very fortunate with the day, because it had been cloudy, but cleared during the class, and the sun actually went down right after the class was over. The Blue Hill Overlook appears to be popular for sunset gazers, and there were plenty of souls beyond us willing to brave the cold wind.

We were so busy trying to follow Karen's clear instructions, and Drew was also taking pictures, that it was hard to truly enjoy what a spectacular experience this all was. It was wonderful. So much so that it is surprising that the whole mountain side was not filled with folks doing the yoga poses. We are going back: there are morning and evening classes on Sand Beach that I want to try, and the Blue Hill Overlook another time.

Peak experience!

Millbrook Company takes over the old Country View -- and it is totally new!

One of the seeds for me starting this blog has been watching the old Country View drive in  on Route 15 between Blue Hill and Deer Isle fade away. I don't know how long ago the Country View got started in the first place, but seems to me that it has been around for at least as long as I have been coming to the area in the early 1970's. It closed about six years ago, and every time I have passed since I have had a sinking feeling. An old fashioned drive in with soft serve ice cream and fried everything, plus pies, even rhubarb, it was a favorite of many more people than just me. I remember how when it opened every spring (Mother's Day??), they'd give away free ice cream. One year on opening day it was snowing, and people were lined up to the road for their free cone.

When we got here in May, for the first time in ages, there was action. Pickup trucks were in the parking lot and guys with hammers scurrying around. The building got a fresh coat of white paint with snappy red trim. Gossip had it that it was going to be some kind of combination sit-down restaurant and bakery. The Country View? How could that be?

Last week new signs went up and "Open" flags. We stopped in mid afternoon -- and it was closed! The sign said "7am to 2pm." A drive in that closed at 2pm? What was the story?

Well, a trip the next morning revealed the secret: The old "front' with walk up windows has been turned into a combination bakery and kitchen, and a door on the side led into a cozy dining room in what had been the old kitchen. What a surprise!

The place has a brand new name, Millbrook Company.  The owner, Jill Smith, has quite a local reputation as a baker under the same name and a following via area Farmers' Markets.  I had already heard about her sticky buns.

Jill's skills as a baker are clear when you walk in the door: a big glass display case is loaded with tasty treats, too numerous to list here, but including muffins, coffee cake, scones, cookies, bars (I adore date squares -- Jill had me there), toll house pies (guaranteed sugar shock), and a tip to the healthy with granola.

Jill has done a particularly good job with the menu: not too many items, and an accomplished straddle between traditional breakfast and lunch (two eggs, home fries and toast $5.25 and the Millbrook Charbroiled Burger -- bacon, cheese, carmelized onion on a ciabatta roll [a tad less tradional]) and items that are more contemporary and even exotic and/or healthy (Breakfast Burrito $7.50, Cambozola Plate -- cheese wedge, roasted garlic, soaked apricots, fresh fruit, olives and hunks of fresh bread -- $12.95, and various smoothies with spinach, beets, ginger, fruits and veggies $5). Can't imagine hardly any of that on the menu at the Country View. Here's Jill in the kitchen with a mess of home fries:

Seems that there are specials every day too, just take a look at the blackboard in the dining room. When we were there, I saw one of her crew picking out lobster. While not on the menu every day (Jill will put fish on when it is good and fresh), her lobster roll will be a traditional one on a grilled hot dog roll -- Jill says she knows better than to fool with a proven winner. Even better is the probable price: at $12.95, a bargain.

In fact, one of the biggest, and welcome, surprises are the prices -- only a couple of the menu items were over $10. That is nothing short of astounding. Summer prices for everything around here tend to be high, and this year the prices have seemed to take another big jump. With her prices and menu, Jill is clearly trying to appeal to a broad range of clientele, and the dining room showed it: A table full of workmen in paint covered pants. Older single men eating breakfast. Couples who looked like they were "from away." A table full of women talking about going shopping in Bangor. Several young women in knee high rubber boots.

Nothing is from the deep frier -- Jill didn't even put one in, on purpose. Other places up and down the road cover fried stuff just fine.

Jill says she'd like to stay open year around. The Millbrook will serve breakfast and lunch, for now, not shutting the door on longer hours, but with a "wait and see" attitude. Now scheduled to be open five days a week (closed Mondays and Tuesdays), that alone is a heavy obligation.

So want to see what we had for breakfast?   Drew had the basic:

And I had the Eggs Benedict:

Eggs Benedict can be tricky -- poached eggs can be over or underdone, the hollandaise greasy, the English muffin soggy. These were perfect, absolutely delicious.

Both of our breakfasts, with coffee (great big cups), came to well less than $20. Really.

Fair warning: just barely open, the word has gotten around. We went for breakfast on a drippy cold Saturday morning around 9am and the tables were full. In nice weather, you could eat in the old Milt's Dream outside dining pavilion. But this place stands to be a real winner. You may have to wait to sit inside.

What Surry has that Deer Isle does not: The Lobster Shack

Awhile back, we moaned with some new friends about the lack of a real old-fashioned lobster restaurant on Deer Isle. Even though Stonington tops the state in the pounds of lobster caught, you can't just sit at a picnic table on a dock and eat a messy shore dinner or a lobster roll, at least at a "reasonable" price.

I've been telling everyone that I need to hear from you and them about favorite yet little known places and activities (email me!), and did we get a good lead as a result or what: Althea of Mainescape in Blue Hill who is friends with my friend Wendy who is married to Bill of Nanatoo fame passed on a "must do" on Newberry Neck in Surry: The Lobster Shack. I'd never heard of it, and had never gone down Newberry Neck either. After all, Surry is just a bend in the road on the way to Ellsworth.

So yesterday, which was blisteringly hot and we had nothing planned for lunch, Drew and I headed out in search of lobster rolls. It felt like we drove and drove and drove, but in reality, The Lobster Shack was only 5+ miles from the turn off route 172 going into Surry towards Ellsworth. You can also get there from Blue Hill through East Blue Hill, about 11 miles. Finally we saw it: a long dock with red umbrellas. Perfect setting for lunch on a hot day.

Clinging to the narrow strip of land between the road and the water was the actual Lobster Shack:

A little rickety-tickety, just my style:

Past one o'clock, we were the only customers, and owner Bev Long yelled a welcome. The heat seemed to be keeping folks indoors, except for those down at the town beach  who we passed coming in. A few more brave and sunburned people straggled in after we did. We settled down with the menu while Bev sent down the waitperson who had been picking out lobster.

Now, I ask you, when was the last time that you saw dried fish ($5.25) or pickled wrinkles ($6) on the appetizer menu? Would never be too soon? We ordered lobster rolls (at $15 a fair price), cole slaw, and an ear of corn, cooked in the lobster water our waitperson told us. That was a first for me too!

Take a look at those lobster rolls: yet another "first ever," on a Bangor Rye Bakery bun (world's best rolls, for those in the know). It's hard to appreciate the amount of lobster, but look at that bun in the back. The lobster layer was an inch thick. The cole slaw was pickley vinegary and slightly sweet, the corn crunchy with a hint of lobster flavor. Yummy scrummy. We went at it.

Afterwards Bev came down to chat. Bev is my kind of person, real Maine (like me).  She and her husband Perry started the Lobster Shack 13 years ago. Basically, they service the lobster boats that tie up at the end of the dock, opening mid-June and staying that way sometimes into November (??!!) when the lobstermen haul their boats. Of course, that's where they get their seafood, too, so fresh is an understatement.

Even though traffic was light when we were there, Bev says they get swamped when they open in June, then steady and very busy through July and August. They have never advertized.  Clearly, don't need to. Hours are 11am to 8pm or whenever. A few nights before had been a full moon (hard to see with the fog, but the "moon peepers" were a determined bunch) and they were packed until closing and beyond. Call before if you take a lot of people (8 or more) (207) 667-1955. Oh, I forgot: you can bring your own drinks, they don't serve alcohol, and what they do have is sweet.

The Lobster Shack is a real find. The perfect place for enjoying lobster and crab in the traditional way. And the view is free.

Getting there from here: Bill McDonnell and the Nanatoo

The most wonderful restaurant in our area of Maine has to be the Nebo Lodge on North Haven. More precisely, it's the total experience that's simply fantastic, because getting to the Nebo is half the delight. I'll write more about the Nebo in another posting, because this one is about the "How to get there" which is major, since North Haven is an island with no bridge access.

Marshall Dodge of "Bert and I" fame had a routine where the the punch line was "Come to think of it, you can't get there from here." North Haven is sort of like that. On the Nebo website, there is a whole page devoted to "getting there," including flying, but all the resources are in Rockland, a long way by road from the Deer Isle area. Since we can SEE North Haven from here, you ought to be able to get there, right?

Well, here's the good news: You can, and if you don't have your own boat, you can rent passage on someone else's. Bill McDonnell and his Nanatoo, for instance.

A real charmer with an Irishman's silver tongue, Bill is the proverbial Jack of All Trades. An ex diver for scallops, fine furniture builder, he now mostly contracts and builds houses on Isle au Haut. Since he lives in Stonington, he needs a way to get there, and built the Nanatoo to do the job. (The Nanatoo is one pretty boat. See the Nanatoo being built right here.) Plus other jobs: a licensed captain, Bill hires himself and Nanatoo out to paying customers for trips in the Deer Isle area, the Nebo Lodge for example.

Bill and his wife Wendy are long time friends, and last summer, we arranged a trip to the Nebo on the Nanatoo with them and another couple who are always up for an adventure that is paired with food. Here's Captain Bill getting us off the dock in Stonington and underway:

And here's our friend Lydia and me with Stonington in the background.

Schooner, light house (apparently rentable -- click here) and, believed by many, some of the most beautiful sailing in the world (Penobscot Bay, the Fox Island Thoroughfare, and Merchant's Row): what more can you ask for?

Dinner at the Nebo!  (More about that in a later posting -- it was fabulous!)

And then the boat ride back, right at sunset.  Husband Drew is getting a lesson on GPS and chart reading, then North Haven and the Camden Hills in the sunset.

Contact info for Captain Bill and the Nanatoo is on their website.  Bill charges for the pleasure, of course.  Running a boat like the Nanatoo takes dollars.  But charges are reasonable, and who really could put a price on an evening fit for a spread in Martha Stewart's Living?