We found a last-minute hotel room in Rockland Saturday at 5 am due to continuing house-buying activity, so we crawled up north. On our way up, we tried to have lunch at Bath Brewing Co. after getting through some unpleasant 95N traffic. I could tell from the distracted bartender and stressed out looking staff that we should cut our losses but B thought we should stick it out. We were seated after ~20 minutes in the nice upstairs space that was very busy (around 2 pm; we had a 4 pm appointment in Rockland, which is an hour away). We sat for a while (at least we had some adult beverages). Our affable and apologetic server, Sam, tried to get us food but we could all tell it was going to be cutting it too close). So we closed out and the guys ended up eating burgers and hot dogs at the nearby DQ! A Blizzard may have been consumed. I held out, finding nothing I wanted to eat there, sadly. After our appointment, we meandered a little, stopped by Owl’s Head General Store and got awesome cranberry muffin and oatmeal raisin cookies (not for me - I’ve no sweet tooth). An early dinner at Claws - we were surprised it was so quiet at 6 pm-ish on a beautiful summer day. Lobster rolls for me and B (hot buttered style) and Mac and cheese for SO. The food was still good, friendly young college types working FOH, still with real metal utensils, which makes me very happy. Generous “holiday” pours of adult beverages, which we needed after a long day. We walked around a bit on the Rockland waterfront then collapsed back at our over-priced hotel room. Today (Sunday), we took 7.5 hours to get home. It was a combination of mega traffic/SO needing lunch sooner than we were hungry/gas/a pit stop on the side of the highway for a nature call for SO/a late lunch at Anju. This was our first time back since the pandemic and it was a great one. It was busy but we got seated outside, enjoying a beautiful rioja blanco and Bissell Bros IPA, an on-point refreshing, crisp, piquant papaya salad (though we should have requested “spicy”), a wonderfully seaweed-y/umami veggie ramen for me, and khao poon for B (coconut/chili broth with lemongrass chicken, rice noodles). B craved a more salty broth initially but the spice/flavor built up as he kept eating it. I tasted it and could understand his perspective - it was not as bold as my ramen, but I love that kind of slow build. SO had the kid ramen (noodles in bone broth). Even the worst Boston traffic couldn’t spoil our mood as we finally arrived home.
