Dinner South of the (Canadian) Border
Maine Week Travelog #21
Bangor, ME - Friday, 18 Jun 2021, 10pm.
First let me say: Whew. It's been a long day. We left the hotel this morning, drove a few hours north to Baxter State Park, and hiked not one but two trails- Katahdin Falls trail and Little and Big Niagara Falls. We thought maybe we could squeeze in a third trail at the park. We had one picked out; we just didn't have the energy left for it after 4pm.
On the scenic drive back down to central Maine we decided to get dinner before driving all the way back to the hotel in Bangor. And we decided to splurge a bit, at least from a calories standpoint, as we'd exercised quite a bit and our lunch had been stuff like protein bars and water.
"Let's get Mexican!" we agreed.
Haha, easier said than done. Our first Yelp search for Mexican restaurants turned up only one restaurant within 50 miles, and it was Italian. Maybe they list a Mexican pizza on their menu? Not that we expected much, of course. We knew were were less than an hour south of the border- the Canadian border! In fact, we were so close to Canada the park had all of its signs in English and French.
We searched again within an hour of Bangor. Several choices popped up: a few in Bangor we'd looked at and decided against last night (the menus and food looked too Americanized) and one in Orono, a college town a bit closer than Bangor. The menu, pictures, and reviews of the joint in Orono made it look not too Americanized, so we went there. Plus, there were plenty of other eats nearby (college town) so if we walked into the Mexican restaurant and it looked like a bad pick there were 5-6 other restaurants within a block's walk.
So, how was it? Well, it didn't suck. The chips tasted like they came out of a bag and the salsa tasted like it came out of a jar- a jar labeled "Pace", no less- but we were both experiencing taste amplification after the long day. The Negra Modelo on tap was cold and delicious and washed away many of the food's shortcomings.
Tonight we're back in our hotel. I'm glad we called an audible yesterday and got here a day early. As long as today was it might not have been tenable with an extra hour of driving plus the logistics of packing, checking out, checking in, and unpacking.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/78460.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
Bangor, ME - Friday, 18 Jun 2021, 10pm.
First let me say: Whew. It's been a long day. We left the hotel this morning, drove a few hours north to Baxter State Park, and hiked not one but two trails- Katahdin Falls trail and Little and Big Niagara Falls. We thought maybe we could squeeze in a third trail at the park. We had one picked out; we just didn't have the energy left for it after 4pm.
On the scenic drive back down to central Maine we decided to get dinner before driving all the way back to the hotel in Bangor. And we decided to splurge a bit, at least from a calories standpoint, as we'd exercised quite a bit and our lunch had been stuff like protein bars and water.
"Let's get Mexican!" we agreed.
Haha, easier said than done. Our first Yelp search for Mexican restaurants turned up only one restaurant within 50 miles, and it was Italian. Maybe they list a Mexican pizza on their menu? Not that we expected much, of course. We knew were were less than an hour south of the border- the Canadian border! In fact, we were so close to Canada the park had all of its signs in English and French.
We searched again within an hour of Bangor. Several choices popped up: a few in Bangor we'd looked at and decided against last night (the menus and food looked too Americanized) and one in Orono, a college town a bit closer than Bangor. The menu, pictures, and reviews of the joint in Orono made it look not too Americanized, so we went there. Plus, there were plenty of other eats nearby (college town) so if we walked into the Mexican restaurant and it looked like a bad pick there were 5-6 other restaurants within a block's walk.
So, how was it? Well, it didn't suck. The chips tasted like they came out of a bag and the salsa tasted like it came out of a jar- a jar labeled "Pace", no less- but we were both experiencing taste amplification after the long day. The Negra Modelo on tap was cold and delicious and washed away many of the food's shortcomings.
Tonight we're back in our hotel. I'm glad we called an audible yesterday and got here a day early. As long as today was it might not have been tenable with an extra hour of driving plus the logistics of packing, checking out, checking in, and unpacking.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/78460.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]